Maui Feb 16-25: Family Vacation

Importance: Jesse is my fiancé, and his dad and step-mom are bringing all 4 brothers and their significant others to the island for their anniversary. His family is totally awesome and it’s a once in a lifetime celebration that I refuse to miss.

Upcoming races: March 2, 10th in Melbourne Australia.
Main Focus: Summer races; USA Nationals, World Championships

The Challenge: Enjoy 10 days of family activities on a gorgeous island while still preparing to run outdoor track races in a week.

The Perspective: You can’t have your cake and eat it too, so I know that sacrifices will be made. I will have to miss a couple cool family things, may not get to surf or bike up a 10,000 foot mountain with Jesse, etc. I will also have to adjust my ideal training plan to do more important things with the family sometimes.

The Oath: I, Lauren Fleshman, commit to balancing running and vacation to the best of my ability. I will look at my training schedule and circle the most important things that will make me feel good about my training. I will do those things, in some form or other, on the trip, even if I have to be really creative. I will anticipate potential problems to getting these things done and will find someone I trust to be on my side who will help me on these days. I also promise to run by effort and not be a slave to my watch when events of the day tire me out. I will try to get out the door first thing in the morning. And when tempted to skip the run due to lack of motivation, I will remember that I have never regretted the decision to run in these scenarios, but I ALWAYS regret skipping it. By choosing to workout, I will feel better about myself, and will be the best version of myself for the rest of the vacation activities. If I come up short of my plan for a day, I will not be a grump. I am on vacation, not at a training camp, and stuff happens.

The training plan:
Planned training in italics, actual in bold.

Friday 16th:
Am: morning flight to Hawaii, run early in the morning if possible.
Pm: shake out and light strides
Am: not happening. Left house at 6:30am.
Pm: 9m on road from condo.

Saturday 17th:
Am: 1:30 long run (or as long as I want).
Pm: nada
Am: 1:30 long run on same road.

Sunday 18th:
am:4m tempo on track/off track combo at 5:20 average, last 800 2:30
Pm: 20 min run, 2 sets of 4 200’s in 34 with 200 in 45 between (continuous). Lap jog between sets. Last 2 in 30, or flat out 300 to finish. Cool down Weights/core
Am: 4m tempo on track (off track not safe). Really really windy. Ran 5:21, 5:18, 5:20, 5:17. No pickup last 800 because wind took it out of me to run 5:20’s.
Pm: 20 min run, during first set of 200’s, felt absolutely horrible. Legs were lead, wind was bad, was at the beach, did 2 in 34, took longer rest, did 2 more in 34, and called it quites. Cooled down 10 minutes. There are no weights to use; that was a bit optimistic to think there would be Took ice bath. Went to bed early.

Monday 19th:
Easy two runs
Easy 3m morning (didn’t get up early enough to do big chunk), 9m pm.

Tuesday 20th:
am: 5×400@72 with 200 rest in under 1min, 3 min rest, 1000 in 3:00, 3min rest, 5×400 again same as before.
pm: 4m brisk, 6x flying 50’s,weights
am: 4m and strides
Pm: 5×400@ 73 with 200 jog in 50-55, 2:40 rest, 1000 in 3:08, 3 min rest, 5×400 @72 (really windy, had to adjust times).

Wednesday 21st:
Am: 5m, core
Pm: 6m
Am: 6m, core
Pm: 6m

Thursday 22nd:
Am: 4m with light strides
Pm: Time trial 2k at under 6:00.
Am: Time trial 2k in 5:55 (really windy)
Pm: 3m easy, light strides

Friday 23rd:
Am: 10 miles easy. Weights/core
Pm: 30minutes aquajog easy
Am: nothing
Pm: 10m easy, core (no pool available)

Saturday 24th:
Am: 6m
Pm: 6m, drills, light strides, good stretch out
Am: 7m
Pm: 0 (last night family function).

Sunday 25th:
day off, travel to Melbourne on 8am flight. Arrive 9pm that same night.
day off

Thoughts: I had to skip a couple runs that were on the schedule because of beach trips, snorkling, or family dinners. Also, I chose to rest instead of run a couple times because I was tired and didn’t see the point of totally wearing myself out. These were not high priority runs anyway.

Days I was really proud of: The workouts were strictly for Tuesday and Thursday and could not be moved due to the timing of recovery for my upcoming travel to Australia and my upcoming race on March 2. I knew I couldn’t move the dates no matter what we had planned for vacation activities, so I talked to everyone in advance and got Jesse to help me strategize. Tuesday, I had to get up at 5:30am in order to get ready, drive to the track to do my tempo run, properly warm up, cool down, stretch, drive back, shower, etc to be ready by 8:30am. This was the only time of day I could get it done because we had a packed schedule. Doing this very early required going to bed really early on Monday and skipping some quality time going out with the brothers, but it was a priority for me since it was a key workout. I made sure to be at all the other fun stuff with the brothers after that. Thursday required waiting until the afternoon to work out, which meant running in the wind. Even though the workout involved timed laps on the track, I adjusted for the wind and just did my best.

Days that could use a little improvement:
Two of the days I didn’t follow my own advice about taking advantage of the mornings. I slept in and the smell of breakfast was just too good. On these days I ended up running a long way at the end of busy days, so I felt drained and unmotivated. I really need to avoid that because it takes the fun out of the run. One time I ended up cutting the run short because I was squeezing it in between dinner and dark.

Good adapting:
Adjusting track times for severe wind; listening to my body to adjust effort.

Results:
We shall see.

Off to Australia!
L.