Lots of Fudge, Some Advice but Little Running

7/12/08 Posted in Sherri Powers  |  0 Comments

Spending time at the family cabin was great for making memories last week, but not equally great for my training. I’ve heard others say it’s hard to stay on track with their regular diet and training schedule when on vacation and now I see what they mean.

I started out the week on the right foot by attending my regular formal training sponsored by Playmakers on Saturday morning at Hawk Island Park. After a good run, junk food doesn’t even sound good to me, which is another great incentive to keep running regularly, so I didn’t have trouble the first couple of days at the cabin eating healthy.

It was Monday’s family trip to Mackinaw Island that got me going on the junk food. But honestly how could you travel to a city that’s known for amazing fudge without having any? I also had Mackinaw Island Fudge ice cream, a caramel apple and shared a dessert called the Monster with my mom. It was a cluster of pecans covered with caramel and chocolate.

Then Tuesday I went for my second run for the week. My uncle Gary, who had also had plenty of fudge the day before, mapped out 1.5 miles away from his cabin so we could run to that point and then run back for a three mile run total.

He told me that he ran about once a week and he had pretty good form while running. But this was the first time that I was able to give another runner any advice from what I’ve learned so far in my training with Playmakers. I told him to run with his shoulders relaxed so he wouldn’t get any cramps in his neck. I also advised him to run with his arms pumping parallel to each other instead of letting them sway from side to side so much.

I’m not by any means an expert on running, you’d have to go to Playmakers for a Good Form Running class to get that. But it was good to be able to help another runner out by sharing some small tidbits that I’d learned so far that make Gary’s running experience a little better. It was a switch from me asking all the questions for once.

Thanks goodness we ran though because that was the last run that I did that week. Even though it was a little tough to run, I think because of the loads of junk food consumed the day before. Plus, it was good to run with Gary because now I know that I have a running partner when I’m up at the cabin, if he’s up for it, and I even have a mapped out route.

Vacation was a lot of fun, but it’s good to be home and back on a regular training schedule. Plus with no fudge in sight I can concentrate on eating healthy too.