Week 8

With the long vacation now behind me, I was looking forward to getting back to a full week's training.  However, stomach flu symptoms on Tuesday changed that and I took three unscheduled rest days.

I ended up sick for several days but did manage to do my long, very slow distance run for the week after four days without any exercise.  It was only 6 miles since this week was another scheduled cut back week.

Not suprisingly, my VO2 Max dropped again, and was now down to 37.9 which is less than it was when I started my training program.

Week 7

The vacation continued to wreak havoc on my training.  The only consolation was that I was walking considerable mileage in lieu of running.

Once home, I resumed training and this week's long run was 8 miles.  I did 12 miles for the week versus the 18.5 miles called for by the training plan.

My VO2 Max continued its decline, and was now down to 38.9.

Week 6

With long port days almost every day, there was no time for running.

I managed to get in a run on the lone sea day of the cruise. I did the week’s long, slow distance run of 7 miles.

My wife was up early the next day and decided to go to the gym so I joined her and managed to get in a second run this week before heading ashore to Quebec City.

The lack of running seems to have affected my VO2 Max.  It fell again this week, down to 39.5.

Week 5

We travelled to New York and, while we did lots and lots of walking to see the sights, I didn’t have time to run.

Once we started the next phase of our vacation and boarded the cruise ship, I was able to do some running but didn’t find time to do any strength training.  I had hoped to do some runs outside but the ship didn’t have a running track.

This week became the pull back week that was scheduled for last week so the long run was only 4 miles.

Because of the port schedule next week, I also started week 6 early and did a tempo run.

My VO2 Max reached 40.6 before, disappointingly, slipping back to 40.2.