When 48.6 isn’t enough, aim for 51.7!

[dobball23]

Referencing my title, 48.6 is enough, but I’ve decided that in 2022 I’m going to do even more than Dopey. I’m aiming to complete the Castaway Cay Challenge, which tacks on a 5K on the cruise that leaves Port Canaveral the day after Marathon Weekend concludes. Just over a year until that challenge (hopefully nothing gets canceled!) and I can’t wait!

My goals with this training journal are…

• Provide me some accountability
• Provide me another outlet to share running news beside my wife (who is extremely supportive, but tired of hearing me talk about running)
• Possibly inspire other runners
• Give me a record of my training for future reference

And my overall exercise goal is…

• Stay as young as I can for as long as I can by incorporating exercise and fitness into my daily routine
• Secondarily, perform as well as I can for my current age and fitness level

I’m going to put some background information in the next few posts, before my first training update.

Please feel free to ask questions, provide feedback or just say hi!

 

[dobball23]

My Background:
I started running on my mom’s treadmill back in high school. It was some fun extra exercise for someone who has always been active. I eventually started running most days and kept that up through my mid-30s. I typically ran on a treadmill and have also always played basketball, cycled, gone for walks and just generally stayed active.

My first Disney race was the 2013 Half Marathon (Marathon Weekend). My wife had said the previous year that if she could do a half marathon then we should go on (our first) cruise. She trained very hard and completed it. I did my normal running of a few miles each day and also completed it, but remember thinking when I crossed the line that ‘There is no way I could ever turn around and do that all over again.’

Then summer 2014 came and my activity level was severely impacted. My right knee started bothering me and the doctors couldn’t figure out the issue. I was capable of doing many things, but my knee would always bother me. I knew there was something wrong. I went to physical therapy and learned to stretch, had numerous MRIs, bone scans, X-rays, etc. It was an extremely frustrating year-plus trying to get it figured out. Finally, in late summer 2015 a doctor thought he saw the problem. I had some cartilage kind of flapping within my knee. We scheduled surgery for a few weeks later.

In mid-September 2015, my doctor removed a portion of cartilage from my knee. I was unable to put weight on it for 6-8 weeks to allow it to heal. I learned that crutches are not fun, but I made it through the recovery process.

I was cleared to run in early 2016. I remember watching a live stream of the Disney Marathon that year and saw many runners finishing in ~4 hours. I told myself then that if I could get back to running I would try a marathon, likely at Disney. I NEVER thought that would be a goal of mine.

I had some lingering knee issues until fall 2016 – including a warning from my doctor that I should find other activities than running – but I was able to return to somewhat normal by the end of the year. It was at this time I decided I wanted to attempt Dopey in 2018. A little nerve-wracking!

 

[dobball23]

Beginning of Races:
Prior to doing Dopey, I wanted to test my knee out and run a half marathon. I found a local half marathon in May and trained predominantly on a treadmill (I’ve usually preferred treadmill to outside). I completed that half marathon in 1:39.XX, about 14 minutes better than my Disney half marathon four years prior. And best of all, my knee held up.

I had already signed up for Dopey, and now needed to come up with a plan. I looked at all the training plans online and took what I considered the best of all of them and mapped out my own plan, starting in July. I knew I was going to do my weekend long run outside, but kept to the treadmill for the mid-week runs.

Everything was going great with my training, until a 16-mile run in November. My IT band flared up and I had some serious knee pain. I had to dial back my training and leaned on the expertise of my awesome physical therapist. He helped get me through the injury and complete Dopey!
5K: 22:17
10K: 45:50
HM: 3:23.06 (ran with my wife)
M: 3:53.22

I have not done many races in my life and it was the first time I had done the 5K, 10K and marathon distances in races. I fell in love with the concept of running races. I used to wonder why so many people pay money to go run, when they can just do it on their own.

I had some plans to continue racing in 2018, but each time I got set to put a race on my calendar, a small injury popped up and I decided to not sign up.

