No, seriously, I don't like to run...WDW Marathon 2013 PTR

[ZellyB]

Hello, everyone!

I'm a 48 year old, new to serious running. I've never really done much running in the past although I've done small amounts of running on my treadmill off and on over the last several years. I always just ran as a way to try and control my weight, but never really enjoyed it or had a desire to push for any goals. I'd done a handful of 5Ks, but again just never got bit by the running bug.

My husband has been running consistently for several years including numerous half-marathons and one marathon. He's tried to get me to run with him and his group, but I've always resisted it. This past spring, I went with my husband, SIL and BIL when they ran a half-marathon. As I watched my BIL and SIL cross the finish line together, I thought that it really would be nice if I could do that with my husband. The next Monday, I saw a flyer announcing a new Jeff Galloway training group starting up locally in preparation for a local half-marathon this November. I emailed my husband and said if he was willing to do the run-walk-run method with me that I was willing to try and do a half-marathon. He quickly agreed.

We started training in late April and it's been going really well. One day while running with our group, one of the other women in the group was talking about the WDW marathon weekend. Before I knew it, I had convinced myself that my husband and I should start training for the marathon this January. I blame it on the endorphins.

We signed up the next week and I made some adjustments to our training schedule to both prepare for the half in November and the full in January. It just happens that the weekend also coincides with my husband's birthday and our 24th wedding anniversary. We are doing this as an adult-only trip and leaving our three kids at home. I think they have started to forgive us. We have taken the kids on two previous WDW trips, so that's how I rationalize this to myself.

So, that's it for an intro from me. I'll use this to post some information about our training plans and our weekly progression as well as some of the other plans we have for our trip. Thanks for reading along.

 

[Ariel484]

Sounds like a fun trip...adults-only, a birthday, anniversary AND the marathon?! Wow!

Good luck with your training!!

 

[ZellyB]

Sounds like a fun trip...adults-only, a birthday, anniversary AND the marathon?! Wow!

Good luck with your training!!

Thanks! We are really excited about it. I've read your trip report from the last marathon and saw your new PTR for the upcoming one, so you inspired me to start this report.

 

[Ariel484]

Thanks! We are really excited about it. I've read your trip report from the last marathon and saw your new PTR for the upcoming one, so you inspired me to start this report.

Awesome! I haven't documented my training online for others to see before, but I think it's already making me more accountable...I don't want to admit to others when I haven't gotten a workout in! Hopefully this will work well for the both of us.

 

[ZellyB]

Had to miss out on a maintenance run this morning after spending a few hours in the ER with my mom last night. Didn't manage to get to bed until nearly 1:30, so 5:00 was just not going to happen for my run this morning. Luckily all is well with mom, so will just try to get back on track later this week.

I'm mostly trying to run 4 miles twice during the week and then a long run on the weekends. I'm using the Galloway method and doing a 2.5/1 min run/walk ratio. We are looking to hit around an 11-11.5 min/mile rate for the half in November, and so far in training that feels doable.

Our longest run thus far has been nine miles. I'm posting below our long run schedule for the remainder of the training for the half and then the full at WDW in January.

9/1 - 10 Miles
9/8 - 13 miles
9/15 - 7 miles
9/22 - 15 miles
9/29 - 4 miles
10/6 - 10 miles
10/13 - 17 miles
10/20 - 4 miles with MM
10/27 - 4 miles
11/4 - Half marathon race weekend
11/10 - 8 miles
11/17 - 20 miles
11/24 - 8 miles
12/1 - 23 miles
12/8 - 7 miles
12/15 - 8 miles
12/22 - 26 miles
12/29 - 7 miles with MM
1/5 - 7 miles
1/13 - WDW Marathon

I had to bunch up some of the longer runs to make it work out with the half-marathon race weekend, but hopefully this will be a workable schedule.

I'll post more later about other fun plans for our stay in the world!

 

[ZellyB]

8/29/2012

4 miles

Good run this morning with my husband and SIL. We usually leave our house around 4:45 AM and get to our favorite running route a bit before 5 AM. It's getting tougher now because it's darker at that time of morning than it was a short time ago.

