MdS Training 2017 well on the way now!  After a good weeks training last week I was signed up to the MdS Expo in London.  This was brilliant, if you are ever thinking of entering it is a must!  I travelled down on Friday evening straight from work, stopping at the station bar (of course) for a cheeky pint of Amstel, or two!  I was visiting my cousin on the Fri eve and staying at his before he frog marched me to the venue.  This was necessary due to the number of catch up beers we had and the time of night/morning that I went to bed!  After rising to the shock of it being nearly 8am I got up fast and got on my way.

From the moment I walked in to reception I felt at ease, 'I am meant to be here!' Not being an obvious runner I probably stood out as one that may struggle, but if you've been reading this blog upto now you'll know I will stand a good chance if I plan it right.  I loved the expo, it was like a massive room full of clinically insane people that I felt part of.  It was a great feeling, we all had the same thing in common, we were running the Sahara!

So today I managed to finish work early and I decided I wanted to get out on a run and test my all new singing and dancing MdS pack.  I was actually quietly excited about this, new bit of kit and all!  I decided on my route, a nice 8 miler from work and back again.  My idea was to try the pack with a bit of weight in to start really experiencing it properly.  I wanted to know how it functioned, its strengths, weaknesses and any areas I could improve on it.  I wrapped 3x1kg sand bags in a towel and added 2x1 litre drink bottles to the back of the pack, this made it about 5kg.

I put the pack over my shoulders and to be honest my first reaction was 'mmm that's not bad, it doesn't feel that heavy!'  The watch set, strava on go, warm up complete, off I go or waddle should I say lol!  At first the weight was fine, no pace to my running mind you but weight ok.  The main issue was the side to side swinging of the pack at the base, this started rubbing almost immediately.  I was going to need to re-think this and most definitely learn something.  The weights had collated at the base of the pack which I guess caused the swinging motion and in toe caused the rubbing.  Note to self, learn how to pack your bag! The run all in all went well my mental notes were:

1 - upper body strength needs more work/ongoing
2 - core and lower back needs more work
3 - legs felt strong but noticeable difference with pack (strength and conditioning)
4 - feet being effected by the additional weight (soreness, impact)
5 - actually felt comfortable to run apart from moving pack