This is an email I sent out in late July. In many ways this initiated the period of formal training (and countdown) for the Maluti Sky Run.
“There are the sick, lame and lazy, the slackers, sliders and nay sayers. There are those resting on past laurels (Mont Aux Sources Challenge), there are those increasing the BBBEE quotient of their families and those carrying out extensive research on the cheese burgers of the Joburg suburbs. And then …………. there are the Sky Runners; a small elite group of finely tuned and highly motivated athletes. Its 4 months to the event dudes and therefore decision time. My gut feel is that one could possibly get by with 3 months training but 4 months is safer. With this in mind, I attach my proposed “No Nonsense Training Guide” that should get you a good middle of the field finish. I am no expert on training but have a fair bit of experience on what it takes to prepare for ultra endurance events. This is based purely on my own experience and can obviously be refined endlessly, if you want. The quality sessions would include things like hill reps, fartlek, time trails or track work. If we can fit in the high altitude training camps we could look at Sani Top or possibly Highmoor. The latter is over 7 000 ft so is a pretty good alternative.

If this makes sense, let me know how you go and we can compare notes. Perhaps the most important thing to remember about endurance events is that they are more of a mental challenge than physical. This may seem like an odd thing to say but the reality is that if you have committed mentally to the four months of “homework” (training) poor to the event, then everything generally tends to fall in place on the day.”