In Every Run That Must Be Done; There is an Element of Fun (comments welcome)

[Naomeri]

Disneyland Half Weekend—Part 2

January 12, 2024
I got another terrible night’s sleep, but got up and got ready for the 5K. My Daisy Duck costume was perfect for running, but extremely terrible for standing around in a line in the Esplanade for most of an hour. I left my hotel at 3:15, made it through security with no trouble, since they had a “no bag” line and I had chosen not to bring a bag with me, since it was just a 5K, and I certainly wasn’t switching to my sanuks afterward like I do at WDW races. I really feel like there had to be a better way to handle the 5K than just keeping us all in lines forever, especially since those lines got so long that people couldn’t even get through security. Temporary queue barriers could’ve at least gotten more people into the space?

Anyway, they finally let us in and I made my way up Main Street and ended up really close to the front of B. I hoped I would feel warmer in a more densely-packed crowd, but I really didn’t.




Once the race finally started, I shocked by how quiet it was! One thing it never is in the WDW parks is “quiet” Since this race was supposed to be basically entirely park (or backstage-of-park) time, I almost didn’t wear my Shokz, since I can never hear my own music over the park music and usually pause it in the parks at WDW, but I’m glad I did end up wearing them, because it was a little boring when it was quiet. I skipped the Goofy/Max photo stop in ToonTown because I didn’t like the length of the line, and it was so close to the start of the race, I wasn’t warm yet.

I basically ran the whole race, except when I took walk breaks to post the photo stops on The Dis in case anyone behind me wanted a heads-up. I grabbed a selfie with Moana’s float, but it’s sort of silly to have the character floats without the characters (not that I would’ve wanted Moana standing around for pics in 40 degree weather ) I also grabbed selfies with the Ferris wheel and Pluto.



I did one character stop for Cruella because it seemed like a good point to take a break, and the line was quite short. I actually got 2 shots from this stop, but this is the one I like better



I got a few nice action shots, and I will say that for me, starting at the front of B, the course was mostly uncrowded, which was nice. But I definitely noticed that there were less PhotoPass tents than I expected along the course compared to WDW races. It seems like they’re around every other corner in the parks at WDW.



I finished the race, almost unexpectedly. I didn’t realize the finish was right there just past Pluto, and the whole finisher chute was super short and abrupt. I barely stopped my watch before someone was handing me a medal, and someone else was handing me Mylar, and I was following the crowd out.

The Disneyland 5K was my fastest Disney 5K by moving time (38:59) and second fastest by overall time (44:17)

I texted my grandma when I got to Harbor to see if she was awake, and since she was, I stopped in her room to hang out and recap the race for her. Then I went to my room to warm up and get ready for our park day.



I decided that since we were starting in Disneyland Park, I wanted to try the funnel cake fries at Galactic Grill for breakfast. They were good, but the bacon was pretty cold. We booked Runaway Railway for our first LL, and got back to ToonTown early enough to ride Roger Rabbit beforehand. My grandma really liked the ride, but hated the dark and winding queue—she had to hold my hand because her eyes didn’t adjust very fast after the bright sunlight.

After Runaway Railway, which was adorable and fun as always (though the DL queue is definitely superior to the HS queue), I wanted us to meet Mickey Mouse, so we waited about 20 minutes and met Mickey



After ToonTown, I stopped at the gift kiosk near Small World and bought the Star shoulder buddy. While we stopped on a bench so I could get it all organized and ready to wear, we practically collided with Geppetto! Character encounters are so random at DL! Geppetto was impressed with my grandma having the same hair color as him


I made us a LL for Indy, and we got over there with enough time to hop onto Jungle Cruise beforehand. Our skipper wasn’t amazing, he kind of mumbled Then we did Indy, which was fun, although my grandma wondered if we’d get lost in the queue I think after this, we went to the Tangled story time thing, which was fun, except for the drunk girls behind me (yes, it was definitely still morning, and I heard them say they were drunk) who had clearly seen the show too many times and felt the need to say all the lines along with the cast.

