A Goof Became Dopey: Running After Dopey (comments welcome)

[surfde22]

So, I restarted the Hansons Marathon Method coming out of my half marathon. I started a few days into it to lead up to Dopey. The first week I didn't get all of the runs in as I had a 10 mile race the following Saturday. I was more concerned about recovering for my final POT attempt. Then the second week came, which included my first scheduled tempo run. They have always been the bane of my existence. It was scheduled for 6 miles, but knowing my past history with them I decided to lower that to 4, and if I was able to get more in cool, if not at least I'd have set a starting point. I feel tempo runs will definitely be one of the keys to getting over my previously mentioned self doubt issues. That brings me today, my second scheduled 6 mile tempo run. I got up bright, and by bright I mean completely dark, and early to get my run in. For whatever reason I wasn't feeling the run. I'm sure some of it was the self doubt, even though I've run farther than 6 miles faster than my scheduled 8:47 pace during previous races. I finally dragged my butt outside to get my run in, and for the first time I actually managed to get my entire tempo run in at my scheduled pace, well except the first mile. That one was a little fast. But it was a huge confidence boost for me.

 

[DopeyBadger]

So, I restarted the Hansons Marathon Method coming out of my half marathon. I started a few days into it to lead up to Dopey. The first week I didn't get all of the runs in as I had a 10 mile race the following Saturday. I was more concerned about recovering for my final POT attempt. Then the second week came, which included my first scheduled tempo run. They have always been the bane of my existence. It was scheduled for 6 miles, but knowing my past history with them I decided to lower that to 4, and if I was able to get more in cool, if not at least I'd have set a starting point. I feel tempo runs will definitely be one of the keys to getting over my previously mentioned self doubt issues. That brings me today, my second scheduled 6 mile tempo run. I got up bright, and by bright I mean completely dark, and early to get my run in. For whatever reason I wasn't feeling the run. I'm sure some of it was the self doubt, even though I've run farther than 6 miles faster than my scheduled 8:47 pace during previous races. I finally dragged my butt outside to get my run in, and for the first time I actually managed to get my entire tempo run in at my scheduled pace, well except the first mile. That one was a little fast. But it was a huge confidence boost for me.

 

[surfde22]

Twin Cities Hot Cider Hustle Half Marathon

My final preparation race leading up to Dopey was this past Saturday, 9/22. It was the Twin Cities Hot Cider Hustle Half Marathon. It had a nice late start time of 8:30am. This is also the first race my now 4.5 month old son would be waiting for me at the finish. The race as a whole was very disorganized. They had banners set up indicating where to line up based on your anticipated pace with the start around the corner out of sight. 10-15 minutes before the race the told people to start lining up near the appropriate banner, so I made my way between the banners for 8 and 9 minutes/mile. Next thing I know they were doing a countdown to the start with no indication it was about to start or instruction to start moving up to fill in the gaps in the "staging" area.

The start line was very conveniently placed at the bottom of a hill. We start, head up the small hill, and about a minute in we are making the first of three 180 degree turns. Not a great start to the course. Then we follow running paths around and into a near by park. This entailed a 3.6 mile out and 3.6 miles back with another 180 degree turn at the end, and also included the biggest hills on the course. Then there was another shorter out and back, about 2 miles, with a loop at the end instead of a 180 degree turn. The last segment was to go around the lack the start/finish were on, make a 180, and come back to finish. The final 180 was half way down a hill. So, you get to start building speed thanks to gravity just to slam on the breaks and turn around. Such an annoying course design on a whole.

I crossed the finish line in 1:53:56, over 10 minutes faster than my last half marathon. My watch only read 12.95 miles at the finish, which as we all know is a fair amount shorter than a half marathon. The race organization claims its a USATF certified course, though I'm unable to find the certification on the USATF site. Either way, I'm going to trust the course, and count this as my half marathon PR.

My splits were as follows on my watch:
1 - 9:01
2 - 8:28
3 - 8:36
4 - 8:20
5 - 8:30
6 - 8:23
7 - 8:32
8 - 8:37
9 - 8:59
10 - 8:54
11 - 9:12
12 - 9:36
.95 - 8:43

My pacing was fairly consistent, and it took much longer for the mental game to beat me. I'm definitely calling this race a win in all aspects, and great progress towards my goals.

 

[DopeyBadger]

Twin Cities Hot Cider Hustle Half Marathon

My final preparation race leading up to Dopey was this past Saturday, 9/22. It was the Twin Cities Hot Cider Hustle Half Marathon. It had a nice late start time of 8:30am. This is also the first race my now 4.5 month old son would be waiting for me at the finish. The race as a whole was very disorganized. They had banners set up indicating where to line up based on your anticipated pace with the start around the corner out of sight. 10-15 minutes before the race the told people to start lining up near the appropriate banner, so I made my way between the banners for 8 and 9 minutes/mile. Next thing I know they were doing a countdown to the start with no indication it was about to start or instruction to start moving up to fill in the gaps in the "staging" area.

