Certainty of death. Small chance of success. What are we waiting for? (comments welcome)

[Scootin'By]

At the end I realized that I was close to finishing in 3:30 (a 20 min PR for me) so I gave it a little gas and made it in 3:29:46.

That's awesome! Congrats!!!

I've never run with a pace group before, so maybe this sort of camaraderie is standard, but I was super impressed by how many people in our group were helping out.

This sounds like a wonderful experience. It is one of the big reasons that attracted me to the runDisney community!

I hope your foot feels better and you have a safe/uneventful trip home

 

[superchime]

I made it home without incident, and I am so grateful because I know so many people got stuck! I'm ready to stay home for a while!

I am very proud of how this weekend went and I'm glad to have done the race. I think if I had only done the (shortened) WDW half I would be feeling pretty discouraged right now because I've been training for months and to have that race cut short would have been very disappointing. I was thinking how funny it is to put so many days into getting ready for this one thing but something can happen that's out of your control and that's it.

I feel like I did a great job with my hydration and nutrition and recovery and just everything. I could have been a little better prepared for the cold, but I had what I needed to stay warm in the corral and that was the most important part.

I woke up on Monday feeling pretty great. The weird pain on the tops of my feet was gone. I guess it was just the extra pressure from the bows, but they're totally fine now. Knees were fine, calves were fine, quads were a little sore and I didn't love that my room was located up a flight of stairs! I have a tiny blister on the top of one toe, but other than that I feel great.

Actually I feel really great, and I've been thinking about that a lot this past week. This morning I added up all of my miles for the month, racing, training, and I threw in those long park walking days too, and I'm at almost 100 miles for January already. And not a peep out of my knees, or that weird foot pain I've been battling for over a year now. Just a bit of soreness in my quads today, and that's mostly because I sat in on a plane all day yesterday and didn't have much active recovery movement. I'm beginning to think that running is not the cause of my pain.

But I haven't been to Kung Fu since late December. It's not the running. It's the jumping and kicking and the weird twisty squat hold positions. That's what hurts my knees and feet! I really enjoy the sport, and my entire family participates, so I don't want to quit, but I am going to have to scale way back if I want to continue to feel good.

I know strength training will help make the Kung Fu moves easier, putting the pressure on my muscles instead of my joints, but until then I've got to stay uninjured so that I can build the strength I need.

So that's the plan for the next few months. Strength training 3 days a week, running 3 days a week, one rest day. I've got the Princess and Springtime 10ks coming up, so I want to keep training enough to be able to complete them but I'm not going to race them, just enjoy the experience. I will also start playing around with race walking techniques and see what that feels like. I will keep going to Kung Fu class but I need to be prepared to hear that I'm not doing enough in there, and I need to be mentally strong enough to contiue to hold back in the face of that.

 

[superchime]

Training Log Jan 15 - 21, 2024

Mon - Active recovery day (AKA: park day at Disneyland)
Tues - travel home
Wed - laundry and unpacking count as active recovery, right?
Thurs - first day back at Kung Fu in 4 weeks. I told my teacher my plan to take it easy on my knees and he was totally on board. Thought I did a good job, but I still felt some swelling in my knees and a little pain in my ankle on Friday. Not impressed.
Fri - nothing.
Sat - nothing
Sun - nothing, but this trend will end soon.

Next week will be all about easing back into running while starting my new strength training routine. I'm trying out Caroline Girvan's EPIC program, starting with her Beginner EPIC videos. We're getting ready for Lunar New Year in Kung Fu, and I do not have a big part in the show (unless you count playing cymbals!), so it should be easy for me to keep things light in class next week.

A photo from what I did on Monday!

 

[Scootin'By]

Wed - laundry and unpacking count as active recovery, right?

It totally does! As long as taking kids sledding counts as cross training

 

[superchime]

It totally does! As long as taking kids sledding counts as cross training

Absolutely! Sledding is hard work!

 

[superchime]

Training log Jan 22 - 28

Mon Jan 22- plan: strength - Caroline Girvan Beginner EPIC upper body workout
Well that was humbling. I made it half way through the 30 min video, but some of the exercises I could only do a few times before I had to stop. Gotta start somewhere, I guess.
Kung Fu was pretty good. We did a lot of stretching, which I really needed. As expected, my teacher forgot I was taking it easy on my knees and corrected my form but I just reminded him what was going on and he was fine with it. It’s just second nature for him to correct things he sees us doing wrong.

