Running while traveling

Sorry for the lack of an update. I've been traveling for work for the past few days and way extremely busy prior to that. Also, I realized it's difficult to come up with things to write about every day...

I'm lucky enough to get to travel every month or two for my job. This has taken me across the country and given me the opportunity to see places I've never been before.

Running can be a great way to discover a new town and see areas that you wouldn't normally see. Unfortunately, I've had some bad luck with being able to run during my business trips for a variety of reasons...

Injured
After the Green Bay marathon in May of 2011, I developed IT band issues (Nickleback band issues would have been less frustrating). This prevented me from running for about two months. Sadly during this two months was a trip to New York City where I got to stay about 6 blocks from Times Square. All I wanted to do was run in Central Park. It was a mile to the corner of the park at 59th and 5th. Perfect. Mile there, mile back, however many I felt like through the biggest park in the Big Apple. But because of the injury, I couldn't run 25 ft without debilitating pain in my left leg. So the mile out and back and any form of real run was out of the question... So... I ran the 25 ft until I couldn't run any longer and called it good. (No, I didn't log the run.)

Daylight
Last November I was lucky enough to get to go to Portland. (Side note: Beautiful city and surrounding area. Go, it will be worth it as long as you like beer or being outside.) Vanessa came with for the first couple of days and we had a mini-vacation, which was great. We went for a run along the Columbia River and through downtown Portland the first morning we were there. Unfortunately, that was the only run I got to do outside that trip, as when doing go-live floor support, you are at the mercy of when the clinic closes, which in November, is well after dark (and I had to be at the clinic at 7:00 AM). Therefore, I was relegated to running inside... (Busy downtown, dark, rain... yeah, too many negatives there...)

Location
The two places that I travel the most, I've ran outside a grand total of one time, and that was the Flying Pig Marathon in Cincinnati.

When in Mobile we stay at a nice hotel downtown, but the area isn't what I would consider runner friendly. I still haven't seen a bike path in my six trips down here, downtown is small and the areas around it are dedicated to shipping. That and it's usually crazy hot and humid...

When I'm in the Northern Kentucky/Cincinnati area, the hotel that we stay at is right near the airport, which if you've never been to CVG, is out in the middle of nowhere. There are no restaurants or gas stations at the airport exit (seriously? No one thinks they could make a few bucks doing this?). The road that the hotel is on is a two lane road that goes somewhere down a winding hill. I don't trust drivers to begin with, but being on a winding two lane road where I'm the one that would get the worst of the collision is not my cup of tea.

So let's just say that I've gotten used to the "Fitness Centers" in these two hotels...

Non-runners
When traveling with Vanessa, she understands that I want/need to run. When traveling with people from work, not so much. Thankfully most people that I travel with are flexible when it comes to dinner plans, so they'll let me get a quick run in before dinner, but what would normally be an 8 mile run is usually cut down to 5 or 6, which usually isn't a problem, but combine the fact that we eat out at restaurants two or three meals a day for three to five days... That's a lot of butter and oil... Sadly I usually gain some weight while traveling.


Today's run: Well, I'd have a lot of days to catch up on if I were to list them all... Today I won't get to run due to traveling back to Madison, but since the 3rd I've ran seven times for a total 49 miles. A couple of them have been workouts, but mostly what I consider easy runs (though I really need to reevaluate my easy pace...).

Today's beer: The only thing new since my last update is that I tried a couple of beers from Sweetwater Brewing Company in Atlanta, Georgia Brown and their IPA. The Georgia Brown was good, I'd say 4.5 out of 6. The IPA wasn't as good, but fine. A little thin for the alcohol content and bitterness, let's go 3.5 out of 6.