Its the week before Thanksgiving and we are on our way to Fiji to Scuba Dive. I had no idea what to expect in terms of terrain for running but know I will want to run probably every day. It's not my top priority, but there's only so much relaxing I can handle. I figure I won't be doing any long or intermediate distance runs, but will be fun to adapt to a new environment and not be so regimented with my running. On our way to Fiji we have a long layover in LA and have booked a hotel room to chill out in for about 5 hours. I take advantage of this and go for a run. I got confused and ended up doing a lap of the airport before I found the road I wanted. My goal was to get to the ocean but I only wanted to do about 6 miles and had to turn back. Interesting how many serious cyclists I saw on that route. Ended up running 6.5 miles at a 8:55 pace. Strange to feel so good after getting off an airplane.
We lost a day over a date line traveling our 10 hours to Fiji. I slept on the plane about 8 of those hours and then we had a 2.5 hour bus ride to our resort called Wananavu. After settling in and having lunch I checked out the property. The beachfront area is only about .3 miles but there are a few jetties that I can run out on as well. The sand is fairly packed and nice to run on but this is going to get boring over a whole week. Already thinking about ways to spice up the training. I feel a bit off from the time change, my stomach is full and i'm already feeling like I've gained weight. Oh well. Ran 5 miles at 9:19 pace.
Now its Sunday and we go for a two tank dive which brought us back to the resort around 2pm. Fine diving, but not great and the boat ride out to the best reef was choppy and long. After lunch we chilled out. Temps are not very hot. probably about 82. Seems best time to run will be either before we dive if i'm up early at 6am or so or around 4 or 5 in the afternoon. Today I decided to try running off the property. The main road is probably about 3 miles from the resort and the road leading to the resort was bumpy coming in but decided to try it. The footing was terrible and had to walk some portions, especially up and down some hills. Couldn't even enjoy the scenery because I had to constantly monitor the footing. This is not a good plan. If i have an injury I have no idea where the nearest hospital is. I cut the run short and finish the 4.1 miles at a 10.15 pace.
Monday I hit the beach again in the late afternoon. Going to combine beach running with some strength exercises. After each mile I set myself up with some therapy bands and combine leg stabilization exercises with pulling exercises. Broke up the run a bit and made it more interesting. Fan 6 miles at 8:38 pace. Having the rest for light weight training allowed my heart rate to go down and felt strong going into each 1 mile run interval
Tuesday I would like to be doing about 11 miles but no way I can run that on the beach at once. Way too boring. Will do an AM run and a PM run. The Am run was an easy 6 miles at 8:49 pace. The evening run was 5 miles at 9:10 pace. Every 1/3 mile i stopped and did some lower body plyometrics which kept my HR elevated. Did squat jumps, lateral skaters, split lunge jumps. I've not been doing plyometrics in the gym and found it challenging to do in the sand and didn't feel the impact of it the next day.
Wednesday I an in the later afternoon for 5 miles at 8:55. There were two points within my one mile circuit where I had a nice straight away with sound footing, so at those spots I did speed strides for 25 steps or so bringing my pace up to 5:13 to 6mm. Another nice variation.
Thursday I felt lazy and it was our last day of diving. I was hoping to feel like swimming more while I was here, but the property doesn't really have a good swimming cove because of all the jetties. I spent about 30 minutes doing drills between two of the jetties. Forgot to mention that one day I spent time in the pool learning how to do flip turns.
Friday is our last day at the resort. We have a day excursion planned to a little island across the bay but other than that nothing to do. So I planned another 2 runs. In the Am i ran before eating breakfast. I feel totally recovered having a day off. I ran 5 miles at 8:51 pace and my HR was really low throughout at an AV of 156. At each mile i took a break and did leg work. I integrated S/L suspended squats and squats with Hip abduction using a band. For the afternoon run I ran 5 miles at an easy 9:04 pace.
We left the resort at 10am on Saturday but didn't fly out until 11pm. Spent time at a hotel with a day room near the airport and took a trip into town. Slept most of the way to LA. Gained a day on the return and landed at JFK at 11pm. When I got home i wasn't tired so we unpacked. I need to get in my long run Sunday morning but have to do it early so we can drive up to Connecticut and pick up Kramer who is staying with family. So I got 4 hours of sleep and then went out for a 17 mile run at 7am. Kinda crazy but it worked.
Sunday morning I got up at 6:30, had a shake and was out the door by 7am for the run. Feeling really tired but glad to be back in NYC and want to enjoy this run. I Ran over the bridge and up the west side until I hit the 8.5 mile mark and then turned around. Really the whole run felt easy. I think running the last week in sand made the hard surface run feel super easy. Had a gel at 6 mile and 11 mile and had to stop twice for the bathroom. No wind today. Around the 12 mile mark or 2/3 of the way in I started to feel sluggish, but not bad considering all the travel and inconsistent nutrition from the last 36 hours. The goal was to run 17 miles at 9:36 pace and I ran the main 15 mile set (had a 1 mile warm up real slow to the bridge and 1 mile cool down) at 9:08 and HR 155 average My pace was about 25 seconds per mile faster than planned but my HR was right on target. I'm sure I'm going to be napping in the car on the way home tonight.