The King of Exercise
Biking will be the main part of my fitness program but as there will also be some big obstacles to climb- namely the highest dunes in the Libyan desert- which is what they call this part of Egypt, I’ll need to be all round fit. All round fitness- grudgingly I know no better way of achieving it than running.
I hate running, pretty much. I also injured my knee two years ago by excessive running on asphalt after a long lay off. So I have double reason to be wary of the ‘king of exercise’ as I keep reminding myself Bruce Lee called it.
As I mention elsewhere my new interest in running is sustained by technology. Namely the good old handheld fairly cheap GPS- used to be Garmin but now I’m fully converted to Magellan- a ‘mark’ button is way better than scrolling and clicking especially in the dark. So the GPS gives me accurate speed and distance measures which is all I need to take my mind off the tedium.
So, the first run was in Wadi Digla, a dry canyon about 15km long in the initial section that is very near to where I live in Cairo. I started off running quite fast interested to see what I could get my GPS speedo up to- about 20kmh for a second or two, then back to a highly sustainable 10-11kmh, darn slow by most running standards but I could manage it for 4 km out to a short wall of rock just below a cave, thats fun to climb (only one move really and you’re up) and then I headed back again- running the last 2km without a rest. A bunch of Egyptian lads drove by shouting and waving from their jeep. I used this to keep going a bit longer than before, wouldn’t do to shuffle past such dimwits like I really was ie. totally knackered.
So, next challenge: same distance- first 4km run without a halt.