The Bopseys Go On a Long Journey
It’s the journey, not the goal….
Three weeks to go. Am I ready?
Absolutely not.
But I’ve also come to realise that I will never be ready for this. I’m more ready than a year ago and am in a positive mood going into this.
This won’t be the last station on the journey. It is a transfer station though for what comes next. But I will be glad to be getting off the train for a bit to stretch the legs before boarding again.
Wow, time has progressed as has a lot of the training and planning. Covid delayed things a couple of times but now the pending event date is starting to feel very very real! Panic mode starting to set in.
It’s been a good few months since I was last involved in a post on this blog.
Covid-19 has certainly thrown things into disarray but we are both still committed to having a go at this record attempt; however, all the lockdowns and isolation have taken their toll on some of the mental well-being.
So, with this post I am discarding the mental shackles of apathy and frustration and taking some new baby steps on the road to somewhere other than here! Back to enjoying the journey.
November 23, 9am – 5pm in Fitzwilliam Lawn Tennis Club
The day didn’t start well as I was a bit too disorganised during the week and had to travel home Friday night. I was late home which meant I was behind schedule gathering equipment and supplies for the trial. This resulted in a short sleep cycle of 5.5 hours and my readiness score was a low 59. I was on the road at 7am and arrived at Fitz by 8:30am.
I didn’t have a great selection of foods with me but I wasn’t expecting to be having any significant meals and I felt the trial was too short to try out feeding strategies.
I had a mix of players for the trial. There was a bit of uncertainty on the day about who was going to make what times. Fortunately I had some form of an opponent for all 8 hours due to a couple of them doing a double slot.
My first hour was actually a very cooperative session and the pace was good. We didn’t keep any score and just played continuous rallies.
My second and third hour were filled by one of the Ladies Prem players and her son in the third hour. I played left-handed against her son.
The fourth and fifth hour were taken up by a single opponent and here the intensity got a bit higher. I enjoyed the session but probably went too hard as I got caught up going for some of the balls or smashing the ball into the knick. I did get two absolute roller nicks though!
The sixth hour was back to a slower pace as he was trying to play cooperatively.
The seventh hour as a higher paced session again. This was the session I was most worried about as he is one of those players that can get bored very quickly and has the ability to chop balls in with regular frequency. I upped the intensity to try to make it a bit more interesting for him.
The final hour was the hardest as my opponent was pretty much playing a regular game and unfortunately I went with him. By the end of that hour I was feeling fairly tired!
After the squash I spent close to an hour doing some foam rolling, mobility and yoga. I had a couple of minor cramps and many “almost cramps” during this period.
I had a lovely steak dinner afterwards with sweet potato fries, onion rings and an ice cream selection. I was rather hungry having not really eaten a massive amount during the day. My food was primarily a half pack of jaffa cakes and half of my greek yogurt, cashew butter and oats mix. I also had 750ml of chocolate milk for both energy and hydration.
The variety of players made the day interesting as each of them played with a different style and purpose. Although the intensity was high for some of the sessions I had a good time playing but I do realise that there is not way I could do that for another 8 hours, let alone 38+ hours.
The task is made much more difficult if you start tired or shortly out of the car. It is going to be very important to be well rested before starting. I’ve been giving some thought to how best to rest prior to starting this and will try to seek out some advice from the guys in Fitz who did the 60h tennis doubles record.
Hydration is a concern. It is difficult to get in a lot of fluids in a minute whist also attending to other things like stretching, towelling down etc. Need to see if keeping a water bottle on court is allowed so that a quick sip every 15 minutes or so would be better. As this is an endurance event I can see that this might be just one of the restrictions to be endured and overcome. I definitely took on a lot of fluids at each break – probably a minimum of 500ml.
As with the previous trial I did not need to urinate during the 8 hours. It took a little while after finishing before I needed to go. Not sure how worried I should be about that. My fluids did include either liquid electrolytes or plain water with SaltCaps. I did not suffer any dehydration headaches but there were times where I was just feeling thirsty and needed a bit of moisture in my mouth. I should try some sort of chewable that might help with that.
I managed to keep fairly mobile through the whole 8 hours. I often did some sumo squats with some side to side rocking to help the hip mobility. I also employed a raised foot on the wall lunge stretch which also helped the hips and glutes.