I was hungry again after this, so we got lunch at Hungry Bear, which was decent. Then we went to Pirates, because the wait wasn’t too bad, according to the app. The line seemed super long, but I think the posted time was accurate. I earned some major dirty looks from the women in the group ahead of us, who were dawdling and holding up the line in order to take pictures of/with their Mickey bar. I don’t mind people taking pictures to document their trip, until their pictures start disrupting my trip, in which case I will get irritated. I usually keep it to myself, but there was a good 20 feet of empty space in the queue while one woman took pics of another with her dang ice cream bar (which she’d already gotten pics with facing the opposite direction when we’d been standing still) So I said loudly “less documenting, more walking please” Next time the queue turned so they ended up passing me in the opposite direction, I heard a “have a blessed day” from one of them, and I know exactly what that’s code for. Anyway, we got on the ride, and it was a nice long sitting break.

On our way out of Adventureland, my grandma wanted to do the Enchanted Tiki Room. It was kind of hard to find, since the entrance is kind of combined/behind the Dole Whip place, but we managed to find it and waited around for the next show. After that, it was time to go to the Dis meetup.

It was great to hang out for a while with everyone, and to introduce my grandma to some of the people I talk about on occasion. After the meetup, we went back to Disneyland Park planning to have a snack and to just ride the train around the park. We sat in the hub and had some popcorn, but we missed the train because my Star plush fell off my shoulder and rolled away, and people went ahead of us and filled up the train. I was so sleep deprived that I just couldn’t handle waiting any longer, so we went back to the hotel so I could try to get some sleep. I got everything ready for the 10K, and went to bed. I didn’t get great sleep because the heater in my room was like a freight train every time it turned on, and my sleep was very disrupted.

 

[avondale]

Great job on the 5k! Those race photos did turn out really well!

 

[azrivest]

Congrats on your second fastest 5k!

 

[Naomeri]

Disneyland Half Weekend—Part 3

January 13, 2024

My alarm went off right on time, which was, of course, entirely too early for someone who was waking up every hour all night. But once again, I fought through my exhaustion and got ready to go. I walked up Harbor to Disney Way and walked along the corrals to the security checkpoint on Clementine. Unlike Billy, I got into the lefthand security lanes, since they were closer to me. We also had 3 lines of people for 4 scanners, but once they finally opened the checkpoint, they only used 1 of the 4 scanners on the left It was a disaster, having multiple bag check tables, but then expecting the runners to sort it out themselves as to who got to go through the one scanner. I finally made it through, and then realized that I still had to walk all the way around to the one entrance into the starting area. I’m sure this made some kind of sense to the organizers, but I thought it was ridiculous.

I met up with some Dis runners, but we didn’t have a ton of time before the corrals opened up. I got my gear bag checked and got into B corral. I was somewhat warmer waiting around for the 10K than for the 5K, since I’d kept my post-race Mylar from the 5K, but it still wasn’t quite enough to be comfortable. The race finally started and it was time to start running and get warm. I’d originally planned to wear my Minnie costume for the half, but switched last minute to wear it for the 10K and save the Pluto outfit for the half. This turned out to be an important change, because either my Sparkle sleeves or the dress’ sleeves chafed my arm something awful, and I can’t imagine how bad it would’ve been at double the distance.

Anyway, back to the race. I ran the first 4 miles mostly continuously, since intervals are hard to maintain in the parks. I felt more a little more crowded in this race compared to the 5K, but still not bad. I got a selfie with the ferris wheel from a different spot, and the wheel cooperated by turning pretty colors for the shot



I also got a selfie with the castle over in Disneyland Park



I stopped for Launchpad because I’ve never gotten a pic with him. I heard he was trading off with Darkwing, and I would’ve killed for that pic, but it was going to be 20 minutes until they switched, so I obviously wasn’t going to hang around for him.



I also stopped for Chip and Dale, because unless the balloon ladies are literally on top of me, I will never not stop for my chipmunks. Also, I’ve never gotten a pic with them as Rescue Rangers.



This line was longer, so I had time to text with my grandma, to see if she was awake. This was good, and bad. Good, because she was awake and willing to come see me finish! Bad, because I did runner math, and we all know how good the average runners are at mid-run math. I looked at the time, and my current mileage, and told her that I would be finishing between 6:45 and 7. My watch said 4.75 miles. I know my watch always gives me some overage, so I figured I was closer to 4.5 miles in. This was all fine, except that my sleep-deprived did my finish time calculation as if I had slightly more than 2 miles left, rather than slightly less than 2 miles left. Even though my last 2 miles were considerably slower than my first 4, I still crossed the finish line at 6:43 am, exactly as my grandma was looking down at her phone to text me that she was on the last set of bleachers.

