Adventure with Adam

Adventure Inspiration, Ep.5

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I’ve been following Ed Pratt for over a year or so now as he attempts to Unicycle around the world. He’s absolutely smashing it, having unicycled from the UK over Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand. I’m very much looking forward to his USA updates. It’s also great to go back to his older videos and see the development he has made as a person and filmmaker. Here is his most recent update:

Jayne Thompson is showing that you don’t have to travel to the other side of the world to have an epic adventure. She is cycling to all 270 London Underground stations which will be a rough distance of 350 miles. She is raising money and awareness for Mind, the mental health charity.

Conquering Everest is seen by many to be a way to become well-known and famous in the adventure world.  Whilst people are throwing down big money to climb to the roof of the world, there is a band of men making all of this possible. Here is the Instagram account for the legend of a man called Sange Sherpa. He has summited nine times and has 38 followers.
I work with some pretty interesting people from a diverse set of backgrounds. One of the guys I work with is a lawyer who happened to get a 1st class Honours Degree in English from Oxford University. I asked him what his “must reads” would be to anybody before they die and here are his recommendations:

Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda

It’s a book by Lieutenant-General Roméo Dallaire of the Canadian Forces.The book chronicles Dallaire’s tour as Force Commander of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR) in 1993-1994, during which he witnessed the 1994 Rwandan Genocide.

The book won the 2003 Shaughnessy Cohen Award for Political Writing, and 2004 Governor General’s Award for nonfiction.

Bleak House

It’s a nineteenth century novel by English author Charles Dickens, first published as a serial between March 1852 and September 1853. At the centre of Bleak House is a long-running legal case, Jarndyce and Jarndyce, which came about because someone wrote several conflicting wills. Dickens uses this case to satirise the English judicial system. Though the legal profession criticised Dickens’ satire as exaggerated, this novel helped support a judicial reform movement, which culminated in the enactment of legal reform in the 1870s. A classic recomendation from a lawyer.

Watching the English

In Watching the English anthropologist Kate Fox takes a revealing look at the quirks, habits and foibles of the English people. She puts the English national character under her anthropological microscope, and finds a strange and fascinating culture, governed by complex sets of unspoken rules and byzantine codes of behaviour. A must read for anybody interested in English culture.

War Music

A left field selection from my friend isn a set of poetry. War Music is the working title of British poet Christopher Logue’s long-term project to create a modernist poem based on Homer’s Iliad, begun in 1959. It was originally the name of the first volume of that project, uniting the separately completed Patrocleia (Book 16), GBH (Books 17/18) and Pax (Book 19), which was published in 1981.

*The book links will earn me a penny or two if you decide to buy them here. Personally, I would go to a library and borrow them from there.

Adventure Inspiration, Ep. 3

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A beautifully made video that makes me want to head out on my bicycle and hit some waves: #headwindhaters

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I don’t share quite the same dislike for Vegas as Al Humphries, but I would much rather spend the night under the stars in Zion National Park than spend a night in a smoky casino (link to video).

“Seek out what magnifies your spirit”. Just one of the great bits of advice in this thought-provoking post (link to post).

The high and low points of living a nomadic lifestyle for 5 years (link to post).

It’s not often that I’m inspired by a BBC News article but photographer Ami Vitale is featured in a great piece. The bit that stuck with me:

“So my advice to those who dream about this is to find a story close to you – maybe even in your backyard – and make it yours. You don’t need to travel abroad. What you do need to do, however, is tell a story better than anyone else can, using your own unique perspective.”(link to BBC article)

It’s difficult to imagine war in Europe now but this post brings home how easily that could become a reality. (link to pictures)

 

Adventure Inspiration, Ep. 2

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Alistair Humphreys and Leon McCarron talk about making a living from an adventure in a pub in Ireland.

“Adventure is about growth.” – Brendan Leonard on the Art of Adventure Podcast with Derek Loudermilk.

A reminder of why we must make the most of today. Key takeaways: 1) Living in the same place as the people you love matters. 2) Priorities matter. 3) Quality time matters.

Great work by Brandon Chase (great name!) on completing the 255km Besparmak trail in Cyprus in the fastest recorded time of 4 days 9.5hrs. (link to Facebook result). That time looks like it could be bettered if anybody fancies it. I’d recommend doing it before the summer heat arrives.

