VACAY!

As it happened, a family vacation was planned right when things were in full swing. The only consolation was that the week I would be away was a deloading week - thankfully. However, it still meant missing two whole weekends of training, including what Derrick called our toughest session (3 hr bike ride, 1.5hr run). At our hotel in Barbados there was a fitness centre that had some basic equipment - a couple treadmills and stair climbers, and a really weird bike contraption that I later learned was a recumbent bike. My training plan for the week consisted of rides and runs, but mostly treadmill runs. The training week started off great - in place of the hard session I was given two hours on the bike and a one hour run. Three hours away from liming time is a lot to ask but I'm gonna be a Half Ironman so that's what needed to be done! The session was long and drawn out but I got through it. I'd chosen a hill workout for the bike to get some pressure and during it I would play little games like hold a certain pace for a hill interval. That made the time pass quicker and gave a great workout (although that bike in no way felt like a real bike.) The run was boring but I watched Olympics. The last 20 minutes were long! The other days I exercised here and there but from Tuesday when we started going out more (or earlier) it became harder and more scanty. So instead of doing a two hour ride/run I'd do just an hour run. I thought I'd swim more (and got buffed in the process!) but surprisingly I hardly went in the big pool and I only swam once in the sea until I started having to dodge more people in the water. Some days I did crunches or other exercises, and one day the family did Aquacise. All-in-all I was a little nervous that the lack of consistent/proper training for the week would affect the overall flow of the training, plus alcohol every single day and lots of snacks and junk!!!. On the other hand I had a very enjoyable vacation! But at the end of it I knew I had to buckle down as we only had 6 weeks to go!