Consistency is Key

Vacations are never good, for running that is. Let me draw a picture of my typical vacation: A long flight (no sleep, little liquid, massive time zone shift, losing a day to travel), staying up later than normal, getting up later than normal, eating out all the time (big breakfast, pizzas, burgers), drinking more (and we still aren’t talking about water), seeing the sights, justifying a break. Well, not all of that sounds too bad. But what is missing? Oh yes, running. Running on vacation sucks.

Here is what it looks like for me: After a long day getting somewhere, I grab a beer or two. I am already dehydrated. I have eaten crappy food all day and now it is very late. I wake up later than I want to find I am hungry from the lack of good food. It is usually humid/hot out, so rather than run I eat and try to find drinkable water. When I do, I plan the activities I want to do. Of course, by the time those wrap up, I am dehydrated again and it is too hot to go. So I take the day off. But my evening consists of beers, bad food, and staying up late again, of course.

What usually happens is I suffer through a run in hotter weather than usual, run shorter than usual, at a slower pace than usual. I run maybe every other day but it is not unusual to take 2-3 days in a row off. My fitness suffers and it takes weeks to return to a solid schedule. But not this time! I was gone for 12 days and ran 10 of them. I did hour efforts in the sun. I cruised down a trail or along a lagoon and closed in the 5:40s for the last mile several times. It has made all the difference.

The down side is I am tired. I did a 20 miler two weeks ago and I paid for it. Despite the fact that I ran it slow with water, it took a week to feel ok again and I have been tired. I threw down 8x300m on a hill this week and realized I can still turn and burn. Not to mention you are looking at the league champs in sand-beach volleyball! I will run a tune-up marathon nice and easy Sunday morning to set me up for Pietermaritzburg at the end of February. This will be a PR attempt to go into Ultra season on a high.