Training Through A Hurricane

I have managed to live in Florida for 5 years without any serious hurricanes.  Sure there have been some tropical storms, but nothing too major.  Finally, I have had to deal with my first major hurricane.  Hurricane Matthew decided to take a trip up the Florida coast yesterday and today.  I'm lucky enough to live in central Florida so I am dealing with winds and rain, still nothing like those living on the coast.

Growing up in California we had to deal with wild fires and earthquakes, sudden things that you can't always prepare for.  The thing about hurricanes is that you can prepare.  So of course we got food, batteries, water, etc... Yesterday we knew we had all day to prepare so I woke up, saw some clouds but also sun so I decided it was time for a run.  I figured that was on my hurricane prep list... get one last run in.  

I got a rough 3 miles in.  Running has just not been my thing lately, but I will push through it to hopefully have a decent race in about a month.  Luckily it's not a true race... it's a get to the finish line event.  The weather was nice.  It would be hot, then some wind would come through, it would be dry and then some sprinkles.  No hard rain, no nasty gusts.

Now I do love running in the rain, but between the rains and this lovely curfew that has been placed in our county, I will be staying put inside.  At some point I will be getting a strength workout in, but for now I'm watching the rain and wind from the comfort of the couch.

I think the hardest part of this hurricane has been not eating and drinking through the entire thing.  I've been doing so well this last week on my diet and yesterday was definitely not a good day for that... it was a good day for my taste buds though. 

An Unexpected Training Goal Completed

Originally I was hoping to get a long run in this weekend that would be about 5-6 miles.  However, this week got hot again and even the mornings were pretty humid.  If I didn't wake up before the sun, then the run was probably not happening, at least outside.  And of course my body decided it liked sleeping in until after the sun was up.

I spent most of my workouts in the gym, but I was definitely feeling stronger.  I was able to go farther on the elliptical and I felt really good on the treadmill.  My knee had a few issues towards the end of the workouts, but overall I felt really good.  That helped my running self-esteem for sure.

Now three days of running on machines is good, but not really that surprising for me.  The unexpected training goal was that I ran today as well, making me run 4 times in 5 days.  I did take a break one day for sleep and yoga.  I was pretty sore from pushing it on the machines (I make sure the settings aren't easy and there's still a challenge) and decided a day of stretching would be beneficial.  It paid off and this morning I felt fantastic.

The weather was gorgeous, humidity was low, and I felt great.  My legs didn't fatigue until towards the end of my 3.5 mile run and I knew I could have pushed it farther if I had been given enough time.  Unfortunately work cut into that.  I have felt good all day as well, no soreness from the run.  Maybe my endurance and strength are coming back?  I'll only know in the coming weeks.

I'm just excited I was able to get so much cardio in so close to each other.  My legs will hate me now, but they will thank me later.  We will see what next week has to bring... and the week after that... and eventually the challenge.

Getting A Little More Into It

We have had some decent mornings in central Florida, and I was hoping today's would be the same.  It was... sort of.  It was starting to get hot around around 7:00 when I left for my run, but it still wasn't too bad and there was a slight breeze.  I'm just hoping we don't completely fall back into a typical Florida summer weather pattern... I'm so sick of hot mornings.

Last week when I tried to run, 2 miles was a struggle.  I'm happy to report that I was able to hit 4 miles today.  The last mile was also a struggle, but it was double the distance of last week.  No, I will not be double my distance again next week, just adding one or two more miles.  I still have a month and a half to go to try and regain some of my endurance.

I have to say though, I'm so happy about my walking pace.  This year I really focused on keeping my walk below, or right around a 16 minute pace.  That is one thing I have constantly been successful with all summer.  I know that even if I can't finish Lumiere's Challenge by running, I should be far enough ahead, and my walk should be quick enough that I will finish regardless.

I'm still a bit nervous about the race.  I keep thinking it's next week, but I still have more time to get ready.  Of course we also have the Food and Wine festival starting, a family trip during the festival (which means lots of eating), and hopefully nicer weather will get here.  

I just need to keep reminding myself to stay positive, drink more water, eat a bit better, and trust myself.  I will get through this, I will finish my return to runDisney races, and eventually I will conquer all of my running goals!  One step at a time, one mile at a time!

I'm Still Alive!

I'm still round, I promise!

About two weeks ago I finally got the chance to go on vacation to Houston and took the entire week off to relax and spend time with a friend and their family.  It was filled with food, baseball, and some sight seeing.  I'm slightly regretting taking that time completely off of training, but the vacation was needed on so many levels.

