Friday, March 29, 2013

Running in Palm Desert

I cannot even tell you how much I was ready to go on vacation.  It has been a great week of sunshine, laughter and fun with kids (and without!)  lol


I wasn't sure how well I would do with my running this week.  First because I'm on vacation and that is a lot of work while on vacation.  Second I hate running when I'm hot.  Not just dislike it greatly or feel slightly inconvenienced but actually hate it.

Luckily I had a recovery week for my training and that meant shorter runs and no hills or intervals.  All I really had to do was go out and do 3 mile runs for three days and then a 7.5 run on Friday for my long run.

I celebrated arriving and not having to sit in the car anymore by having a Lava Flow adult beverage.  Yummy!  I only had one because it went down way too easy and I could find myself in a world of hurt if I had too many.  :-)

Monday:  I was out the door by 7:00 a.m. and it was already 60 degrees!  That isn't super hot but I seriously like running in the low 50's best.  So this was still on the warm side for me.  Also the air was dry and that made it hard as well.  I didn't use my inhaler because I wanted to see how well my breathing did or didn't do.  I was slow and breathing was hard.  Part of the reason I was slow was because my legs were stiff after two days of sitting in a car.  It took awhile to work the kinks out.  Actually it took almost the entire run to work the kinks out.  There wasn't much to say about this run other than I did it and it was beautiful.  Can't say I minded running in sunshine instead of rain for a change.
Street our Suite is on.  

Golf course at the end of the street we where we are staying. 
Later in the afternoon we went on the Palm Springs Tram and had a great time taking pictures at the top and seeing the sites.  I think if we ever come here again we will totally make that a day trip where we go up in the morning and spend the entire day hiking.  It was beautiful up there with amazing views!

Tuesday:  I left a little later Tuesday morning.  It was after 7:30 a.m.  I am on vacation after all.  Unfortunately that meant that it was warmer than the day before.  It was over 65 degrees and it felt hot. It wasn't long before I was sweating.  I had used my inhaler and that made a huge difference!  So glad I have that now.  I have been amazed how much it has helped.  (I think I have said that before but I'm still marveling on what a difference it makes!)  My average pace was about 30 seconds better than on Monday.  That was good.  Still not terribly quick but not a terrible pace either.

Wednesday:  This was my cross-training day.  It was also the day that we had reservations at the spa.  The adults had reservations at the spa, we left the children at the pool.  They had food and water so they were okay.  :-)  Once we checked in we had complete run of the facility for the rest of the day so my friend and I headed over early to get our workout in before the pampering began.  We used the fitness center at the spa.  I did 35 minutes on the elliptical machine and then about 25 minutes of free weights.  Once we were done there we went back to the locker room to get ready for our pampering.  Wow!  I had never done anything like this and I have to say it was awesome.  We went and showered and then we went and sat in the sauna, followed by the hot tub.  So relaxing!  And we hadn't even started our appointments yet.  I had decided on a 1/2 hour facial followed by a 1/2 massage.  Mostly because I couldn't decide on which one I wanted to do for an hour so I did a little of both.  I thought this would help me decide what I like more in case there is ever a next time.  Didn't work.  Now I want an hour facial and an hour massage.  lol  After our appointments we met the guys out by the pool.  They both had massages.  The pool was lovely and there were no children.  I love my children and am having a great time with them on this trip.  But it was quite lovely to sit by a pool that didn't have splashing, shouting children for a couple of hours.

Thursday:  I got out by 7:00 a.m. again and it was still very warm, around 68 degrees.  However, the sun was low enough that there was more shade and that helped me not feel too hot.  I used my inhaler and this time I carried a bottle of water.  Every run I have tried to add something that might help me do better.  I was hoping that would make it so that my long run on Friday wasn't a painful experience.   I did really well.  I kept it right at a 13 minute average which was another 30 seconds faster per mile on average than Tuesday's run.  My last half mile Joe was finishing up his run and cooling down so he ran with me.  I was running very fast for me and he was running slow for him.  lol  But it was still fun to run together for awhile.  I actually ran a pace of about 11'15" for that last half mile which is really fast for me and I usually can't do it for that long.  That was a nice little bump for me at the end.  :-)

Friday:  I ran 7.5 miles this morning!  My friend Faylene went with me.  She walked and I jogged.  She usually runs at a 9 minute mile and a 13 minute mile actually hurt her knees to jog that slow.  So she walked briskly and I trudged along.  :-)  We got about a quarter of a mile and I realized that I had forgotten to use my inhaler before we left.  Since I knew there was a hill along the route we were taking  we turned around and I ran up to the room and used it really quick.  That was a good call.  We had started not long after 6:00 a.m. because I wanted to beat the heat as much as possible.  However it was already 65 degrees when we started.  But there was a nice breeze and the sun wasn't beating on us until the last half of the run.  I did the first mile WAY too fast.  That was before Faylene had decided to walk and I think I was trying not to slow her down.  I paid for that.  The rest of the run was okay but not as quick as I was hoping.  I did get negative splits for the last 5 miles which was good for me.  So considering that it was hot, I had worked out for five days straight and I was hot, it was a pretty good run.  Faylene took some pictures while we were out and about.  She let me steal them.  :-)


I took this one when we had about 2 miles left in the run.  The sun had some up a long way and made the hills change considerably.  


God's beauty and creation is everywhere.  I love that I get the opportunities to go other places and see new things.  Working out this week was challenging.  It's hard to get moving on vacation and to run in the heat.  But I was worried that if I let it go this week it would be really easy to let things go next week, and the week after, etc.  So I got my runs done in the morning and relaxed the rest of the day.  I have a wonderful week in the desert but I have to say that I'm ready to go home.  I love Oregon in spite of the rain and cold.  And I'm ready to sleep in my own bed without two girls sleeping in the pullout bed right next to us.  :-)  

So the successes this week were getting out there and getting it done and working through the heat.  Hopefully the pace will pick back up when I get home and it is cooler and and the air isn't so dry.

I'm feeling pretty sassy today.  I hope you are too.  :-)

Lisa


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