The Marathon des Sables is probably the world's toughest running event. The race covers approx. 145m in six stages over seven days – which is a total of almost six marathons.
The stages include a dune day (a day that is run entirely in sand dunes) and a non-stop 50 mile stage that has to be completed within 40 hours.
Well what can I say about The first Regiment reunion in Grantham........ It was awesome. lots of beer drunk, lots of memories relived, lots of food eaten, lots of laughs had.
Thanks Dean, JB, Baz and anyone else who helped organise this great event
After a short sleep in my Travellodge, we were treated to Breakfast at Geds Cafe.
Best of all I managed to get £107 worth of mile guesses in 25 minutes. Thanks to my brothers in arms, Per Ardua. Roll on next year.
I ran over 26.2 miles for the first time
(See previous post)
I think that makes me an Ultra runner wow!!!!!!!!!!!
Last Wednesday I Pb'd the Gt Yarmouth 5 miler in a time of 34:19
And today in a hot and crowded race ,I pb'd 10k in the Bupa 10,000 run around London. I finished in 1000 place out of 11,000 runners in a time of 43:45.
Fitness Tip#8 Enjoy Enjoy Enjoy Like your runs, dont make them a chore. Vary your routes and the views that you will see. If your not enjoying it, have a break or make your runs fun for a while.
Diary of a Long Distance Runner
Sunday 12th May 2013 - 8.25 mile steady run with Paula
Thursday 16th May - 35 + miles in 6 hours
Monday 20th May - race pace 6 miles, warm
Wednesday 22nd May - Race pace 5 miles, warm and dry
Monday 27th May - Race pace 6 miles, very warm
This Blogs Donation Roll of honour
Sean Allerton - good friend from my past and an outstanding fundraiser
Jonno Johnson - another one of my Brothers in Arms
Steve Paul - a Brother gunner Ive never met (yet)
Jade Woodward - a work Colleague of my girlfriend Paula
Thank You!!!!!!!!!!
5 weeks to my 12 hour endurance run, Keep guessing, the more you guess, the more you could win.
Oh my god, I ran over 35 miles today and was on my feet for 6 hours.
My poor poor feet lol. Actually they felt pretty good as I used Zinc Oxide tape on them even on the balls of each foot.
The fuel for my run consisted of one of these every hour
And these every 2 hours.
When I finished I jumped into a cold bath kindly run by Paula. I sat in there for 10 minutes, had a hot shower, made 2 chicken wraps and went to work............ Only for an hour. Went home and stretched stretched stretched.
I think summer is finally here, well its certainly warmer than of late.My blogging has been lacking in the last couple of weeks. Believe it or not I started this at the start of May, and the first line was all I could manage. Writing isn't something I enjoy and have to make a big effort. I'm only cheating myself .Anyway, here we go. My Training is gradually getting longer, but surprisingly this is not putting me off. However my poor toes are taking a battering. Someone once told me that you know your a runner when you toe nails are black. Well mine are all going black. I've trimmed them, I've tried re-lacing my shoes, so that my feet don't slide around. Could do with some help. If you know of a foot specialist that could give me some advise, please let me know. This week my good friend Claire Whittenbury,wrote me a press release. Here is your preview
Press release May 7th, 2013:
Fitness Instructor pushes himself to the extremes.
Having braved Arctic temperatures in 2011, now Mark Nussey is heating things up to raise funds for MENCAP by racing across the Sahara.
Nussey, 44, lives and works in Lowestoft as a fitness consultant and sports massage therapist. He has already run 3 London Marathons and trekked across Northern Scandinavia for charity, but this is his biggest undertaking yet. In April 2015 he will be competing in the 30th anniversary of the Marathon de Sables, the toughest footrace on earth. According to the official MDS literature The race is a gruelling multi-stage adventure trough a formidable landscape in one of the worlds most inhospitable climates.
He will fly to Morocco 2 days before the event in order to acclimatise, then travel by bus and cattle truck to the start where the temperatures will be in the region of 50 degrees centigrade, a stark contrast to the – 44 experienced in the Arctic. Regardless of the dangers, places in the race are much sought after and Mark is not only committed to training his body and mind to endure the baking heat and huge distance of 156 miles in 5 days but he has also signed up to raise £10,000 for MENCAP, a charity close to his heart. His stepdaughter Ella, who is 20, was born with Downs Syndrome and her mother Paula Lambert has worked for, as well as being supported by MENCAP through Ella’s life and she is in turn supporting Mark in his challenging undertaking.
