Mountains

I've just made a sudden change to my training regimen.

It wasn't exactly deliberate but it started with quitting my job.
While I continue to look around for another real work opportunity that
doesn't require me to leave my happy little tropical island I've gone
back to being an English teacher. Qiongzhou University obliged me in
my request that my 14 teaching hours per week be crammed together into
as short a time frame as possible and I've got slightly better than a
four day weekend.

And a new apartment.

In a new city.

If you are inclined to call Wuzhishan a city.

Which I'm not.

Cities have rather a lot more people than this place.

It's almost like being asked to move to the Adirondacks while still
getting New York City pay. Within a 50km radius of me are three of
the highest mountains on the island, two hot spring resorts, river
rafting, Hmong minority tribes, and some of the remaining old growth
rainforest. I've been told that the cloud leopard is exceedingly rare
and that I'm unlikely to get far enough into the boonies to encounter
one. Besides which they probably don't attack humans. But I've also
been warned about snakes and full on leg traps intended to snare wild
boars. So I think I'll stick to pavement at least until I find a
companion.

I'll be doing rather a lot less in terms on mileage but a lot more of
it will be up and down. My old training route (which I'll still do on
weekends in town) is 21 km of what I previously referred to as rolling
terrain in an out and back on the beach road. Tailwind out, headwind
in. My new training route is 18 km in an out and back on the nearest
winding mountain road at 5% grade. Get to the top, wait for the sweat
to dry so I won't be chilled, and see how many motor vehicles I can
pass on the way back down.

I did my baseline ride on Tuesday. Is 51:20 good for 9 kilometers of
5% up? Average heartrate was 155bpm.

I have the phone number of a resteraunt at the bottom so if I make a
call while I'm up at the top I can have a meal waiting for me when I
get there.

When I head back to Haikou City I have a number of options. I can
ride north 110km to get all the way out of the mountains and 220 km
total with the ability to catch a bus anytime after the 70km point.
OR I can ride the 90km south (mostly downhill but mountainous the
whole way) to Sanya and catch a bus. OR I can ride to Lingshui (40 km
of mountains then rolly with a headwind) and catch a bus sometime
before the expressway.

Today I managed just under 80km before a bus caught me. Not actually
the one I'd been planning to catch but they honked to pass me and when
I saw that they were going where I was ultimately going I flagged them
down. Had a nice conversation with the ticket lady and she said that
she'll pass the word so that when I'm doing a Thursday ride in the
general direction of Lingshui that the express bus to Haikou will know
to stop for me and pick me up if they see me on the road. I don't
know if the word will be passed this time but I suspect, by the third
or fourth time I do it, it will get around. Three hours hard riding
followed by three hours hard napping.

-M

wrote in message
ups.com...
I've just made a sudden change to my training regimen.

It wasn't exactly deliberate but it started with quitting my job.
While I continue to look around for another real work opportunity that
doesn't require me to leave my happy little tropical island I've gone
back to being an English teacher. Qiongzhou University obliged me in
my request that my 14 teaching hours per week be crammed together into
as short a time frame as possible and I've got slightly better than a
four day weekend.

And a new apartment.

In a new city.

If you are inclined to call Wuzhishan a city.

Which I'm not.

Cities have rather a lot more people than this place.

It's almost like being asked to move to the Adirondacks while still
getting New York City pay. Within a 50km radius of me are three of
the highest mountains on the island, two hot spring resorts, river
rafting, Hmong minority tribes, and some of the remaining old growth
rainforest. I've been told that the cloud leopard is exceedingly rare
and that I'm unlikely to get far enough into the boonies to encounter
one. Besides which they probably don't attack humans. But I've also
been warned about snakes and full on leg traps intended to snare wild
boars. So I think I'll stick to pavement at least until I find a
companion.

I'll be doing rather a lot less in terms on mileage but a lot more of
it will be up and down. My old training route (which I'll still do on
weekends in town) is 21 km of what I previously referred to as rolling
terrain in an out and back on the beach road. Tailwind out, headwind
in. My new training route is 18 km in an out and back on the nearest
winding mountain road at 5% grade. Get to the top, wait for the sweat
to dry so I won't be chilled, and see how many motor vehicles I can
pass on the way back down.

I did my baseline ride on Tuesday. Is 51:20 good for 9 kilometers of
5% up? Average heartrate was 155bpm.

I have the phone number of a resteraunt at the bottom so if I make a
call while I'm up at the top I can have a meal waiting for me when I
get there.

When I head back to Haikou City I have a number of options. I can
ride north 110km to get all the way out of the mountains and 220 km
total with the ability to catch a bus anytime after the 70km point.
OR I can ride the 90km south (mostly downhill but mountainous the
whole way) to Sanya and catch a bus. OR I can ride to Lingshui (40 km
of mountains then rolly with a headwind) and catch a bus sometime
before the expressway.

Today I managed just under 80km before a bus caught me. Not actually
the one I'd been planning to catch but they honked to pass me and when
I saw that they were going where I was ultimately going I flagged them
down. Had a nice conversation with the ticket lady and she said that
she'll pass the word so that when I'm doing a Thursday ride in the
general direction of Lingshui that the express bus to Haikou will know
to stop for me and pick me up if they see me on the road. I don't
know if the word will be passed this time but I suspect, by the third
or fourth time I do it, it will get around. Three hours hard riding
followed by three hours hard napping.

-M

Do you do all that and teach ft.?
What's the weather like these days?
3/4 of MHR for 5 minutes every second day is good enough to make a positive
increase in Heart and Lungs aerobic efficiency.
Just do enough at least to make you sweat and increase time, speed, or
length to improve fitness further. Check your HR at the breaks and end.
Recovery rate is important to.
You can check that out in exercise physiology or training manuals

Hope you are high on life. You are doing what some would dream about.

On Mar 23, 12:37 am, "nash" wrote:

Do you do all that and teach ft.?

The Chinese government definition of full time foreign teacher of
English is no more than 16 teaching hours per week. My school has
given me 14 and has kindly shoved them all onto Tuesdays and
Wednesdays (with the exception of one class early Thursday morning).

What's the weather like these days?

Depends where I am. Thursday morning I started at the north end of
the tropics at around 1600 meters elevation, went south while dropping
elevation until I was nearly sea level (but with a headwind) and then
caught an air conditioned bus 250 kilometers north back into the
subtropical zone and a light rain.

My weather sense is confused.

3/4 of MHR for 5 minutes every second day is good enough to make a positive
increase in Heart and Lungs aerobic efficiency.
Just do enough at least to make you sweat and increase time, speed, or
length to improve fitness further. Check your HR at the breaks and end.
Recovery rate is important to.
You can check that out in exercise physiology or training manuals

Hope you are high on life. You are doing what some would dream about.

And the company I quit actually thinks that by saying "sorry" they'll
get me to come back.

-M