To Infinity and Beyond - Becoming a Better DopeyBadger (Comments Welcome)

[DopeyBadger]

DopeyBadger, I am always in awe of how much sleep you usually get. Even though I try to prioritize it, I just cannot find the time.

Not having those 4am early morning workouts has helped me. I tend to get in bed around 8:30-9:30 and wake up around 5:30am on weekdays. On weekends, early in training I may play video games late in the night, but late in training I'm still in bed at 8:30-9:30 but don't get up at 5:30am like I do on weekdays.

The scary thing is when a poor night of sleep only gets you back up to like 15 the next day.

Friday (5k day) it went from 51 to 11.
Saturday (10k day) it went from 47 to 8.
Sunday (HM day) it went from 41 to 5.
Monday morning it was back to 57. I got 8:17 hrs Sunday night.

That's all after 120 miles of walking/running in the heat.

 

[lookingforsunshine]

It never goes below 5, though, at least not on my Venu.

Same. And I don’t think it will because I was awake for over 24 hours one day last October and it was just at 5.

The scary thing is when a poor night of sleep only gets you back up to like 15 the next day

My sleep score is almost always low even when I sleep for a long time. It sucks.

 

[GollyGadget]

Great recap of a great trip. Your 5k photos are priceless with both of you grinning from ear to ear. Also found it amusing that your 5k and half times were so close . Looks like a fun trip all around!

 

[DopeyBadger]

Great recap of a great trip. Your 5k photos are priceless with both of you grinning from ear to ear. Also found it amusing that your 5k and half times were so close . Looks like a fun trip all around!

Thanks! Until you mentioned it, I didn't realize I finished the HM in less time than the 5k.

 

[bovie]

Congrats! This looks like an amazing trip!!

 

[DopeyBadger]

Congrats! This looks like an amazing trip!!

Thanks!

 

[JAMIESMITH]

Based on your experiences at Marathon Weekend and Princess Weekend, which did you prefer?

 

[DopeyBadger]

Based on your experiences at Marathon Weekend and Princess Weekend, which did you prefer?

It's an interesting question for me. For me, I don't suffer from FOMO much at all. So if my plan was to come in and do the 5k and skip out on the other races, it wouldn't really bother me to not do the 10k or the HM or some sort of challenge. I can do me, and be ok with it. What the announcers do/don't say doesn't really bother me either. So with that being said, I would say the weekends weren't terribly different. I was expecting a larger difference, but never really felt it. Some thoughts:

-The announcers mentioned the Fairy Tale Challenge (10k+HM) a few times, but it never felt like it dominated the conversation as much as Dopey feels like it can. And to some extent I get that. Dopey is big. A marathon is big. It's four days of racing. So it gets talked about a lot. So to some extent, people can feel like if you're not doing Dopey it can feel like you're being left out during Marathon Weekend. But during Princess, I didn't get nearly the same feeling from others about the FTC. With that being said, for me, it didn't bother me either way.

-Princess was made to seem like a big deal. Marathon Weekend is made to seem like a big deal. The spectacle of both races seemed relatively equal. A difference I did notice in this regard is post-race in the parks. While the events had slightly lower numbers than previous marathon weekends I've attended, there seemed to be a dramatic drop in the number of runners wearing the race shirt or their medals. There seemed to be less of a race atmosphere during Princess outside of the races themselves. Don't get me wrong, there were runners with shirts/medals, but it seemed like less than during MW.

-The weather has better historical odds of being ideal for MW than Princess.

At the end of the day, I am perfectly happy with either MW or Princess. To me, I guess it just matters which falls better in my schedule or whether I want to do a marathon.

 

[JAMIESMITH]

Thank you for you insight! I'm still leaning towards MW

 

[SarahDisney]

Alright, I finally forced myself to make time to read through the trip recap. Sounds like it was a pretty good trip overall and I'm so glad G enjoyed the 5K (and that you got to enjoy it with her!).

We didn't do any ILL on our last trip (this was also DL, not WDW, so potentially different) and it sounds like maybe that was the right move.

Interesting that you had such higher mileage this trip. Yeah, that could definitely have an impact on the races. I usually try to do races relatively early in the trip but it's easier for me because I don't have to schedule around school.

Also ... I am with G on the drop on Rise of the Resistance. I grabbed my sister's hand as soon as I started to feel it. That is not a fun drop.

Glad y'all had a good trip and congrats on G's first 5K and your top 10 challenge placement!

 

[DopeyBadger]

Alright, I finally forced myself to make time to read through the trip recap. Sounds like it was a pretty good trip overall and I'm so glad G enjoyed the 5K (and that you got to enjoy it with her!).

Thanks! So glad I got to experience that with her as well.

