17 March 2008
Cruisin’
Posted by Shelly under: Shelly Batterbee .
I think I should start titling my blogs with song titles. That song is almost as annoying as Scandal’s “The Warrior” after it’s been in the brain for 4-5 days. Very karaoke. But I do love a good round of karaoke every now and then. 
I digress…I’ve decided that March brings idiocy for me. Loss of brain cells. Goodbye common sense. I was so smart in February—babying my knee pain and slowly rebuilding strength with no sacrifice necessary. Maybe it was that nasty bout of the flu I had three weeks ago that sucked some of the smart out of me.
Recently, I returned from a 4 day cruise to the Keys and the Bahamas. It was a reward trip for my husband for his hard work and performance this past year at work. I got a lot of naysayers prior to leaving—figuring I’d indulge in the all-inclusive and push my workouts overboard. Well, I worked out every day we were gone, except for last Monday—our return day, which I planned ahead of time to use as my rest day. Those of you planning a vacation should know it is possible to have your break and run on it, too. Just plan ahead with routes or finding the local Y or something else (to plan routes near your hotel–go to www.mapmyrun.com –a fabulous tool!)
I thought about using the ship’s track—up on the top deck of the cruiseliner with a beautiful view. But it was 11 times around to hit one mile and it was windy. Instead, I went up to the gym and chose a 5K—I realized once I got on the treadmill that they were all in kg and km, so rather than figuring the 0.6 conversion all out for some bizarre distance, I just settled for a 3.1 miler.
The second day I found a bike that was Americanized and rode 10.8 miles (equivalent to about 3.6 miles of running). I try to either do an easy run or a longer bike ride the day before a long run. All the treadmills were taken, so that made that decision pretty easy.
The third day, Saturday, was my long run day. Thankfully that was our “day at sea,” so I knew I had plenty of time to fit it in. My husband offered to sit in a lounge chair and count laps for me on the track…but I politely declined. I wasn’t confident he wouldn’t lose count after dozing off or finding a margarita in his hand, so I opted for the treadmill again. I did my speed conversions and figured out how many kilometers I needed for my run AND warm-up/cool down prior to heading up the five flights of stairs to the gym. I managed 8.5 miles of running added with 1.5 miles of walk total–for 10 miles on a treadmill looking at nothing but the water ahead of us out the window.
Did I mention I only took the stairs the whole time we were on-board? Again—another good way to stay fit and avoid vacation weight-gain. I actually lost three pounds on this trip. I apparently need to eat and drink more.
Upon my return, I got the bright idea to do a hill workout and a speed workout on the same run on my charming Athena (read previous posts). Not really smart—especially right before the first 5K of the season – the Irish Jig. Felt great though. I told myself I’d do “easy” workouts the rest of the week. Ha! I discovered the Virtual Training Partner on my training watch. I “raced” the VTP for an outdoor run on Thursday, and again on the bike on Friday. Not a good idea so close to the 5K.
Saturday I ran the Jig with some friends and fellow Road Warriors. I was disappointed in my time—I always try for sub-30 minutes, and I got 30:06 this year. Seven stinkin’ seconds. I had to keep telling myself to run smart and not get injured this year. This race marks the anniversary of two previous injury years, so I was nervous. I was still able to run 10.56 miles yesterday with RunGazelle – slow though it was. Double-digits are a beautiful thing while training for a race like the Riverbank. Another mental hurdle crossed!
This morning, my heel is pretty tender. I was fighting the tender heel all through December and January, but hopefully this is just a day or two of nothing and not a bigger problem. I will be smart and take today as a running REST day.
Maybe I can use this day to come up with a name for my Virtual Training Partner on my watch. Any suggestions (keep ‘em clean, folks—I’ve already said a few choice words to it, I’m sure!)?
2 Comments so far...
Lisa Brady Says:
17 March 2008 at 9:05 am.
I call mine “Linus” as in the Peanuts guy who always has his security blanket. My handy-dandy little wrist thingy from that Gar***-manufacturer is my security blanket on long runs.
Terry Says:
17 March 2008 at 7:17 pm.
Great job on the Irish Jig and keeping the training going on vacation. I hope you had atleas a couple of margaritas after you training each time.
Terry