Finish Line 70.3

Finish Line 70.3
Finish Line 70.3

70.3 Finisher!

70.3 Finisher!
70.3 Finisher

Monday, July 12, 2010

The Out of Towners

Great movie. Twitter version: Jack Lemmon sleeping in Central Park fighting a dog over discarded Crackerjacks. You have to be over 50 to even know about this movie.

Anyway. Working out while on vacation, or traveling for any reason, has its upsides and downsides. For example, this was me on Friday (my 53rd birthday), in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, doing a 2.65 mile run:

Me (being passed by a very fit runner lady, who I later found out was 77 years old): "Where--wheeze--do you---wheeze--guys keep--gasp--the oxygen--wheeze--in this--gasp--state?"

Very Fit Old Lady: "mzzzzzpppp" (as she whizzed by me).

Working out at higher altitudes has its joys: it was cool and I was running in the shadow of the Tetons. It also has the pain of having no air to spare, since I wasn't up there long enough to acclimate. But I tried hard and managed a 2.65 mile run in 30 minutes, at which time I headed for the birthday cake and oxygen tank.

In the last 4 years, I've always worked out on vacation or business/personal travel trips. Back when I was just a runner, this was sorta easy. You packed your running shoes, your Garmin (you gotta know your distance in a strange location), and some running clothes, and then you just ran. I have run on the deck of a cruise ship (interesting feeling), in Alaska, on the beach path in Hawaii, down a trail in BC Canada, on rainy streets in San Antonio and even down the strip in Las Vegas. Have Nike Air Zooms, will travel. Worst case scenario is that you find a treadmill in your hotel gym and pound it out for awhile.

However, it's harder to work on the bikey-swimmy stuff away from home. You can do the gym bike if you are at a hotel that has a gym (I'd rather give myself a Tabasco enema--because that is what a gym bike feels like to me--but it's better than not working out at all), or you can borrow a bike (usually too big), rent a bike (we did that in Alaska), or even bring your bike or ship it in advance (a lot of PIA and some cost). To swim, you gotta have a pool or an accomodating lake (hint: not in Wyoming, or Alaska) or calm ocean (hint: great place for socean wimming is the Carribean in St. Marteen). But you can at least run, and maybe swim, and maybe do a little biking. If you are serious about working out, you go out and do your workout in the morning and fall into the beach chair with the mai tai later on in the day.

In addition, a lot of vacations offer other things to do that won't hurt your workout routine. Kayaking (we did this in Alaska--great upper body stuff), hiking, horseback riding, skating, skiing, snowshoeing--get out there and do stuff. Every day if you can handle it, maybe leave one day to collapse by the pool. BE ACTIVE.

We spent 3 full days in Jackson Hole WY visiting my sister last week. We arrived late Wed night. On Thursday, we did an 8 hour fly fishing trip which was awesome (good upper body workout!). On Friday, I did my wheeze run in the morning and that afternoon we took a short 4.5 mile hike. On Saturday, we did a six hour 10 mile hike that was pretty strenuous. My right calf muscle is telling me about it right now. I took yesterday off, and today I'm back in the thick hot air of Texas, and going swimming tonight. It was beautiful up there, and being outside was just wonderful. I am so lucky to be able to move around, hike, walk, run, fish--and part of my working out is to keep it that way. My 63 year old sister hiked circles around me, by the way.

Oh! And for my birthday I got some new bike gadgets:

1. A bento box for the front tube of the bike. This small velcro box sits on the front tube and holds gels, candies, cookies, bars--whatever you will need to get to without getting down off the bike, or even reaching back into your pocket (when I do that, I drop things).

2. A new Cat Eye wireless bike computer with a cadence monitor. This little baby tracks your rpms, or pedal strokes. An important aspect of biking is to keep your cadence fast, rather than pumping hard and slow on the pedals. A monitor helps show you when your cadence drops so you can either pick up the pace or gear to an easier gear. Yes, I know, sometimes there ISN'T an easier gear. I try to gear down to an non existant gear all the time, okay?

3. A Bontager water hydration system for between my aerobars up front. This means I won't have to lean down to grab my water bottle and then drop it or spill it or lose control while trying to put it back. I can simply grab the straw with my teeh and take a drink while pedaling along. My only worry is something my mother would have said: "can you put your eye out on that straw?" Probably not; it's pretty flexible and I AM wearing sunglasses. I'll bet a guy wouldn't worry about that.

I also got a gift certificate to a sports store where I intend to load up on some Ironman socks. Those are the best socks I can find--thin, breathable, and easy to put on wet feet post swim. I wish they made them in more colors than they do, but I guess this is one where function beats form any day.

Triathletes are sooooo easy to shop for!

Happy vacationing--go out and be active wherever you go!

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