Coffee Milk Weeks 6 and 7: Permanent Vacation

And just like that, my great intentions of blogging go by the wayside.  Whoops.  I won't anger my few devoted readers by throwing out excuses about *cough* vacation, but I do admit there were a few palm trees that got in the way of posting week 6.  Lest you throw too much hate mail my way, week 7 made up for it with enough karmic ferocity that I almost regret my vacation.  Almost.

Ok, I lied.  Jamaica was epic, amazing, and there were only a few reasons I even came back.  Like the ones I birthed.  And maybe one more.  I'll leave that one vague and get on with the running part.

Week 6:  Running Miles - 48

We left for Jamaica on Saturday, so most of my week was spent on the dreadmill or the sleeted streets of the Roc.  I managed to secure a few legit runs, stayed on course, and took a rest day for our travels, saving one easy 7 miler for Sunday.  It was a pretty low key week, with the biggest challenge being the swing from a 10 degree 7 mile tempo run done in layers to an 85 degree beach run in a sports bra and shorts.  Yep, it was a real first world problem.

I also met a new man on vacation, which may in fact belong in the romance section of my blog (HAH, that;s a good one) - a wonderful, mature French man in his 50s who sidled up to me and requested a few one on one dates in a very suave french style.  Mon Dieu.  We got sweaty together a few times and had a very delicious, short lived fling.

On the roads.  During some tempo runs.  You see, the M dot tattoo happens to be some sort of magnet for us crazy runners -when we see one, it acts as a homing beacon to attract a fellow nut job that's also on a 6:30 morning run during vacation at a friggin beach.  In my case, it was a very nice man named Pascal from Montreal, who chatted with me through 24.5 miles over 4 days about Ironman Mont Tremblant (now on my to do list for 2020), Norseman (on my holy shit that's incredible but I may die list) and about everything in life in between.  We hit that sweet spot of running camaraderie that allowed for a similar pace, easy chatter, and since he was staying on the luxury side of the resort I got to do some extra exploring of how the other half lives.  Wins all around.

The took up week 6 and most of week 7 training until we got back early Thursday, where it seemed karma decided to throat punch me for daring to take 5 days on the beach.  First, there was a snow (errr, cold) day.  (We seriously never got these in the 80s and 90s....just sayin).  Then Rob got sick and stayed home.  Then Greg got sick.  Then I had a massively ridiculous high school drama with some friends.  Then work...well, I won't get into that.  Suffice to say it's great to be needed, but....not so much.  Job security, right? To top it off, we had to have a parent teacher conference for my histrionic older child, which, to be fair, after the last 5 days, I'm feeling him totally.

In spite of all of that, I'm healthy (knock on wood), kicked it at my tempo and speed runs in week 7, and hit a mileage high for the week:

Week 7:  Running Miles - 52

Also of note, I joined the Irondequoit Bay Runners for another edition of 14 miles "Round the Bay" in black ice on Sunday - with two guys I never could keep up with in a sane reality.  Ken (middle) does a great job of hanging with me and I hope I didn't slow Matt Speedster Kellman down too much (left) but these two running paragons of mine have given some hope to my lofty goals for 2019 - we held an 8:12 pace for 14 miles, even while doing some ice dancing.  Score.  According to Garmin, I PRed the half again at 1:47 and change, but I also might have slipped it a 10 spot to lie to me after the crappy few days post vacation.

Hey, you do what you gotta.

8 weeks till show time - lets keep it up.

*Post Note - The lack of mention of biking was not an error in this post.  And no, I don't want to talk about it.  For swimming, I got in some lovely open water swims, along with a new speed record for 100 yards at the local Y in a last minute "race" prior to vacation.  Greg said he wasn't working that hard.  I demand a rematch.  Either way, the sweet rewards were worth the effort.*