 

[dobball23]

Becoming More Serious About Races:
Dopey 2018 was so much fun that I decided I’d do it again in 2020. In early 2019 I reached out to @DopeyBadger to inquire about a training plan. He graciously agreed to help me and my running has changed forever. Rather than going all out on every run, I now understand the benefits to training slower, changing speeds, etc. I’ve learned so much and seen my performances improve.

Prior to contacting DopeyBadger, I did a 10-mile race in Baltimore to hopefully secure a POT that would allow me to start in the “A” corral for Dopey again. I finished in 1:17.28, which did get me in A, but just barely. I was not happy with my time and began following a DopeyBadger training plan in preparation for Dopey 2020. He did a great job of getting to know my goals, abilities and interests. The plan was working great, but in mid-September I injured my calf. I ran a half marathon with the injury and turned in a poor time for myself (1:45.XX).

I soon followed with a visit to the doctor and he said I had a torn calf muscle and should limit my walking for the next 6-8 weeks. I was devastated, but was going to do whatever I could to still run Dopey. I was the best non-walker during the month of October (131,000 steps the entire month!) and when I had my follow-up visit with my doctor he was surprised I was completely healed. I then had two months to go from not walking for a month to running Dopey. Amazingly, I did it, and even finished the marathon.
5K: 21:24
10K: 45:26
HM: 1:48.32
M: 4:14.35

DopeyBadger has helped me with a few training plans over the last year that have been very successful. I did a half marathon in Philadelphia in October where I finally remained healthy and crushed my personal best, crossing the finish line in 1:36.02. It was thrilling, and likely guarantees an “A” corral placement for me for Dopey 2022.

 

[dobball23]

Looking Ahead:
With just over a year until Dopey 2022, I’ve mapped out a plan to do a half marathon in the spring and another in the fall, leading up to the Disney races. DopeyBadger recently developed a training plan for me for the spring half marathon. I tend to go faster than my prescribed paces, so he incorporated some workouts that will force me to slow down. I’m looking forward to working my way through the plan, even if I will be doing a good number of runs in the cold, wind and snow of a Pennsylvania winter (I’ve finally transitioned to almost all outdoor running and have been liking it!).

I look forward to having you join my on my journey over the next year or so.

 

[dobball23]

Training Update: Week of Dec. 21
12/21/20 - M – 4.5 miles @ Easy B
12/22/20 - T – 3.5 miles @ Easy A + McMillan Legs
12/23/20 - W – Upper Body workout (YouTube video)
12/24/20 - R – 3.5 miles @ Easy A
12/25/20 - F - Off
12/26/20 - Sa – 6.5 miles @ Easy B
12/27/20 - Su – 10 miles @ LR

Total Run Miles – 28.3 miles
Total Run Time – 3:59 hours

I’m sure my recaps of my training weeks will evolve. Please enjoy this first one…
This week began my training plan counting down to a TBA half marathon in early May. I had recently spent about four weeks enjoying the warmth in Florida and did not have the motivation to tackle any running in the cold when I returned to Pennsylvania, so I had taken a full week off of running prior to Monday’s run.

This week was also unique because I was visiting my parents in upstate New York. While I enjoy running in new places, the December weather at their house is not always conducive to running. The wind off Lake Ontario can be downright miserable! But I persevered and made it through.

Monday
This was my first run of the training plan and of the week. Mondays are typically my off day in this training cycle, but I moved this up so I could take Friday (Christmas) off and because I was antsy to run after taking a week off.

I was a little concerned about ice on this run since the temperature was right at 32 degrees, but it actually helped since it slowed me down. I was supposed to run the 4.5 miles at an 8:33 pace, and I clocked in at 8:32.

Tuesday
I was surprised to see a 3.5 mile run on my training plan, since it is pretty short for me. I ran a similar route as the day before and clocked in at an 8:54 pace, when I was supposed to go 9:10. I don’t think there was as much of a chance for ice this day.

Later in the day, I did my first McMillan Legs workout. It was relatively easy, but good to start to get in that routine. My wife joined me and was sore for the next few days.

