A Week of Mexican Workouts

As I quick posted about on Monday, we were in Mexico last week. Here's what my week of "training" looked like away from home:

Basically, my Mon/Wed/Fri runs were pretty normal (even though I didn't get in speed work on Friday... which I'll be mentioning shortly), my upper body routines were all pretty normal, but then my swims were just quick ones, there was no biking, and my legs and core were just whatever I could fit in. That week looks FINE for being a week with family!!

• SUNDAY: upper body day. (The day before the calendar above started.) This was to make up for skipping Saturday's workout because we were traveling. I got up to get to the gym when it opened at 7 a.m.:

Looking across a barren roof to the ocean, a yacht owned by
one of the richest men in Mexico, and Ixtapa Island.


A simple weights area. (And me in the mirror!)


Refueling at the buffet right after!


Shirt totally sweated through back in my room (yes, I ate with it looking like this first).

• MONDAY: long run and some legs. I planned to to my "normal" long run of 2.5 miles easy, 6 miles harder, and then 2.5-3.5 miles as a cool down to hit 11-12 miles, but I cut the harder miles a half-mile short - I was OVERHEATING. I'm never used to the heat when I take a winter trip somewhere warm! I had views of the ocean a few times near the start/finish, but otherwise was heading into town:

Out-and-back with Ixtapa Island visible to the upper left.

Overall, I ran 11.32 miles in 1:22:56 (7:20 pace) with the middle 5.5 miles in 36:20 (6:40 pace). Normally, I'm doing a run like this in 6:40-6:55 pace overall, with the harder miles at 6:05-6:20 pace. I was fine knowing the heat sucked the speed out of me.

Later, I laughed at the leg-press at the gym having a pin just dropped in it that didn't fit:

Monday night, Henry and my niece both got sick so we were bracing ourselves for something gross. I ended up getting sick on Wednesday, but I don't think it was the same thing. Maybe it was and I just reacted differently... dunno.

• TUESDAY: pool swim, snorkeling, and upper body. Charlie started swim team at his school, so he asked to join me at 6:50 a.m. when I was heading down to the pool:

In our jammers, ready to swim!!
(Lit by a make-up light as Henry and Mama still slept.)

Charlie asked me to swim some lengths (both "down and back" and "side to side" in the pool) to get some distances. It's just a fun "swimming" pool (not a "lap" pool), so we had no idea. Here are 2 photos that I posted years ago when we were here noting how I swam "laps:"

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.

That was 1 length, so I'd come back again to make that a lap. I swam 2 lap intervals for this workout, which were measured as 250 to 267 yards each (so about 62-66 yards/length, or 125-132 yards/lap). Charlie got bored and cold after a bit, so I swam those random "warm-ups" to get distances before starting, then 4x250 (4x 2-lap intervals), then 2 faster single-lap intervals before calling it quits. It was 1655 yards total according to my Garmin.

Note going "across" the pool where Charlie swam (7-8) as I did my longer lengths.

Then I took 2 trips out from Ixtapa Island (once with my nephew, and once with Charlie) to "snorkel." I put that in quotes because I don't use a snorkel mask and just swim with my normal goggles, so it's a bit more of a "workout." Here's an example of what that looked like:

I'll have some videos from this shortly!

• WEDNESDAY: easy run and some core. I didn't feel "right" before my run, but I felt OK during my run. But post-run, I crawled into bed and fell asleep for 90 mins... I NEVER do that. Henry had been feeling it the day before:

Sleeping behind me as I worked.


Napping later.

• THURSDAY: snorkeling and easy upper body. I slept HORRIBLY on Wednesday night. After having just done an easy run and 2 short walks the day before, I woke up with my Garmin telling me I had a "training readiness" of ONE:

Ouch.

Also, my HRV reading (heart rate variability) is usually around 52-60 overnight. One night after a car accident, it was 42, which was the lowest it had even been. This night that I felt so horrible, it was 36!

The last 4 weeks showing a DROP to 36 a few nights ago.

But then I started feeling better throughout the day. We went back out to the Island, and I came for about 2 hours:

Shorts, loaded backpack, and "dad hat" - ready to go!!


On the boat-ride out.


Family on the island.


Charlie exploring.


My sister, mom, and wife with tropical island drinks!

• FRIDAY: easy run, some core, and some legs. I REALLY wanted to have a "speed day" while running in good weather with good (non-icy) footing, but I didn't want to push it too hard just a day after feeling like poo. So I just ran easy.

• SATURDAY: good upper body with my nephew. We met at the gym and had a good workout together. Then we hit the road a few hours later for the airport, and we were back in our own bed for the night.

• SUNDAY: normal core at home. Boring core back in boring Minnesota, while watching the 2 teams that I wanted to win both lose and not make it to the Superbowl. Dang. Oh, and probably MOSTLY because I was sick mid-week and never really "got my stomach back" until getting home, I actually LOST a few pounds on vacation while living at buffets. I weighed myself on Sunday and was 155 lbs, when I was 158 and 160 the 2 times I weighed myself before leaving for Mexico.

Last week was obviously a lighter training week (right part of the graph)...


... but because I took the stairs a lot to our 7th floor room, I had more "floors" than normal.
(Even while not moving a ton for 1.5 of those days when I felt crappy.)

Back with more Mexico things in a bit! It might be a while as I have lots of photos to get through! Just getting back to regular life in MN, and regular training.

UPDATE: here's a post with more pics from our Mexico trip!