Week of Mar. 20 - 27, 2022
This is the thirteenth week of my 16-week training plan to run the 25K trail race at the Traverse City Trail Running Festival on April 23, 2022. This was a cut-back week, which was intentionally timed.
March 20 - 26 was also the week that I was in Disney World with my sister, her 6-yo son, and our mother. I will give a brief re-cap of our trip as well.
Sunday
This was the first day in a really, really long time that I didn't do anything that I considered to be an official "activity". I did get at least 10,000 steps, though - I am over 675 days in a row with at least 10,000 steps, so I'm not breaking that streak unless I absolutely have to!
The four of us stayed in two cabins in Fort Wilderness: me/Mom and my sister (Cindy)/her son INoah). This was definitely a good idea to give us all a little more space and also two bathrooms. I got to the resort ahead of the others since I was flying in from a different city. I received our
Walmart grocery delivery and did some walking around the resort.
Monday
- Before breakfast: 50 min easy
- T+D 106, 0.5% effect, T 55 F
- time: 50:00
- distance: 4.29 mi
- average pace: 11:39
- splits: 12:06, 11:40, 11:32, 11:29, 10:57
- ave HR: 128 BP - within my target range
- elevation gain: 62 ft (uncorrected)
- route: running loop in Fort Wilderness
- comments: I started this run while it was still dark, and I got to see how a lot of RVs are blinged up with lights. And golf carts, too
Disney: we went to Magic Kingdom. It was a little hard getting my nephew comfortable to go on rides because he hasn't been to very many amusement parks. First we took him through the Swiss Family Robinson Tree House. Then we went on Pirates of the Caribbean, which he really liked. We all got Dole Whips. Then we went on Jungle Cruise, which my nephew liked, but the rest of us did not think was worth waiting 2 hours for (no
Genie+). After that, he was getting pretty grumpy and tired. Also, we wanted to get a mobility for our mother (74 yo and previously broke her hip, which has healed but her stamina is down) but they were out. So she was walking and really starting to drag. We decided to take a break and go back to Fort Wilderness.
After a couple hours at home, my nephew had clearly recharged, and so we decided to head back to Magic Kingdom. Our Mom broke down and got a wheelchair, which I pushed. We convinced Noah to try Thunder Mountain. With our Mom in the wheelchair, we got a return time (about 60 min) and so we were able to get a dinner snack while waiting. Despite his trepidation, Noah loved Thunder Mountain and insisted on riding it again immediately. Of course, immediately was another 60-min wait. He loved it again. By the time we were done, it was almost time for the fireworks, but instead we talked Noah into trying Haunted Mansion. Because of the hour, the line was only about 15-min long. Again, Noah liked it so much that we immediately rode it again. After that, the fireworks had finished and there was just enough time for the crowds to clear out, and we went home.
Tuesday
Disney: We agreed that we wanted to get to the park earlier for Animal Kingdom so that it would be more likely that animals would be active. (This is all relative - my sister and Noah have a hard time getting going in the morning. Noah in particular does not wake up very quickly. We had planned to leave our cabins at 9am the previous day for Magic Kingdom, but the reality was about an hour later.) We did get to Animal Kingdom before 9am, and we even got a
scooter for our Mom.
We got in line immediately for Kilimanjaro Safari - it was already a 2-hour wait, and lined up almost all the way to the Lion King theater. But the safari did not disappoint: we saw giraffes, elephants, rhinos, cheetahs, a lion, wildebeasts, and various hooved/horned ungulates. After the safari, we went on the Gorilla Falls walk, which also impressed Noah - he loves watching animals. Then we got some food and watched the Flight of Passage (??forget the name) bird show in Africa.
Noah was getting grumpy, so we called it a day and went back to Fort Wilderness. Cindy had also promised to take him swimming at a pool there, which she did. Our Mom went to sit and watch, while I took a nap. We went to the marina at Fort Wilderness to watch the Magic Kingdom fireworks that evening.
Wednesday
- Before breakfast: 10 min easy + 5 x (5 min tempo + 1 min walk) + 5 min easy
- T+D 137, 2.5% effect; T 68 F
- time: 45:06
- distance: 4.05 mi
- average pace: 11:09
- tempo splits: 9:46, 9:40, 9:41, 10:01
- route: Fort Wilderness running loop
- comments: This was the highest T+D that I had run in in months, and it really made this run hard. I wasn't feeling great during the tempo intervals and decided to run the fifth one easy.
Disney: We went to Hollywood Studios, which ended up being the most disappointing park of our visit. No scooters left, so a wheelchair for our Mom. First we got in line for the Runaway Train ride, which had about an hour wait. The ride was really clever, but I felt like it was a bit too short and not "thrilling" enough for it to be one of the headlining attractions. After this, since we had gotten going a little late, we got some lunch - this was a chore because the park was SOOO crowded in some places that it was hard to even walk around.
