Back into the swing of things

I’m home after a much too short, but very much needed vacation to Walt Disney World.  My average day there looked something like this:

10 am: wake up

10:30 am: get out of bed

11 am: have breakfast

11:30am – 1:00 pm read a mindless brain candy book in a lounge chair by the pool

1:00 pm: have lunch

1:30 pm: stroll to the pool bar for a maragarita

1:30 pm-3:00pm: sip margarita, read book in lounge chair

3:00 pm: stroll to the pool bar for another margarita

3:00 pm-4:00pm: sip margarita, read book in lounge chair

4:00 pm: return to room and shower

5:15 pm: have relaxing dinner

7:00 pm: arrive at theme park

7:00 pm-11:00 pm:  enjoy rides (and fudge) at theme park

11:00pm-12:00 am: watch stupid TV in hotel room

12:00 am: sleep

Yes, I could definitely get used to that.  After about 4 days of my newly adopted lifestyle, things started to catch up to me.  Without going into too many details, I got a bit constipated.  So, I headed out on Thursday morning for a short run just to get things moving a bit.  I felt sluggish, but ran at race pace for about 1.5 miles.  Then, the family rented a four person surrey bike and we biked about 3-4 miles.  I guess that counts as cross training.

I did 6 easy miles after arriving home on Saturday and another 6 on Sunday.  That got the kinks out for today’s speedwork.  The plan was for 4 x 1200 m at I pace (6:24 min/mile or 1200 m in 4:49) with 600 m jogging recoveries.   Here’s how it went:

1200 m in 4:38

1200 m in 4:38

1200 m in 4:43

1200 m in 4:46

Thankfully, I finally convinced myself to hold back at the beginning of the last two, making them somewhat bearable.  I was pretty tired at the end of the last one, but held onto a feeble jog for about 200 m before recovering enough to look somewhat respectable for the mile or so back home.  This workout was eerily similar to my last attempt, so I think it’s safe to say that I didn’t lose any fitness over the vacation.  There are no R pace runs this week (only T pace and I pace) and I even get to repeat this same workout on Saturday!  Woo ha!