Monday, December 14, 2009

Vacation + Running = ??

Vacation and consistent running don’t always mix well for me.

First, I am such a creature of habit. I love having a schedule; knowing exactly what I’m going to be doing and when I’m going to be doing it. When something disrupts that schedule, I get thrown for a loop and don’t get as much accomplished as I could (should? would?) have normally. Without a specific plan on a weekend, I can very easily and quickly waste two whole days as a lazy lump on the couch, not even bothering to get dressed. This is why I like to get my run in first thing on Saturday morning. With my run accomplished, I have the momentum to keep going for the rest of the weekend…well, the rest of Saturday, at least.

Vacations throw the schedule right out the window. Whoosh!

As running has become a larger part of my life and who I am, I’ve been getting better at carving out vacation time to run. I’ve hoped on a few treadmills in hotel gyms (never great) and I managed a run or two in Bar Harbor, Maine, even hopping on a trail in to Acadia National Park (awesome). I’m better about getting in runs while I am in Vermont visiting my parents (mostly because my Mom expects me to run and will ask me whether I’m going out the next day…she even drives me to a great location to run, how could I not run). This past vacation to Miami proved to be the best in terms of running consistently; mainly, because I made running a part of my regular “vacation” schedule.

Since Mike was in a conference most of the time we were in Miami, I got used to waking up and going out for a run. It is what I did every morning – wake up, nibble on something, go out for a run on the beach, come back, shower, eat breakfast, hit the pool or beach by 10. This became my norm – day in, day out.

Not a bad way to vacation, huh?

However, this routine was thrown out the window (whoosh!) when Mike’s conference ended. This brings me to the second reason vacationing and running don’t mix well for me. I am very reluctant for my running to cut in to the time I spend with Mike. It’s why I run in the morning and why I’m so bad with running after work or weekend afternoons. Vacation time equals our time and I hate to intrude on our time with me time. I know Mike wouldn’t mind but I hate to do it anyway.

It’s OK though. I loved my early morning beach runs as much as I loved sleeping in and sitting on beach with Mike the rest of the time. This was my view for most of my time in Miami. Who could resist the urge to be lazy?

We got plenty of walking in and I even managed to sneak in some kayaking.

Vacation Recap:
Sunday – XT, Kayaking
Monday – 9.4 mile run (4.5 miles on the beach – running on the beach is HARD!)
Tuesday – 10 mile run
Wednesday – 9.3 mile run (first 5 miles w/ intervals, 6 minutes easy/1 minute hard)
Thursday – 5.8 mile run (nice and easy, my legs are tired)
Friday – touristy walking
Saturday – mostly just sitting, reading and napping on the beach *sigh*

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