Handling Travel and Time Off

It's the new year and things are settling down as the spring semester gets going. While winter break is a privilege, but training is a discipline easier to practice with a consistent routine and environment. For my wife and me, winter break included some really good training but more time off than was planned (isn't that always the case).

Between Dec 18th when my classes ended to Dec 30th, we were away from home traveling between KY, TN, Chicago, TN, GA, and FL and back for over 30hrs and 2000 miles of driving and flying.

Modifying the Plan
Initially the schedule didn't look to bad and my intentions were to train right through the travel. The original plan is shown below and had me running 92mi during the timespan. With some slight rearrangement of days and a couple rest days for travel, I could get most of the workouts in and 91% of the original mileage. However, treadmills, travel, busyness, and general low motivation when faced with food and family contributed to me only putting shoe to pavement for 46% of the original mileage and about half of the modified mileage.

What's there to say? Is it possible to run through the holidays and maintain a schedule? An emphatic YES! Did I manage to do it? A more emphatic NO! Why? Mostly because I did not commit to doing it. The adage is true that the hardest part of the run is getting out the door, and it still holds true for me nearly every day.

Good News
I really enjoyed the holidays! I also got some quality runs in at my favorite place Percy Warner Park in Nashville and felt rested coming back. Since the break, I've been much more consistent, getting back into routine. If I am to miss any portion of the training, missing relatively early is much preferred to missing later when the training is more marathon specific.