Tues Jan 23 - plan: 30 min at easy pace
1.16 miles in 30 min
I am glad I stopped halfway through my upper body workout yesterday because my arms and shoulders are so sore today!
Trying to take it easy because I know with restarting Kung Fu and adding strength I’m piling on a lot right now, so I just got on the treadmill and walked for 30 min. I really enjoy being at Disney because I walk so much and it feels great. At home I don’t really have any reason to walk that much, and I can go for walks but long ones take me away from things I need to be doing at home.Just one more reason why I really need to just live at Disney World. I think I’m making a pretty strong case so far.


Wed Jan 24 - plan: strength
Migraine. I used to get them constantly. Now they’re not as frequent but every now and then one still knocks me out. The weather here has been really warm and that sort of change pretty much guarantees my head is going to hurt.

Thurs Jan 25 - plan: 30 min easy pace
My head still hurts. Migraine meds have taken the edge off but only just. Skipped Kung Fu.

Fri Jan 26- plan: strength
Still a twinge of a headache, but it's better. I need this weather pattern to move on, please.
Mobility day 1 + lower body
Knees did not like the lower body workout I chose, so I stopped and just did some PT exercises.

Sat Jan 27 - plan: long run/walk -
Not so long run/walk. Only 1.63 miles total. I played around with race walking technique and found that I could race walk 16 min/mile pace but it definitely uses a different set of muscles and if this is something I actually want to do I am going to have to develop those muscles. I don’t know yet if I’ll attempt to do this full-time, just incorporate race walking into my run/walk intervals, or give up and just stick with run/walk.
Mobility day 2
More PT exercises.
Then my son and I rearranged his and his brother's bedrooms, so that definitely counts as cross training. I am getting stronger! This would have been much harder a year ago.


Sun Jan 28- Mobility Day 3

I'm feeling a bit lost without a plan to follow. I really miss having the sheet on the fridge with little boxes to check off. I'm sort of coming up with my own plan but I keep second guessing myself.

Total miles for the:
Week - 2.79
Month - 110.78
Year - 110.78

Photo for the week: The Princess and the frog.
This is one of my chickens, Princess, at the vet this week. They had a metal frog in the exam room and she was intrigued. Princess has a suspicious lump in her tummy. They're going to do more tests next week to see if they can figure out what's going on. In the meantime she's getting more than her usual amount of blueberries and peanuts, her favorite snacks!
I originally got chickens for their eggs, now none of them lay and they're all 100% spoiled pets. We're very lucky to have one of the best avian & exotic vets in the country just a few minutes from our house, so my feathered friends get vet care just like my dogs do. And going there means we always see fun animals in the waiting room (lots of birds, bunnies, and reptiles but also pigs, chickens, ducks, even fish!).

 

[Scootin'By]

I'm feeling a bit lost without a plan to follow. I really miss having the sheet on the fridge with little boxes to check off. I'm sort of coming up with my own plan but I keep second guessing myself.

Don't second guess yourself. You know yourself better than anyone. And if you want a checkin, you've got people here who would help.

Then my son and I rearranged his and his brother's bedrooms, so that definitely counts as cross training.

For sure!!

Photo for the week: The Princess and the frog

This is SO cute!

 

[GollyGadget]

I used to put a sticker on my wall calendar every day that I worked out. It's an easy way to "check a box" and the visual is a good reminder of how you're doing.

Hope your princess is doing okay.

 

[superchime]

112.35 total miles for January!

Since my "easy run" pace is basically a walk, I've decided to count all running and intentional walking in my monthly mileage. So things like hikes and walking the dog count but the daily walking I do wandering around the house doesn't.

Also, I bruised a toenail at Disneyland and it looks like it might fall off (no pics, you're welcome). This is my first one, so I need to know the protocol. Do I leave the toenail under my pillow at night and Jeff Galloway takes it and leaves me a Gu?

 

[azrivest]

Have you seen the Dumb Runner comic about Jeff Galloway breaking a window to get in?

 

[Cabius]

A photo from what I did on Monday!

View attachment 827516

Wait wait wait... is that Walt's apartment? How did you swing that???!

