Iron Chef MdS - On The Move Food

This is the first installment of several detailing potential gastronomical plans for my upcoming Marathon de Sables.  Today I will tackle what I term “on the move food” or what I plan to consume while running/walking.  I have previously touched upon basics of calorie counts and will be shooting for an average of around 2800 kcals/day.  Of this amount, breakfast and evening offerings will contribute approximately 1400 kcals total leaving another 1400 kcals for consumption during the day.  I will vary from these amounts depending upon the stage.  The long stage will have additional on the move calories and less evening fare, while the rest day will be reversed.

I am fortunate to be able to ingest food during exercise with few ill effects so long as I don't over indulge!  For me taste, convenience and form are the important criteria for the evaluation of trail food.  Taste is obvious, if you don’t like it you will not choke it down.  It has to be convenient also; no long preparation times, excess packaging, and difficulties with handling.  Finally there is form, is it moist enough and easy to chew?  Will it disintegrate into crumbs?  The following meet my above criteria and represent a typical days worth of “on the move food”:

·         Smoked Almonds: 2 oz a day/340 kcals

These are good and easy to eat.  Most any other nut will suffice

·         Slim Jims: 2 oz a day/320 kcals

Nice treat, easily packed.  Suggest only original and mild flavors. 

·         Various gels:  1 oz (1 each)/100 kcals

Leaning to ones that are not viscous (Power Bar brand)

·         Various energy bars: 2.2-3.0 oz (1 each)/230-390 kcals

o   Cliff Bar Chocolate/Apricot/Cool Mint:  All of these are OK but somewhat dry.

o   Pro Bar: Looking into these.

o   Hammer Nutrition Cranberry:  Love these but on the low calorie end.

o   Hammer Nutrition Almond Raisin:  Very good

o   Power Bar  Triple protein (may melt)

·         Stinger Waffles: 1 oz (1 each)/160 kcals 

I love these, easy to eat and slightly sweet.  Fragile and can be reduced to crumbs.

·         Electrolyte tabs: 0.6 oz (2-4 tablets)/0 kcals 

These are in addition to SaltSticks or Endurolytes, mainly bringing to flavor the water.  I usually use these at half strength 

·         GU Brew recovery 2.1 oz (1 each)/250 kcal

Slam when I get done with the stage, chocolate.

I believe this menu will serve me well by offering the variety and nutrition necessary for the long days of exertion.  A hearty breakfast and dinner will round out the culinary adventure.  These remaining two areas will be covered in the near future!

Training Plans

As the year is waining into its final weeks it is time to look towards next year and the training plan to take me into the MDS.  With only four months to go until departure the biggest thing on my mind is to stay healthy and prevent injuries.  Weekly mileage is at a maintenance level through the holidays at which time I intend ramping up over two and a half months to peak around mid March.  Included even now are miles with the pack at around 20 lbs.  Frequency of pack runs are about once a week now and will increase in February.  I am also planning some dune work as well as some longer events (50k, marathons, etc).  Every effort will be made to maximize trail runs and include a variety of hills and technical/rocky terrain.  Speed work may come later for variety and cross training will be limited.  Heat acclimatizing will be conducted in March.

My weekly mileage will range from lows of 30 to highs around 50 and should be sufficient for my anticipated performance.  Again my fear is sustaining an injury that significantly curtails training or endanger participation!

Into The Night

With the shortening of days and the switch back to standard time there is little daylight available for running in the evenings. This necessitates the use of artificial illumination if one is running off the streets and away from local lighting. 

You can never have enough of certain things; electrical power, data storage, environmental cooling, money and in this case lumens. This has been born out with me numerous times during night orienteering and rogaine events. Of course more lumens comes at the expense of more power which translates to more batteries and thus unto weight. 

