Here's where I've been over the last 7 weeks.
I’m back!!! After seven weeks of fun in Africa, I’m home and happy to report that . . . I came home feeling healthy, fit, and strong. As I wrote in my last post, I’m not a follower of the idea of taking a vacation from my fitness, health, and workouts. In fact, I believe I called it bullshit. I think I actually should have called it “utter bullshit.”
I’m all about vacations – hell, I take plenty of them. I just take my fitness and commitment to my own health along with me wherever I go. I can now proudly say I have run in 3 different countries on the African continent – Madagascar, South Africa, and Kenya. I also went to Uganda but didn’t do any running there. I was too busy doing day-long treks and hikes into the Impenetrable Forest of Bwindi.
I ran on dirt roads through remote villlages, through third world towns, and along black sand beaches in Madagascar. I ran along roads and trails in South Africa between attending Word Cup matches. I ran up and back on an old airstrip in Kenya (and actually had three Masai cross my path and ask to join me. Turns out they were just kidding. But it would have been great to run with these guys in their red cloaks, loaded with beads around their necks, spear in hand, with their big earlobes bouncning on their shoulders with each stride.)
I worked out in every single country we visited. Sometimes it was difficult. Sometimes it took a bit of creativity. (So glad I brought my resistance bands along.) I worked out in a safari tent, in a safari lodge, up and down the steps of a forest lodge, down mountain bike trails, on an abandoned airstrip in Amboseli (at the base of Mount Kilimanjaro), on beaches, and with village children pointing and laughing so hard I thought they were going to wet their pants. And I even accidentally got myself about 20 mongoose running partners when I startled them as I passed.
Finding healthy food choices was a bit tricky at times, but Shauna and I always managed to find or create something to suit our health-nut, vegan preferences. I came home full of a renewed appreciation of the great foods so available to us here in the US. This happens every time we leave our country.
The results – on the morning after returning home, I was able to go for a 7 mile run and feel totally great. I didn’t get to run much in the last 2 weeks of our trip, but did other stationary workouts and didn’t lose any of my cardio fitness. Yippee. And when I jumped on my scale, I found myself right at MY IDEAL WEIGHT! Ha! Didn’t even have a pound of vacation-weight to work off. Now that feels good.
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