Week 2 of JJ5K/W&D Training
Monday, October 6, 2014 - Sunday, October 12, 2014
14 miles completed
24 miles completed in JJ5K/W&D Training so far
568.71 miles completed in 2014 so far
Monday, October 6: Run #1: 3-mile out-and-back in Chicago
See recap here!
Tuesday, October 7: Rest Day
Last day of the work conference! Bring it!
Or...don't.
Today I work up feeling terrible! I had such a pounding headache. Not sure if I just ran myself ragged yesterday or if that bug I thought I was catching on Sunday has come back with a vengeance...either way, poor timing since my presentation was today!
I had breakfast, bought Tylenol at the hotel gift shop (food and Tylenol helped me feel IMMENSELY better) and then went to some talks. My presentation was at 11:30 and check-out was at noon, so around 10:00 I went back to my room to run through my presentation, pack up and check out.
The presentation was funny. In looking at the schedule I saw that only my paper and one other paper were scheduled in my time slot. This practically gave me a heart attack - would there be, like, 60 people there to see my talk?!
Nope - there were five. FIVE. Turns out lots of people consider 11:30AM to be lunch time.
DUH. My boss was a little annoyed about it, I think because he thought I'd feel bad, like no one cared about my topic, and because I put the work in or whatever. I didn't care! It's so much less intimidating talking in front of less people. I think it went okay.
I had lunch after that, went to a few more talks, and then dragged my luggage (and shopping haul) over to the nearby metro station. Took the metro to Midway, caught my flight, and was home by 9:30. I got a lovely welcome home from Will and Archie.
I missed those boys!
This trip wasn't a huge deal, but I’m glad I don't travel for work very often. This conference is the one time of year I do it. I just like being home better. Although next time a conference that is held at Disney comes up (it's happened before and I passed...WHHYYYYYY) you KNOW I will be there!!
#magicaldisneypicschallenge Day 7: Costume...behold, the 'munks in their Frontierland gear!
Wednesday, October 8: Run #2: 2-mile run on the treadmill + Ab Burner
Let me tell you...I was not a happy camper this morning. When my alarm went off at 5 I was seriously considering just shutting it off. I felt like I could have used another 2-3 hours of sleep!
BUT...the Wine & Dine Half Marathon is 1 month from TODAY! And normally I'd take today, the day after the conference, off without having to use time from my Paid Time Off bank (since I was at the conference on a Sunday, I get a free flex day). But I'm not taking today off because, instead, I'm using that flex day to go to Disney one day earlier than I originally planned. So as tough as it was to drag myself out of bed today, I know it'll be worth it and I'll be so happy that I did it when I’m checking into Pop on November 5!!
My slow build-up with running continues. Last week I ran 10 miles total over 3 days. This week I'm planning on 14 miles total over 4 days with 2 days in a row of running (today and tomorrow). Next week will be 17 miles over 4 days, with 3 days in a row of running. Slow and steady.
Today's run was just okay. I felt some soreness in my right foot, but it wasn’t the arch - more in the big toe. It was still discouraging though. I have to think that all of the walking I’ve been doing has something to do with that - 8.61 miles total on Monday (3 of those were that morning’s run) and...not sure how much yesterday, I can’t get the phone to just show me the total for a day that has passed already. Arg. But I think it was 3 or 4 miles, all in my new boots (which were too big to pack in my small suitcase or carry-on). The good thing is that the soreness was only temporary and was gone for the final half-mile or so. It’s not bothering me at all now. Total time for the run was 23:14, 11:37/mile pace...still sticking with running 2:30/walking 1:00. I’m hoping to bump it up to running 3:00/walking 1:00 next week.
And I wore my new Haunted skirt for the first time - finally! It arrived in the mail right in the midst of all that injury nonsense, and has been sitting in my closet just taunting me.
I just love it so.
#magicaldisneypicschallenge Day 8: treat...feast your eyes on this delicious collage!
Thursday, October 9: Run #3: 3-mile run on the treadmill + Extreme Abs
**WW UPDATE**
Not good for me today. I know I ate a bunch of crappy food at that conference...drank tons of coffee and almost no water...yet I was surprised to see that I was up almost 2 pounds this morning. OUCH. Hopefully it’ll go away very, very soon.
The rest of my day has been pretty good after a poor start. The run went well this morning. I stuck with running 2:30 at a 10:10 pace/walking 1:00 for the first 1.8 miles. I had some soreness in my foot, but it got better as the run went on. Eventually it was gone completely, so for the last 1.2 miles I changed my intervals to running 3:00/walking 1:00. And I could do it! Woohoo! Total time for the run was 34:30, 11:30/mile pace. Definitely enjoying the seeing the pace go down little by little. I’m not sure if I’ll stick to the 2:30 or 3:00 running intervals for Saturday’s run...hmm…
Another good thing for today - someone in the locker room told me that my outfit was cute. I’d been sort of getting down on myself for the 2 weeks in a row of bad weigh-ins, so the compliment made me feel a little better.
Post-run outfit picture...orange Nike tank and PeacockOrchid SparkleSkirt. Love these Peacock skirts...I feel like they look good with lots of tops because they are so colorful.
After the run I did Extreme Abs. It went better than last week...I felt like I did a little better on the plank portion.
Jingle Jungle 5K/Wine & Dine Half Marathon Weekend update: Waivers and corrals were released today! So exciting, because we are one step closer to race weekend!
For the 5K, my bib number is WEIRDLY low at 641. Last year I was 1085 or something and that put me in Corral A, so I’m almost surely there again. This makes me think that they just assign the bib numbers for the 5K based on sign-up times, because come on...Corral A? Moi? Not so much. My friend that is running the race with me is in the 650s and I know she signed up right around the same time that I did, so this would sort of help to confirm my theory.
As for Wine & Dine, I’m #2680, Corral E...very close to where I was last year (2808, Corral E). My other friends are in F and I, so we’ll be starting in I so that we can run together!
2015 Disneyland Half Marathon Weekend update: I’ve been wanting to rent points at the Grand Californian for next year’s Disneyland Half Marathon weekend. Only problem is that point rentals are non-refundable (at least with the place where I rent from) and I wasn’t about to plunk the cash down when runDisney hadn’t announced the dates of the race yet. It’ll be me and two, possibly three, of my friends going down for the race weekend (the same friends I’ll be staying with in Disney ONE MONTH FROM TODAY NO BIG DEAL OR ANYTHING AHHHHH), and we all agreed that we want to stay on property. Yes I know there are cheaper options that are technically off-property, yet are really close by...but darn it, we want that Disney magic. Plus the price is a lot easier to swallow when it’s split 3 or 4 ways.
Anyway, since we want to stay on-property, our pickens are slim. That’s the nature of having a resort with 3 hotels. Between the four of us we have absolutely zero experience with Disneyland races and I was starting to wonder if the hotels would be full if we waited to book a room. So I texted my friends and suggested we at least get SOMETHING booked - then once the dates were officially released we could try to rent the VGC points.
They agreed, so I messaged the
travel agent friend we all use and she secured a room for us - standard view at Paradise Pier! AKA the cheapest option.
This was exactly one week ago.
And then today, runDisney tweeted out the official race calendar* - sure enough, Disneyland Half weekend is over Labor Day, just as it always is.
So much for my great theories about the date possibly moving! ANYWAY...once I saw that I texted my friends again to get the okay to try for those VGC points, and I sent a request to the company.
They came back and said that while there IS availability at VGC, there are no points that I can currently rent right now. This isn’t that surprising to me - the only people allowed to rent right now are VGC owners. So I am currently somewhere in the rental company’s queue, and if a new VGC member with points to rent doesn’t join in the next few months, I guess they’ll try again at the 7-month mark (when non-VGC owners would be able to book there).