This was pretty much the straw that broke me for the morning. I broke down in tears that she’d missed my finish and I had to do a bunch of extra walking to get over to her to get her off the bleachers. And I dropped my bottle of water and it broke, so I had to walk all the way back to the water table to get a new one so I could get my rehydration stuff mixed up. It was just… A LOT.

The Disneyland 10K was my fastest Disney 10K both in moving time (1h 26m) and overall time (1h 38m). It was also my longest by mileage, according to my watch, at 6.44 miles.

I ended up with a couple good on-course shots from the 10K



After we got back to the hotel and I had a bath and some time to decompress, I was ready for us to get on with another day at California Adventure. On our way to Carsland, we caught the Dora Milaje show in Avengers Campus. My grandma is a big fan of the MCU, and Black Panther is one of her favorites, so this was really cool to watch.



I wanted to make sure we got on Midway Mania, because I wasn’t able to get a LL for it on Thursday. So that was the first thing I booked. And I also bought us ILL for Radiator Springs Racers. We had a lot of fun, and our car won!!



We grabbed an early lunch at Flo’s, and bought Cars shirts for my grandpa and uncle. Then it was getting close to time for Midway Mania, so we headed that direction, and I beat my grandma (to be fair, I’ve done it a bunch of times, and she hasn’t, but I still like winning ) Side note—I think I’m better at this now that I’ve had LASIK, there was probably something weird about how my glasses and the 3D glasses worked together.



We wandered along Pixar Pier and rode the swings and the other rotating thing, with the silver vehicles (I’m too lazy to look it up) We ambled along, with plenty of time to kill before our LL for Soarin’ I got a pair of Chip & Dale shoulder plush, but didn’t try to put them on. We rode Soarin’ and it was fun. Then we caught the jazz band on our way to shop our way out of the park. We also took our pictures with the Partners.



We headed over to Disneyland Park in order to ride the train, but it was down when we got there. So we walked back toward New Orleans Square, because we hadn’t explored there before. Then I saw that the train was back up, so we caught it from there. We thought about riding it all the way around back to where we started and getting beignets, but the lines were insane and the mobile order window was 2 hours out. So I looked at other options, and we chose Black Tap in Downtown Disney. We each got shakes, which were amazing, and I got fries and my grandma got chips and queso. This was one of the better “meals” we had.

We did a bit of wandering through shops in Downtown Disney, but I was really crashing, so we headed back to the hotel. I decided to crank up my heater for a while as I was getting things ready for Sunday morning so I could turn it off overnight without waking up to a freezing room. I went back and forth on which shirt to wear under my t shirt for the half. On the one hand, the 10K shirt was almost exactly the same color as my gold t-shirt. But on the other hand, I could see the shirt design through my t-shirt when tried it on, and that bugged me. So I checked, and my white shirt from the 5K was ok to wear again, so I went with that. I crashed hard shortly after 7pm, and while I didn’t get as much deep sleep as I might have liked, I did stay asleep most of the night.

 

[GollyGadget]

Your grandma is adorable. Glad you got to have this adventure together.

 

[Scootin'By]

This was pretty much the straw that broke me for the morning. I broke down in tears that she’d missed my finish and I had to do a bunch of extra walking to get over to her to get her off the bleachers. And I dropped my bottle of water and it broke, so I had to walk all the way back to the water table to get a new one so I could get my rehydration stuff mixed up. It was just… A LOT.

This just made me feel sad and I needed to send you a hug

It's so fun to hear that your grandma likes the MCU so much that she has a favorite. I don't think even my mother knows that much about it! LOL

 

[Naomeri]

Disneyland Half Weekend—Part 4

January 14, 2024
Like I said in my last post, I managed to get more sleep without the heater going off all night. I got up and got ready. This was the first morning I felt anything close to comfortable waiting around for the race to start. I had my undershirt, my t-shirt, a throwaway denim shirt, and a sheet of Mylar. I had a better experience getting through security on Sunday, and then there was that whole long line to get into the starting area. Which I kind of skipped past entirely because someone at the end of the line said it was just a line for runner relations, which I didn’t need, so I, and a bunch of other people around me, just walked up to where we should’ve been able to go in. But since they weren’t letting anyone in yet, we kind of had to meld into the front of the line because the CMs made us clear the open lane for traffic.

