Disney Dopey Training (Week 1 Done)

If you follow this blog, then you probably know that I’m training for the Dopey Challenge and I’m following the Hal Higdon plan for this event.  The first week came and went pretty well.  The weekday runs were pretty uneventful, then came the weekend back to back runs.  The Saturday mileage is still pretty low – Only had to run 3 miles.  Then on Sunday, the plan called for 13.

I backtracked the plan, but it officially started last week.

I met up with a couple friends at White Rock Lake in Dallas.  I like to do my long runs down there because it’s scenic, there’s facilities, and there’s lots of other active people out and about.  My friend Robert was one of the friends.  He’s been getting into running more and more lately.  I was happy for him because he said it was his first time looping the lake without stopping!  My other friend Meg was acting as our pace coach (just under 9 min miles).  She’s a great runner and probably could’ve left us in the dust, but she’s coming back from injury, and she’s nice.

Anyway, the lake is a 9 mile loop, but there’s a secret Batman detour that we took to add an extra mile.  So after those 10 miles, Rob and Meg had to go, but it only left me to run about 2.5 by myself.  I started off taking a new path for me.  There’s the main path, but off to the side at certain places there’s a mystery path that I’ve never run on…until now.  It pretty much ran parallel to the main path, but went through more wooded areas and had less people on it.  I’ll have to explore more of it in the future.

Back on the main path I had less than a mile to go when I paused my gps watch to grab some water and swag from a local radio station set up on the trail.  If they post the photos, I’ll snag em and share em on this blog.  It was cool because I got a whole swag bag for a training run, just like I would at a race.  Score!

Only problem is that I forgot to restart my watch when I started running again.  I went at least half a mile more that will never be documented.  Ha!  No matter, a little extra is good, right?  For my last stretch, I took a side road off the path.  I see bikers go up this road quite a bit, but I have only done it once…in a race.  This side excursion was very basically a big hill.  People go up it apparently to get some extra work in.  It definitely got my legs and lungs burning.  But I’m glad I did because at the top of the hill it had a great view of the Dallas skyline over the lake.

I felt pretty good during this run.  It helped having friends to chat with along the way.  But what really helped was the slightly cooler temps.  Don’t get me wrong, it was still warm.  Probably around 80’s at sunrise, but that’s much better than it’s been around here.  I felt strong at the end of the run, unlike two weeks prior when it was a battle to get my 12 done.  I’m hoping this weekend was a small taste of what’s to come!

Official Disney Dopey Challenge Training – Week 1

116 days until the Dopey Challenge commences, and I’m feeling good.  I’ve completed my “unofficial” training and now the “official” plan kicks in.  Hal Higdon designed the plan, and I had to train for it because week one’s long run is 13 miles.  So obviously I had to train just to be ready to train.  Here’s the week’s workouts so far:

Sunday – cross train (6 mile trail run)
Monday – rest
Tuesday – 3 mile run + weight training
Wednesday – 5 mile run with hill repeats
Thursday – 3 mile run + weight training
Friday –  rest

The weight training and hill repeats aren’t in the official plan, but I added them in.  The cross training choice is up to you, and I decided to join friends on a trail run.

I’m a tad sore and tired heading into the weekend of workouts, but not too bad. This weekend calls for a 3 mile run on Saturday (I may also go to yoga) and 13 miles on Sunday.  Luckily some friends are going to join me on Sunday at White Rock Lake in Dallas to run part of the way with me.  I’ll let you know how it goes next week.

I will say this – most friends, family members, etc. only get to see the finished product – the race.  They don’t get to see all the work that goes into getting there.  I say this because if I were to run a half marathon race this weekend, I’d get a medal, food, drinks, and all the other stuff that comes with a race.  But this weekend I’m running a half marathon training run.  There won’t be cheering spectators, bands, funny signs, or any of the other stuff that comes with a race.  But gotta do the work so hopefully I’ll be strong at the actual race.

