balancing running and working

The past few weeks have been crazy. I spent the last 2 weeks traveling around the Dallas-Forth Worth area for work, which involves long hours and areas that I'm not too familiar with (meaning running outside isn't really an option as it's dark and I dont' know where I'm going). But, I've been trying my best by heading to the hotel gyms even if I only have 15 minutes before dinner. It's not a surprise that I'm already behind in my training schedule. I was supposed to run 4 miles this weekend (and last weekend) but that didn't happen.

The first week, I was gone from 8am Monday 2/6 to around 8pm Friday 2/10:
Monday - I only did 1.4 miles at 1% incline and I didn't even do it quickly: 15-and-a-half minutes. The treadmill was killing my knee and ankle (right and left, respectively) so I decided just to cut my losses and not push myself too much. Instead, I did some general strengthening exercises like crunches, single-leg hamstring curls (which I call "ballerina leg lifts" as that's exactly what it looks like), squats, and the like. I also did a bunch of stretching, which doesn't really count but it's still good for you.
Tuesday - this was the "far" treadmill run day. I did 3.25 miles in just under 32 minutes at 1% incline. My legs felt good, my lungs felt good, and the moons aligned. About 5 minutes after I started running, two people got on the treadmills near mine and started running as well. Here's the surprise: they stopped running before I did. That has probably never happened to me. It definitely hasn't happened since I entered college. It felt awesome.
I think those were my only two runs that week. I might have done another one, but I didn't put it into my running app (iMapMyRun) so it doesn't count. Except for that, we ended work way too late and I was exhausted.
The hotel: The Sheraton (where we stayed) had a really nice gym with enough space for stretching and a bunch of treadmills. The first treadmill I got on made my legs hurt but it might have been me more than the treadmill because it was the same type of treadmill as the one I got on the next day. There were these random wooden bleacher-like seats against one wall which helped for (a) holding your phone and room key while you worked out, and (b) being able to stretch your hamstrings at different levels. The only con of the gym was that there was no view. The treadmills stared at a beige wall, facing away from the tv (odd).

The second week, I was gone from 7:30am Monday 2/13 to around 9pm Thursday 2/16:
Monday - We had a big dinner with one of our clients that night so I didn't have much time to exercise. I was going to just scrap the run all together, but instead I thought it'd be better to do something even if it's short. Unfortunately, all the treadmills were being used so I had to get on an elliptical. I don't like ellipticals. I find they make my knees hurt and I never feel comfortable on them so every second is awkward and unenjoyable. BUT, I got on it anyway for the sake of my lungs ("resting" for a week between runs is not good if I want to live through my next run) and did just over 1 mile in 10 minutes. Hated every minute of it. Luckily there were only 10.
Tuesday - Valentine's Day! Yup, I was traveling for work on Valentine's Day. The positive? Dinner is paid for by the company so I don't have to worry about expensive Valentine's Day menus. Unfortunately, my colleagues wanted to eat early so I only had time for another quick workout. I did 1.3 miles in a little over 14 minutes at 1% incline.
Wednesday - I did 5 miles at 1% incline in 59-and-a-half minutes. I wish I could say I jogged all 5 miles, but I didn't. I jogged and then walked and then jogged again. I kept getting really bad cramps in my side so I couldn't jog for too long at a single go.
The hotel: We stayed at the Westin this time. We like staying there because it's really close to the offices we go to a lot, it has a great restaurant BlueFire Grill, and it has great beds. Unfortunately, I didn't like the Westin's gym as much as the Sheraton's (for these specific hotels that I visited these two weeks. I don't know about other Westin/Sheraton locations). We'll start with what was good about it: the treadmills were facing the pool/outdoors so there was a nice-ish view. What I didn't like as much about it: there wasn't a lot of space to put a mat down and stretch without getting in someone's way. It's really set up so that you can only comfortably use machines. Luckily, my room had enough room to stretch, but that's not really the point.

This past weekend: I did not jog at all, although I did walk A LOT. It was my brother's girlfriend's 30th birthday so we all went to Disney World to help her celebrate it. We went to Epcot on Saturday and spent the entire day (12 hours!) walking around and going on the different rides. There were 30+ people in our group and somehow we all managed to stay together pretty decently (until some people split off to go back to the hotel). Then we all met at the German Biergarten and ate some really good food, listened to German Biergarten music (not sure how to classify it), and drank some German bier. I had the German bier flight which was samples of each of their 4 German biers. They were all really good. Then on Sunday we went to Hollywood Studios and went on more rides. I even went on the Rockin' Rollercoaster. I hate rollercoasters. The last time I went on a rollercoaster (well, before the Rockin' one), I cried. I was 20 years old. I hate rollercoasters. But this one was only a minute and a half and it doesn't have all the things that I hate about normal coasters:
1. It's in the dark so you don't know how high you are and you don't really have time to register turns and drops
2. It goes really fast the whole time so there's no slow click-click-click as the car climbs up before plunging downward.
3. There weren't that many drops anyway.
4. It went upside-down (which I hate) but it means that there was that big padded metal piece that comes down over your chest rather than just a flimsy metal bar that goes down over your lap. The lap bars make me feel so unsafe it's not even funny. Hence why I cried that other time. This time, I felt very securely in my seat and knew I wasn't going anywhere I wasn't supposed to go.

I got back from Orlando on Sunday night and then Monday went for a run. It was my first outdoor run in two weeks and it could have gone better. I did 3.25 miles in just under 33 minutes. Not bad, but my lungs were not happy so I would have to walk every so often and whenever I walked I would get a cramp in my side. Could have gone worse though. I tried running with more of a mid-foot strike (think how you would run on a hard surface barefoot) than a heel strike as described in Born to Run. It's awkward because it makes me use muscles I haven't used but whenever I would start heel-strike running, my legs would get tired and start to hurt, while when I would midfoot-strike, my lungs would get tired first.

Today I'm back at work in my normal office so I brought all my running stuff and I'm going to start up again with running home from work. Talk about killing two birds with one stone, it's just so convenient that it's silly not to. It means that I don't have to go home, change, and then go run. It also means that I don't have to drag my stuff to a gym, change there, wait for a free treadmill, and then walk home.

Today I'm going to try to do 4 miles. It means snaking my way from work to home rather than running straight there, but I think I can do it. I have little choice.

Need to get back on schedule since this weekend I'm supposed to run 5 miles!
-J