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

[ZellyB]

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!!

I'm thinking it will be better to keep moving as well, even if that does mean hobbling around. I think it's being able to wear that medal around the park that will motivate me more than anything to get out!

 

[ZellyB]

9/6/12

0 miles BOO!!!

Had to skip my regularly scheduled 4 miler today. I had to get my car into the shop early this morning and I have a test in my class tonight and didn't want to be any more tired than necessary, so decided it was best all around to take another rest day. Shins are still nagging me as well, so I figured it didn't hurt to miss one run and get some extra healing in before my 13 mile run this weekend.

My kids have orthodontist appointments on Saturday morning though, so I won't be able to run with my regular group. DH and I will just plan to run it on our own on Sunday. I'm kinda dreading that because I find I do much better on long runs in our big group. I find I'm able to feed off everyone's energy which I hope bodes well for me in an actual race. Anyway, I'm sure we'll manage it and it will be fine. I just need to take some time Saturday afternoon and map out the course.

Happy Thursday, everyone.

 

[Mom2Cody06]

Subbing! My goal is to do the Princess has by the time I'm 40, if not before. I have 4 years. Can't wait to hear more about you training. I plan to start the Jeff Galloway training next week, but I'm going to stage up and do the 5 k, 10k and the half. And I can't wait to read more about your trip.

 

[ZellyB]

Subbing! My goal is to do the Princess has by the time I'm 40, if not before. I have 4 years. Can't wait to hear more about you training. I plan to start the Jeff Galloway training next week, but I'm going to stage up and do the 5 k, 10k and the half. And I can't wait to read more about your trip.

Welcome!

You can do it! I've been surprised at how quickly I transitioned from someone who really didn't enjoy running and did it strictly to try and control my weight to someone who really enjoys it and looks forward to my runs. A year ago if someone told me I would be training for a marathon I would have laughed in your face. The Galloway method really worked for me.

We are going to have to put off the run from tomorrow to Sunday, so no running with my Galloway group. I had to reschedule the kid's orthodontist appointment for tomorrow and interfering with the run. So, my husband, SIL and I are going to run the 13 on our own.

I used Map My Run to lay out the course. It was really easy and fun to use, so now I just have to hope I can follow the directions and keep us from getting lost!!

More trip details to come in the next post!!

 

[ZellyB]

9/9/12

13 miles

My longest run ever!! I'm so excited. We actually went ahead and tacked on the 0.1 just to make it a true half distance. It was a really great run. The weather is incredible here today. We started out a little after 6 AM and the temperature was 52. The sun was up shortly after we started and the temp stayed just fantastic. It was me, DH, my SIL and another guy from our running group. We did the run in 2:39 which I was really pleased with. I'm hoping to run the half in November here in 2:30, so maybe with some more training and the adrenaline of the race I can pull it off. Even if I don't, I'll be thrilled just to do it!!!

My legs were pretty rubbery by the end and my calves started cramping on the walk back to the car. I felt like my fluid intake and fuel was good. I really think I just didn't hydrate well enough the day before. We were doing errands all day long and I just didn't have the chance to drink much. Some water and chocolate milk seemed to take care of things for me though. We got home and sat in the hot tub for awhile and I'm feeling really good right now.

The great part about having never run a long-distance race before is I get days like this where I get to say, "That's the furthest I've ever run before!"

 

[ZellyB]

I promised some more trip details, so here are the plans for the day after the Marathon. We're planning to go to Hollywood Studios on Monday where I'm excited to ride my favorite Disney ride - Tower of Terror! Man, I can ride that ride over and over. I didn't get a chance to ride on our last trip because one of my daughters just couldn't go through with it at the last minute, so I sat out with her. I'm hoping low crowds will allow me to ride it a few times this time to make up for it.

Monday also happens to be our 24th wedding anniversary. So, for such a special occasion, I made reservations for Victoria and Alberts. I tried to get reservations for the chef's table, but missed out on that. We decided to do the regular dining room though and I cannot wait!! The menu looks fantastic and we are excited to have a meal with the wine pairings. Everything I've heard about it sounds like it will be a great experience with some amazing food. I'm expecting our appetites to be fully recovered by that point and I can't think of a better place for us to celebrate.

Now I just have to figure out what I want to wear.

 

[ZellyB]

Planned rest day today and boy do I need it. Those 13 miles left my legs feeling like rubber yesterday and plenty sore today. The good thing is that it doesn't seem to have inflamed the shin splints and is just muscle fatigue and soreness.

