From the Couch to the Princess 1/2 Marathon.. My Journey

[lillieandlilahsmommy]

I hope you don't mind if I jump in on your blog. I am training right now to do a 5K with a very good friend from high school. My goal is to do the Disney Princess 1/2 in 2013! I need to ease myself into it! My plan is to do a 2-3 5Ks this fall/winter, then in the Spring start trying the 10Ks.

Good luck on your training. I am going to take a page out of your book and do two-three short runs a week and one long run. Right now I am doing 3 miles 4 times a week, but would love to throw 4+ in there too! I am a turtle though, I still add a little bit of walking, my best right now has been 15:50. It seems that I went faster when I walked more, I don't know if I am wearing myself out or what. I also do better if I run one day rest one day. If I run two days in a row, that second day is SLOWER!! I am hoping the heat is one factor that makes me slower, b/c it is bad out there! This morning I ran at 5:15am and the heat index was 93!!!

I do feel much better on the days that I run, haven't really lost any weight, I also need to start food journaling. Hoping to drop 15 lbs by our Disney vacation in December!

Congratulations to you on all your progress!

 

[LoriH91]

Joining in your journey!! I just started exercising after trying to avoid it all my life! I'm already signed up for the 5K in January. DH wants to run the full, since he's been running 1/2 marathons for 2 or 3 years now. We can lose weight together! I'm down about 4 lbs, but new weigh in is Monday!

 

[gudrench3]

Hi there, I am joining your journey too. I am going to do the Princess 1/2 in 2013!!! I am currently doing the C25K plan with the plan of running my first 5k on October 1st this year. I'm not ready yet, but I'm currently on week 4. We will see how it goes. Anyway, keep up the good work and let us know how you are doing. I have a journal as well (link is in my signature). I am struggling a little bit, but I'm not going to let it stop me. I want to do this so bad!!!

First I would try to up the weekday runs to the 45-60 minute range. If you have bikes spend a couple days a week riding them - not the causal beack boardwalk ride but one where you are feeling like you do on your long run.

I am a big strength training believer. You simply do not need a gym, but one is helpful. You can easily get away with a couple dumbbells and n area to work in. You are looking to push and pull in your workout. Push? Pushups, military presses, squats, tricep dips off the front of a kichen chair. Pulls? Pullups (if you ca find a safe bar), A row using dumbbells or a stretchy band (Target), Lunges and curls. Google these exercise names and you will see that you can do most if not all on the cheap. Print a picture of the exercise and have you DH observe to assure that you are holding good form. And you for him. Form is key. You are really looking to get to a point where you are doing 3-4 sets of 12-15 reps. Progression is adding weight. Oh, note a couple cans of veggies will sub for a set of dumbbells for a while. Finally, I really failed to list these in order..... Legs, back/chest Arms. Also best to alternate push then pull or pull then push.

Hope this helps

I see in your signature that you are a coach...you are a really good one! Thanks for the information here. I will also follow these suggestions.

I hope you don't mind if I jump in on your blog. I am training right now to do a 5K with a very good friend from high school. My goal is to do the Disney Princess 1/2 in 2013! I need to ease myself into it! My plan is to do a 2-3 5Ks this fall/winter, then in the Spring start trying the 10Ks.

Good luck on your training. I am going to take a page out of your book and do two-three short runs a week and one long run. Right now I am doing 3 miles 4 times a week, but would love to throw 4+ in there too! I am a turtle though, I still add a little bit of walking, my best right now has been 15:50. It seems that I went faster when I walked more, I don't know if I am wearing myself out or what. I also do better if I run one day rest one day. If I run two days in a row, that second day is SLOWER!! I am hoping the heat is one factor that makes me slower, b/c it is bad out there! This morning I ran at 5:15am and the heat index was 93!!!

I do feel much better on the days that I run, haven't really lost any weight, I also need to start food journaling. Hoping to drop 15 lbs by our Disney vacation in December!

Congratulations to you on all your progress!

Hi there, I saw that you are planning on doing the Princess 1/2 in 2013...me too!!! I hope that your training is going well!

 

[wifey1220]

Good luck Stephanie! I need to get the will power to stick to a training program. I am thinking running a disney half marathon might be the motivation I need. I love disney and every excuse I can find to get me there. LOL!

 

[Princess 1/2 Hopeful]

Hello there! I am ashamed to see how long I have been away from my own thread. Well I guess I should update everyone on how things have been going. I really fell behind on my training last year and the longest run that DH and I did before the princess 1/2 was 9.5 miles. Also I ended up getting a horrible cold that of course moved into my chest about 2 weeks before the race. I have had asthma since I was a child and whenever I get a cold it seems to flare back up again. Needless to say I was on steroids, antibiotics, and taking my inhaler about 6 times a day the day before the princess 1/2.
The day before the race I was so worried that I wouldn't finish. DH and I were lucky enough to get placed in corrall c so we had a pretty good head start on the sweepers! We did our 1:1 run/walk ratio for the first 3 miles, after that I really started having a hard time with my asthma. I was taking my inhaler very frequently with not much relief. We decided to walk the rest of the way and just try to finish! We still had a good time but I was so worried that I did not fully enjoy myself! I regret this now of course. We ended up finishing in 3hrs 51 minutes which is way beyond the goal we set for ourselves when we first decided to participate.
After the race I was completely wiped out, it was cold and rainy and all I wanted to do was go back to the hotel and sleep which is what we did... For 6 hrs!! We woke up in enough time to have our celebratory dinner at the rose and crown which was great!
After we got home from Disney running fell to the wayside. We made up all sorts of excuses and one day I just decided enough was enough. I had gained about 10 pounds back that I had lost and all I was eating was junk! So I signed back up for weight watchers and started hitting the gym again. Things we going pretty good with that and then life got in the way again in the form of some financial problems. I was really down on life and just went back to my old habits for about a month. I was able to work some overtime and things have started to get better.
I woke up Thursday morning and hubby decided to text me a to do list for the day and one of those things was to sign up for the 2013 princess 1/2! I called him right away and asked if he was sure we could afford it and he said yes so we are now officially registered!
We have been working on the Jeff Galloway 5k app for about 3 weeks and we have decided that we need to give ourselves goals to keep us on track with our training this time around. The first goal we decided on was to finish the 5k app within 5 weeks by running 3 days a week. There will of course be a reward if this goal is completed! I wanted to get back on dis boards and keep myself motivated by reading all the great threads about the princess half. I am so excited to be back and I can't wait to get back on track for good! Thanks for reading my crazy long post!

 

[zinkyre]

You are too hard on yourself, life isn't fair and no one ever gets everything the dream of! The point is that you try, we will try and we will get back into it. Our goals and rewards will be fulfilled and you and I will beat our time last year.

Love,
Your DH

 

[gudrench3]

WELCOME BACK!!! I will be doing the Princess with you in 2013!!! I am struggling a bit too but and still working on it. I figure if I have spent all this money I better enjoy it. ;-) I hope yall keep up with the training. Let me know how you're doing.

 

[FittobeaPrincess]

You had me at "couch" I was just looking through the boards and found this thread. I too am on a loooooong journey from the couch to the princess 1/2 ... I signed up the day registration opened. I have a long way to go.. Is everyone planning on trying to run? Or doing the interval? I originally planned on running.. but at times feel so overwhelmed and like that will not even be a possibility.


www.fittobeaprincess.com

 

[NewRunner]

Welcome back! I was following your story last year (silently), but I wanted to say welcome back to you. I too started running last year, but injured my foot and "fell off the wagon". I have been so down on myself this year, that I have yet to start again, but you have inspired me. Thanks!!

 

[Princess 1/2 Hopeful]

Thanks everyone for stopping back by! Things have been going pretty well. We have been running 3 times a week and following our Jeff Galloway5k app which I absolutely love! We did fall off a bit this week since DH and I got sick. We're feeling better now so we will pick up where we left off tomorrow. I started school 2 weeks ago, I'm going back to get my bachelor's degree. So, needless to say it's been hard to fit in 3 runs a week with working full time and going to school. I am so excited for Friday though! I have been going through Disney withdrawals... It's been about 3 months since we've been! So Friday is Night of Joy at the magic kingdom. It is a Christian music event where lots of bands come to play on several stages throughout the parks. We are going to stay the night so we're going up early for a little pool time and some relaxation! I love to read the replies and find out how everyone is doing so keep me posted!

 

[Princess 1/2 Hopeful]

You had me at "couch" I was just looking through the boards and found this thread. I too am on a loooooong journey from the couch to the princess 1/2 ... I signed up the day registration opened. I have a long way to go.. Is everyone planning on trying to run? Or doing the interval? I originally planned on running.. but at times feel so overwhelmed and like that will not even be a possibility.

www.fittobeaprincess.com

Hey there! You can totally do this! I had not really run any distance before I started training for the 2012 half and I finished! I do intervals, right now a 1:1 which seems to work well and that keeps us around a 14:30 per mile pace. I would definitely encourage doing intervals, it just makes you feel like you have something left in the tank at the end of a long run! I would really recommend the Jeff Galloway apps.. He has a 5k, 10k, and 1/2 marathon app and they are easy to use! Good luck to you! Keep me posted on how you're doing!

 

[Princess 1/2 Hopeful]

Welcome back! I was following your story last year (silently), but I wanted to say welcome back to you. I too started running last year, but injured my foot and "fell off the wagon". I have been so down on myself this year, that I have yet to start again, but you have inspired me. Thanks!!

Wow! Thank you so much for your comment! I hope your foot is better! I know you can do this! Keep at it!!

 

[Princess 1/2 Hopeful]

WELCOME BACK!!! I will be doing the Princess with you in 2013!!! I am struggling a bit too but and still working on it. I figure if I have spent all this money I better enjoy it. ;-) I hope yall keep up with the training. Let me know how you're doing.

Yay for a fellow 2013 princess runner! I am so excited as I know you are! Believe me it is hard to stay on track but you just have to push yourself! Try a reward system.. It is definitely motivating DH and I to have something to look forward to!