You must be swift as the coursing river (as long as it's the Lazy River) - comments welcome

[Naomeri]

Saturday
Planned: rest
Completed: rest

I mean, in the sense that driving with a dog from DC to Palm Coast, FL (took just about 12 hours) is rest. Which is not much, but I ended up doing laps around the living room of my parents' condo at 10 p.m. so I could close my rings and not break my move streak. Apple got to me, y'all

I sometimes do this. I also sometimes just wave my arm back and forth while sitting on the couch to get the last 15 move calories if I think I’ve already done enough for the day, but I’m at 785 days, and darn it, I’m not losing that streak just because my watch wasn’t paying attention to all my movements (it doesn’t think I’m doing much of anything when I spend an hour working in the kitchen )

 

[avondale]

I sometimes do this. I also sometimes just wave my arm back and forth while sitting on the couch to get the last 15 move calories if I think I’ve already done enough for the day, but I’m at 785 days, and darn it, I’m not losing that streak just because my watch wasn’t paying attention to all my movements (it doesn’t think I’m doing much of anything when I spend an hour working in the kitchen )

For me on Garmin, it is my step record. I'm now at over 900 days in a row with at least 10,000 steps, so you better believe I'm not breaking that streak unless it's a major emergency. Even if that means pacing around the house in my pajamas.

 

[WillRunForPizza]

I’m at 785 days

I'm now at over 900 days in a row with at least 10,000 steps

Your streaks are so impressive! Mine is only at 247 days now, but I don't want to start over

 

[DopeyBadger]

I have six years worth of steps data. My longest streak of 10,000 steps per day is… 10.

 

[avondale]

I have six years worth of steps data. My longest streak of 10,000 steps per day is… 10.

You take your rest days very seriously. I did that, too, until the pandemic, and this ....

I used to use the adaptive goal-setting that Garmin watches had in order to "challenge" myself on my step count. The interesting thing is that the different watches apparently have different algorithms - it's not set by the app. My Forerunner 235 had a good algorithm that went up when I reached the goal but not so aggressively that it went out of reach, and if you missed the goal by a lot (such as on a rest day), it bumped back down nicely. But then my Vivoactive 3 had a very aggressive algorithm...if you had a couple of good days hitting the goal, it would just go up and up and up until it was just getting silly. And if you missed the goal, it didn't go down much. It was really frustrating.

So I went to the 10,000 steps goal. If I don't have a run, then it does make me get off my butt and do some walking, but nothing really crazy. I think it does help me keep reasonably active. And now that I've got a big streak going, it keeps me from tossing off days. For example, since we will leave home at 8am on Thanksgiving to drive to my family and after that, I won't have a chance to walk or run, I'm going to get up early to run before I go. In the past I would have shrugged it off. But now I'm obsessed.

 

[WillRunForPizza]

In the past I would have shrugged it off. But now I'm obsessed.

This is how they get you...

 

[WillRunForPizza]

Mini race recap: Turkey Trot 5K 5.9K
November 23, 2022

My parents' neighborhood puts on an annual turkey trot which I've done a few times now. This year it was an obvious choice since I had to run anyway and it's close enough that I could just run there for my warmup/cooldown.

Race setup
This is a very casual event - free entry, you just show up, and most people walk. A number of people had turkey hats or other festive attire, including a couple of the staff/volunteers who were in full turkey suits. I would have taken pictures but I didn't bring my phone

They had some coffee and fruit out for people to nibble on while they were waiting for the race to start, which was nice even though I only grabbed a water. By the time the race was scheduled to start at 8:30, a hundred or so people had showed up, with plenty of dogs, strollers, and small children attesting to the relaxed nature of the event. I tried to convince my family that they should come and walk too, but they were like, "Ha, no thanks," so I was by myself, but I did say hi to a few people I'd met before.

Start
Around 8:30, one of the turkeys led a light warmup mostly geared towards the kids. I stuck my half-drunk water bottle behind a bush so I could grab it after the race - I was confident they'd have water available then too, but why waste it? The kids lined up at the balloon arch first, followed by the rest of us. I positioned myself near the front because, again, it was clear that most people were walking. (It was 70º out with a 69º dew point, so I was pretty sure the people in sweatshirts and pants weren't planning on running much.)

