Eid Mubarak

Those who watched Manchester City play Southampton at the weekend should have seen Samir Nasri reveal this slogan written on his t-shirt, under his strip, and probably realise the meaning of the greeting "Eid Mubarak". It translates as "blessed festival", and signifies that, as Ramadan has ended, Muslims around the world can celebrate the festival of Eid.

From what I have seen over the last three days Eid is almost the exact opposite of Christmas. Whilst Muslims exchange gifts people do not retreat to their houses. Eid seems to be a very social occasion after the pious ritual of fasting. All the Malls and streets are crowded, everyone just mingles and displays of entertainment/music can resume in public places.

           Now that Ramadan is over it does mean that
           you can drink water in public so it has made
           running outside more realistic.

           During the last few weeks I have continued

           going to the gym every day with some days
           consisting of double sessions.

           I have completed week 5 out of the 6 weeks
           from Anita Bean's 6-Week Workout Total
           Abs/From Fat to Fit so am back under
           100 kilo grams.

Once I have  completed week 6 the base stage of my resumption to training will be over.

 

My first few runs outside
been long ones, only a
couple of miles, but it is
a start to building a portfolio
of loops and out&back runs
that will form the building
blocks of my training for the
MDS and start to acclimatise
to running in conditions similar
to the race.





Compared to some of my runs at home around the back streets of Dagenham running around the Dubai Mall and Burj Khalifa was quite pleasant, if still extremely urban.

As next year progresses I will definitely try to go more off piste into the sand.

 

                   
                    I have said it before and I will say it again,
                    the Garmin Forerunner 910XT GPS watch
                    is excellent for running in places you are not
                    familiar with as it shows the distance you
                    have run on your watch plus it allows you
                    to track runs as courses on your laptop and
                    send then to your watch, or vice versa.

The plan is to build up the running mileage and core strength when I am back in the UK for three weeks from next Wednesdsy. This should mean that when I return to Dubai I can follow another 6 week programme of cardio and weights to strip off some more of the excess weight such that I have great platform to start the peak training stage for the Dubai Marathon in January. This will leave me in a good position to build the mileage progressively from next spring until the big mileage months of November 13 - January 14. I am still to decide between two training plans which one I will follow over the final year of preparation but I both seems to follow similar format of increasing mileage up to 100-120 miles each week.

Hopefully when we return to Dubai the temperature will have dropped a little and the humidity returned to normal. Even though I was out yesterday for my run at 7:30am it was still 34 degrees with 31% humidity. The humidity is more of a killer than the dry summer heat as you are drenched within yards of leaving a building, but I have been led to believe that the weather will be perfect from October onwards.

I have to say that the Dubai experience is still continuing to grow; especially as we are making friends and learning more about places to visit. Aside the internet Time Out Dubai has been a real treasure trove. Now that Ramadan is finished, we can resume our tour of the in-famous Friday champagne brunches that it seams that all of residents plan their weekends around. Unfortunately, Becs workload meant that Sri Lanka was postponed to later in the year so we took the opportunity to visit the Al Maha Desert Resort last weekend.

One of the big positives about living in a holiday destination, that helps compensate for missing home so much, is that you can afford to go to places that would ordinarily be way outside your price bracket. This is because you do not have to stump up for the flights. In addition, it also means you can simply go somewhere for a night or two at the weekend avoiding the need to go for a week, get a bit bored after a few days and taking any holiday from work. If anyone is planning a trip to Dubai I would recommend spending a day or two at the Al Maha as the food is tremendous and you will get to experience more about the desert.

The cancelled Sri Lanka trip meant that I had reached the end of my 30 day visa and had to complete the near farcical return trip to Doha to restart the clock. By my watch I only spent 10 minutes on Qatari soil as, after I landed and went through immigration, I simply got a bus from arrivals to departures and then back through passport control. In addition, I am now the proud owner of a Qatari Bank Account.  Unlike the last time I visited Doha, when you could only pay for the visa in cash, they now only accept cards. As I had left my cards at home I had to open a local account to put cash on the card. Whilst it isn't in the top 100 bucket list of things to do before you die it was definitely an experience and not something I ever envisaged myself doing. I have learnt in my short stay to date in the middle east that most rules are unfathomable and can be changed to an follow equally unfathomable logic in the blinking of an eye.

Everything else is good, even if I have started to morph into the Major from Fawlty Towers, as a long stay resident at our hotel. Some of my unusual English manerisms seem to amuse the staff and I don't think they have seen such impressive wiskers. Becs and I are still playing Badminton twice a week which mixes up the training and draws the competitive side out of our personas. I have to say its a quiet apartment for a few hours after each game...

The Arabic lessons are going well. I can now converse in a restaurant, know the days and months of the year and can tell the time; albeit slowly with a few pauses and a slight stutter! The next step is to learn directions and modes of travel. Also, now that Bec's two year visa has been sorted, her work have arranged a cultural induction session to Dubai. It will be interesting to learn more about the region and to see how many local codes of conduct I have broken in 6 weeks. More importantly it also means we get given our alcoholic licence so we can buy booze for consumption at home and my visa gets granted soon; negating the need to fly to Doha again for a coffee, muffin and check my bank balance.

Golf is also improving, albeit at a slower pace over the last few weeks. As the pro incorporated some quick wins into my swing, the first three lessons saw some rapid improvement. The last few lessons have been mainly little tweaks and some drills for me to incorporate into practise. The humidity hasn't helped this last week either as it has made it quite difficult to keep correct grip with damp palms. Still, I have a couple of rounds when I am back in the UK so it will be good to baseline how my development is coming along against friends I have played against on numerous occasions.

Also having the football season back to fill the void of the Olympics has been a blessing. My new computer lead fetish has proved a life line as we can watch the football from Sky and Match of the Day from BBC on our TV. Its great for the hammers to get off to a victorious start and I am looking forward to going over to the Fulham game when I am back. I desperatly need to transfer window to open on the Sun Dream Team to correct a couple of selection mistakes before my own season fizzles out in Autumn.

Lastly now that Ellen has left Mencap Rachel Croshaw is the new events officer responsible for the MDS. So welcome to the team Rachel. I hope to pop into the Mencap office whilst I am back in the UK.

Training status since last blog: 20 hours trained in gym; 4 Badminton matches; 16 rounds of golf; and 6 miles run (outside).

MaAasalaama