What kind of microadventure can you do when you can't leave your hotel compound unaccompanied?
I’m just about to head home after a week of delivering
training for one of our clients in Pakistan. With long days and limited
opportunities to get outside due to security concerns following recent protests,
it really challenged me to think about what I could (and couldn’t) do.
The last couple of months have thrown me some curveballs,
but one of the topics I’ve been training people on this week is Resilience,
including how to use activity and exercise as a way to look after yourself when
times gets tough. Without a bike or the opportunity to safely run outside, the
only option I’ve had is to hit the hotel gym. Hardly the most exciting form of
exercise, but by turning a potentially mundane part of my daily routine into something
that included two of the main ingredients of microadventure (curiosity and
personal challenge), I accepted that the third (exploring outside) wasn’t going
to be possible this time.
Over the years I’ve had a bit of a love-hate relationship
with running. I’m never going to break any records and have never been that
bothered about my time or speed, but recently I’ve started going to www.parkrun.org.uk (a
weekly community-led 5km running event) and for the first time found myself
wanting to improve my time.
A couple of months ago I set myself the goal to run 5km in
25 minutes by the end of 2018. When you’re surrounded by mega-speedy friends, regularly
running sub 20 min for the same distance, it’s easy to go down that slippery
slope of comparing yourself and beating yourself up. But as the saying goes,
“comparison is the thief of joy”, so I set myself a realistic target for me
and my indoor microadventure for this month just fast-tracked my end of year
goal to the end of this week.
It didn’t start well...
Firstly, the hotel gym in Lahore was mixed gender so I had
to wear long and baggy clothes which I found distracting and hot because the
air conditioning wasn’t working. But in Karachi, the hotel’s women-only gym
meant I could relax and wear my usual gym kit.
Secondly, the tricky thing about treadmills is the belt
takes a while to get going, so precious seconds are ‘wasted’ during the first
minute when you’re cranking up the speed. This took a bit of getting used to as
I needed to compensate for the slow first minute or so with a faster than
average pace over the remaining time.
But after a few attempts during the week, last night I did
it – 25 minutes on the nose.
Next year, sub 24 OUTSIDE.
Looking out at Lahore...
Looking out at Karachi...
