This week has flown by, even if I seem to have spent most of it on trains. We took the train from Laos to Kunming in China, which ended up being almost 12 hours door-to-door. Then, a few days later, we followed that with another 12 hours of trains to Joy’s hometown.

The idea was that not only was it better for the environment, but also we’d be able to get plenty of work done on the train. The reality was very different. There’s no WiFi on the trains in these parts, and the mobile signal was patchy at best. Once upon a time, it was easy to work offline; now we’ve put ourselves in the position where we need an internet connection for everything - from spreadsheets in Google Docs to this newsletter software that requires an internet connection while writing it…

… and then you remember that you are behind the great firewall of China, no Google, no YouTube. This has made my week very complicated.

🚂 Training Summary

Despite missing two days through travel, I still managed to get 74 km of running in. Looking at the positives, I could have run further if I had the time. This weekend I completed back-to-back half-marathons, and could have run further both times if it wasn’t for personal commitments of spending time with my partner’s family. (Which is far more important in the grand scheme of things than this running lark.)

One of the best parts of this week was going out for a 10k with a running group in Kunming. Running groups work a bit differently out there. Rather than all meeting on a set day or time, people in the group say when they are going to be there, how far they plan on running, and at what pace. We left a message saying we’d be going out for a 10k at 6-7 minutes per kilometre and were joined by a group of runners.

It was a good run; we stuck together as a group for most of the first half, and then started to separate into two groups in the second. One runner stayed with Joy as she stuck with the 6-7 minute pace, the others tested what I could do, dropping down to 5.30 pace, then 5.15, slowly ramping things up until we crossed the 10k mark at around 4.40 pace.

All six of us managed to stick together at the end, and I think if I’d have dropped off before then, one of them would have stuck with me while the others pushed on. It was a great group, so friendly and supportive, and if I’m ever in Kunming again, I’d love to run again with them.

☀️ Photo from the Road

🗓️ This Week I Have Mostly Been…

🎵 Listening to: The Box Gathering Podcast - a podcast for a boxing community I’m involved with.
📚 Reading: I’ve not had time to read anything this week 😔
🎥 Watching: Luck - a movie about an unlucky person, a black cat, and the land of luck.

📺 In Case You Missed It…

Well, there’s this video of me actually dancing:

🚀 Next Up

Off to Hong Kong tomorrow for a couple of days, where we’ll hopefully be able to pick up some running shoes and other bits for the Japan run. Then we fly back to Hanoi on Thursday. Another disrupted week for training, but once we’re back in Vietnam, we’ll have a solid 6-week training block before the adventure really kicks into gear.

🏁 Finish Line

A big thank you to all the new subscribers. I have no idea where you’ve all come from, but I hope you’ve enjoyed the newsletter so far. Please let me know what you think, or what you’d like to see included.

As always, thank you for reading and for all your support.

Take it easy,

Phill