Wild dogs and cows

Marcel took us on a driving tour of a potential 11km running loop when we arrived here in Istanbul on Friday morning. We later did a short run in the midday heat and while the roads aren't designed with athletes in mind - are any anywhere? - I was encouraged by them nonetheless.

After spending much of Saturday touring the city centre, mostly inside The Pillows Store, I opted for a bike ride this morning. And it was a good decision.

As Marcel noted, traffic was likely to increase in volume after 8am and so as in Sydney, the key was to get on the road early.

My alarm rang out at 5:45 but it still looked a bit dark outside and so I opted to sleep in just a bit longer. I was up and out the door at 6:30am and managed to ride for almost two hours.

The 11k loop was: about 3k flat to start, then about 5km up to the top of a ridge and then 2-3km down. Perfect.

Traffic wasn't an issue. However, there are a lot of wild - stray - dogs wandering around and it would appear that they like to sleep near the road even on the quieter roads. For the most part, the dogs ignored me. And that was good as some of them were big and looked like they could munch a carbon rim in one go.

I had a close encounter with two dogs on the first lap, which I extended with an additional 1.5km climb. Going up was fine. It was when I was coasting back to the loop that the dogs weren't quite as friendly.

I suspect it was the noise that my back wheel makes when it spins freely that attracted and annoyed, and perhaps scared, the dogs. They were looking a tad hungry and so I took as wide a berth around them as I could. One sort of indicated he might chase me but gave up fairly soon.

On the second, third and fourth laps I opted to skip the extra climb!

On my fourth lap, however, I did have my ride slowed by the sudden appearance of six cattle being herded onto the street by a rather severe looking woman with a piece of wood in her hand. She scowled at me as I rode by and I couldn't help but laugh - once safely out of reach!!