Adaptation: It's a Good Thing

I'm gonna talk about AdApTaBiLiTy. Why? Because this past week offered many fine examples of practicing this skill.

For starters, Monday. It appeared to be slightly cool (according to my weather app), so I wore a short-sleeve tech shirt for my early morning run. It wasn't until I was about 10 minutes into the run that I realized I was over-dressed (you know, when I was just far enough away that it wasn't worth turning back). UGH. Sure, I could have lost the shirt and ran in the exercise bra...but, sorry, I'm no longer in my 20's. Even though it was dark, and my abs are not scary (much), that look is not happening for me. Instead, I rolled the sleeves up & under and they stayed in place. Problem solved.

Tuesday, was another early morning. I had four easy miles on the roster, and a busy day at work so I thought it best to get the run done early. I was out of the door before the sunrise, and Momma N played nice and kept the rain away! I may have even saluted her upon returning home.

Wednesday was supposed to be a moderate day of cross-training...but we had plans to load up a rental truck with our oldest daughter's belongings (in hopes of and setting out Thursday morning for the 18-hour trek to Pennsylvania). After a long day at work (in preparation for my 5-day weekend), and a few hours of loading the truck, my energy for exercise was minimal at best. I did some stair-running and called that good.

Oh...let me jump on a tangent for a brief minute. Our best-laid plans for moving our daughter's stuff to her didn't go as we'd envisioned. She moved to Pennsylvania a month ago and has been living in a hotel while awaiting the closing of her townhouse. Her close date had been scheduled for Wednesday at 3:30...until the bank called her (Tuesday morning) and said they needed 2-6 more days to finalize some of the paperwork. No kidding. We were told to go through all the motions (of our impending trip) until we heard otherwise....and it didn't look good by Wednesday evening. Unsure of what to do, we decided to wait an extra day before making the trip there...hoping for a miracle that the closing would get rescheduled for Thursday or Friday.

With the change of plans, I decided to go ahead with the ladder workout that originally had been on my training schedule (my coach had graciously modified my training to accommodate our travel plans...not only am I adaptable, but so is she).

So, Thursday morning, I was out the door early (before day light) to tackle the ladder workout. The first split (is that what it's called?) went fine, and the recovery split, too. About halfway through the second "speed" split, I hit the "light" button on my watch display and (apparently) hit something else by mistake. The screen went blank. WHAT??? So, I estimated my remaining time left and once I hit that time (approximately), I stopped for a few seconds and tried to figure what wrong button I'd pushed on the watch (No Luck). I hit "start" and ran my recovery split and just eye-balled the time on the watch (instead of stopping/starting over). As I was running the third "speed" split, I heard my watch beep (which it had not done before). I glanced down and saw the screen was blank again. REALLY??

No doubt, this was frustrating. I had been pushing so many random buttons on the watch (in various random sequences), so the menus were all whacked. The best I could do at that point was to estimate my running time for the remaining ladder splits. It was not ideal, but it was manageable once I let go of the "watch accountability."

And, since we were not riding across the country to Pennsylvania (yet), I decided to go into work that afternoon. We kept waiting for an update from the bank on the closing, but nothing was able to get scheduled. Finally, that evening, we decided to leave the next morning and take her stuff anyways. This was the only opportunity we'd have the time to get it to her, after all, so we'd arrange for a storage unit to stash all of her stuff for the next week or so until she would be able to get into her new house. Again, not an ideal situation, but doable. Adaptability 101.

Friday arrived with a 3:15AM wake-up. Our plan was to be on the road by 4:00AM, thus arriving around 10:00PM at her hotel. I did a quick plank before jumping in the truck with the husband, younger daughter, and our dog, Max.

How do I feel about road-tripping? I'm not a fan. My piriformis, hamstrings, and glutes have been a little grumpy lately (so I brought my foam roller along), and I slid on some compression sleeves to keep my legs happy. Truthfully, my body feels much more achy after several hours of sitting than it does after running a marathon. Every couple hours, we stopped either for gas, potty breaks, food, or to let Max do his business. And every time we stopped, I did some stretching and as much walking as possible.

After a very long day in the truck, we pulled into the hotel parking lot where the daughter had taken up residency. We were able to secure a room, and we unloaded most of the stuff out of the bed of the truck (and locked it in the cab of the truck, or in the daughter's car, and brought the rest of it into our room). By this time, it was well past 11:00, so I did a few minutes of planking and crashed.

I had hoped to go for a run Saturday morning, but my aches and pains (glutes and piriformis) from the 18-hours of riding were crazy. Also, our hotel was situated on a busy highway with no sidewalks. There wasn't a fitness center, either, so I improvised and did some squats, lunges, planks, and push-ups to start my day (and the achy body felt much better when I was done).

We got everything unloaded into the storage unit and spent the day exploring some of the Amish countryside. Surprisingly, my glutes, piriformis, and hamstrings felt much better, probably due to the constant motion (and not constant sitting).

Sunday morning arrived with another early morning wake-up (4:00AM EST), and we were on the road by 4:30 for the trek back home. I may have even done a plank at one of the rest areas, alongside I-70 in West Virginia (I have never planked in West Virgina, so I can check that off my bucket list).

After another long day (and evening) on the road, we made it back to our driveway around 9:00PM.
I have run three marathons and two ultras, and none of them have anything on this crazy road-tripping adventure we did (to Pennsylvania and back in three days). I actually felt more exhausted after (almost) 18 hours of sitting still than I did after any of those long races. Even though it wasn't on my training plan, I headed out for a very slow and easy 1-mile run after we got home. My legs, body, and mind all needed some "shake-out" action. And I slept like a baby Sunday night.

So, that's my take on AdApTaBiLiTy.

Also, there's a planking challenge happening this month. Care to join me and several other fabulous peeps? We're all planking! Post your planking pics on Instagram and/or Facebook and use the hash tags #GoAhead #MakeMyPlank. If you want to be included in the tagging, tag me (@runningonthefly) and I'll add you to the roster.

Do you consider yourself blessed with AdApTaBiLiTy? When life gets in the way, have you ever had to adapt your goals? plans? workouts?

I'm linking up with Marcia and Patty and Erika for the Tuesdays on the Run link-up. Head over, checkout the blogs, and see what's going on!