Weekly Workout Recap: A Vacation Miracle

Two and a half weeks off work and ten days of travel are not the ideal set up for consistently working out and eating well.   While we were at home, I did fine.   10K training and eating healthy.  We even did some family planking to wrap up  merryplanksmas.  We didn't post any record times but it was fun.

Someone also utilized his superior strength to show out.  

He lasted 30 seconds with a 70 pound nine year old on his back and got a little bored and ended it.  I know.  Let's all agree to pretend it never happened.

Once we hit the road traveling, my husband's "take it easy" battle cry was "It's vacation!" Things got a little less consistent.

We stayed in a hotel for several days and my personal favorite was the pop in visit from my husband and my 9 year old while I was in the fitness center.  On the bright side, it was hot as hell in the room and she brought me cold water.  On the down side, her father snapped a few towels at me while I was trying to run on a treadmill.

I consider it an accomplishment that I finished my 10K W12D3 and W13D1 and 2.  I also consider it an accomplishment that I finished them on a treadmill because there was literally snow and ice on the ground everywhere we went and 15 degree weather outside.

I'm sure some people live and die by the treadmill.  I'm not one of them.  I seriously could not stand it.  I thought I'd like watching television.  The television had limited channel choices, wasn't connected to my DVR and didn't get Bravo.  I also hate CNN and the screen felt like it was a foot from my face. The next day I tried listening to music and watching the television without sound.  Except I wear reading glasses and started to get a headache reading the closed captioning.

So the third day I tried it again with reading glasses on.  Epic fail as I sweated them down my nose repeatedly and could not seem to wipe my face with a towel without smudging my glasses.  But I persevered and finished three runs.

We got home yesterday and I finished W13D this morning outside. I'm up to 40 minutes of running (In a row! OMG!), a few minutes of walking and then 10 more minutes of running.   About 25 minutes in I was seriously hating life and mentally nit picking just how different treadmill running is from outdoor running.  Is the entire world on an incline or is that just my imagination?  Hit the pavement and it sure feels like it.

I liked being able to tell exactly what pace I was running at.  But, holy cow, it's just flat.  Guess I should have gone for some incline to keep from having post treadmill fallout.  Oh, well.  Lesson learned!  And I've already counted going to the fitness center as a success so no looking back!

An even bigger success, though, was coming home and weighing in on the scale in my very own bathroom instead of the crazy inaccurate fitness center scale.  I was all prepared to have to renew my commitment to my health kick and start over again and blah blah blah.

Except I lost weight!  On vacation!

Which is just insane.  Although I did suck down quite a bit of sugar free jello pudding and a million bananas.  But I also had Dr. Pepper! And hibachi! And ice cream cake! And cheesy dip! And wine! And every piece of bread in sight at the Cheescake Factory! And a bag of Cadbury mini eggs CVS mysteriously already has out for Easter (WTH?)!  But whatever.  It's my own little vacation miracle!  And miracles shouldn't be over analyzed!

Despite my success getting to the fitness center and my vacation miracle, I'm still a day behind on my 10K training app and don't have time to make it up before my 10K next weekend.  I'm already signed up so there's no turning back but I am starting to feel a little nervous about whether or not I'll be able to run the whole way.

I don't guess I'm nervous that I can't run the whole way but more nervous that I won't be able to make myself do it.  I really, really, really wanted to stop running around mile 3 today.  Pushing through that helped remind me that I can mentally push through difficult things. I'm not going to get crazy and overdo it leading up to the race but I do plan to do 2 more training runs and will hopefully build a little more confidence.  Wish me luck!  And, yeah, for vacation miracles!

Linking up with Little Girl in the Big World for the Weekly Workouts Roundup!