Tuesday Morning Training Report: Making the Training Plan Work on Vacation

Sticking to a training plan on vacation can be tough, especially when the training requires special equipment like bikes and a safe place to swim.  We didn’t bring our bikes to Cape Cod and the water was too cold to swim for any extended period of time – and apparently there have been several recent shark attacks!  Still, we were able to adjust our schedule slightly and fit in almost all of our workouts.  Plus, the change of scenery this week really kept things fresh!

Week 5 Training Recap:

Monday – 2 km swim
Tuesday – 2 km swim
Wednesday – 6 mile run
Thursday – rest day
Friday – 9 mile run
Saturday – rest day
Sunday –2 hr BRICK (1:40 bike, 20 run)
Monday – 2:55 bike ride (40 miles)
Total time: 9.5 hrs

Swimming: Still feeling strong in the pool, and am now doing freestyle 3/4 of the time.  I do have some concerns about my ability to do freestyle in open water, and would feel better if we could fit in some open water practice runs.  Unfortunately, even though we were on the Bay side of Cape Cod, the water was far too cold to swim beyond a quick dip.

Running: We had two great runs while we were on vacation!  The first was a six mile out and back, with a beautiful sandy beach at the halfway point.  For our long run we drove to the end of the Cape Cod Rail Trail and ran a 9 mile out and back with easy rolling hills.  We both felt really strong the whole way, and the cooler weather and new scenery really powered us through at a good pace!

BRICK: 7 laps around Haines Point + a 30 minute run.  Our BRICK schedule only calls for 20 minute runs, but that doesn’t feel like it’s going to be enough to build confidence, so we’re planning to increase the distance of our post-ride run.

Long Ride: There’s only so many times you can do Mt. Vernon and back, so I put a call out to my distance biking friends for some recommendations, and man did they come through!  The first ride we decided to try was the W O&D, mostly because I already knew how to get there via an offshoot from the Mt. Vernon trail… and because the colleague who recommended it mentioned homemade pop-tarts!  Turns out we weren’t going far enough this week to hit the pop-tarts (@Green Lizard Cycling, another 8 miles down the trail), but right at the exact point we planned to turn around (mile 20 of our ride, mile 12 of the trail) we happened upon a brewery hopping with cyclists.  Now that’s fate if I’ve ever heard of it!  Of course we stopped to split a flight. Since training takes up so much of our weekend, we figure we should keep it fun by making some spontaneous stops along the way!

On the way home, we made one more stop at the Southwest Waterfront seafood market, and shared these rockin’ tacos (one fish, one shrimp, both fried) and picked up some fresh salmon for my lunches for the week.

Nutrition: We have been vacation eating all week, which translates roughly to whatever the heck we want, followed by ice cream.  Exhibits A, B, C and D are below.  The night before our long run, we had a wonderful meal at the cottage: simply cooked swordfish with corn on the cob and a tomato, basil and mozzarella salad + delicious oatmeal cookies.  I felt strong.

Oh, and pumpkin spice season is here!  The only sugary flavor I really, really can’t pass up.  Except that a large has more calories than some of their donuts, so I kinda have to pass it up sometimes.

Biggest Anxiety: right now it’s figuring out the logistics.  So far, I’ve registered for the race, booked the flights and have one dinner reservation.  Booking a hotel or AirBnB is on the list for this week.  We also need to figure out what equipment we need and confirm how we’re getting our bikes to New Orleans!

Week to Come:

Workout Schedule:
Tuesday – 40 minute run
Wednesday – 2.3 km swim (46 laps)
Thursday – 10 mile run
Friday – rest day!
Saturday –2 hr BRICK (1:40 bike, 20 run)
Sunday –3 hr bike ride
Total time: 8.5 hrs

Meal Prep: I finally did proper meal prep!  These four recipes took roughly two hours to make, and will last me all week with minimal additional prep/assembly/reheating required.  I’m lucky, in that I don’t mind eating the same thing every day for a week as long as I’m not eating the same thing multiple meals in a row.  Here’s the plan for the week:

• Breakfasts: Sweet Potato & Chicken Sausage Hash (plus, I added the summer squash I got in my Hungry Harvest box); I’ll eat this with a fried egg and avocado.
• Lunches: Salmon Sushi Bowls (I’d never made this before, but I’m super excited to eat it all week!)
• Dinners: Chickpea Burgers with Balsamic Almond Butter (this is my all time favorite chickpea burger, but I haven’t made it in a really long time!  I top it with Brie and avocado, and will eat with a salad and sweet potato Terra chips)
• Snacks: Chocolate “Salty Balls” (I made a riff on this recipe) – planning to test these out as a pre-workout and mid-workout snack; + bananas and Asian pears.
• No desserts or sugary drinks during the week!

Johanna