Ben Saunders - Polar Explorer, Motivational Speaker

Fight and Flight

"Bicycling is the nearest approximation I know to the flight of birds. The airplane simply carries a man on its back like an obedient Pegasus; it gives him no wings of his own."

Louis J. Helle, Jr., Spring in Washington

Hill reps in Richmond Park yesterday afternoon (on my 31st birthday), photographed by the brilliant Sam Christmas for a forthcoming piece in Huck Magazine.

{ Filed under Cycling, Training on August 6th, 2008 | 7 Comments }

The Art of Suffering

"For what is the point of training but making pain seem routine? You work the body, yes, but the real point of training is to accustom the mind to endure discomfort: to know it, tolerate it and even, finally, to like it."

Matt Seaton in Rouleur magazine

Plenty of discomfort on this Sunday's training ride: it was boiling hot and horribly humid, I ran out of food, and I got stung by a wasp on my tongue. I thought the wasp was a bit of leftover energy bar wedged in behind a tooth - only as I bit into it (crunch) did I realise what was going on. I took four bars and two bottles of energy drink to see me through the five-hour session, but when I reached round to grab the last bar with an hour to go, I found the pocket empty - it must have fallen out - and trundled dejectedly home with a grumbling belly and plummeting blood sugar levels (but a perverse sense of enjoyment at what I was putting myself through as I rode past people soaping cars, sunbathing on lawns and drinking beer outside pubs).

There's more training - and I suspect no shortage of pain and discomfort - just around the corner. Alastair and I are heading to Utah at the end of next week for a ten-day training camp at Mark Twight's Gym Jones. I've been looking forward to this for a long time, with two parts sheer excitement and one part apprehension. Excitement because Mark Twight has had a strong influence on my own approach to expeditions (and, I suspect, to life). As an alpinist he was meticulous in his attention to preparation, gear, nutrition and training. His book Extreme Alpinism, published nearly ten years ago, seemed ahead of its time, and lay out an approach that had huge parallels with the type of polar expedition I wanted to lead in the future: fast, light, unguided, unsupported, pioneering and with an inescapable degree of challenge, danger and difficulty.

And part apprehension as Gym Jones, like any worthwhile expedition, represents an opportunity to be found out. To come face-to-face with my limits, and face-to-face with the reality of what it will take to surpass them.

"Gym Jones is not a cozy place. There's no AC, no comfortable spot to sit and there are no mirrors. Stressors are intentionally designed to cause discomfort and apprehension. Effort and pain may not be avoided. Physical and psychological breakdowns occur. The support of a like-minded group, dedicated to The Art of Suffering, provides a safety net. An individual will push harder and risk more in the company of trustworthy peers and that's one reason the gym is not open to the public. Gym Jones is a private, invitation-only facility located in Utah."

{ Filed under SOUTH, Training on July 29th, 2008 | 3 Comments }

A Day in the Life

9am: Interval training at Barn Elms running track with Kerry Anley and Andrew Tongue:

3pm: Andy Ward (SOUTH's Expedition Manager) and I cutting and taping USGS charts of Antarctica in order to plot the route from Berkner Island to the Antarctic Plateau:



(Larger photos on my Flickr stream.)

{ Filed under Running, SOUTH, Training on June 27th, 2008 | 2 Comments }

Ballbuster Duathlon

I raced in the Ballbuster Duathlon yesterday, the second time I've competed in this epic event (the first was in 2005). At 40 miles (64km) in total (8-mile run, 24-mile bike, 8-mile run) it's not spectacularly long, but what makes Ballbuster so formidable is that those 40 miles contain a combined 875 vertical metres (2,870 feet) of climbing, and that it's in mid-November, around narrow, potholed lanes that seemed covered in wet leaves and horse droppings.

I called my brother afterwards to tell him how I'd done and he signed off saying "Isn't it great it when you set yourself a goal and then go on to achieve it?" My goal was to finish in under three hours - a bit of a step up considering my 2005 time was 3:15 and that I came 77th that year, but I finally grimaced my way under the line in 2:57.33 (coming 21st), an 18-minute improvement. [Disclaimer: geeky detail follows that may be of more interest to athletes than to my regular audience.]

