Vacation from Vacation

I'm always surprised at how long it takes me to readjust to the rhythms of my day-to-day life when I return from vacation.  Its as if I refuse to acknowledge I am back at home, back at work, back at constructing my own dinner menus (which I am horribly bad at).  Instead, I continue to mentally drift through that lacksidasical vacation haze of beach-side meanderings and late morning sleep-ins, even though my life around me has resumed screaming its commands: "WAKE UP EARLY!" "DON'T BE LATE!!" DON'T SLOUCH!" (oh, sorry, that last one was rollover from childhood).

Where I still am (src)

My refusal to return mentally from vacation means that I feel like I am always in catch-up mode.  In regards to running it means that I only ran twice during the week (not counting this weekend).  And neither time was early in the morning.  

The first run was a 3-mile run in the evening as DJ Research was putting Nugget to bed.  I was bored with my usual 3-mile loop so I decided to mix things up.  Rather than turn right out of my front door, I turned left through a different part of the neighborhood.  Result: still boring.  But at least I got it done.

The second run was more enjoyable of the two.  I did a 7-mile run around Lake A. on my lunch break.  Last time I did this run was in late March when the weather was significantly cooler.  On this first go round I tackled the 7-miles in 67 minutes.  I'm a stronger runner now and was hoping to make it back in under an hour.  This go round, I did it in 60 minutes flat which, considering the heat and humidity, I am a-ok with.  (And DO NOT ask if I showered after my run unless you are prepared for the TRUTH  <------ this statement sponsored by my stick of deodorant).

Do you work out on your lunch break?





RAR!

A Memorable Vacation and a Meh-morable Run

We're back from vacation, but I'm in denial.  We spent the week on the beach with the DJ's family, and it was so totally amazing.  If I could spend the rest of my life on the beach with family, I would.  And considering I'm from Hawai'i, that really could be my reality.  Que sera.

I won't bore you with the minute details of our vacation.  Instead, here are two pictures that sum up the week:

Gorgeous scenery and weather.

Nugget crazy happy to be hanging with his big cousins.

I managed to run a little over 28 miles for the week, which is more than I expected.  This vacation was also great because every run was memorable, or meh-morable, for its own reasons.  Here's the breakdown in reverse order:

4th run - 5 miles
Why it was memorable: 5 miles of randomness (2 miles of fartleks, 2 miles of trails, 1 mile of meandering).  Came upon some unexpected trails and decided to run them.  Almost got lost.  Almost face-planted multiple times.  Regardless, trail running is awesome.

3rd run - 10 miles
Why it was memorable:  10 miles PR (1:29 @ 8:49 m/m).  Great weather, great scenery on a mostly flat course.  It was also the 4th of July, and a PR felt like an appropriate way to celebrate.

2nd run - 7 miles
Why it was memorable:  7 mile family run, which is the longest family run to date.  Nugget seemed to enjoy himself until the last .5 mile when he decided to attempt his escape and tried to climb out.  A quick tightening of the straps, and we finished strong.

1st run - 6 miles
Why it was meh-morable:  THE MOST BORING RUN OF MY LIFE.  The plan was a 6 mile family run around my in-law's neighborhood loop.  I've walked that loop before, and I remember it taking FOREVER.  Or at least, a really long time.  So I was expecting the neighborhood loop to be somewhere between 2-3 miles, meaning we would run 2-3 laps and be done with it.  WRONG.

It was 1/2 a mile.

Which means we had to run 12 laps to complete our 6 mile run.

Also, the loop was not flat.  It was mostly gradual downhill with one steep uphill (we could have run it the other way, but we felt that flying down the steep hill with the stroller wasn't particularly safe).  So we had to run that hill 12 times.

Usually I'm the one to push the stroller on our runs.  I really enjoy it while DJ Research really hates it.  But I wasn't about to push that stroller up that hill 12 times.  We each ran 3 miles pushing Nugget.

The DJ's turn!  Loop 11

We did it.  It was boring as hell but we did it.

I guess its technically like running around a track, which I haven't done since high school.  Even then I hated running in a circle.  Honestly, I would take the dreadmill over the track any day.

How about you?  If you had to choose track or treadmill, which would you choose?

Have you run any meh-morable runs?

Do you celebrate holidays by going for a long run?

RAR!