We got in our regular 4 mile loop in just a hair under 44 minutes. We are definitely slow and steady wins the race kind of runners but I feel really good at the pace with our run/walk ratio. I've managed to convert most of my husband's running group over to the Galloway method and they have really found they like it, so that's been great.

We run through some neighborhoods and country roads some of which get a fair amount of earlier morning traffic, so this morning a car is coming up behind us so we drop into single file and close to the edge of the road and suddenly my husband is yelling, "STOP! STOP! STOP!!" and I'm confused (I was in the lead) since all seems well to me when I see in front of me waddling along the road a lovely skunk. So, yeah, I stopped and quick! It darted off into the ditch and we picked up running again. We did have a lot of conversation after that though that perhaps it would have been more helpful if he'd just yelled out SKUNK! I definitely would have reacted quicker to that.

I'd already had a run in with a smooshed armadillo one morning. Yuck! So, my record with roadkill isn't the best.

Anyway, good run today. We'll go ahead and plan to fit in another 4 tomorrow before the 10-miler on Saturday. So far so good!

 

[Ariel484]

Sounds like a good run! Glad you were able to avoid the skunk...that would NOT have been a very good start to your day.

 

[ZellyB]

8/30/12

4 miles

Another good run this morning doing our regular 4 mile trek. It was gorgeous out this AM when we began at 5. The sky was just full of stars and the moon was nearly full so a beautiful early morning for a run.

No wildlife this morning so that was good although I did manage to get my sister-in-law spooked while running past a corn field while I recounted to her the plot of Children of the Corn. She is not a fan of horror movies.

I used my new Garmin 210 for the first time this morning too. My husband has a 305 that he's had for a few years, but I wanted my own GPS, so settled on the 210. I love it!! We ended up with a 10:53 pace for this morning which is better than we typically run, so I guess we must have all been feeling pretty good.

We are scheduled for a 10 mile run on Saturday with our group, but the remnants of Isaac are supposed to be dumping a ton of rain on us Friday-Saturday. Our mantra for the group is we run in the rain but not in lightening, but I can say the thought of 10 miles in a downpour does NOT sound appealing. Here's hoping the rain is already through or hasn't hit by 6 AM Saturday!

 

[ZellyB]

Today is a rest day in preparation for our long run tomorrow. So, today is all about hydrating as I take a sip from my 32 oz mug of water.

In non-running related trip info, we are going to be staying at Shades of Green for the trip. DH is retired from the National Guard so we are so happy to be able to take advantage of the SoG resort at Disney. We stayed there on our first trip to Disney back in 2007 and it was great. We're looking forward to another wonderful stay.

We fly in on Friday to MCO and pick up our rental car. Our flight gets in around 4:45 PM, so I'm hoping we can get the car and go straight to the Expo center and pick up our race packets before they close at 7. That way we don't need to spend time doing it on Saturday.

We're excited that they started a new Military Salute promotion for tickets. It's a great benefit that Disney provides to the military, so we were thrilled when they announced that they would be available again. I still need to get those ordered.

We are planning to do AK on Saturday. We are only going to hit some of our more favored attractions and shows and try to keep the walking to a minimum and then get an early escape for dinner and an early bedtime before our very early start on Sunday.

I'll post some more later about our other dining and park plans. I'm psyched about our ADRs to Victoria and Albert's and Be Our Guest!

 

[ZellyB]

Oh, and I hope this didn't jinx me, but I didn't want them to run out of these at the Expo before I got one. So, I ordered this online a couple of weeks ago. It's firmly stashed away until I finish!!

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[Ariel484]

Double digits...woohoo! Good luck with your run tomorrow!!

 

[ZellyB]

9/1/12

10 miles



Finished the 10-miler today. It was a really soggy run, but all in all pretty good. It was misting when we started and intermittent heavier rains, but it was not too bad at all. Air temp was great and the wind wasn't too bad. I felt pretty good the whole way, so very pleased with it. We even had a pretty sizable group in spite of the rain.

