Working out after midnight...

Monday, June 6, 2011

It was after 11 p.m. and I was in our hotel room in the Marriott about to call it a day without doing any exercise. Holly and I had driven from home to Lexington, Ky. where she would be working a conference and I would be spending some time visiting with my sister Cristin, their two children, and my brother-in-law, Chris and doing some backcountry hiking and camping in Daniel Boone National Forest. Chris and Cristin, avid hikers and kayakers, had highly recommended the Red River Gorge portion on the Forest for hiking, camping and the opportunity to see…and climb on…some amazing rock formations. “I’m all about the view,” I told them both emphasizing the desire to get someplace high during our dinner with them earlier that evening. We’d hung out with them until my fascinating stories about losing weight and training hard had them yawning for more…which I was about to deliver. I never catch these not-so-subtle hints, but Holly was on it and told me to pack it up.

I was still digesting the roast Chris had made us for dinner when, with guilt overcoming me began to suit up for a run. There was a golf course adjacent to the hotel (I was sleeping as a civilized man the first night) which the bellman had told me I could run. I found my way to the golf cart path and set out on what began as a 30-minute run, but of course, took longer.

It was still in the 80’s and the humidity had to be near 100%, but the occasional sprinkler fanning out over the golf course would catch me with a blast and make the run tolerable. I could barely see where I was going, but assumed the path would be in pristine condition…and it was. When I returned to the hotel room, climbing the four stories to our room of course, I showered and rejoined Holly. It was midnight. “I should have gone out and walked,” she moaned. I knew what to say and suggested we go out now. “There’s a moon and we could walk the golf cart path,” I suggested figuring she’d say no and I’d get great points for encouraging her to work out. I was about to dive into bed when she said, “okay…let’s do it.”

We walked for 30 minutes and were finishing up around 1 a.m. when a security guy patrolling the gaited condo development that surrounds the golf course drove slowly past us and gave a good once-over to be sure we weren’t terrorists or cat-burglars or something. I gave him my ‘John Locke-Season Six’ look and he knew to leave it alone. I was anxious to get a good night’s sleep because I knew the next three on the ground would be less than ideal, though I still say a bad night on the ground is better than a good one in a hotel…hands down.

Run duration: 40 minutes. Walk duration: 30 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 140 bpm running. 75 bpm walking.
Calories burned during workout: 675 running. 125 walking.