10 days and counting. . . equipment, victuals and other assorted stuff
So I head out for the Atacam Desert in Chile on 2 March which leaves me with 10 days to wind up. I am in a kind of taper phase, so ideally there should be no intense workouts any more. Alas, wishes unfortunately are not horses and so I find myself in a state that needs me to complete one long run and two back pack walks, all in excess of 25 km this coming week. Finally, I am looking forward to the HR club run on 27 February, where I intend to walk 10 km with all final gear strapped on).
Mentally, I am continually “genning” myself to the adventure* ahead ( *I first wrote task and then decided, that sine I wanted to make it a pleasurable experience, I would rather not think of it as a “task”).
This coming week, I need to read up on all final instructions, course details, etc so that I am not unprepared. Also, go through final packing lists, see that I am carrying all requirements and have not missed out on anything. This will probably be a penultimate post, the next one likely just before I head out.
So my equipment list reads somewhat like this.
Backpack – OMM Classic 32 litres
Sleeping bag – Marmot Atom
Headlight and backup – Princeton TEC EOS and Petzl Tikka 2+
Compass – Silva
Knive/Multi Tool – Swiss Army Classic
Whistle – Jetscream
Survival bivvy – Adventure Medical Kits Thermolite
Sunscreen, lipscreen and blister kit
Red flashing LED safety light
Jacket – Mountain Hardwear Compressor PL
Shorts/tights – CW-X shorts, underwear and tights
T-shirts – Patagonia Capilene 1 and Performax [the choice of the Hyderabad Runners, wink wink]
Shoes – Inov-8’s Roclite 318 GTX
Socks – Injinji toe socks
Headgear – Philly Eagles cap and the AC buff
Fleece hat – Mountain Hardwear Microdome
Sunglasses – Oakley Radar
In addition, I am carrying food for six-seven days including freeze dried meals, nutrition fuels/gels, energy bars, electrolytes, salt stick caps, insta coffeee and creamer. Primary brand of choice, which I have tested extensively is Hammer Nutrition’s range – Sustained Energy, Heed, Recoverite, Endurolyres, Race Caps Supreme and Hammer Whey followed by Cliff Energy Bars (Chocolate Almond Fudge, very handy) and Nuun. Dinner is a preset menu – Expedition Foods’ Vegetable Tikka and Rice or similar for seven nights. Space permitting, I may also carry some salted nuts and dried fruits for in-run snacks. The daily calorie intake is a minimum of 2,000 calories per day (I am at roughly 2,400-2,800).
I am also carrying a plastic plate and a fork as well as water bottles to carry 2.75 litres of water or more at any given time – Raidlight, Camelbak and Platypus are first choice equipment, having been tested thoroughly during training – they’ve survived quite a few drops, falls, etc with no damage.
In additon, stuff like tablet towels, wet wipes, medicines, etc form part of the equipment I carry (there’s more but let me not bore anyone with the details).
The trick, now, is to pack all the above and see how the backpack weighs. Ziplock bags and Sea-to-Summit’s Ultra Sil Dry Sacks are gonna be heroes here!!! Wish me luck
I am aiming for between 7.0-7.5kg on the back and about two litres of water up front!!
The only off putting news is that my polar wrist watch’s strap broke so I will be carrying it close to me to measure heart rate. The foot pod’s going to be switched off as it has been acting up a bit recently and giving me wrong calibration (I will get this fixed, post the AC2011). As regards, navigation – Garmin remains the hands-on favourite. I use a Garmin Oregon 550 and I just need to set the satellite and some related settings to position accurately in the South American hemisphere. So distance, time, elevation and so on and so forth will be with this. The 550 also comes with a camera so I will be clicking some snaps of way points, etc to link up to stuff that I will write during and after the event.
I will be likely subscribing to the communications package from the 4deserts store to be able to update my blog during the run and that will be the primary source of telling you all what I’ve been upto and my daily experiences. The link to my 4 deserts blog is at:
http://www.4deserts.com/blogs/comptetior_blog_new.php?authorid=OTU3&blog=21
More later.
S