Across the Brecon
Beacons from the Storey Arms to Taf Fechen forest and back again.
Distance: 24 km (15
miles)
Ascent: 1200 metres
(4000 feet)
Record Time: N/A
Estimated Finish Time:
The official cut-off for Special Forces recruits weighed-down with army kit is
4 hours.
Difficulty: 7/10
Overview:
On it’s own, 15 miles
in the Welsh countryside is actually an enjoyable thing, and you are likely to
see a range of people out walking the hills. Team the route up with a run
loaded with gear and you’re set-up for a challenge.
When To Go:
You can take on the
route all year round, but in winter the route is likely to be in winter
condition with snow across the entire route. Avalanche Events run two organised
races across the route, once in summer and once in winter conditions.
What Do I Need?
Decent trail running
gear for an unladen speed attempt on the route and decent walking gear for
anything else. If considering a proper military-style weighed attempt, good
boots and a decent large capacity pack are essential. You should also carry the
kind of hill essentials with you too (plenty of food and water, waterproofs,
map, compass and mobile phone)
How To Prepare:
Get out there and work
on your cardio. Hill reps and pounding up hills will certainly help. If aiming
for the fully-weighted attempt, practice carrying heavy loads on your back at
speed. Sign up on the link below:
"Exercise High
Walk", more commonly known as the Fan Dance is part of the Fitness and
Navigation phase of the selection process for the UK's Special Forces, as well
as 16 Air Assault Brigade's Pathfinder Platoon.
In the past it was used
as a test on P Company during the Brecon Beacons Steel Bayonet phase (although
a different route) and is still used as part of the Platoon Sergeant's Senior's
Course at the Infantry Battle School, Brecon, Wales.
The Fan Dance is a 15
miles (24 km) load bearing march (in military parlance, a Tactical Advance to
Battle or TAB) that typically takes place at the end of the first week of the
selection course.
It is used as the first
major indicator of whether a candidate has the physical and mental aptitude to
complete the selection course.
The Winter Fan Dance is
the first weekend of January 2018 in the beautiful Brecon Beacons in South
Wales.
In our artificial world
of mortgages, smart phones and the incessant chatter of the voice in your head,
there is an urgent need to return to the simple raw intensity of man against
nature: the human will pitted against an unapologetic and silent adversary of
rock and earth.
Sweat prickling the
forehead and soaking the back, straps digging into the shoulders and the
primitive urge to suck in the next breath and keep going smother out everyday
concerns.
The glorious feeling of
the body working to its maximum capacity washes over you, jockeying for
position with dozens of other competitors makes your heart feel as though it is
attacking the inside of the rib cage.
Fully dilated pupils
drink in the richness of the surroundings as you pound up the mountain,
scalding heat bursts through the leg muscles and the hypnotic rhythm of gravel
underfoot and urgent breathing echoes around you.
This is what it means
to be alive: the vital and overwhelming awareness of the present moment thrust
onto you by straining lungs and aching limbs. This is what it means to do The
Fan Dance.
For all those brave
enough to start their New Year as if they are serious, this challenge comes in
varying levels of difficulty:
·The Fan Dance Test: The original 24km SAS Test march
·The Fan Dance Double Tap Challenge: two Fan Dance
attempts over as many days
·Fan Dance Exercise High Moon: A Fan Dance staged at
night over an enhanced route
·Fan Dance Black Edition: The Fan Dance followed
by Fan Dance Exercise High Moon or vice versa. There is a rest period of
several hours between the two
·Fan Dance Trident: Our most demanding Fan Dance
challenge. The Fan Dance followed by Fan Dance High Moon and then another Fan
Dance.
·The Fan Dance Woodhouse Edition: The original post
WWII Fan Dance with three ascents of Pen y Fan via two new approaches and an
enhanced route. Standard Fan Dance veterans only.
If an exercise routine
is correctly planned and properly adhered to improvements in physical strength
will result as the body adapts to the load. Exercise is one method of making
the body accustom itself to handle the imposed training loads. For adaptation
to take place, the following must be given strict attention to during both the
planning stages and the implementation of the plan afterwards.
