running in varadero

You know how I was all excited about the Nike Running chip and was super psyched about how great it is when you’re away from a data zone and still want to track your runs?  Well, that just totally blew up in my face when, on a second trip to Cuba last week, the chip refused to work.  My phone wouldn't recognize it, and no matter how much I paced around the pool trying to activate the sensor (I'm sure everyone enjoyed that), it just wouldn't work, so I was:



After collecting myself, I decided to go running anyway and to just stop when I felt sick.  I turned on my regular Nike Running app just to see what would happen and GUESS WHAT…it tracks your runs without GPS! What is this thing??? I have downloaded a unicorn.
Just in case I couldn't prove my super respectable dedication later, I took some pictures along the way each time I ran. I won’t lie, it wasn’t pretty because as it turns out, running in a tropical location isn’t easy: it’s always, always, always hot.  It’s hot at sunrise, hot at sunset, hot at night.  The hot air seemed to compress my lungs and I felt like the temperature was pressing down on me as I ran. On my last planned running day, I defiantly hit up the gym to run on a treadmill. That’s how I roll.


yikes!
  

So, lessons learned on this trip: 
1. Nike Running app works without GPS !!!! (woohoo, I say, at kilometer number seven:)



 
2. Be careful not to overexert yourself (I felt extremely sick one day after running just 5K which, back home, is a very easy run for me)(taking a photo of yourself is a very good excuse to take a long break, by the way...)

 
3. When you pass the surrounding resorts, you see really cute things like this:





...and stunning things like this:



4. Running on the beach means you can also jump in the water to cool off. Just wear your bathing suit under your sweats :)


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