We didn't do any ILL on our last trip (this was also DL, not WDW, so potentially different) and it sounds like maybe that was the right move.

Yea it was hit or miss. Sometimes it felt like it was worth the money (MK day we got each ride at what came to about $3 per ride and saved some significant time). But when we planned an EPCOT+DHS day, having EPCOT as the first park absolutely killed our chances at any choices in DHS since EPCOT opened an hour later and thus our second choice option was an hour later than DHS guests. So I think we do it again, but a bit more strategically.

As for ILL$, just click, click, click and have no other plans for the day.

Interesting that you had such higher mileage this trip. Yeah, that could definitely have an impact on the races. I usually try to do races relatively early in the trip but it's easier for me because I don't have to schedule around school.

Yea, I don't have a good idea as to why really. The difference was significant. The 2023 trip will have the races earlier in the trip, so we'll see how it differs. But it requires us to cut a day so G doesn't miss an extra day of school.

Also ... I am with G on the drop on Rise of the Resistance. I grabbed my sister's hand as soon as I started to feel it. That is not a fun drop.

LOL, yea she said "never again". That, Slinky Dog, and Barnstormer are now on her "nope" list. She's not a thrill ride person it seems.

Glad y'all had a good trip and congrats on G's first 5K and your top 10 challenge placement!

Thanks!

 

[Sleepless Knight]

We walked around the droid shop, and then we saw Chewie outside.

I wish you could have seen Rey when G was wearing her Rey outfit. When I was in Galaxy's Edge after the marathon, Rey was really cool with people wearing Star Wars costumes and in my case a marathon medal.

I loved your recap. Glad that G had a great race and that you really enjoyed it with her. These are the moments that matter.

I found your thoughts about the extra miles interesting. I did Rise of the Resistance 3 consecutive times the night before the 5K and I think that impacted how I felt physically the rest of the trip. I obviously have no regrets about my Rise of the Resistance insanity because I clearly needed the escape if you will.

 

[DopeyBadger]

I wish you could have seen Rey when G was wearing her Rey outfit. When I was in Galaxy's Edge after the marathon, Rey was really cool with people wearing Star Wars costumes and in my case a marathon medal.

Sadly we never did.

I loved your recap. Glad that G had a great race and that you really enjoyed it with her. These are the moments that matter.

Absolutely.

I found your thoughts about the extra miles interesting. I did Rise of the Resistance 3 consecutive times the night before the 5K and I think that impacted how I felt physically the rest of the trip. I obviously have no regrets about my Rise of the Resistance insanity because I clearly needed the escape if you will.

That could take a toll especially if you're standing in line for each of those.

 

[Sleepless Knight]

That could take a toll especially if you're standing in line for each of those.

I'm pretty sure it did. But I couldn't resist the very short for that particular attraction wait times. 50 minutes, 70 minutes, and 45 minutes respectively. And even then with all that fatigue, I still crushed my PR in the marathon including my usual assortment of character related distractions along the course when I felt like it. So maybe overall I would have possibly felt less sore throughout the week, but I'll take the fun since races bring some degree of soreness simply by virtue of running them.

 

[DopeyBadger]

? Weeks to go - Nothing Specific - Week ?/?

2/28/22 - M - OFF
3/1/22 - T - OFF
3/2/22 - W - OFF
3/3/22 - R - 45 min @ Easy
3/4/22 - F - OFF
3/5/22 - Sa - 5 miles @ Easy
3/6/22 - Su - 5 miles @ Easy

Total Run Miles - 14.8 miles
Total Run Time - 2:11 hours
Total Strength Time - 0:00 hours
Total Training Time - 2:11 hours

3/7/22 - M - OFF
3/8/22 - T - 4 miles @ Easy
3/9/22 - W - 5 miles @ Easy
3/10/22 - R - 45 min @ Easy (Treadmill)
3/11/22 - F - 45 min @ Easy (Treadmill)
3/12/22 - Sa - 60 min @ Easy (Treadmill)
3/13/22 - Su - 60 min @ Easy (Treadmill)

Total Run Miles - 34.7 miles
Total Run Time - 4:51 hours
Total Strength Time - 0:00 hours
Total Training Time - 4:51 hours

3/14/22 - M - OFF
3/15/22 - T - 60 min @ Easy (Treadmill)
3/16/22 - W - 5.75 miles @ Easy w/ Strides
3/17/22 - R - 45 min @ Easy (Treadmill)
3/18/22 - F - 60 min @ Easy (Treadmill)
3/19/22 - Sa - 75 min @ Easy (Treadmill)
3/20/22 - Su - 75 min @ Easy (Treadmill)

Total Run Miles - 44.3 miles
Total Run Time - 6:03 hours
Total Strength Time - 0:00 hours
Total Training Time - 6:03 hours

Long time no update. At first I was thinking I would bridge off of the Princess Challenge training into Mile training. But then the NCAA Basketball tournament picked up in interest and I decided to just do some treadmill running while watching TV instead. So I haven't really been doing any type of focused training, but the volume is still in a reasonable place. It's been mostly on the treadmill, and almost exclusively easy. Some highlights.

