Category: Sports

So Thursday after work I decided to walk home as a bit of exercise. My office is located in Kuwait City near Muthana Complex and my apartment at the beginning of Salmiya. I estimated the distance would be around 15km and I wanted to try and make the trip in 3 hours or less. Well the whole trip turned out to be 12km and took me around 2 hours and 20 minutes to complete. I thought that was disappointing because my regular walks around Salmiya are 11km long and Kuwait City to Salmiya sounded a lot longer than that. I didn’t feel tired or exhausted and it really wasn’t challenging enough. What was even more depressing was when I got home and was checking Facebook I noticed pictures of a friend of mine who had just gotten back to Kuwait after participating at the Marathon des Sables… a 6 day long 243km endurance race. I guess I’m taking baby steps? On the bright side at least it’s something I can do more often now. I took some pictures during the walk and was uploading them to twitter but in case you missed it you can see them at the bottom of this post.

On a different note I measured my body fat percentage today and it’s 13%. That means I dropped down 1.6% since the beginning of the month (I was 14.6) and I lost 1.2kg of body weight and all of it was fat, no muscle loss. So not what I was hoping for but still better off from where I was earlier in the month.

So yesterday I ended up riding home from work. It was a fairly chilled out ride with the most difficult part trying to get from my office near Muthana Complex in Kuwait City to Souq Sharq. There are no bike paths and the sidewalks aren’t consistent but once I got to Souq Sharq it was pretty straight forward from there on.

It took me just over an hour to complete the journey and I was mostly cruising at a moderate pace since I didn’t know how long the journey would be and if I would run out of energy before I got back home. The weather was great and I had good music playing so it was pretty much enjoyable and I think I’m going to do this a few more times before it gets really hot. I did have some problems with my bikes gear shifting by itself and I noticed my brakes weren’t performing that well so I’m going back to Extreme Sports to get these 2 issues fixed before I go riding again.

Now tomorrow on the other hand I’m going to attempt to walk back home from work. I’m estimating it should take me around 3 hours but hopefully not more than that. I need to burn as much fat as I can before Saturday since that’s when I’m going to be checking my stats and hopefully I’ll hit my target of 12% body fat. This also means no cheat meal this Friday, it’s been pushed back till Saturday night instead.

The weather is getting hotter and biking season will soon be over. Before it is though there is something I’ve been wanting to do for awhile now and that is ride my bicycle to work and back. Since my car is at the dealer getting serviced plus I’m trying to burn some fat before the end of the month I figured it’s the perfect time to try this. I wiped the dust off my bike this past weekend and walked to Extreme Sports at the end of my street in Salmiya to get some new tires. The service guy there was pretty helpful, ended up getting some meaner wider tires for my bike, plus some new inner tubes as well as a pump in case I get a flat. It cost me KD15 per tire, KD4 per inner tube (comes with slime inside them) and another KD17 for the air pump. Not sure if these prices are good or not since it’s my first time replacing my tires.

My bike is now ready to ride to work and I’ve basically planned the route in my head already. I live in the old Salmiya and my office is near Muthana Complex in the city. I’m going to be going out onto the Gulf Road and ride my bike on the seaside pathway from in front of Shaab Park all the way till Souk Sharq. If I remember correctly the path ends once you hit Seef Palaace. From that point I’m not sure what route I will take. There is no way I am going to ride my bike on the street and I don’t recall there being a sidewalk. So I might end up cutting across towards the Kuwait Stock Exchange and head to Fahad Al Salem street and continue on the sidewalk from there. It’s around 8KM from my house to the Kuwait Towers and I would say less than 8KM from the Kuwait Towers to Muthana so I think it should take me under an hour if I take my time.

It really sucks how we don’t have any bike paths in the city. I know the weather gets very hot in the summer but this year there were at least 6 months of nice weather. In Salmiya we have sidewalks but if it’s crowded you can’t really ride your bike on them and then you have problems with the curb (check picture above) where you have a slope on one side of the street but no slope on the other. That’s not wheel chair friendly yet alone bike friendly. Anyway the plan is to ride to work tomorrow so will post again once I actually do it.

Update: Does anyone remember the yellow siren below? I used to have one on my bike as a kid, I wonder if they still sell them in Kuwait…

Last week I messed up my knee running on my treadmill and since I still wanted to do cardio I decided to walk instead. I plugged in my wireless Nike+ sensor into my sneakers, started the Nike+ app on my iPhone and started walking from the start of Salem Mubarek Street in Salmiya all the way down to Electrozan which is at the very end of it, picked up an iPod Shuffle and then walked back. I was walking at a moderately fast pace and once I got back home I ended my session on the Nike+ app and checked the results (screenshot posted above).

Now I’m not sure how accurate the Nike+ app is, I doubt it’s very accurate but it should be somewhat accurate and if it is then I burned around 600 calories walking for nearly 2 hours. I thought that was pretty cool since when I run on the treadmill at home I usually run just 30 minutes before getting bored and tired. By the end of the 30 minutes I would have burned around 200 calories if I’m lucky, most probably less than that even. Walking on the other hand I can do for much longer periods of time and without getting either tired or bored.

Since I live right on Salem Mubarek Street I’m going to start walking on my days when I don’t have gym instead of running on the treadmill. I should burn more calories that way and I prefer walking in Salmiya over running on a treadmill facing a wall. But since I’m not a fitness expert maybe if Fahad reads this post he can add more information on how accurate my Nike+ is and if walking actually burns that much calories.

