Al Andalus Ultimate Trail Multi day stage race 230km

This is PART 1... more along the lines of information about the race and the kit I had... my experience of the race is PART 2


Al Andalus Ultimate Trail (AAUT) is 230km, with 7000m ascent, of trail running in Southern Spain (and the weather that goes with it!) Split over 5 stages the distances for each of the 5 days being 38, 48, 37, 67 and 39 km.

Next years poster

The route is a mix of mountain tracks, 4x4 tracks, single track and the odd km of road, all incredibly well marked, taking in some fantastic scenery. I had such a fantastic week, the organisation was fantastic, everything was taken care of.

I'll elaborate a little later but in short....
Wake up 7- 8ish. 2 Breakfast 9bars and a litre of water, 9 am go running, enjoy a few hours of trail running, follow the pink arrows, finish, eat lots of watermelon, clap other runners in, hang out by the pool, eat some more, go to dinner and briefing, repeat x 5 with a big prize giving dinner at the end (I managed a good prize haul for the overall win ;) )

Out on route day 2?

It's a semi supported race meaning you DON'T need to carry EVERYTHING like the MDS or Gobi Challenge or other  4 Deserts type events. Your main overnight bag is transported to the finish each day for you. All you need to run with each day is your day bag (I used a Salomon waist belt) water bottle, a hat, and had first aid kit and camera phone. It'd be a good idea to carry anything else you'd normally need on a long run, skimping on some vital bits of kit that you might rely on for the sake of a few hundred grams probably not a good plan.

Ran with that + 2 bottles

The water stations were approx 10km apart and many had cold towels and ice along with Elete electrolyte replacement. On the two longer days I took a sachet of SIS go powder too but didn't do any actual food on any of the stages. There was usually coke on the last two CPs each day also which I normally had a cup of too.

First CP of the race

In terms of kit this is what I took..... I've added a little note next to them... Remember the organisers transported your overnight bag so within reason you can carry what you want, I just like to travel light and only had hand luggage on the flights....

Snugpak sleeping bag (comfort rating 7degrees) never needed to zip it up
Thermarest - would be pretty uncomfortable without one!
Inflatable pillow - was in bargain bucket at Decathlon on Friday
Towel - Microfibre one, more used for lying as sun was hot enough to dry out after swimming/ showering
Wash kit -
 P20 suncream
 Blister plasters, adhesive tape - basic first aid things, never had to use any of it.
Vaseline - Small tin ... Stops things rubbing, worth carrying though I never used it
Shoes for around camp - Merrel Barefoot ones, they squash flat and weigh nothing
 Shorts, Vest and Berghaus jacket for at camp (a thin fleece would have been more than sufficient, temp dropped into the teens during the night/ early morning)
5 pairs of socks
2 pairs of run shorts (ripped one pair so good job)
1 vest
1 mesh hat with peak
1 pair of Mizuno Wave Ascend Trail shoes (road shoes would have been ok I think on the whole, I don't own any that are fit to run in at the moment though) Would use the Ascends again - not found anything better yet!
Salomon Xt wings belt - bottle holder belt with an extra couple of pockets for first aid and camera.
2 x 600ml bottles, usually only had 1 to drink between CP's but used the other for tipping water on myself on longer days - worth considering how long you'll be between cps some people who were slower runners were going through all the water before the cps...
Camera phone for piccies on route also has inbuilt torch for around camp at night
Garmin 310xt gps watch, record the data and keep an eye on things if you want to
Sunglasses - The usual Oakley's which are fab! (Thanks Di)
Food wise I took....
5 x Dehydrated meals, the Decathlon ones which were nice enough.
10 x Breakfast 9bars (2 each morning although on Friday I only ate 1)
5 x Rego recovery shake... Normally like to mix my own but went with the pre made sachets to avoid any awkwardness in the airports taking random bags of powder.
5 x SIS Go carbohydrate sachets ... handy to carry and mix into water if needed.
5 x protein recovery bars.

And I think that was about it.....

I was originally planning to do a weeks running somewhere mountainous myself but then decided to just enter the race and use that as a training week and a holiday combined, all the organisation, route planning and logistics already done and sorted, plus the opportunity to spend a week with a fantastic group of inspiring runners and all the crew who did a perfect job of looking after us all and going out of their way to help make it such a great week!

Follow the pink arrows!

Training wise I'm pretty well conditioned to long back to back runs in the hills and was able to run comfortably all week without any issues and also without smashing myself so I'm happy with that! Compared to my first ever running race back in 2010 The Gobi Challenge which was also a stage race where I had the approach to hike mostly and jog the easy bits on and off and literally just get to the end alive, this one I planned to ignore what other runners were doing and just run a comfortable pace, stay on course and enjoy the week. For The Gobi it was a huge unknown, would I be able to do it or not? This time the only real concern was how hot it would be...


