Hanging up my running shoes-Update on ZellyB

[rteetz]

Yeah, I'm not sure why since they are just on final punch list items that they can't go ahead and change the occupancy already. It's frustrating, but hopefully soon! Fun for working the Packer game. What do you do there? Just fan assistance kind of thing?

I sell nuts. Heavenly Roasted Nuts, the sugary roasted kind.

 

[ZellyB]

I sell nuts. Heavenly Roasted Nuts, the sugary roasted kind.

Yum!!!

 

[ZellyB]

TRAINING SCHEDULE - WITH A SIDE OF PANIC
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Since deciding that I need to take another week off running to continue rehab for my PF, I needed to update my training schedule for Goofy. I really hadn't been worried much about Goofy training since I was planning on the marathon in November and knew I could just keep up fitness levels and throw in a couple of back-to-backs and I'd be ready. Well, since my training has been blown-up, I actually looked over my schedule and started to panic about getting in enough miles to be ready. My foot is still relatively painful even though it has been improving. But the slowness has me freaking out some about if it will truly be better in another week.

Now, I follow Galloway mileage plans and his plans take you all the way up to 26 miles and, in fact, you run 3 runs of 20 or more in his plan. I've done a marathon three times before without ever going all the way to a 26 miler, but I do know it can be helpful. Regardless, I wasn't too freaked out thinking about just getting myself up to around 20 or so for my longest run. BUT, when I actually started to look at the amount of time I have left before Goofy and losing another week to recuperation, I realized that I was going to have to push my mileage pretty hard during October, November and December which worries me with my foot.

My last long run was around 13 miles total (but the last mile and a half of that I mostly walked due to the heel pain)
Right now my plan is as follows for long runs:

10/8 14 miles
10/16 6 miles
10/22 17 miles
10/29 6 miles
11/6 Bass Pro Half Marathon (Ideally I'd want a two week taper before this race but time really doesn't matter to me, so I'll just make it work)
11/11 6 miles
11/18 8 miles
11/26 8 mile - easy pace (back to back)
11/27 20 miles (back to back)
12/3 8 miles
12/10 8 miles
12/17 10 miles - easy pace (back to back)
12/18 23 miles (back to back)
12/24 6 miles
12/31 8 miles
1/7 Donald Half Marathon (Goofy)
1/8 Mickey Marathon (Goofy)

I think this schedule would get me ready, but I worry especially about those miles at the end of October and if my foot will be ready for me to press my mileage up that much. I guess the best I can do right now is have a plan and hope that my foot holds up. If not, I'll just have to scale back on the miles and heal as best I can prior to the races in January. I just hope I can do this so that the races will be enjoyable and not too much of a challenge to complete. But, I need to remember the old adage that it's better to run a race healthy and under-trained than fully trained and injured.

How's about an RDP? Running through World Showcase on the way to finishing Goofy!! Can you believe it's just a little over 3 months now until we'll be doing it again???

 

[rteetz]

Looks like a nice plan! We're all pulling for you to get that PF better and get running regularly again!

 

[roxymama]

I sell nuts. Heavenly Roasted Nuts, the sugary roasted kind.

Be careful next time you are at WDW...Chip n Dale may follow you around!

@ZellyB I hope your foot keeps healing! That picture of you guys in the World showcase is pretty awesome.

 

[DopeyBadger]

You've got this. I believe in you!

 

[disneydaydreamer33]

You still have lots of time. I know that feeling though, when the calendar is creeping up when you thought you had more time. You are smart though to be cognizant of your foot and its healing. You are doing everything you should be doing right now!

Love the pic of you two!!

 

[Ariel484]

You've got this. You've done it before and you can do it again. Be careful with that PF!!

 

[CherieFran]

You can do it! Continued good thoughts for healing.

 

[ZellyB]

One Step Closer to Tinkerbell

​

Well since I still can't post any kind of training update, I'll give a quick update on my progress convincing Chris to go run the Pixie Dust Challenge out in Disneyland in May.

I'd mentioned it casually to him a couple of times and he didn't shut me down, so decided this weekend to wage a more full-scale attack. I'd worked up a spreadsheet (of course!) with potential travel dates and cost. The marathon weekend trip is a really pricey one for us since we are staying a week and taking all three kids and doing both Disney and Universal. I was mostly concerned that he'd balk at the idea of spending a bunch of money just a few months later for a trip to the west coast. I've also worried if he'd think leaving on Mother's Day weekend was a bad idea.