If you’re in the Dallas area and want to join us on Sunday…holla!  Everyone else, how’s your training going?

Week 6 Disney Dopey Challenge Training

I finished the 6th week of my Disney Dopey Challenge Training (if you can’t tell from the title).  It was my last unofficial training week, because this week begins week 1 of the Hal Higdon training plan.  Why did I have to do pre-training training?  Because week 1’s long run is 13 miles.  So I have to be prepared for that.

Week 6 was supposed to include a kind of an easy weekend of running.  The weekend long run was supposed to be only 6 miles (but I accidentally did 7) with Project Run 214.

A few of us from the group…bright and early!

It’s still miserably hot for running around here, no matter how early you get up.  So humid too.  After the run I sat down on the ground for a minute and left a heart shaped stain of butt sweat.

Awww, my sweat is so sweet.

Afterward we did my fave thing to do after an early run, we went to breakfast and exchanged running war stories and ideas.  Yes to eggs, must satisfy that “Runger”!

Then Sunday Runday was supposed to be only a cross training day.  I made mine a 6 mile trail run with friends.  We ran through Erwin Park in McKinney, TX.  It’s a great park, but there are usually lots of mountain bikers on the trail that you have to watch out for.  It was also kind of freaky hearing all the gun shots going off from the surrounding fields – apparently dove season has opened and people were out shooting birds.  Only one of us was hit, but luckily he had on a bullet proof vest.  Just kidding.  But not kidding, it was cool to see the recreational hot air ballooners flying from and around the park.  My one friend snapped this pic as we were leaving.

How does one decide to buy a hot air balloon?

After the run we did my fave thing again – breakfast!  Where for some reason we took a group photo in the restroom.  Runners are weird I guess.

I was caught by surprise by the camera lady.

Anyways, pretty good weekend of running and eating.  No the training officially kicks in, and I’m ready.  I’m also ready for some cooler temps.  When football season starts, I know we’re close to cooling down some (I hope).

Hope you got a good sweat or two in this past weekend!

Peace!

 

Dopey Training Week 4 (I think) Weecap

Not a typo in the title, I just invented the word for week recap.  Anyway, last week’s runs went fine.  The mileage is still low, which is frustrating, but good too.  The weekdays only had my run 10 miles total.  Then came the weekend’s back to back runs.  Saturday called for 3 miles, I went a tad further.  Sunday called for 12 miles, I didn’t go a tad further.  Sunday was hot again and humid again.  I met a friend at White Rock Lake (9 mile loop) before sunrise…it didn’t matter, the weather was still pretty miserable for running.  We did pretty good the first 7 miles, but by then the sun was up and blazing.  It was a bit of a struggle the next 3 miles, then a noticeable struggle the last 2.

Now I follow some big time runners on Twitter – Hal Higdon, Jeff Galloway, etc.  And I can’t remember who, but one of them likes to tweet that your “wall” hits at the mile of your previous long run’s last mile.  I’m finding this to be true.  So that partly explains my struggles the last couple miles.  But I also know the heat plays a role too.  And I found myself wishing for fall temps.  I have hope with the start of English football and American football, and the fact that the calendar says “September” that it hopefully it will start to cool soon.

But we got her done.  That’s what counts.  Injury free, that’s what really counts.  So on to the next week.  Keep on keepin on.  Bring it!

Dopey Training Schedule

So Dopey Challenge (5k, 10k, 13.1, 26.2 in 4 days at Disney World) training doesn’t officially begin in Hal Higdon’s program until Sept, but week one the long run is 13 miles, so obviously we need to be able to run that far by that day.  Doy!  I’ve been smartly and surely raising my mileage.  Last week I ran 11 on Saturday and another 4 on the trails on Sunday.  I’ve been doing 400’s each Tues at the track.  Running on my own on Wed. And of course social running on Thursdays.

This week’s group pre-run. We looked different after running in 100+ degree temps.

