Vacation Workouts

Whenever I take a trip out of town, I pack running clothes.  I've found that unless the trip is specifically for a race, I don't make actually end up running anyway.  Despite my lack of runs, I usually don't feel too bad. Most trips provide a great opportunity for cross training.  If I'm not on a trip where I spend the whole day walking, I usually find myself swimming or hiking enough to make up for not running.

A few weeks ago, Alek and I went to Puerto Rico.  On our last day there we had planned to lay on the beach and swim before catching our 10PM flight.  Alas, when we woke up it was raining.  Clearly not a beach day.  After some indecision over what to do we headed to El Yunque Rainforest.  Once there, we decided to do a 1 mile out and back hike up to Mt. Britton Tower.  The tower is located on a peak that is 3,088 ft high.  The hike out was nearly all up-hill and fairly steep at some points but definitely doable for us.  Of course, this means the hike back was nearly all down-hill and quite easy.

While it wasn't raining too hard when we started, the skies opened up by the time we reached the top of the peak.   The small streams that we passed on our way up gave way to rapids on the way back.   It was an awesome thing to see.  Despite being completely soaked, we were both happy that we did the hike!

Alek and Wendy at the top of Mt Britton tower