Post-vacation slump

Vacation was, in a word, awesome.   The Traverse City region of Michigan is beautiful, with tons of great outdoor activities.   We hiked the sand dunes, wandered around on the shore of Lake Michigan, went fishing, kayaked and generally had a fantastic time.

In the midst of all this, I even managed to get a couple runs in with my lovely friend Nana.   Being the early risers of the group, we headed out before the others woke (and generally got back before that as well).   The first day my cell phone was dead so we just ran straight run/walk intervals, but we actually went for nearly an hour, with a little trail running thrown in for good measure.   The next day my cell was charged so it was back to C25k.  We were a little slow, but in our defense we had climbed a massive dune the day before.  

I will say running with a friend was great fun.   It will be sort of sad to go back to running solo.   Well, I guess that is just inspiration to improve my running so I can go out with the local runners.   If that goes anywhere near as well as riding with the local group goes, I should have a fantastic view of the back of lots of people.   Sometimes I swear I recognize the local riders better from behind than in front.  

In case you haven't noticed, I'm having a bit of a pity party.   This is mostly because I can't seem to make any progress in the group rides.   Regardless of conditions, group makeup, or star positioning I seem to be firmly entrenched in the rear position.   Of course, I know the remedy to this...intervals.   But if I want to ride intervals, I need to stop being such a lazy rider and get out on my overly numerous rest days and do it.

Workout:  No run today (so tired), but I did ride 25 miles with a 16.5 mph average.   Much better than my ride yesterday, which was 18 miles in the 95 degree heat and humidity.  Heart rate monitors are great for showing you just how close to the line you are riding, and yesterday was ugly.  


And to close, a lovely picture from vacation: