Go Big Or Go Home

Last week my running schedule was pretty much written off, or at least half written off. This week I am returning home from holiday on Wednesday before which my training plan has me doing two runs, an 8 miler and a 9 miler. I was planning on just running a 5 mile loop but this would mean that this week's schedule would also be affected and at would hurt my OCD sensibilities too much.

In the end I decided to push the 9 miler back until Thursday when I am in the UK and I would go all out and run the 8 miler while I am here in Cyprus.

On Sunday I managed to run 6 miles without dying so I thought that 8 miles may just about be possible if I got up early enough to avoid the heat.

It turns out it was possibly my favourite run of the entire holiday. I had mapped out a loop route that would take me from my hotel 2 miles along a coastal path, then cut inland for 4 miles around the back of the hotel where it rejoins the coastal path again for another 2 miles to bring me back to the hotel. Up at 5:45am, out by 6:15am and just over an hour later I was back at the hotel changed into my swimming shorts and cooling down in the indoor pool for 10 to 15 minutes. I got to watch the sun come up over the hills east of Paphos and it looked beautiful, such are the bonuses of running in a foreign land.

So on this holiday I have done 5 runs in total, which is 27 miles, about 30 fewer than my schedule required but given that over 18 weeks I will have run about 800 miles I guess that 30 miles is no great issue.

Looking forward to getting home again. 10 nights is just about right for a beach holiday I reckon. We have done pretty much nothing apart from sitting by the pool reading and swimming a bit to cool down. Not my usual sort of holiday but I have to say I've really enjoyed it. It will be nice to get back home and see the cat again, although I doubt she's missed us at all.

Location:Pafos,Cyprus