Mexico Workouts

Two weeks ago, I was in Mexico with my family. Here's what my training looked like when I was there:

• Sun, Jan 15: quick 30 mins of core EARLY before hopping a plane.

• Mon, Jan 16: long run! I was HOT as I wasn't acclimated to Mexico's temperature, humidity, or hills! I did my normal long run of 2.5 miles easier, 6 miles "at pace" (which is harder but far from "all out"), and then easier for the rest. My pace miles were among the slowest over the last 2 years averaging 6:29/mile (with mile splits of 6:35, 6:20, 6:32, 6:21, 6:29, and 6:33).

A lot along the coast, with a little into a nature preserve (around split 17).


Pace and a HIGH heart rate in the heat.


I'm not used to seeing my elevation get down to sea level.

• Tues, Jan 17: upper body with my nephew and then snorkeling with my family! My upper body routine was 5-6x everything giving my nephew some pointers (as he's into track and mountain biking at school). Later that day, I turned on the "open water swim" function during our snorkeling on Ixtapa Island and it told me that I went 843 yards in just over 38 mins of swimming. Not a "swim workout," but a fun way to get in a little exercise!

Getting ready to head out with Charlie!


Exploring the island later with Henry

• Wed, Jan 18: easy 5.54 mile run, legs, and core. This looks similar to a normal Wednesday. I ran early, and my splits were SLOW: I averaged just under 8:00/mile which is my "coming home dead from the track" pace. My body was reacting to the weather, and I was OK with taking it easy! Then I did some leg presses and extensions in the gym just after running, did most of my normal body weight leg routine in our room later, and added in some core mid-morning.

• Thurs, Jan 18: 1400 yard pool swim and short upper body routine. I hit the swimming pool right as it opened that day to swim before it was full of kids and drunks. I did a very similar route to what I did 4 years ago:

I started at the red dot, went around the dark blue island, and headed under the bridge...


... then I headed around another blue island and up to the side of a pool-side bar.

And then I came back, and that was about 140-150 yards total. I did 9 total with a bit of extra swimming on the final lap for a total of 1440 yards. (4 years ago, I called those laps 160 yards based only on my times, but I was obviously having to sight more, so they were extra slow because of that.) My 9 splits looked like this: 2:36, 2:40, 2:49, 2:49, 2:44, 2:43, 2:39, 2:33, and 3:12 (longer, and a bit slower).

• Fri, Jan 20: 3x1 mile intervals in the morning (as I posted about over the weekend), some legs and core, and more "swimming" while snorkeling. Technically a 2-a-day? ;) The run was INTENSE, but not fast. My mile splits were 5:52, 5:54, and 5:46, and you can see more in this post.

Then another fun day out at the island. I swam a lot longer this time (we all did!) and looked around more: over 1200 yards this time vs 800+ yards 3 days earlier.

Chatting with our buddy Ishmael who works on the island. Charlie and him hit it off.


CAFFEINE on the island!


Lizard hunting with Charlie. We spotted 2 lizards, a big spider, and a snake skin.


I tooled around much more than this, but this is what my Garmin said.

After the island, I did a little legs and core in my hotel room.

• Sat, Jan 21: solid upper body workout. I honestly had hoped to have more "bigger" upper body days like this, but I'm not complaining! This was 7x everything and a good burn! On my upper body day on Thurs, I chatted with a local who was vacationing, and he said I was "like a river" as I was sweating so much. It was worse this day!

Only the bottom corners of my shirt were dry!!


Airing it out on our balcony.


I sat on the footstool for a moment. Oops. Swass.

(That new friend [a 33 year old named Ebe who had 2 daughters a bit younger than my boys] also was enamored with snow. I showed him a picture of my snowy front yard, and he asked how many people die each time it snows. He can't fathom it! He also motioned to my body and told me I looked good for 41. We bumped into each other a few more times around the resort. Nice guy!)

• Sun, Jan 22: a final long run! I didn't really even consider this until the day before - I usually do my long runs on Monday, but getting back and teaching a big class after being gone for a week was going to make that trickier. And sometimes I move up my long run to Sunday, and then I take my back-to-back rest-from-running days as Monday and Tues (instead of Saturday and Sunday). So I figured I'd do that!

I knew I wouldn't push AS hard in this workout as I just did intervals 2 days before, and I was FINE with that. I went a little farther than Monday (12.07 miles vs 11.57 miles), but it was a little slower overall (7:16 ave pace vs 7:07 pace) and my pace miles were a bit slower too (6:35/mile vs 6:29/mile). I also ran through a small pack of wild dogs just before sunrise, and that upped the pace for a bit!

Similar route as my first run here, but doubled back a bit
between splits 12 and 13, and ran more into town at split 14.

One thing that happened in Mexico is that my "HRV" status immediately dropped. My understanding is it's mainly stress related, and it has to do with how quickly/well you can recover. I didn't have stress in a tropical paradise, so my only thought it that it was more related to heat acclimation. Notice it DROP on my first day in Mexico, and then start to recover shortly after getting home:

Not a number I fully understand or even care about, but interesting none the less!

Also, because we had to walk a bit for every meal, I got in more steps than normal on that trip:

Monday-Sunday of the trip is highlighted.
A lot bigger than the previous weeks!


Lots of "floors" climbed too as I like to take the stairs!
(More stairs descended as I take the elevator up sometimes.)

UPDATE: here's a post full of Mexico photos!!