Anyway, I got into the start area and checked my bag and met up with Dis folks until it was time to go to the corrals. When it got close to be 4:55, I decided it was time to toss the Mylar so I could start adjusting to the cold before the run. Of course, I expected the race to start on time, so I was more chilled than I wanted to be. I did impress people around me by tossing my Mylar all the way from the center of the corral over the right side fence without hitting anyone

The race finally started, and then I started, and I hung onto my throwaway shirt until just after we turned in the backstage area of the parks. I don’t want to spend too much time talking about the part of the race that was on Disney property, because I didn’t really enjoy it much. It started with the line for Dumbo being shut down less than 30 minutes into the race, and then another wasted opportunity for Marvel characters in Avengers Campus, and then a CM got on my case for pulling off to the side to take a selfie with the ferris wheel at the top of the bridge to Pixar Pier (which made way more safety sense to me than everyone stopping on the bridge, where people were trying to run) My selfie turned out terrible because I was too busy trying to tell her I’d be done in a second to smile for my camera. Luckily, I grabbed another selfie from the other side of the water, but the wheel wasn’t looking great in that exact second.



Then I hit the now-infamous Mile 3 water stop. It wasn’t horribly crowded when I went through, but it was hard to tell where Powerade ended and water started, since they stupidly had them in the same color cup, and when I finally managed to get some water, there was less than a swallow in the cup, and I was already past the water stop, so I couldn’t get more.

I was grumpy about that all the way through the spectator lane across the esplanade, and then I tried to cheer up going up Main Street, but it was getting crowded and people were getting less mindful of their etiquette. Coming through the castle, I was in prime position, all the way to the left, with a nice gap in front of me, until the person ahead of me decided to stop to screw around with her phone right after the first PhotoPass photographer. She’s lucky I didn’t smack right into the back of her and send her phone flying into the moat I said something to her as I was dodging around her, and that ruined the picture the second photographer managed to capture of me. I only got 2 on-course pictures focused on me, and they’re both bad. The other 2, I’m just in the background of. PhotoPass was both understaffed, and perhaps undertrained for photographing a race, because they didn’t seem to know to rapidly take pictures so they could get more pictures of more runners.



I stepped off the course after I got down the ramp from the castle to take a minute to get my head together. I got going again, but I didn’t really enjoy my remaining time in the parks, and certainly not my backstage time. But once we got on the streets, I set my 30/60 intervals and got settled into a groove for the remaining 8 miles of the race. I know we sometimes grumble about all the highway miles in WDW, but for anyone, like me, that hates being in crowds during a race, roads are heaven (except for the entrance/exit ramps in WDW, those are the opposite of heaven )

The crowd support might’ve been sparse at times, but there was enough to have some fun. I particularly liked the signs outside the lumber company around mile 7(?) I was feeling really good out on the roads. I ate the waffle I had stuffed in my legging pocket sometime in mile 9, just before the water stop, almost as if I planned it that way (spoiler: I don’t plan things that well )

Being from Minnesota, the home of the Mighty Ducks, the opportunity to grab a selfie with the Anaheim Duck was not to be missed, and so I got my one and only character pic of the entire race (well, one of two, if you count the selfie with the blow-up hockey player )




The endless parking lot of Angels Stadium was really boring! They needed some entertainment there, beyond just the car club. Though I did like the revving engines and the cars wearing Mickey ear hats. The Up house was cute, but I’m not a huge fan, so I didn’t stop. I’d been texting with my grandma, and I made sure to go by the mileage on my watch, rather than on the course, for my finish time estimate so she’d be sure to get there earlier than necessary. She still almost missed me because she was looking down at her phone, probably texting to see if I was getting close yet. But I was watching for her and got to say “hi” as I passed the Mile 13 marker and finish strong. I got a bunch of finish line shots, most of them wide, but this was a really good one.



This was my second-fastest Disney Half by moving time (3h 14m) and fastest-by-far by overall time (3h 15m) It’s funny how much quicker you finish if there are no character stops worth waiting in long lines for

I felt really pretty good when I finished the race. For the first time that weekend, I actually changed into my sanuks after the race. I also actually took a snack box, since I could give my grandma any of the food I wouldn’t eat. Normally, I skip the snack box because I’m picky and I HATE food waste. I ate the skittles and the chips, and she ate the pretzels. We did toss the plastic cheese though (don’t hate me ) We headed over to the parks, thinking it would be just a quick stop to tap in so I could start making G+ reservations while I got cleaned up back at the hotel, but we all know how that security disaster turned out. I was also hoping for a Mickey bar, but none of the stands just inside Disneyland Park were open yet, and I was getting cold and ready to go back and change (after a quick stop in a real bathroom) I made our first LL for Mission Breakout and we went back to the hotel so I could soak in a hot bath for a bit.