Having had lots of headlamps over the decade's I'm familiar with many makes and models. Most of my favorites have been Petzls. These are usually well constructed and get the job done. When selecting a headlamp for the MdS several criteria needed to be optimized:

1. Produce a reasonable spot type, trail finding beam
2. Be able to produce a diffused beam
3. Multiple intensity settings
4. Maximized operational time
5. Minimized weight
6. LED light source
7. Replaceable batteries

I finally settled on the Petzl Tikka XP 2.  The Petzl Zipka Plus 2 was a close second.  Reasoning was as follows.

The Tikka has both a spot beam and a flip up diffuser for wider angle operations while the Zipka only has a flood type beam.  The Tikka has almost 15% more light output over the Zipka.  Both of these headlamps have multiple intensity setting and both should have sufficient operational time for the duration of the event (even without spare batteries).  The Zipka beats the Tikka on weight but only by a small amount (0.6 oz/17 grams). LED light sources on both guarantees no need for a replacement bulb. Both of these Petzl model run on three AAA's.

If you really had to minimize weight and were not concerned about light output the Petzl E+ LITE would be your choice.  I personally carry one of these in my trail running bag as an emergency/backup light.

Night runs with the Tikka XP 2 have been very good.  The top two intensity settings both provide sufficient lighting to run even on very rocky trails and provide for route finding capabilities.  You can also program this model for the intensity settings you wish.  Depending upon the situation the spot beam is preferred over the diffused one, however it is easy to switch back and forth.

Finally, a word on batteries.  AAA batteries are small and light weight.  It goes without saying that lithium AAA's are the choice for this application since they have higher energy densities and weigh about 1/3 less than their alkaline counterparts.  Their increased cost is far outweighed by their superior performance.

Feet Fetish

Many things can impede your completion of an event.  Lack of training, improper race nutrition, dehydration, intestinal problems, etc.  But the fastest way to the DNF column for an event of this magnitude is to not employ proper foot preparation and care.  During my 2012 Desert RATS experience I suffered significant podiatry meltdown and paid a heavy price for most of the race.  In fact, after only 60 miles I seriously was doubting being able to finish.  Eventually I crossed the finish line but performance was greatly impacted.  Behold the horror below!

Three lost toenails later I have recovered.  Upon post race analysis it was determined there were several contributing factors:

1. I did not prepare my feet prior to the event
2. I wore too small of shoes
3. Poor field foot care (initially)

Point 1.  I did not toughen up my feet prior. A preventative strategy would have helped some and will be followed for the MDS.  I am currently trying a product called "Tuf-Foot" (which is also used on hunting/working dogs paws).  We will see how this performs.  Additionally while not one of the barefoot running crowd, I am ending my runs with up to a mile of barefoot work on the sidewalks/asphalt.  This will obviously be curtailed some in the coming winter months.  Foot strengthing exercises are also helping with training injury prevention.

Point 2.  BIG MISTAKE!  I have a very small (size 8 US) and narrow foot. Since almost every running shoe is a D width I have had little problems with wearing my street shoe size, only occasionally suffering a black big toenail.  The heat induced swelling experienced during Desert RATS (ground temperatures up to 140 F/60 C) has made me a firm believer of larger shoes.  The heavy socks worn also contributed to the situation.  The question then becomes, how much larger?  Currently I am using a 8.5 US shoe with a large toe box design. This appears to be working out with minimal heel slip. There is plenty of swelling space and additional room to loosen laces. Size 9 US may just be too big for me. 

Point 3.  During the second stage of Desert RATS I ignored pain and hot spots and within the span of a handful of miles had one bad set of blisters on the bottom of my feet.  Later stages resulted in toe blisters and finally heel specimens.  Post injury taping with Elastikon became the only solution.  It is apparent that immediate treatment of hot spots and potentially preemptive taping will be in order for Morocco.  Elastikon will be in my pack along with a small selection of foot care products.

In addition to settling on shoes model/size and preferred sock types, I am also working on a set of custom gaiters.  More details on these in a later post.

Ya'at'eeh!

