'Long Drag' 40M in 20 Hrs..

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You are in... Forums > XXX ADVICE > General outdoor advice > 'Long Drag' 40M in 20 Hrs..

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Joined:

May 09

Posts: 5

muttsnuts says:

Hi ladies and gents,

I'm in the early stages of planning a 40 mile hike in the nature of the SAS selection phase called the 'Long Drag' (see here for wiki details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Drag).

The 40 miles has to be completed in less than 20 hours and carrying a pack that weighs 55lbs. It's through the Brecon Beacons and from what I understand may take in Pen y Fan on the way.

I thought I'd whack a post up on here to see if anyone was aware of any resources that would help me out with routes and planning, or infact if anyone has done this or a similar hike? It's something I've thought about doing for a while now and should be a pretty decent test of endurance.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

[This Topic has been modified by the Author]

"Would stewing a hedgehog in Special Brew destroy it's alcoholic content?" "Depends how much it's drunk mate!"

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Posted 4 years ago (23 May 2009 23:16)

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Joeoleary says:

Re: 'Long Drag' 40M in 20 Hrs..

Hi Muttsnuts,

I've done similar stuff in the past including a 100 mile distance in 48 hours (although the terrain wasn't as mountainous). Are you going to be carrying the same sort of Long drag weights on your back? If you are used to walking, keep yourself fairly fit and have the right mental attitude the distance and timings will provide a challenge worth bragging about even if you're only carrying a daysack with lightweight overnight kit, emergency equipment, food and water.

55lbs is supposed to be representitive of the sort of weight likely to be carried going into battle and will definitely require a careful training build up. Shin splints, twisted ankles, knackered knees and stress fractures are all common side effects of this sort of training and I've had all of them in the past (if you enjoy getting out into the hills any of these injuries will be incredibly frustrating).

So my advice -

1. Don't overtrain and allow enough time for muscles to rest and grow back stronger.

2. Allow enough time between now and the challenge to build fitness and leg strength slowly. Don't be in a hurry and attempt it under prepared

3. Don't neglect your upper body training as you'll need this for carrying crazy weights on yer back

4. If you're doing this off your own back then recruit someone to provide back up for you. When you're pushing yourself to the limit you'll need to know that if anything goes wrong you've got someone to bail you out

5. Develop a good blister treating routine that works for you. I don't know if I've got unusually soft feet but anytime I've done long distance stuff I've got bad blisters after about 25 miles. Draining the blister, applying a padded plaster (Compeed) with zinc oxide tape over the top and (after 20 miles of walking on them) some good painkillers do the trick for me.

6. You're putting yourself under extra physical and mental pressure in a potentially dangerous environment so make sure you know what to do, and are properly equipped for a worst case scenario.

7. If you don't already know how much food and liquids you'll need and what types are best for this sort of thing then do a bit of research. It's amazing how many calories you need for 20 hours of hard slog.

8. Don't park near the Gurnus estate in Merthyr unless you know the number of a friendly taxi driver.

Hope that helps and hasn't been too egg sucky.

Cheers Joe

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Posted 4 years ago (25 May 2009 10:01)

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Posts: 5

muttsnuts says:

Re: 'Long Drag' 40M in 20 Hrs..

Hi Joe,

Thanks for all your advice, that's fantastic and I will certainly take note of everything you've put there.

Yes I'm aiming to be carrying a similar sort of weight though as you say even with a daysack it's still an achievement.

I'm doing some fairly intense training at the moment though the challenge I'm facing is that last year I worked racing on sailing yachts so whilst my upper body strength stayed pretty constant, aspects like cardio, lower body strength decreased as there's really no space to go for a run in the middle of an ocean. In the last 5 months however I've just kept pushing myself and will continue to do so and its really paying off now.

The nutriton side is going to take a good amount of investigation, crossing the Atlantic we were working hard and the skipper had us living on 2 wayfarers a day for 20 days, needless to say we survived but all had to go belt shopping upon arrival!