Tomorrow is a planned 4 mile run. I'm sure I'll still be sore, but hopefully the 4 miles will be manageable and help to work out some of the soreness. I'm glad of the rest today though.

 

[Ariel484]

Congrats on your new PDR (Personal Distance Record)! Sounds like a pretty good run overall, and I'm glad that you recovered well.

Victoria & Albert's...how fun! That's a great spot for a celebratory dinner after the marathon. My husband and I are planning on making a reservation there for our late 2013 trip. I CANNOT wait!!

 

[ZellyB]

Congrats on your new PDR (Personal Distance Record)! Sounds like a pretty good run overall, and I'm glad that you recovered well.

Victoria & Albert's...how fun! That's a great spot for a celebratory dinner after the marathon. My husband and I are planning on making a reservation there for our late 2013 trip. I CANNOT wait!!

Thanks.

I'm so excited about Victoria and Albert's!! We LOVE food and we are expecting this to be a real event. I cannot wait.

 

[ZellyB]

9/11/12

3 miles

We decided to scale back to just 3 miles today instead of 4. A couple of people needed to get finished early and my calves (along with my SIL's knee) were happy to hold it at 3. It was challenging today just because of the muscle soreness. They did loosen up a bit after the first half mile or so, but it was still not enjoyable. I'm sure as they recover I'll be that much stronger for it. It was an absolutely gorgeous morning (even though it was dark for the whole run). They sky was completely clear with tons of stars and a beautiful crescent moon. Fabulous!

 

[ZellyB]

9/15/12

4 miles

Well, I had to miss my regularly schedule 4 mile maintenance run on Thursday since I was traveling. I was going to run on the treadmill at the hotel but just didn't manage to do it. Instead, I was just going to run my long run of 7 miles with our Galloway group on Saturday. Well, it ended up being a downpour on Saturday morning, so once I had 4 miles in, I was pretty done. The weather forecast for Sunday was looking more promising, so my husband and I decided we'd do our 7 mile run today (Sunday instead). So...

9/16/12

7 miles

We ran today with my SIL, BIL and another friend. I used Map My Run again which I really love using. Unfortunately, I'm not so good at paying attention to elevation on that site, so it ended up being a VERY hilly 7 miles. Even though that was challenging it was a really good run and I'm glad I didn't realize all the elevations (because I probably would have avoided them ) and instead we got a really good workout in. It felt great.

The rest of the day has been sitting around and watching football and studying for a test on Thursday.

The plan for the rest of this week is to get in the two maintenance runs and then doing 15 miles on Saturday. 12 miles with our group and an additional 3 on our own. YIKES!!! Hope we manage okay. Those long run distances are getting scary. I'm also wanting to start going in with DH on Wednesdays to do some strength training/weights since I've got to get going better on crosstraining.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!!

 

[ZellyB]

9/17/12

Rest day today. My legs feel great even after the 7 mile run yesterday so that makes me really happy. I know my husband teased me early on when 3 miles seemed like an eternity that one day I'd look at distances like 7 miles and say, "Eh, it's only 7 miles." Well, turns out he was right. I just try not to admit that to him if I can help it.

I think when last I left off on trip plans, I had made it through Monday and what will hopefully be an incredible dining event at Victoria and Alberts.

For Tuesday, the plan is to tour the Magic Kingdom. Tuesday will be our last day in the parks as we'll be flying home on Wednesday. I'm excited about the fact that the new Fantasyland expansion will be open and hoping we can enjoy seeing the new area. Best of all, we have dinner reservations for Be Our Guest!! Yes, I was one of those people on the phones the day they started taking reservations. Lucky for me, with going in January, I didn't have much trouble securing a reservation. I'm not sure why, but my call in the morning got through to the automated system quickly and I got my reservation done in about 10 minutes total. Of course, afterwards I checked on the Dis and saw that if I hadn't been asked for a credit card to hold the reservation it would be canceled. Once again, I got lucky and saw posted a different number to try and got through quickly to get my reservation secured. That was a big relief. It's DH's birthday as well on Tuesday, so that should make for a special birthday and end to our trip. I can't wait to see inside the restaurant. The pictures and videos on the web look amazing!!!

