Darren Roberts and brothers Steve and Nick Tidball are Team Men’s Fitness. Here, in their latest Team Men’s Fitness blog, they talk about their twelfth week of training for the fearsome 120km Namibia Desert Ultra Race on 8th April.

Steve

I recently read about a long-distance triathlete who believes in TV tapering – basically vegging out in front of the box – for a full three weeks before a big race. While this sounds relaxing, I’d only last about a day before bits of my body would shut down and I'd be out of the race before it had even started. Instead, I’ve dropped all the really long runs from my schedule and started doing some short, intense sessions. This is the formula that led Chrissie Wellington to two straight Hawaii Ironman wins so I'm hoping it will help me arrive in Namibia feeling really fresh.



Nick
My training this week included a 43km run, which I did in three hours and still felt brilliant at the end. I've become properly addicted to running now and I want to do it all the time. I'm having to force myself not to so I don't overdo things before the race. My eating is even more out of control – but to be fair, with all the training I'm doing my body needs constant refuelling. At the moment my main addiction is Greek yoghurt with cereal. I'm getting through £25 worth a week!

Darren

There are only 11 days to go until the Namibia Desert Ultra Race starting pistol is fired! With the race so close, you'd think we'd be nervous but strangely we're not. In part, it's because we're too excited to be worried. It's also due to the fact that we can't have done anything more to prepare ourselves. The amount of hours we've spent training is easily in the hundreds and I do believe we are ready.