Time to Read: ~3 minThis week was VACATION week! It is our first year having one child in college. For the past 2 years we've traveled as a family to ski in Colorado. We thought it would feel sad to take a ski trip without Elizabeth so we decided to indulge Xander with his desire to go to Disney again, but this time we switched things up and took him to California to Disneyland. I knew we'd spend two days in the parks and we weren't sure what to expect for time to run, so I blocked off the full 5 days for no running.
A Beach Run
Our rental was in Newport Beach and we were literally one block from the ocean. We started our first day there with a 4 mile morning beach walk, then drove up the coast and checked out other beaches. Late day we returned home to the rental and got a beach run in. It was so much fun!! All 3 of us headed out separately and ran along the beautiful beach sidewalk. You could go about a half mile north before the sidewalk ended and then a bit over two miles south. I ran every bit of sidewalk that you can run and I got 6 miles in. I always find beach running a bit challenging but this run was one of my top 3 things from our vacation.
We didn't run after that - our two Disney days were extremely full and we walked all day long. By the time we got home in the evening it was chilly and we just didn't have the energy to hit the beach and run. Instead we enjoyed the sunset on the ocean one evening, getting take out for our dinner and another evening we prepared a meal in our rental and just enjoyed recapping our day after our short beach walk.
And a ski trip
When we originally looked at the winter we bought a few Gore/Whiteface 3 packs of tickets. It was hard to find full weekends that we could ski (we actually didn't find any) but we found a few one day opportunities. It turns out that the tail end of break was one such opportunity. Elizabeth couldn't join us due to a college concert requirement, but Xander and scheduled work to be done at 3 pm. That meant we could leave Ithaca at 3 and get to Saranac Lake by 8, hitting Whiteface the next morning. However, Xander felt he needed to catch up on homework so it turned out to be a date ski day for Scott and me. We got back into town Friday morning at 3:30 am, and I managed a 5 mile run and BodyPump at FLX Fitclub (yay!) Then, Saturday morning we sorted it out so that when we took Xander to work I ran 5 ish miles toward Ithaca and Scott and Xander picked me up. We headed up to Saranac early - why not since it was just the two of us? We had an AMAZING visit at the Saranac Inn, including a really great dinner. I actually don't remember the last time Scott and I went out for a really nice meal together. This was followed by the best day of east coast skiing I've had in the past 2 years. We had a bluebird warmish day and no crowds at all. Scott and I took every quad and triple ride just the two of us. That coupled with first tracks down the 2.5 mile Wilmington trail at Whiteface, made for an amazing day. We racked up 21 miles in just about 4 hours of ski time and then made the longish drive home to get ready for the work week.
It would have been SO easy to run. When we got home it was just after 6 pm. We were earlier than expected because we decided that after a week off from work we'd want to have the evening to get prepared. I had to force myself not to don reflective gear and head out for a 5 mile to make sure I had 20 miles for the week. My training plan and left all these blanks and I had embraced it with a full heart. I decided to fight that desire to get the miles in, instead relaxing and preparing for the week ahead.
Success
Even though mileage was really low this week (about 17), it included 2 full days of walking and I did get one BodyPump session in. It is good to have a fall back week in training from time to time!! I am a little worried about transitioning into longer mileage, and hopeful that it connects with warmer weather. I am struggling with my 4th toe on my right foot getting calloused and hurting a lot early on in a run, so I may have to consider different footwear.