Everything You Didn't Want to Know About My Runs

Running on a cruise ship was interesting.  Especially when the cruise ship is out in the Pacific Ocean somewhere west of Graham Island in British Columbia. While the ship was quite large, we were still at sea and there was some significant ocean motion--which could especially be felt on a treadmill.

We went to the gym about an hour after it opened.  Since it was the first full day of the cruise, the place was packed.  I was able to get on a treadmill, but they had a 30 minute time limit. Now, having mostly rested the prior week and being at sea level, I found myself running a bit faster than I had anticipated.  With the ship rocking around, it was kind of like a trail run without any rocks.  I set the treadmill to 7.0 and ran the last five minutes at 7.5.  I then did a 5 minute "cool-down" where the treadmill went to 6.2.  Now I was out of treadmill time, but still wanted to run some more.  So I went to the Promenade Deck (level 3) where there was an outdoor deck that encircled most of the ship.

One lap around the deck was 1/3 of a mile, if the sign posted was correct.  It was sort of like running on a stretched out track.  After leaving the hot, stuffy gym, it was very refreshing to be on the cool deck running into a nice headwind on the starboard side with a good tailwind when running on the port side.  I did 7 laps which brought my total to around 6 miles.

It was nice to run because I tend to get motion sickness. While I could feel the ship moving around while lying in my bed, it didn't really bother me until I stood up and started walking around.  I was feeling a bit queasy until I started running.  Of course, after I was done running, I started feeling queasy again.

Second day of running on a cruise ship.  I was more used to being at sea--which we still were--but I was feeling all six of the miles I had run the previous day.  We were now off the coast of Alaska heading towards Glacier Bay.  We decided to skip the gym altogether and run around the Promenade Deck.

I decided I was going to do 6 miles and that meant 18 laps.  I didn't wear my satellite watch because I was on a moving ship and I don't think it would have been very accurate--though my pace might have been very impressive when running from the back to the front of the ship.  I knew I needed 18 laps so I decided just to count them.  I'm pretty sure I ran all 18, but I am giving myself a margin of error of +/- 1 lap.

My legs were very heavy from the previous run and I took it slow since I had run hard the day before.  I had to stop and stretch my calves after the first mile.  After a couple of miles, everything loosened up and I started to feel good.  Most of the challenge was in dodging the numerous wide-bodied walkers on the turns and some of the more narrow parts of the deck.

It was another great day to run outside.  It was overcast and about 52 degrees with a bit of wind from the ship moving at full speed.  Again, there was motion of the ocean which meant it was also a balance exercise as you were never quite sure where or when your foot needed to land to keep upright.  Of course, all this running only enabled me to do more damage at the lunch buffet.

Wasn't able to run today.  I woke up to find us docked in Juneau and we only had time to eat breakfast before heading ashore to do a whale watch and to tour the Mendenhall Glacier.  I did do a lot of walking, though.

The whale watch was pretty cool.  We found a large pod of humpback whales doing what is called bubble net feeding.  12-15 whales huddle together and dive down into the water where they make a lot of bubbles.  This confuses the small fish, who feel trapped by the bubbles and head for the surface.  The whales come up underneath them with their mouths open and eat it all on their way up.  What we see is a bunch of open whale mouths suddenly appearing in one big clump.  What made it more interesting was the calf who was still trying to figure it all out and would just come flying up completely out of the water on his own somewhere nearby the rest of the group.  It was a spectacular sight to see.

Then we took a bus to Mendenhall Glacier.  We went on a small 1 km hike to a large waterfall near the glacier.  We didn't have much time to spend there because our bus had to come back to get us and take us back to Juneau.  We ate lunch on the ship and then I walked around town for a while.  Juneau has to be the smallest capital city in America, but it is also probably the prettiest.

Wasn't able to run again.  This time we spent the day in Sitka.  I walked a lot today as well.  The day started out fairly rainy, but it didn't end up raining all that much.  Had I known that, I would have rented a bike and rode around.  We went to a state park with a nice trail through the rain forest with totem poles scattered along the way.   We saw some bald eagles in the trees.  We then went to a raptor rehabilitation center.  I saw a young hair-lipped bald eagle there.  Poor guy.

We spent the morning in Ketchikan, Alaska.  It was very wet and cold.  We then had to board the ship and head for Victoria, BC.  It was supposed to be a nice trip down the clam waters of the inside passage, but there was a lot of wind which made the water rough.

After lunch, I headed to the gym because it was too cold and too windy to run outside on the deck.  Since we were a few days into the cruise and it was afternoon, the gym wasn't too crowded, though the Romanian brother and sister trainers were conducting classes.  It was fun to run to the sped-up techno version of "Ice Ice Baby" they had playing.

Anyway, since I only got a treadmill for 30 minutes at a time, I broke this into two runs separated by some light stretching, walking around, drinking water, and weighing myself. (Only 90 kg.  Oh, yeah!)  I went easy for the first 30 minutes and then was feeling good for my second run so I kicked it up a bit.  I ended up running two 8-minute miles on that one.  (Did I mention I love running at sea level?)  I'd like to be able to do that without assistance from the treadmill and then keep it up for a mile or two more.

Easy run today.  Again, high winds forced me to run on a treadmill in the gym.  The ship was really moving around today, but I only fell off the treadmill once.  That was because I stepped half-way on the rail and half-way on the belt.  It made a loud screetching noise and then I fell off the back of the treadmill, but was able to stay on my feet and jump right back on.  I stepped on the rail one more time, but stayed on the treadmill.  It is fun to try to stay on a treadmill on a boat.

The gym was at the front of the boat on the 9th deck.  The treadmills all faced a large window so we could see about a half a mile into the fog.  But, with several people running along side each other, it gave a feeling that we were powering the ship along. "Come on, lady, pick it up.  We have a 50 mph headwind here!  At this rate, we'll never make it to Victoria."