I sat down with him yesterday to run through numbers. He didn't say no, but he did mention concern about the cost. That's when I sprung on him an idea I had for mitigating the cost of the trip as well as offsetting some cost for the marathon trip...a new credit card. Now, okay, I know that credit cards can be a real problem for people financially, but we are pretty responsible fiscally and we don't have a lot of credit cards, so when I saw a thread on here talking about a new Chase Sapphire Reserve card that had a pretty awesome initial sign-up bonus I started investigating. The card is a high-end card with a HEFTY annual fee ($450 ) but you get a $300 per year credit on travel purchases. Given that we can use that up when I pay off some other trip items this year for the January trip and that it will reset in January and we can use it toward the May trip, that's $600 credit for a $450 fee. But, the real temptation was that it comes with 100,000 reward points to use on travel. You also earn 3X points on travel and dining charges as well. That's all much better than our current Capital One card. With two trips in the works, it really seemed like a no-brainer to apply. We can certainly cancel it before a second $450 fee comes up and we are well ahead. Although potentially it might be worth it for us to keep it if we find that we rack up enough points and with the annual $300 travel credit. We generally travel at least once a year and most typically we travel twice a year. So, after talking through it, Chris also felt like the card would be worth a try. I applied and was approved and hope to receive it in a week or so. The card does require that you spend $4000 on it within 3 months, but we already know of some major expenses for the trip ( park ticket purchase, hotel costs and finish payment for DVC rental) that should get us close. Add in using it for some every day expenses and we shouldn't have a problem meeting the spend amount and then just paying it off immediately.

Makes me nervous doing something like this and in researching the offer I got sucked into a vortex of information about "travel hacking" which is basically churning through credit cards to take advantage of these types of bonus offers. It made my head spin and I do not intend to dive into it - I don't have the time, patience or organizational skills to pull it off, but we're going to give this one a shot anyway. If it all goes well though, we can take a trip to DL for Tinkerbell for very minimal cost out of pocket I think.

And, speaking of costs, what is UP with the prices for the DL hotels??? Even with some freeby travel, I'm just not willing to pay that for those rooms. I mean from what I can tell, there are hotels literally across the street for a quarter the cost that seem perfectly acceptable! My plan I think is to reserve one of those hotels and then I can always cancel should the DL hotels pricing improve. Anybody stayed at any of those other hotels? I'm thinking about a Residence Inn that looks to be directly across the street.

Lastly, still no running for me, but the PF continues to improve. Still painful, but slightly better each day. I've got a massage scheduled for Wednesday and plan to have her work on the foot quite a bit and then planning to get back to running on Saturday. Hoping the 3 weeks of rest will have done the trick.

And as a total random aside, my daughter sent me this picture using a Snapchat filter. Silly girl.

 

[ZellyB]

Looks like a nice plan! We're all pulling for you to get that PF better and get running regularly again!

Thank you. Really hoping I can get back on track.

Be careful next time you are at WDW...Chip n Dale may follow you around!

@ZellyB I hope your foot keeps healing! That picture of you guys in the World showcase is pretty awesome.

Thank you! We look pretty darn happy for being at mile 25 or so.

You've got this. I believe in you!

Thanks!!

You still have lots of time. I know that feeling though, when the calendar is creeping up when you thought you had more time. You are smart though to be cognizant of your foot and its healing. You are doing everything you should be doing right now!

Love the pic of you two!!

Thank you. Trying to stay smart is HARD!

You've got this. You've done it before and you can do it again. Be careful with that PF!!

I keep telling myself that I at least know what to expect and that I can do this even if my training is less than perfect.

You can do it! Continued good thoughts for healing.

Thank you!

 

[disneydaydreamer33]

This summer, I signed up for the Chase Saphire and the Chase Freedom after researching a ton on the best credit cards in regards to travel points. We are the same way- we don't like putting things on credit very much, but we just pay the cc off every month, and it has been VERY fun to see our travel points rack up! We already have our flights paid for our cruise in February- plus tickets to visit family in CA Anyway, I'm excited you opened the Saphire-- I hope it works out well for you guys! I DEFINITELY hope it takes you to run the PDC in May!

 

[rteetz]

Exciting! I'm hoping you can do PDC in May! That would be awesome!

 

[roxymama]

This summer, I signed up for the Chase Saphire and the Chase Freedom after researching a ton on the best credit cards in regards to travel points. We are the same way- we don't like putting things on credit very much, but we just pay the cc off every month, and it has been VERY fun to see our travel points rack up! We already have our flights paid for our cruise in February- plus tickets to visit family in CA Anyway, I'm excited you opened the Saphire-- I hope it works out well for you guys! I DEFINITELY hope it takes you to run the PDC in May!

I'm a Sapphire user and it's the main reason I was able to talk myself/family into going to Tink in the spring...points for the flight! I really like the card. We go on about one flight per year (three of us) for "free"

 

[Ariel484]

We have the Sapphire Preferred card and Freedom card from Chase, along with a Southwest card. Love all those free flights!

My father-in-law is a "travel hacker" - he and my MIL travel quite a bit and almost never pay for airfare or hotels. I'm talking at least twice per year, and they go to Europe. It's really amazing. He taught us a little about it but mostly said it's so time consuming that he almost doesn't recommend fully diving into it just yet like he does (he's retired).

I don't understand DL hotel pricing either. I mean, I do - they price them that way because they CAN. I need to better research of-site options...

 

[dis_or_dat]

I think my brother just got that card and was also espousing it's virtues (I think he mentioned they give $100 towards Global Entry fee?). I wish I could understand those "travel hacks" because traveling is so expensive! I've only ever stayed off property for DL. We've stayed at Howard Johnsons (even for Tink), which is about an 8-10 min walk to the parks, which is a little less than fun when my little one has to nap in the hotel room (he doesn't nap in a stroller). But I think a lot of people use points to book the onsite properties.