Now, here is where I should have been a little savvier. As we were getting ready to start, the main turkey mentioned that the route was "a little longer than 3.1 miles, but you're going to eat a lot anyway!" Which, okay, fine, it's not like I was trying to PR at the casual local turkey trot, so no big deal. Another tenth of a mile or three doesn't make much difference either way. Right?

Miles 0-3.1
The roads weren't closed, but it's a pretty quiet neighborhood and the route was decently marked, so it was fine. I had decided to aim for LTP (8:14) pace and be fine with going slower given the humidity. My first mile was about 8:25, and I was happy with that. I still felt good so I decided I could go a little faster.

I didn't track splits, but miles 2 and 3 were indeed increasingly speedy. I passed a few people, although there weren't that many people in front of me to pass. Casual, remember? The route went out, looped around, and then went back again, and when we hit the 3-mile marker, I thought to myself, "Hmm, it does seem like we have quite a bit to go..."

5K+
And we did. I had started speeding up even more late in mile 2 and was running around a 7:40-7:50 pace, so I was definitely looking forward to being done. But it just kept going, and going, and going, and going...

Finally, I reached the last turn back towards the start/finish. Luckily I still had enough gas in the tank to keep running - one person in front of me must have been really working at 5K pace, because he had slowed to a walk. The last bit of the route was weirdly the most confusing, as the signs from the beginning and end of the race weren't clearly distinguished. And someone came out of a random side path as I was passing by and seemed to be heading for the finish as well, which was also confusing. But anyway, I finished.

Post-race
I got a cute medal and retrieved my water. It was hard to tell who had finished the whole race and who had turned around and come back or just stuck around at the start rather than running/walking. Sadly they had put the refreshments away except water, so there wasn't much reason to stick around and I headed back to my parents' house.

The way back followed along the course, so I passed a bunch of people who were still out walking. When I got home I checked my phone and laughed because the "5K" was actually 3.67 miles or 5.9K. Almost a whole extra kilometer! I finished it in 29:51 or 8:07 pace, which I was happy with. It makes me feel like my hazy future goal of a sub-24 5K is within reach.

So even though I didn't get lost like I did last year, I actually ended up running even farther! Oh well, it's hard to complain too much about a free 5K. And thus concludes my "mini" recap


ID: Medal with a turkey in a hat and the words Turkey Trot below, draped over a wooden pumpkin cutout

 

[WillRunForPizza]

November 21 - 27, 2022
Marathon training week 10 | 42 days until WDW Marathon
In which I am thankful

Monday
Planned: 45 min easy
Completed: 48:50 easy (11:22)
Total: 4.29 miles, 149 bpm

My body did not want to run after Sunday's yucky LR. I actually started out around 12:30 pace, but sped up as I warmed up a bit.

Plus: core

Tuesday
Planned: 10 min easy + drills and strides + 8 x 1 min @ VHI (<7:09)/2 min walk to jog + 10 min easy
Completed: 10 min easy (11:27) + drills and 4 strides + 8 x 1 min @ VHI (<7:09)/2 min walk to jog + 12:46 easy (12:03)
Interval splits: 6:55, 7:29*, 6:52, 7:29**, 6:48, 6:14, 6:23, 6:19
Total: 51:46, 4.8 miles, 160 bpm

*extra twisty path
**realized I made a wrong turn and had to reverse course

Originally this was supposed to be Friday's workout, but I thought it made more sense to replace the progression run with the Turkey Trot than this one. So I got to run fast on still-tired legs, yay... There was quite a bit of walking in the recovery intervals and a very slow cooldown to make up for it.

Plus: lower body strength

This was tough after the speedwork but it was a good routine.

Wednesday
Planned: 45 min easy
Completed: 45:39 easy (10:55)
Total: 4.18 miles, 149 bpm

My legs were starting to feel a little better. I tried a new route and got a little turned around but managed to retrace my steps.

