Roxymama's 5k to Marathon, Time to Collect Another Castle

[LizardQueen8]

Edited to add: CONGRATS on your 5k time @LizardQueen8 , just re-read your post and realized you said you ran this Saturday. Nice!

Thank you! PR for a dedicated 5K!!!

 

[disneydaydreamer33]

Congratulations!!!!! I LOVED reading your race recap- you're such a great writer! It has been so fun to see all of your hard work pay off!

 

[roxymama]

Congratulations!!!!! I LOVED reading your race recap- you're such a great writer! It has been so fun to see all of your hard work pay off!

Thanks for the nice compliment! I don't think I've ever thought of this as "writing" but I guess I'm physically writing something, right? Sometimes I wonder if I'll have anything left to talk about with race recaps, but I somehow find a way since it seems like every race ends up being its own thing.

And thanks to everyone who said I was inspiring to you. That means a ton because I always think of myself as the newbie here still, gaining inspiration from veterans and not the the other way around. Hard to wrap my brain around it, but I appreciate the comments. I guess now it's time to stop thinking of myself as a newbie to running. How about intermediate level? Sophomore? Junior Cadet? Haha

It's weird I have not ran since Sunday. My legs are cool with that. But they feel pretty good considering how tired they were on Monday. Guess one more day of rest won't hurt them. I have a thousand food pics to share soon once I figure out how to make them smaller...my new phone tends to want to take pics over the disboards file size limit which is a pain. And I know how much you all want to see what I ate for dinner all week

 

[DopeyBadger]

my new phone tends to want to take pics over the disboards file size limit which is a pain

You can email them to yourself and adjust the size of them (at least on an iPhone you can). Or send them to a computer and open them in Preview (mac) and then save as and adjust the file size in the save menu.

 

[roxymama]

Thanks coach!


Pork steam buns with black garlic mayo and "kimchi salad". And homemade pickled cucumber.


Kinda Spicy hoisin and ginger Chicken and broccoli with jasmine rice. And plain for the kiddo.


Pork burgers with a goat cheese and mustard seed topping and beets! Just simple side salad with shredded carrot, shallot and red wine vinegar.


Whole grain rigatoni casserole baked in the oven. With cone cabbage, potatoes, fennel, a lil fontina cheese, a roux and I can't remember what else!

Chicken thighs with carrots and almonds and chick peas and rice and yogurt sauce. I baked the chickpeas a bit too long and undercooked the rice. Fail. The rest was good!


Panko breaded chicken over a salad of greens, cabbage, celery and warm potatoes with mustard seeds and olive oil.

This is Joe. My kiddo made him out of candy on her new gymnastics mat (her bday present from us). I ate part of Joes eyebrows and got in trouble.

 

[SarahDisney]

This one looks like my kind of meal!

 

[roxymama]

So last night we drove to St. Louis for the Nevermore Jazz Ball and I danced at the Casa Loma ballroom from 8 until past midnight. I never stay up that late let alone dance to very uptempo swing era music for that long anymore. And I danced...a lot... with a lot of people.
And I felt good after! I wasn't like dying and sweaty!
This morning we took classes and then went on a jazz crawl of Cherokee street where bands were playing blazing music in cafes and coffee shops, vintage dress stores, pizza places, etc and all the dancers/hipsters/locals were just tearing it up. And so did I in my new running shoes, haha! They are very lightweight after all. We even joined a street parade following a brass band and my body pretended like it was 25 again. Instead of going to take naps we took a St. Louis Shag class. We loved it and may practice enough to compete in it next year.
Tonight we go back out to the ballroom and we'll see if my endurance can hold up. Maybe I'll grab a video somewhere for proof I stil sort of "got it"
I will not mention the amount of beverages and BBQ I've ingested today. I figure it's technically "fuel"

 

[roxymama]

So my legs held up until about 10pm and then I kind of forced my way through a few dances past that point. But mostly listened to the band with my buds until midnight when we called it a night. I don't know how I used to stay up until 3am back in my youth. I will say that my cardio was great! My feet started getting really tired though. I think because you just used different muscles from running. And it's kind of like sprinting 3 minutes at a time with breaks in between. Just a whole different thing. I was proud of how much I could keep up, but I recognized 35 year old roxymama is different than 25 year old roxymama. And I'm ok with that.

So what's next with running?

Hmmmm...let's see. I should make sure my two final 5ks this year are actually enjoyable. And I don't plan on breaking any PR's for them, but feeling good and not rusty is ideal. So thinking maybe I hold onto my recent training paces and concepts through the end of the month but back off on the mileage a tad. Kind of borrow from the middle of my training cycle but just go on how I feel. Have some fun with it for the month.
Tuesday, thinking 3-4 miles easy
Thursday, so a tempo but maybe 3 miles in the middle instead of 5 (big fan of that idea)
Weekend long run, 5 miles sounds pretty nice, but depending on the weather if I went 6 that would be good too. I'm still enamored with my long runs and sure do like my LR pace so I guess its a good sign I am looking forward to it.
I think I want to add in a little cross-train somewhere but still thinking that over. Maybe a hop on a bike sometime in there, just for a lil bit. Nothing crazy.