3/3/22 - R - 45 min @ Easy

This was my first run back in WI, and first run since Princess. It was 25F outside and my pace was a 9:29 min/mile (which is something I've done before on easy days). The biggest outlier was the HR. An average of 116 bpm. Best I can tell, the data isn't erroneous either. I'm guessing this is the culmination of Heat Acclimation training prior to Disney, HAT during the Disney trip itself, a few days off, and then returning to cold weather for training. But that's about 5 bpm lower than my lowest non-treadmill, non-G run, non-pre race WU at really slow pace. So that was interesting. It was short lived though because by Saturday (the next run), the HRvPace was back in its recent place.

Treadmill runs

I've done 9 treadmill runs and set the treadmill at 7 mph (8:35) for most all of them. HR is hovering between 113-126 bpm for most of them. I doubt the pace is accurate based on the HR data. Regardless, my goal is just to be really easy, and both the pace and HR are meeting that criteria despite some disconnect there.

3/16/22 - W - 5.75 miles @ Easy w/ Strides

Decided to do a small interjection of speed on this one. Just some short 15 sec strides to see how running fast felt. I could still do some mile training over the next few weeks if I so desired. So I just wanted to feel it out. The run was relatively unremarkable. I had a time limit due to G's last basketball game and I was running from my house to the game. It was a T+D of 110, so a little bit of late spring early here in March. I did around 8:30 min/mile pace, and then I did three very short strides at 5:15, 5:07, and 4:55 pace. Per my Garmin I hit a max pace of 3:56 min/mile. This marks only the second time my Garmin has measured me at sub-4. The other was 6/7/21 when I was racing the neighbor boy on his rollerblades, downhill, with a decent tailwind (3:45 pace). So hitting that sub-4 pace without any of those advantages this time around was a good sign.

Not sure how I'll proceed at the moment. The temp is suppose to drop and become more normal again (30-50 F). Some rain this week. I don't have anything on the schedule at the moment, so I'm not really pressing. I'll continue to do six days per week and something greater than 45 min most days just because I like to run. Don't really need any motivation beyond that to get it done. I've enjoyed running on the treadmill because it's allowed me to watch NCAAB and catch up on some TV. I'll probably sign up for the Madison M in November because a price increase is coming. I was thinking of doing Parkinsons 5k (local on April 9th) and just racing the first mile, but they're charging $60 which is a little much for me and a mile time trial. G and I have two 5ks on 5/28 and 6/18. So we'll see. Probably just continue to play it by ear and a little less structured. Resting HR is still really low which is indicative of me still being in really good shape based on historical resting HR data.

 

[dis_or_dat]

So I haven't really been doing any type of focused training, but the volume is still in a reasonable place. It's been mostly on the treadmill, and almost exclusively easy.

So do you recommend more volume as maintenance? I've been doing my old routine of short treadmill runs 3.5mi at 7:00 pace about five days a week and one 8mi run around 8:10-8:30ish paced (sometimes another 6-8 miler every once in a while). I had been wanting to get my old post pregnancy speed back (using the same routine). The only thing I have on the horizon is a marathon in October so I hope this is ok until training begins.

 

[DopeyBadger]

So do you recommend more volume as maintenance? I've been doing my old routine of short treadmill runs 3.5mi at 7:00 pace about five days a week and one 8mi run around 8:10-8:30ish paced (sometimes another 6-8 miler every once in a while). I had been wanting to get my old post pregnancy speed back (using the same routine). The only thing I have on the horizon is a marathon in October so I hope this is ok until training begins.

Some people respond to speed better. Most people respond to volume.

If your goal is to get faster right now (and not necessarily faster specifically for the Oct M), then you probably want more volume than 25 mi/week, or in better terms, 5x25 min runs + 1x65 min = 3.1 hrs of running per week. Three hours per week is not going to get most of us faster when we have a history of doing marathon training that incorporates 7-8 hrs of training per week. Plus, you're doing 3.5 miles at 7:00 pace, which according to your HM PR of 1:35:13, your expected 5k race is 6:40 and 10k race is 6:55. So essentially you're racing 3.5 miles every weekday on the treadmill. I just don't see it as a recipe to get faster for most of us, but individual results can vary. Keeping in mind though that treadmill running is not completely the same to outside running.