Thursday
Planned: WU + 3.1 miles @ LTP (8:14) + CD
Completed: 13:35 easy (10:08) + 3.67 miles @ 8:07 + 13:46 easy (10:34)
Total: 57:12, 6.32 miles, 167 bpm

This was the extended Turkey Trot - see recap above. Then I got to prep Thanksgiving sides and watch football! I love Thanksgiving. Everything was delicious even though my mom's baking powder/baking soda were definitely too old and the biscuits/cake turned out a little flat.

Friday
Planned: 45 min easy
Completed: 46:48 easy (10:40)
Total: 4.38 miles, 148 bpm

I enjoyed this run despite the 71º dew point. Hello, Florida!

Plus: upper body strength

I liked this routine too - it was interesting and different. (And my shoulders were sore the next day.)

Saturday
Planned: 10 miles easy
Completed: 10.11 miles easy (9:49)
Total: 1:39:21, 157 bpm

This week's long run made up for last Sunday's 14-mile struggle run - I felt really good and energized. Even missing the turn onto the quiet road and running an extra 2 miles along the busy road didn't bother me.

Fuel
Pre-run: coffee and coffee cake
35 min: caramel macchiato GU
70 min: Maurten gel

I was going to try an almond butter packet on this run, but my stomach was a little grumpy briefly around 45 minutes into the run. It didn't last long, but that also didn't seem like the best time to try something new - if my stomach got upset again, I wouldn't know whether it was the almond butter or just a recurrence of whatever issue I had before. So it will have to wait for another day.

Sunday
Planned: rest
Completed: rest

For my rest day my mom and I went to Hollywood Studios for the afternoon! We did a few rides and actually got a time for Oga's Cantina, which I hadn't been to before. It was cool but definitely felt like you were there just to see it and they were rotating people through as quickly as possible. (I still took the coasters with me.) I do really love walking through Galaxy's Edge, though - it's so cool to see all the droids and ships around.


ID: Apparently there is a very small hidden Mickey in the white spot in eye of the chicken on the spine of this book in Toy Story Mania. You can only see it if you are very, very close.


ID: My mom always wins at Toy Story Mania. Mom (player 1): 192,200. Me (player 2): 144,300.


ID: Kylo Ren force-paralyzing a First Order officer on stage in front of a TIE fighter in Galaxy's Edge while two Stormtroopers stand guard.


ID: The Outer Rim: Patrón Silver Tequila, Stirrings Pomegranate Liqueur, Lime Juice, Pure Cane Sugar, with Black Salt and Exotic Fruit Purée


ID: Apparently the old droid pilot from Star Tours retired and became a DJ at the cantina!

 

[WillRunForPizza]

November 21 - 27, 2022
Addendum
In which I got too excited about my first Disney visit in many months and forgot some parts of the log

Oops

Total
Mileage: 34.08
Time: 6:47:52

Coming up
Now we start getting into the weeks of The Farthest I Have Ever Run, beginning with 16 miles this weekend. 13.1 of those miles will be the Orlando Half Marathon, in which I will try really hard not to try too hard. I'm thinking about running with a pace group; just not sure what pace yet. It may be a game-day decision.

Plus: 10K-pace intervals and lots of very short speed intervals.

 

[azrivest]

Maybe try attacking it as a practice run at marathon pace?

Have fun at WDW and at the half!

 

[WillRunForPizza]

Maybe try attacking it as a practice run at marathon pace?

I'm wary of doing this because my plan is designed to maintain an 80/20 balance, and last time I messed with that during a race, I was really tired for like a week afterwards. So I'm mostly just debating what level of "easy" I want to run at.

 

[azrivest]

I'm wary of doing this because my plan is designed to maintain an 80/20 balance, and last time I messed with that during a race, I was really tired for like a week afterwards. So I'm mostly just debating what level of "easy" I want to run at.

Oh ok, thought you were going at it as a practice race for your marathon

 

[WillRunForPizza]

Oh ok, thought you were going at it as a practice race for your marathon

Ah, makes sense! Nope, just a catered long run with lots of goodies at the end

 

[Blue Caterpillar]

Oga's Cantina, which I hadn't been to before. It was cool but definitely felt like you were there just to see it and they were rotating people through as quickly as possible. (I still took the coasters with me.)

I did the same! They are cool coasters.