Wednesday
I found a video online to follow along to for an upper body workout. It was a nice activity for a day I didn’t have a run scheduled.

Thursday
I did this run at a park in my parents’ town. My mom went with me and walked while I ran. There was a threat of rain, so I went a little faster than I should have, especially over the last half mile.

Saturday
It was cold and windy this day. I think my parents and wife thought I was nuts for going outside when the wind was shaking the house.

Light Snow, 23°F, Feels like 11°F, Humidity 81%, Wind 13mph from SW

I did an 8:25 pace, which was a little faster than the 8:33 I was aiming for.

Sunday
My first double-digit mile run since Nov. 15. I did this run in areas of my parents’ town that I know are dog-free, which limited my area for running, which means I had a lot of back-tracking. I did the last two miles fast since I felt like I might have been missing things back at my parents’ house. I know the minute or two I shaved off probably didn’t make an impact, but I was anxious to finish.

My first three miles my heart rate was under 140 and then it spiked to ~160 for the remainder of the run, but I never felt like I was pushing myself very hard. I wonder if the cold or the layers I had on gave a false reading in some way?

 

[DopeyBadger]

Congrats on starting a journal! It's a great place to put your thoughts down and to reference months/years down the road.

My first three miles my heart rate was under 140 and then it spiked to ~160 for the remainder of the run, but I never felt like I was pushing myself very hard. I wonder if the cold or the layers I had on gave a false reading in some way?

Check the cadence to see if they are nearly identical. I'd be curious to see a second by second screen shot with pace, cadence, elevation change, and HR (like this).

 

[dobball23]

Check the cadence to see if they are nearly identical. I'd be curious to see a second by second screen shot with pace, cadence, elevation change, and HR (like this).

Below is a screenshot of my data. It looks like my cadence did increase, but it still seems like the HR is higher than it should be for the effort I felt like I was putting forth. And it seems weird to have such a spike.

 

[avondale]

Below is a screenshot of my data. It looks like my cadence did increase, but it still seems like the HR is higher than it should be for the effort I felt like I was putting forth. And it seems weird to have such a spike.

View attachment 547026

I occasionally get a sudden HR spike with my Garmin, and it seems to happen more often when it's cold. I usually stop (and pause my watch), take the watch off and clean the HR LED, and then put it back on and start again. That usually helps, but not always. Sometimes it just takes off again and goes way up.

Also, make sure the watch is pretty tight around your wrist. I sometimes have to tighten it an extra hole when it's cold out and my wrist naturally gets a bit smaller.

Good luck with the training!

 

[DopeyBadger]

Below is a screenshot of my data. It looks like my cadence did increase, but it still seems like the HR is higher than it should be for the effort I felt like I was putting forth. And it seems weird to have such a spike.

View attachment 547026

I occasionally get a sudden HR spike with my Garmin, and it seems to happen more often when it's cold. I usually stop (and pause my watch), take the watch off and clean the HR LED, and then put it back on and start again. That usually helps, but not always. Sometimes it just takes off again and goes way up.

Also, make sure the watch is pretty tight around your wrist. I sometimes have to tighten it an extra hole when it's cold out and my wrist naturally gets a bit smaller.

Good luck with the training!

Looks to be cadence lock. @avondale's recommendations should help fix it.

 

[dobball23]

Training Update: Week of Dec. 28
12/28/20 - M – Off
12/29/20 - T – 4 miles @ Easy A
12/30/20 - W – 5 miles @ Easy B & McMillan Legs
12/31/20 - R – Upper Body workout (YouTube video)
1/1/21 - F - 4 miles @ Easy A
1/2/21 - Sa – 5 miles @ Easy B
1/3/21 - Su – 7 miles @ LR & McMillan Legs

Total Run Miles – 25.1 miles
Total Run Time – 4:06 hours

I spent only about five of the previous 38 days at home due to some time in Florida and some additional time visiting family over the holidays. It was weird that my Tuesday run was my first in my town since the week prior to Thanksgiving. Luckily the easy runs got me back acclimated to my normal routes. Some of my routes were impacted because a portion of most of my runs take place on the rail trail in our town, and there was still some lingering snow and ice impeding the way.

