I won't give in till I reach the end... and then I'll start again (comments welcome)

[Herding_Cats]

I haven't updated my journal since mid-July?

I've been struggling all summer with running, and it hasn't been because of the heat. My toes have taken a while to heal (I can still feel it in my right one). A lot of parts of my anatomy have been aching - my left ankle, my right knee. I got sick with the C word at the beginning of August. And I am just struggling with the motivation to get out 4-5 times a week. Almost like I'm burnt out of running at the moment. I'll pat myself on the back by keeping up with my strength training, I still do it at least 1-2 times a week which for me is really good.

Hi. Hello. Are we the same person and don't know it?

I had signed up for that Oct 6th half hoping it would drive me to run more, but I'm thinking at this point to DNS and concentrate on the Marathon in Jan. Heh, just writing this makes me feel lighter. I'll continue aiming for 3-4 runs per week without putting pressure on myself.

This was me in April? May? Letting go of the idea of having to train for a race was sooooo freeing. And I'm now just kinda, sorta training for January (but for Dopey) without anything written down as a plan other than shooting for 4-5 days/wk and having one of those be a longer run. And it's nice. There's no workouts, no speedwork unless I decide to do it, no miles/minutes prescribed. And it's been a nice change.

 

[azrivest]

You want to be comfortable with around 50% of what you'd want to peak at. This gives you a place where you still leave room to ramp up, but also not so little that you're putting yourself at higher risk for injury. So if you'd like to peak at say 6 hrs per week, then be comfortable with at least 3 hrs by the time training starts. Just make sure that getting to that 1/2 peak level doesn't also take a ramp up to get there because then your body won't perceive it as a 5 week run-in + 16 week training plan, and more so like a 21 week training plan.

For Dopey 2024, I peaked at around 8h/63k 3 weeks before. So I should aim for ~4h / week like, now?

 

[DopeyBadger]

What are you doing now hours wise? And depending on goals, you can do less than 8hrs and still be in a good enough position to finish if motivation is waning.

 

[azrivest]

Right now, I've been following a McMillan Half plan and doing the minimum so:
- Tues Easy Run (~35 min)
- Thur Workout (usually long intervals, like mile repeats) (~60-90 min)
- Sat Easy Run (~35 min)
- Sun Long Run (~75 min)
For about 3.5 hours per week total

 

[DopeyBadger]

Right now, I've been following a McMillan Half plan and doing the minimum so:
- Tues Easy Run (~35 min)
- Thur Workout (usually long intervals, like mile repeats) (~60-90 min)
- Sat Easy Run (~35 min)
- Sun Long Run (~75 min)
For about 3.5 hours per week total

Yea, I'd say you're in a good place. Not much of a jump from being comfortable with 3.5hrs vs 4hrs in terms of peaking in volume. So I don't think you need to change much between now and the start of your training plan in terms of volume if you plan on doing ~7-8hrs at peak. I'd probably suggest changing out the Thurs workout to an easy day at a similar volume. That way you can rest up and leave room to grow during the training plan you aim to start in a few weeks. Maybe it'll help with the motivation as well.

Like I said though, evaluate the goals for Dopey and decide what you want to accomplish. If you're struggling with motivation, and feel as if that might continue through the Dopey training, then consider pulling back and doing "enough" instead of as much to put you in max fitness. But that decision would be goal dependent.

 

[azrivest]

Little 10 day wrap-up...

Giving up on the Half was the motivation I needed. (Wait, what?) I've been feeling much better and running has become more enjoyable again.

I ran 3:56/19 miles last week and 4:24/22 miles this week, so I feel right on target for what Billy suggested. I'll keep doing that until end of September.

I did manage a speed workout on Thursday. I still have my Half plan active in FinalSurge, only because it's easy since it automatically pushes workouts to my Garmin without me having to program them. On Thursday I felt good and I decided to try it. It was 4 to 6 x 3/4 Mile with 600m recovery jog and my splits were 6:50, 7:01, 6:52 and 6:45. But there was a little bit of cheating since I had to stop at a few red lights.

I was looking at finding a few races to incorporate into my marathon plan this Fall, but everything stops by end of October. My DD also has cheer practice on Sunday afternoons, so any race would need to be really early on Sunday mornings.


(picture of me on my long run yesterday)

Happy running and happy September everyone!

 

[azrivest]

Two weeks have passed...

Training is going fairly well. I've been averaging at least 4 runs/week for a few weeks now. I did 3:27/27k this week.

I have one last "easy" week and next week is when I start consistently ramping up mileage until Jan 12th.

In other news, I presume this group will appreciate my new pictures. We adopted a 4-mo puppy from a nearby shelter this weekend. Meet Talia, our new German Shepherd/Husky/Labrador/something else mix. So far, she seems extremely smart. She learned to "Come" and "Sit" in a few minutes. She spent 2 months in the shelter before they put her up for adoption. Despite that, she seems really well adjusted, doesn't have too much separation anxiety and is calm in her crate.


