So that picture there is a couple years old now, but the place I stay at every year for spring training looks the same. It's a great little gated community of condos, where a few of the ballplayers live during February and March as well.
One thing I love about the joint is the brick promenade that runs behind the buildings and along the water. It's great for running, though a little hard on the legs when you haven't been running on a real hard outdoor surface in a while.
The only disappointment was finding out that the running path isn't the 1.5 miles that they bill it to be. My handy-dandy Garmin informs me that the path is actually roughly 1.35 miles, so 2.7 when running from end to end. That stinks, because here I always thought I was getting a 3-mile run in and I was being shorted by more than a quarter mile.
No worries, though. I've been down here for 13 days and I've gone running on 7 of those. My legs were killing me after the first few runs -- I think simply making the adjustment to the type of surface, the new winding turns and some light hills here and there -- so I took six days off in a nine-day span there at one point.
My first run here went spectacular. I think I was just so excited to be back in Florida and running on one of my favorite routes that I was hymped up on adrenaline. I logged three miles in 22 minutes flat the day I got here -- splits of 7:15/7:33/7:12. I bested that on Saturday with a three-miler in 21:26 (7:00/7:04/7:22).
I really didn't feel like going today, but I got out there and did three miles in 22:10 with my third clocking in at 6:58 -- my first mile under seven minutes since I came down here. On the seven days I've run, I've logged 30 miles, including an 8-mile run (longest since Dec. 21), completed in 1:08:51 on Feb. 17. I had a few miles over nine minutes on that run, but I was taking it easy and I did finish with a 7:28 split on my last mile that day.
I'm on my feet most of the day at work, so part of me has been resisting the desire to get out there and run each night. I'm trying to work in off-days to incorporate long runs again, but the trick is not falling prey to too many off-days in a row. I've continued my core work each day for the most part and have hit up the nice little gym they have here a couple times, too.
Another issue I'm dealing with is eating out (man, that Thai place tonight was awesome!). It's tempting to head out every night with friends on the company's dime, but I'm trying to talk myself into staying in more often this year. I may come off as being anti-social, but it's for my own good!
Well, that's all for tonight. Again, even I think reading all of this is kind of boring, but hopping on here and writing about it helps keep me keep me in check. So far, I'm pretty happy with how I've stuck with this whole running thing, even though, honestly, I hate running. I was telling someone today -- I can't stand the actual act of running, but I love the idea of competing against yourself.
One thing I love about the joint is the brick promenade that runs behind the buildings and along the water. It's great for running, though a little hard on the legs when you haven't been running on a real hard outdoor surface in a while.
The only disappointment was finding out that the running path isn't the 1.5 miles that they bill it to be. My handy-dandy Garmin informs me that the path is actually roughly 1.35 miles, so 2.7 when running from end to end. That stinks, because here I always thought I was getting a 3-mile run in and I was being shorted by more than a quarter mile.
No worries, though. I've been down here for 13 days and I've gone running on 7 of those. My legs were killing me after the first few runs -- I think simply making the adjustment to the type of surface, the new winding turns and some light hills here and there -- so I took six days off in a nine-day span there at one point.
My first run here went spectacular. I think I was just so excited to be back in Florida and running on one of my favorite routes that I was hymped up on adrenaline. I logged three miles in 22 minutes flat the day I got here -- splits of 7:15/7:33/7:12. I bested that on Saturday with a three-miler in 21:26 (7:00/7:04/7:22).
I really didn't feel like going today, but I got out there and did three miles in 22:10 with my third clocking in at 6:58 -- my first mile under seven minutes since I came down here. On the seven days I've run, I've logged 30 miles, including an 8-mile run (longest since Dec. 21), completed in 1:08:51 on Feb. 17. I had a few miles over nine minutes on that run, but I was taking it easy and I did finish with a 7:28 split on my last mile that day.
I'm on my feet most of the day at work, so part of me has been resisting the desire to get out there and run each night. I'm trying to work in off-days to incorporate long runs again, but the trick is not falling prey to too many off-days in a row. I've continued my core work each day for the most part and have hit up the nice little gym they have here a couple times, too.
Another issue I'm dealing with is eating out (man, that Thai place tonight was awesome!). It's tempting to head out every night with friends on the company's dime, but I'm trying to talk myself into staying in more often this year. I may come off as being anti-social, but it's for my own good!
Well, that's all for tonight. Again, even I think reading all of this is kind of boring, but hopping on here and writing about it helps keep me keep me in check. So far, I'm pretty happy with how I've stuck with this whole running thing, even though, honestly, I hate running. I was telling someone today -- I can't stand the actual act of running, but I love the idea of competing against yourself.
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