Summer sure is ticking right along…it’s now August…half the year is done! The good news is I’m on vacation and have been last week too…so time isn’t on my radar.

Though I was on vacation, it was my best running week since starting this training plan. I managed three good runs (challenging in the heat), a little competitive swimming (not my strength) and lots of relaxing too!

What was Planned vs What Really Happened:

Maritime Race Weekend: Sept 16 & 17th (double race – Tartan Twosome).

Note: I started vacation Friday afternoon. We left for Prince Edward Island (PEI) on Tuesday and came home Saturday. So this week was all about running on vacation!

Monday July 24th: Coaching Soccer | Mowed the lawn. I really wanted to get this done along with packing for vacation and cleaning the house. So mid-day, I mowed the lawn in what was a cooler part of the day (by magic I believe) and spent the rest of the day cleaning the house, packing etc. The girls were at my parents place…so I was kid less and my husband was working!

Tuesday: Yoga | Morning Run with Saï – Light swim. Since we were on our own, we thought it would be fun to go for a morning run before hitting the road to get the girls then travelling to PEI. We woke up to a massive downpour and figured running in rain like that wouldn’t be fun for anyone. So we skipped the run and had a dip in the pool later that evening at the cottage we stayed at.

Wednesday: Coaching Soccer/Run | 7k Morning Run. I got up to run at 7am and was out the door pretty quickly to run on roads I’ve knew nothing about. I decided to run on the road that the cottage property was located by and came across a gate. I went under the gate to find a highway with an amazing paved trail on the side of the road. This is one of the things I love about PEI – the amazing biking/running trails they have near their Provincial Parks.

I decided to follow the trail as long as I could then returned back the same way. It was a slow run with a number of stops as it was so beautiful to look around. My husband ran the same route later that evening.

Then we spent the day at Brackley Beach – my absolute favourite beach!

Saï and the girls.

Thursday: Hills | 6k Morning Run. It was super warm at 7:15 am so I took it easy and went in the other direction that had a few more hills to it. So technically, I ran a few hills 😉

Fact: PEI has red sand/mud. You can’t really see it / it looks like my freckles and birth mark but my ankles are covered in red sand. Lilly took this shot for me and at first I hated it. Then it took a few minutes and figured…screw that…THESE are my legs that get me through my runs…I’m sharing it.

Friday: Rest Day | Swimming Competition. We decided to go swimming at the cottage pool and ended up having the place to ourselves. We swam with the girls and then decided to see who could swim the furthest under water (my husband and I). Our youngest Hilary decided it was a competition and then we started (or at least I did) swimming a little harder. Saï can swim faster then me no problem but I was just trying to go as fast as I could so I didn’t lose. We did more laps back and forth then one would want to do 🙂 It was a lot of fun and I was exhausted by the end. We also went to see “The Secret Life of Pets” and had a great dinner with some of our PEI friends.

Saturday: 15k Long Run | Nothing. I was going to get up early and run but we slept on a horrible pull out coach and I didn’t sleep well each night. I was so tired and just stayed in the horrible bed instead of running. It was also a travel day for us…PEI/cottage time was over so it was a day in the car and back home.

We also had the amazing Cows Ice Cream before we left PEI.

Sunday: Cross Train/Soccer Game | 17k Long Run. I feel like this is a story I could save for another day. I’ll give you the basics….it was 17C when I started my run, which felt amazing! I got out the door at 6:25 AM (YES, win for me) and was home before my youngest woke up at 8:40. Actually, they were all in bed when I arrived back home. I’m going to leave it at that and write more details tomorrow.

KM This Week: 30 km

KM This Training Cycle: 92 km

Overall: This was a really good week of running for me. Three days is the most running I’ve done since June! I just needed a break after my last half marathon and then decided to ease into increasing my days of running vs yoga/soccer etc.

I loved my long run and just felt great during the whole run…okay, maybe not around kilometre 15 or so…but I am really enjoyed the longer distance. If you missed week #4, you can catch up here.

Anyone else have a good training run on the weekend? 

Do you run while away on vacation?

Favourite way to stay active while on vacation?