Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Running In Florida

I know, tough stuff! I ran on both Saturdays that we were in Florida on vacation: once on the streets of Seminole and Largo (two communities in the Tampa Bay/Clearwater Beach area) and the second time I was barefoot on the sand at Clearwater Beach. I hadn't run on that beach since I had visited Florida when I was in high school. Only one minor cut on my foot from a shell fragment during the second run, which I see as a small price to re-live a memory from my younger days.

In between our times on the coast, my family and I went to Disney World. I am a logistics guy by nature and profession, so I took it upon myself to plan our days at Disney, including being the runner for Fastpasses. For those unfamiliar with Disney World, line-ups can be a real drag on your time, with wait times of over an hour for popular attractions. The Fastpass allows you to plan ahead and basically beat the line, provided you return to go on the ride at a later time that is appointed when you get the Fastpass.

Getting the Fastpasses meant that sometimes I had to go to a different part of the park to book a ride we wanted to go on, but that saved us from waiting in the heat for an hour or so per ride, which can seem like an eternity with two tired youngsters. This gave me the opportunity to sprint a few times a day while at Disney, on top of the hours of walking around that we did, too. I think there is value in some sprint training, to mix up the exercise for your body and maybe even speed up your longer runs!

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Saturday Run Around Cow Bay

I wasn't able to go to this morning's Team Myles run because of family commitments, but I more than made up for it by running the loop around Cow Bay. It is about 7.5 kilometres. I have run it before but the first leg was all headwind today. For some reason, it didn't feel like the tailwind on the other side of the loop helped me as much as the headwind at the start made me work harder!

I used some of the warm-up moves and stretches that Devon from Push Fitness showed us before our Team Myles runs. I have found that it's good for me to do a bit of warm-up and stretching before a run. I have heard some other people say they don't stretch before, but I will err on the side of caution. The last thing I want is to be laid up with an injury that warming-up and stretching might have prevented.