How does that sound to you all?

It's been a while since I've been off-plan. My final race of the season is likely 11/26. So what are thoughts on when to go back on a plan? Should I find a winter or early spring 10k for fun/PR attempt? So many options right now. Maybe race research for early 2017 can fill my free time now and then I'll report back with some races to see what feels/sounds good. Is 15 weeks the ideal amount for starting half training or something sooner/later?

So many questions...so many fun things to look forward to

 

[DopeyBadger]

The interim plan sounds like a good idea.

As for when to go back on plan depends on what you want to work on. Each training cycle or focus lasts 7-8 weeks. A half has a one week taper. So you're looking at 17-18 weeks to get an entire two cycle half marathon training plan. The key is, what is your goal for the training?

 

[Sleepless Knight]

My problem when I finish a training cycle is that I take too much time off and need to start all over again. Last year after my Dark Side challenge test training to see how feasible it was to train for a 1/2 marathon one week after the April tax filing deadline, I wound up stopping for nearly 2 months between laziness and a virus. The virus accounted for 2 weeks. The rest of that was me being lazy. A lot to learn I still have.

 

[roxymama]

The interim plan sounds like a good idea.

As for when to go back on plan depends on what you want to work on. Each training cycle or focus lasts 7-8 weeks. A half has a one week taper. So you're looking at 17-18 weeks to get an entire two cycle half marathon training plan. The key is, what is your goal for the training?

Great to know and I'm going to count back 18 weeks because I might as well do the full extent of the training since Tink is very important to me. Now the "goals" I have to think about a little bit and I think this month living on the treadmill will be ample "thinking time." If you were to ask me right this very second I would say that I want to feel as good as I felt during my 15k. But I also want to stop to take character pics at least in the first half of my half and not feel an ounce of guilty for it. But I'd like to have the ability to move briskly and confidently when I'm actually moving. Really run that second half out on the streets of anaheim. So part of me is thinking maybe next year I have my first half at disney as an "experience" (but how do you train for that? Just train like it's not a race you stop during...but allow yourself to stop?) Then next it would be kind of cool to run another half in like a Sept/October (hello nice weather) in the midwest near home for time. If I'm healthy, etc, at the time. Might depend on my hubby's 2017 goals as it's always a family balance.
As far as other distances...not sure. It may just be my "year of the half" with some local races thrown in for fun. Got some thinking to do, obviously!
I'd like to one day break my habit of having my fastest paces in the middle and my slowest at the end. I realize it's not a drastic problem, but a full negative split race could be totally achieve-able one of these days. I promise I'll be more clear with my intentions once I clear my head

My problem when I finish a training cycle is that I take too much time off and need to start all over again. Last year after my Dark Side challenge test training to see how feasible it was to train for a 1/2 marathon one week after the April tax filing deadline, I wound up stopping for nearly 2 months between laziness and a virus. The virus accounted for 2 weeks. The rest of that was me being lazy. A lot to learn I still have.

I definitely don't want to feel really terrible when I start up my half training next year. That is for sure. So I am glad you brought up your experience. I'll keep reminding myself of that as I keep my base layer of fitness in check. I'm itching and raring to go for my Tuesday run...wouldn't be surprised if I just end up running tomorrow instead. Just gotta fight the holiday lazies. Love my pajama pants, blankets, and cocoa in the winter so have to remind myself that they will still be there post run!

 

[Sleepless Knight]

Great to know and I'm going to count back 18 weeks because I might as well do the full extent of the training since Tink is very important to me. Now the "goals" I have to think about a little bit and I think this month living on the treadmill will be ample "thinking time." If you were to ask me right this very second I would say that I want to feel as good as I felt during my 15k. But I also want to stop to take character pics at least in the first half of my half and not feel an ounce of guilty for it. But I'd like to have the ability to move briskly and confidently when I'm actually moving. Really run that second half out on the streets of anaheim. So part of me is thinking maybe next year I have my first half at disney as an "experience" (but how do you train for that? Just train like it's not a race you stop during...but allow yourself to stop?) Then next it would be kind of cool to run another half in like a Sept/October (hello nice weather) in the midwest near home for time. If I'm healthy, etc, at the time. Might depend on my hubby's 2017 goals as it's always a family balance.
As far as other distances...not sure. It may just be my "year of the half" with some local races thrown in for fun. Got some thinking to do, obviously!
I'd like to one day break my habit of having my fastest paces in the middle and my slowest at the end. I realize it's not a drastic problem, but a full negative split race could be totally achieve-able one of these days. I promise I'll be more clear with my intentions once I clear my head



I definitely don't want to feel really terrible when I start up my half training next year. That is for sure. So I am glad you brought up your experience. I'll keep reminding myself of that as I keep my base layer of fitness in check. I'm itching and raring to go for my Tuesday run...wouldn't be surprised if I just end up running tomorrow instead. Just gotta fight the holiday lazies. Love my pajama pants, blankets, and cocoa in the winter so have to remind myself that they will still be there post run!

