A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

I'm happy to report that as of Wednesday and Thursday of this week I finally slept through the night, my usual 10p-6a.  Such an amazing feeling to wake up and feel like me!

As you may recall, I have been working out regularly for nearly a year now, and have missed my almost daily workouts during this long transition. Once we arrived, I looked forward to establishing a new morning workout routine but realized it might be challenging until we joined a gym or found an apartment complex with gym on-hand.  Last week I had the bright revelation that there is a public football (soccer) court just down the street (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southorn_Playground). And, as I suspected, it is open to the public beginning at 6a. Mark and I have visited this park a few times in the morning to walk/jog the track. Yes, we are the only white people. Yes, we are the tallest people. Yes, we don't care.  While discussing our morning expedition with a coworker, Mark was informed of another location, Bowen Road Park.  (http://tinyurl.com/277379r - check out the pictures!) 

Bowen Road Park has become our new favorite place. Just the hike to the starting point is a cardio workout.  We climb up Monmouth Path (it leads to our new apartment) and then hit a staircase. I will count the stairs the next time we climb up - I'm betting its more than 100, and steeper than 45 degrees - perhaps 50 or 55? Thankfully we get a breather at the top when we cross Kennedy Road.  We spend an exaggerated amount of time looking both ways for cars - can't be too careful!

Then we climb Bowen Road. Happily, no stairs, just a nice, long, steep hill.  So, from our apartment to the top of Bowen Road is about 20 minutes, 15 of which are spent climbing the stairs or hill. Once we live in Monmouth we will only have to contend with Bowen Road.  Although Mark the Lifestyle Coach has encouraged me to run the Monmouth steps once or twice a week for the cardio. I'll get right on that. 

There are lots of people on this path at 6:30a.m.  Running, walking, stretching, doing Tai Chi, chatting with friends, walking dogs, enjoying the view. Mark and I did one section, "out and back" as we say, and got a good 5 mile walk in.  Yesterday I started running/walking a bit of the path.  I'll be honest  -the heat and humidity quickly took their toll. It will be some time before I completely adjust to the weather. I was sweating so much I couldn't keep my glasses on...and me running blind could end up in a headline.

There are four immaculate tennis courts on our climb up Bowen Road - just minutes from our apartment.  Lots of other paths exit from Bowen Road that will give us many mornings/afternoons of hiking Hong Kong Island. I hope you come visit us so we can show you the beauty of our new world.