The start line was very conveniently placed at the bottom of a hill. We start, head up the small hill, and about a minute in we are making the first of three 180 degree turns. Not a great start to the course. Then we follow running paths around and into a near by park. This entailed a 3.6 mile out and 3.6 miles back with another 180 degree turn at the end, and also included the biggest hills on the course. Then there was another shorter out and back, about 2 miles, with a loop at the end instead of a 180 degree turn. The last segment was to go around the lack the start/finish were on, make a 180, and come back to finish. The final 180 was half way down a hill. So, you get to start building speed thanks to gravity just to slam on the breaks and turn around. Such an annoying course design on a whole.

I crossed the finish line in 1:53:56, over 10 minutes faster than my last half marathon. My watch only read 12.95 miles at the finish, which as we all know is a fair amount shorter than a half marathon. The race organization claims its a USATF certified course, though I'm unable to find the certification on the USATF site. Either way, I'm going to trust the course, and count this as my half marathon PR.

My splits were as follows on my watch:
1 - 9:01
2 - 8:28
3 - 8:36
4 - 8:20
5 - 8:30
6 - 8:23
7 - 8:32
8 - 8:37
9 - 8:59
10 - 8:54
11 - 9:12
12 - 9:36
.95 - 8:43

My pacing was fairly consistent, and it took much longer for the mental game to beat me. I'm definitely calling this race a win in all aspects, and great progress towards my goals.

Super impressive! You made a roughly 8% improvement in a short period of time. That's incredible! And even if you translate your 12.95 mile race into 13.11 it is still a 1:55:20 which still blows your PR out of the water. Looks like that bro v bro Dopey matchup is going to be a good one! You're even in line with beating his 2014 time of 7:26.

Based on 2016 and 2015 Dopey calcs and based on a 1:53:58 and 1:55:17.



I'm excited for you! Way to go!

 

[surfde22]

Super impressive! You made a roughly 8% improvement in a short period of time. That's incredible! And even if you translate your 12.95 mile race into 13.11 it is still a 1:55:20 which still blows your PR out of the water. Looks like that bro v bro Dopey matchup is going to be a good one! You're even in line with beating his 2014 time of 7:26.

Based on 2016 and 2015 Dopey calcs and based on a 1:53:58 and 1:55:17.

View attachment 202870

I'm excited for you! Way to go!

Thanks Billy. I can always count on you to crunch all the numbers for me. I'm definitely feeling more and more confident about the upcoming Dopey, and really feeling stronger about this long distance running thing. I'm sticking with the official time from the race as my PR. My watch was about .15 miles off from the first mile marker, so I'm wondering if something happened in that first mile to throw it off, though the route on Garmin doesn't show any anomalies.

 

[roxymama]

CONGRATS! Those splits look great and awesome job clobbering your last half time

 

[surfde22]

CONGRATS! Those splits look great and awesome job clobbering your last half time

Thanks. If I could only figure out those last couple of miles, and then other half marathon that will inevitably show up during Dopey in January, but training is going well and confidence is building. Hopefully it will work itself out in just over two months.

 

[surfde22]

So, yesterday I had a 15 mile long run on the schedule, and completed it. YAY!!!! That's my longest run ever to date, and pacing went really well. 13/15 within +/-10 seconds of my goal pace of 9:28. The average pace over the whole run was 9:30, and I felt like I had to hold myself back at times. That feeling of holding myself back as to not go too fast is what I believe led to my two intervals that were too slow. I was very pleased with my run too. I then was up less than 12 hours later to get my 6 Mile Easy A run in this morning. I was a little stiff when I started, but quickly loosened up. Maybe this whole Dopey and marathon thing will actually go well. I am definitely getting more confidence.

And now to the other big news, FastPass+ is scheduled. My dad took care of it as most of the people in our party don't have MDE accounts, and he has managed them. I had very few requests, and all were met. YAY!

