Putting In My Order

It's official!  I'm in for Lumiere's Two Plate Challenge this November.

Not going to lie, I totally forgot about registration and went to work like it was any other day.  Luckily I have a wonderful mother who put it on her calendar and texted me that she was ready to help me sign up.  Good thing too since I was no where near a computer and wouldn't be for a few more hours.

So yes, I'm officially in and ready (I hope) to run the Food and Wine challenge.  I still have quite a bit of training to do and I'm nervous about training through the Florida summer again, but I'll get through it regardless.

Right now I need to focus on getting better.  I was stupid and decided not to admit I was getting sick last week and now I'm paying for it.  So I'm taking this week off of training and will restart next week... again.  Hopefully this time I'll be completely healthy and ready to go for a while...

More Races!

I have been meaning to sign up for the Wine and Dine Half Marathon for a while now.  I just haven't since there were still some major questions pertaining to my future.  Well, yesterday I got some great news, my future became a bit more secure, and now I've signed up for the Dine and Wine Half Marathon.

I'm super excited for this race because it provides a few new experiences.  The course is different, which is nice because I've been repeating the same course for Princess and Disneyland for two years now (Not saying those courses are bad, quite the opposite actually).  It's a night race.  I know, after all my complaining about running at night, I'm now running a race at night.  Who knows, this could permanently change my opinion of training in the evening.  Third, there's the after party which sounds like a ton of fun, but I should probably make sure I'm not working the next day.  Finally, it's just a new race for me!  That's always exciting!

Well, signing up for the Wine and Dine Half Marathon isn't my only exciting news...

I've also signed up for the 20th anniversary of the Disney World Full Marathon.  Yes, you read correctly, a full marathon.

Now, those who grew up with me and know me pretty well are probably surprised I'm doing a full marathon.  Heck, when I was a swimmer, I swore I would never run.  Then I started doing triathlons and eventually half marathons.  Still, even after my first half marathon I told my parents that I would never do a full marathon.  Well.... SURPRISE!

So, I have a few months to train for the full and I'm sure I can do it.  I have great supporters surrounding me and it will be a huge success when I'm able to finish.  So I guess there's something new to follow me on my blog for... to see if I survive the full marathon!

And you never know... if I survive the full marathon... maybe the Goofy Challenge will be in my future???

Back To Hitting The Brick Workouts

It seems that I haven't been able to get too many workouts in recently because work has been so busy and so tiring.  Luckily, today was my day off and I was able to get a decent workout in.  I took complete advantage of my free time and got a run and circuit workout in!

The run was pretty basic, 2.5 miles without any stops and around a 9:15 pace.  So far my mileage for this year is 102.2 miles.

Last week I got 3 new Jillian Michael's DVDs and I've slowly been exploring them.  Today I worked on her Extreme Shed and Shred.  It wasn't too hard, but I could definitely feel myself working.  There are two workouts in this video and I just did the first.  You can either do a 30 min workout at level 1 or 2, or combine them for a 60 min workout.  I just did the level 1 30 min workout.

My workout was decent and I'll probably do something similar tomorrow because I have a late start at work.  After that... who knows.  I know this is going to be a busy week, but with new DVDs comes a new drive to workout.

In other news, today was the day the Wine and Dine Half Marathon opened, but I'm opting to wait for a bit.  I'm hoping to get some news about my work location in a few weeks so I'm going to wait for that before I sign up for the race.  I still completely plan on running the Wine and Dine... I'm thinking a new PR?

Back Into Training

My recovery week is over and it's time to get back out there and continue training.  This time it's for the Tower of Terror 10 Miler and the Food and Wine Half Marathon.  Both are at the end of summer, but knowing how busy work is going to get, how hot and humid Florida will be, and just my trends of laziness... it doesn't hurt to start training now.

I did run 2 miles 2 days after the race, but that was more to get everything moving and loose.  Today was a bit different.  I got a wonderful 5 mile run in before it started warming up.  Last week was hot in Florida, we've already reached 90 degrees on some days!  Today only has a high in the mid to high 70s but like I've said before... I'm a morning runner.

The run felt good and I was pleased with my speed.  The first half of my run was below the 9:30 pace mark and the second half of my run was right around 10 min, but that also included some walking.  Overall, I was happy with myself and the run.

Looking Ahead at 2012

I know I'm a day late and 2012 has already begun.  I have a few running races and goals I know I'm planning and who knows what races I might add to that list.  I also have one resolution I'm focusing on this year.

My first running goal is to run 10 miles every week.  I know that some weeks I'll blow past this goal (like the weeks I run Half Marathons... aka 13.1 miles) and others it might be a struggle (weeks I'm recovering after races or if I get injured... which hopefully I won't).  Still, it is my 2012 running goal, as well as a condition to my parents sponsoring two of my races each year.

My race schedule for this year (that I know of thus far):

• Princess Half Marathon- February 26th
• Twilight Zone Tower of Terror 10 Mile- September 29th
• Wine and Dine Half Marathon- November 10th
• Reindeer Run 5k- December

If I can swing it (in my schedule and financially), I might try and throw in a 5k from time to time.

Now let's get serious of a bit.  New Years Resolutions.  While I feel as though keeping a New Years Resolution should be a resolution in itself, but that isn't what I'm focusing on right now.  Before the new year I had read that one way to keep a resolution is to only have 1.  I have 1 resolution that has two parts... one you focus on after the other is done.

My resolution is a common one, but one I have not yet been able to really control.  I want to (1) lose weight and (2) keep it off.  Eating right and working out... let's see if I can't get a handle on this whole weight thing in 2012, shall we?

Good Luck Food and Wine Runner!

Tonight I will be resting and getting some sleep before heading into work tomorrow morning.  However, that is not the case for a lot of people.  Yes, most people aren't heading to work tomorrow considering it's Sunday, but that's not the group I'm talking about.  I'm talking about all those runners running the Food and Wine Half Marathon here at Disney World!

I have a few friends running the race tonight and I wish them all the luck.  The course looks pretty interesting and I'm thinking about doing it next year.  So, good luck to those running the race tonight and have fun at the after party!

They did pick a great weekend for the race.  Not only are there all the fun activities associated with the race, but you also have the opening weekend of Food and Wine.  I walked around it today and there was a lot of interesting and good looking food.  I had a lobster roll from the America Pavilion that was really good.

It is also Walt Disney World's 40th birthday!  I trekked over to Magic Kingdom this morning for all the festivities.  There were special shirts and other merchandise pieces, but they all went pretty quick.  I think the shirts were sold out in like 5 minutes!  They also had special event cupcakes for purchase.  When you entered the park you could get a special button, they had special park maps, and they had a special show and parade.  I was able to get right in front of the castle so I had a great view of the whole thing and it was pretty cool.  A few stories, music from the Disney World Marching Band and Dapper Dans, as well as all of the characters.  It was a great morning!

Again, good luck to all of the runners!  I'm sure the race will be a great one!