Buffalo Creek Half Marathon Week 10: Vacation Week

I hope all of you had as good as a week as I did. Last week you may remember me telling you that I was going on vacation this past week, well it was great. I will recap the whole vacation on Thursday for you. Before we left for vacation my wife and I had a talk about my running over the vacation. I initially wanted to run everyday, but my wife reminded me that I had not had a day off work in over a year in a half and needed to use this week as a real vacation, I agreed. Even on weekends when I am not working I get up early to go for my runs, so getting to sleep in a few days was such a relaxing feeling and something I really needed. I decided I would only bring enough running gear for 2 long runs, I figured go for quality and not quantity.

MONDAY and TUESDAY were both non running days, however both days we were in the swimming pool or the ocean and I would take full advantage of using swimming as cross training. (We never discussed that, mwah ha ha) I would run in the water or swim some laps. Swimming is one of the best forms of cross training you can do since it uses so many different muscle groups. 

WEDNESDAY: 8 miles, 4 miles on the road and 4 miles on the beach. It was completely flat so I really wanted to push myself and try to run all 8 miles at race pace. This worked out great for the first 4 miles, as I was able to hold a 7:30 pace. The next 4 miles I dropped to an 8:15, who knew running on sand was a bit more difficult than the pavement. Overall though I was really happy at how this run went for how hot and humid it was.

THURSDAY and FRIDAY: non running days and more swimming. We did do a lot of walking on vacation though so even though I wasn't running I was still keeping the legs busy.

SATURDAY: Woke up to go running and wouldn't you know a damn storm comes through. Talk about throwing a wrench into your plans. This was our last day of vacation too, so it would of been rude of me to ask if we could miss doing something so I could get in a run later in the day. I am confident in my training and where I am at right now. I didn't mind losing another day. I still have 5 weeks before the race and from here on it is crunch time.

SUNDAY: Today I got to sit and drive for 10 long ass hours. When I got home all I wanted to do was lay down on my couch and watch some football. I am lucky because since last Monday was a holiday my vacation was from Tuesday to Tuesday, so tomorrow while most people are getting up to go to work I will be getting up for a long much needed run.

While shopping this week we were in a store and I spotted a shirt that described me perfectly, so I had to buy it.

How was your week?
How do you handle running and vacations?