(Pic of Talia on our couch and waiting patiently for her treat)


The kids had been asking us for months for a new dog. Now that we have her, they are of 0 help. DS even refuses that she go into his room. We'll see after a few weeks of obedience, but we will eventually force them into helping out.

The only thing they agree on is her name, since my son loves Percy Jackson. I wanted something cool like Ahsoka or Gamora (especially since we adopted her on Sept 21st - she needed a Cosmic Rewind name!!) But I was overruled this time

 

[superchime]

What a sweetie! I love her ears. Congrats!!

 

[The Expert]

She LOOKS smart! And thank you thank you thank you for adopting from a shelter. Chances are, her mom came in pregnant and she was born in a foster home and made available once she was big enough to be weaned and spayed. There are a ton of puppies in shelters right now and it's usually that or a backyard breeder had a litter they couldn't sell. I'm sure the kiddos will come around once they've had some bonding time.

 

[nancipants]

PUPPY!!!!!!

 

[WillRunForPizza]

What a cutie!

 

[Naomeri]

What a clever-looking pup!!

 

[Herding_Cats]

So cute!!!

 

[azrivest]

Cute baby Talia has quickly turned into too-smart-for-her-own-good baby Raptor. Yikes, we've never adopted a puppy before and boy do they have teefs!!!

I don't have any new pictures cause except for her crate, we can't get her to stay still for less than a second...

 

[superchime]

For the first few weeks we had our puppy most of my pictures were of her napping because when she was awake she was a blur.

 

[azrivest]

100 days till WDW Marathon weekend (give or take a few)

Had a very good training week. Got all my of runs in and only cut the Wed one short because of Baby Talia who takes up all of our evenings by being a horrible baby dog monster. We love her to death but she annoys the crap out of us daily. How the heck do dogs survive in the wild for that 3-6 month age?

Tues: 39 minutes
Wed: 15 minutes
Thurs: 57 minutes --> did this one in the pouring rain, and the sun came out 2 hours later. Doh!
Sat: 42 minutes
Sun: 7 miles

Woke up yesterday morning to barely being able to walk. My left ankle is really painful and I need to walk on the outside of my foot to avoid putting any weight on the inside of my ankle/left foot arch. So annoying to have this just when I'm starting to really get into marathon training. I feel super anxious about it but I'll try to take a few days off to let it rest. I had already built in an extra week into my plan since I'll be on the Disney Magic next week. I'll move my off week to this week and go running on Deck 4 next week instead (which isn't such a bad thing at all )

Happy running everyone!

 

[nancipants]

Sorry your foot is bothering.

Have a wonderful time on the Magic! We did the Panama Canal cruise last year so I got to spend two weeks on that ship, and it's magnificent.

 

[col1]

100 days till WDW Marathon weekend (give or take a few)

Had a very good training week. Got all my of runs in and only cut the Wed one short because of Baby Talia who takes up all of our evenings by being a horrible baby dog monster. We love her to death but she annoys the crap out of us daily. How the heck do dogs survive in the wild for that 3-6 month age?

Tues: 39 minutes
Wed: 15 minutes
Thurs: 57 minutes --> did this one in the pouring rain, and the sun came out 2 hours later. Doh!
Sat: 42 minutes
Sun: 7 miles

Woke up yesterday morning to barely being able to walk. My left ankle is really painful and I need to walk on the outside of my foot to avoid putting any weight on the inside of my ankle/left foot arch. So annoying to have this just when I'm starting to really get into marathon training. I feel super anxious about it but I'll try to take a few days off to let it rest. I had already built in an extra week into my plan since I'll be on the Disney Magic next week. I'll move my off week to this week and go running on Deck 4 next week instead (which isn't such a bad thing at all )

Happy running everyone!

Hope your ankle improves quickly.

Promenade deck running on the Magic is the best….. most cruise ships seem to have moved on from a full promenade so it’s great it still exists on Magic (and Wonder)

 

[WillRunForPizza]

Woke up yesterday morning to barely being able to walk. My left ankle is really painful and I need to walk on the outside of my foot to avoid putting any weight on the inside of my ankle/left foot arch. So annoying to have this just when I'm starting to really get into marathon training. I feel super anxious about it but I'll try to take a few days off to let it rest. I had already built in an extra week into my plan since I'll be on the Disney Magic next week. I'll move my off week to this week and go running on Deck 4 next week instead (which isn't such a bad thing at all )

Oh no! Do you have time to get it looked at before you leave?

 

[azrivest]

Oh no! Do you have time to get it looked at before you leave?

Neither my PT nor my osteo have any availability no. I put myself on my PT's waitlist