Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Dubai is well endowed in totally artificial things so I thought I might as well have a look at perhaps its most artificial place of all, the man-made island in the shape of a palm. Ended up getting almost up to where the first 'fronds' came off before the turnaround. I thought I might get a bit of waterfront running on this one but there wasn't any public access to the waterfront either on the mainland or the part of the island I was on - it's all resort hotels or private beach clubs - so this was mostly along main roads, OK at 7 on a Sunday morning but might not have been so pleasant at a busier time. It did turn out as the best I've felt on a run since I've been here, fairly smooth after the first 20 minutes or so.

I've had some Achilles soreness in both legs towards the end of the day both today and yesterday (probably the work shoes I'm wearing), but it wasn't an issue on the run.

There were a few more science sessions on the agenda today (one which might get the interest of some here is the use of Lidar to do detailed global vegetation canopy height mapping as input to modelling global carbon storage by forests). I've also been asked to keep an eye on sessions dealing with "loss and damage", which today meant an earnest, well-meaning session led by NGOs putting forward funding propositions which are well-intentioned and utterly politically impossible (unless you think there is a country somewhere in the world where you could win an election on a platform of imposing a new 60% tax on fuel and sending all the money to other countries).