Schedule Update

I have to update my running schedule again...

Due to some peer pressure at work, I have no signed up for the 20th Anniversary of Donald's Half Marathon during marathon weekend at Disney World.  A bunch of coworkers were signing up so I ended up signing up with them.

I turned the peer pressure around and convinced my roommate to sign up as well.  This is definitely a bit more of a social event now more than anything.  It's going to be fun!  That's for sure!

Caught Back Up

It seems as though I'm always trying to catch up to where I used to be or where I've been trying to be.   Last month with the visits and illness and just plain old busy life I fell off.  I'm happy to say that I've kind of caught up to where I used to be.

This morning I ran a strong 6 miles that made me feel accomplished and proud of myself.  I felt good with my biggest complaint was that i could feel a blister trying to form on my foot.  I can attribute that to my new socks though.

I'm definitely a little tired, but overall feeling good.  I'll be headed out to try some stand up paddling for Earth Day today.  We'll see how this goes!

April Catch Up

This whole month has felt like I was just trying to catch up where I was last month.  My training fell off my plan because I had friends over and I got sick.  Since then my body has decided it likes being lazy and my diet has had great weeks and terrible weeks.

Luckily over the last few days I had a few reminders about why I was doing what I was doing.  First, I received my run3rd medal and t-shirt from that virtual race and then I was able to watch a part of the Inaugural Star Wars Dark Side 10k this morning.  Between the two a sense of motivation was renewed within me.

The good news is my schedule has gone back to a 5 day work week with real days off again (some weeks I work all 7 days... making training a bit tricky) and I should be able to pick up my training again until my parents get here for their trip.  Even then, we're staying at one of my favorite running resorts so I'm actually pretty excited about that when it comes to my running.

So yes, I've only run about 11 miles this month and will be hoping to run about 10 more before the month is done... whether or not that will happen, who knows, but I'll definitely be trying for it!

Time To Buckle Down

There has been some controversy this week when runDisney delayed the registration for the Wine and Dine Half Marathon by 2 weeks.  The talk online was that something was changing because of the lack of announcement and there were rumors going crazy about what those changes could be.  Well today we finally got some answers...

Two of the ideas that were swirling around online have ended up coming true.  runDisney has added a 10k race, and thus added a 2 race challenge, and then it has gone from a night race to a morning race.

A lot of people seem to be madder at the fact that the race was switched to the morning, but I'm happy about it.  The weather in Florida in the fall is so crazy and the last two years worth of Wine and Dine races has had issues with the weather so the change to the morning should ensure a full race and hopefully a nicer race.  Plus, I love running in the morning a lot more in the evening.  The late night is what actually made me the most nervous about this race.

I will be running Lumiere's Two Race Challenge with the 10k and Half Marathon.  So I guess it's time to really get down to business and get ready for the challenges to start...

Weekly Report 4

 There really wasn't a theme to this week's runs or workouts.  It was just a week of get the workouts done or get through it.

Towards the middle of the week I started getting sick, thus started taking some Nyquil and DayQuil. While both of those do a wonderful job getting me back to feeling like my normal self; they also mess me up while I'm taking them.  So I didn't do much the first day, just focused on sleeping and feeling better.  The second day I focused on a circuit which was tough, but felt pretty good considering how I was feeling.

I spent yesterday just stretching, which was relaxing and made me feel really good, especially today on my run.

The run today felt mostly ok, until the end when I got a little shaky.  It seems like I'm not totally over this cold yet.  However, the craziest part was my running is getting faster and faster.  I've dropped almost a minute on pace, but just for the first two miles and then I get back closer to my original pace.  The fact that I'm getting significantly faster and stronger is making the fact my endurance is stalling perfectly fine.

It's kind of funny... trying to find the perfect blend of strength training and endurance training, and rest for that matter.  They never really seem to be working together, and yet there are signs that one helps the other.  Just have to keep pushing both and eventually, together, they will get me through the Dopey...

4 Days 4 Runs

The three biggest challenges of running the Dopey Challenge are:

1. Mileage
2. 4 Consecutive Running Days
3. Early Mornings

The mileage I'm working on with each run, both short and long.  I've been building up my strength and endurance in the last few weeks and the changes are starting to show.

The early mornings I'll push through and help with naps the weekend of the races.  Luckily I'm used to early mornings for work and also from morning practices still.  Unfortunately I suffer from the inability to sleep in.  Seriously, sleeping in for me is like 7:30AM, maybe 8:00 if I'm lucky.

So the consecutive days of running.  That's the only challenge I haven't really faced yet.  Well hadn't until this week.  Friday through Monday I made sure to get some sort of cardio in. 

The first two days were on the elliptical, one after a killer weight workout and the other just focused on the elliptical run.  On Sunday I hit the pavement and felt ok.  My knees weren't the happiest, but I got through the few miles I needed to before work and then made it through the rest of my day.  I was still feeling positive from my run by the end of the day, that I had decided to run again on Monday morning before work.  So I set my alarm and got out there for a slightly longer run.

As crazy as it sounds the last run, my 4th day, felt the best out of any of the other runs.  That has probably made me the most excited about what I had done.  The mileage was no where near what I'll need it to be for the actual challenge, but I haven't done that much running in that many consecutive days ever really.  It made me pumped for my training and my success with the Dopey Challenge.  Yes it's still two years away but I'm taking these minor wins because they'll add up to the overall win!

What I've decided to do now is for the rest of 2016 I am going to do a 4 day/4 run mini-challenge every other month.  In 2017 I'm looking at boosting it to every month.  It should make sure I'm as ready as I could ever be for the Dopey!

Weekly Report 3- Recovery

I'm still quite content with my 6 mile run last week and wanted to focus more on strength and recovery than I did distance.

Recovery... funny word when you're an athlete.  

When I was swimming in college we would get so excited about recovery days and then remember that recovery was more so active recovery. We still had a few sets, some of which were definitely not easy by any sense of the word, but it made sure we stayed in shape while not completely exhausting ourselves.

While I may not be swimming anymore, I'm still following some of the habits I picked up as a swimmer.  So that's why I focused on strength and even though I had a recovery week, I didn't just sit around.  I can actually say I'm sore, but it's more so my shoulder and chest region due to some time in the gym, including time on the rowing machine.

When I look back at the last two weeks I like the routine I'm setting up.  Pushing myself farther and farther one week and then working on strength the next week.  I need to work on both endurance and strength if I'm going to achieve the lofty goals I've given myself and I honestly think these alternating weeks may be the best.  Especially once summer and the humidity return in full force...