 

[GollyGadget]

Your streaks are so impressive! Mine is only at 247 days now, but I don't want to start over

Before going to bed last night, I thought of this thread and I checked my steps because I was curious how many I get on a rest day...9,325. I briefly thought about walking around the house to break 10k, but quickly decided against it

 

[WillRunForPizza]

November 28 - December 4, 2022
Marathon training week 11 | 35 days until WDW Marathon
In which I am hungry

Monday
Planned: 1 mi easy + drills and strides + 8 x 1K @ 10KP (8:12)/1 min rest + 1 mi easy
Completed: 1 mi easy (10:36) + drills and 5 strides + 8 x 1K @ 10KP/1 min rest + 1 mi easy (11:22)
Interval splits: 8:05, 8:09, 8:06, 8:09, 8:06, 8:24, 8:22, 8:13
Total: 1:15:50, 8.21 miles, 166 bpm

This was a big workout for a Monday! Turns out 8 x 1K @ 10KP is pretty hard. For once my intervals were actually pretty consistent, if a touch fast. For 6 and 7 I had to wait at the world's longest light and turn around, respectively, which is probably why they're slower. Tiring but felt good.

Plus: lower body strength

Tuesday
Planned: 50 min easy
Completed: 50:16 easy (10:24)
Total: 4.83 miles, 145 bpm

Despite all the hard work on Monday, this run felt comfortable and easy.

Plus: core

Wednesday
Planned: 60 min easy
Completed: 1:00:36 easy (10:32)
Total: 5.75 miles, 147 bpm

I tried out my marathon "costume" (which is just a skater skirt) and it worked great. It was a little warm this morning but still felt good. Then I went and picked up my bib for the HM on Saturday.

Thursday
Planned: 10 min easy + drills and strides + 8 x 30s @ MAS (7:09)/15s easy + 3 min easy + 8 x 30s @ MAS/15s easy + 3 min easy + 8 x 30s@MAS/15s easy + 10 min easy
Completed: 10 min easy + drills and strides + 8 x 30s @ MAS (7:09)/15s easy + 3 min easy + 8 x 30s @ MAS/15s easy + 3 min easy + 8 x 30s@MAS/15s easy + 10 min easy
Interval splits: who even knows
Total: 53:32, 5.55 miles, 160 bpm

UGH. Hated it. These super-short speed intervals with even shorter breaks kill me. And I have no idea if I was hitting my paces because the intervals were too short for my watch to give accurate measurements. Strava says this workout was easier than Monday's, but it did NOT feel like it.

Friday
Planned: 50 min easy
Completed: 50:17 easy (10:48)
Total: 4.65 miles, 140 bpm

I took it extra-easy to give my legs a chance to recover from the evil intervals before Saturday's 16-miler.

Plus: upper body strength

Saturday
Planned: 16 miles easy
Completed: 16.08 miles easy (10:01)
Total: 2:41:09, 157 bpm

My longest run ever (for a limited time only) felt good! I ran about 2.6 miles before the Orlando HM, ran the half with the 2:10 pacer to keep myself from going too fast, and then had to finish up the last 0.25 miles of 16 after the race

I will do a separate recap of the actual event, but I came out of the whole thing surprisingly well! This morning my legs are a little tired, but not sore or stiff, which is better than I'd hoped for.

Sunday
Planned: rest
Completed: rest

I might do some easy yoga later on, but nothing strenuous.

Total
Mileage: 45.07
Time: 8:37:50

This will briefly reign as my highest-mileage run/week ever, until next week when I have my 18-miler. I've also apparently reached the point in training where I have to eat every 2-3 hours or I'm starving. I wasn't much of a snack person before, but now I'm just grazing constantly

Coming up
The aforementioned 18 miles, plus, oh goody, another set of very short intervals

Is it weird that I'm dreading 18 miles much less than 5 x 30s @ SSP (8:40)/20s @ MAS (7:09)/10s @ VHI (<7:09) + 6 min easy + 5 x 30s @ SSP/20s @ MAS/10s @ VHI?

 

[GollyGadget]

The hunger just hit me last week and it's unreal! There was just a switch from one week to the next and WHAM! Hungry all the time.

