Microadventure #11 - Pakistan Hotel Gym Challenge

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.

www.strava.com/activities/1969692931

Next year, sub 24 OUTSIDE.

Looking out at Lahore...

Looking out at Karachi...

Microadventure #10 - 24 hour Bagan Bike n Balloon

Meeting up with three other adventure-loving friends from around the world (London, Singapore and Zurich) in Myanmar, there were lots of opportunities to choose from for my microadventure this month. In many ways, the whole week was a string of mini adventures, all threaded together into one big adventure, but our 24 hour combo of mountain biking and hot air ballooning was the absolute highlight for me.

The plains of the ancient city of Bagan's archaeological zone lie next to the Irrawaddy river in the Mandalay region of the country, and are made up of over 2000 impressive temples, pagodas and monasteries. Covering a vast area of 40-sq-km, the best way to take it all in is from the perspective, peace and quiet of a hot air balloon. But just standing in a hot air balloon would be wayyyy too easy, so we decided to cycle the 60km from Mount Popa to Bagan first...

In front of Mount Popa with Helen, Anna, Sarah and our awesome guide Toe Toe 

Matching Trek Mountain Bikes

All more used to road cycling than mountain biking, we decided to give fat tyres and front suspension a whirl. Getting used to the additional weight and tyres wasn't easy. When riding through loose sand, it takes a while to learn to trust the tyres and lean into any slips and slides, but it all added to the fun (-:

We started on paved roads, making our way down from the Mount Popa Resort to Mount Popa Rock Temple, where a certain Aung San Suu Kyi was also visiting... so that was an interesting start to the day! Joined by our super friendly guide Toe Toe, we were well looked after with regular water refills and dragon fruit, sesame brittle and peanut brittle stops. It's actually debatable as to whether we actually burned off more than we consumed.

At the half way point we stopped for lunch at a palm wine distillery for yet more food (and drink...) before hitting the off-road tracks and sandy paths for the remaining 30km to Bagan.

Arriving in Bagan in time for sunset beers, we got a sense of the expanse of the plains, but it wasn't until the next morning at sunrise that we could really appreciate the dizzying array of golden stupas and ancient temples. The whole thing lasted just under 2 hours but time seemed to stand still and fly by simultaneously. 

A completely magical microadventure that we'll never forget...

Filling the balloon with hot air

Up up and awayyyyyy

Sunrise with Mount Popa (where we'd cycled from) in the distance

Long morning shadows over the Bagan and the Irrawaddy river

Letting the cool air in to prepare for the descent

Excellent landing in a fallow field, with help from the ground crew

Microadventure #9 - Autumn Wild Camp

After my first wild camp in a soggy Kentish field in March with Sophie, and another damp night by myself in the Spanish mountains in May, I had high hopes for a clear night and starry skies for an Autumn bivvy in the Surrey Hills. It didn't quite work out that way, but that's all part of the fun!

It started out with another (micro) microadventure - to find a gas cylinder for my new Alpkit brukit. Apparently they're more widely available at the start of the summer when 'normal' people go camping, but after trying lots of places, I finally found one in a little camping shop in Shere, so managed to squeeze in cake and coffee at one of my favourite cycling stops (The Dabbling Duck) too.

When Sophie and I did our 5-9 adventure in March we didn't have time to recce camping spots until after a) it was dark and b) we'd shared a bottle of wine in a local pub, so we decided to make the most of pre-drinking daylight hours and explore a bit of the North Downs Way in advance so we were camp-ready.

On the advice of my go-to adventure community (Adventure Queens Facebook Group) we decided to base ourselves near St Martha's on the Hill, with great views overlooking the Surrey Hills towards the villages of Chilworth and Albury, not far from the bigger town of Guildford. Located right next to the North Downs Way, it's a popular spot with hikers and mountain bikers.

Never too old for a swing!

New season heather

Once we'd found a good spot to camp, we headed down the hill to the village of Albury, and dinner at The Drummond Arms pub.