I had two goals for this trial – to bank at least 30 minutes of time by the end of the session and to keep my average heart rate in the 125-130 range.
According to my tracker I did manage to hit the 130 average but, on consideration, I think I did not achieve this goal. I think the maximum was too high and too high in general for too long. I should have set a maximum heart rate target as well. That probably should have been at most 140.
Having the different players made keeping this target harder as they generally only had to go for an hour. When the actual event happens both Seamus and I will be on the same page as far as intensity is concerned.
As for the breaks I missed that goal as well. I took the following breaks 1:05, 2:11, 2:02, 6:01, 4:10, 4:35 and 2:20 for a total of 22:24 leaving, with the 5 mins after the 8th hour, 17:36 banked time.
A lesson learned is that things need to be easily accessible. The corridor in Fitz is not very wide and I was unable to really lay out things for easy access. Time was lost during breaks rooting around for things like sweat bands, shirts, electrolytes and food. During one of my breaks I went to the bar to get a Fitz special and that consumed a lot of time. The 6 minute break was longer than intended but I had planned to take a longer break at that point to eat a bit.
I did experience a mental challenge in the second half of the day as I found myself clock watching. As I was the time keeper I had to check for completion of the hour. I often experience dismay when I checked the time to find only 30 or 40 minutes had elapsed. I haven’t decided if it better or not to know how long is left. I certainly want to know when the last 5 minutes is starting so that the end of the set can be timed accordingly so that we don’t go too long past the hour.
Overall I think I was satisfied with how the session went although I’m not sure how much I truly learned from it compared with the previous 8 hour trial Seamus and I did in Bristol.
The change of partners made it a different proposition as it was too easy to get caught up with someone who had a different level of commitment to the task. At the end of the 8 hours I recall thinking how was I going to be able to get through 48 hours given how tired I was after 8!
Plan was for some zone 2 cardio on the bike for an hour and then some solo squash but someone wanted to play a friendly match but it would be too late if I did the bike first. So I agreed to play first saying I’d bike after.
Of course I was less than enthused about the bike after but I said I’d have ago. Just do 10 minutes I said, then get to 20. Then just do another 10. At 40 my mind wasn’t interested but I said just get to 45. In the end I got my hour in but it was tough going on the poor head.
It has been often said that when you aren’t interested in doing your full session at least do some of it and see how you get on. If you’re truly wiped out you’ll know and it would be better to stop but sometimes you just gotta say “just get to…”
Some cardio on the bike followed by a doubles tournament playing 5 matches in a few hours equals excruciating cramps getting out of the car later when I stopped for fuel. How I didn’t keel over is beyond me.
Of my many worries about doing this attempt, the threat of cramps is near the top. I get hit with these too often.
Time to some in depth research on the subject to get a handle on this.
The European Masters in Vienna is coming up the week after next so I have been doing a fair bit of training but, unfortunately, the recover time hasn’t been sufficient.
I have been getting in some matches along with the core training sessions. All things considered it has gone well other than the fatigue that sets in towards the end of the week.
Work has been fairly hectic as well so it is leading to longer days with having to address some issues when I arrive home late in the evening. Instead of winding down and going to bed by 11 I am engaged in cognitive tasks on the laptop. Avoiding that was one of my priority daily seeds.
During our weekly WR status call I said that I was finding it hard to find a slot to perform my long endurance workouts – not surprising given the work and tournament preparation.
It occurred to be me afterwards that I need to change the mindset a bit. I have been looking to add in the endurance and mobility workouts when I can find a free slot. But, if I have any hope of completing the WR these workouts cannot be treated as “when I can find the time”. They are not optional and I must scheduled them as priority items in my weekly timetable.
By Karam
I’m sure it’s not a software engineering specific idea but when trying to define requirements there is this idea that if you keep asking the customer why they want that requirement you can actually find out what they are really looking for. One usually arrives at the desired answer by the fifth Why? Of course you do run the risk of really annoying the customer but they often do get used to it and understand the process.
I’ve never applied that principle to myself when trying to discern why I am doing something. During the recent podcast with Tom Ford he applied to same principle to ask a second time why we Seamus and I were going for the record. No doubt if he had had more time he might have made it to 5 why’s!
