With a family trip coming up, a cruise to the southern Caribbean, I was looking into ways to stay fit while afloat.  After searching other blogs, and listening to Chris, Tony and Steve on last Sunday’s run, here’s some ideas:  Don’t expect to go long.  Get a run in on the boat early in the morning, say 5ish, to avoid the strollers and the kids.  Use the time to do tempo runs.  Use the treadmill (I have never liked running on a treadmill).  Expect it to be hot and humid.  Bring two pairs of shoes, so one can dry each day.

Tom suggested running whatever deck is the greatest perimeter of the boat, and treating the obstacles as part of the challenge.  I’d do that, but I might get keelhauled, for not following etiquette. I found out there are ten laps per mile for the running track on the boat.  That’s a pretty short track!  Finally, and probably one of the most important suggestions, watch out for all the food that is so available.  It takes severe discipline to stick to low calorie and low volume eating when there is so much offered.  Here’s someone’s take on running while on a cruise:

Frank

May 13, 2012
My calves do this odd thing when I get done with a long run.  The muscle bundles fire off  randomly,  making an entertaining display of twitches.  Several hours later, the twitches are nearly gone,  and my legs are almost back to normal.  This is how it starts.  Another marathon training season underway.
I’m fifty-eight years old, and a member of the South Jersey Athletic Club, a running club based in Haddonfield, but with members from all over South Jersey and Philadelphia.  I have run five marathons, four in Philadelphia, one Boston.  My Boston experience, in 2011, was pretty miserable.  I was doing okay until about mile fourteen, when I developed severe cramps of my quads and hamstrings, and wound up walking, stretching, and hobbling a good part of the second half of the race.  I managed to cross the finish line a little under five hours after starting, and thinking how crazy it is to want to submit myself willingly to the pain and torture.  But, as a ski guide once told me in Austria, at the top of a long, treacherous climb, “Tomorrow you’ll forget all about the pain and only remember the good stuff”.
Three of my friends in the club, Tony, Brian and Steve, and I are training together to run  the Steamtown Marathon in Scranton, Pennsylvania, October 7, 2012.  Our goal is to qualify for Boston.  For me, this means running better than 3 hrs. 40 min., and then carrying it through to a successful run in Boston in 2014.   I am writing this journal in order to share our experience, but also to keep me on track with the training.  The other guys will be offering their observations and experiences, too, so there will be different points of view along the way.
Oh, today, we ran 13 miles at an average pace of 8:50. Twenty-one weeks until the race.
Frank