Project 1: The Fan Dance De-brief made brief

Well that was an adventure....such to say that I think the information will follow as two separate entries. 1. A descriptive of pain 2. Training thoughts.

My plan was to do a simulated attempt of the Fan Dance to establish where I am fitness wise and how best to train. I think the short answer to this question is don't do it in the first place!!

I left London at 6am and had a good drive so arrived at the Storey arms just after 10am, in what can only be described as "inclement weather". For anyone thats knows Wales, that translates to truly dismal; rain, clag, 2 inches visibility and wind. So, good for a representative test run of January weather.

The view from the car on starting. My warm-up was 5 mins with car heater on full blast.

Considering myself to be a fitness professional I know too well the importance of good hydration and nutrition, so my pre-event snack consisted of 1 Boost bar, 1 Double decker, 1 bag of chocolate peanuts, no water and a cup of black coffee. Probably close to 1000 kcals of pure glucose!

The main thing I can appreciate from this exercise is a hill walk is NOT the same as trying to do this to a time limit with weight on your back. It is from the gun, a balls out effort with looming fear of a deadline haunting you the whole way round. You are sat at about 9/10 on the the rate of perceived exertion (RPE) the whole way. Saying hi to fellow walkers is not on the list as neither is toilet stops, changing clothes, eating or drinking water or just general "faff". It is cold so basically no stopping at all. I anticipate 30 seconds of faff time being all that is allowed, as the flat (actually there is none), the gentle ascents and descents all need to be run to make good time.

In the end I did the route in 3:59, I have never run down a hill so fast as to make it under 4 hours. I suggested that actually wrapping oneself in a sleeping mat and rolling downhill maybe considerably more pleasant. Think hippo lumbering and limping, rather than gazelle and you get a visual for what I looked like running down Pen Y Fan.

The weather makes a substantial difference to time, rain, ice and wind probably being the biggest variables. My weighted pack consisted of 4 bottles of 2L water and 2 small 1kg weights, spare clothes and food, so in total was just under 12kg. By the time my back and inappropriate clothing had soaked up another 3L of water, I was probably up to about 15kg! NOTE: Do NOT wear heavy Nike cotton sweatpants.

I at least could get back into a warm car and dry out. There was however a lost party of 5 Chinese people who didn't speak english. I saw them once on the way up and the most waterproof of items they had between them was a Tesco carrier bag so yes things can always be worse and discomfort is always relative. I would not have wanted to have been them.

Having driven all the way to Wales, I thought I would take a gentle STROLL over to Talybont reservoir and stay at the YHA instead of camping. Hmmmmm, extreme fatigue, walking boots a size too small and night nav (i.e getting lost even with GPS and following a main road), meant I was still walking at 11pm through Talybont Forest, having completed 60km in one day. Thank god visibility had now diminished to 1 inch, because night vision distorts perception, which meant I had a general feeling of Blair witch the whole way.

Before and after (top), clag and weighting the pack.