Overall, my runs this week went well. As usual, I trended a little too fast, but I'm still working on slowing down. I find that I struggle even more with judging my speeds in the cold weather. My legs seem to feel different in the cold, where I feel like I'm not going fast and then I look down and I'm 15 seconds faster than what I'm aiming for.

Monday
We were still visiting family this day and I took the day off from running to recover from my 10-mile run the previous day.

Tuesday: 4.01 miles in 36:02 (8:59 pace)
My first run back in my town since November. Temperature was right around freezing and it was a little breezy. My first mile was way too fast (8:50), and then I slowed down a bit.

Wednesday: 5.01 miles in 42:22 (8:27 pace)
Temperature was in the upper 20s, but very little wind. I was only six seconds faster than the pace I was aiming for, and much of that can be attributed to my fourth mile, which I ran in 8:20.



My wife did McMillan Legs with me later in the day.

Thursday
I did a 45-minute workout video from YouTube on this day off from running. It was mainly shoulders and I was expecting some soreness because I haven't done much upper body exercising lately, but soreness was minimal. I'm hoping to incorporate some more non-running exercises like this during this current training plan.

Friday: 4.05 miles in 36:01 (9:01 pace)
I had accidentally turned my GPS off, so I didn't get a map in Garmin Connect/Strava with this run. I tried running on the rail trail for the first time, but found some snow and ice, so I just ran back and forth on the open parts before finishing up my run on the road back to my house. Still a little fast (9:10/mile goal), but better than earlier in the week.

Saturday: 5.03 miles in 42:47 (8:30 pace)
My normal routine is to get up, take the dog out and then do a stretching regimen and then get ready to go run. I much prefer to run in the mornings. That routine was impacted this day. The temperature when I went to bed on Friday was 32 and it was supposed to rise overnight. Unfortunately, it was still just 33 when I woke up and freezing rain was falling. I got done stretching around 7:30 and checked my driveway for slippery spots, and there were a bunch of them. So I delayed my run until around 9:30.

Even though the temperature had increased to 37 by the time I left to run, I still ran fairly cautiously. This helped me slow down and I was only three seconds faster than my goal pace.



Sunday: 7.02 miles in 56:52 (8:06 pace)
I thought the weather might impact this run due to some more ice in the forecast, but I was able to get it in. The first mile and a half or so were in the dark, but there was very little traffic in my neighborhood during this time.

After taking a shower to warm up when I got home, I did McMillan Legs. I'm getting into a routine with the McMillan exercises and think they will be beneficial.

 

[dobball23]

Assuming RunDisney returns to a pre-pandemic calendar, I'll be leaving for Marathon Weekend 2022 one year from today! Only about 250 runs to get prepared for it...

 

[dobball23]

Interesting...I just looked at my Strava stats for 2021 and I have run 26.2 miles in 3 hours, 42 minutes. I'd take that for a marathon time! Unfortunately, I've done that over the course of five runs and not all at once.

 

[dobball23]

Training Update: Week of Jan. 4
1/4/21 - M – Off
1/5/21 - T – 5.5 miles @ Easy B & McMillan Legs
1/6/21 - W – "Minutes": 1 mile WU, 10 sets of (1 min. @ half marathon and 1 min. @ Easy B), 1 mile CD
1/7/21 - R – Upper Body workout (YouTube video)
1/8/21 - F - 4 miles @ Easy A
1/9/21 - Sa – 7 miles @ Easy B & McMillan Legs
1/10/21 - Su – 11 miles @ LR

Total Run Miles – 32.2 miles
Total Run Time – 4:31 hours

This was the third week of my training plan and it coincided with a return to work and "normal" life after the holidays. Luckily, the weather has been precipitation free and not that windy. January and February are months I usually want to just get behind me and I'm glad to be one-sixth of the way through those.

