A few Musings from my diary

11:45 25/05/2015

  Bought a new MTB today from Oman Bicycle, fantastic service and very friendly, i will be  going out on it a bit later in a hope that it cools down first.

  Over the last few months as the weather over here has slowly gone from hot to OMG i can't breathe its so damn hot. i have realised that my slightly chubby North European body is not adapt to running in this heat and try as i may i just can't get in to any sort of  schedule. I have tried walk/run, just run, just walk  going long a few times a week going short everyday but nothing seems to work as the  aforementioned chubby body just gives in along with the head,
  So step back 2 weeks to Thailand. I'm sitting at a road side cafe eating my noodles and drinking my Leo and i can't stop counting the amount of cyclists pootling by, PING!!!!! if you can't run in the heat surely you can bike in the heat?  24Hrs later and i'm risking my life in Surat Thani rush our on my newly aquired white Hipster single speed and loving every minute of it. Again jump forward 2 weeks and here i am in    Oman with a new bike (that will stay over here) waiting for the sun to go down before i venture out. I will let you know how i get on  

12:49 27/05/2015

  So how did i get on? i got on just fine. Since my last entry i have been out on the bike 3 times  (still trying to maintain 5k a day). Cycling in Oman is a lot easier than cycling in Thailand or UK for that matter and having a MTB means you can stray from the beaten path, that actual means riding over waste land or very rocky desert, either way it's Fun and at the moment that's what this is about, trying to enjoy exercise like i used to and not dred doing it.
Anyway back to this 5k aday for 30 days, i have never been able to just exercise for the fun of it, i'm way too goal driven for that. so i set myself a goal of 150k in 30days (swim, walk, run or bike). this seemed just about hard enough in the heat over hear to push me but achievable enough to keep me interested. problem is the bike soon eats up the km's, as a result i am reverting back to an old friendly completion style.
     Each day you can either SWIM BIKE or RUN but it must be a minimum of  SWIM = 1.5k - BIKE = 15k - RUN = 5k. you can of course do more if you like but you must do the minimum, 30 days and i will see what my total is and if i missed any days.

 03:22 29/05/2015

Back in Brum, flew home yesterday morning arrived at home about midday had a bath and promptly fell asleep. now its 3:30am and i'm wide awake, You have to love your body clock!!!!, Anyway this means i missed another 5k yesterday but judging by the amount of sleep i had i'm guessing the rest was more important.
   i intend on cleaning the MTB today (it hasn't been cleaned since the Duathlon back in Nov 14) and hopefully get into a bit of a habit of going out on it each morning, i also need to take Gus out for a good long walk. He looks at me everytime i move in a 'are you leaving me again' sort of way.

15:50 31/05/2015

fantastic ride yesterday on the MTB. Pootled into town on the canal then followed the old Harbourne railway walk back up to manor farm then round the back of Bartley green Reservoir. it was rather chilly but i really enjoyed it.
    i had originally set myself a challenge of 150k in 30 days. i am now 9 days into the challenge and only have 10K to go. Time to rethink things slightly (But i have talked about that enough).

Mark

Unable to Sleep

Total Jet Lag.

    Arrivved in Oman at 10am went straight to the hotel and slept from 11am yesterday morning now wide awake at 3am (Muscat time). this meant that the 5k aday thing has been blown right out of the water, I,m still on track for 150k in 30days, So the best thing to do is just ignore the fact that i missed a day and keep moving forward.

   Decided to leave  the Hipster bike in Thailand for if i ever return so its hopefully now safely locked up in the container with all the other tools, i will no doubt forget about it over time and be nicely surprised when i return to Thai in a few years,

   Turned Outlook on this morning and the Calendar was nice enough to remind me that i should have been doing Outlaw Half next weekend. not sure how i ever thought i was going to train for a half ironman while travelling and working in the way i do, but then that's what the 5k a day was meant to be about, getting out and doing something no matter where i am in the world and what i'm doing.

   I have to drive up to Sohar on Tuesday to look at a new job that i will be doing in Aug and Sept. this will be a good chance to look for a bike shop and see about picking up a MTB for training on while here in the hot months. Sohar is nice, it's right on the beach but i noted that a pour 2 year old girl was swept away and drown from there last week, her poor poor parents must be distraught.