After reviewing our past, to visualise our future, we must understand race dynamics. How will it be going, what our time goals for each segment and for the overall race, what will we eat and how will we do it, how will we manage the assistance given by friends or family and many other things.
I am gonna break down what I will be doing leading up to the race, and on race day. This will give you some ideas on incorporating habits to arrive in top shape to your race day. I still have 3 and a half weeks to the date, so some training can be done, some nutritional and equipment testing still can be done and even some health check like a blood test or functional movement test can be done. A stress fracture can be healed or a serious tendonitis cured, twisted ankles and wrecked knees can be tuned up. You just got to know your tools. You might be humming and mumming, but yes there are non-expansive things existing, what can speed up healing ten folds ! Taking calcium, immobilising and having 2 compex treatment a week will do nothing for you !
Nutrition:
Having a healthy lifestyle and not eating baguette and bagel every day with all the processed junk, should be your priority, regardless you are an athlete or not, so I am not gonna explain the details of a healthy diet.
- What I do, is I am going all organic for this 3 weeks and get my organ meat intake quiet high.
- I also drink 0.5L of home made juice, mostly from greens like celery and kale and beetroots, every single day, to charge with electrolytes, but I add a full lemon, an apple and big chunk of ginger too. I eat 5 to 10 dried abricots every day (richest potassium source ever) !
- I make sure to eat one organic tomato, some deep greens, like parsley, spinach, kale, purslane, but if I can I am going wild at least 3 times a week, like chickweed, nettles, plantain.
- I eat 3 times a day with 6 to 7 hours apart. 7am, 13pm and 8pm. Very regular. Every 2nd to 3rd day, I skip breakfast and try to sleep in.
- I also take a light probiotic with 5 milliard particles for 1 month before and for 1 month after the race.
- I use B12 injections every 3 to 4 months, cause I am taxing my body more than natural, so I make sure that it is timed correctly. I had the last one about 40days ago.
- I drink one or 2 bottles of San Pellegrino every day, what is one of the purest and richest water sources buyable. When up in the mountains, I drink as much spring water as possible and even bring home a bottle or two ! I keep my water intake over 3L every day, no exceptions !
Lifestyle:
I already have good habits, so I am not getting into anything new here, however for the average joe, these things might be shocking.
- I sleep every day and I sleep as much as possible. I wake up with no alarm. If it was 5 am or 10am I don't care. I wake up as my body wants to wake me up. I also go to sleep the earliest possible. If my eyes were closing down after the evening meal at 20:30, I have my cold shower, wash my teeth and I am in bad before 9pm. I get in a nap, if my body wanted to.
- Even if I did not run, I do core training, mobility, stretching and self massage every single day. If you left your muscles untouched, you'll loose fitness much faster, than if you did some regular basic maintenance.
- Regular sea-swimming and long sea-bathing. Did you know that you can make your lymphatic system turn 24 times faster then normal under water ? There are no impact forces and you have a mild compression over all muscles and organs. This is why swimmers are very rarely injured and most of their injuries come from land based training !
- When cannot access sea, you can still have a soothing epsom salt bath !
- I do not drink alcohol, do not smoke and get my morning coffee as a meal with fats and other superbly charged nutrients. No other so called stimulants are taken during the day. I also use hand picked herbal infusions with no added honey multiple times a day. I make them quiet diluted and do cold brew herbal infusions too. Stingy nettle, hemp leaves, camomille, elderberry flowers, strawberry tree leaves and so. Lot of people are surrounded with wild edibles and they still drink Pickwick and Lipton. Get a handful of pine tree leaves with some cleavers and of you go.
- I mentioned cold showers. Outside of the mental and anti inflammatory benefits, you decrease your chlorine load on the body too.
- I up my fish oil intake till the race week, around 6 grams a day, on "empty" stomach 4hours after the first meal. After I am back to 1 g a day for 5 days and take it even on race morning.
- I also use magnesium flakes every single evening, with home made eggshell calcium powder all mixed with lemon water. Mg, Ca and vitamin C will synergistically work together, help you to sleep and charge the body.
- To unload electromagnetic and radiation charge. This means turning your phone off and taking it out from your pocket, turning the wifi off, have less or zero screen time, turning your bed away from the wall, asking the neighbour to turn his wifi off and so. Small things that can give you 0.01% health and performance increase. It counts !
- I talk to my wife every day and also keep my surroundings tidy. This is happening every day, but before a race day, I keep extra attention on this. Avoiding family stress is crucial to have success in an ultra marathon. Running your race, by knowing that last night you "sent your wife on to better climats" will destroy your mental presence. Over 15hour races are won in the head !
The next part will be real race planning and about how to manage your aid stations, kit, gear, crew and so.