One thing that has certainly changed since I’ve gotten older is my desire to workout while travelling. Younger me would have been more than satisfied with a large pizza and a movie marathon on American TV. Current me still loves the idea of pizza and a movie, but I find myself restless if I don’t workout. Now arguments can be made that it is ‘too tough’ to workout while abroad, but I’m written several posts about what to pack to get a sweat on (click here to read). I also work in a role that allows flexibility to do my job from anywhere with an internet connection (but it’s challenging when the internet speed sucks). Deciding that 25 degrees Celsius was better than -20 degrees, I found myself following @savannahjessie to Palm Beach Florida.
Running in the Sunshine
I had never heard of Palm Beach before this trip, but it’s a sliver of land with the Atlantic on one side and the Intercoastal Waterway on the other. Dotted along each side are a mix of hotels, super expensive condominiums and golf courses. We were staying at a relatively small resort that was nicely furnished and had easy access to A1A (Beachfront Avenue… Vanilla Ice reference). Based on the temperature when we landed and the forecast, the days would be hot so the plan was to run at least 3 times in the morning. Run #1 was 5km in 37m59s burning 715 calories. I was soaked when I got back and pretty happy about how fast, flat and breezy this one turned out to be.
Day 2 was a lot more difficult. A late night, some questionable nutritional choices and a bridge (read as elevation) made this run a doozy. I changed up the route, crossed the Intercoastal Waterway and looped back to the hotel. The bridge was the problem. It was pretty steep and seemed to stretch on forever. I also had a weird run in with a squirrel that wanted to be friends. 3.5KMs later I was on the beach, looking out over the water and wondering why I even put up with snow. The week was rounded out with a run on Friday to tire out the legs in preparation for the flight home. Once again, I headed down A1A, but not as far as the first time. 3.8KMs in 35m01s at a good clip made for another pleasant morning, especially with the cooler temperatures and rain that followed.
Making Due
The one big let down on the exercise front was the gym at the Tideline Resort. It was not good. Sure, they had some ellipticals, a pair of treadmills and a spin bike, but the room was tiny. The universal machine looked 30 years old and while they did have dumbbells, only one person at a time could have space to use them. They did have these interesting medicine ball-kettlebell hybrids that were interesting but overall, the only use I could make out of the gym was to chip away at the #BigBrnzChallenge. I did have visions of running on the beach while in Florida, but the soft sand and unstable surface would have destroyed my knees.
Overall it was a great was to spend a work week. Early morning runs, plugged in 9am to 5pm and then evenings to enjoy the surf and sand. The only negative was that @savannahjessie was crazy busy hosting her event so there wasn’t much face time. She did come up with the activity of the trip before we left (other than Target) … We went to Drive Shack, an indoor/outdoor multilevel driving range near the airport. CRAZY FUN! They had tracking on the balls that were being hit and had a bunch of interactive games based on where your ball landed. So cool!
Beez
