This week I have been away in Abu Dhabi, catching some rays and topping up my tan, as well as getting some good warm weather training in. When I stepped out of Abu Dhabi airport the wall of heat hit me very quickly and the first thing which I thought was well, running in this is going to be tough and of course how lovely this weather is for sunbathing. On my first day I hit the beach and decided to practice my open water swimming in the creek. One of the problems with this was that the water was so warm and after working hard for a bit, all I wanted was an ice bath to cool down, because getting out of the water into 32 degree heat didn't exactly cool me down. My first attempt at a run came on Tuesday and well it wasn't very successful because I only made it half way through my reps before the heat just got too much and I had to venture inside to the nicely air conned gym. Also inside the complex of the hotel there wasn't a whole lot of running room, I had about a 400m stretch to just repeatedly run along. Just thought I would pop in some of my casual, chilling photos. We got given free ice lollies one day, which was well and truly needed as it was 36 degrees that day. Also the view from the hotel was pretty cool as it was over the creek and the grand mosque, which is absolutely huge. Anyway focusing more on my title of this blog post, even though I was supposedly on holiday, for me I get easily bored sitting on a sun bed all day, so for staying active makes it more enjoyable. Even though I did do a lot whilst in Abu Dhabi, I did chill for a lot of the time, which was lovely and relaxing, and perfect to top up my tan as it was rapidly fading after summer. A few days into the holiday, I hit the creek again to do some more swimming but I also mixed into it some running, I wore my recently purchased zealous swimsuit which is super bright. I did a bit of swimming then I jumped out and did some running. I did get quite a few odd looks as I was running up and down the beach and I also had to run around someone who was reading a book, I hope she didn't find me too distracting. Beach running is always quite tough as the sand sinks, which makes it tougher and you will feel your calves working hard too. Personally I like it as I feel it makes my running form better. On Thursday, I gave a running session another go and this time to a lot more success! I completed my whole session which I was pretty pleased about but I did have to keep a water bottle with me, so after each rep I could quickly hydrate as the heat does dehydrate you pretty quickly. I did struggle with not taking in too much water, that it made me feel sick on my run, but after the third recovery I had mastered my water strategy. Whilst I was running up and down, mum and dad were on the beach watching the sun come down over the mosque, which makes for a pretty good photo. After my run I was just too hot and I had to jump into the nicely cooled pool. Luckily it was the evening and most people had left the pool, so I didn't get many funny looks at why I was jumping into the pool in sports bra and shorts. I haven't really mentioned the food that much at the hotel but this is an important part (for me anyway). It was a buffet breakfast and dinner, which was fab because I could choose the bits which I like. Most mornings I would have a mixture of fruit, followed by smoked salmon and a fried egg, which was super tasty. For lunch there was lots to choose from at the pool bar like, pizza, chicken wrap, salads, fish, etc. most of the time I had a chicken wrap as it was normally just what I fancied after a tough day sunbathing or after a session. Buffet dinner was also great and this for me varied daily but all of the time my main course consisted of lots of chicken, as they had the most delicious chicken on one of the bars and it seemed a waste not to have some. There was also lots of sushi, pasta, salad, veg etc. which I usually had a mix of in my meal. On the last day I got out for a pool session in my funkita swimsuit and got a good session in the pool, once most people had gone up for the evening. On the first day I tried to figure out how long the pool was and I came to the conclusion that is was 45m long, but on the last day my mum suddenly read out from a brochure that the pool was in fact 50m long, which made my swimming session a lot easier to calculate. I am now back in England and it is always nice to be back home after being away. We had a night flight on Friday night and somehow 3 hours after landing, I joined my club for a cross country session made up of reps of about 500m, which proved very tough at the beginning but after a few my legs woke up and then they were good fun but tough still! Today I went on my long cycle with my club, which was 75km however it was a seriously hilly ride and at the end my quads were just about to give up. Afterwards we hit the cafe and I had a yummy banana milkshake and also had to hitch a lift home, because once I had sat down, I couldn't get myself up to cycle 5km home. Oh I forgot to say I also managed to fall off whilst stationary, because we had just stopped and I didn't get my cleat out in time and I just toppled over... very embarassing.
I hope everyone has had a nice weekend. I have another week of half term this week so I need to get some work done and I'm also going aqua jogging with Ellen tomorrow, which should be fun! I have my second Kent league next Saturday too, which I am really looking forward to and to hopefully improve my result from last time! G x
1 Comment
10/23/2016 10:25:07 am
Love this post! Looks really fun, and well done on all that swimming 🏊🏼 See you tomorrow xxx
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HelloI'm Grace, a 18 year old runner, and fitness fanatic. Join me on my crazy journey through life, squeezing in an adventure in every second of spare time I have. Archives
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