The excitement and anxiety is on for the Sabah heat and adventure ! Woohooo *and clap clap clap* for all of you taking part in the Colourcoil TMBT Sabah 2013 (The Most Beautiful Thing) ! Its D-day in 48 hours or less and I bet all is set for this beautiful event !
Refresher Tips for Adventure Racers
I have never done TMBT. The closest from the same organiser (Aman Avtar) was in *holds breath 2011 ! Gosh I feel so gOLD. But not a surprise that some fotos from my SAC report is still in the top 10 in the Google search anytime (for now) you type ‘Sabah Adventure Challenge’.The lengthy reports and versions is enough to tell that it was indeed a truly amazing adventure ! And I suppose lesser is not the case for TMBT. Heard all the good reviews of the race and the way it was organised. So thumbs up to the organisers and hard working crew. From what I can recall during my 2011 SAC experience is that, setting up a safe trail is not the easiest of things. While some of us feel good and proud just by registering for a major race and especially after having completed it, the same applaud and compliment should also be given to the organising and working crew.
Okay, here are some tips/refresher to those doing TMBT this weekend :-
1. Check out the weather forecast for the area, date and time that you will be running so that you can prepare necessarily. You don’t want to be caught off guard (and frustrated) for packing that extra pair of trail shoes or gloves.
2. Have your itinerary ready,and your check list checked. You never know what’s between life and… until you collide with the moment of misery on the trail when you are tired, cut off your resources, and ..alone.. batteries, waterproof pack for your essentials, paracetamol just in case.
3. Pack your race gears according to functions and reachability. Taking a long that can of sardine? Pack that deep in the bag as you know you won’t need it regularly or soon enough to reach for it quickly. That waterproof map case, or water bottle ? Keep it where its easy to reach and that its tied/fixed properly to your bag/hydration belt. The last thing you want to have is ANYthing dangling in your way. Not even the carrot dangler ! haha.. yeah, you can get tired just trying to balance that DANGLING camera/map while running or climb up that steep hill. You don’t also want to be carelessly dropping anything on the trail. Hydration bags come with the sac IN the bag – so no worries there.
4. Make sure your watch is working ! Set the time correctly so you can estimate the journey to the next checkpoint, and that you make it to the cut off. Heart rate monitor comes in handy though not a major necessity from my personal point of view
5. Take time to familiarize yourself with the race course even though you haven’t been on the trail to experience it. Look at the map, keep your eyes and ears opened during race briefing and don’t feel shy to chat and check with fellow racers.
6. Don’t miss out on meal times. Eat well and enough. Don’t underload, or overload. Spicy food? If your tummy usually handles it well, fine. If your first attempt to try something local or different before race day, uhmm, you might wanna skip it. (I buy bread+butter to be safe. Eat them on race morning, and pack some for the race).
7. Keep an extra bottle of plain/mineral water handy and refill it at the next CP (check point)
8. Feeling tired during the race? Take it easy. Stop and stretch if you need. Your muscle cramps? Perhaps your body is overheated, or that bundle of muscles is just tired. Here are the most common causes of muscle cramps during exercises, and what you can do about them ! :
| Common causes1 | What you can do (understand that effective treatment of muscle cramps depends on the cause of the cramp) |
| Altered neuromuscular control – due to fatigue and overload/overuse of a specific muscle group | Passive stretching, massage, icing of the affected muscles, and contraction of the muscle on the opposite side of the muscle cramping (i.e., if the hamstring is cramping, contract the quadriceps muscle group to relax the hamstring muscle group).2 |
| Dehydration – deficiency of sodium and other electrolytes may lead to contracted interstitial fluid compartments, which may exacerbate the muscle cramping | For muscle cramps prompted by excessive sweating and a sodium deficit, the same treatments as above can be immediately applied to reduce the pain and muscle spasm. However, along with the stretching, massage, and applied ice, these athletes need to consume fluids with additional sodium.2 How much to drink? How to drink? Click here |
| Electrolyte depletion | For years, athletes were told, “If you’re cramping, eat bananas.” Although well-intentioned advice, bananas are rich in potassium which is an end-stage type of electrolyte depletion that is quite uncommon. Sodium-related cramping is much more common.When athletes loose salt, muscles start to cramp. These can include hamstrings, quads and even the small muscles in the feet or hands. The way to tell if sodium-related muscle cramping is happening is to check to see if you’re loosing more salt than your friends. Is your skin caked in salt after a hard workout?3If so, are you cramping? Fixing sodium-related cramping is easy. Increase salt intake before and during workouts. This can include foods such as pretzels, salted Goldfish crackers or some of the specific products designed to balance electrolytes. Salt loading in the eight (8) hours before a strenuous workout can help load sodium stores.3 |
| Poor conditioning | Physical conditioning in sports is the workouts that someone puts himself through to be in shape for the specified sport. In football it may involve certain strength and sprint workouts, while in basketball it may contain plyometrics–but for every sport the conditioning will be altered in some way. Being in physical condition for golf requires lots of stretching, walking, running, and practicing the mechanics of the golf swing.4missjewelz says that poor conditioning for an endurance HOT race in Sabah is;1) running months long in the gym without a tint of the sun reaching your skin,2)skipping the trail runs, and also no quality in the training (read: not quantity eventually!),
3) Leaving out the Camelback and adventure race gears out during training 4) Not enough core workouts to compensate the endurance distances/load. 6) Not training in a variety of terrains enough. What you can do is make sure these doesn’t happen in your future races. A bit too late for TMBT this one ! |
| Muscle fatigue | See ‘Altered neuromuscular control’ above. |
| Doing a new activity | Go back to ‘Poor Conditioning’. Think playing badminton or going bowling with buddies after not having touched a racquet or hitting the bowling alley for a super long time. Those unused muscles combined are shocked and fatigued with repetitive movements and intensity which it has not been exposed to for a long time. In TMBT, this can be the case for those missing out on valuable training hours! Even newbies should have sufficient training and not fall into this category. |
Best wishes
Special shout out to miss L , Good luck buddy !!!! *winks*
Sources
1. Elizabeth Quinn, How to Treat Muscle Spasms and Cramps, About.com Guide.
http://www.sportsmedicine.about.com/od/legpainandinjuries/a/muscle_spasms.htm
2. Terry Zelgler, Treating and Preventing Muscle Cramps during Exercise.
http://www.sportsmd.com/SportsMD_Articles/id/369.aspx#sthash.QE5M6RGn.dpbs
3. Jordan Metzl, MD, Muscle Cramping: Causes and Treatment, triathlete europe, 7 February, 2013.
http://triathlete-europe.competitor.com/2013/02/07/muscle-cramping-causes-treatment
4. Patrick Foley, What is Physical Conditioning in Sports, golf link.
http://www.golflink.com/about_4893_what-physical-conditioning-sports.html
TMBT Website : http://www.sabahadventurechallenge.com/ultra/
missJewelz 
Thank youuuuuuuuu…. @airport now…….muah!!! Will listen to my guru !!!!
good luck again !!!
And omg ur doing POWERMAN this year?