Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Vacation Running

Since we still don't have internet at our house, I am working on ways to get the pictures from the honeymoon onto the blog.  I seem to be making it a bit more complicated for myself but I hopefully will have some tomorrow! 

In the mean time, I wanted to talk about fitting in exercise while on vacation or in my case, on a honeymoon. 

I ran almost every day while in St. Lucia except for the day we arrived and the one day we had an early morning excursion trip planned.  So for the duration of the trip, we were there for about 8 days, of which I exercised for 6.


Now if I had kids and went on vacation, I do not know how I would have fit in exercising, but since it was just me and Brian it was a bit easier.  We of course wanted to spend time together so we went to the hotel gym together.  Just 30-45 minutes a day and we got a decent workout in which made eating a ton of junk food the rest of day seem not so bad.

Each morning whenever we woke up, we would change into workout clothes and head to the little gym.  A quick workout and then we were off to breakfast before lounging all day at the pool.  Before I left I came up with a few easy workouts that I used during the trip to help maintain my speed but not take up a ton of time.  It was definitely a bit different running on the treadmill after running outside consistently but I actually didn't mind it too much.

Easy Vacation workouts:

  • 1 mile warmup, 2.5 miles at tempo pace, 0.5 mile cool down, total = 4 miles
  • 1 mile warmup, 5x800m at tempo pace w/ 400m jog recovery, 0.25 mile cool down, total = 5 miles
  • 1 mile warmup, 2x2000m at tempo pace, 0.5 mile cool down, total = 4 miles

Three good tempo paced workouts, with easy runs sprinkled in between to help recovery.  Keeping it simple was definitely the way to go - maintaining a focus of just trying to fit in ~4 miles each day didn't make the workout seem overwhelming or too time consuming.  I am definitely glad I was able to get some good workouts in while on vacation.

I really wish I could have run outside while in St. Lucia! It definitely is a VERY hilly island which could have been fun to explore or maybe not - I don't really like hills anyway!

Do you run while on vacation? Or do you just take the time off from all exercise?

10 comments:

Marlene said...

I can't believe you ran nearly every day, but not just that - you did speed work too!!

I do try to fit in some runs on vacation, but you won't watch me on the treadmill. :)

Elizabeth said...

I definitely run less than I otherwise would on vacation, but I make it an effort to be consistent. On my honeymoon, my husband and I ran three times. We had to use the treadmill because there was really no where to go outside that was safe. We went on a cruise and the ship had a track, and that was actually a lot of fun!

Kim said...

Good for you for preparing to run and then getting up early to do it each day! :) Those look like some good workouts!

Did you not run outside because you didn't want to spend too much time apart?

I almost always workout when I am on vacay or traveling :)

Lisa said...

My husband and I also exercised on our vacation. Not every day, but enough. We try our best to exercise whenever on vacation - in Seattle we were sure to stay at a hotel with a good gym and also went running several days. It's a great way to explore a new city!

Can't wait to see your honeymoon pics!

Johann said...

I'm very dedicated when it comes to running and very rarely miss a day. I run early in the morning and do the same while on vacation.

Chelsea said...

I usually run on vacation unless we are someplace where I really don't feel like there's a safe option. I also might not run if we were going to have a really active day otherwise.

Nicole said...

wow! you are truly amazing!!!! :) i'm soo soooo happy for you! <3

Suzy said...

Welcome back. I usually run every day I'm on vacation. It gives me some 'me' time and helps counter the good food I usually eat.

Melissa said...

I would normally run or workout on vacation but I just got back from vacation where A. there was no gym, B. being in a foreign country, I did not feel comfortable running outside alone

So...I worked out/ran when I could, stayed very active and figured I might as well enjoy and not stress too much :)

Anonymous said...

So proud of you guys for getting so much gym time while on your h-moon. When I go on vacation my running gear is the first thing packed. And second, I check out the hotel and see what kind of gym it has. Proud of you both!!