After lunch, we got in line for Toy Story Mania. This was a freaking ridiculous 2-hour wait. The waiting area was really clever with all the full-size game pieces, but it didn't really make up for waiting that long with a 6-yo. Once we got on the ride - it was amazing! Very, very clever and the technology was excellent. Noah and our Mom had trouble figuring out how to use their guns, but it was a lot of fun.
After that, Noah wanted to ride Slinky Dog Dash, which we tried to tell him was much tamer than Thunder Mountain (and thus not worth the long wait time), but that got him grumpy and pouting. The rain that had been forecast started in fits and spurts, and between the two, we decided to leave. Yes, we went to Hollywood Studios for TWO RIDES.
We got on the Skyliner and rode it to Epcot, then turned around and came back and got on the bus back to Fort Wilderness.
Thursday
- Before breakfast: 50 min easy
- T+D 143, 3.5% effect, T 73 F
- time: 50:00
- distance: 4.29 mi
- average pace: 11:39
- splits: 11:49, 11:39, 11:41, 11:37, 11:11
- ave HR: 130 BP - within my target range
- elevation gain: 20 ft (uncorrected)
- route: running loop in Fort Wilderness
- comments: The T+D on this run was killer. I sweated buckets and buckets. It was supposed to rain on and off all day; it didn't rain during my run, but it felt like it would any time. Just yucky.
Disney: The sticky, yucky weather continued all day. We delayed leaving our cabins to try to get a better idea of when it would rain, but finally left with our raincoats to do what we could. No scooter for our Mom, so wheelchair again. There were a couple of rain showers throughout the day, but we managed to be undercover during them.
First, we went to Buzz Lightyear's ride. I could see out this was a precursor to DHS's Toy Story Mania - the gun wasn't as user-friendly and the technology wasn't as good. I'm sure Noah didn't pick up on that. Then Cindy and Noah went on the Tomorrowland Speedway, while I waited with our Mom. We got milkshakes. After that, we went on the People Mover - we knew Noah would like it, and we were hoping that a peek at Space Mountain might get him to try it. No such luck.
Then we went back to Thunder Mountain. The first time we checked in, I think the CM must have given us a
Lightning Lane return time, because it was only about 15 minutes - not that we complained. We all loved it. We went right back to get in line again, and this time the CM told us we could get back on immediately (via the handicap entrance). Fun! Then we went back to Haunted Mansion, but only once.
After that, we got hotdogs and did some souvenir shopping on Main Street. Not our best decision, because it was the hour before fireworks and really, really busy. We got done just in time to see the fireworks show, and then we went back to Fort Wilderness.
Friday
- Before lunch: 80 min easy
- T+D 117, 1% effect, T 66 F
- time: 1:20:01
- distance: 7.03 mi
- average pace: 11:23
- splits: 11:32, 11:26, 11:40, 11:06, 11:11, 11:37, 11:09
- ave HR: 136 BP - within my target range
- elevation gain: 62 ft (uncorrected)
- route: running loop in Fort Wilderness
- comments: Thank goodness the T+D was much lower than the previous day. This run was easy as intended.
Disney: Because we were up late the night before, we planned to head to Animal Kingdom after lunch. Wheelchair for our Mom. First we went to the Lion King show. Noah was dubious about a "show", but he liked it. Then we got a message that a scooter was available, so we traded the wheelchair for a scooter and heading to the Maharajah Jungle Trek. This was a hit, and we did see some tigers walking around. Then we went to Na'vi River Journey - for the length of the wait, this was not worth it.
After that, both Noah and my sister got a bit grumpy and the group disagreed about food, so we decided to leave. We took the bus to Magic Kingdom and rode the monorail loop. Then we returned to Fort Wilderness and played a few games.
Saturday
- In evening: 2-hr tennis match - my partner and I lost 6-3, 6-2.
We all went home.
Sunday before dinner:
- 120 min LR on trail
- T+D 58, 0% effect, T 41 F
- time: 2:00:01
- distance: 9.28 mi
- average pace: 12:56
- splits: 11:37, 11:20, 12:52, 14:39, 14:23, 15:22, 12:48, 12:43, 11:05, 11:25
- ave HR: 142 BP - below my target range
- elevation gain: 1037 ft (uncorrected)
- route: Valley Trail, Rock Creek National Park
- comments: A big change from running in Florida!
Health
Headache: it was not as bad while I was on vacation - I hardly used my laptop at all and didn't play tennis.
Disney trip summary: Overall, we all had a good time. Noah had never been there, so everything was pretty amazing to him. My sister hadn't been there since she was in junior high, so it was mostly new to her, too. I thought that we spent far too much time waiting in line, especially in DHS. We could have paid for Genie+, but that would have been a sizeable chunk of money. We did not have a good idea of what Noah would be willing to ride, and frankly we would have had a hard time meeting Lighting Lane ride times. I found this very frustrating.
it usually causes mine.