We headed back after a while, and did our LL for Mission Breakout, and then discovered that G+ was down when I tried to make our next choice.

My grandma doesn’t look quite as terrified this time, and she didn’t need to crush my hand



I was kind of at a loss for what to do without G+, because standing in line is absolutely murder on my feet after a race. We asked one of the CMs outside WebSlingers, and he said since we had already purchased G+ to just go ahead and hop in the lightning lane, so that was cool of him. I beat my grandma again, but she got a much higher score than her first time (I was Purple and she was Red—I don’t know why they didn’t fill the vehicle up)



After WebSlingers, we started walking back to the front of the park, just sort of wandering and hoping Disney would sort their tech issues out. We talked our way into the lightning lane on the Monsters Inc ride, but the CM was pretty hesitant, so I didn’t figure we’d be able to keep doing that all day. After that, we watched Philharmagic because it was there, and I’ll never turn down a chance to sit and rest. Then we sat on a bench and tried to decide on somewhere to eat, and couldn’t decide on anything in the parks, and since G+ was still down, we chose to go back to the hotel for a break. On our way out, we bought some cookies for breakfast the next day, and some to take home to my grandpa and uncle. We stopped at IHOP for a late lunch—it was ok, but not amazing.

I noticed that G+ was back up while we were at IHOP, but we needed a break, so we still went back to the hotel. I kept an eye on ride times, and a little after 4pm, I grabbed a LL for Space Mountain between 645 and 745. I decided that we were going to finish off our time at Disneyland by riding rollercoasters. When I could make the next reservation, I got a Big Thunder LL for 8-9. We left for the parks around 630, and hit up Buzz with a short wait on our way to Space Mountain. I beat my grandma 59,900 to 17,100. The wait for Space Mountain was longer than I expected, but my feet were feeling pretty refreshed after our break. My grandma liked Space Mountain.



We caught the little jazz frog projection show on the river on the way to Big Thunder, and that made my grandma happy. She likes shows, and was super sad that World of Color was down during our trip. We had fun on Big Thunder, and I grabbed a LL for our final rollercoaster: the Matterhorn Bobsleds. Before we headed over there, we took a break and split a Mickey pretzel and it was really good.

I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do the Matterhorn, since the last time I was in DL, I cracked my elbow really hard on the ride. But we survived unscathed and moved onto a couple of the slow rides in Fantasyland. We did Pinocchio, and then Snow White, and got out of that at 928. I knew my grandma really wanted to see fireworks, and I’d been keeping a close eye on the clock. We found a spot to sit by the carousel with a perfect side view of the castle…only to realize that the fireworks were actually behind us! But we turned around and had a spectacularly unobstructed view of the entire fireworks show—with a seat! It was a perfect way to end our time at Disney for this trip.

January 15, 2024
Since DL doesn’t sell 6 day tickets, we needed something to do on Monday. We chose Knott’s Berry Farm because my grandma has fond memories of when she took my aunt and uncle there in the 80s, and my uncle staid that he and his family had fun there. So we pre-booked tickets, and went ahead and did the meal and drink wristbands because it seemed like a good deal, knowing theme park food prices. We ordered a cab, and it showed up about 15 minutes early. Luckily, we were ready and went down right away. We got to Knott’s before it opened and had to wait outside briefly before being let in for their version of rope drop. I had looked at the rides on the app, and decided to try to prioritize the wooden rollercoaster in Ghost Town, because I knew that wouldn’t be too intense for my grandma. But I’m bad at reading theme park maps, and we ended up in the spot to go to a different coaster, one that I was good with, but she was not. So she held my bag while I rode, with only a 10 or 15 minute wait. It’s been a while since I was on an intense coaster, so I didn’t want to rush to another one right away. I looked at what was nearby, and chose a mine train ride that was kind of like Spaceship Earth, except in a mine.

Then there was a ride nearby that was kind of like Midway Mania, and it said it was only a 15 minute wait in the app and on the sign outside. This turned out to be a big fat lie! It was a good 45 minutes before we got on the ride, and it wasn’t that great. The top of the shooter thing was shaped like a big jam jar, and was HEAVY. We kept having to switch hands because it was wearing us out. I won, 92,000 to 68,000.