Greetings from Navajo country!  This past weekend Lisa and myself were in the Chinle AZ area to participate in the third annual Caza Ladron trail ride and hunt.  This get together included a ride into beautiful Canyon de Chelly as well as a fox (coyote) hunt west of town.  Fortunately for the one coyote, he was faster and more wile than the hounds.

Hounds Away!

Since Lisa is the horse person she did the riding while I was lucky to get in a couple of runs among some quintessential southwest scenery.  Perhaps next year I will give the equines a try.  The weather was great and as a special treat author Hampton Sides was in attendance.  He has penned some incredible books including "Ghost Soldiers" as well as "Blood and Thunder".  Additionally, Hampton has written about the MDS in the earlier years of the race.  Here is his article.  

The book Ghost Soldiers has a special connection to the Reader family, my great uncle Penrod Reader was in the Army Air Corps and was stationed in the Philippines at the start of WWII.  His unit eventually was assigned infantry duty and they participated in the Bataan Death March.  He died in the POW camps there on July 12, 1942.

Below are some photographs for your enjoyment!  
 

South Rim of Canyon de Chelly

Interesting Geology

 

 

 

 

 

This one says "Southwest"

A Study in Weight

An interesting post came out in the official MDS site the other day.  MDS Timing No 3 compared and contrasted the weight and calorie counts for Englishmen, Frenchmen and "Leaders". From a purely statistical standpoint some data may be lacking but having something to gauge against is invaluable.  Below is a summary of the data provided including my current estimates, weights are in kgs.  One must also factor into the load water weight (1.5-3 kgs).

Category	Total	Gear	Food	Calories
English	11.3	6.1	5.2	19,200
French	8.7	4.1	4.6	16,800
Leaders	7.2	2.5	4.7	16,000
My est.	8.5	4.2	4.3	18,200

While I am happy with my results, they are still estimates and subject to changes.  It will be a challenge to keep the gear weight down and perhaps even lower it some.  Items that are adding to this additional weight compared to "leaders" include:

• Camera (7.5 oz)
• Pad (8 oz)
• flip flops (4-6 oz)
• Cup/fuel/stove (6.5 oz)
• Misc supplies (4 oz)

Total 32 oz/2 lbs/0.9 kg

Each and every item adds up and eventually lines need to be drawn as to what is a luxury vs a necessity. Are you going to use the item daily?  Is it there a large benefit from using the item?  Conversely, is there a large negative impact from not having/using the item in question? I definitely wish to record the event and have a hot cup of coffee in the morning while lounging in bare feet after a reasonable night sleep.  Call me soft.

Relating to calories/count/weight it is apparent that finding high caloric foods are important.  My above numbers are based on 6.5 days at 2,800 Kcals/day which may be on the low side.  This works out to be about 120 Kcals/oz including packaging.  Most carbohydrate based foods are around 100-120 Kcals/oz not including packaging.  That is about the best you can do there.  Fats will be needed in order to get these numbers up...nuts, meat products, etc.  It is also obvious that there will have to be repackaging in order to minimize weight and volume.  Future posts will detail my anticipated gastronomical plans.

Pack Shake Down

On Sunday I took out the pack (Raidlight Evolution 2) for a quick 10 mile test spin.  I settled on this pack since the next size up was just too large and I would be tempted to fill it all the way up with totally unnecessary snivel gear.  While the first day or two may have this one bulging at the seams, I believe it will be fine overall. 

Load out was most of my gear and phone books as a mass mock for food.  Included 1.5 liters of water on the shoulder holders (add ons).  Total weight was around 20 lbs/9 kgs which is slightly light based on my estimates to date.  Fit and balance were excellent.  The front pack is nice from a balance perspective but it will get a little warm.  Placing 750 ml water bottles in the front pack side holders adds a little too much weight there.  This results in excessive bouncing when running but would be OK for walking.  The strap assembly on the top is nice for a pad/sleeping bag.  My only complaint about this rig besides being slightly small volume wise is that you have to do/undo four buckles to get in and out of it!