Abroad - #EricInHK

I'm very fortunate to have some extensive work travel to our Hong Kong offices, so I thought I'd share some of my experiences outside of the working days.  "Work travel" is certainly a double-edged sword - on the positive side, you get to travel; on the negative side, you have to travel.

September in HK isn't necessarily the ideal weather that I had on my January trip (coincidently the same time as Chiberia), but it can be easily made into a fun game that I like call "Try not to need a shower before getting work."  The rules are simple, but to win, it takes strategy and execution.  (Basically you decide between taking the subway, which involves a little more walking, but less waiting.  Or you gamble, with taking the bus that involves less walking, but you must time it precisely or risk broiling in the sun...and the AC is less powerful.)

Looks like the October trip will be a bit milder (September was mid-90s and high, high humidity):

While on the topic of weather, I was able to experience a Typhoon!  Yes, I was quite excited about this (it's similar to anticipating a snow-day).  I was surprised by how cavalier everyone was when it was anticipated to only be a Level 3.  But then word came that it'd be hoisted to Level 8 and the city shut down.  We stayed in the hotel and watched the wind and rain.  The next morning, we had to wait to go into work until it was lowered.  Boom, all of a sudden everything is business as usual again.

Tracking Typhon Kalmaegi:

While HK is a very active city, it's not necessarily as convenient for am running on the streets when compared to the Chicago LFT.  For this reason, most of my runs were done on the treadmill before work.
Typical 3 mile treadmill before work:

Note that the cadence sensor is not calibrated because I use the 220 also for biking (no multi-sport mode)

However, hiking is very popular on the weekends.  When I initially thought of Hong Kong, "city, skyscraper, urban" came to mind, but really, I should have also been thinking, "mountains, trees, landscape".  A colleague and his wife played tour-guides and we hiked the popular Dragon's Back Trail, which just amazes me that you can get to within 45 min. of the city all with public transportation:

I also took advantage of Strava's Segment Explorer function to find some popular running routes.  Happy Valley horse race course caught my eye, and on a later trip with more favorable weather, I may place my bid for the CR:

Time to wrap this blog up for now, but I also need to give a shout out for my Manduka eKO travel matt from Fleet Feet Sports - Chicago, the Yogify app, and the Trigger Point Grid mini-roller.

Also on Instagram or Twitter, follow @EricVBaum #EricInHK for pics from October's trip!

And for great travel advice specific to Hong Kong's public transportation, follow #HKSubwayWarningOfTheDay :)