Florida....Sun?

I got back last week from my annual trip to the east coast of Florida to visit my grandparents, and it was wonderful and relaxing, as always.  It was also not great weather.....as always.  I know this year the weather in Florida has been unusually cold, but it's nothing new for my mom and I.  We always joke that the bad weather down there waits for us to get there.  They often get a "cold snap" or it rains (or both!) when we go down to visit.  It used to be so annoying, but now we just laugh about it.  We have fun down there no matter what, and now we say if it happens to be good weather, then that's just an added bonus.  We are in Florida, hanging out with family, and not working...that's what we came for, and that's what matter the most; not the weather.  Here are some shots from our trip.

The view from my grandparent's balcony (note the shuffleboard at the bottom...love it!)

The four of us at Animal Kingdom  (all wearing coats...we are in Florida for crying out loud!)

Loved the gorillas!

How beautiful!

They had this new Mt. Everest "roller coaster" that was definitely fun!  Nothing crazy as far as roller coasters go, but I liked it....and Mom tolerated it.

Like our shades?  Mom and I getting ready for the "Bug Eyed" 3D show

Yay!  We got one day out of the seven that we were there where it was warm enough to lay on the beach

We had a great trip all in all.  We watched the Olympics, visited with my Mom's Aunt and Uncle, went to Animal Kingdom, had some good seafood, went to the beach (even if only once), and mom and I worked out diligently.  Now this last one is nothing new for my mother (my sister and I affectionately call her the Workout Nazi), but as we all know it's a hit or miss for me.  Mom pointed out that last year I didn't work out with her at all in Florida.  Not once.  Well, this year I stepped it up a notch.  Truly, I feel so much better these days.  I'm running faster and feeling stronger and more energetic.  Here was our workout schedule for the week:

Thursday: Run 4 miles

Saturday: Ran 6 miles and 10 minute total body workout from a magazine

Sunday: Ran 30 minutes and did 100 crunches

Monday: Ran 4 miles with 4 30 second strides (pretty fast pace)

Tuesday: Fitness magazine strength exercises and ran the stairs at the condo

Wednesday: Ran 30 minutes with 2 miles at a quicker "race" pace (had a PR of 8:37 for one of the miles!)

Not bad huh?  And Mom did all of these workouts with me, which helps a lot.  The only day that we didn't work out was Friday, and that was because we were walking around Animal Kingdom all day.  I found a half-marathon plan in Fitness magazine that I liked and I'm going to try to stick with this plan as much as possible.  I want to try to get faster, and this plan incorporates speed work, which the previous training plan that I've used did not.  I am definitely faster than I've been since high school and that feels great! 

So another trip to Florida came to a close.  Mom and I had a great time, and hopefully some year soon my sis can come!  She is an accountant and can't take vacations during busy season, but she's trying to veer away from accounting and into photography, so someday we hope she'll join us for our annual trip to Florida!  Ta ta for now!