Obviously this is an event which cannot be entered into lightly, and although previous competitors rate mental toughness to be as much as 50% the key to successfully completing the distance, a good level of fitness is also required.

I have been training for over a year already but things have now stepped up as the race is getting closer. My previous training had no real structure and although things were progressing, it was quite slow so the decision was made to start working with a personal trainer. I now work once a week with Lindsay Haines from LA Fitness in East Grinstead. The first thing Lindsay did was to actually reduce my distances but do more frequent runs as well as strengthening work to minimise the risk of injury.

The progress over the last few weeks has been much quicker than before and I'm also feeling the benefits of the strength work. The basic idea is to gradually up the distances week to week, running back to back days as this is what I'll have to do in the desert. Another thing we have to incorporate is running with my rucksack, gradually increasing the weight to the 15kgs that I'll be starting the race with. In the last few weeks before I fly out we will also be doing some heat aclimatization work.

Some key dates already booked are:

Beachy Head Marathon, October 25th, 26.2 miles, Off-Road, With Rucksack.

Thames Meander, February 19th, 52 miles, Off-Road, With Rucksack.

As of this week, 28.07.08, I will publish my weekly programme on this page so you can see what I'm going through!

28.07.08. - 8k run (on treadmill)

29.07.08. - 6.5k run (off road)

30.07.08 - Lower Body Resistance.

31.07.08 6.5k run (off road)

01.08.08 11k run (off road)

02.08.08 Upper Body Resistance

03.08.08 6.5k (off road)

04.08.08 - 13k run (off road)

05.08.08 - Lower Body Resistance

06.08.08 - 6.5k run (off road)

07.08.08 - 9.5k run (treadmill)

08.08.08 - Upper Body Resistance

09.08.08 - 6.5k run (off road)

10.08.08 - 6.5k run (off road)

Due to a knee injury I have been unable to run since 10.08.08 so

at the moment training is limited to upper body work at the gym.

I hope to be back to full training by 25.08.08

OK, sorry for the severe lack of updates but I have been training, honestly!

The knee problem did drag on for longer than I'd hoped and I only managed to get in a few 10k runs before going straight in to the Beachy Head marathon on October 25th, not ideal but the knee held up fine through the 26.5 miles over a very hilly course which was a good sign. We started to up the distances again, getting up to 85k per week before the knee started playing up a bit again so we dropped down again slightly to be on the safe side and upped the strengthening work. I'm more confident in it now and training is now back on fully. All training is now being done with my pack, at the moment around 8kgs, building up to around 15kgs by the time I get to the race.

19/01/09

Myself and some of the other Mencap team have just returned from a very windswept Lake District where we did a couple of good back to back 20 mile runs over some good hills with pretty much full kit, so again, a very good test for the knee which felt 100%. Thanks to Marc and Nick from www.theendurancecoach.com for another cracking weekend. I will try to update this on a regular basis but with the amount of time that is now going to be taken up by training it may not be as frequent as before, don't worry, I am still working though!

Next big run booked is 'The Thames Trot' on 7th Feb. It's a 50 mile run along the Thames Tow Path with a 12 hour time limit. I'll be doing this with a pack and frontpack of around 8kgs. Following that I am doing two back to back 29 milers along the Grantham Canal at the end of Feb and that will probably be the last big event before the big one in March.