A week after returning from the shores of Boracay I found myself back at the beach!  This time around though it was much closer to Manila, around 110 kilometers south at the beaches of Canyon Cove, Nasugbu, Batangas.

Batangas as far as I know isn’t really popular for white beaches but surprisingly Canyon Cove was, although disappointingly as well, it was very short!  At around 400 meters it was long enough, but not long enough for a run!  You know “those” crazy runners thinking of running first, swimming later when on the beach!

The beaches of Canyon Cove actually reminded me of Puca (Shell) beach in Boracay (where I was a week earlier, hehe) because of its color and the “sands” that never really compacts.  Normally sands on the beach becomes so compact that you hardly sink but like Puca I always sink deep whenever I step on its sands.  Only near the either ends of the beach are the sands fine enough to be truly compact and not sink so much.  (I placed quotes on “sands” because white beaches are normally composed of broken corals and shells, not sands.)

Travel Tip: Canyon Cove isn’t the most practical beach resort to go into, but don’t expect it to be “exclusive” as we saw quite a lot of tourists, both local and foreign, that weekend.

Aside from swimming on the beach Canyon Cove also offers the typical banana boat, Jet Ski, and Kayak rentals, but if you’ve had enough salt their big pool is excellent.  At about five feet deep it makes for a great lap pool although its irregular shape and lots of swimmers you share it with makes it more challenging.

Getting There (via Commute)

Canyon Cove is located south of Punta Fuego and is just a few minutes from the center of the municipality of Nasugbu, Batangas which is about 50 kilometers away from Tagaytay.  Nasugbu being a popular destination in itself is just about a three hours bus ride from Pasay bus terminal (near Taft Ave. Station of MRT-3 in EDSA) on an ideal day.  Ticket costs P155 (as of June 2010) but be warned though that the bus route passes through the most congested roads in the country crossing just about every choke point Cavite has to offer, so avoid travelling during peak hours.  You can take a tricycle ride from your bus terminal to Canyon Cove’s entrance, or if you know your directions you can opt to run (about 2K).

Barefoot Running, Again

Canyon Cove would be my third time to run barefoot and based on my observations it really does help a lot in teaching us the right landing.  The “right” landing or foot strike, be it forefoot, midfoot, or heel strike, really varies by individual so it is all about what works for you, although it is still encouraged to avoid heel striking.  The combination of practically no impact surface plus the difficulty of some loose sands teaches you on how you can improve your running by finding your most efficient foot strike.  Personally I’m learning how to further distribute (and reduce) the impact by finding that ideal landing spot for me.  Let’s just say that my knee isn’t back to normal yet so there’s practically zero run mileage for me for the past several weeks, but despite that I was able to run as long as 6K pain-free on the beach!  Sometimes I wonder if I should just fill my shoes with sands from the beach to simulate barefoot beach running. 🙂

Before any runner leaves the beach he’s sure to leave his mark there, and despite hating doing laps if it’s on the beach I have no qualms.  I made sure to leave a temporary 1K trail of my footprints at the beaches of Canyon Cove before leaving, very short (that I wouldn’t even log it on my dailymile) due to lack of time but at least I left my mark (runningpinoy was here!).  I also had a “strange” uncomfortable feeling of being stared at so two and a half laps of the beach would suffice to fulfill my cravings.  (I heard a lady singing a line “I’ll be there…” from the theme song of Baywatch as I ran in front of them and coincidentally I was in my red shorts. I hope I didn’t remind them of David Hasselhoff!)