#treehugger

A whole baked camembert, smoked pork belly, steak and ale pie and bottle of red wine later, we headed back up the hill with our head-torches, dodging tree roots, toads and the first of the evening's raindrops...

It didn't rain alllllll night, but even when it did, we were bivvy-ready, so it was worth it for the peace and quiet before the first of the morning trail runners hit the North Downs Way. And with a working gas canister, the brukit's first outing was a success. So after a massive cup of coffee we headed back to the relative comfort of the car and a massive cooked breakfast. Next time the challenge will be to cook breakfast outside too!

Microadventure #8 - Monsoon Commuting in India

In their book 'Mindfulness: A practical guide to finding peace in a frantic world', Mark Williams and Danny Penman introduce the concept of 'habit releasers', which they define as "a deliberate choice to break out of one (or more) of your usual routines".

Habit releasers could include sitting in a different chair at home or at work, trying a different coffee shop or supermarket from your usual choice, or switching up your route to work, school, the gym etc.

Since reading their book, I've tried to keep this concept in mind whenever I feel I'm getting stuck in the rut of routine - eating the same food, watching the same TV shows, buying the same newspapers etc.

One of my favourite habit releasers is experimenting with modes of transport and routes to and from work. What can often feel like a dull and stressful part of your day can even become exciting! When I'm in London, I mix up cycling to work with running and taking the bus or tube. Taking different routes also means I'm discovering new places and waking myself up from the autopilot of the daily grind. 

This month I've been really busy at work, including a two week trip to India, so it's been challenging to find the time to plan or do a microadventure. But then I remembered that's the whole point of this challenge - to find the adventure in the small things. So this month it was all about building adventure into my commute, and India during monsoon season meant there was no shortage of opportunities.

The photos and film clips below give a little insight into some of the microadventures I had from hotel to office and back...

Bangalore river/road

Microadventure to find the Decathlon I spotted from the Bangalore office window

Delhi morning commute in the rain

The relative uniformity of the M25 on the way home

Microadventure #7 - Climbing Col de la Joux Verte

A 'col' is another word for a mountain pass, and this month's microadventure was to climb one on my bike, coinciding with the Tour de France https://www.letour.fr/en/ 

Staying in the heart of Morzine in the French Alps, there were a lot to choose from, ranging in difficulty, altitude, distance and gradient. 

There are two sides to the Col de la Joux Verte - the better known southern route from Morzine to Avoriaz (known as Montée d'Avoriaz or Route d'Avoriaz) or the lesser known northern ascent - more beautiful, more varied and less busy. So we decided to go for that. Starting at the roundabout in the village of Montriond, the road climbs from 886 m through wooded areas and past the stunning Lake Montriond for a total of 14.7 km before finally reaching the col at 1760 m.

The average gradient was 6.5% and each km post tells you the gradient of the next km, which I found really helpful... until the middle sections rarely dipped below 9% and I would have rather just not known! Just as I was in the middle of one of those km, I saw a snail and reminded my competitive alter ego that it didn't matter how slow I went, just to KEEP PEDALING!

The scenery on the way up really was stunning, with Lake Montriond (where we swam the next day) and the village of Les Lindarets (aka GOAT VILLAGE) being highlights.

Lake Montriond

Swimming in Lake Montriond the next day

Meeting the goats at Les Lindarets

After Les Lindarets, there was a welcome 2 km respite at 5% before the final 2 km ramped back up to 8%. It then flattened out just before I arrived at the Morzine-Avoriaz ski station and then enjoyed the descent back down to Morzine.

Start of the descent from Morzine-Avoriaz Ski Station back down to Morzine

A couple of days (and cols, because climbing mountains actually starts to become 'fun'...) later, we went to watch the Tour heading up Col de Romme, and even made it on the telly! They make it look so easy...

The leaders of the peloton on Col de Romme

We made it onto TV!