Beach Running

Well, I successfully exercised 3 times on vacation! Pretty unusual for me, but it would have been a poor choice to take a week off of running in the middle of a marathon training program. That may be about the only productive thing I did all week, unless you count reading an entire book or finding some great deals at the Tanger Outlet stores. The first morning that we were actually at our destination, my in-laws got up early to take a walk on the beach. I decided to go with them and knock out one of my 3 mile runs on the beach for the a change. (With shoes, not barefoot.) Luckily, the sand was pretty flat, especially during low tide, and it was also compact enough that I was able to run without much problem. I will say, it was definitely harder than running on pavement! My time was pretty average for an 85 degree run, but I could just tell I was using way more leg muscle to get through than normal. On sand, you have to compensate for the slight sinking that your foot does with every step, and obviously even a smooth beach is nowhere near as level or steady as the road. The hardest part was turning around at my halfway point and running on the opposite slant after I had grown accustomed to leaning towards one side.

The other two runs of the week were on a treadmill--another 3 and a 5. It made me wonder why I never even attempt to workout on vacations. It doesn't take much time out of the day, and it was nice to get in some movement to put a tiny dent in all the eating I was doing! Even with 3 workouts, I still gained 3 pounds on the trip. Not a shocker though, considering the eating out every night and finally, after 4 weeks, introducing desserts back into my diet (the road trip candy, Myrtle Beach ice cream parlors, Tennessee fudge, and my Grandma's pound cake when we stopped there on the way back home).

So now, the week ahead is staring me in the face. I'll be teaching 3 spin classes in addition to my own workouts, then my long run this week is 17 miles (I say that happily, because up until today, I thought it was 18--what a great surprise that I was mistaken!). Bring it on.