Exercise on the Road

Here is a blog that I wrote earlier in the trip and forgot to post. Perhaps I was was hoping my exercise routine would be more regular at some point. It was always sporadic at best. At any rate, here are some thoughts about exercise on the road.

Those of you who know Mitch will not be surprised to find out that he only missed a few days from his normal running schedule while traveling. He continued to run regardless of weather, terrain or time constraints. His running also provided much amusement for the local people wherever we went and he often had a story when he returned. In Egypt and Morocco, people really enjoyed seeing him out running. They waved, smiled and yelled hello. Often a group of boys joined him for a short distance. They ran and laughed alongside of him. Once there were so many kids that he had to make a wedge shape with his arms to try and make a path for himself. In Paris, a young architecture student from Norway joined him for a run. Mitch actually had to pick up his pace to run with him. In Bangkok, Mitch found an exercise park where he encountered a group of men running. They took turns running next to Mitch for a lap before dropping out in exhaustion. They cheered and clapped for each person’s attempt to keep up with him.

Mitch runs back after getting tickets a kilometer away from the gate to the Taj Mahal. He declined a lift from a bicycle rickshaw. Everyone in line applauded when he returned.

Sometimes the stories he came back with were a little frightening. He was stopped by the police while out after dark in Turkey. Luckily they didn’t speak any English so Mitch just shrugged his shoulders with an apologetic look and continued running. In Cairo, Mitch learned to make some noise while overtaking armed police. He came up swiftly behind an officer and his hand jumped quickly to his semi-automatic rifle before he saw it was only a runner in shorts and tee shirt. Perhaps the most disturbing time was the hunter that encountered Mitch in Bulgaria on a lonely road. He brought his rifle down off his shoulder and started to aim until Mitch shouted and put his arms in the air and the hunter realized he wasn’t a deer. Yikes.

The kids and I aren’t as committed to regular exercise. We have more of an integrated regimen. We walk a great deal while sightseeing, sometimes as much as 10 kilometers a day. Especially in Athens during the strikes. We also get lots of upper body exercise hauling around bags and carrying packs. Just about every apartment or hotel room we have seems to be up three floors. There’s always something that gets forgotten so we have to run back up several times.

Whenever we stayed on a beach I was able to get out in the early morning for half hour runs in the early morning. But the heat, humidity and irregular schedule of travel wreaked havoc with any kind of routine on my part.

In southeast asia we found exercise parks where people went in the early morning hours to participate in all types of physical activity. We saw tai chi, ping pong and even ballroom dancing. Many of these parks had exercise equipment that were simple machines to work on fitness. Such a great idea to make exercise accessible to all. Removing it from the indoor air conditioned clubs that are so popular in the states.

Bjorn and Emma check out the equipment we found on the 7k walk out to Ephesus in Turkey

Overall, we really had to work at it if we wanted to continue getting exercise. Our erratic schedule, air quality and heat all conspired to throw us off track. Mitch was able to overcome these obstacles while I was not.