Anyway onto Part 2... The Start!

Cloudy start! Gone by 10 am and never to be seen again!

More race info and entries etc on the link below... Head to PART 2 for my account of the week :)

http://www.alandalus-ut.com/

Garmin Forerunner 310XT, GPS Watch Review

Today I thought I would throw together a quick review on my Garmin 310XT. I have had it for over 1 year and wear it most days (for any cycling or running I do) The battery is rechargeable with a usb cable. It has lasted about 18hours when actually recording.

The Garmin 310 XT

I bought the watch as a way of measuring and recording my distances and speed (or lack of?) mainly when running. It is available with and without a heart rate monitor strap (HRM). I don't tend to use this as I find it a bit awkward, seems to be fine for the majority of the time but every now and again I would glance at it and see something like 235bmp even after I have set up my max and resting heart rate. I would be willing to put money on the fact that my heart wasn't doing anything quite so extreme during a steady, long run.

The functionality of the watch I find absolutely great! It can be set to record running, cycling or 'other' eg swimming or skiing or whatever else you might get up to, being waterproof it is ideal for those outdoorsy types or anyone that might end up submerged during their Saturday morning run.

Basically on each activity you can set the display to show whatever you wish from a long list of options such as; speed, pace, elevation, time, time of day, heart rate, total distance (always a killer when you check about an hour into a 100 mile race)  and so on. For intervals I usually have last lap pace (you can set the laps automatically according to distance or time or just manually by pressing the lap button), last lap time, last lap distance. The watch has heaps of configurative possibilities, far more than I have used so should satisfy any technology loving creatures out there!

The back light is great!

I find the watch pretty consistent usually, my run to work on the usual route is always within a few meters.Things like the elevation also being consistent when doing the same route multiple times. It picks up signal as quick as I can put my shoes on if I am outside, if you're planning on running in the gym on a treadmill the GPS might not be the best choice! (Although jokes aside there is a foot pod which I DON'T have, apparently able to measure cadence etc incase your treadmill doesn't have a display?)

 It has been incredibly durable, the only small problem is the little bit on the strap that holds the tail of the 'excess' strap snapped off, I have continued to use it like this for about 6 months or so, so it is obviously not a major problem! Being generally a bit rough with things this has been dropped probably a couple of times per week and is still going strong. It's pretty comfy to wear, I saw some of the other GPS watches and they looked huge, this isn't too bad and I don't have the biggest wrists in the world! It can be seen in action below.

A quick search and it's going for under £150 now. Last year I clocked just over 10,000km with the watch on (running and cycling) so it cost me about 2p per km if my maths is any good at this time of night? Bargain!

The Garmin wirelessly transmits data to the computer and uses an on-line interface called 'Garmin connect'  here you can see each individual activity on a map with split times etc, reports of all your data sorted how you like eg, monthly mileage totals for each activity in a nice little table to print off and stick on the fridge, or a calendar of your training, for example this particular week in October last year I ran 220km with the watch in the week. The time and average speed represents total time so where I may have forgot and not stopped the watch it would continue to record so just remember to do that if you want to keep real accurate records. I tend to use it all just to look back on as I train to how I feel and to what race schedule is like rather than trying to hit so many miles each week.

Time Period	Count	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Avg Speed
17/10/2011	6	220.30	25:07:47	4,365	8.8	--	--	--	15,815

 Another really useful feature of the watch is the ability to download a GPX file on to the watch and follow a course (if  you are too lazy to navigate, or just want it for back up to ensure you don't get lost). Good if you know the route before hand, not so important if you are doing Warrington Half Marathon fenced in onto the roads, but more useful if you were perhaps recceing a section of the Bob Graham Round or something. You can plot points in so If you know the location of a check point you could plot that in and be able to set the watch to point towards it keeping you on track. Although I would reccomend learning to navigate and still carrying map and compass etc if you are venturing into the wilderness, what if your watch failed?

To summarise, there isn't a feature I can think of that needs to be added, it has survived over 1 year with me which is quite rare for most fancy gadgets, battery life is still pretty good, combined with a solar charger which are pretty cheap to pick up it would suit multi day events such as Marathon Des Sables or Gobi challenge. Heaps of incredibly useful features, more than you are likely to use, one thing I forgot, you can plan a session on the watch or computer and the watch will display the instruction and automatically keep the time and use a series of beeps and alarms to keep you on time and at your target pace etc. eg if you wanted to do Tabatta intervals you could set the beeps for 20 sec sprint and 10 sec rest x8 and the watch would alert you when you have finished. There are other options available with regards to brands and styles, I chose this as it was the top of the range at the time and waterproof, had a back light and longer battery than most!

Hope you find this useful you can get the watch on Amazon HERE


Any comments or questions specifically drop them in the comment form below or pop me an e-mail!