It wasn't a perfect race - the bike leg of the 2005 Ballbuster was the only time I've had bad cramp during a race, and it happened again yesterday. The last run was tough, and I'm not sure I took on enough fluid or calories throughout the race (750ml of carb drink on the bike, two half-cups on the run legs and about 250ml of water at each transition, so roughly 1.2 litres in total, or 240ml per lap. I saw a couple of the leaders running with small drinks bottles and ignoring the cups at the one drinks stop, and that's definitely what I'd do next time round. Food wise, I had a gel halfway round the first run, the carb drink (High5 Isotonic) and a Powerbar on the bike, a gel at the second transition and the last gel halfway round the final run. 716 calories in total, which at 238 cals/hour is theoretically perfect, though I seem to be able to tolerate 250 -275 cals/hr when I'm going hard and another gel at some stage (or carb drink during the run legs) would have been ideal.

Kit-wise, I raced on my Scott CR1-SL road bike, which was perfect. The organisers advise against tri-bars, but all the fastest boys and girls had 'em, and I used a pair of Vison Tech Mini-TT clip-on bars. I also taped my target split times for the bike leg onto my stem, which gave me both lap times and an average speed to aim for. I ran in my funky new Newton Distance S racing shoes, which felt super-speedy throughout.

I was pretty slow in the transitions (and forgot to remove my spare tube, CO2 canister and tyre levers at the second one, so I was carrying some excess weight up the last hill!) but in all, pretty chuffed with how it went. Next year I'll be in Antarctica, so perhaps I'll break into the top-ten in 2009…

{ Filed under Cycling, Running, Training on November 11th, 2007 | 8 Comments }

The Full Dose

I took part in the Mountain Mayhem 2007 24-hour mountain bike race this weekend as part of a team of four - we entered the "sport" category and weren't particularly competitive/serious about the whole thing, but it was a wonderful weekend of training, mud, sleep deprivation, mud, Red Bull, mud, energy gels, mud and hot dogs. Teams race as a relay, with (theoretically) one rider on the track for the entire 24-hour period.

I raced in this event last year (over a slightly different and far drier course) and felt far stronger and fitter this time round. So much so, in fact, that I'm now considering doing a solo 24-hour race later this year. My technical ability was still useless - my mountain bike has been gathering dust for months as I've cranked out big training mileages on my road bikes - and though I floundered on some of the tricky sections, I'm worried that I've finally caught the marathon-racing bug.

There's a compelling piece by Keith Bontrager on why something that sounds like an awful way to spend a weekend is actually so rewarding:

"That ability to endure, and the perspective that you acquire on facing hardship makes you stronger and tougher in a lot of ways that are unrelated to cycling, if you get the full dose. It’s an odd feature of modern life that we need to find ways to do this during recreation, though there are certainly advantages to making it discretionary rather than a fact of daily life. But avoiding this sort of physical effort entirely seems to make us go haywire, mentally and physically. Tempting as it is (if you’ve got the money), humans, as a species, do not do well for long as bliss ninnies. We seem to adapt well to the stresses that racing serve up. Preparing for and succeeding at 24 hour racing is a very good way to get a decent dose. There are others. Pick your poison – it is good for you…"

{ Filed under Training on June 27th, 2007 | 4 Comments }

The Richmond Park Vortex (and other tales)

My brother and I went out for a quick blast around Richmond Park on our road bikes this morning. Our first two laps were clockwise, our last anti-clockwise, but no matter which way we rode, it was always into the wind. I pulled alongside Steven on one slow stretch and he turned to me, smiling as his legs churned a heavy gear. "Bloody hell", he shouted across, "it's the Richmond Park Vortex".