I love what you said about examining your goals for upcoming races. I'm not going to say that we should accept less than our best effort. But I also believe that we should keep perspective on what we're doing. We engage in running because we like how it makes us feel. We enjoy the benefits of improved fitness. We enjoy the experience of running at Disneyland or WDW which provides a very different and unique experience. Let's not get too caught up in how fast we didn't run or so obsessed with a certain speed that we wind up spending our recovery time in the medical tent. Yes, we can be disappointed that a time was slower than we would have liked or hoped for. But failure only comes when we didn't give our best effort on that day.

As a slow runner, my take on training for the experience is to train like you usually do. This gives faster runners a way to make up their speed if necessary later on in the race. Just don't make the mistake that two runners did during the inaugural Star Wars 1/2. They didn't factor in time in line photo ops as part of their actual race pace. So while they were running 9 minutes per mile when they actually ran, they were swept from the course because they were not maintaining the minimum pace on account of the substantial amount of time in line. I think the Darth Vader line that year was 40 minutes. Aside from my very first 1/2 where fear of being swept kept me from "risking" photo ops, I have made stops in each subsequent race. The longest was 10 minutes for Darth Vader in 2012. Starting back up again wasn't all that difficult and even if it was, the realization of needing to make sure that I compensated for "lost" time provided sufficient motivation to not ease up.

 

[roxymama]

My good friend texted me that she signed up for the Turkey Trot officially and roped her new fiance into joining us. So we may have a little fun group after all. She said she'd like to get anything under a 35:00 and I think we can do that She also has asked if she can borrow one of my sparkly skirts so I just may have to sparkle too. Looking forward to it already! The cult of people I know who run is growing

I also ate a giant twix bar today and didn't feel great about it. I think it may be time to do a candy purge soon. Chocolate is my downfall and greatest joy.

 

[disneydaydreamer33]

So last night we drove to St. Louis for the Nevermore Jazz Ball and I danced at the Casa Loma ballroom from 8 until past midnight. I never stay up that late let alone dance to very uptempo swing era music for that long anymore. And I danced...a lot... with a lot of people.
And I felt good after! I wasn't like dying and sweaty!
This morning we took classes and then went on a jazz crawl of Cherokee street where bands were playing blazing music in cafes and coffee shops, vintage dress stores, pizza places, etc and all the dancers/hipsters/locals were just tearing it up. And so did I in my new running shoes, haha! They are very lightweight after all. We even joined a street parade following a brass band and my body pretended like it was 25 again. Instead of going to take naps we took a St. Louis Shag class. We loved it and may practice enough to compete in it next year.
Tonight we go back out to the ballroom and we'll see if my endurance can hold up. Maybe I'll grab a video somewhere for proof I stil sort of "got it"
I will not mention the amount of beverages and BBQ I've ingested today. I figure it's technically "fuel"

Ok this sounds AMAZING!

 

[roxymama]

I didn't get any dance vids this weekend. But here's one from the year before I had my kiddo. My heyday of competing was pre YouTube unfortunately.
I'm in the dark blue dress with black belt on the left with hubby.

I'll try to dig up more one of these days

 

[disneydaydreamer33]

I loved the video! You look great! Dancing is when I am most happy, so I love seeing other people enjoy it! I used to go to a swing club when I was 18 and this video brought me right back to those days!

 

[roxymama]

I loved the video! You look great! Dancing is when I am most happy, so I love seeing other people enjoy it! I used to go to a swing club when I was 18 and this video brought me right back to those days!

I started at 16 and so there's a high likelihood we were swing kids at the same time! I really am pretty wholesome with my hobbies. Swing dance, Disney, cooking, running, haha.

Hey guess where I am?

About to run outside for first time since my race. Thank goodness for daylight and fresh air and my sanity! Gonna see where my legs take me. 3, 4. 5 miles?
Went to Costco this morning so have a stocked fridge with choco milk and Gatorade too

 

[michigandergirl]

Love the video! You guys look great! I wish my hubby could dance...

 

[roxymama]

Love the video! You guys look great! I wish my hubby could dance...

Thanks!
It is a nice perk at weddings. Until they turn on the fast swing songs and expect you to perform after having a bunch of cocktails and cake

Hey and I ran! I enjoyed the fall foliage and cool weather. Too bad it'll be dark in two hours. But I'm allowing myself this "reward"...

Dark chocolate peppermint frap. Can't make these a habit. But for today..yep!
All my miles were between 10:40 and 11:30 and literally all over the place. I was just having a "fun run". Phone went dead 2 miles in so it was just me and my thoughts. Thinking a lot about the 50+ pages I've already read in my new Disneyland guide I got yesterday. Yay planning!

 

[disneydaydreamer33]

Congrats on getting a run in and doing it with just your thoughts! I always panic when my phone dies, but it really is a nice mediative practice to run that way sometimes!

Oh, and I've been reading that same book to plan our Disneyland half trip!