I could definitely feel the fatigue in my legs toward the end, but nothing that felt too much to manage. Hydration and fuel was good too. DH and I both like the Cliff bars peanut butter for our runs. The sweeter stuff gets too much for me, so these have been perfect so far.

It's still pretty hard for me to imagine running another 16.2 on top of what we did this morning, but I know by the time January is here I'll be ready!

 

[dburg30]

subbing to as many of these marathon / running TR's / PTR's as I can!!!

 

[ZellyB]

subbing to as many of these marathon / running TR's / PTR's as I can!!!

Welcome! I'm definitely a novice to this whole marathon training thing, but it's been great so far and I'm loving it! Glad to have you reading along.

 

[Ariel484]

Wa to go! Sounds like a solid run...how exciting to be in double digits. Major props to you guys for touching it out in the rain!

Don't you worry, you'll CRUSH that additional 16.2! :

 

[ZellyB]

Another rest day today. We'll be back to our regular 4 mile loop tomorrow. I've got a 13 mile run scheduled for Saturday. I hope that will work out for me since I just did 10 this past Saturday. This was one of the tougher moments in trying to marry up my initial half-marathon training for November to the full training schedule for January. Keep your fingers crossed that I can manage it.

In non-running news about the trip, we are planning right now to go back to Epcot and finish out the day after the marathon on Sunday. I've got a reservation at Biergarten for 6:00 pm that night. We ate there on our last trip and loved it. My mom is German, so we enjoy a lot of the items on the buffet. I'm talking to you, pretzel rolls. And hoping our stomachs will feel up to a few good beers as well. Although my longest run has just been 10 miles, so far my stomach has been in good shape. Mostly I just end up really hungry and here's hoping that holds true on Marathon day as well. I'll be sure to get my money's worth that way.

I'm hopeful that adequate training and doing the run/walk method will keep me from being totally wasted after the marathon and so we can enjoy the park some.

 

[Macca1111]

I had to click over here because it sounded like something I say all the time "Well, I'm not a REAL runner..." even though I've now done 5 RunDisney events including last year's marathon... Congrats on all your hard work so far!

 

[Ariel484]

Pretzel rolls...yum! Boy do those sound good now...

I don't know about you, but I find that after a really long run I'm not hungry right away...then suddenly I am STARVING and want to eat everything in sight! Hopefully you'll have the same experience at Biergarten

I also hope you guys can enjoy some good park time afterward. I found it helpful to be able to walk around a lot afterwards, as painful as it was and as ridiculous as I looked hobbling from place to place. I can't imagine getting on a plane right after the race to go home...I'd be so stiff! Oh and DON'T forget to wear your finisher medals to the parks!!

 

[ZellyB]

I had to click over here because it sounded like something I say all the time "Well, I'm not a REAL runner..." even though I've now done 5 RunDisney events including last year's marathon... Congrats on all your hard work so far!

Thanks! Yeah, I still have a hard time thinking of myself as a runner. But, you know, I think when I actually accomplish the half and then the full, I can put those reservations to rest.

 

[ZellyB]

9/4/12

4 miles

Normal 4 mile run today after my double digit run on Saturday. After some really nicer cool mornings, it has heated back up again around here, so this morning was pretty warm and muggy. UGG! I was getting used to those cooler temps. Still, it was a good run and my pace felt strong. Unfortunately, I've been fighting shin splints for a several weeks now and I'm definitely feeling them today. They really weren't too bothersome while I was running, but boy do I feel them now.

I've really hated dealing with them and it was my own fault for pushing my training too fast early on. Guess I should have actually listened and followed the plan more closetly. Oops. Still, it hasn't sidelined me completely and I'm thankful for that. A day off tomorrow will let them rest up some and by Thursday I'm hoping they feel better.

Today's run was kept entertaining by my SIL who just read the 50 Shades of Gray book in one day. We had a very interesting conversation about the book and that made the miles fly by.