Shot this last night, they were just kicking the ball back and forth to each other. Scooters are not allowed but football is? [YouTube]

The Red Bull Car Park Drift is back for the second time around. This year it’s going to be held at the Kuwait International fairgrounds. The winner of the car park drift will end up flying to Lebanon with his car, all expenses paid to compete in the regional final event.

Location: Kuwait International Fair
Date: Friday April 22, 2011
Time: 3:30pm
Rules: Drivers must bring their own cars to compete with. The cars should be either rear wheel drive or 4-wheel drive (saloon and sports cars only)

To participate call 66406020 or visit www.redbullmea.com

This is a very cool event that’s happening tomorrow, Saturday the 26th of March at Pro Kart. It’s actually a bunch of events which I will try my best to explain clearly.

Karting Speed Max Challenge 4 Hours
The first event is a 4 hour karting race. 40 drivers will compete in scoring the best time with 5 drivers racing every heat and the winner continuing on to the final race. The race starts at 4PM and ends at 8PM. The race is open to the public and it’s free of charge!

Dolphin Karting Cup
The second event is an event for juniors aged 5 to 8 year-olds. This race event starts at 3PM and is also free of charge.

Motocross Challenge
The final event is a motocross challenge which will be held at the motocross track adjacent to the karting one. This event will start at 1PM and will be divided into a seniors and juniors race. Participating in this event is also free but unlike the karting events you would need to bring your own dirt bike here.

For more information on these events and a map to the location plus contact numbers you can visit the Pro Kart website [Here]

*****NOTICE*****
Due to the dust storm the event was postponed till next week.

This is a really well made local parkour video, actually, it’s easily the best locally produced extreme sports video I’ve seen to date. The parkour team in the video above is a new Kuwaiti team that has been training for a couple of years now and this is their first video. The members are:

Members (الأعضاء):
Jaber Ali Al-Kinany (جابر علي الكناني)
Mohammad Ahmad Al-Attar (محمد أحمد العطار)
Yousif Jawad Al-Attar (يوسف جواد العطار)
Barrak Abbas Al-Qallaf (براك عباس القلاف)
Abdulmohsen Sleem Al-Roomy (عبدالمحسن سليم الرومي)
Abdullah jalal Sheshtar (عبدالله جلال ششتر)

Really cool. [YouTube]

Q8Geeks posted a video they took at the Kuwait Rally 2011. I didn’t think they would be allowed to get this close to the cars and now I am jealous I didn’t go and take pictures myself. [Link]

Red Bull is brining their Wanna Panna freestyle football event for the first time to Kuwait. I hadn’t heard about it before until my friend emailed me information on it. Here is a description of what Wanna Panna is:

Panna, Gate in Surinamese, is a type of street football in which fine dribbling counts rather than scoring a goal. Red Bull Wanna Panna will put candidates one facing another on a pitch measuring 6 x 6 meters in quick games lasting 4 minutes. The winner will be the one who manages to outdo his opponent in playing the ball through his legs. In case of a draw, an extra minute is added. If the score remains a draw, a panel of 3 judges will decide on the winner based on control and skills.

Date: Friday March 18th, 2011
Time: Starts at 2PM
Location: Souq Sharq

For more information visit the Red Bull website [Here]

Just found out by mistake that there is a mini Olympics of a sort just for women that being held in Abu Dhabi for the next six days. Not sure if it’s been publicized or not but I just found out about it now and not sure if the games will be broadcasted on television or not. Kuwait is participating in the games as well as female athletes from Oman, Bahrain, Qatar and UAE. They will be competing in athletics, volleyball, equestrian, taekwondo, bowling and shooting. Not sure who or how many from Kuwait are participating so if anyone has more information on this I will gladly post it. Here is a link to an article about the games. [Link]

Kuwait Charity Run has teamed up with Bayt Abdullah Children’s Hospice to raise funds and awareness within the Kuwait community, bringing you Kuwait’s 1st Half-Marathon Run!

Kuwait Charity Run is a non-profit group founded to encourage community members, runners, and athletes to raise funds and donations for good causes and engage in outdoor sports activities.

Distance: 21km or 10km
Date: March 19th 2011

For registration and much more information visit their website [Here]

CNN has two videos on golf in Kuwait. The first video talks about how golf came about in Kuwait and the Golf Me store located in Muthana. The second video is about the Sahara Country Club and the rising stars of golf in Kuwait. Here are the links to the videos:

Kuwait’s slow rise to world golf scene
The future golf stars of Kuwait

I found this local online store that sells TapouT clothing and gear here in Kuwait. Whenever I wear my Kenny Florian walkout shirt to the gym I always get asked where I got it from and my answer would be the US. Now though I can buy the t-shirts locally and their prices are pretty good. I haven’t ordered from them yet and I emailed them last week asking them if they had a physical store I could go and try the sizes but I still haven’t gotten a response. Not a good sign but it’s cash on delivery so nothing really to worry about. [Link]

Update: I placed an order on the website and received a phone call the following day asking for my address. The items were then delivered to me the same evening. Turns out they have a 15% discount at the moment so the price of a tshirt came out to KD11.900 which is great. Only comment I would have is now that I bought my first tshirt I wish they had an online payment option.

This is just a reminder, UFC legend Royce Gracie is going to be in Kuwait this weekend giving a 3 day seminar. It’s KD100 for the 3 days and no previous jujitsu experience is required. If you’re interested contact Side Kick Academy on 99975562. Here is a link to the Facebook event page [Link]