It was no surprise that when both my training plan and travel schedule ramped up this week, my anxiety level quickly followed suit…that is, until I stopped fighting it and decided to go with the flow (sipping Pina Coladas poolside also proved helpful with this). It’s the Golden Rule of training: Sometimes you’ve just got to take a few steps back in order to move forward.

I had been hitting it pretty hard the past few weeks, and with a tweaky knee and some nagging plantar fascitis, my body seemed to be telling me to slow my roll. So a day after I got back from Michigan, Hubby and I boarded a plane to Costa Rica with some friends for what might be our last official “spring break.” It was the perfect opportunity to embrace some recovery time — and enjoy Pura Vida.

Here’s how the week played out…

Week 5 Olympic Distance Training Plan – planned & (actual): 

• Swim 60 min. (bodyboarding in the ocean – CR)
• Bike 60-90 min. / Run 30 min. off the bike (55-min. spin & 25-min. treadmill run – MI)
• Swim 60 min. (swimming around in the ocean – CR)
• Easy run, 45-60 min. (30-min. treadmill run – CR)
• Rest or active recovery (rest/travel)
• Long bike, 90-150 min (70-min. recumbent bike – MI)
• Long run, 9-12 miles (5-mile outdoor group run – CR)

Although I missed my long run, the five-miler was in some pretty intense heat and humidity, so we decided that the qualitative effort had to count for something extra. Then it was time to enjoy some views…

And make some new friends! Here’s Hubby with an adorable Capuchin monkey. They may be small in stature, but they’re big in personality.

We took an incredible Crocodile River Tour in which one of the guides hand-fed all kinds of crocs — from a new baby they were training up to an 18-footer they nicknamed Osama bin Laden.

And on another tour of Manuel Antonio National Park, we encountered all kinds of creatures, including this juvenile Three-Toed Sloth. Hubby spotted him in the woods, so our guide went over and grabbed him to give us a closer look.

In between, we enjoyed some of the local cuisine. My favorites were the fresh fruit (pineapple, mango and papaya), hand-made tortillas and empanadas, plus Gallo Pinto, a traditional mix of rice and beans.

Here are Christian and Matt, our travel companions, flexing to demonstrate how we got a little balance and strength training in (sort of) while touring the hanging bridges and ziplining through the rainforest.

We rounded out the week with a little surfing (Hubby and Matt) and bodyboarding (Christian and me) at Jaco Beach, a prime spot to catch some waves.

Although I didn’t get a structured swim workout, splashing around in the ocean and learning to navigate the powerful waves definitely helped me develop some more open-water swim confidence.

Stay tuned for week six…I’m on more travels, but will be trying to keep better consistency with training!