The stimulus magnitude, more commonly
referred to as the overload
Accommodation
Specificity
Indivualization
The stimulus magnitude
The correct amount of
stimulus or overload brings about positive changes in the athletes physical
state. This load must be greater than what the body is normally accustomed to
for a positive change to take place. There are two ways to manage the
adaptation process. One is to increase the intensity or volume, and the second
is to select different exercises.
Training loads are
divided into these categories:
Stimulating-the magnitude of the load is
above the neutral level which allows positive physical changes to take place.
Retaining-also known as the neutral zone
as the body is just maintaining its present condition
Detraining-too much of a good thing causes
a deterioration in performance, the functional capabilities in the athlete or
both the performance and functional abilities.
Accommodation to
training
Accommodation to
training is the second part of the adaptation process. If the same load and the
same set of exercises are consistently used time after time the body soon
adapts, and then stops making progress.
"This is a
manifestation of the biological law of accommodation, often considered a
general law of biology". According to this law, the response of a
biological object to a given constant stimulus decreases over time. Thus,
accommodation is the decrease in response of your body to a constant continued
stimulus. In training, the stimulus is physical exercise." Inefficiency occurs due to the accommodation
law if standard exercises and training loads are used over long periods.
Training stimulus MUST vary in order to be beneficial.
This training stimulus
must be as specific as possible to the sport or activity one is training for in
both muscular coordination and physiological demands. A high transfer of
training results when using specific exercises during the training session.
However, these two requirements (the same standard exercises and training loads)
present problems for the elite athlete. The training has to be variable to
avoid accommodation and yet stable enough to satisfy the demands of
specificity.
To avoid the staleness
that accompanies accommodation, qualitative and quantitative alterations are
made to the plan. Quantitative changes are those changes made to the training
loads. Qualitative differentiation results in the selection of different yet
specific exercises. Elite athletes require broad qualitative changes to their
programs to remain on top of their sport.
Specificity of training
Specificity of training
is the holy grail of all sports coaches. Without specificity, the sessions are
for naught. Most every coach and athlete knows that resistance training
increases muscle mass and strength. And, that endurance training increases
positive changes in aerobic capabilities.
Described another way,
specificity simply means a transfer of training effect to the sport or activity
being trained for in the first place. But, just why is this transfer so
important? Because of the positive results on the playing field, that's why.
Standard deviations of
measurement indicate the crossover effect of properly designed specificity
training regimens to be dependent upon movement velocity, joint angle, and
production of force amongst others. These must mimic the actual sport
conditions in the areas previously mentioned.
Individualization of
training
Everyone is different
and the same training program will not work for everyone. It is ludicrous to
set up a professional, college or experienced athletes' routine for a novice
strength athlete. Yet it is done in countless High Schools worldwide every
single day. If the coaches would take the underlying principles of the program
and make the necessary modifications to fit their athletes then positive
adaptive progressions would be the result. These principles should be
creatively applied, not cookie cutter applied straight across the board, but
correctly applied.
Average routines are
for average people not those with training experience. These individuals need
special treatment in their program design. Routines are best made with the end
result constantly kept at the forefront. With the athletes needs kept in the
forefront and the two meshed together so the sum is greater than either part.
Synergy of action, transference of training, hard work and fun all combine to
produce a positive training effect on the athlete.
All quotes taken from
Science and Practice of Strength Training, Zatsiorsky, V.M. Human Kinetics 1995
Danny M. O'Dell, M. A.
CSCS*D is the co-owner of The Explosivelyfit Strength Training Gym and
Explosivelyfit.com both located in Nine Mile Falls, WA. He is a Certified
Strength and Conditioning Specialist, recognized with Distinction by the
National Strength and Conditioning Association. He has a Masters Degree in
Human Services and is a strength and conditioning coach in a local School
District along with being a member of the Washington State Coaches Association.
The Brecon Beacons are
the mountains and the challenge they hide is the Fan Dance- the infamous run
taken on by potential members of British Special Forces as part of their
selection process.
