British Military Fitness member Vlad is taking on an amazing and inspirational challenge; taking on a 1000 mile run across Nepal. Solo. And unsupported!
He has turned to BMF to get into shape and avoid injury so we wanted to find out more about his training and challenge...
"BMF is helping me to prepare by giving me a great all-round level of fitness. The high intensity intervals are developing me aerobicaly so I can run faster at a given heart rate, so out in Nepal, the run will hopefully feel nice and relaxed. The bodyweight exercises are invaluable for training major muscle groups but also stabilisers, this should help to stop me from becoming injured.
I've always found BMF classes to be a great way of motivating me to do some higher intensity exercise. I find doing long runs on my own easy because the intensity is low, I don't think I could do a HIIT session on my own.
Other than BMF, I run almost every day. At the moment 55km a week, but this will grow steadily to around 150km over the next 3 months. I do 2 sessions of resistance training a week and one rest/yoga day. From today, I'm starting to run in the hills with one bivvi overnight, so I can start getting used to finishing a run in the evening, resting, then running right away again in the morning.
The route is not a known tourist trail. I've planned the route from satalite images, elevation scans, and Chinese military maps. A big part of the adventure is the unknown element of the route and terrain, I'm sure I'll alter my route as I progress, ask for suggestions from locals. Parts of the route goes through real wilderness where I won't see a village for a few days at a time, and some goes through big urban areas where I'll be able to restock and recover if needed. I'm planning on running between the 1,000m and 2,500m altitudes. I expect it to be difficult both mentally and physically. People that have done similar, tend to say the mental aspect of being alone for this amount of time, unknowns with regards to the route, is actually more challenging than the physical demands of running 1,000 miles.
I'm hugely looking forward to it. I expect it to be a real adventure, out of my comfort zone. I've been told that the Nepalese people are very friendly so I can't wait to get our there and meet new friends. This is my way to see and get a good sense of the entire country (literally)."
Best of luck from all of us at BMF!
To donate or find out more, visit runacrossnepal.org.
#RunAcrossNepal