 

[superchime]

Have you seen the Dumb Runner comic about Jeff Galloway breaking a window to get in?

Yes! Someone got Jeff to autograph a copy and they gave it to the artist! I really wonder what Jeff thought about it.

 

[superchime]

Wait wait wait... is that Walt's apartment? How did you swing that???!

Yes!! I did the Walt's Main Street Story Tour at Disneyland on my last day there. We weren't allowed to take our own photos in the apartment, but they had a photopass person come in.

 

[Cabius]

Yes!! I did the Walt's Main Street Story Tour at Disneyland on my last day there. We weren't allowed to take our own photos in the apartment, but they had a photopass person come in.

Well now I have one MORE thing I have to do before I die.

What fun! So glad (and jealous) you got to do that!!

 

[Scootin'By]

112.35 total miles for January!

Since my "easy run" pace is basically a walk, I've decided to count all running and intentional walking in my monthly mileage. So things like hikes and walking the dog count but the daily walking I do wandering around the house doesn't.

This is an awesome total! I considered adding my walk the dog time, but then I paced it once and it came out to like 22 mins/mile and I just shook my head. Beagles are not speedy.

Also, I bruised a toenail at Disneyland and it looks like it might fall off (no pics, you're welcome). This is my first one, so I need to know the protocol. Do I leave the toenail under my pillow at night and Jeff Galloway takes it and leaves me a Gu?

This made me laugh out loud. You should just do this for yourself because it's so funny!
Also makes me wonder, when a hockey player loses their tooth and they leave it under their pillow, does Wayne Gretzky leave them a new roll of hockey tape?

Wait wait wait... is that Walt's apartment? How did you swing that???!

WHAT?! Okay, so I saw that picture ages ago and thought, "That is a very old style living room, but I'm not going to comment on how anyone decorates their house." And now it makes total sense. I am very jealous. And with the medal and everything?! So cool!

Spoiler: On a total side note ...

I was randomly thinking about our conversation about how the Dis hyperlinks Amazon in every post and I was thinking about how they need to include like some sort of large language modeling in their algorithm so that it knows the difference between when someone mentions that they bought something off of Amazon and when someone says they sailed down the Amazon River or that someone is as tall as an Amazon. This is what happens when you're work is on the periphery of AI

Amazon Amazon Amazon (just couldn't help myself LOL)

 

[superchime]

This is an awesome total! I considered adding my walk the dog time, but then I paced it once and it came out to like 22 mins/mile and I just shook my head. Beagles are not speedy.

Haha, since a 22 min/mile is just a touch slower than my easy pace it sounds like your beagle and I would make good running buddies.

The Amazon linking thing still has me wondering. It looks like it's just a direct link, not a referral link (as far as I can tell, unless it's doing something with cookies that I don't understand). It's just so weird. I won't touch on the need for added AI, though. And it's not because I'm terrified of AI. Nope. Not at all. I welcome our robot overlords.

 

[superchime]

I've got a little catching up to do. Our Lunar New Year show was last weekend so I didn't have time to post my summary for that week, so I'm going to do 2 weeks at once.

Jan 29 - Feb 4
Mon - Mobility + Kung Fu

Kung Fu - good class, lots of show practice, still taking it easy on my knees.
I skipped my strength video for today, though. Just couldn’t get it done. I’m going to have to find some accountability with strength training because it’s way too easy to skip.

Tues - Plan: - um…
I did 30 min on the treadmill, because it’s cold outside and I’m a wimp. 

10 min warmup/easy pace
10 min at 15min/mile pace
10 min at 17.5 min mile pace
total distance 1.57 miles

Mobility. I did this right before I left for Kung Fu, hoping it would be a good warmup before class.

Kung Fu - really good class, lots of stretching and kicks and things I like, then lots of show practice. It’s all coming together!

Wed - plan: ?? did I have a plan? I don't think I did anything this day. No notes anyway other than:
"Do I need accountability or do I need a break? Am I pushing too hard or not hard enough?"

Thurs - 2 miles 47 min
Kung Fu - Show dress rehearsal. Whee!

Fri - Mobility + Strength
Caroline Girvan upper body intro - I made it as far as I did the last time I attempted it, so we’ll see if I’m equally sore tomorrow.