 

[ZellyB]

9/18/12
4 miles

4 mile maintenance run today and blech...I was not in the mood, so the whole thing was just a struggle. Combine that with a group that was in the mood to go faster than usual and not one of my more enjoyable runs. We ended up finishing the 4 with right at a 10 min/mile average and that was with walk breaks, so those run intervals were definitely faster than my norm. But, at least we got done quick. And, I know I do need to push my speed a bit more on these maintenance runs.

Happy Tuesday, everyone.

 

[ZellyB]

9/20/12

3 miles

We were originally planning for a 4 mile run today, but then I realized I had an early meeting this morning so we opted to do 3 instead. We ran that with our run/walk combination in 33 minutes which is actually pretty fast for me, so that was also a good thing. I need to start pushing my speed more I think on these shorter runs.

Tomorrow I rest up and prepare for a 15-miler on Saturday. I'm starting to drink water heavily today to prep. When we did our 13 miler a few weeks ago, I got some pretty bad calf cramps after we finished, so I want to be sure I am well-hydrated before this one. I also want to be sure to watch my hydration and fuel while on the run and be sure I'm being proactive about. Hopefully it will be a good run.

 

[Ariel484]

Sounds like things are progressing well overall! Good luck with that 15-miler this weekend.

 

[ZellyB]

9/22/12

15 miles

15 mile run yesterday and it went really well. We were with the group for the first 13 and then peeled off to finish up the 15. The group we were with is training for a full in November so they were running 23 and I'm definitely not up for that yet!

Anyway, it was just a glorious day out. Nice and cool to start and stayed pretty cool the whole time. A bright blue and sunny sky. I managed my fuel and water better this time I think and my energy stayed strong until around 13.5 miles. The end of the run had quite a few hills, so it definitely took some major encouragement from DH to get me through the last 1.5 miles but he was great. For some reason when I'm really struggling it helps me to get behind him and just look at his legs and feet. I just keep watching him move those legs forward and that seems to get me out of the mental block I'm feeling. Crazy maybe, but it works.

I felt pretty good the rest of the day too. Tired obviously, but not just exhausted and my legs, while fatigued and sore, weren't terrible. Today they have felt really good too. Still tired, but no pain or extreme soreness. I'm so happy about that. I think I've finally gotten on top of the stupid shin splints. YAY!!!

Another rest day tomorrow before a 4 mile run on Tuesday, so I should be feeling ready by then. It's been a beautiful weekend here. Hope everyone is enjoying the weekend.

 

[Ariel484]

Awesome job on the 15-miler and conquering the shin splints! You guys are really getting up there in your longs runs!!

 

[ZellyB]

Awesome job on the 15-miler and conquering the shin splints! You guys are really getting up there in your longs runs!!

Thank you! I'm still sort of amazed I'm actually able to go that far now. I never would have thought it just a few short months ago.

 

[ZellyB]

9/25/12

4 miles

Normal maintenance run today. 4 miles that went pretty smoothly. I don't like this particular route as well as the other one we usually run. It has some pretty dark places and some narrow roads and while we are out at 5 AM, there is still a fair amount of traffic. But, we made it anyway. Lots of good conversation and other than some initial soreness when we first started out, I felt good and my legs weren't too fatigued after the 15 miles on Saturday. This week is low mileage as I let myself recover and prepare for the next challenge to my long distance in a couple of weeks. The temperature here is perfect right now though, so running is a real pleasure!

 

[ZellyB]

Oops! I got a bit behind on this didn't I?

Last week was a really light week on the schedule that got even lighter when we canceled our normal Thursday run due to thunderstorms. Saturday was only a 4 mile run, so I ended up with only 8 miles last week. Yikes!

Back on track this week though.

10/2/2012

4 miles

Great run this morning. It was chilly (49 degrees) at 5 AM, so I dressed a bit warmer to ward off the cold. But, I think I overdid it. By mile 2, I was plenty warm. I'll have to figure out this dressing thing a bit better as the weather changes. But, it was a wonderful run. Beautiful morning with a bright and full moon and good conversation with the running group. My legs felt the best they have since the shin splints initially developed. It was probably the best short run I've had. Loved it!!!

We've got a 12K scheduled for Saturday and I'm wanting to push my time on it if possible so I could maybe use it to move up my corral placement for the marathon. We'll see. I normally do a 2.5/1 min run/walk ratio. Will likely push that to a 3/1 and maybe just run the last bit of it if my energy is good.