Week in Review

45 Miles
6 Runs
0 Doubles
5 Days in California
20 hours in an airplane or airport

What a great down week this was! When I received my training plan from Mark in February, I saw this planned down week and immediately looked into booking tickets to visit my sister in Orange County.  After two days in Charlotte, I set off on a direct flight to LAX on Wednesday morning.  Southern California greeted me with a cold breeze and temperatures in the 60s and 70s.  Apparently I missed another hot weekend in Charlotte that featured temps in the upper 90s.  I missed the other really hot weekend when I went to Albany.  My timing has been quite right! 

Ironically, I was a little bummed that my down week was planned in California though because the weather was so ridiculously nice out that I felt great running.  It would have been easy to log over 80 miles here because the temp was so moderate.  In fact, I have seriously contemplating moving out here next summer to work remotely, to live with my sister, and to put in some quality miles.  It really would work out quite great, so stay tuned as I weigh my options!

In my down week, I ate lots of delicious vegan food, took naps during the week, and pampered myself with a facial.  Spending time with my sister and her best friends Athena and Anna was just what I needed. 

My glorious down week came to an immediate halt after I was stranded in an airplane or airport for 20 hours.  I had a red eye flight connecting in Phoenix and then on to Charlotte.  Well, we flew over Phoenix for two hours, re-routed to Las Vegas due to a storm in Phoenix, sat at the gate in the airplane in Vegas, and then took off AGAIN for Phoenix.  I wish they would have let us off the plane because then I could have just stayed with my brother Joey who, ironically, lives in Phoenix but was partying in Vegas.  Alas, my luck was not with me Sunday night.  We arrived in Phoenix at 2:15AM and I was left to either pay for a hotel or sleep in the airport until my 10AM flight the next day.  I opted to buy a hotel room at a "discounted" rate of $90. 

After three hours of sleep, I was up again and on my way BACK to the Phoenix airport.  When we finally departed, I felt like the travel mess was over.  I was wrong.  We circled Charlotte for another hour before landing, so I finally arrived at 615PM, another 90 minute delay added onto my travel saga.  My body felt like I had just gotten off a plane from Europe!  This definitely wasn't the way I was hoping to start my week, but I've got seven days in Charlotte coming up where I can focus on recovery and getting rest.  I can't wait.