We have a spot of weather here in Hanoi. Okay, technically, a typhoon is coming, although it may have dwindled down to a severe tropical storm by the time it arrives. There was a mad patch of weather for about an hour yesterday; it seems to have calmed down today, and we’ve really no idea what to expect in the coming days.

We’re hunkered down in the house and safe just in case. I’m going to use the weather as an excuse to enforce a few rest days for me, or at least non-running days. That’ll probably do me some good, especially as I’ve also obtained a cold.

🚂 Training Summary

It’s been a tough week for training. As far as the running goes, I only managed 43.74 kilometres of running.

Monday was purposefully an easy day, as I’d run 130 km the week before. Tuesday was another short run, as I had acupuncture in the morning… and then after that, everything went downhill.

My calf locked up, everything was very slow, I felt like I had no power in my legs, and could hardly move fast enough to get my heart rate up above 120. It was like I had completely forgotten how to run. And that continued through until this evening. Tonight was the first night when my running felt natural again, and boy, am I relieved.

I’m sure some of this is cumulative fatigue from 75 days running in a row. Now I’m shifting into a new programme where I won’t be running every day, and focusing more on performance, so that will hopefully help shake my body back into action. Still, all in all it was a concerning few days, but the light is at the end of the tunnel and I hope to be completing those 3-hour runs soon.

🧠 Running Through My Head

There was a storm yesterday; it came as quickly as it went. I was reading my book, and at around 4pm it went dark. The wind came, we battened down the hatches, and hunkered down for what might have been the start of the typhoon storms. An hour later, we were left with drizzle.

Checking online for the weather forecast, we were met by the news of a capsized boat in Ha Long Bay. At least 38 people have died. I can’t wrap my head around it.

On social media, the news sites are sharing a video of the people on the boat, full of cheer, not long before the storm rushed through. An hour later, most of them were lost. Families wiped out, or sole survivors, a child without their parents, who was celebrating her brother’s college graduation.

How fleeting and fragile our existence is. As much as I complain about Vietnam, it has a place in my heart, and reading the stories of these families hurts.

🗓️ This Week I Have Mostly Been…

🎵 Listening to: Hello Vietnam - Pham Quynh Anh
📚 Reading: The news about the weather, and the tragedy in Ha Long Bay.
🎥 Watching: I’ve mostly been glued to https://zoom.earth/storms/wipha-2025/ and watching bits of social media videos to follow the storm.

📺 In Case You Missed It…

We managed to get the Sapa video up on YouTube:

🚀 Next Up

A runcation in Laos, provided our flight isn’t cancelled!

🏁 Finish Line

That’s all for this week.

Stay safe, wherever you are.

Take it easy,

Phill