Adventure Racing #19: Sleep Strategy and Sleepmonsters

[@1519Spring]

Good stuff! Congrats on central heating!

[@ARonAR]

Hehehe, yes pleeeeeeeeeease! Such a change. The summers have always been like having free air conditioning, but ice inside the windows in winter was a little...thought provoking 😉

[@mikereiser100]

Adam we had our first race!!!! We had our arses kicked and had to end it a bit early sadly. But we had a great time .. well, I did! :-) Thanks for all of your help. The whole time, "Adam said to do this, Adam said do that ... " You were with us the entire time! Maybe a specific video on training! ... what would really be great is a race video .. taking us along on a 12 hour or 24 race ... (dont film the entire thing of course) .. anyway I'm all in! Thanks for the advice along the way!

[@ARonAR]

Hehehehe, too cool! I'm glad you survived ;) I've done a couple of race videos along the way, but it's hard when you're actually trying to race. I haven't tried to do one since starting this channel, though, so that's an idea :) A training episode is in the works but lots of detail to consider.

[@32MindenMen]

Another good video bud. We’re in Itera this year and this vid is great timing. Certainly looking to do a few 24hr sessions beforehand. We’re looking to carry minimal sleeping gear - bivvi bag, mat, lightweight fleece blanket and team tarp, this with a regular sleep strategy should see us through...hopefully 🤔😉

[@mikereiser100]

And great video on sleep thank you from across the pond.

[@davemlarcher7357]

Fantastic video Adam!! Really helpful! So far I've been training till 2-3am and then getting 3hrs sleep before going for another 8-10hrs, but I think I'm going to share this with my team and propose that we do an all-nighter so we can train for the deprivation. Thanks again for putting the time into these!

[@ARonAR]

The thing about the all-nighter, esp the first time, is that it's pretty exhilarating. You earn that dawn :)

[@danielrafferty6587]

Sleeping while your teammate deals with explosive diarrhoea - Lol! Great tips and stories from your adventures though - thanks!

[@ARonAR]

One of the comments seems to have evaporated on its own, but I thought I'd reply nonetheless. It was questioning the need to train sleep deprivation. I agree you CAN'T train sleep deprivation physically, but experiencing it is very useful *mental* training. It gets rid of the unknown, and boosts confidence massively for one of the more intimidating aspects of AR. IMHO, of course 😁👍

[@ThazRuler]

I just started to look into AR, but I don't really know how to train physically for this kind of race. Could you do a video about it pls? Your channel is a gold mine by the way, it's so helpful!

[@ARonAR]

Yep, an episode on that is currently being put together. :)

[@mikereiser100]

Assuming our 24 HR AR coming up, foot care wont be too much of an issue. We plan on having dry shoes and socks after the water section and hopefully dry weather. Any quick tips on foot care for a 24 HR AR that you can share?

[@ARonAR]

Yep, even with dry feet, I'd be lubing them at regular intervals on the trekking stages. Nothing fixed but probably on a 4 - 5hr interval. Ideally not petroleum-based but that would be better than nothing. Definitely do the same before the race starts.

[@mikereiser100]

@@ARonAR will do ty

[@SettleNow]

@@ARonAR why not petroleum based?

[@ARonAR]

@@SettleNow Locks moisture in, which ain't good. :)

[@SettleNow]

@@ARonAR What do you use? I still have the remnants of a tube of HydroPel, but that will be gone eventually and it uses petroleum. I am thinking dimethicone.

[@scany1980]

Another great video. You talk about taking care of your feet at times, and the importance. Do you have various tips on that subject for a video? We’ve all seem some horrible feet pictures from AR 😝

[@ARonAR]

Very soon. It's an important one, that's for sure :)

[@demonstration3662]

Omg 😳 I thought being wet and cold was worst part

[@ARonAR]

It might be. Sleep deprivation definitely isn't the worst part; we just have to get experienced at it 😁👍

[@Terminatortx33]

When you start seeing sleepmonsters do you pull up and actually sleep them off? Or do you keep going and they go away? Ive always had a restless sleep after being awake 24hrs - it feels like a dream alot as i fall into a deep REM sleep.

[@ARonAR]

Depends. Getting teammates to pull you along is most common, but eventually the team takes a 10-15 min rest to sort it out. Maybe longer rest on a longer race. 🙂