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A Week of Quadracious Training

I write this from Lamberton Place, St. Andrews, Fife, Scotland. When I went running here I passed sheep grazing on green grass in the cool, long days of a Scottish July. This has been a particularly quadracious week of training. It started at Hainan Island, China's Hawaii, it is called, where I spoke at a turfgrass conference and went running out of my hotel to the beach and turned left for Sanya. Running along the beach, every 500 meters or so I passed another young lady in a wedding dress pseudo-playing a piano as soft waves from the South China Sea lapped at her ankles. Her betrothed knelt at her side while a photographer with a large Canon snapped photos for their wedding album. See here the view from my hotel at Hainan.

From Hainan I went to Bangkok, where I ran twice, which is rather amazing considering the tropical rains that fell while I was there. I went out for an errand, encountered a thunderstorm, and then saw this street scene as I waited to get a taxi.

You can imagine that my usual running park is much less crowded at this time of year.

So after braving the wedding photographers and (apparently) waterproof pianos at Hainan, and the rains and floods at Bangkok, what better place to run than Dubai? I went for a late afternoon run along Jumeirah Beach. I saw two camels on the beach, but not many people. Perhaps they were deterred by the searing temperatures.

So in a week I had a chance to run at China, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom. That's what I call quadracious. 

An Unprecedented Locomotory Feat

You may be aware that my training program for the Hood to Coast is complicated to some extent by my professional obligations. You may therefore be amazed by this week's athletic adventures. I set personal speed records at South Carolina, then at Beijing, and finally at Tokyo, all in the course of a week.

Today's culminant effort involved a walk through underground passageways from my hotel at Shiodome to Hibiya Park, from whence I commenced a run that was to take me twice round the Imperial Palace. Running around the Imperial Palace in April is glorious. Click the photo (from National Land Image Information (Color Aerial Photography), Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport) for a larger view.

Makha Bucha Day & Another Medal

Today is Makha Bucha Day, the full moon day of the third lunar month, and I was running before dawn this morning in a mini-marathon through the salt flats of coastal Samut Sakhon. I saw a bright tropical full moon, a hot sunrise, won another medal (although all finishers do seem to get a medal), continued my quadracious training program for the Hood to Coast relay race, and had a nice plate of Hoi Tod after finishing the 10.5 km run.

The medal above shows the provincial seal of Samut Sakhon province, a Chinese junk in the Gulf of Thailand with a smoking chimney of Samut Sakhon in the background.

Another Race, Another Medal

I ran a 10.5 km race this morning and was awarded this silver medal. I like to imagine that the medal represents my speed, strength, agility, and grace as I glide across the landscape much as a dolphin frolics in the sea. Today's race is part of my quadracious training program in advance of the Hood to Coast relay. Tomorrow I go for a strenuous 6.5 km jaunt around Bangkok Golf Club. The results of the intensive training program have led to two medals in two races. Perhaps trophies are next? 

  

10K Medalist!

I'm already training for the 317 km Hood to Coast relay in August. I won this impressive medal at the Fight Aids 10K race organized by the Department of Public Health in Bangkok a few weeks ago. I really won this medal! Not for winning the race, or placing, or showing, but for finishing.

I am approaching my training for the Hood to Coast with a four-pronged strategy. When last year at this time I was focused on the Sam Khok diet, my attention now turns to preparations for "the mother of all relays." What is my strategy? I run as much as I can, interspersing those workouts with copious amounts of turfgrass science, skiing, and golf. If my training program for the Hood to Coast is as successful as the Sam Khok diet, then it will be quite a year.

I struggle to choose the apt term to describe my unique training program. The Quadriform Approach? Quadripartite Training? QT? Quadruplicity? The Sam Khok diet was natural, vicinal, and rolled off my tongue. Any suggestions of a witty name for my training program will be appreciated and considered.