Elsewhere, my book proposal is finished, and will go out to publishers soon. All very exciting. SOUTH is rumbling on - lots of excitement, a fair bit of banging-my-head-against-a-wall frustration, and a large shopping list. Typically, I still can't talk about a lot of the really funky stuff yet, but stay tuned…

Last up, it seems Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak is talking about driving to the South Pole in a hydrogen-powered Hummer, co-piloted by Buzz Aldrin (well spotted, Tony). Part of me thinks it sounds like a fun thing to do (after all, Vivian Fuchs and Edmund Hillary crossed Antarctica using tractors in 1957, and as much as I abhor oversized American SUVs, fuel cells are undeniably exciting technology). Part of me, however, wonders if it smacks a little of this.

{ Filed under Cycling, Training on July 31st, 2006 | 4 Comments }

Mountain Mayhem

Tony impressed the hell out of me last weekend. As I mentioned last week, we were racing in the Saab Salomon Mountain Mayhem 24-hour mountain bike race. And while it may not have been held over real mountains, there was certainly plenty of mayhem. I had the dubious honour of going out on the first lap, which entailed an 800m run to our waiting bikes. We were told that the start of the race would be marked by 'an explosion of some sort', and sure enough, after a colossal bang, I found myself in a mad scramble for the line, dodging elbows and breathing clouds of light-brown dust.

As none of our four-strong team had test-ridden the 7.2-mile route, I had no idea what to expect. It soon transpired that the course's designers subscribed to Marx's view that 'the only antidote to mental suffering is physical pain', as the event delivered equally hefty doses of both. The climbs were hellishly long, 'granny-gear' drags that wove through impossibly hot patches of breeze-free air, and the descents (eye-wateringly fast, crazy off-camber turns, huge bumps baked rock-hard in the midday sun) would have had your average kamikaze pilot thinking twice.

Anyway, back to Tony. He'd never actually raced a mountain bike before. The week before the race, I found out that pro rider Jenny Copnall had described the 2004 Mountain Mayhem as 'one of the most extreme experiences I have had on a bike'. Tony and I do most of our training on the road, and our lack of technical bike-handling skill soon proved a big disadvantage. He crashed hard on his second lap, headbutting a tree. I'll let him describe what actually happened, and I was hugely happy (although hardly surprised) to see him carry on for another 18 hours of racing.

It was a wonderful event, and I was utterly humbled by the gang of solo riders that spent the whole 24 hours lapping the course alone. Worryingly, I seemed to get stronger as the race (and the lack of sleep) went on, and I'm now toying with the idea of doing a few solo events after SOUTH. The chances of me matching the lap times of some of the top team riders is slim (there were two Olympic athletes and a T-Mobile pro in attendance) but I reckon I'd be competitive in the solo category. Of course, it'd also give me an excuse to buy a camper van as well…

{ Filed under Cycling, Training on June 28th, 2006 | 5 Comments }

Tools of the Trade

A couple of rather cool things popped up on my radar today. Admittedly, I'm a little behind the times with both, but I'll blame that on a month offline on the Greenland icecap.

The first is the dinky Panasonic SDRS100 camcorder, a three-chip (ie broadcast quality) camcorder that uses SD cards (removable, solid-state memory chips, about the size of a postage stamp) rather than tape. I'm amazed I haven't spotted this before now - this looks absolutely perfect for filming in expedition conditions, and I suspect Tony and I will be packing one each when we head to Antarctica in October. It's tiny, it weighs way less than similarly-specced Mini-DV camcorders, and it has next to no moving parts. Brilliant! I'll try to get my hands on one soon…

The second (and, being a Nike athlete, you'd have thought I'd be at least testing a prototype by now - sheesh!) is the Nike/Apple collaboration known as Nike+. The first product they'll be wheeling out is the 'Nike+ iPod Sport Kit' that, via a dinky sensor, connects your running shoes to your iPod(!)

Apparently the iPod Nano is then able to track data during your workout - pace, time, and distance show up on the Nano's screen, along with vocal cues on your pace etc played through the headphones at the touch of a button. Get home, have a shower and sync the iPod with your computer, and not only can you download and analyse workout data; you can share it with other runners around the world via the Nike+ website. Sweat, sync, social networking…

After getting over my initial 'Whoah! Must get one!', I'm now only partially jumping up and down with excitement about this. Hopefully I can persuade Nike to bring out the Ben Saunders Signature Edition later this year, with some kind of heart rate monitoring, and GPS-based tracking (rather than the perhaps-not-so-accurate accelerometer that the device currently relies on). Still, it's a very funky piece of kit.