After that ride, we were starving, so we made our way to Coasters Diner, which I’ e eaten at a version of before, since our local theme park, Valleyfair, is owned by the same company as Knott’s. We had to wait in a long line to get in, and then we got our food, and I discovered that the fries were seasoned Luckily, they had bags of chips, but we had to pay extra. It was really really really loud in there, and really crowded, and I had a brief panic attack and had to go find a table to sit at outside while my grandma filled our drinks. We managed to eat our food, and I looked at the app to see what else we could do, but everything that wasn’t for little kids had 2+ hour wait times. We did some shopping, and a little walking around, but because of the school holiday, the place was completely insane and neither of us was having any fun at all, so we decided to leave at about 2pm.

Leaving was harder than I expected though. The first cab I ordered ended up getting lost; I was watching him come up the freeway, and he got off at the correct exit, but somehow managed to go the opposite direction from Knott’s. I waited a little bit to see if he just needed to make a u-turn somewhere, but he just kept going further and further away, so I had to cancel the ride and order another one. Our cab arrived and we headed back to the hotel. I spent some time relaxing, and some time getting organized to pack. Eventually, my grandma wanted to get a little dinner, so we walked over to the Garden Walk mall to split a burger and fries at Johnny Rockets (we each got our own shakes though ) This was a nice note to end the trip on.


January 16, 2024
Our flight home from LGB was at 1130, so I ordered a cab pickup at 845, to leave plenty of time for traffic. We got to the airport with plenty of time, and checked our bags, and headed to security. I checked my running gear suitcase on the way home, so I had my grandma’s carryon roller bag and my backpack, while she had her purse and a tote bag. Her roller got flagged by the scanner, and coincidentally, she also got chosen for extra screening. Her bag got flagged because one half of it was full of her mini memory foam pillow, and the other half was full of packages of buttermilk biscuit mix from Knott’s Apparently it happens all the time. The mix is really dense, so they had to wipe it with the little pad and make sure it wasn’t some kind of explosives. The TSA lady was super nice and cool about it, and we all though it was pretty funny.

Our flight had a layover in Denver, and we were originally supposed to only have to walk down 5 or 6 gates, but ended up having to walk about 40 gates down We made it to where we needed to be, I got us some snacks, and we waited for our final flight home. I liked the balance between the flights home compared to the flights out. MSP to STL was a short flight, and then STL to LGB was super long, whereas LGB to DEN and DEN to MSP were pretty even. We made it home, and my grandpa and uncle were waiting at baggage claim for us. We got our bags, and went home. Getting home wasn’t real great for me, I don’t like riding in the back seat of the car, so I was feeling pretty sick, and then the whole house smelled like the garlic monkey bread they’d had with pizza for dinner. I took some food and all my stuff and went to hide in my room for the rest of the night.

One of my cats came with me, and stayed the whole night with me (usually cats aren’t allowed in my room, especially overnight because I sleep with my door closed, but she missed me a lot) I had to get up early to take my uncle to the airport in the morning before I started work, so I had another terrible night of sleep.

 

[azrivest]

So sorry your experience was just okay for the Half and the 10k... I hope you still got to enjoy that DL has runners running in the parks more than at WDW, even though you like the highway miles.

Are you coming to Princess Weekend?

 

[xjillianpaige]

I was at Disney on Monday and it was just as crowded. It wasn't a ride day for us, though, so we didn't mind. But the line for the snack we wanted was crazy long so that was the one bummer.

 

[Naomeri]

So sorry your experience was just okay for the Half and the 10k... I hope you still got to enjoy that DL has runners running in the parks more than at WDW, even though you like the highway miles.

Are you coming to Princess Weekend?

No, I’m doing Springtime.

 

[Naomeri]

Disneyland Training Plan Recap/Springtime Training Plan

Well, my DL training plan ended January 21, so it’s time for a quick recap:

What I should have had: about 280 miles running, and 15 hours on the stationary bike
What I actually had: 188.16 miles of running, and 3 hours 22 minutes on the bike. Also, I gained 4 lbs

Despite all the missed training, I felt really good at the DL races, setting, or nearly setting, moving-time records for Disney races (which are, of course, still slower than PRs set at non-Disney races.

So, what’s up next?