So this is basically exactly what happened when I tried to rent points at Villas at Grand Floridian/Bay Lake Tower waaaaay back in February for Marathon Weekend. In that case I stayed on the waiting list and the rooms I wanted ended up filling, so I made a new reservation (which I am happy with!). I have a feeling those Grand Californian Studios will go away over the next few days/weeks, especially since the DLH Weekend dates are now official...we’ll see. If we can secure a studio, it’ll only cost $150 more total than our current Paradise Pier set-up (I would have put a second and third choice, but my second choice - a 1-bedroom - would have been almost $3000!!! No thank you!!!) and we are all definitely willing to pay an extra $50-$75 apiece to upgrade to the deluxe resort.
If it doesn’t work out, we still have our Paradise Pier room ready to go. We’ll be happy either way.
*The calendar is interesting - no ToT for 2015? No EE Challenge for 2016? HMMM
Other random news: I forget if I said this earlier, but in case I didn’t, my refund for the now-canceled Rock & Roll Cleveland Half Marathon (which would have been this weekend) finally showed up on my credit card this week. Yay! AND...I sold those awful Raw Threads crops on the Facebook group. I paid $58 for them with free shipping and they actually sold for $55 (I will cover the shipping). I thought that was pretty good! Get out of my house, stupid crops!
#magicaldisneypicschallenge Day 9: seasonal...this is a shot of the Magic Kingdom entrance from last September. Love the fall decor!
Friday, October 10: 45-minute Core class
I think that bug that I had earlier this week came back with a vengeance today - that or I'm just continuing to recover from my little trip. I slept almost 12 hours last night! Yikes.
Despite all of the sleep, this day started eeeaaaarly with core class. I was so nervous to go to this class the night before and wasn't sure why. But when I got there I figured it out quickly.
Today we were using the BOSU trainer (the half-ball thing), the discs (like frisbees - put them on your feet while in plank position and your feet slide around), medicine balls and large inflatable balls. There were plastic bins along one of the walls and some of them had the big inflatable balls in them. I went and grabbed one and went to my spot.
Well, I failed to see that the ball I grabbed was right by a pile of other stuff - I’d grabbed someone’s ball on accident. I gave it back of course, but meanwhile this lady that was there for the class (NOT the one whose ball I took) was like, “Oh, look at the new girl! Stealing your ball!”
“Haha, yep, sorry about that!” I said as I returned the ball. But the other lady just sort of kept saying how I was the new girl and went on about it for a good 30-45 seconds. Ooooookay. Meanwhile the lady whose ball I’d taken was super nice and took me to where the rest of the balls were and helped me pick out what she deemed was a “good one” (it was). I was pretty rattled from what had happened with the other lady so I totally appreciated her doing this.
And that, to me, is the difference between this core class and yoga, and why I was so nervous to go this morning. When I go to yoga, I don’t feel like anyone is looking at or judging me. In this core class, everyone seems to be very aware that I am new, and that’s a bit uncomfortable. Freaking ridiculous.
I’m sure the lady that was pointing out that I was new was joking, but it was still weird. As Will said, it’s different if someone comes up to me like, “Hey, I haven’t met you yet! My name is Jenny!” or something. The teacher chatted with me a bit at the end of last week’s class, saying that I’d done the right thing by modifying and would catch up soon, so obviously that was fine. Versus someone else shouting about how the new girl stupidly took someone’s ball.
There’s a difference!
Will also thinks that the lady this morning was a witch (except, you know, not with a “w”). I’d have to agree with that.
Once class started, though, I did like it, just like last week. I felt like I kept up a wee bit better this time, but was still modifying a lot of stuff. Mostly the push-ups. My arms are just so freaking weak, which is disappointing after months of ChaLEAN Extreme. I might start trying to throw in 10-15 push-ups after my weekday runs just so I can try to catch up.
