November 4-10 in review: Vacation not-running

Bike, run, head out of town.

Well, I’m glad I front-loaded some workouts last week because running on my mini-vacation did not happen. I brought clothes for a chilly outdoor run and a hotel gym run, but I was neither brave enough for the ice and snow that blanketed northern Michigan, nor disciplined enough to get out of a comfortable hotel bed on less than 8 hours of sleep to run before breakfast and checking out.

However, the extra-long weekend was still a lot of fun. We had to skip a winery event because my little car literally could not make it up an ice-covered hill, but we made it to several other wineries and several breweries, and did get some exercise doing some light, snowy hiking on the trails in Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. We couldn’t do the dune climb in the snow but we probably got in a good 4-5 miles of light-to-moderate trail hiking. I should have worn my Garmin! There was a part hiking up a ski trail that we were peeling off layers in 20-degree temperatures, we were working so hard. The views of orange leaves against the white snow was gorgeous!

After our jaunt up north we headed to Chicagoland to surprise a friend for his birthday, which we pulled off successfully! We did a little walking around Chicago on Sunday and some 12-ounce curls, but I only logged three real workouts Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday before heading out of town Thursday morning. But, that’s ok – it was nice to take a break and get away from it all for a few days. And now my wine cabinet is full of cherry and dessert wines from the Leelanau Peninsula. Yum!

The workouts were:

Bike: Twice, both on the trainer, for 32 fake trainer miles in about 2:05. Both of these were at my new FTP (update coming soon) and I was SUFFERING, especially on the second. I have never had to take so many breaks for a trainer ride. But now I have a goal to come back and do that same ride with fewer breaks.

Run: Once on the treadmill for 5.5 miles in 57 minutes. A boring, steady-state run to get in some mileage before heading out.

Total: Three sessions in 3:02.

Any activity I can get in during a week that includes heading out of town is a success in my book, so we’ll call it a stepback week. This week I am ready to get back into a groove and burn off some of those party drinks and vacation breakfasts, and to make sure I’m securely on the wagon when the holidays start coming fast and furious in a few weeks.

In the meantime, enjoy some beautiful northern Michigan hiking pics: