Hanging up my running shoes-Update on ZellyB

[disneydaydreamer33]

Good news that there are no big injuries with your knee, but I'm so very sorry it's bothering you! I know how frustrating that is when you are willing to put in the effort, but something is stopping you beyond your control. You seem to be making the best of it though, and adjusting your plans as needed. Initial plans and goals are great, but the mark of a true runner is someone who can assess their current situation and make smart decisions for their body!

Congratulations to Chris on the 50K. That is such a big accomplishment. And in heat and humidity no less!! I honestly can't even imagine doing that! I recently discovered my first high school boyfriend is an ultra runner professionally, and it just boggles my mind!

 

[CherieFran]

I fully empathize with frustrating knee problems! Hope you are able to find the right combination of factors to get it under control!

Congrats to your husband on his 50K! I can't imagine ever running that sort of distance. Especially in the summer! Fantastic!

 

[ZellyB]

Oh boy, I'm really hoping your knee gets better! I'm glad you went to the doctor and found out exactly what is going on though. I hope you'll be back and healed up soon.

Congrats to Chrison the 50K! Yeah that's something I have no desire to do either. I'll do dopey and see how that goes but a 50K just seems like too much for me.

Thanks for the well wishes. I think things are improving. I was so proud of Chris and, hey, don't count out doing it if you do Dopey. Chris didn't do any single long runs over 24 but did several back to back runs of varying length. I think the most he did was basically Goofy type mileage. I really think if you do Dopey, you could do a 50K.

Good news that there are no big injuries with your knee, but I'm so very sorry it's bothering you! I know how frustrating that is when you are willing to put in the effort, but something is stopping you beyond your control. You seem to be making the best of it though, and adjusting your plans as needed. Initial plans and goals are great, but the mark of a true runner is someone who can assess their current situation and make smart decisions for their body!

Congratulations to Chris on the 50K. That is such a big accomplishment. And in heat and humidity no less!! I honestly can't even imagine doing that! I recently discovered my first high school boyfriend is an ultra runner professionally, and it just boggles my mind!

It boggles my mind too. And watching some of those runners head back out for another 25K loop after finishing the 50K really astounded me.

My plans are definitely adjusting, but I think I have a reasonable plan to place now...details to come.

I fully empathize with frustrating knee problems! Hope you are able to find the right combination of factors to get it under control!

Congrats to your husband on his 50K! I can't imagine ever running that sort of distance. Especially in the summer! Fantastic!

Knee problems are just the worst and of course a common occurrence for runners. I do think I'm starting to see some real progress though. And, thanks for the congrats. I'm really proud of his accomplishment. He worked really hard.

 

[ZellyB]

TRAINING WEEK - 6/19 - 6/25
YEP - IT'S AN ACTUAL TRAINING WEEK WOOHOO!
​

Sunday 6/19 - Final day of rest before attempting to start back up on some training. The knee does seem to be gradually improving.
Monday 6/20 - Back to circuit training. We entered the nautilus room and found they had rearranged things and actually removed about 6 of the machines out entirely. Boo. Although really most of the ones they took out were sort of redundant for other machines, so honestly it's probably okay. They did take out the abdominal crunch one which I liked and also the bicep and tricep machines - and my weak spaghetti arms need those. But, they do have some light free weights, so I just substituted doing some curls and tricep kick backs to make up for it. I also did the dreaded sit-up crunches on the floor. I really hate sit-ups. I also did about 20 minutes on the elliptical. I figured it was good to get some knee movement without the impact.
Tuesday 6/21 - Decided to ease back into things by just walking 3 miles. Chris was pretty sore from his 50K, so we were both happy to just walk. My knee felt fine with just a few minor twinges. I filled a prescription from my doctor for 500mg naproxen to take twice a day. That's a lot, right? But, it seems to be helping and maybe that was some of my problem, I just wasn't hitting the anti-inflammatories hard enough. The heat and humidity here are unrelenting though. It was like 76 degrees and a million (or maybe slightly less) percent humidity at 5 AM.
Wednesday 6/22 - Circuit training again pretty much a repeat of Monday. Boring. 10 minutes again on the elliptical.
Thursday 6/23 - Another 3 mile walk although we did sneak in a few running intervals. Overall my knee felt fine again. I did give my new INKnBURN water shorts a try, but find I just didn't love them for walking/running. The trim on the shorts was rubbing between my thighs and for any considerable distance I think would be a chaffing issue. I'm just spoiled by having my thighs covered in slippery lycra/spandex from my sparkle skirts and don't really want to adapt. The good news is that I have PLENTY of sparkle skirts. HA! And the shorts will be great for circuit training or just general running around. I also wore my Ella singlet (the one with all the umbrellas) and I LOVED it. YAY!!
Friday 6/24 - Rest day
Saturday 6/25 - Galloway group run. The distance for the folks training for the half was 4 miles and 10 miles for those training for the full. I decided I'd try to just run the half at our normal interval and pace and see how things went. We start now at 6 AM, but it was still already hot and humid. The first few miles felt pretty good, but approaching mile 4, my knee was starting to bother me and just my general lack of conditioning combined with heat and humidity really had me defeated. I handed off to Chris and switched to :30/:30 intervals to finish up. I was pretty discouraged again and basically had to admit to myself that I might need to just drop to the half mileage from here on out and then gradually add in more mileage to prep for Goofy. I was pretty bummed, but at least felt like it was a plan. Not the plan, I wanted, but a plan.

So, there you have it for last week. Some ups and downs obviously but at least some normal routine again for fitness. Quick spoiler for how this week is going... We slept in on Monday. Oops. But did head out for a run today. 3 miles doing normal intervals and finished with an 11:11 pace. A bit slower than normal, but not bad. Best of all, other than some minor tenderness (and a very short little stab of pain at one moment), the knee held up pretty well. I was encouraged enough to figure out a schedule that might let me get back on track for the local marathon in November. Luckily, I have a long time to potentially change my registration (the race almost never sells out until early fall) to the half marathon if things don't go well. The new schedule has me ramping up miles on the long runs fairly rapidly, but if I stick with it, I should be back on track with the mileage schedule of our group by the 17 mile training run set for August 6. I'm not sure I can pull that off, but it's good to have a plan, right? I may need to dial back pace some as well as I work to catch up, but I can manage that as well. As many of you know, the Galloway training plans have you go all the way up to 26 in training runs, but the truth is all 4 times I've run a marathon, the longest training run I've done was 21 miles, so if ultimately I don't make it back to 26 in training, but at least get up to 20, I know I can finish the race fine.

It feels good to at least have a plan (my new spreadsheet is all filled out ) and it gives me some structure to work toward.

I swear I'll get back to more pictures next time, but for now, here's an RDP and I'll be doing another trip planning post soon. The 180 ADR date is rapidly approaching and I've got to figure out my plans quickly.

The one and only time I managed to get Chris to pose silly for a picture during a race.

 

[Ariel484]

Getting caught up...

HOORAY for Chris - ultra-marathoner!! Crazy! So awesome! I'm with you - 26.2 is as far as I'm going.

I'm sorry your knee is still bugging you but that's great that the x-rays were clear. Are you planning on seeing a sports medicine doctor? I saw one a few years back when I had runner's knee and she recommended a $25 pair of orthodics that pretty much completely solved the problem. I hope you find a fix soon!!

 

[disneydaydreamer33]

Nice that you have a plan going. That must feel good, but I am sorry your knee is still bugging.

Cute RDP!!

 

[ZellyB]

Getting caught up...

HOORAY for Chris - ultra-marathoner!! Crazy! So awesome! I'm with you - 26.2 is as far as I'm going.

I'm sorry your knee is still bugging you but that's great that the x-rays were clear. Are you planning on seeing a sports medicine doctor? I saw one a few years back when I had runner's knee and she recommended a $25 pair of orthodics that pretty much completely solved the problem. I hope you find a fix soon!!

I'm debating on going to this sports medicine place but haven't decided if I want to. Because I'm stupid that way...

I was doing some reading on recovery from runner's knee and there was discussion of shoe cushioning. I run in Saucony Kinvaras that are a pretty minimalist shoe with very little cushioning. I've tried on some other cushioning shoes, but when I run in them they just feel so heavy. Still, I think I need to adapt to something like that to absorb some of the shock to my knees. Saucony came out with the Zealot ISO fairly recently that is still neutral and has the same 4mm offset at the Kinvara but with a bit more cushion, so I may go to my local running store and give them a try. They've apparently outpaced the Kinvara in sales for them as they aren't even carrying the Kinvara any more. Maybe I could keep using the Kinvara for my shorter runs and use the Zealot for longer runs.

Nice that you have a plan going. That must feel good, but I am sorry your knee is still bugging.

Cute RDP!!

A plan always makes me feel better. Now, whether or not I can execute it is another question entirely.

 

[DopeyBadger]

I'm debating on going to this sports medicine place but haven't decided if I want to. Because I'm stupid that way...

I was doing some reading on recovery from runner's knee and there was discussion of shoe cushioning. I run in Saucony Kinvaras that are a pretty minimalist shoe with very little cushioning. I've tried on some other cushioning shoes, but when I run in them they just feel so heavy. Still, I think I need to adapt to something like that to absorb some of the shock to my knees. Saucony came out with the Zealot ISO fairly recently that is still neutral and has the same 4mm offset at the Kinvara but with a bit more cushion, so I may go to my local running store and give them a try. They've apparently outpaced the Kinvara in sales for them as they aren't even carrying the Kinvara any more. Maybe I could keep using the Kinvara for my shorter runs and use the Zealot for longer runs.

That's exactly what I do. I can't handle the beating my legs take with the Kinvara on a daily basis, so I use them for speed work and races. But the Zealots have been a nice compromise. I use them for my long runs (ran 12 miles this past weekend) and didn't even notice they were there. I'd agree the Triumphs/Rides feel significantly bulkier, but I use them for about 60-70% of my training because of the extra cushion.

 

[Ariel484]

I'm debating on going to this sports medicine place but haven't decided if I want to. Because I'm stupid that way...

I was doing some reading on recovery from runner's knee and there was discussion of shoe cushioning. I run in Saucony Kinvaras that are a pretty minimalist shoe with very little cushioning. I've tried on some other cushioning shoes, but when I run in them they just feel so heavy. Still, I think I need to adapt to something like that to absorb some of the shock to my knees. Saucony came out with the Zealot ISO fairly recently that is still neutral and has the same 4mm offset at the Kinvara but with a bit more cushion, so I may go to my local running store and give them a try. They've apparently outpaced the Kinvara in sales for them as they aren't even carrying the Kinvara any more. Maybe I could keep using the Kinvara for my shorter runs and use the Zealot for longer runs.

Yeah, it's definitely a fine line. I can totally see not wanting too bulky of a shoe, but having a bit more cushioning may help. In my case, adding the orthodics to the shoes I was already using (swapping out the factory insole) made all of the difference. My sports medicine doctor had me stand in bare feet and could see that my arches were collapsing - the orthodics sort of push them up. That made all the difference for me.

 

[ZellyB]

That's exactly what I do. I can't handle the beating my legs take with the Kinvara on a daily basis, so I use them for speed work and races. But the Zealots have been a nice compromise. I use them for my long runs (ran 12 miles this past weekend) and didn't even notice they were there. I'd agree the Triumphs/Rides feel significantly bulkier, but I use them for about 60-70% of my training because of the extra cushion.

I remember reading that on your training journal. One of the women in the running store who runs in Kinvaras like me told me she found the Zealots to be an easier transition than some of the more cushioned shoes as well.

Yeah, it's definitely a fine line. I can totally see not wanting too bulky of a shoe, but having a bit more cushioning may help. In my case, adding the orthodics to the shoes I was already using (swapping out the factory insole) made all of the difference. My sports medicine doctor had me stand in bare feet and could see that my arches were collapsing - the orthodics sort of push them up. That made all the difference for me.

And maybe an orthotic insole would work as well. I do have a really high arch. When I had a foot/running analysis done, I was told a high arch makes for a more rigid foot and thus makes it less likely to need a more supportive shoe, but maybe the arch itself needs more support or something.

 

[ZellyB]

TRIP PLANNING
NOW IT'S REALLY A FAMILY AFFAIR AND WE ALL WANT TO EAT!!
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For this trip, the original plans were for Chris and I to go and to pull our daughters, Paige and Sophie, out of school for the week and take them along. Our oldest, Drake, is 18 and initially said he wasn't interested in going. But, as time has gone on, he's reconsidered and decided he'd like to go. His college semester doesn't start back up until after our return, so no risk of missing classes for him. It did create some challenges though for our housing. Right now, the BCV studio that we have booked has an occupancy of 4, however the refurbishment should change that to 5 with the addition of the murphy bed. It means the girls would have to share the pull-out sofa and Drake would be on the murphy bed, but they all agreed they could make that work. It's really sweet because the girls are excited he is coming - and trust me that's a fairly new phenomenon for my kids who haven't always gotten along that well. Although donuts are always a good bribe to get them to get along.

I did email the place we used to rent our points and asked about the occupancy, but she said that it is still listed as 4. I called Disney direct as well and they told me the same. However, on the Beach Club thread here, a member said she was now seeing it listed as 5, so I think I just need to give it a bit more time and then hopefully we can add him on. If not, I'm not sure what I'll do. But, I'm pretty confident things will work out. The kid's suite we got a Hard Rock at Universal should be no problem as we can get a roll-away bed placed in the second bedroom there. I went ahead and got him added to our same flights, but unfortunately the fare had gone up considerably, but c'est la vie, it's worth it to have all the kids with us!!

Today was also my 180 day mark for ADRs. I couldn't get on early because we went down to hang out with some friends on their houseboat last night at the lake. It also happened to be my birthday, so we enjoyed a nice sunset cruise and late night hanging out on the boat enjoying food, drinks and good friends!

So, I wasn't able to get on to make ADRs until this afternoon, but fortunately I was able to get nearly everything we wanted. The only thing I missed out on was lunch at Beaches and Cream, but I'm just going to keep my eyes open and keep checking and hope for an opening. We've got 50's Prime Time, Crystal Palace, Be Our Guest, Rainforest Cafe (Disney Springs), Tokyo Dining, and Tusker House.

I'll update probably tomorrow on training, but did want to share that my knee is sooooooooo much better. I think the combination of the rest and then the heavy anti-inflammatory dosage my doctor has me taking made a big difference. My conditioning has taken a bit of a beating, but I am optimistic that I can build up and get myself back on track over the next month. Planning an 8-miler tomorrow, so we'll see how that goes, but I'm feeling hopeful!!

 

[rteetz]

That's nice that Drake wants to go now. I hope the occupancy thing works out for you guys. Usually that BC/YC thread knows things before Disney call centers do.

Great ADRs! We are doing BoG and Tusker house as well. 50s is one of my favorites though.

 

[DopeyBadger]

Happy to hear you're feeling better! Also, Happy belated birthday! And it's got to be a nice feeling to have all of the family coming. I have to imagine as the kids get older it will be tougher to get all of them together for a family trip.

 

[disneydaydreamer33]

That is super fun trip planning news! How great to have all of your kids with you guys! That will be a special trip, I'm sure.

Really great news about your knee too! I sure hope it stays that way. And happy late birthday!!

 

[ZellyB]

That's nice that Drake wants to go now. I hope the occupancy thing works out for you guys. Usually that BC/YC thread knows things before Disney call centers do.

Great ADRs! We are doing BoG and Tusker house as well. 50s is one of my favorites though.

I'm counting on the intel from the BC/YC thread being accurate! We ate for the first time at 50s on our last trip and had a great time there!

Happy to hear you're feeling better! Also, Happy belated birthday! And it's got to be a nice feeling to have all of the family coming. I have to imagine as the kids get older it will be tougher to get all of them together for a family trip.

Yes, I was really happy he decided to go. I know our days of all going on a trip as a family are numbered.

That is super fun trip planning news! How great to have all of your kids with you guys! That will be a special trip, I'm sure.

Really great news about your knee too! I sure hope it stays that way. And happy late birthday!!

Thank you! I'm super happy that my knee has improved.

 

[Ariel484]

Yay, so glad that you're feeling better and that Drake is coming on the trip as well! I hope that the room works out!

 

[ZellyB]

TRAINING WEEK(S) 6/26 - 7-10​

Somehow I missed posting one of my weeks of training, so I'll play catch up here with two weeks worth. BONUS for all you readers.

Since getting on the anti-inflammatories, I had seem some significant improvement in my knee, so finally finding a way to get back on track!!

Sunday 6/26 - Rest day
Monday 6/27 - Should have been a circuit day, but just not feeling it. I was just pretty down still so couldn't get too excited about going.
Tuesday 6/28 - We decided on doing just a 3 mile run today. I felt pretty good here. We did our regular intervals and while my knee was a bit tweaky, I managed pretty well. Overall pace of 11:01.
Wednesday 6/29 - We were planning to start running stairs on Wednesdays, but again decided to take it easy on my knee to build back up. Not real problems after the 3 mile run though, so continuing to feel encouraged.
Thursday 6/30 - Another 3 miler today and felt pretty good and pace was fine, but about halfway through, mother nature necessitated a stop. Luckily we run past Chris' office on our normal route, so he was able to let me in. PHEW. Total pace showed at 12:59 but that was due to our little stop. I think we were around 11 or so though during the run.
Friday 7/1 - Rest day. We also had a bunch of Chris' family coming in for the holiday weekend. Feeling better about my knee, I went through my training spreadsheet and reworked mileage to see if I could get myself back on track for the marathon training for this fall. I came up with a reasonable plan I think that should have me back on the schedule with our Galloway group on 8/6 which is set for 17 miles. Here's hoping!! As part of that new plan, I was going to try for 6 miles on Saturday.
Saturday 7/2 - We ended up with a delayed start because we had some lightening in the area. We finally got started about 30 minutes late and had some light rain as we started out although that cleared after a bit. I ran with our little group for the first 4.5 miles of the route and then turned off to get my shortened mileage in. I was able to run the whole 6 at our normal intervals. YAY!! I was a little slower than typical pace, but in general I felt pretty good about things. The knee while a little touchy felt almost normal! Chris' brother is visiting from Virginia and so he and Chris' sister ran with us as well. It was nice to run with them!

Sunday 7/3 - Rest day. We had a big family meal with Chris' family and also celebrated our girls' 13th birthday - although a bit early since their actual birthday is the 17th. The girls are headed to Virginia with Chris' brother for 3 weeks.
Monday 7/4 - Rest day - HAPPY 4th of JULY!!!!
Tuesday 7/5 - I had mentioned I was ordering some new shoes with more cushioning and I got those over the weekend, so took them out for an inaugural run this morning. They are the Saucony Zealots. And pretty.

I really liked them. The cushioning felt good and they didn't feel that much heavier than my Kinvaras. I was really pleased with them. My knee continues to feel good too!!! We just ran for 3 miles and pace was around 11:14. I can definitely tell that my conditioning has taken a hit from all the rest I've had to take to heal up my knee. We spent the remainder of the day at our local theme park, Silver Dollar City. We had a great day and I probably walked another 5 miles or more while there.
Wednesday 7/6 - Again best laid plans to run stairs didn't happen. We were both pretty tired from the day at the theme park and had to be back at work, so we took the extra hour of sleep instead.
Thursday 7/7 - 4 mile run. I felt pretty great heading out and all in all this was a good run. I was feeling the conditioning again toward the end of the run, but generally felt almost back to normal. Pace was 10:50 which is more in line with our normal pace.
Friday 7/8 - Rest day and happy birthday to me! As mentioned above, we spent the evening with friends down at the lake and had a great time.
Saturday 7/9 and Sunday 7/10 - We missed running with the group this week since we stayed at the lake, but instead ran on Sunday. My "get-back-on-track" schedule was to run 8 miles. We started out around 6 AM and it was a struggle for me from the get go. I just didn't feel great. My conditioning was a battle and I was hot and sweaty and breathing hard right away, but we kept at it! I was thinking about a post that @Ariel484 had made on her training journal about not getting hung up on pace so much. Also from talk on here from @DopeyBadger about doing long training runs at a slower pace was good, so I just decided to relax and get through the run and my pace would just be my pace. We maintained our intervals, but I did slow down some and found that the last few miles went by pretty quickly and while I was still struggling, it was far more manageable. We finished out the 8 miles at 11:37 pace and my knees felt good and I was proud of myself for getting it done! I do feel like I can get myself back where I need to be soon. Plan for the long run next week is to jump it up to 10 miles and hope I continue to improve. Also planning to work toward doing 2:00/:30 intervals during our midweek runs. We did this last year and it really helped to make the long runs easier and more enjoyable!

That's it for now, folks. One little RDP to wrap things up...

A little Dug and Russell hug action!

 

[ZellyB]

Yay, so glad that you're feeling better and that Drake is coming on the trip as well! I hope that the room works out!

I'm really happy about it too! I'm trying not to stress too much about the room and thinking happy thoughts that it will all work out.

 

[Ariel484]

So glad to hear that you are improving, that has got to feel good. LOVE those new shoes!!

 

[ZellyB]

Beaches and Cream - and a little InB too
​

I just had to do a quick update about our ADRs for the trip. You'll remember above that I mentioned that I couldn't find any times for lunch at Beaches and Cream on the day we wanted to go. It sounded like from some other people that maybe they were having problems with the ADRs, or that maybe they were eliminating them for lunch altogether. Well today, I decided to check on it and, voila! there were multiple options open for lunch on the day we wanted to go. I was so excited!!! So, we are all set and I'm planning to have a little grilled cheese and tomato soup lunch possibly followed by one of these babies...

The Kitchen Sink Sundae. Maybe we can handle it between the 5 of us...maybe. That thing honestly looks insane!!

So, with that reservation, I officially got everything we wanted for ADRs on the trip so I'm pretty pumped about that. The only one I'm a little unsure about is Tokyo Dining on the night after the marathon. I've never heard much about it, but Chris really wanted to go somewhere for sushi, so we will give it a try!

Also wanted to talk a little more InB shopping. Recently the newest Club item came out and was shown on the Facebook group I belong to. They had men's and women's shorts. I have tried the women's shorts and they just aren't that comfortable to me, so I wasn't that interested, but they also had men's shorts. Chris is badly in need of some new shorts and when I saw the InB design for the men included light compression shorts underneath, I thought Chris might really like them.

I'm not a InB Club member, but luckily a club member from the group was willing to order a pair for me, so hopefully we'll get those fairly soon and Chris will love them. I'm gradually trying to woo him over to InB. He's got two of their shirts now and he really likes them.

Shortly after the club items came out, InB came out with two new pre-order items. I was resisting fairly well, but as mentioned earlier, I had a little birthday and so Chris told me to order them for my birthday gift. YAY!!! So, these babies will be coming to me soon - The robot capris and tank in RED. I don't have a lot of red in my running wardrobe, so I'm excited to add these on.

Can't wait to see these in person!!! My running wardrobe is really exploding lately. Oops. I think I need to go through some of my SparkleSkirts and see if I can thin the herd.