I can do it!

I woke up at 4:40 AM this morning so that I could go do a 5-mile run with my kids. I felt surprisingly good, especially after the junk-fest last night for Easterand the 20 miler I did on Saturday. We took our walk breaks, but I got in a couple of good fartleks, too. We finished the run in 49:28.

When I arrived home, I did a lower-body work out - squats, lunges, calve-raises, and P90X ab-ripperX.  Now I'm off to go back to San Diego for a funeral, and then off to the Caribbean!!!

This morning I woke up to a beautiful San Diego morning and ran 4.01 nice, easy miles with my sister-in-law in about 52 minutes.  Then we attended a beautiful funeral and drove to Las Vegas to hop on a plane to the caribbean.  :D

Our plane ended up being delayed for FOUR hours!!!  So we didn't fly out of Vegas until 3:00 am.  Ben and I arrived in Punta Cana around 2:00 in the afternoon, and were checked into the Moon Palace Resort by about 4:00.  We ordered room service, took a much needed shower and a short nap, then discovered that the plumbing to the sink was disconnected, and we flooded our bathroom.  So we walked around the resort while they fixed our bathroom, then enjoyed an incredible mexican dinner and attended a Caribbean show.  When we got back to our room, we realized that our door didn't latch unless slammed, our television was gutted, and when we tried to go to bed, the smell of the mattress was horrendous!!!  So we asked for a new room, and at midnight, we finally were able to get transferred to a new room!  The only problem there, was that it had two double beds in it, instead of a king.  But we were so exhausted, we squeezed into the tiny bed and went to sleep.  Needless to say, we had a busy day.  :D

This morning we transferred to another room, this time with a KING sized bed!  Yay.  Other than our flight and room disasted, we are having a fantastic time in the Dominican republic!  This morning we woke up at 6:30 and ran around the resort, to get a better feel for it.  We did 3 miles in 29:35, then did a little more running on the treadmills in the gym.  We argued about the mileage, since the treadmill said it was in kilometers, but I was positive that 7.0 FELT like i was running 7 MPH.  When I finished another mile in just over 9 minutes, I kknew that no matter WHAT the treadmill said on the display, I was measuring in MPH, NOT KPH!  I was happy to be proved right when I finished, since the final readout showed MPH.  We had a fantastic breakfast - I ate an ham and egg-white omelet loaded with veggies, and fresh caribbean fruit for my carb.  Then Ben and I went back to the gym to catch the spin class.  I rode for 50 minutes, sweating like crazy in this humidity.  Tonight we are having dinner at a Japanese Teppanyaki grill...soooo tasty!  Then we plan to go back to the gym for some weight training.  :D

Something I ate did NOT agree with me last night, so I spent an uneasy night with all sorts of stomach pains and cramps.  Dang it.  I slept in, then decided to try out a run, to see if I could do it without doubling over.  So I walked over to the gym, and di a 3.13 mile run in a little over 31 minutes.  I felt pretty good while running, but felt pretty badly afterwards.  So I took it easy for the rest of the day, and Ben and I went on an excursion through parts of the Dominican Republic, touring a tobacco making place, the hill country near Punta Cana, and a typical Dominican residence and coffee/chocolate plantation.  I drank the BEST hot cocoa of my life!  And we bought some pretty souveniers - yay!  When we returned to the resort, we went back to the gym and I ran another 2.2 miles in 20:30, then did a short lower body workout with some squats, leg presses, leg curls, and some ab-ripper.  We ate dinner at a Brazillian barbeque, but my appetite is still somewhat weak.  When we returned to our room, I filled up the jacuzzi with some extra hot water, sweat like crazy for awhile, then we went to see an awesome show with a Michael Jackson impersonator!  It was a good day.  :D

This morning I woke up later than planned.  So when I headed outside to run, the sun was already high and hot, and, being the caribbean, it was humid.  I ran around the resort twice, logging 3.06 miles in 30:18.  By the time I finished, I felt like I was running with leaden feet, and I was sure I was dehydrated from the sweat that was coming off of me.  It was like someone was pouring water on top of my head.  So I went into the gym, hopped on the treadmill, and walked for a half mile while guzzling water.  I felt head-achy and exhausted.  I wanted to do a 20 minute HIIT on the treadmill, so I started running again, made it a tenth of a mile, and gave up.  I grabbed another bottle of water and began walking back to my room.  But after a couple minutes outside, I thought "I can do hard things!" and I walked right back into the gym and started up the treadmill again.  It was my first HIIT on the treadmill.  I'll admit, it turned into a 22 minute HIIT, because I let myself take a 2 minute walk break in the middle of the run, but I still logged 2.5 miles in the 22 minutes.  I started at a 6.0 MPH pace for my level 5, and finished with a 9.0 MPH pace for my level 10.  I know I can go a lot faster in the future, but for today, I know I hit my "10," because I was praying the last minute "PLEASE let this moment pass before I DIE!"  :D  I walked for three more minutes after that to cool down.  It was a great workout.  I ended up doing a total of 2.74 miles on the treadmill.