Santa Cruzin'

Hello from Santa Cruz! I'm getting my summer vacation on for the next few days : ) Courtney and I drove down today (traffic made for a loooong drive!) and met my folks at our vacation house just a few blocks from the beach. After unloading our stuff we didn't wait long to go check out the waves with our matching pups. Today was an absolutely gorgeous day, and the cool ocean breeze was a wonderful respite from the triple digits we left in Sac. Our pups loved the water and tired out quickly playing in the waves.

Tomorrow morning Courtney, my dad, and I will be running Wharf to Wharf, a 10k along the beachfront between Santa Cruz and Capitola with 15,000 other people! We aren't planning on racing it, especially with the crowds, just hoping to enjoy the experience and have fun.

This week I started "training" for the Portland Marathon. The quotes are necessary as I'm still finding it difficult to get back into a running routine. I got up to 5 miles a couple days ago, but it was tough. The weird thing is that it's not my legs that are giving me trouble, but rather my breathing. I'm struggling just to hold a pace 30 seconds slower than my usual pace, and I can't help but get frustrated. I feel out of shape, which doesn't make sense since I just did an Ironman! Cue the frustration : /

I know recovery takes a while, and I'm trying to be patient. But I don't know if I just need to keep resting and keep my runs short, or if I need to run more to "get back in shape". I've decided to give myself til the end of July before putting any extra pressure on myself to follow a strict training schedule. I think I might have been overly ambitious and just need some more time.

In the meantime, I plan to soak up every moment of my time here and enjoy this little getaway!