Ah snapchat. My brother (he's a millennial) was showing my son all the different snapchat filters and he couldn't get enough of it!

 

[ZellyB]

This summer, I signed up for the Chase Saphire and the Chase Freedom after researching a ton on the best credit cards in regards to travel points. We are the same way- we don't like putting things on credit very much, but we just pay the cc off every month, and it has been VERY fun to see our travel points rack up! We already have our flights paid for our cruise in February- plus tickets to visit family in CA Anyway, I'm excited you opened the Saphire-- I hope it works out well for you guys! I DEFINITELY hope it takes you to run the PDC in May!

I got the card earlier this week (that was FAST!) and we are excited to get those points. I've got our plan for meeting the minimum spend quickly so we hope to get them credited soon.

Exciting! I'm hoping you can do PDC in May! That would be awesome!

I know! I'm starting to think we might actually do this. I'm pretty stoked about it.

I'm a Sapphire user and it's the main reason I was able to talk myself/family into going to Tink in the spring...points for the flight! I really like the card. We go on about one flight per year (three of us) for "free"

Ah yes, the allure of that "free" travel is hard to resist. But honestly with the amount of travel we do, I think it really could benefit us even in the long run.

We have the Sapphire Preferred card and Freedom card from Chase, along with a Southwest card. Love all those free flights!

My father-in-law is a "travel hacker" - he and my MIL travel quite a bit and almost never pay for airfare or hotels. I'm talking at least twice per year, and they go to Europe. It's really amazing. He taught us a little about it but mostly said it's so time consuming that he almost doesn't recommend fully diving into it just yet like he does (he's retired).

I don't understand DL hotel pricing either. I mean, I do - they price them that way because they CAN. I need to better research of-site options...

I could totally see getting into the travel hacking game if I were retired. Chris and I really want to travel a lot when we eventually retire and if I had more time, it seems like there are some real benefits to playing the game.

I think my brother just got that card and was also espousing it's virtues (I think he mentioned they give $100 towards Global Entry fee?). I wish I could understand those "travel hacks" because traveling is so expensive! I've only ever stayed off property for DL. We've stayed at Howard Johnsons (even for Tink), which is about an 8-10 min walk to the parks, which is a little less than fun when my little one has to nap in the hotel room (he doesn't nap in a stroller). But I think a lot of people use points to book the onsite properties.

Ah snapchat. My brother (he's a millennial) was showing my son all the different snapchat filters and he couldn't get enough of it!

Yes on the global entry fee/pre-check. I'm thinking about doing that as well, but just not sure about it since we often travel with the kids so presumably I'd need to do it for all of us and not sure that's worth the cost. But, man, I'd love to pass up those security lines in Orlando!

 

[ZellyB]

TRIP AND RACE TALK
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With my new Chase card in my greedy little hands, I contacted Shades of Green to figure out how to order my Military Salute tickets from them. Previously I ordered from our local base office and once we got to Disney, we had to go to a ticket booth to show military ID and get them activated. I recently realized that if we order from Shades of Green and provide proof of eligibility, they send them to you already activated - thus skipping the ticket booth entirely. YAY. This will be especially handy this trip as the first time into the parks, we are sending the kids on first so we can get to the Expo and then meeting up with them at the park later. It was all pretty straight forward and hopefully I'll hear back from them in a day or two to confirm the order and then get the tickets in 7-10 days - should be in time for our FP+ day which is approaching FAST!! It's getting real now folks. With that done the only thing left is for stupid BCV to change their occupancy to 5. Hurry up folks, the planner inside me is getting anxious!!

I'm still struggling to decide what to do for our race attire though. In previous years we've done custom shirts like this...

that we order online. I was thinking though this year to do something more literal for Donald (maybe shirts that look like Daisy and Donald - plenty of options online for that or to get my mom to try and make for me) since it's his special year and then do custom shirts for the marathon that reference Goofy. Or, just ditch the idea of Daisy and Donald and get shirts for the half and the full. I don't really want to repeat the 39.3 graphic though, so what to do? Anybody got some really creative ideas for me? I thought about checking with the place if they already have maybe just an image of Goofy that they've paid to use (copyright and all that) and just put a shot of Goofy on the back and come up with some saying there. I typically don't have such a problem deciding on something but this year it's just not coming to me. ARRRGH. First world problems. Which is particularly true that I worry about something like this when I see pictures of the Cuba and Haiti Matthew aftermath.

Here's hoping everyone in Florida stays safe!!

 

[disneydaydreamer33]

Costumes are fun .. . but stressful. . . but fun hahaha I don't really have any great ideas for you I'm afraid. I love the custom shirts you guys ran in, but it would be cute to have more of a literal costume too.

 

[FFigawi]

Yes on the global entry fee/pre-check. I'm thinking about doing that as well, but just not sure about it since we often travel with the kids so presumably I'd need to do it for all of us and not sure that's worth the cost. But, man, I'd love to pass up those security lines in Orlando!

The best way to pass up the lines in Orlando is with CLEAR. Their lines are much shorter than TSA Precheck. Definitely worth the money.