Vacation

I just got back this afternoon from a visit to New Hampshire to see my dad and stepmother. It was lovely! Since this blog has a particular focus, I will stick to related things, but I just want to do a quick shout out to Bill and Pam – I had a great time!

In addition to hanging out, going places, and doing things, I also managed to get two workouts in in order to keep up with my 5K training group schedule. Surprisingly enough, I did both first thing in the morning on Thursday and Friday – I am usually not a morning workout kind of person, but this way I figured I'd get it done and not have to worry about fitting it in later.

The thing about where they live is that it's pretty hilly. Not all big hills, though there are a couple, but still not really much level ground when I am walking from the house and down the road. So that made it extra challenging for me, and I am sure when I go back to "regular" landscape it will be that much easier. Hill training is great! It's just really hard. Surprisingly enough, my pace was still not too bad. In fact, on Thursday my first mile clocked in at 16:30, which is excellent for me. Otherwise I was around 17:00 on both days. I am pleased! Another tough factor was the temperatures, which were in the teens Fahrenheit. Of course I layered up as I have learned to do on my earlier group runs when winter was still in horrible full force, so the cold wasn't a problem. It's just annoying.

One of the big hills I conquered this week.

I had planned on fitting some yoga in while I was there as well, and even brought my mat with me, but it was not to be. That's OK.

The plan from here: catch up on my group work tomorrow (the run today that I missed out on), and make time for yoga.

My eating was pretty good while away. My biggest challenge is what I eat while on the road, as I tend to get pretty junky even when I plan ahead, like I did for the trip there. I still ended up stopping for some crap even though I didn't need it. Double ditto for the trip home. But, I half planned on it and I've logged everything and I'm moving on. I will jump on the scale tomorrow and see where things stand, but I'm not expecting much after today's junk fest. (I am abstaining from dinner, at least!)

I'd like to leave you today with a selection of some of the songs that really keep me going through the tough parts of my training workouts when I'm on my own. (We're not allowed to wear headphones on the group runs, and what makes those so great is the camaraderie from other participants and the coaching and encouragement from the mentors and coaches – I wouldn't want to miss out on that!) But yeah, here's some of what got me up those New Hampshire hills this week:

Sonic Youth, Hey Joni

Sleater-Kinney, Get Up and Dig Me Out

Jay-Z, Picasso Baby and Tom Ford

Beastie Boys, Sure Shot

Dead Can Dance, Frontier

Tricky, Brand New You're Retro

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, City of Refuge

Lil Kim, The Jump Off

Gary Numan, Cars

Ministry, So What

Luna, Rollercoaster

The Undertones, My Perfect Cousin

Roni Size Reprazent, Hi-Potent

Unwound, Murder Movies and Corpse Pose

IQU with Miranda July, Girls on Dates