Back in the saddle?

We arrived  at Groton Long Point, Connecticut yesterday afternoon, and this place is beautiful!  Our flight was delayed (bad luck with flying lately!), and we hardly slept on the plane at all, so we are still recovering from jet lag.

I basically didn't sleep at all Friday  night, slept 9 hours last night, and just woke up from an hour and a half nap!  My husband is still asleep.

My mom's new house here is right on the beach, and there is a boardwalk that stretches around the sound.  I'm looking forward to running there.  There is also a state park nearby with a lot of trails.  The town in general is runner-friendly.  There are not a lot of cars, and there are people on bikes everywhere.  We plan to run tomorrow when we are fully recovered from jet lag.  We also have kayaks, so we plan on exploring the area that way as well.

In the meantime, we're eating very well!  Last night, my mom's husband cooked clams, shrimp, and lobster.  We each had our own personal lobster, which I've never had before, so it was quite the experience!

We had fully planned on running today, but we still have no energy!  I guess it takes a while to catch up when you basically miss an entire night's sleep!

We ran 5 miles in 46:41 (9:20 pace) along the beach in CT.  It was a beautiful day: about 70 degrees but humid!  We actually ran on the boardwalk or the sidewalk adjacent to the beach.  We ran a little slower than usual, but my heart rate came down very quickly.  Of course, it was my first run in three days, so it will probably take a couple of days to get back up to speed.  My husband and I have heard conflicting things about running in the sand.  I've heard it's good for you (I've done it, and it's very difficult), but he heard it's bad for you. 

After our run, we kayaked in the ocean for about an hour.  It was really fun and a good workout.  We kayaked over to another beach and found two giant dead horseshoe crabs.  they look a little bit like stingrays but with hard shells.

Tomorrow we're going to visit friends in the Hamptons.  Hopefully we'll be able to squeeze in a run down there.

We did 5 miles along the beach again today-beautiful run!  It was not as humid as our run on Monday, and we finished in 44:40.  We ran the first mile in 9:20 and got to the halfway point at 22:28, so we picked up some speed to about 8:50.  We ran the second half in 22:10, and our pace varied a bit, from 8:28 to 8:50, according to my Garmin.  Our average pace was 8:56 with my heart rate around 160.

Our marathon training plan is based on heart rate and time spent running, rather than mileage, for some of the runs.  So, we have to figure out our max heart rates before we start.  I know that the 220 minus your age won't be accurate for me, because my heart rate can go up to about 200, and I'm almost 30.  I found some articles on the subject, so we'll be doing some scientific tests when we get back to AZ!

Today we ran along the Charles River in Boston.  What a beautiful city!  Our hotel was in a very good location, right off Beacon Street on the Freedom Trail, but we had a hard time finding the river.  We probably walked a good 1-1.5 miles to find the trail.  We ran for about 48 minutes.  My Garmin said we went 5 miles, but I think we went a bit farther, because the time was  a little off, and the Garmin has a hard time keeping the signal with so many trees.

This afternoon, we went on a bike tour of Boston.  We had signed up for a guided tour on bikes, but we greatly underestimated how long it would take to get to the bike shop, so we missed the tour!  We rented the bikes anyway and did our own self-guided tour.  It was scary at first, riding in the traffic, but we got the hang of it after a while and ended up really enjoying ourselves.  We rode for almost 3 hours, and I have no idea how far we went!  All I know is, I am all fired up about running the Boston marathon after seeing it on foot and bike!

I wasn't able to run as much during our vacation as I wanted to.  Most of our vacations are whirlwind tours where we don't have any time or energy to run, so this was actually better than most.  And I am so spoiled now after running in the beautiful weather.  Time to fire up the treadmil again!  I feel good and well-rested for next week!