100 miles in 48 hours is awesome, where abouts did you do that? How long did you have to train and prepare for it?

Thanks again for all your info!

Sam

"Would stewing a hedgehog in Special Brew destroy it's alcoholic content?" "Depends how much it's drunk mate!"

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Posted 4 years ago (26 May 2009 20:35)

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Screaming Tree says:

Re: 'Long Drag' 40M in 20 Hrs..

I did 50 miles in 20hrs & 41min around the Chiltern Hills in February. It was a killer,all I can say is take some pain killers............

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Posted 4 years ago (26 May 2009 21:04)

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Joeoleary says:

Re: 'Long Drag' 40M in 20 Hrs..

Sounds like you've got the mental strength to keep pushing on - that's a large part of it. The 100 mile 48 hour thing was part of an old challenge we read about which determined whether you could truly consider yourself a 'man'. The route we picked was a 50 mile cross country one over the Wiltshire downs so the plan was to do 50 miles on the first day, bed down and trek the whole way back again the next day. Our first attempt only saw us get 40 miles on the first day but we made it all the way back the following day. We weren't satisfied being 80% men so we recovered and tried it again. My legs ached for days and most of my toenails came off but it was a very interesting experience. I was doing a lot of running, hill walking and weight training at the time so other than a few training walks instead of runs and the knowledge that I had done similar stuff in the army, I didn't have a specific training regime. The other guys I did it with had been training for the Marathon de sable so I just tried to keep up with them. Really long walks aren't really the sort of thing you can mirror in your training so other than having a decent level of all round fitness, your best tool will be having 100% determination every step of the way

Good luck!

Cheers Joe

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Posted 4 years ago (27 May 2009 00:25)

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sburt says:

Re: 'Long Drag' 40M in 20 Hrs..

You could do some of these as training. Very friendly layed back events. Highly recomended.

www.ldwa.org.uk/challenge_events/events.php

Have fun.

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Posted 4 years ago (27 May 2009 17:43)

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Posts: 5

muttsnuts says:

Re: 'Long Drag' 40M in 20 Hrs..

Yeah painkillers are a good idea and definately a good blister routine is important. The marathon de sable looks just unbelievably hardcore, I think that sums up endurance pretty nicely. There's the brit-mil-fit sessions which seem a pretty good way of building up fitness and stamina in the outdoors, though I haven't tried any yet and of course nothing beats the real thing I imagine. Thanks for all your advice Joe.

Sburt, thanks for the link, there's some useful info on the site, lots of events and definately worth looking into.

"Would stewing a hedgehog in Special Brew destroy it's alcoholic content?" "Depends how much it's drunk mate!"

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Posted 4 years ago (28 May 2009 23:52)

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Posts: 800

bearhugger says:

Re: 'Long Drag' 40M in 20 Hrs..

If you can get up to North Yorkshire, how about considering doing the Lyke Wake Walk? The 'challenge' is to do the 40 mile walk in 24 hours. Could be a useful training excercise. more details can be found on the website www.lykewake.org/. Hope this helps.

One in a million chances happen nine times out of ten.

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Posted 4 years ago (16 June 2009 11:41)

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muttsnuts says:

Re: 'Long Drag' 40M in 20 Hrs..

Hi. I'm based in Kent, but to be honest that does look pretty good and it looks like the kind of thing I wouldn't mind travelling for anyway. Ta very much indeed.

"Would stewing a hedgehog in Special Brew destroy it's alcoholic content?" "Depends how much it's drunk mate!"

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Posted 4 years ago (17 June 2009 16:54)

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Posts: 1

ptspecialist says:

Re: 'Long Drag' 40M in 20 Hrs..

Hi Mutts,

Not sure if this is still on your list of "to do's"; this might be somat like....

Layby: 0175 1060

RV1 : 9450 1120

RV2 : 8910 1615

Finish : 844 164

FNG - Owj

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Posted 4 years ago (18 September 2009 23:51)

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