Between a modified work schedule and school endeavors, I've been able to get back into some sort of workout routine since getting back.  I've only ran about 2 miles in the last week, but I have some decent elliptical runs planned for the weekend.  I am getting nervous about my endurance right now because Lumiere's Challenge is in about a month and a half.  It is getting close and I am no where near where I need to be.  I'l be able to finish, I'm not worried about that.  I'm more concerned with how much it is going to hurt to get to that goal.

This is one of those times I am so happy I chose to start training my walking time to be closer to that 16 minute pace runDisney requires.  That may end up being my saving grace for the weekend...

A month and a half left... time to really get going...

Staying Positive

This morning was nice, warmer than I expected, but nice.  I set out on a run that I hoped would be about 4 or 5 miles.  I really needed to start getting my outdoor runs back up to a decent mile.  I got out on the first mile... felt fine.  Then about 1.6 miles in, I started falling apart.

For the first time in a long time I found myself suffering from a side cramp.  It didn't last long, but was replaced the fatigue feelings and an uneasy stomach.  The funny part was the fatigue wasn't in my legs, it was in the rest of my body.  So overall, I just didn't feel good.  My legs felt fine and like the could run, but with the rest of my body effectively trying to shut down, I knew my goal of at least 4 miles wasn't happening.  I still need to go to work today so I couldn't completely kill myself.

I'm 2.5 months out from running Lumiere's challenge.  While I feel ok about the 10k, I'm nervous about the half marathon, especially since it's right after the 10k.  I have a recovery plan and know how I plan to run the 10k to be ready for the half, but my mileage and endurance has just never gotten up to where I wanted it to be for the race.  The mornings are starting to get nicer so I'm hoping that I will be able to build up my longer runs again, even though it feels like I'm doing so from scratch.

It's in these times that I have to think about why I'm doing all this.  There are a few main reasons... the money I've invested into running the races, the time I've invested in training runs, and the support I've gained from friends and families.  They all know and somewhat expect me to be able to run these races and here I am questioning myself.  I have to know what they know.  I can do this, I will do this. I will run Lumiere's Challenge and while it is going to hurt, I will finish.  It won't be my best time, but I have never expected it to be.  This is my return to runDisney running... this is just the beginning for another chapter of running.

Currently I'm watching the Olympic marathon and I'm finding myself excited about my race because of this one.  I never expect to be an olympic runner, but I can be my own personal running hero because I have beaten the odds in the past and I plan to do so again, and again, and again.

In the coming weeks, as I prepare for Lumiere's Challenge, I'm going to look at what really motivates me.  I'll write posts on the random to the understandable but each thing gets me moving for one reason or another.  And hopefully, writing about my motivations will help me find my feet and find my endurance again!

Running To The Dark Side

After some debate with coworkers we finally settled on another race to all run together.  Originally it was supposed to be the Glass Slipper Challenge during Princess Weekend, but then one of the guys wanted to run the challenge with us, but didn't want to do a princess themed race (can't really blame him).  So we changed our focus.  Three of us have now signed up for the Dark Side Challenge during Walt Disney World's Star Wars Half Marathon Weekend.

I'm excited since this will be the first time running during the Star Wars weekend.  I was lucky enough to work last year's race, but now to get to run it and add it to my growing list of races run... I'm excited!  Not sure if we'll do costumes... that might include more convincing, but you never know.

runDisney Virtual Run Medals

After a bit of waiting, I finally have my virtual run prizes!  Since I did the full series of 5k runs through the event I received not 3, but 4 medals.  One medal for each run and a series medal to top it off.  Then as an extra bonus, a tumbler!

I knew I was getting all five items when I signed up, but what I wasn't expecting was the size or the quality.  I was expecting possibly smaller medals and probably made out of rubber like the normal 5k medals at the real runDisney events.  I was wrong.

First, the medals were metal, which shocked me.  However, with the announcement of metal medals at other runDisney 5ks, I really shouldn't have been too surprised.  Second, the medals were huge!  I was not expecting them to be so big.  They rivaled the sizes of some of my other race medals (pictured below).

Overall, I'm very pleased with the medals and the event overall.  Would I have liked to have my medals sooner?  Of course, but they did say 30 days after the event ended and it was right around that 30 day mark so I'm definitely not complaining.  If anything, considering the quality and size of the medals, I am completely happy that I signed up for these runDisney virtual 5ks and will probably be signing up for more in the future!