Live life. Test your limits.
Monday’s runs are meant to be easy to recover from the long distance of the weekend before.
Although easy may not be the appropriate term… after all, we are training in Canada. At 8:50 pm, we ran along the lake shore, watching the waves crash into frozen water. The wind really didn’t want us to run. One of the slowest runs in our training sessions yet (wind and us trying to take it easy).
One foot after the other. Feeling the impact of each stride as we run laps around the track like hamsters on a spinning wheel (perhaps this analogy is better for a treadmill). I, Farid (on the left) started officially training in January. Training started with easy paced 5-8 km runs. Now, a month later, almost running daily and the shortest distance is 10 km.
Continue reading “Paris Marathon 2018: One foot after the other”
We have started the long journey to get home – today 13 hours in a small bus to Lhasa. Challenging drive as lots of snow in the mountain passes, and strict rules about the speed the car can go, including a lot of radar cameras. We said goodbye to Everest at a viewpoint. Waved to the farmers, yaks, sheep, goats, dogs, horses and donkeys. The Tibetan people are inspiring, they have been curious about us, welcoming and kind. The opportunity to learn about their culture and Buddhism has been extraordinary…….
What a final ride. We went up and over again to end up in the town of Tingri, known for their hot springs though we were all too shattered to partake. If the border had been open we would have started the many thousand meter descent to Kathmandu. But the border is not open so from Tingri we will bus back to Lhasa.
What a day! Oh my – what a day!
We woke to clear skies and moved with pace and urgency in order to get to Everest Base Camp before the clouds came in. 8km ride in, half paved and half gravel. 250m elevation gained.
We almost saw Everest. We cycled up to Rongbuk. Unfortunately Everest isn’t on our agenda. She’s playing coy. While in Rongbuk waiting for her to show herself we visited the Rong La monastery. We had our prayer beads blessed. We also hung out in the small hotel and had ginger, lemon, honey tea. Met some travellers from Brazil on a tour (also disappointed at not seeing Everest).
Nice easy morning wake-up. Cowboy coffee, porridge and eggs. Got on our bikes around 915. Our rest day involved 22km, 350m elevation gained, 1000 calories burned…….crazy thing is it did feel like a rest day!!!
We made our way through a few small towns. Desperate to get a video off for the blog we stopped at a small lodge in one of the towns and used their Wifi. As payback we bartered over the price of some Everest buffs.
Some call it a billion dollar road. We just called it a B#%^*!?
43 switchbacks to get to the top!
70km total ride
Max speed 69.7 (Dave)
Calories 2673
Average 13kph
Descended 1159m
Ascending 914m
Highest navigable road in the world. Peak altitude 5205m
Camp altitude 4252m
Last night knowing there was a rest day we got jiving pretty well in our food tent.
What an interesting night. I was using the throne tent when I heard some unusual noises and then a lot of barking. Turns out the bull was coming to visit the throne and the dogs that joined us in camp chased him away (thank god). We had 5 adults and 4 puppies around camp last night. A couple of major barking episodes, no doubt saving us from something.
