Another great mini

I'm back from another great mini-vacation.  4 days in the Okanagan.  Weather was absolutely wonderful - hot with a little breeze.

Managed 3 out of 4 days running.  Saturday we drove up there but before we left I lazed in bed in the morning instead of running.  By the time we got there it was much too hot and I went to bed fairly early after a long day.

Sunday morning I went out and did 5 miles.  Had planned to do 7, but arranged to meet my sister at a time I figured I would be finished my run, as is typical of me, I didn't get out early enough and ran late.  It was SUPER hot by the time I met up with her.  I had water, but really needed a refill.  My sister is just beginning running so we did run/walk intervals.  I was very impressed with her pace. 

Monday morning I chose a different location to run, one that had ALOT more shade, and was also close to a bathroom and my car (which had more water in it).  I also FINALLY discovered the power of my Garmin.  So far I only have used my Garmin to tell me distance, time & pace.  But after playing around, I learned how to set it for intervals.  YAY!  I wouldn't have to glance at my watch constantly.

I had set it for 1 min fast pace, 2 min slow pace x 15 intervals.  I also indicated I wanted to do a warm-up & cool down.  Not knowing how the warm-up worked, I ran ... and ran ... and ran, waiting for it to beep and let me know the warm-up was done.  Figured it would beep at maybe 5 minutes, or 1/2 a mile .... or 10 minutes ... maybe 1 mile?????  Then I questioned if I even set it up properly so ignored it for a while and just ran.  Then a little light went off in my head and I thought ... hmmmm, may I have to press the LAP button when I was done my warm-up and ready to move on.  I had run 1.7 miles before that lightbulb went off.

Having done a much longer warm-up than planned, I figured I wouldn't bother doing all 15 laps of the intervals.  But ... I ended up scooting around town, checking out new things, and before I knew it I had completed 9 of the 15 laps.  I didn't know how to reset the # of laps mid-run, and really wanted to know what happens when you're done.  So, I stopped and refilled my water, then really pushed it through those last 6 laps.  It was hot and I was tired, so some of my slow paced intervals were very slow, even a walk - but I was OK with that.  At the end I did a nice, slow cool down.  What a COOL feature!  If you have a Garmin and haven't yet played around with the workouts you can create, I highly recommend it!

Afterwards I found a nice shady spot on the grass, over-looking Okanagan Lake.  There was a wonderful breeze coming across and it just felt like this was my reward for completing a tough training session.  Pure bliss!

Running schedule this week:

Mon - Rest (did 6.68miles incl. 15 x 1:00 fartlek w/2:00 recovery)
Tues - 3 mile tempo run @ 8:20/mi  (done)
Wed - 4 mile moderate run (2 miles at 8:40 / 2 miles at 7:40)
Thur - 3 mile easy run @ 9:40/mi
Fri  - rest
Sat - 3 mile easy fartleks
Sun - 8 mile @ 9:10-9:20/mi

It sure is nice to incorporate exercise on vacation.  Somehow it just makes you a little more focused on eating healthier ... or at the very least it balances the indulgences a bit.

Keep Active!

Heidi

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