Basically the same training plan, but with a little less mileage due to some differences in race schedules and such. About 265 miles running, and 12 hours on the stationary bike. I have a 10K on March 23, and 10 Miler on April 7, and the Springtime Challenge April 19-21.

I have some plans in place to lose some weight, including what I’ve dubbed “intermittent, intermittent fasting” Because I’m slightly obsessive about weighing myself (but not in a disordered way, I promise) I weigh myself in the mornings and before bed, so I know a lot about how different activities and eating patterns affect my weight on a day-to-day basis. One of the things I’ve learned is that if I have a big meal at lunch, enough to keep me from being hungry in the evening, even if it’s something like fast food, I lose more weight than if I eat the same amount of calories split between lunch and dinner. So, on non-running days, I’m going to have a big lunch and skip dinner, or at most, have a light snack if I feel hungry. On running days, since I’m least likely to skip runs if I do them around lunch time, I’ll eat lunch and dinner.

How the plan is going so far: I pretty much failed my first week—I only got one run done, and none of my stationary bike time I had a dentist appointment Thursday, so I moved that run to Friday, but on Friday I had a breakdown due to work stress, and didn’t get to eat in time to do a run over lunch and felt pretty awful the whole day. But the breakdown did lead to a readjustment of my workload and job description so I shouldn’t have any problems going forward. Then the weekend just got away from me for various reasons. So I’m kind of pretending that this week is actually the start of my new training plan and not worrying too much about last week. I’ve completed my one scheduled run this week, so…so far so good?

Since I always have some kind of picture in my posts, here’s a (not super great) picture of the little Merlin that likes to hunt songbirds in my yard. Except that the songbirds are smarter than him, so he just ends up hiding in a bush for nothing

 

[superchime]

I will volunteer as tribute to take any of your unwanted snack box cheese in the future!


It was nice meeting you and your grandma at the meetup and briefly in the street after the 10k - I'm so sorry the end of that race didn't go well for you!

 

[avondale]

I enjoyed reading your race and trip report(s)! Somehow I find it hilarious that you carefully record the score of both you and your grandmother for all the gaming rides that you do!

 

[Naomeri]

I enjoyed reading your race and trip report(s)! Somehow I find it hilarious that you carefully record the score of both you and your grandmother for all the gaming rides that you do!

It possible that I’m slightly competitive

 

[Scootin'By]

How the plan is going so far: I pretty much failed my first week

Coming from an Agile mindset, there is no such thing as failure. Life is hard. Give yourself some grace and love

 

[Naomeri]

40 Days Until: Hot Dash 10K

Well, training has been so-so.

Week One (Jan 22-28): 1 run, 0 indoor cycle
—3.11 miles on the treadmill @ 11:54 average pace

Week Two (Jan 29-Feb 4): 2 runs, 1 indoor cycle
—3.11 miles on the treadmill @ 11:52 average pace
—2.43 miles on the treadmill @ 12:24 average pace
—9.05 miles on the bike @ 3:26 average pace

Week Three (Feb 5-11): 3 runs, 0 indoor cycle
—quarter mile repeats x 6 on the treadmill @ 14:57 average pace
—5.04 miles on hill route @ 13:46 average pace
—3.48 miles on the treadmill @ 12:59 average pace

I’m not going to bother recapping weeks 1 & 2, because there wasn’t much of interest to report.

Week Three Recap:
I had to skip my Tuesday run because I had 2 days of offsite customer service training. One day was enough to be an interesting break from routine, two days was too much, going from working alone from home to hanging out with over 30 people for 8 hours. But I did get to eat these adorable (and delicious) cookies (I work in crop insurance, which includes livestock) And I saw a lovely sunrise before I left the house




Thursday, I did my repeats on the treadmill, but shorted the rest portion from a quarter mile to 2 minutes, because walking on the treadmill seems to irritate my intermittent Achilles issue, but running doesn’t. I was going to run another 3 miles afterward, but on my last speed interval, I lost my breath and couldn’t quite get it back, so I cut the easy miles short after a couple minutes.



Saturday, I decided that I needed A) some outdoor running, and B) some hills, to counter act all the flat treadmill running. It was kind of windy during the day, so I ran after the sun went down, which made the wind die down. The run was good, though I overdressed a bit and overheated before the end. My thighs were NOT thanking me on Sunday, but it was probably a good thing to have done anyway.