Once the race starts he’s on his own though, he will have to carry everything he needs to survive on his back, the only support in the desert will be the checkpoint and the end of stage tents. The mental strain on a race like this, with the intense heat and nothing but sand and dust for mile upon mile, cannot be underestimated. It is not unusual for competitors to hallucinate whilst running and many are withdrawn due to dehydration. Having started his career in the RAF and worked in the fitness and motivation business for the last 15 years Mark is well placed to cope with the long distances, the scorching Moroccan sun and desert mountains, even the occasional sand storm should not break his stride - but the most challenging aspect of his target is the fundraising.
£10,000 is a lot of money for one man to raise but he’s already started by setting up a fundraising page on Just Giving: http://www.justgiving.com/Mark-Nussey and his programme of events so far includes a 12 hour endurance run on June 29th and a ‘Spinathon’ at The Waterlane Leisure Centre, in Lowestoft on September 28th. He is actively searching for sponsorship from local businesses and his blog will chart his physical and fundraising progress over the next 2 years as well as sharing his fitness and endurance tips:http://markshottotrot.blogspot.co.uk
Thanks Claire For those of you that want a challenge or a new goal. THE SPARTAN RACE SEASON STARTS IN AUGUST.
SPARTAN RACING Theres a distance for everyone, and the good news is Im part of the Spartan street team, so if you enter my discount code SPARTAN53 you will get 10% of entrance fee Aroooooooooo!!!!!!! Go on, you know you want to.........
Spartan Race.com Fitness tip #7 Run Partner Having someone to run with can be a great asset. Having that other person means its not so easy to say I cant be bothered with a run today. They can be good company if you are doing a longer run. They can be a good source of information and experience. Just one bit of Advice. Make sure that they are of a similar standard or are willing to run at or around your standard. This will prevent you from pushing yourself too much or not enough.
Diary of a long distance Runner
Wednesday 1st May 2013 - a slow 3 miler with Paula, it was very hot
Thursday 2nd May 2013 - a steady 11.5 miles, was abit windy, but that kept me cool, legs felt good
Monday 6th May 2013 - a very hot 15.25 miles, 1.5 of which was on the beach, this felt good
Thursday 9th May 2013 - oh my days this was an extremely windy 14.75 miles, but again felt good ( well when i got home anyway)
THIS BLOGS DONATION ROLL OF HONOUR
Andy Orchard - Blast from the Past, Regiment friend
John Berwick - Ex Regiment Gunner - never met (yet)
Claire Whittenbury - Walberswick exerciser and Press release writer
THANK YOU
well training is on hold for the next couple of days......
Its been a better week for my running this week. The suns been out. My legs and feet are feeling good.
Im on to 4 pages of guesses for my 12hr run on June 29th 2013. You still have plenty of time, if you want to make a guess or add another guess.As I mentioned in previous blogs, I have been forced to change venue for this challenge. I will confirm by the end of May, but its likely that i will be running around a 2 mile ish circuit on seafront/cliff at Gorleston on Sea, Norfolk.
Gorleston cliff This is the site of a weekly Parkrun at Gorleston cliffs, which is free to enter, its 5km and starts at 9am every Saturday. Make sure you have registered with Parkrun before you go. Even though its free, you need to print out a personilised bar code to get your time.
There are runners of all abilities, ages, sizes. Go on ,give it a look.
Fitness Tip#6 Goal setting.
If you get this right, the world is your oyster. Whatever goals you have, write them down and follow these guidelines:
Be Specific - write down exactly, what you want to do
Make sure your goal/goals is/are achievable - this is really important or you will set yourself up to fail
Make it realistic- as above, if your goal is not realistic, you will be disappointed.
Measure and record- write down your achievements in order to keep you on track
Set time limits - set short and long term goals.
