a bit of sand training

with less than 50 days to go......the stress levels are increasing day by day. but going hand in hand with stress is excitement. I've been looking forward to the Sahara Race for a very long time. and now it's almost here.

this past weekend was a recovery weekend, with only a few hours of running. I love to run, but I must say I quite enjoy recovery weekends.....then I can fit in a bit of social and family time!

my raidlight trekking poles, ie. Javier and Jorge Rodrigues Rodrigues, joined me on my beach run this weekend. Seeing that we will be spending alot of quality time together, I figured that it is only appropriate to name them. and i must say, they made the few hours on the beach an absolute JOY! they are SO going with me to the Sahara.
The poles only weight 120g each, fabulous little numbers from Raidlight. a must have for the desert.

Javier and Jorge Rodrigues Rodrigues

After a recovery week, comes a heavy training week - but I'm looking forward to spending some serious time on the legs this week. Speed work, hill work and some sand!!!! BRING IT ON!

Ok, training does not only exist of spending hours on the trails and in the gym, but also sorting out what food to take with on my race.

Do you have any idea how quickly a few grams turn into a kilogram? shocking!
I made up a potential food packet for one day.......820gram. and believe you me, there is not alot in that ziplock bag!
and I have to take 7 of those for the race....crap. when push comes to shove, i'm gonna go with a bottle of olive oil and a few blocks of parmesan cheese. sounds appetising hey! delicious!!

food update and some pics to follow later this week.

the serious countdown to the race has started.

a corner thing

Life doesn't always go the way we want it to go.
In a perfect world the runner never gets injured. Never!
Especially not 10 weeks before the race.

and not just any race.....the biggest race of my life to date.

....the story...
...10 days ago I went for a normal training run. Nothing funny, just a bit of sand and a bit of single track. I spend about 4hrs out on the trail. I was a bit tired afterwards. Back sore from the heavy backpack. Just a normal day at the office.

but then the next day..........O MY WORD. PAIN. Severe pain in my left leg. And it's my good leg for f" sakes.
It felt like shin splints, and I figured - rest for a few days and then everything will be back to normal.
or not.

After resting for  a few days, I was back on the mountain............20mins later I was in tears.

Self diagnosis 101. Stress fracture. That's the only thing that makes sense. Shin splints cannot be this painful.

anyway, Today I had a MRI done. good and bad news.
Good news - IT IS NOT A STRESS FRACTURE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
but very bad shin splints. the reason for the shin splints? Really don't know.

Some people might say it's overtraining....but I don't think so.

Bad news - no running for at least 4 weeks!!! HUGE F"up

NOBODY PUTS BABY IN THE CORNER!

GAME PLAN!
Shock wave therapy.
Aqua jogging.
Spinning.
Gym.
and maybe walking with the backpack.

Because, I am going to the Sahara. and I am going to have a fabulous race. even if I have to walk it.

Now I will just have to try not to over-do it with all these alternatives to running. Don't want to end up with some other weird injury.

Who gets shin splints for no apparent reason?

well, ME.

all pretty in pink.....going nowhere slowly

Just going to take it one day at a time!

a constant state of tiredness

Training for any race, takes alot of time + energy + commitment.
Some days it takes alot of bribing to put on those running shoes and hitting the road.
Especialy if have to hit the road/mountain/sand with a backpack that weighs about 8kgs.

BBM does not stand for BlackBerryMessenger......but for BrokeBackMountain!

After a heavy weekend of training, my shoulders are shot! I'm actually thinking of walking around with my pack everyday. People might look at me funny, but who cares! Me and my pack need to become the best of best of friend. BestFriendsForever.

So on Friday I received my new pack.......the start of a new love/hate relationship. But I truly believe that this love affair will last a while.

My new boyfriend.......Raidlight Runner R-light 30l!!!!!!

Isn't he just gorgeous!

Ok, so now I've got all my KIT for the Sahara. My credit card will be so relieved......phew! There is nothing like a bit of online shopping for gear for the Sahara.

Next on the menu.....is food. FOOD. Time to finalise what food to take with. A block of Parmesan cheese and a bottle of olive oil can only be appetising up to a certain point!

Seeing that I have no social life at the moment, evenings can be spend weighing little plastic bags of food!!!!!!!! What can be more fun than that!

BackPackTraining 101

This weekend's training consisted of time on the legs with a heavy backpack. Almost 10h of training with a backpack that I thought weighed about 8kg........yeah right. Try 10.5kg!!!
How it's possible for 8kg of rice to weigh 10.5kg, is beyond me. But then........the rice was not the only thing that was in my pack.....let's add the food, camera, cellphone, car keys. Jip, us girls we don't travel light!

Needless to say, my shoulders are sore. VERY SORE. and there is NO way I would be able to run 250km with such a heavy backpack. Not that I ever planned for it to clock in at that weight, but at least now I know it's out of the question. I don't want to be the last one over the finish line every day.....

Then, another problem.......my backpack might be to big for me. Kept adusting the straps the whole time, because the pack just didn't want to 'sit still'. So much for my fancy ass OMM - I still think it's a very cool pack with loads of cool little pockets everywhere. But if the pack is not a tight fit, I'm afraid it might be the end of our very brief relationship.

Dear OMM, it's not you, it's me....we can still be friends?

