Winging it

Testing the first version I constructed the VO 2 max device when I first heard about it on Instructables it was great fun to make and I was really impressed with the quality of design and construction. (I ordered the case parts from an online 3D printing service) All the bits The resulting unit is really professional and fun to use. The finished device I played with the code and made a few tweaks to the software, then saw there were some improvements and modifications that Ulli Rissel had worked on and incorporated those first incorporating a barometer (BMP180) then adding in a CO 2 sensor (SCD30) Since the device relies on calculating gas volume changes it seemed to make sense to include these sensors. I played with the project occasionally although frequently getting distracted by other projects (like my GPS telemetry tracker). After being contacted by Nik Hawks aka "Gristle King" who was also making his own version and improvements to the design (link: GristleKing ) thi...

Spartathlon - a 153 mile, 246 km race from Athens to Sparta in Greece . Supposedly to be retracing the steps of the ancient runner/messenger Pheidippides running to ask for help from the Spartan army. Apparently he did it before the sun set on the second day, so our race cut off is 36 hours. 7am on Saturday to 7pm on Sunday. Makes sense. Of course, then he ran back with the bad news, they'll come, but "in a bit". Leonidas If that wasn't hard enough, in this race you have cut-off times at every checkpoint and they're set more aggressively towards the start. Then there's a mountain at 100 miles.and it's hot. and along Greek roads.  Course profile Every checkpoint has these markers showing distance and cut off times. Getting in I'd read Vassos' book ( Running up that hill ) and was intrigued, I had to try this race, this sounded so far outside my capabilities, but I knew people who *had* completed it.... and I had previously got a qualifying time but...

Firstly some backlog/admin to write up. After the injury in August 2022* it's been a long slow road to recovery and all of the years races were in doubt, but after cautious exercises and stretching and much frustration I still attempted the Crawley 24 in mid April following my good run last year, I'd had high hopes to be able to have a good training block coming into this and had set myself a goal.... however, with the injury I kept the goal but added a couple of fallback goals, although I still had in the back of my mind I might not be able to run the 24 hours if my ankle flared up. Goal A was 220km+ (i.e. a Spartathlon auto-qualify time - just to mentally have that although I do have a place this year), Goal B was to top 200km, and Goal C was at least cover the same distance as last year (191km). *Although I realise I haven't written about the injury here or anywhere - in brief, at the end of August I was out run/hiking in the Chilterns, I jumped down off a stile, landed ...