Saturday 31 March 2012

Runners high or primed and ready?

Hello again.  I am not sure whether it was a post run high or whether it is because I am becoming acclimatised, but I just went for a one and a bit hour hike in the dunes and it felt amazing.  Surely it should have felt hot and opressive at 2.36pm in the afternoon with the sun beating down on my head?  It didn't at all.  It felt perfect.  Hot sun and a very gentle breeze, beautiful scenery and light legs (almost as though my intense 10km run just loosened them up).

It was the first time that I was not really focussed on the fact that I was training and acclimatising.  I was absorbed instead by my immediate surroundings.  In the heat of the day there are no tourists in the dunes.  You see only camels, the occasional Berber and the small animals that inhabit the dunes.  Every day I see the same big, black beetles scurrying across the sand but today is the first time I have seen lizards.  The moment they saw me they darted away, but it was nice to have a glimpse of something new. 

The only negative aspect to my hike was the flies pestering me.  This may be a desert and it may seem strange to have flies in a desert, but believe you me there are plenty of them.  It is probably the copious amount of camel dung that attracts them, but how they survive in such a dry place I have no idea.

I covered 4.23km (2.63 miles) in total, but the distance is not really relevant.  Now for a quick rest and then I am off to the sauna for session number five.

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