Preparation, preparation and more preparation

With 28 days till I am standing on the start line of Ultra Race Romania, proudly wearing the number 1 bib, there's a lot to do.  Getting to the start line is difficult, but if you get there unprepared in other essential aspects such as food, equipment and the ability to work my technology i.e. online maps and my new Garmin watch then you are in trouble!  
Most of these races have the course well marked but over 250km it has been known for markers to be blown away and that could have serious consequences in addition to losing time.  So this week my pal Michael took time out to show me how to download maps to my garmin (I'm a dinosaur!).  He's also just helped me reboot my phone as today my watch wouldn't connect with my phone and this could be a real issue during the race.  I've also got to work out how to have enough power for my phone and my garmin to last 7 days as it's an unsupported race.  Carrying back up chargers means carrying extra weight so it's a balancing act.
I also reached out to the ultra running community for help with freeze dried food.  In Grand 2 Grand I really suffered and didn't enjoy the food and in the Tahoe 200 they supplied the food and it didn't go down well either.  In the race you'll be running on a calorie deficit but I want to minimise that as much as possible as it will impact on performance.  So next week I'll be testing a few different brands to see how they taste and if my stomach can take them.
It's been a good weeks training.  After my tough weekend last week I had the Monday off but then ran 26k on the Tuesday - my left calf stiffened up and later on that day I saw my sports therapist who worked on it, and my chiropractor who worked on my hip alignment, back, neck and shoulder!  I think I've said before that without my "medical team" I wouldn't be able to run as I do.
I took Friday off and went solo again.  A new route for me but the technology guided me round the 34k route with 1,400 m of ascent and descent.  I needed another mountain run on Sunday and because of the less than optimal conditions, I headed back to Friday's route but cut out the long run in and out.  I was in cloud base very quickly and the first summit was a white out.  Without technology I couldn't have guided my self across the various summits so this was good experience for me.  In total I completed 24k with 1,300 m of ascent and descent.  It's really important that I maintain the mountain sessions as I need to try and replicate the terrain in Romania although it is significantly steeper - 36,000 ft over the 7 days.
There's not long to go now so every session is important as is the data on how I'm feeling.  As I've been writing this blog my coach has just messaged me to swap my runs on Monday and Tuesday to optimise my performance.  In the end, running 250 km over 7 days takes a lot of preparation and it would be gutting to fail because not enough attention had been paid to the details - right down to taking wipes to clean my glasses, remove sweat from my eyes/face and .........you can work out some other important uses!  Let's just hope on Tuesday we get some good news about international travel!  I've held off booking my flights and accommodation so fingers crossed!