What ever it takes!

I was going to take the day off but I woke up at 5:00am and since I work so hard to get on local time and on a schedule I didn't want to mess with it so I went to the hotel gym for an easy workout,  30 minutes on the elliptical, 30 minutes of weights.

I asked the local IT guy from the hotel what they said in the Muslim prayer song that plays throughout the city in every Mosque 5 times a day, figuring everyone in Turkey was Muslim.  He said, "how should I know, it's in Arabic, no one here speaks Arabic" Anyway, he was very annoyed that they played it 5 times a day and said only about 5% of the people here actually follow it.  I thought that was really funny and related it to Utah,  I once had a friend from Memphis come visit in Utah and the first thing she asked was "where are all the Mormons"  can you imagine what the out cry in Utah would be if  5 times a day they played church Hymns from every ward house in Utah.  Non-Mormons would riot I'm sure.  Apparently Istanbul is fairly liberal when it comes to religion but most places in this area are not allowed to choose.  All I'm saying here is next time someone complains about Mormons in Utah, tell them to come to the Middle East, they will appreciate what we have a lot more.

The group I'm working for made us change hotels last night, so now I'm slummin' it at the Conrad Hilton Hotel.  I was actually pretty excited about it cause it has a much nicer gym and a pool.  My room over looks a Mosque, lucky me.  Muslim prayer time this morning 4:40am.  

90 Minutes on the elliptical. 

P.M.

45 Minutes on the elliptical,  25 minutes of weights

A.M.  

60 Minutes of elliptical and then I decided to try out the leg,  4km in 30 minutes at 7% incline.  That's a whoppin 12min/mile pace.  Sweet huh?

P.M.

45 Minutes of elliptical

A.M.

90 Minutes of elliptical.  Tried running for 0.5 km but it wasn't happening for me.

Muslim Prayer time gets earlier by 2 minutes every morning, this is a great way to slowly get on an earlier workout schedule.

P.M.

45 Minutes on the elliptical. 30 minutes of weights.  Mostly leg workouts.

Some guy came into the gym wearing some crazy European running outfit and jumped on the treadmill and started making a total fool of himself, flailing arms, crazy stride and breathing so loud I could hear him over my Nickleback playlist.  I couldn't take it and finished my elliptical workout and then jumped on the treadmill next to him to show him a thing or two.  Before you knew it there were two idiots on the treadmill making total fools of themselves.  Man, I'm a wreck, I'd guess I'm at the same fitness level I was when I weighed 210 lbs.  Ouch!!

A.M.

75 Minutes on the elliptical.   In the hotel gym, early in the morning, all alone in a country far far away.

A.M.

90 Minutes on the elliptical, 20 minutes of weights

P.M.

60 Minutes on the elliptical, 30 minutes of weights.

Finally I am done, I get to get on a plane tomorrow afternoon and sit in coach for 20 hours.  I'm am going to attempt to put an end to my 2 week running hiatus tomorrow morning before my flight.  I really wanted to run across the bridge to the Asia side of Turkey  but I need the ability to push the stop button if things go wrong.  Oh well, next time.

Good luck to all you Ogden marathoners,  according to my iPhone it says the weather should be nice for Y'all.  I feel bad I can't do it.  The cool temperatures will help I'm sure.

Assuming I can run tomorrow and not do elliptical that is 10.5 hours on the elliptical this week, last week I may have over guessed on running equivalency, I will go with an avg of 7mph so a total of 73.5 +2.5 = 76 miles this week so far.  If I ever recover it will be interesting to see if my body thinks I have worked that hard.  I'm guessing it will rebel.

Humm, well that stunk.  Plan was to try and force myself to go 12 but either my pain threshold has gone down or I'm in worse shape now than 2 weeks ago.  So much for taking time off.  Did 4 miles in about 31 minutes called it quits and hit the elliptical for 60 minutes.  Then went and did weights/ plyo type exercises for 30 minutes.  2 hours total.

Now for the long flight home,  next time I go to bed it will be in my own bed.  Gotta say though, Istanbul is on my top 5 list of favorite places I've been.   If you ever get a chance to come here don't pass it up, it's been a really great trip.