My runs are getting longer, Im currently upto Three and a half hours. Im getting used to putting calories in as im running. My plan at present is to have an SIS Go gel every hour and a banana or flapjack every 2 hours.
Diary of a long distance runner.
Monday 22nd April 2013 - Nice slow 3 miles to make sure my leg was ok. felt good to get back to running.
Tuesday 23rd April 2013 - A steady 6 miles, weather was warm with no wind. Nice to run in.
Thursday 25th April 2013 - a slow 6 miles with Paula and my son Ryan on his bike. weather was warm and felt close
Saturday 27th April 2013.- a steady 22 miles, it started chilly, Paula joined me for the middle 7.5 miles. It was hot when i finished.
£10,000 journey has started
Thank you to those that donated this week
Jane Bradbury- a friend from my school days (before i stopped going)
Lots of running news this week. Some bad...... the unforgivable bombings at the Boston Marathon... Why??? They were all innocent people either taking part in an event close to their heart or watching. Speedy recovery to all those injured and condolences to those families that have had losses. To help families that have been affected by the bombings The One Fund has been set up
Some Good........ the fantastic 2013 Virgin London Marathon. If you have ever thought of running this event, stop thinking and apply to get in ballot. watch...... what a fantastc day.
Well done to the 36,000 people that ran and raised so much money for so many great charities.
some Frustrating........ After my restful time last week, I felt really good and optimistic for my running this week. In a moment of haste and madness that was lost. I was short of time, which is a regular occurrance in my life and I needed to get somewhere on foot in a short space of time. This called for a sprint, unfortunately for me, my right hamstring didn't like that and decided to protest by causing me pain, which can only be described as a hot rod being stuck into the back of my leg. This has forced me to rest again this week, which is doing my head in. Luckily for me, I Have a great soft tissue therapist, Ali Kent. Thanks Ali.
This seems a good time to give Fitness tip#5
If injured and have pain, swelling and heat at the site of pain, P.R.I.C.E
Protect.. Make sure the injured area cannot be made worse
Rest.. Self explanatory as hard as it may be
Ice.. Apply ice to the affected area until it goes numb,then remove. Apply again after a period of at least 45 minutes.
Compress.. Apply tubigrip or something similar
Elevate... Keep the injured limb as elevated as possible.
Ring your local Sports massage therapist or soft tissue therapist to make an appointment.
Take care of yourself in order to keep your goals on track.
Some good to see.... The warm weather has brought my girlfriends motivation to run again. Ive been reduced to biking, whilst Paula has been getting running and sunning done together.
Paula is running this years Great North Run as
Please sponsor her at www.justgiving.com/mark-nussey
Diary of a long distance runner.
Monday 15th April. 6miles, early morning, very warm but a nice start to my week.
aaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrghhhhhhhhhhhhh to the end of the week.
Text NUZZ69 to 70070 please, I need my spirits lifted
Its Here........................!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The 2 years to go starts today............ Please please please Sponsor me and help raise the £10,000 that I would like to give to Mencap. Its so easy to do.
1. go to www.justgiving.com/mark-nussey 2. Text NUZZ69 to 70070 3. Stop me when Im out running and give me your cash If you want to guess How far i will run in 12hours on the 29th June 2013. Just use method number 1 and leave your guess of mile totals and toilet stops along with contact details in the donation message. Each guess is £2. If you own a company or work for a company and feel that you would like to sponsor me in return for International advertisement, then please email me at mark.nussey@btinternet.com for more information This week the plans started for an Exercizathon, this event will have amazing classes on an outstanding Timetable, delivered by a team of fantastic instructors. date to be confirmed. Watch this space............. Lets hope the cold weather is behind us, bring on the heat...... C Fitness tip#4 Listen to your body.
If you didnt take heed of Fitness tip#3 or your week has been extra hectic, make sure you listen to your body. Training gains don't disappear instantly, so rest your body, re think your training if needs be, look at your diet, but don't be down hearted. Your Goal/Goals will benefit in the end. Diary oflong distance runner Wednesday 10th April 2013. - 6 miles cross country with Paula. It was warm and dry. Yep thats all this week, I took my own advice and had an easy week. Thank you in advance, and please keep following my Blog...... I've hit 1000 views of my blog. Take care