All that to say that, despite that weird lady, I’m still sticking with core class - it IS doctor-recommended, after all.
Sorry mean lady, I’m going to continue to infect your precious Friday mornings with my newness. In fact, I signed up for Monday’s class too. If I want to do that regularly that’ll mean a shift in my weekly schedule. We’ll see how THAT goes!
Unfortunately I wasn’t able to fit yoga today and had to miss class.
I was so disappointed! I haven’t been to yoga in awhile now and was really looking forward to it. I am determined to make it there on Sunday morning!
In
Disney planning news, my friend who is the lead guest on our “main” reservation for Wine & Dine (where we’ll be Thursday - Monday) texted us to ask what Magical Express info she needed to add to our reservation. This made me remember that I hadn’t added Magical Express stuff to the 1-night stay at Pop that is booked for me and one of my 4 friends. So I did that. Gimme my yellow luggage tags!!
#magicaldisneypicschallenge Day 10: black and white...this is one of my favorite pictures from our Christmas/New Year’s trip earlier this year. Everest!
Saturday, October 11: Run #4 (6-mile out-and-back)
Weather: 54 degrees and sunny, with occasional clouds
Woohoo! Two weeks in a row of completing all of my runs!
Today’s run was really good overall - it’s the first one I have had in awhile where my foot didn’t hurt at all. That in and of itself makes it a great run. I can still feel that I have a ways to go in gaining back the endurance and speed I lost by not running last month, but I'm getting there.
The weather today was perfect, and I dressed like a pretty purple peacock:
Paired with a neon yellow long-sleeved top...yellow and purple are complimentary colors (so I learned in elementary school art class)...it totally goes, right? Maybe? Nah.
I decided to up my intervals so that I was running 3 minutes and walking 1 minute. Total time for this run was 1:05:43, 10:57/mile pace. Woohoo, in the 10s!!!! And in looking at my splits, of my 17 running intervals, all but 3 were at sub-10:00/mile pace - with my fastest at an 8:51/mile pace (toward the end I decided I reeeeally wanted to finish with my pace under 11:00/mile, so I started to really move). Which explains why I was huffing and puffing so much. But still, yay! Maybe the speed is coming back...it’s definitely there in the numbers but I don’t totally feel it yet.
Another YAY - Magic Bands for the one night at Pop arrived today! Yeehaw!
#magicaldisneypicschallenge Day 11: sun...shining down on a duck butt on the Disney Dream!
Sunday, October 12: Hot Yoga Flow
Finally went back to yoga today! It wasn’t my favorite class ever (lots of balance posts today, and I just felt like my balanced sucked more than usual for whatever reason) but I’m glad I went. I used my new yoga mat and while it functioned really well, it STINKS. It just gives off such a strong rubber smell. When I bought the mat 2 weeks ago or whatever the receptionist at the studio suggested unrolling it to air it out - instead I left it rolled up in my car. Oops!
In other news, my brother has been telling me that he's been drinking 3 liters - a little over 100 ounces! - of water each day and it's making him feel awesome. So I tried that today, and it was shockingly not that hard to do. I mentioned I was really bad with drinking water in Chicago and I haven't been great since I got back either, so I'm wondering if this is some residual dehydration. It certainly got corrected today!
#magicaldisneypicschallenge Day 12: free...in 2011 we had dinner at Citricos and were celebrating our 2-year wedding anniversary - hooray for free champagne!
Continued in Next Post
They look so good on some other ladies but I'm not sure if it's for me. It certainly wasn't when I tried one on at the Princess Half expo in February...
So like I said I have the Rainforest, and then one of the group customs I'm waiting on will be a vented slim. This one (C'mon Get Happy):
And thankfully I don't see any other skirts on the website that I feel like I MUST have. Although I have been eyeing PeacockEarth and PurpleXplosion for awhile now...
) and went to some presentations. THEN, my favorite part of this short trip - shopping!