Sat - Mobility + long run
A bit sore this morning but nothing compared to the first time I did that upper body workout, so yay! I think upper body strength on Fridays is going to be better than Mondays.
3.21 miles in 1:01 (forgot to stop my watch when I got home). Splits were 19:10, 18:14, 18:35. Nothing but walking.

Sun - “rest” day, but really our Lunar New Year show, which was amazing! Definitely the best one yet! The youtube link isn't public, but if anyone is really curious you can message me and I'll send it to you.

Also, I have been doing some research and found that my 170 heart rate on the morning of the Disneyland half was likely just my Apple watch having trouble getting a reading in the cold! This is fantastic news. I’ve ordered a chest strap heart rate monitor so I will compare it to my watch over the next few months, but I am no longer super worried about this issue. This was one of the things that really had me worried about whether or not to attempt Dopey. I don't mind trying and failing, I do mind trying and dying.

Total miles for the
week: 6.78
month: 5.21
year: 117.56
---------------------------------------
Feb 5 - 11
Mon - Kung Fu and Mobility.
I was expecting class to be hard after the show but he took it easy on us. Lots of stretching.

Tues - More Kung Fu. This was a great, hard class. The kind where every limb sort of feels like Jello when you're done.

Wed - 3 easy miles, 59:01

Thurs - Kung Fu - We had to hit bags. I hate hitting bags. I don't mind kicking but I hate punching. But I've finished all of the forms I need to know before I can test again so I'm officially in "test prep" which is terrifying. But if I pass I'll get a sword!

Fri - 3 easy miles 59:52

Sat Mobility + 3.25 miles in 1:07:25. Splits were 24:48, 19:00, 18:39 because the first mile also included returning a lost dog to her yard. T+D 73 + 59 = 132

Sun -plan: couch, book, tea, all day.

Total miles for the
week: 9.25
month: 14.46
year: 132.02


Happy Lunar New Year!
I'm excited because this is my year, the Year of the Dragon! I hope Disney puts out some good Mushu merch!

 

[Cabius]

Also, I have been doing some research and found that my 170 heart rate on the morning of the Disneyland half was likely just my Apple watch having trouble getting a reading in the cold! This is fantastic news. I’ve ordered a chest strap heart rate monitor so I will compare it to my watch over the next few months.

Cold weather is notoriously tough on Apple Watch HR (and probably other wrist-based measures). One word of note: if you're going to use a chest strap monitor when it's cold, you're best to use it consistently for every run. There may be persistent differences between them, and you want to make sure you're measuring changes in HR using a consistent standard, not picking up noise from switching back and forth between them. (e.g. if one is always 5bpm higher than the other, it matters less which is right and more whether you're getting consistent data.)

Hopefully that new HR monitor eases your worries!!

 

[Scootin'By]

I won't touch on the need for added AI, though. And it's not because I'm terrified of AI. Nope. Not at all. I welcome our robot overlords.

I'm not worried about the light AI, like natural language processing. It's the really deep large language models that are a bit more freaky. But sort of in a cool way ...

Haha, since a 22 min/mile is just a touch slower than my easy pace it sounds like your beagle and I would make good running buddies.

I love my dog. She's fantastic! But walking with her makes me want to pull my hair out sometimes. I get my best workout carrying her home!

I don't mind trying and failing, I do mind trying and dying.

Tues - More Kung Fu. This was a great, hard class. The kind where every limb sort of feels like Jello when you're done.

These are the best kind of classes!

But I've finished all of the forms I need to know before I can test again so I'm officially in "test prep" which is terrifying. But if I pass I'll get a sword!

A sword?! That is very cool! You've got me seriously thinking about Kung Fu now LOL

Sun -plan: couch, book, tea, all day.

This is my kinda training plan!

ETA: Happy Lunar New Year! My girls and I had hot pot last night to celebrate. Year of the Dragon is always exciting. I've never liked my sign - the water pig. Course, if you translate water pig into warthog and then translate that into Pumba, I'll take that!

 

[azrivest]

I've never liked my sign - the water pig. Course, if you translate water pig into warthog and then translate that into Pumba, I'll take that!

I dont know if we were born the same year, but my brother has always teased me endlessly about being born in a Pig year... It also didn't help me to like it.

I reconciled with it a bit more when Shanghai Disney Resort put up murals of all the Chinese zodiac signs and we're Hamm... Money pig!