Back-up backpack plan - the old faithfull Raidlight! Now that is a very small pack, and it will be a very very tight squeeze to fit everything in that pack. But it's do-able, it will just take careful planning and there won't be space for anything extra, or nice to have. Bare essentials only. Maybe xtra socks....and that's it!

I do have a creative side to me.....so pimping the Raidlight with an extra pocket or 2 is very do-able.

Better get this backpack issue sorted ASAP. The clock is ticking and the Sahara is waiting for no-one.

happy training everyone!

117 Days to go

After an EPIC weekend of training.........EPIC......as in THE WORST EVER training weekend of the year. Or even last year. It was just one of those weekends were I could not get my feet moving. Everything was sore - legs, feet, .....just about my whole body.

That might be due to the fact that I had a EPIC COOL training weekend the previous one. 50km of running in Table Mountain. From Camps Bay to Kalkbay. 11hrs later......

So that training run came back and bite me in the back side this weekend. I guess it was bound to happen sooner or later. I see this past weekend as "hitting rock bottom" and it can only get better from here onwards.

With only 117 days to go, there is no more time for bad training weekends. IT IS SOMETHING OF THE PAST. punt klaar punt

On Friday I paid the balance of the entry fee for The Sahara Race end of October - and suddenly it hit me. This is it!!!!!! Only 4 months to go 'till the biggest running event of my life. Faaarrrkkkk!!!!!

There are still so much to do - Training - KIT - FOOD.


Training.........ignoring this weekend's EPIC FAIL......is going according to plan.
It's a new week, with new goals. The goal - TO follow my training program to the T.
No "I'm not in the mood to do speed work" - Just do it. Don't stop when tired, stop when done. Don't stop when tired, stop when done. Don't stop when tired, stop when done............Ja Ja, this is me talking to myself.

KIT.......got almost everthing I need for the race. A few mandatory are still missing, but nothing that a bit of online shopping can't fix.

FOOD........alot.


Training for the Sahara Race, is a journey....... A journey I'm planning to enjoy every km of the way.


"We no longer see the obstacles behind us, but look forward to the ones ahead" - Killian Jornet

80/20 Rule

"80% of all Competitions/Race/Challenges are won by the MIND"

Very true words from a friend of mine.

Last week I started my training for the Sahara Race - kick off in a 130+ days. I've been looking forward to this race since last year March. After doing the Namib Deserts Challenge in 2011, I realised this is just the beginning. And that I've found something that truely makes me happy. Running for days on end in the desert. Me Myself and I. And the only thing that keeps you company, is your mind. And I discovered that I've got a pretty strong one. Maybe tooooo strong sometimes.....but that's not a bad thing?

(ps. the Sahara is a COMPLETELY different ball game..........but what the hell, life to short to play it safe.)

Training for Ultra's is part of my life. It's what I do. It's who I am.

Yesterday I spend a few hours training in the Jonkershoek Mountains - me and my backpack and 6kg's of rice. 6kg's of Tastic rice might not sound like alot, but O my word, it gets heavy! I'm slowly building up to 8kg's - so by the time I get to the Sahara, I'll be ready. I'm not going to let a heavy backpack slow this queen of the desert down! and for the moment I'm just ignoring the fact that training for a desert race, in the middle of the Cape Town winter, is not ideal.


and that's my 2cents for the day.


ABILITY:  is what you're capable of doing.....tick
MOTIVATION :  determines what you do....tick
ATTITUDE: determines how well you do it....tick

                                                            Jonkershoek Training

And my two best friends.....my Inov8 Roclites

The return of the Mountain Goat

This time it was at the Helderberg Mountain Extreme. Only 24km......That's nothing.....Right?

On Saturday night I thought it might be a good idea just to check last year's times. O my shattered nerves.....this will take me longer to finish than the Jonkershoek race of 2 week ago. And Jonkershoek was 30km!! So I new something was cooking with this race, ain't no flats involved.
And that was the correct assumption. It was up and up and up and then down and then up and up and more up.

The start of a LONG climb



Long walk to freedom

My quads were killing me....but what can you do. I can stop, gooi a tantrum, but then what. I'm already halfway up the mountain (for the SECOND time I might ad), so lets just finish this mother.

One thing that I realised at this race was that I need to work on up hills. Alot of people passed me as I missioned to the top op the West Peak. But then when it came to the downhills, they had to get out of my way, cause I was FLYING down. I was running on pure adrenaline! I politely ignored the fact that if I do slip and fall, I'm going to be falling for a LONG time! Block. Ignore. Run.

The Helderberg Xtreme is 60% mountain (and rock) climbing and 40% running....well that's my opinion. I think if I knew what I was getting myself into, I would have thought twice about entering. But by next year, I would have forgotten about the 'bad' things of the race...and will enter again.


Boulder hopping....ps. slippery when wet.

Even though this race, for me, was tougher than the Jonkershoek one, I felt like a million bucks afterwards. Ignoring the fact that when I finished the race, I was sort of covered in blood. A certain young lady decided to buy a piece of single track on the Helderberg Mountain. Flat piece of single track. Only a few rocks. And those few rocks connected with my hand, arm and both knees. it was a spectacular fall. And I did check....no-one saw me. . I fell so hard that I had to wait a few minutes for the air to return to my lungs.....Girls don't cry. Girls don't cry.

This was truly an extreme race, very technical downhills and very steep up hills.

For those +/- 5 hours I felt ALIVE! Un-stop-a-ble.

The mountain goat is back, for the time being....giving the queen of the desert a bit of a breather.