I wish that title reflected that I am training for vacation.  Wouldn’t that be fun.  But no, this is more of getting in my training while on vacation.  Always a fun challenge.  At times it has opened doors of new trails to run, cities to explore, etc.  This time it meant getting creative in the hotel gym. So trying to do a push press with dumbbells.  Let’s just say it wasn’t pretty.

Due to a little hotel construction and not really figuring out how to do the next workout in the tiny gym, I strapped on my running shoes the next morning and headed out on the Vegas strip for a run.  Shhh don’t tell my coach as this was kind of cheating.  So along the way I ran to the soundtrack of whatever pop music was blaring out of the various casinos.  Cars honked as I ran by and dodged the morning crowd of people either just leaving the night of revelry or blurry eyed meander down the strip.  I even got high-fived by Captain America.  I guess he figured there might need world saving in Vegas.

Towards the end of my run a fun thing happened.  I came upon a couple, also out for a run, wearing some ironman gear.  As I passed by a comment was made about me smoking the guy with a pacer shirt on.  I happend to be wearing one of my pacer shirts from a recent race.  I laughed, turned around and started chatting with the couple.  It turns out they had done the race I am currently training for.  So we ran together for a couple of miles just swapping stories and me listening to their advice for race day.  One thing I love about the running and tri community is at times you can just pick up a conversation with complete strangers and leave like you were talking with friends.  We didn’t even catch each others names but it was sure fun getting to run a little together.  Who knows maybe our paths will cross again or maybe not.  But we will both be at the starting line of an event in the near future.