Well Hello There!
Welcome to the fourth edition Week in Review where I look back at my previous week of living Project 30 and try my best to distill it in 4 main topics. This one is a bit delayed because I have been attempting to write down two other major experiences that I have this past week but I have been struggling to find the right head space and amount of time to dedicate truly uninterrupted time to write. Hopefully soon I will publish those two writings when the time is right.
Anyways! This week’s 4 main topics include: Travel, Run & Muay Thai, the Book I am currently listening to, & my Podcast of the week.
Travel
Pai, Thailand
The Stay- Sitjeman
Week 2 of daily Muay Thai training and living on-premise
Having a Muay Thai open air gym as my front yard remains a great experience!
Favorite Place to Eat- Walking Street of Pai
The Walking Street stalls in Pai!
Every night Pai’s Main Street is filled with food carts that serve foods that vary from Thai to Middle Eastern to many other Asian specialities.
By far the best stall is the one that is simple called “Pad Thai Thailand”
The chef only cooks Pad Thai and man does he crush it! It’s easily my favorite Pad Thai!
Activity- Elephant Walk
Akshay and I decided to do an elephant tour.
At the start of the tour we feed two elephants, one a full sized adult, named Dao, and a smaller teenaged one named Ot. We spent a few minutes feeding each elephant bananas. This was my first time ever feeding elephants let alone ever touching one so it was a surreal experience for me. The elephants would eat by reaching their trunks out and using their snout to hold onto the banana before inhaling each banana without so much as chewing.
Once we got aquatinted with each elephant, it was time for us to start our walk. We walked with the smaller OT and headed towards the river
On the way a local young child, named Dee, decided to join us on our walk towards the river
Dee was very careful to keep his distance from the massive animal and used Akshay and I as human shields whenever Ot got to close
When we arrived to the river, we gave Ot a bath by splashing his back and rubbing off the dirt he’d accumulated while being in his stable
It was amusing to be able to give such a massive animal a bath but equally as terrifying every time Ot would stand up or roll to her side
The elephant walk tour was a great experience and I highly recommend that people take one if they ever find themselves with the chance to do one
Run & Muay Thai
Mileage
30 miles. One long ass run and done for the week!
Runner's High Thoughts
On March 8th, I ran my 6th Project 30 run around the beautiful hippie influenced town of Pai. Since I dedicate a blog post specifically to my runs, I don’t want to get too bogged down here with the details. So here are a few highlights:
It was tough as hell! Seriously, I can say that this was the hardest run I have done so far
I saw a man riding an elephant
I was the only one at the top of Pai canyon, a usually dense tourist hotspot
I passed many beautiful temples and statues
I explored one hell of a beautiful area
I ended the run looking like a lobster
It was very hot and humid throughout the run but I still got that bad boy done!
Muay Thai
Due to wanting to complete one of my Project 30 runs this week, I decided to take Monday and my running day, Tuesday, off. I also took Saturday off
I trained Wednesday-Friday resulting in:
12 hours of training
Countless rounds of punching bags and hitting pads
24 minutes of sparring
Six 12 minute jumping rope sessions = 72 minutes of jump rope
Book
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
Snapshot Thoughts
Gaiman is one of my favorite authors so I was excited to pick up another one of his books
I picked out the full cast production version on audible and I love it so far
I listened to this book for about 4 hours out of the 5.5 hours I spent running my 6th Project 30 run
The story is a light one and easily digested when running, I am looking forward to finishing during my upcoming maintenance runs
Podcast
Podcast: Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History
Episode: BLITZ Human Resources
I have yet to finish this 5.5 hour mammoth of a podcast episode. The subject matter is a powerfully emotive one as it is about human slavery and more specifically the transatlantic slave trade
Just a fair warning, the episode is a tough one but Dan Carlin is a master at taking his audience through the intense and deeply disturbing moments in history
Dan Carlin is master storyteller and I must say that he treats this subject with the seriousness and delicateness that it deserves without compromising his style of storytelling
If you want to expand your knowledge on this dark and important part of American history, I highly recommend giving this a listen
Gratitude & Feedback
Thank you for reading up into this point. Please share with me any thoughts or recommendations that you may have. I appreciate all of you that are continuing to follow me on this wild project as I try to live an uncharted and non-traditional life.
Keep pushing & much love!
-Dylan