Well, I’m heading towards India and I’m experiencing a lot of the old summer at the moment, around 26-30 degrees most days, a bit too much for running if I’m honest but I’m slowly acclimatising. Heading east west around the world I hadn’t thought to think the sun would be continually beating on my back.
However, by the time I close in on Turkey – then India – it’ll be the onset of winter I’m trying to outrun, and the days of sweating so heavily your eyes sting from the salt running in them before it drips of the tip of your nose will probably be remembered fondly as I worry about the ground becoming too cold for tent pegs and managing to run 32+ miles a day in daylight as the nights become longer.
Eating is something I have to do on an industrial scale. 8000 calories is the target each day, but I’m managing perhaps 5-6000. Although it’s very often outside, I can’t really say I think of it as ‘alfresco dining’ – it’s no romantic picnic, put it that way – and a lot of it isn’t anything resembling a meal.
Being able to eat anything you want, or as much as you want, sounds great, and for a day or two maybe it is. However, this is much more than a binge dinner and a few snacks between meals; it’s non-stop eating, and most of it is high-fat sugary crap. It’s the amount 3 blokes are recommended to eat in a day! And there’s a real balancing point between getting more food in, and just feeling so stuffed it all comes back up, as last night’s supper did!
Supper, alfresco ultra-marathon running style
Sandwich (½ french stick, 100g ham, approx 50g butter & pesto): Approx 1,400 calories
Packet of fudge, 100g: approx 600 calories
Litre of chocolate milk: approx 800 calories
Total calories: 2,800
Net calories – (after forcing the last quarter of the milk down my throat and then fighting the urge to vomit for 15 minutes and eventually losing) = 0 calories!
Terrible for both energy levels and morale! Breakfast today has started of more modestly – 2croissants and jam, and a third croissant I’ll eat in an hour once there’s room for it!
Ok here goes 30+miles again…