Although more than 50
years old, the original challenge route is still used as a real test for all
potential SAS recruits. It’s not too hard to spot them with anyone running in
tiny shorts with a fridge-sized pack on their back being a likely suspect.
Since the end of the
Second World War, the Brecon Beacons have served as the proving ground for
Britain’s elite soldiers, with the SAS
in particular basing a large part of their selection process in the hills.
The essential elements
of the “Selection” program have remained constant and unchanged since 1956, a
series of back to back self-navigated, heavy load-bearing test marches, wearing
boots and carrying an assault rifle over arduous mountain terrain, whatever the
weather condition.
Throughout four weeks
of physical assessment there are a number of standout tests, “The Fan Dance” is
one them.
The infamous 24km route
over both sides of Pen y Fan at the end of Week 1 has always been considered
the yardstick of a candidates potential to reach Test Week and ultimately pass
the Special Forces “Selection” programme.
The Fan Dance is not the only arduous race out there.
When you think of
mountain races in the UK, the most famous is of course the Original Mountain
Marathon, or the OMM. The OMM, now 50 years old, first took place under its
original name the KIMM in 1968 in the North Pennines and was won by Ted Dance
& Bob Astles. The OMM today is a considerably larger event, with multiple
categories, and distanced. It gained prominence in 2008 when taking place in
the Lake District, and a severe storm and some over-zealous media reporting
claimed hundred's of people's lives were at risk. In reality, all the
participants were well prepared for tough mountain events, had the right
clothes and training, and made their way off the hills to safety. Other copycat
events have duplicated the same format with some success.
Other events took a
different approach. The Dragon's Back race, which was spoken of in almost
fabled, hushed tones in Richard Askwith's book "Feet in the Clouds",
involved pairs running down much of the length of Wales over inhospitable
terrain, including Crib Goch, over several days. In recent years the race has
been resurrected, though it carries a significant entry price compared to the
original outing.
Famed for its
brutality, was the short-lived, Dead Sheep 100 or Dead Sheep Marathon as it was
known, though technically it was an ultramarathon as it was sold as 100 miles
long. It took place once in 1987, long before the days of the internet. 20
individuals took part in the event, which consisted of 5 x 20-mile laps of
inhospitable Welsh mountain terrain, featuring deep peat bogs and water-table,
but rarely reaching heights above 600m. The mystery that surrounds it began due
to a strange entry process, where candidates had to submit information and
evidence completed tasks, as well as submit their race and mountain experience
before being accepted. Eight of the field quit after just one lap, and Seven
more quite after two laps. All were in various states of exhaustion, and most
with foot trauma. Four runners quit after three laps. The final runner Mark
Montrail left for the forth lap, now in darkness, and didn't return. Mountain
Rescue teams were sent out, and Mark was eventually found alive in a remote
sheep fold, delirious and with onset hyperthermia, some 20 hours later. He
retired from all races after the event, and has always refused to talk about
the experience. The organisers pulled what was planned to be a yearly event
after the search and rescue teams cautioned their difficulty in extracting Mark
from such as remote area.
Mountain running in the
UK can certainly be dangerous, and several fell runners have died on
FRA-affiliated events, leading to introduction of better safety standards.
Improved registration, vetting, finish line checks, minimal carried equipment
and paramedics have all vastly improved accident and mortality rates.
Fundamentally, participants must be able to navigate using a map and compass,
in the dark or poor weather. GPS and electronic aids are at best frowned upon,
but more usually outright banned in many such events. All sign waivers or
disclaimers saying they are competent and responsible for their own safety. In
tough mountain races the key learning is preparation of kit, practice of
navigation, and supreme mental toughness, with racers adopting the motto "Fortis
Fortuna Adiuvat", or Fortune Favours the Bold.
When entering any of
the above races, remember that "fortis fortuna adiuvat", or Fortune
Favours the Bold. Half the fun is the entry process, half the fun is running.
The races are mostly run in your head, so mental preparation is wise. Run Well.
