Abu Dhabi Adventure Challenge: World's toughest training?

Once we paid the entry fee there was no way back…only forward. And how to make the race the most enjoyable possible? Easy answer as per an old wise proverb “Tough on the training ground, easy on the battlefield” J

I consider myself as an OK fit guy, but this is not an OK competition!! I needed to get much further. And I couldn’t have possibly been in a better place for quality training than in Qatar, because here, disturbed by nothing and no one I could dedicate all my free time to training, because there is nothing else to do anywayJ

So how an average guy without any experience in such focused training does his best to prepare himself? First I read some basics about nutrition and need for regeneration after exerciseJ How to eat a lot of protein and carbohydrates or how to drink and feed during training and after. That was an easy part. I started cooking tuna and salmon, drinking milk, eat tons of bananas and sleep 8 hours a day!!

For the toughest part of the race, for the desert crossing, I just needed to extend the amount of running I was doing before to keep some shape for yearly Dubai 10k race. So instead of running twice a week 8k I started doing every second day 15km or two hours to reach 50km a week, which according to some literature should be the base for starting with 12 weeks marathon training plan. Running was also the most pleasure part out of the whole training. Rushing in the cool night under the full moon through the emptiness of the Qatari wasteland being pushed forward by rhythmic trance music beating exactly 12km per hour. So tranquilizing, healing, rejuvenating…ahhhh…J

I wanted to buy a mountain bike before, to be able to explore and look for hidden Qatari treasures and now I got the right impulse. And after couple of unsuccessful attempts to reach the Inland sea I felt badly that I haven’t been riding bike for two years!! Biking section is short in the race but I needed to get better at least a bit, so I started to do once a week 30km night ride to Messaieed along the lid highway and a longer weekend ride towards the Inland Sea.

For kayaking I could only add abdominal twist machine and more rowing to my usual three times a week gym workout and hope that it would be enough. Swimming I could exclude completely, because I immediately assigned myself as the weakest swimmer, therefore as a designated carrier of the equipment when the others will be swimming J And for Jebel Hafeet mountain scrambling run? I did nothing because running stairs would be too retarded and Qatar has no high building anyway!! Finish J So I had one day a week rest on Zikreet kitesurfing beach with 16 knots from 9am till dawn!! That was until six weeks ago…

But as it is always…nothing is idyllic for long and the inevitable started happening…I was being stationed in Qatar for good!! That means cancelling UAE visa, enter endless application process for Qatari residence, find own apartment, transfer Tiguan from Dubai, buy something into the empty apartment, etc…and with all the work in the office my training peace and routine was slowly being ripped apart!!!

Fortunately my training plan has not been stopped or destroyed, but only transformed. On the weekend of 22 & 23 of October the Challenge organizer prepared a two day training session in Abu Dhabi and Liwa desert. We had a presentation followed by answering questions about race details. After that we had a chance to touch and ride our double sea kayaks with sails. It was great fun because it was quite windy so my sailing spirit showed up when I was more trimming our tiny sails, than paddling J

At the evening we moved to Liwa, camped and Saturday early morning we did desert orienteering. There were 6 checkpoints around the base camp and we were supposed to collect as many as possible in six hours with one condition, that after collecting two checkpoints we had to return to the base. Full of energy we took first the easiest 9km triangle and completed it just below two hours. We were first back to the camp so with even more optimism we took another 9km one, but just after the start of running uphill in soft sand and emptying the sand from our shoes every few hundred meters we knew that this would be our last J We finished it in three hours and had a lot of worries going in our minds, especially about the sand in the shoes!! And those not running in the sand every week also “Where the heck can I find some asphalt!!”
But it got quickly suppressed in a chilling pool in Liwa hotel followed by wonderful buffet lunch. Definitely it was a fruitful weekend and a big help in our preparations. We knew more about the race details and could focus our training the right way and get proper equipment.

I got back to Doha and my settling down circus started in full speed. So I ran less, biked less, even to gym I was going less regularly. Instead I was going to see various apartments and fix car shipping paperwork. All that went painfully slow I started to feel that I’m losing what I gained and falling behind again. Until one day when I went with Envac colleagues including our Dubai general manager Graham for a beer. I knew that few people from the company were quite excited, when I told them what I’m going to do and were supporting me, but I didn’t know that it was that much!!

“Jiri” said Graham, “Envac would like to support you somehow in your race”. “That is very kind, but unfortunately our entry fee is paid and we got all equipment already also” I sadly replied. “Hmmm…and what about that we buy you a kayak, you will train on it and after that anybody from the company can use it and have fun” Graham suggested and I had to fight not to show too much excitement “Wow…that would be awesome!!” Although I didn’t believe it at the beginning, in a week I got beautiful orange double sea Q-kayaks Wanderer and because I managed to find a peaceful penthouse apartment in villa on the desert edge of Doha, I was ready to kick off the training full speed again. And this time in full quality also, thanks to the more than generous sponsorship of ENVAC Middle East J 

So how looks my training now? One month before the race? Every three days kayak. After office 15km and weekends 30km. Really feeling that my paddling style is improving every time I go and this is essential for paddling economically those endless hours we will have to.

Every three days running between 15-20km. Twice a week gym still including abdominal twist machine and 30 minutes of rowing and twice a week short bike ride 30km.

 I feel now quite ready and when I finish the training session I think that I could do twice as much. But when I look at the race schedule, I have to admit that I have no idea what is going to happen there. Six days in the row doing three times as much than I do now!! And faster than I’m doing now, because the racing spirit will come. But…signing up for this was definitely NOT a mistake. It will be fun, big experience and getting to know myself from a different side…I cannot wait J