1/3 - Arrive around noon. No FastPass, but will go to one of the parks, probably MK, but who knows. Dinner at Frontera Cocina with my wife, brother, and his wife. My parents will be taking the two grandsons to Grand Floridian Cafe.
1/4 - 8:35am 1900 Park Fare, 9:50-10:50 7DMT, 10:50-11:50 Small World, 11:55-12:55 Dumbo, and obviously hit the Expo at some point
1/5 - 12:25 Sci-Fi Dine-In, 1:55-2:55 TSMM, 3:00 Frozen Sing-a-long, 4:30 Disney Junior Live
1/6 - Kids Races, 2:05-3:05 The Seas, 3:15-4:15 Journey Into Imagination, 4:20-5:20 FEA, 5:35 Rose & Crown
1/7 - 12:35 Le Cellier, 3:20-4:20 Adventurers outpost, 4:30 Finding Nemo, 5:45-6:45 Kilimanjaro Safari
1/8 - No FastPass+, 6:25 BOG
1/9 - 8:30 Chef Mickey's, 12:00 Alistair's First Haircut, 2:05-3:05 Soar', 3:30-4:30 Mission:SPACE, 4:30-5:30 Living with the Land, 5:50 Cape May Cafe
1/10 - No parks, go home.

 

[roxymama]

Those FP+ and dining selections look great. I know my kiddo would give a big thumbs up to Small World and Dumbo...she'd spend her whole vacation in that little swatch of real estate in Fantasyland if she could.

Word of caution on mission space coming from a person with longish legs. I felt weirdly cramped on that one so I skip it now. Not sure how my knees would feel after all that running. Just something to think about. Or maybe it was just a case of claustraphobia that turned me into a big baby about it
Great job on your runs btw!

 

[surfde22]

Word of caution on mission space coming from a person with longish legs. I felt weirdly cramped on that one so I skip it now. Not sure how my knees would feel after all that running.

Thanks for the warning. I don't remember Mission Space being particularly bad. There are rides, like Dumbo and Space Mountain, I find to be much worse. This was also not one that I gave my dad as one I wanted to do. I don't know if it was a request from my brother or something my dad selected, which would surprise me as my dad doesn't really care for that ride.

I know my kiddo would give a big thumbs up to Small World and Dumbo...she'd spend her whole vacation in that little swatch of real estate in Fantasyland if she could.

My kiddo will only be 7 months at the time, so who knows how much he'll like these rides or any, but I'm sure a day will come when that's all he wants to do, or similar rides.

 

[DopeyBadger]

So, yesterday I had a 15 mile long run on the schedule, and completed it. YAY!!!! That's my longest run ever to date, and pacing went really well. 13/15 within +/-10 seconds of my goal pace of 9:28. The average pace over the whole run was 9:30, and I felt like I had to hold myself back at times. That feeling of holding myself back as to not go too fast is what I believe led to my two intervals that were too slow. I was very pleased with my run too. I then was up less than 12 hours later to get my 6 Mile Easy A run in this morning. I was a little stiff when I started, but quickly loosened up. Maybe this whole Dopey and marathon thing will actually go well. I am definitely getting more confidence.

And now to the other big news, FastPass+ is scheduled. My dad took care of it as most of the people in our party don't have MDE accounts, and he has managed them. I had very few requests, and all were met. YAY!

1/3 - Arrive around noon. No FastPass, but will go to one of the parks, probably MK, but who knows. Dinner at Frontera Cocina with my wife, brother, and his wife. My parents will be taking the two grandsons to Grand Floridian Cafe.
1/4 - 8:35am 1900 Park Fare, 9:50-10:50 7DMT, 10:50-11:50 Small World, 11:55-12:55 Dumbo, and obviously hit the Expo at some point
1/5 - 12:25 Sci-Fi Dine-In, 1:55-2:55 TSMM, 3:00 Frozen Sing-a-long, 4:30 Disney Junior Live
1/6 - Kids Races, 2:05-3:05 The Seas, 3:15-4:15 Journey Into Imagination, 4:20-5:20 FEA, 5:35 Rose & Crown
1/7 - 12:35 Le Cellier, 3:20-4:20 Adventurers outpost, 4:30 Finding Nemo, 5:45-6:45 Kilimanjaro Safari
1/8 - No FastPass+, 6:25 BOG
1/9 - 8:30 Chef Mickey's, 12:00 Alistair's First Haircut, 2:05-3:05 Soar', 3:30-4:30 Mission:SPACE, 4:30-5:30 Living with the Land, 5:50 Cape May Cafe
1/10 - No parks, go home.

Hooray for a new longest run! Sounds like you are well on your way to crushing Dopey and all the goals as well!

Liking the Fastpasses!

-We both have Kids races on 1/6. Although, admittedly we bought 1/6 and 1/7 with the idea of choosing the best weather day.
-We both are at Epcot on 1/6.

Those are our only matching days.

 

[surfde22]

Hooray for a new longest run! Sounds like you are well on your way to crushing Dopey and all the goals as well!

Liking the Fastpasses!

