Sorry for the long post; am playing catch-up. We are cruising for the first time on Dis (first time in almost 14 years for me!) next week and I have been obsessively stalking the cruise boards! Sorry for the neglect, dear Princesses!
Question for the experienced racers:
The why: I'm competitive and driven - I want to see all of my half-marathon training pay off with a decent time... but I don't want to worry about time during the Princess - I want to have fun! The Dec. 9 half is local, so no expenses beyond registration and no need to slow down for pics or sight-seeing. I'm thinking if I do that one first, I'll already have seen the results of my training and can mellow out and really enjoy the Princess!
BUT... I'm prone to overuse injuries, thanks to a bunch of past injuries and, well, overuse. My training schedule now would have me cut back to a 3-mile long run after the 10-Miler and build back up to 14 for the Princess. (Galloway plans) If I do the Dec. 9 half, there'd be no big cut back in mileage - I'd keep building from my longest 10-miler training run (11 miles) to the Dec. half. And then what? I guess drop down to maybe 11 miles in late Dec. and build to 14 over Jan. and Feb. pre-Princess?
So I'd be looking at around 6+ months of double-digit long runs every other week. That scares me some! I'm up to 9 now and was fine until this week; my knees are staging a revolt. Two weeks ago, I'd have thought "No problem!" but right now I'm not so sure... Thoughts?
I don't know that it would be necessary to get up to 14. If you do the half in December, you will obviously be in shape for a half. Most half plans only go up to 10 miles for the long runs so I would think if you did 10-11 miles every other week you would be okay.
I'd love to know this too! I originally was thinking of doing a brunch buffet or Whispering Canyon breakfast skillet after the race, but if I don't start running til 6:30 at the latest, then (grossly overestimating here), don't finish for 3 1/2 hours, that would put me at 10am.
Getting my stuff, photos, etc will take probably an hour before we even got to the bus back to the hotel - so that puts me at 11.
Shower and change and bus to whereever for food would be noonish - 1pm. I'm looking more at a lunch than a breakfast, which kind of sucks!
However, I'm a girl who loves food, and if I have to run faster to get mickey waffles, then I guess I have some speedwork to do!
I definitely wouldn't plan anything *too* early. My kind DH booked me a post-race massage. I ran a 2:42 and ended up having to haul *** to get back to the hotel for my appt. - confusion on where buses were and ended up having to truck all the way through Epcot to get to the boats to get back to the Swan. I barely made it! Last year it was chilly and beginning to rain, so Julie and I pretty much blew off hanging out and any other pictures in order to just get back to the hotel. The line for the bus was super long, but they brought in two buses at one time for our resort so that worked out well. They do hand you a box of food after you go through the finisher chute, so you won't be starving if you have to wait. We had late lunch / early dinner ressies at Le Cellier and it worked out great - gave us enough time to clean up and get over there, but got what we wanted before the exact same meal changed from lunch to dinner prices!
And third, I have another friend who is thinking about signing up for the Princess, but she would have to walk it. I read on someone else's post pages back that they're slowing down to do the Princess with a friend because they're not doing the race for time, but for the laughter and memories. That sentiment really made me think about what I want out of the Princess and I would rather have the memories with my friend even if I have to walk it (or at least walk it with her up through the MK).
Holly
I will say that the first year, Julie and I decided to run separately b/c it was my first half and even though I knew I would be stopping for pics, I still wanted to kind of "see what I could do". I finished in 2:42. It was fun, but I felt there was something missing, especially when I crossed the finish line. Last year we decided to stick together. I'm a little faster than Julie and she was worried about a recurring injury rearing it's head, so we agreed to just do 2/1 intervals, be as silly as possible and take as many stinking pictures as we possibly could. We were in Corral C and knew we had enough of a cushion. I do not regret that AT ALL. We had a blast, got some awesome pictures (on the blog, if you want to peek, and Julie's video is in there as well) and finished around 3:34. I had to laugh - I did another half mid-March, and I was an entire HOUR faster than the Princess! Time well-spent, I say!
Hello,
I am going to be signing up for the 2013 Princess as well. I ran the Princess this year and it was my first 1/2, finished in 2:42 hoping for 2:30 this year. I completed the Will Run For Beer Series (all 5ks)in June and am now working my way through another local series that ends in December. I have a 10 miler Sept 1 and then a 1/2 Marathon Sept. 29. hoping to maintain 10+ miles until the princess. But am worrying about overuse issues as well...fingers crossed
Last year I did a Halloween half. After that, I cut my long runs back down to 6 miles and built back up from there again and that seemed to work fine.
Since I'm currently training for a 5k....should I do this? My fiancé says that I should, as a gift to myself for going raw vegan and getting off my booty to train.
What are the rules, besides a 15 minute mile? Is it okay if I run and walk, or do you have to do one or the other.
And what's the deadline for signup?
YES you should do this - especially if you have support at home! It's so much fun. You can crawl, if you have to! You can check YouTube for videos of past Princesses or check out the blogs in the signatures of a lot of the posters here - I know many repeat Princesses have a race recap on their blog.
I have officially decided on Maleficent. It's going to be awesome! Since I've learned my lesson about dying my hair black, I'll be going purple.
I've already got the horns taken care of. I have a fabulous lady making them for me, and they'll be shipping to me in late Sept, in time for my Oct trip. Now I just have to figure out the rest of it...
That. Is. Fabulous. I am leaning toward an Aurora costume. I'll look for you and we'll get some fantastic pictures! Now, if only we could convince someone to dress up as Prince Philip...
Since you ladies are so supportive, I thought I would share my weight loss progress:
I have gone from 306 lbs to 254 lbs since October and have lost 99 lbs total!!! Or one of the Olsen twins
So excited to post this! Only 107 more lbs to go to my goal of 147 lbs.
Today I kicked my own butt working out! I would never have thought that I would enjoy getting hot and sweaty as much as I do.
Have a great day everyone
Annette
Go you! That's so amazing. I love hearing stories like that. Continue being an inspiration!
Congrats!
Weight loss is so hard for me. I've decided this time, I'm not focusing on that. I'll weigh myself and take my measurements once a month, but that's it. At least for a while. I figure if I'm eating better and training for the half, some weight/inches should come off. And if they don't, well, at least I'll be stronger and able to run a half.
Good attitude. You may lose weight at first, but many have posted frustration with kind of hitting a plateau and / or gaining inches in a few muscular places like thighs. I'm blessed to not have to worry about weight too much, but 3 pregnancies leaves you with a tummy, no matter who you are. I was pretty peeved when I got up to 12 miles and that @#$% pooch was still there! *Sigh* guess I'll have to do those stinkin' ab exercises after all!
), next up is tix to DL for Tinker Bell and THEN tix for Princess. Um, sorry friends and family...Christmas is cancelled this year because I have to go to Disney! 
