Thursday 19 May 2011

Back from Holiday and needing to train harder.

19/05/2011 - Well Cuba was great.  Been back a couple for weeks but I've been too busy to post anything - sorry.  SO how was Cuba? Well......

Holiday started with a coffee and a breakfast followed by champagne in Virgins lovely first class lounge.  Then continued, once boarded, on the 9 hour flight to Havanna (a bottle of Moet helped get us through it).  We landed in Havannah in the early evening but were all too tired to really enjoy the city so we had an hours walk around the main central square, an evening meal and then off to bed.  Next day it was up early and off to a small local airport for the one hour flight over to Cayo Coco.  This was not too bad but finding that our hotel room was not ready when we got there was.  Anyway by late afternoon we're finally settled in the hotel with a pleasent view of the sea.

Finally in the room

So now the holiday begins.  I'd planned to be very active during this holiday; pleanty of runs and making use of the hotel gym.  What I'd not planned for was just how hot it was.  The last two years I'd been too Mauritius in April so while it was in the hight 70's early 80's Cuba was in the high 80's and early 90's.  I managed in total 4 runs during the two weeks there and they were very slow and completed in the morning before it got stupidly hot.  Even then I'd return drenched in sweat.  Still the routes outside the hotel were nice enough.

Plenty of places to run

I tried the gym once and it was a bit of a hole so I returned only once more before giving it up as a bad job.  So improving my fitness was not going to be the "theme" of this holiday so instead I got stuck into the all inclusive food and alcohol.  Easy to do when it's sooo hot and this is the view from the bar:

View from the bar

As you can guess my plan to come back fitter than I went was in tatters.  My wife took a picture of me and looking at it I've decided that the camera's added oooo two stone :-(.  I decided that as soon as I get home it's back to the training otherwise I'll never make it round the TR24 in July.  For anyone with the stomach for it here's a picture of me on the beach:

Is black and white slimming?

Now I'll not bore you with the detail of my weeks on the beach other than to say it was very nice.  Eventually all good things must end so it was back to the airport and for a flight back to Havannah and the lovely hotel we'd stayed in on our first night in Cuba.  This time we'd get a day and a half to spend in Havannah and we were as fresh as daisies so we made sure we hired a driver and his coach and horse for the day and off we went.  What a day that was, wow.  I love Havannah.  Got a little drunk in a very nice cocktail bar, saw the sights, had a lovely meal in a hidden restaurant and got my hands on some lovely cigars for a mate.

What's going on?
Right enough of that.  The holidays now over and it's back to planet Earth and my normal life.  Getting back to work was tough and I fully expected getting back to running to be the same.  Fortunately and happily I was wrong.  First run out, a short five miler, proved to be an absolute pleasure.  A rest seemed to have done me the world of good and everything had got a lot greener since I'd been away.  I enjoyed Cuba but I think I still prefer running at home, well except for the bloody bugs; where did they come from?  Still here's a pic from one of my current runs:

Love it!
Off to the New Forest in a week so really looking forward to running through the woods :-).