Luc Mehl lives in Alaska and spends his spare time pack rafting, skating on ice, skiing or trekking in the mountains.

I’ve spent the last week listening to this album by Vance Joy on repeat (spotify link). It’s well worth a listen. I may even have to crack out the ukelele for the next trip.

Ultra Training Diary: Week 1 of 13

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The view of my workplace on Tuesdays run

The first week of a training plan always goes well. I have written out all of my planned runs in my notebook with the distances that I should do between now and the 26 May when I will be competing in the 50km Cyprus Ultra. All there is to do now is go out and run them.

This is where most plans fail.

Running between 30 – 50 miles a week is both tiring and time-consuming.

Only one week into this 13-week programme and I am already tired. Tired of plodding with my heavy frame of a body. Tired of hills. Tired of getting chased by wild Cyprus dogs. Tired of the heat.

The last point is not quite true as this week has seen some strange weather in Cyprus. Torrential rain and thunderstorms on Monday were followed by a sharp increase in temperature by the end of the week. Running in the thunderstorm was amazing. I felt so alive. In the heat of the afternoon, the rain was hammering this small Mediterranean Island.  It could be the last time I see rain in Cyprus until I leave in August. I know for sure that I will be tired of the heat come May.

Even though I’m already feeling tired, I should take some encouragement that I have got through the planned training sessions this week and my body is injury free. Distance and time on my feet is the aim of the sessions. Getting my body used to running for hours on end and fueling it as I move.

This is my favourite part of training for an Ultra. I do enjoy eating, especially sugary and carbohydrate-laden foods. My favourite discovery is locally made honey and sugar covered pitta bread. It’s almost like a crepe that has been folded about 10 times. It is so good!

Slowly, I am losing weight. This isn’t the goal of running this Ultra but I will welcome running with less overall mass. My joints will also thank me for it. I started this week at 89.5kg. I’ll see where I am in 4 weeks. If I keep up my habit of eating an ice-cream every other day, I probably won’t lose any weight. The ice-creams may have to go on hold. We will see…

Distance this week

Here is an overview of my week of training (26 Feb – 4 Mar – distance in miles):

I came into this week of training off the back of a 1hr 41min half marathon. I’m still quite surprised that I could run a half marathon in that time. As was most of the people I work with. Not bad for a “big lad”. But a half is completely different to an Ultra. I’ll no longer be able to get away with minimal training.

I need to observe the rest days and not overdo it. I’m also terrible at stretching after sessions. It might be time to invest in a foam roller. I’ve hardly ever used one so it’s all new to me.

Next week

Next week I will be running a similar distance but will finish the week with a 15 mile run on Sunday. I best stock up on the Cyprus pittas.

If you would like to see how my progress is going, you can track my runs on Strava or see my updates on Instagram stories @adventurewithadam.

Adventure Inspiration, Ep. 01

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I spend far too much time surfing the web in search of inspiration. Reading travel articles, watching short films of adventures in exotic places and listening to podcasts with interviews with the people that do all of this epic stuff.

For the last year or so, I have kept an Evernote page with links to interesting articles and videos I have stumbled across. It then suddenly came to me that rather than these links just sitting on my phone, I should share some of my favourites with the world. These will be often random, unrelated articles, blogs, videos or any other inspiring content I find.

This will be episode 01 of the weekly Adventure Inspiration Series. I will be posting these episodes each Friday to inspire you for the weekend. They will usually be short and sharp so they are easy to digest. Enjoy!

Adventure Inspiration, Ep. 01

After watching this video (link) I was inspired to take on the challenge of an Ultra Marathon. No, I will not be running a 100 miler (yet) but a 50km is a great place to start.

If after watching this video, you are thinking of running an Ultra Marathon, check out these training plans for further inspiration. (This is the training plan I will be modifying for my 50km Ultra).

Tom Allen has written a fantastic post about his recent cycle trip in South East Asia (link).

“Today you…. tomorrow me.” (Reddit).

Great work by Radio 1 DJ Greg James to raise a shed load of cash for sport relief on his cycle and climb the three peaks of the UK attempt.

I listened to this (link) episode of the Tim Ferris Podcast with Terry Crews whilst running a trail half marathon last week. An insightful and inspiring interview.