 

[WillRunForPizza]

Race recap: OUC Orlando Half Marathon
December 3, 2022

Pre-race
Packet pickup
This was the most annoying bit of the whole event, simply because I had to go downtown to Track Shack, the running store that hosts the race, and they were only open 10-6 Tue-Fri for packet pickup. I ended up just taking Wednesday morning off to get it done, which was okay because I have vacation time I have to use up by the end of the year anyway.

While I was there, I bought a new pair of Ghosts (15s) because they had a deal where you could get access to bathrooms with running water at the race if you spent a certain amount on Brooks merchandise. So it seemed like a good time to pick up some shoes that I would have bought eventually anyway.

Race day
I woke up at 4:45 so I could take the dog out and get ready to go in time to leave at 5:45. A little practice for the REALLY early marathon morning next month I guess! My dad dropped me off at the race, which was good because I didn't have to find parking. I dropped off my gear bag with a change of clothes/shoes and some wet wipes and set out to do as much of my 3 miles as possible to take me to 16 for the day.

Around Lake Eola, where the race started, the city put out a bunch of holiday lights. It was still pretty dark when I got to the park and the lights were still on, so that was a nice atmosphere for a couple of laps around the lake. Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures.

After my third lap (I think?), I was still only at about 2.6 miles, but it was a little before 7, so I got in line for the bathroom before the race started at 7:15. It was good that I did because there was a long line on the women's side. The downside of the running water was that they had men's and women's restrooms instead of the Port-a-Potty free-for-all, so the men could walk right in and all the women had to wait like 10 minutes

The starting corral was quite crowded by the time I got through the bathroom line. I managed to snake my way up to between the 11 and 12-minute mile pace markers, but not as far as I wanted. But it was still farther up than I've been in recent races, so whatever.

Half marathon
Once we started moving, things opened up a little and I caught up with the 2:10 pace group, which was where I had decided to put myself so I wouldn't get excited and try to race the half. It was fun! I chatted with the pacer and a couple of other people about marathons, half marathons, Disney races, random obstacles, and so on. I felt really good the whole time.

The course was overall pretty nice. It kind of weaved around parts of downtown Orlando, and not surprisingly it was quite flat. There was one weird moment where a car pulled out of a driveway INTO the race just in front of us, which...?????? People were NOT happy. And separately, one woman tripped and fell right behind me but got up right away and seemed okay.


ID: Race map for the Orlando HM and 5K

The 2:10 group kind of ebbed and flowed - I think I was the only one who was there pretty much the whole time (besides the pacer obviously). As we came around the last corner, we picked up the pace and I ended up finishing in 2:09:26 - my slowest-ever HM time! I'm so proud

Post-race
There were a lot of goodies after the race! In the exit chute alone I picked up water, Gatorade, a banana, a mini muffin, a Gatorade chew of some kind, a packet of almond butter, a NutriGrain bar, and a carton of chocolate milk, along with a ticket to get even more things in the finishers area. I threw all of that (except for the Gatorade chew and the mini muffin, which I ate) into the drawstring bag I also received, because...I was still only at 15.75 miles So I popped down a side street to get in that last quarter of a mile or so.

Then I made my way to the post-race party and picked up a bowl of rice and beans, a glazed donut, another bag, a hat, sunglasses, iced coffee, a can of beer, a tequila sunrise, and a scoop of ice cream Quite a haul! I ate some of the food and drank the tequila sunrise while doing a little stretching.

After the race I had plans to meet a friend for brunch, hence the wet wipes and change of clothes. It was a little bit of a challenge to clean myself up and change in the tiny stall, but I managed! At brunch I had a burger and fries and a couple of sangrias, and then I went home and took a nap

Overall I had a really good time and would recommend the race!

The one picture I managed to take:

ID: 2022 Orlando HM medal

 

[Herding_Cats]

My biggest issue with training for a disney marathon is that the mega-hunger hits when it's time to make all of the christmas cookies and then I eat all of them.

 

[WillRunForPizza]

My biggest issue with training for a disney marathon is that the mega-hunger hits when it's time to make all of the christmas cookies and then I eat all of them.

You're not wrong...I have been eating about four cookies a day for like a week