Traveling, Training & Sustenance

(Yeah, you try finding a word that means food or eating that starts with a "T" - it would have been such a better title though...)

So I'm traveling for my job at the moment, and will be heading down to Florida at the end of the month for a bit of vacation time. At the same time I'm trying to keep up with all my regular training. I'm in Montréal at the moment, and while the hotel I'm in doesn't have it's own gym, they're right next door to a Gold's Gym that they have a deal with. You buy your day pass, and then you're in for any of their classes and using the gym. They have a full spinning studio, yoga room, cardio/step room, a cardio theatre (room full of eliptical and treadmills, dim lights and a huge screen they project movies onto), more cardio machines than I've probably ever seen before, and a full weights area also. They have a "Women's gym" also which made me laugh - it's a tiny cramped area with a couple treadmills, and a very limited amount of light weights... I suppose it's somewhere to start! It's seriously the sort of place that you could get lost in it's so huge. After a bit of cardio on Sunday, I had a weights session scheduled for Monday, but thought I'd throw in a spinning class before that as a warm-up - especially seeing as it was all in the price of the day pass! It may have been the most surreal spinning class I've ever experienced. To start with there must have been about 50 spin bikes in the room - and it was full. The instructor caught me on the way in to make sure this wasn't my first class ever, and then we were off. I knew I was in for trouble when the music started up - apparently this was the "latest" from Miami... the only way I could best describe it was as jungle beat house music, and it was loud! Instructor dude then yells something unintelligible in French (I presume!), and a number of other class members whoop and yell back at him... huh... The instructor had more energy than anyone I've ever seen on a spin bike - seriously, he was pushing so hard he was constantly pushing himself out of the saddle! Lots of really long hard sets, with more unintelligible French - I managed to catch a few countdowns which I can confirm were in french in there we got the first "break" half way through the class. Apparently instructor dude wasn't impressed with the "latest from Miami" and wanted to go back to his music... I'm not sure I entirely noticed the difference.... a bit more yelling from instructor and we're off again - he waves to a girl in the corner by the light switch, she kills the lights in the room, and in the wall behind him is another switch for his multicoloured disco lights... so to recap, 50 people spinning like mad in a darkened room, disco lighting, crazy jungle club beat and over-energized instructor shouting random instructions in French.... yeah, that was some class... After that the weights session was completely uneventful!

So I'll be making use of the classes and the gym here over the next week I'm here in Montréal, back home for a bit, then off for a bit of sun. Only a couple of the places we're staying on our roadtrip down to and around Florida have gyms in them, so it'll be improvisation outside - which I'm actually rather looking forward to - honestly how can running on the beach in the sun be bad! Yeah, you can envy me now ;-)

One of the hardest things I find with traveling is dealing with my diet. I try to find places to stay that have kitchenettes, but no such luck on this trip, so it's a week of educated choices! Even without a fridge I still manage to stock up on bits and pieces for in the room, and snacks while I'm working - things like fruit, raw unsalted nuts, and bottled water. Dinner is always the meal that causes me most issues though, I've done ok so far in discovering the "Delicious Alternatives" menu from Boston Pizza, and a create-your-own meal off a pick and mix menu in an Asian kitchen. It's more the temptation of the not so smart choices staring me in the face on each of these menus that threaten me - will power is winning so far though - that and the fear of wearing a swimsuit on the beach in less than a month!