I know that I don’t yet have the answers. Part of the process is the search for the answers and to accept that I might never discover a true Why. Mainly because I don’t think life is that static and the ebs and flows of daily existence bring different requirements at different times. Fixation of a single Why would lead to missed opportunities and likely disappointment.
I’m now building a list of Why’s and at any given time, if asked, I’ll answer based on a random number generator. Seems equally valid although I would despair if a customer applied the same approach!
So, why am I doing this WR attempt? Answer: 42.
I have been aware for some time now that my lack of sleep during the week was not optimal and was likely having a big impact on my attempts to improve my nutrition. Anecdotally my late night drives home highlighted the link between fatigue and poor food choices (hence the Change the environment! post).
I have been recently listening to a number of podcasts that have been interviewing Matthew Walker, author of Why We Sleep: The New Science of Sleep and Dreams.
The podcasts by Peter Attia (first of three parts) and Rhonda Patrick provided some interesting insights and I am now reading the book.
I hope to minimise my risks as much as possible because I know I can’t fully achieve what I imagine are optimal sleep habits. I will write future blog entries as I identify discreet actions and goals that suit me.
To anyone reading this that is interested in improving health please consider sleep as a vital aspect of the system. I would highly recommend listening to the linked podcasts to get you started.
Last weekend during the final Irish Masters circuit tournament of the season, the Irish Masters Open, I had a poor outing mentally which was very frustrating. I thought I had a plan for the match but ended up being all over the place swinging back and forth between trying to be relaxed and trying to getting some purposeful energy into my game.
I certainly have concerns about the physical aspects of the WR attempt but those would appear to be easier things to address. I’m far more worried about how my mind works and what will happen under the duress of the longer training sessions and the event itself.
I have started to investigate mindfulness training. I’m not sure training is the best word as that sounds like something specific you do when working towards an event. What I actually need to look at is how I make this part of my every day life so that I can keep my mind settled and learn coping strategies for when the inevitable occurs.
I came across https://samharris.org/ through some podcasts that I listen to. Sam has created the Waking Up app, which, along with Headspace and Calm are some of the tools I am using to investigate this area.
I do see some irony in using hyper-connected tools like the iPhone and apps to address mindfulness but I expect to eventually learn some basic techniques to manage without the use of technology.
Prior to the tournament I had already decided to take two to three weeks off court before starting back with training for the summer season of tournaments. The first few days off were good but it didn’t take me long before I was back on court playing some friendly matches. On one hand that just seems stupid but on the other hand I have improved my capability to listen to my body and it was raring to go. I really enjoyed the run out so it was probably the right thing to do – certainly from a mental point of view it felt right.
For reference, the main podcast where I first heard about Sam Harris was on the Peter Attia Drive. https://peterattiamd.com/samharris/.
I spend a lot of time in the car as I commute from Edgeworthstown to Dublin every day for work. At best that is at least over three hours a day in the car which leads to a long day. If I train or have a match in the evening then it can be late before I end up eating and heading for home.
The combination of being tired and having to stop in for diesel on the way home is a trigger point for a coffee and something sweet to keep me going. It might be a packet of biscuits or a fruit scone but there will likely be something. Many have made the good suggestion to go for healthier options like fruit or to be better prepared by keeping healthy snacks in the car and I have managed to do that from time to time. But the thought of cracking open a can of sardines at 10pm isn’t that appealing!
After listening to some podcasts by Chris Kelly of Nourish Balance Thrive where he interviewed Simon Marshall, co-author of The Brave Athlete: Calm the F*ck Down and Rise to the Occasion, it occurred to me that there was a more obvious way to address this bad habit.
The idea is to change the environment of the habit. My trigger has two components – the fatigue but also the need to stop in to get diesel. Eliminating one of those might help break the habit. I should simply get fuel in the morning on the way to work rather than stop on the way home when I am tired and likely to look for a pick me up. That does mean giving myself time in the morning to stop for fuel but I never have had a desire to buy a packet of biscuits at that hour of the morning.
Change the environment or circiumstances and so change the habit. Easy peasy.
But I will try to pack a healthy survival kit as a backup plan…
The Bopseys Go On a Long Journey 
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