If you want to maintain, then you can do around 50% volume of your recent peak and that'll do you fine for a few months. Throw in a harder-ish run once per week or once every two weeks.

So when deciding what you want to do in an off-season, you have to decide what the purpose of the offseason is (get better or maintain) and how much volume you want to peak at when marathon training begins for the October race? If your volume in March is maintained at a high level all the way through to October, then you're likely to stagnate in response to the training and not feel all that great come race day. So knowing where you want to peak in September helps decide what you should be doing right now.

https://www.mcmillanrunning.com/what-is-base-training/

 

[dis_or_dat]

Honestly, I'm not sure what I'm trying to do right now. Probably because my last training block focused more on endurance and hills, I just wanted to know I can get back to my old paces and don't want my runs to interfere with family/work since I'm not training yet so keep them short. I guess it's hard to carve out what to do when there's no goal. Maybe after my 2023 marathon I'd like to bring down my 5k time but I'll be older!

 

[DopeyBadger]

Maybe after my 2023 marathon I'd like to bring down my 5k time but I'll be older!

As long as you're under 55 yo, then the data's on your side that you're not going to see much of a drop-off quite yet.

Keep in mind, a 5k is still 85% aerobic, 10k 90%, HM 95%, and M 99% (or thereabouts for each). Bottom line is if you're trying to improve any of these distances, then you need volume. You can get away with less volume for a mile or less because the contribution of the aerobic engine is far less. So if you're aiming for a 5k or 10k, then you'd still have 120 min long runs on the weekend, midweek 90 min runs, etc. Very similar to HM/M training except for the truly long run and the specificity of the hard runs. Again, that's if you're aiming to improve. If you're looking to maintain, you can certainly get away with less.

Now the other side of it is balancing life commitments with the time to train. That's where you try to maximize what you've got. And your current regimen will take you so far as it can, but it's likely to far well short if you had more volume/time committed. So you just have to be realistic on both sides of the equation.

 

[DopeyBadger]

? Weeks to go - Nothing Specific - Week ?/?

3/21/22-3/27/22
Tues-Sun: 60 min @ Easy on Treadmill (7.0 mph / 8:35 min/mile)

Total Run Miles - 42 miles
Total Run Time - 6:02 hours
Total Strength Time - 0:00 hours
Total Training Time - 6:02 hours

3/28/22-4/3/22
Tues-Sun: 60 min @ Easy on Treadmill (7.0 mph / 8:35 min/mile)

Total Run Miles - 42 miles
Total Run Time - 6:02 hours
Total Strength Time - 0:00 hours
Total Training Time - 6:02 hours

4/4/22-4/10/22
Tues-Sun: 60 min @ Easy on Treadmill (7.0 mph / 8:35 min/mile)

Total Run Miles - 42 miles
Total Run Time - 6:02 hours
Total Strength Time - 0:00 hours
Total Training Time - 6:02 hours

Not much to update lately. Just been in a sort of holding pattern since Princess. The weather has been ok, but since I'm not training specifically right now it hasn't really called me outside. I've been using the time on the treadmill to watch some movies, TV (Moon Knight), and watch youtube walkthroughs of Elden Ring (extremely difficult and thorough video game). I've put in about 60 hours on Elden Ring and I'm not even half way through. But I'll start to run outside again soon because G's got her races coming up in the next few months and we need to get her prepped for that.

On a positive note, this is the longest since March 2017 to September 2017 (7 months) that I've been able to keep my resting HR under 50 bpm on a monthly average. That 2017 time period covered my Daniels 5k/10k training and my Lakefront M training (still PR of 3:14). It's been below 50 since August 2021 to at least March 2022 (8 months). So I take that as a reasonably good sign that I'm still doing right by my body. And having a low resting HR is generally correlated with being in good running fitness shape for myself.

On a related note, G and I are still mulling over costume ideas for the Princess 5k. She still wants to go bigger and better. I told her we should finalize our plans by June so it gives me enough time to craft everything prior to Halloween (and then reuse for Princess). At the moment, these are what we're thinking about:

-Lady Thor & Thor. I'd make G a Mjolinir Hammer. She wants "lightning effects" for it. I'd try and fashion us costumes that glow as well.
-Ms. Marvel & Villian. I'd make G a giant glowing hand that she could wear. Not sure what we'd do for me yet since the Disney+ show hasn't released.
-Izzy Hawthorne (Female Space Ranger from upcoming Lightyear movie) & Emperor Zurg. I'd make G a Space Ranger costume with lights and such. For me, I'd make a light-up headpiece and make his blaster.
-Kate Bishop & Hawkeye. This one isn't flushed out too much at this point.
-Meilin Lee & Dad. Red Panda and her dad.

Still a lot left to be decided.