{ Filed under Training on June 15th, 2006 | 4 Comments }

London Marathon

Finished in 2:55:18. Happy happy.

The first 20 miles were easy and the last 6.2 were hellish. I was four minutes up on my splits (i.e. heading for a 2:51 finish) until mile 21 or thereabouts, when my hamstrings started cramping up and things became a touch painful. Luckily the crowds start going bonkers at mile 23 or 24 and I surfed the wave of noise all the way to the finish.

Most inspirational t-shirt slogan: "Never give up. Never surrender."

Least helpful advice from a crowd member: "Keep breathing!"

The results are up already (is this the best organised race in the world or what?) although confusingly I'm listed as "Ben Saunder" (runner no. 32500). I'll write more once I've had a bath and stuffed my face.

{ Filed under Training on April 23rd, 2006 | 13 Comments }

20 miles

I was invited to join the Times/Flora Pro.Activ marathon team (a wonderful bunch of people, including none other than four-time Olympic gold medallist Matthew Pinsent) for a 20-mile training run around London yesterday morning.

We cruised through the quiet streets at a steady nine min/mile pace and all went swimmingly until fifteen miles or so, when Matthew (who'd be the first to admit that he's hardly built for distance running) started dropping back. I slowed, thinking for a moment that I might be able to say something encouraging before pacing him back to the pack. And then the sheer absurdity of the situation sank in: what on earth was I supposed to say to someone that's won four gold Olympic medals and eleven world championships in one of the most brutal sports imaginable? 'Dig in'? 'Try harder'?!

I kept my mouth shut.

{ Filed under Random thoughts and reflection, Training on April 3rd, 2006 | 2 Comments }

Half-marathon

I grimaced and panted my way round the Nike Milton Keynes half-marathon this morning in 1:21:57 (6:15/mile pace) - I was hoping to get close to 1:20, so I'm quite chuffed, but I started a little too fast (first three miles in 17:10) and conked out a bit towards the end. The course was tougher than I'd expected - there were some nasty headwinds at times and it wasn't as flat as I'd thought it would be…

I've read somewhere that you can work out a predicted marathon time by doubling your HM time and adding ten minutes (which makes it 2:54). I'll be throwing a few speed/hill sessions between now and the London Marathon, with the aim of going as close to 2:50 as I can.

Inspiration for this morning's run came from somewhere unexpected; I had dinner with my mum last night and she told my brother and I about a period, after she divorced my dad, (I was seven, my brother was four) where she rented a house in the middle of nowhere for £15 a week. She was living on social security at the time, and she was offered cheap rent on the condition that she redecorated the house, so while my brother and I were asleep, she would stay up late and paint into the night. For 20 years she'd never told us about this.

Aren't mums amazing?

{ Filed under Training on March 12th, 2006 | 10 Comments }

The proof is in the (bread) pudding

Thanks to an astonishing new discovery*, I leapt out of bed at exactly 0700 this morning, and went on to crank out a Sunday morning training ride that wasn't far off five hours.

I've uploaded my heart rate graph - the session was four hours, 53 minutes in total, at an average heart rate of 138 beats per minute. The big peak/trough at 2hrs 30 or so was the climb up the Box hill 'zig zag' followed by a cafe stop at the top, where I rewarded myself for an atypically early start with a coffee and a huge slice of bread pudding (the fact that my heart rate barely dropped below 90bpm as I was wolfing it down bears testiment to its stodginess). As you can see, it's a hilly old route, but it was a great morning - cold and damp, but once I'd climbed above the mist, the views over the Surrey hills were glorious.

*Keaka Jackson's Power Controller - a nifty bit of software that turns a Mac (a G4 PowerBook in my case) into an alarm clock, waking the computer and fading in any playlist you like from iTunes; I bounced out of bed to James Holden's 'One For You' today. Mornings will never be the same again.

{ Filed under Training on December 4th, 2005 | 6 Comments }