Monday, July 7, 2008

Epic Update

Wow--that was a long vacation. Lots to catch up on--glad to see everyone is keeping up with their training! I did my best to stick to the schedule while in OBX/OC, though the heat and humidity were real killers. Here's (roughly) what I did:

Week 1 (last week of old schedule; basically a repeat/freebie week):
  • Saturday, 6/21: after flying into MD late Friday night and hardly getting any sleep, I forced myself to jump on the treadmill at 6am before we left to begin our drive to NC. I was feeling less than energetic; I think I ran about 1.5, walked about .5, and said good enough.
  • Sunday: went for a long and surprisingly arduous bike ride down the beach, about 8 miles; walked around the beach a ton.
  • Monday: went for a run while my mom rode her bike along with me; I thought I was running to the halfway point in the road, which would have been two miles each way, but instead only hit about 1.6 something (or was it 1.3-something? not sure)--so ended up with about a 3-miler. My face was extremely hot and flushed; the humidity totally killed me, and it was only about 9am. After that, I walked and swam a lot.
  • Tuesday: regular beach stuff and a couple of 8-mile bike rides. Ate a big fat waffle cone full of ice cream.
  • Wednesday: this time I actually made it to the 2-mile mark on the beach road, so I did run 4 full miles, but I had to stop at the halfway point and walk in a circle and chug some water. I was getting seriously overheated and fatigued.
  • Thursday: went kayaking with my sis in a semi-strong current; no idea of the distance, maybe 2-3 miles? Stopped at an island populated by thousands of fiddler crabs. Walked around a bunch and swam a bunch, yadda yadda.
  • Friday: went for a 12-mile bike ride to explore more of the island. Did some body surfing.
Week Two: First week of new training schedule!
  • Day 1: I didn't document anything for this day, and I think that means I skipped my kick-off mile. We spent most of the day driving from NC to Ocean City. Later I went for a walk with the husb and my sister, and my sister and I played some frisbee. Then we rode bikes around for a while.
  • Day 2: Went and bought some cheap tennis rackets and played tennis with my sis for a while. Swam in the pool for a bit. Gorged ourselves on all-you-can-eat crabs. Played some putt-putt and then went for Jimmie Cone-style soft serve. Went back to the beach house and watched a show about the girl who was born with 8 limbs.
  • Day 3: I forgot to print out my running route for Ocean City, so I decided to just run based on time. I went for an early 20-minute run, then hit the beach with my sis and did some reading and sun-soaking. Later we all went down to the boardwalk and walked along there for a while; we got home just as a humongous thunderstorm came rolling in.
  • Day 4: Went kayaking again, with Dave and his dad. Played some tennis and chilled out.
  • Day 5: 30-minute run in the morning before we left OC. Drove up to Frederick to visit an old friend of Dave's, and walked around Old Town a bunch. Ate at a delicious practically-vegan stir-fry and noodle place.
  • Day 6: Nothin'! I totally sat on my butt and watched As the World Turns!
  • Day 7: 2.43 miles, ~24:00. It had rained the night before and it actually felt GREAT to be running outside!
  • Day 8: Flew home. My arm muscles were feeling like they were starting to atrophy from disuse; I hadn't done any work with weights in over 2 weeks. I lost a few pounds on vacation, but with the amount I ate, I can only attribute this to the loss of muscle mass in my arms.
  • Day 9: Nothing.
And today--Day 10! Went to the gym and had a lovely workout. Rode my bike over there in killer (though thankfully NOT humid) 102-degree heat, did a 15-minute warm-up on the elliptical, and ran two easy-peasy miles on the treadmill. I actually felt great and happy to be running--it felt so FUN for once! Walked half a mile to cool down, and then did my strength circuit.

So there you have it! I feel pretty good about how I did. And I actually feel stoked to be back from vacation and into my old routine!

Hope everyone's had a great past two weeks. Cheers!

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