Home again, home again

The end of vacation is always bitter sweet...

     I love the sand and the sun, but I get to go home and see my dog.

          It's fun and exciting to go somewhere new and different, but I like to sleep in my own bed.

I get to spend all day all week with my honey, but ... nope - there's nothing better than spending all day all week with my honey, unless you add our kids to the mix!

But vacation is over, and home we are.

And though St Thomas was BEAUTIFUL, there was no place to run (safely). So much for our marathon training this past week. Besides the entire island being super hilly - which actually would have been okay, we need to do some hill work - there are no sidewalks, and the roads are VERY narrow, VERY windy (think blind curve after blind curve), with absolutely NO shoulder. We felt we would be putting our lives in danger to run on the roads. The complex we stayed in had no fitness facilities and the grounds were pretty small and busy. Of the 6 beaches we visited, the longest one was maybe a mile, so no beach runs either. We even called a nearby resort to see about a day pass so we could pound out 7 miles on their treadmills. At $100 a piece, we decided against it. So -- no running for a week. Gulp. Our 12 miler this weekend could be interesting...

But we stayed pretty active. We hiked... a lot. For hours and miles we hiked steep hills in both directions, explored sugar plantation ruins, and enjoyed beaches you can't drive to. We snorkeled until we thought our lips would fall off. We played smash ball and track ball, probably to the annoyance of the beach goers around us. 



                                      

And we ate pretty clean, most of the time. We rented a place with a full kitchen so most of our meals we fixed ourselves. We enjoyed almost every meal outside: either on our porch or packed as a picnic. Fresh fruit was plentiful but veggies were not. I can't remember another time when I have gone a full week without any spinach.

One of the meals we made in our room: rice with black beans and corn, green salad with pecans, carrots, and garlic bread.

Vacation is over and now it's time to get serious about our training. We've got 10 weeks until the marathon. My honey wants to drop a few pounds so meals will get leaner as our runs get longer. And we'll be adding in a few 12 minute workouts every week to boost strength and core work. I took on an additional class to my teaching schedule (yoga) so classes will keep me busy as well.

I hope you are having a happy, healthy, active summer!!