Like many of you, I've been thinking back to my two previous Dopey Challenges (2018, 2020) and looking ahead to (hopefully!) my next one in 2022 this week. I've been bothering my wife with "Do you know what I was doing last year at this time?" or "Next year at this time I'll be finishing my third marathon!". It's amazing how much of a positive impact the races make on your life and how meaningful this time period becomes. Congrats to all who are doing virtual races this year.

Monday
This is my normal day off from running. I use the time I usually use to run to prepare for my return to work after two weeks off over the holidays.

Tuesday: 5.54 miles in 47:03 (8:30 pace)
I've already detailed how I tend to run too fast, but today I did pretty good. I was aiming for an 8:33 pace and all five of my miles were within six minutes of that pace.


I'm still getting into a routine with doing McMillan Legs and did them in the evening. It took about 20 minutes, and I bumped up to doing an isometric lunge for 3 sets for 35 seconds each. Tough! I just tell myself it will help me.

Wednesday: 4.60 miles in 39:23 (8:33 pace)
Today featured a brand new workout for me that will slowly expand each Wednesday. DopeyBadger suggested this, in hopes that it will both help me and encourage me to learn my paces. I did 10 sets of 1 minute at half marathon pace and 1 minute at Easy B pace. This workout wasn't bad, but I will soon get to 30 sets of that. My half marathon paces ranged from 6:59 (too fast!) to 7:10, with 7:19 the goal. My easy B paces ranged from 8:23 to 8:29, with 8:33 the goal.

My biggest challenge with this workout is with each segment only one minute, it is easy to overcorrect. For example, my Garmin might ding me that I'm going to slow, so I speed up for the rest of the minute and end up with too fast of a pace. I'll learn. I'm looking forward to this workout with 15 sets this week!

Thursday
Again, I did a 45-minute upper body workout from YouTube. I used to do a boot camp class at a local gym and doing it made me feel like I was in better shape. I'm hoping this weekly workout is the first step back to that. I know having more than my legs strong will help my running.

Friday: 4.04 miles in 36:42 (9:05 pace)
There is another local runner I see often who has done Dopey a few times and is an avid marathoner. I think he's done about 20 marathons each of the last couple of years. He even signed up for one this fall that I told him about on Friday and it took place on Sunday. Anyway, I saw him during this run for the first time in about a month and a half and he said he had just finished his virtual 10K for Dopey. Impressive! And it was just getting light.

I also needed to wear shorts this day. I only have two pairs of running pants (I used to do most of my running on the treadmill) and both were still dirty. It was 25 degrees with 10 MPH wins (feels like 19). Luckily the run was a short one!

Saturday: 7.01 miles in 59:01 (8:25 pace)
It was 18 degrees when I got up this morning. I took my time stretching, hoping it would warm up a bit. Unfortunately, the temperature actually dropped to 16 by the time I left home. Luckily I had a clean pair of running pants!

I averaged an 8:17 pace for my first three miles, but then got into a groove and averaged 8:30/8:31 the last four miles. I think my looming 11 mile run the next day was in the back of my mind.

I took a shower when I got home to warm up a bit and then did McMillan Legs.

Sunday: 11.02 miles in 1:29.25 (8:07 pace)
I don't know if I've done a run this long in cold/winter weather since Dopey 2018. It made me a little nervous. Luckily, it was warmer (27 degrees) than the day before. I got into a groove and settled into a nice pace and the temperature was no problem. It was faster than I wanted to go, but it felt comfortable. Once I had done the first 8 or 9 miles at that pace, I decided to not worry about it for the last 2-3 miles. I got home and my wife was still in bed. It certainly made me feel good that I'd done 11 miles and she wasn't even up yet!




My goal for the upcoming week is to wish for continued dry weather and reduced wind as well as slowing down. I'll get there. No runs of more than an hour this coming week, which is a nice mental (and physical break) after 90 minutes on Sunday.