Here’s the elevation profile of my hill route



Sunday, I decided to try one of the 45 minute Apple Fitness+ treadmill workouts. Since I have a dumb treadmill that only has manual incline (and that only up to like, 3 degrees or something), I substituted speed increases when the workout called for incline increases. It felt pretty good, and was slightly more interesting than just staring at a curtain for 45 minutes.

Today, I got to go to the dentist before lunch, so I grabbed Culver’s on my way home. One of my cats decided that I needed supervision to eat it



Nope, closer than that



Still not close enough



In other news, I got super jealous of all the DVC folks booking their Marathon Weekend trips, so I started looking into renting. My first try fell through because site I went through wasn’t showing me current availability. So I gave up for a couple days while I did some more research. My original plan for Marathon Weekend was to stay at Coronado Springs, in a standard view room. So I looked at the 2024 rack rates and figured out what the total for the days before, during, and after MW would be. Lo, and behold, it was just marginally less than it would cost for a rental of a preferred room at SSR. I wouldn’t risk a standard room there, since it could be a million miles from the main building and the rD bus stop.

My request has been received, and there’s definitely availability, so I’m just waiting to pay my reservation deposit, and for a member to pick up and reserve my request. I’m very excited for this whole trip to start coming together, though still slightly apprehensive about Dopey. My heart knows that I can do it (as long as I buckle down on training this fall), but my brain is like “*** are you thinking, planning to run a marathon after running a 5K, a 10K, and a half marathon?!” I know that my recovery after previous 3-race challenges has been totally fine; my feet are obviously tired, but as long as I don’t stand still for too long, not problematic at all.

 

[Scootin'By]

But I did get to eat these adorable (and delicious) cookies (I work in crop insurance, which includes livestock)

Those cookies are super cute! And they don't look half baaaa-d

Here’s the elevation profile of my hill route

Ugh. I hate running up hills.

Still not close enough

Your cat is very optimistic!

 

[Naomeri]

Those cookies are super cute! And they don't look half baaaa-d

Ugh. I hate running up hills.

Same, but until Disney eliminates all the hills on property, I guess we’d better practice on them

Your cat is very optimistic!

Endlessly, and forever disappointed

 

[Naomeri]

26 Days Until: Hot Dash 10K

I’ve gotten pretty bad at updating this haven’t I? And to think, I used to come up with something to say every single day!

Just three runs since my last post:
3.24 miles on the treadmill: 44:31 (13:43 average pace)
4.30 miles outside: 59:03 (13:44 average pace)
4.01 miles on the treadmill: 54:28 (13:35 average pace)

I also did 15.55 miles on the indoor bike: 57:40 (3:43 average pace)

Weather and a lack of motivation have been my enemy lately. And I overheat too much to do much more than an hour on the treadmill, even with the fan going. I had good weather to do my scheduled long run yesterday, but as I was looking at what I’ve done so far, I realized that it would’ve given me a huge jump in completed mileage from previous weeks (3, 5, 10, 3, and doing my run yesterday would’ve made this week 16 instead of 8) so I decided to skip it. Yes, I could’ve done a shorter run, but it seemed like a hassle (see also: lack of motivation )


I do have something exciting to report: I got a free pair of $300, not-yet-available-to-the-public shoes from Brooks, just for connecting my fitness tracker to my account, and being one of the first 1990 people to click the link they sent last week to actually “purchase” the shoes. I tried them on the treadmill on Saturday and they felt pretty good. I think I’ll try them on my outdoor run tomorrow.

The upper part is almost sock-like, and there’s no tongue at all. The laces go through loop of “string” that goes all the way around the shoe. There’s a good chunk of padding where the shoe rests against the back of your heel. The sole is 3D printed layers of honeycomb-ish mesh that makes the shoes super light.







Also, I did get my DVC rental for Marathon Weekend, so I’m definitely going to attempt Dopey

But first, Wine & Dine! I’ll be running all three races at W&D, and I’ve already ordered all the stuff I need for my costumes (which I’m keeping under wraps for the moment ) I’ve excited for the themes, and for the Halloween night party at MK (they could start making announcements for this any time (yes, I lack patience)) I’ll be using my 10K costume for my Halloween costume, unless I come up with something standalone I’d rather do for Halloween.

 

[GollyGadget]

I tried to get those shoes but none were available by the time I read the email . Does the honeycomb collapse on impact like the On pillows?