-We both have Kids races on 1/6. Although, admittedly we bought 1/6 and 1/7 with the idea of choosing the best weather day.
-We both are at Epcot on 1/6.

Those are our only matching days.

We only bought 1/6 for the Kids races, but did buy for both our son and our nephew, because my brother doesn't plan anything in advance, and it was an easy thing to buy as part of his birthday present.

Maybe we'll run into each other at the races or Epcot.

 

[roxymama]

We only bought 1/6 for the Kids races, but did buy for both our son and our nephew, because my brother doesn't plan anything in advance, and it was an easy thing to buy as part of his birthday present.

Maybe we'll run into each other at the races or Epcot.

If y'all run into each other can you send high fives to each other from me ?

 

[surfde22]

If y'all run into each other can you send high fives to each other from me ?

We might be able to manage that.

 

[surfde22]

I still struggle with tempo run. Not always completing them, but also starting them. I did the 6 mile tempo run back at the end of September with absolutely no problem. Since then I have not completed a single one as scheduled. I did do a half marathon in the interim that was faster than my marathon tempo pace, but that's about all. I was scheduled for an 8 mile tempo run yesterday. I balked on it. I decided for whatever reason I didn't want to do it. I woke up this morning and said bleep it I'm going to get this tempo run in. After some procrastinating and trying to ignore myself trying to talk me out of it I laced up my shoes and ran. I did my warm-up mile and that was no problem. It was a nice easy pace. Then the first tempo mile came. I found myself naturally settling in even a little faster than what I did during my half a few weeks ago. Which, while not much faster than my goal, 8:39 vs 8:47, it was outside my +/- 5 second target. I did slow down the last 2/3 of the mile or so, and ended with an 8:45. Not too bad. I'm not sure why I've been making excuses not to do these runs. It didn't even feel super challenging. The next several miles hung around my target time, 8:43, 8:49, 8:43, 8:44, and then all of a sudden 8:40. WHOA, where'd that come from. I didn't feel like I was pushing myself any more than normal. There was no substantial wind this morning, and what little there was was coming at me. The road had a slight uphill grade so I can't thank gravity at all. I'll definitely take the time as a good sign though. Then my final two tempo miles where 8:42 and 8:40. I averaged 8:44 with a target of 8:47. Pretty good run all in all. I'm determined not to talk myself out of anymore tempo runs and already gave my wife permission to kick me if I try to do so. The one bad thing is I did fall. There was a wood bridge on the path I was running on. Two adjacent planks were not level, and I totally tripped over the one sticking up. My elbow is still in pain from the fall. UGH. One of these days I might figure out how to run without falling.

 

[DopeyBadger]

How's the training going?

 

[surfde22]

How's the training going?

It could be going better, but still feeling pretty confident. I missed almost a week and a half after Thanksgiving thanks to family getting me sick, but hopefully the illness is out of the for now. I was supposed to have an 18 mile long run this past Sunday, but life got in the way. So it's not scheduled for this weekend, then a 20 miler after that for my last two long runs. I know Hansons only goes to 16, but I figured I needed the longer distances just for my own mental preparation. I'm pretty sure my training is going much better than my brother's though, but he does have the experience that I don't.

Thanks for checking in though.

 

[DopeyBadger]

I missed almost a week and a half after Thanksgiving thanks to family getting me sick, but hopefully the illness is out of the for now.

Look at the silver lining. At least the sickness is over now and wasn't occurring during race weekend!

So it's not scheduled for this weekend, then a 20 miler after that for my last two long runs. I know Hansons only goes to 16, but I figured I needed the longer distances just for my own mental preparation.

I understand the thought process. Still plenty of time to make those gains and meet those goals. Good luck these last few weeks!

 

[surfde22]

Look at the silver lining. At least the sickness is over now and wasn't occurring during race weekend!

That's exactly what I'm thinking, as well as hoping that means I'll be healthy through then.

I understand the thought process. Still plenty of time to make those gains and meet those goals. Good luck these last few weeks!

I'm feeling pretty confident with my overall fitness. Sure I'd like it to be better, but it will get there. Right now I just need to keep working on the mental game and get that to where I need it to be. My 16 miles a few weeks ago went really well, and I think I'll get to where I need to be.

On another note, my wife bought me a ForeRunner 235 for Christmas, and is making me actually wait to Christmas day to open it. Ugh. It's just this wrapped box under the tree tempting me now.

 

[DopeyBadger]

On another note, my wife bought me a ForeRunner 235 for Christmas, and is making me actually wait to Christmas day to open it. Ugh. It's just this wrapped box under the tree tempting me now.

Oh man... the torture?!?!?!?