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

[nancipants]

I love this idea! I can carry an apple and try to get you to eat it!

lol why do all of my half marathon ideas always involve props?

We can take turns holding it!

 

[superchime]

Still here, not dead, and I have been running! Nothing super exciting to report. I took 2 weeks completely off, then I've mostly been sticking to 30-45 min easy runs 5 days/wk. The first couple of runs were a little rough but things feel mostly back to normal now.

This post is mostly to share my Princess weekend costumes! Alas, only one dragon, but the way RunDisney recycles themes, I'm sure I'll have more opportunities for dragon Maleficent in the future.


5k - Mushu
The hat isn't finished, I just pinned the ears on for the picture, but I'm going to pack them separately and attach them when I get there so they don't get crushed. Not feeling super excited about the rest of this outfit, but I do have a stuffed Cri-kee on the way. Hopefully it arrives before I leave!


10k - Sylvie
I've had this one ready to go for a while but kept putting it off for other ideas. Sylvie is totally a Disney princess, though, so now seems like a good time to bring her out. We did a family Loki costume a few years ago, need to see if my son still has his alligator Loki.


Half Marathon - The Queen to @nancipants 's Snow White
This is the one I'm most excited about. The apple bag is way bigger than I expected, so I guess it will be holding my phone and fuel for the half. Should look great for pictures, though.


I have to figure out how to keep my hair out of the way because the back of this shirt is my favorite part.


I leave dark and early Wednesday morning, should be at the Expo Thursday morning, hoping to make it to the pre-race light pole meetups and Hurricane Hana's the Swolfin pool bar. It kind of feels like I just got home from Marathon weekend but I'm looking forward to being back and seeing people again!

 

[nancipants]

Love the costumes, especially Sylvie! You definitely need Alligator Loki.

 

[superchime]

Love the costumes, especially Sylvie! You definitely need Alligator Loki.

I hope my son can find it. His room is a bit chaotic (the perfect place for Alligator Loki to hide!).

 

[The Expert]

Love the costumes!! Where did you find a Cri-kee? I may need one for my Wine & Dine 5K costume.

 

[superchime]

Love the costumes!! Where did you find a Cri-kee? I may need one for my Wine & Dine 5K costume.

Ebay! You can borrow him if you want.

 

[superchime]

*tap tap tap*
Is this thing on?

Life got busy and updating suddenly seemed like too much work. And the longer I waited the more daunting it seemed to try and catch up. But I've started a new training plan and imperfectly done is better than not at all, so I'm back.

I won't do full trip reports for Princess and Springtime weekends, but they were both so much fun! I think with the stress of Dopey behind me (and the confidence that I got from finishing) there was no pressure and I also ran part of the Princess weekend races with @nancipants and discovered how much more fun it is to run with a friend.

So, just a few pics from the last two race weekends, then I hope to get back on track with posting weekly summaries.

Princess weekend 5k - I was a cold Mushu.




Princess weekend 10k where Nanci and I had way too much fun with Alligator Loki.







And Princess weekend half, where I was finally warm and where I attacked Nanci again, this time as the Evil Queen to her Snow White.





And a medal pic, for good measure.




It was a fun weekend. I also went to the (non-HH) meetup on Saturday and made it to the light pole at least one morning. Princess weekend is still not my favorite but this one was fun! This was also my first time staying at Pop for a race weekend and wow, do they go all out!

 

[superchime]

Springtime Surprise summary... to be continued.

Aaargh! I keep getting this error message "The submitted message is too long to be processed. Please shorten it" and it's going against my "just post something quickly" mindset so I'm going to come back and try this again later when I'm less frustrated. At least I got one post up anyway!

 

[superchime]

Apologies for the foot pic, but I started my Dopey tattoo!

My tattoo artist said foot tattoos don't always work, so I went with just the number to start. If it heals well I plan on adding some decorative bits, maybe a little Mickey head, some stars or fireworks or something? We'll see.

 

[superchime]

Update:

I'm 5 weeks into my summer speed plan, so I guess that whole "post weekly summaries" thing isn't happening, but here's an update anyway.

It's hot, but I'm hanging in there and trying to get my runs in before the sun is fully up. This weekend my plan had a 5k time trial. My goal was a 13 min/mile pace, which should theoretically be possible but with a T + D of 165 it wasn't happening this week.

Mile 1 - avg pace 14:19, heart rate 144
Mile 2 - avg pace 13:23, heart rate 162
Mile 3 - avg pace 13:48, heart rate 169
Overall average pace was 13:51

It's fine. Strava said this was my second fastest 5k, so with work over the next few weeks and better weather I might be able to break my record by the end of the summer.

Today I woke up with sore quads, which is great because that means I actually used them instead of straining my knees! I've been more consistent with strength this year, and that seems to be paying off. I've also been better about stretching after each run but I could do a better job with that overall.

 

[superchime]

Ooh, look, another post! Maybe I will get back to doing weekly summaries after all (don't hold your breath).

This week was ok. It's hot, so I'm still trying to get up and do my runs before the sun is fully up. Not 100% successful with this, but hey, it's good to have goals. This week I had:

Tues - 3 miles easy
Thurs - 1 mi @ WU + (100m @ R w/ 2 min RI) + (4 x 200m @ R w/ 2 min RI) + (100m@R)+1mi@CD
I have finally figured out how to put these workouts into my watch! No carrying pebbles this summer to remember what interval I'm on!
Sat - 3 miles easy
Sun (tomorrow)- 5 miles easy ~ will come back an update this tomorrow (or will I?)

For the 4th we went to a local music/craft festival, which was a lot of fun but I'm on new meds that mess with my ability to regulate my body temperature, so I'll just randomly get hot out of nowhere now. For someone who is pretty much always cold, this is new and interesting. So we're sitting there listening to a band and out of nowhere I'm sweating, then I'm fine again, then I'm sweating. Weird. So far this hasn't affected my running too much because I just start out hot and stay that way, but I'll definitely be keeping an eye on this for longer runs or races where I might be exerting myself for an extended period of time.

And... I know a few of you are in the DC area. I'll be hanging out there the weekend of August 22 - 24 if anyone is free and wants to meet up for coffee or something!

 

[The Expert]

I hate to even mention the p-word, but your description of the medication side effects sounds an awful lot like hot flashes. You might want to ask your doc if you could be in perimenopause. It could also just be that the medication messes with your hormones and is mimicking hot flashes. Some women start to get symptoms as young as their early 30s, so it's something to at least rule out.

 

[WillRunForPizza]

And... I know a few of you are in the DC area. I'll be hanging out there the weekend of August 22 - 24 if anyone is free and wants to meet up for coffee or something!

Would be great to meet up in the afternoon/evening! (My mornings will be occupied with 12 + 18 miles - thanks, marathon training. Unless you want to join in for a few miles!)

 

[superchime]

Would be great to meet up in the afternoon/evening!

Yay! I'll message you when it gets closer to that time to see what might work best for you.

Unless you want to join in for a few miles!)

Haha! No thanks! I am supposed to run on those days, though, so I'll definitely take suggestions for good places to do that.