Of course, I’ve been lifting weights several times a week and I try to NEVER miss my weekly yoga practice.  But anyways, since we’re about a month out, I took Hal’s plan and took his pattern and backtracked it thru today.  It at least gives me a structured plan to follow.  I had been just waking up and randomly running a random distance.  Only problem is that back tracking his plan had some pretty low mileage for some of the runs, but I figure since I’ve already been running further, I can continue to do so without messing anything up really.

The only other adaptations I want to make are adding Yasso 800’s and some Hill Repeats.  It looks like Wednsdays are the days for speed work, so that’s where I’m looking to add them.  Any suggestions for this?  Anyway, here’s the basic plan:

Doesn’t seem so bad on paper…right?

BTW, you can click on the image to enlarge it.  Anywhoodle, that’s all I got.  Here we go!

 

Dopey Challenge Trianing Plan

Who put a cartoon character in charge of a major race?

OK, so I’ve been preparing myself the past couple months for the Dopey training.  Yes, I’ve been training for my training.  Good thing too, cause I just settled on which plan to follow and Hal Higdon is the winner!  As you can see, week 1 requires you to be able to already run 13 miles at once.  So you better have done some pre-training to be ready to do that.

Not too bad, right?

Honestly, it doesn’t seem too bad.  Sure the back to back long runs will be tough, but they’re not as long as I thought they’d be.  I may add a little extra mileage, but maybe I should be smart and stick to the schedule as made.  After all, he’s the expert.  I settled on this plan because I’ve heard a lot of good things from several runners about following his plans before for marathons.  It’s worth a try.  Though I’m sure no plan is perfect since this is the inaugural edition of the Dopey, so if nobody’s done it, then maybe nobody knows the best way to prepare for it.  And maybe there is no best way to train.  I’m sure there are several plans that good for different people.  It’s not an exact science, after all.

True words. It takes a lot of work.

My only addition to his plan is I’ll continue on with my cross training during the week.  I know he has some cross training days in there, but I currently do more than that and want to continue.  I believe it is VITAL to cross train when doing distance running.  Need to keep your body strong in order to run strong.  So I’ll keep up with yoga, weight lifting, etc.  Not sure if I’m going to play soccer this fall though – I’d hate to invest in running this Dopey only to get an injury playing soccer – may have to skip a season.

Anyway, the official kickoff for this program is September 9th, 2013.  Just gotta make sure I’m ready to run 13 miles by the end of that week in addition to the other runs.  Shouldn’t be a problem.  I’m almost to that distance on my current long run and I’m basically running 5 days a week anyway.  Here’s to hoping for a successful training season and a successful Dopey completion!!!

Dopey Underway, New Race, Cool Summer

So RunDisney tweeted this week that their official training for the Dopey Challenge begins this week.  That must mean we’re 28 weeks away, as they follow a 28 week program.  I am going to follow Hal Higdon, and he has an 18 week program for the Goofy Challenge.  But in that program, week 1 features a long run of 10 miles, so you better already be in decent shape before you start!  I’m a couple months from starting, but already my miles are going up in preparation.  This past Sunday I ran 9.  Would’ve run more but passed by my house at mile 9 and decided to call it a day.

And can I just say that the freaky cooler temps we got this week are making a huge difference.  It’s July.  In Texas.  It should be miserable like it was last week with temps reaching 104.  This week the lows are in the 60’s and highs in the 80’s.  Holy crap that’s awesome.  I’ve been getting up early to go run in the 60 degree temps just to take advantage.  And can I also say that running in these temps makes it so much easier to run.  Makes me feel better about my conditioning as I was struggling during some of the high 90’s runs.  Had to take some walk breaks to cool down.  But with the cooler temps, no need to stop.  So glad that that’s the case!

So, I’ve been running track workouts with a friend and he’s signed up for a race on July 4th.  He kept asking me to register.  I ran it last year and wasn’t sure about doing it this year.  But the cooler weather has swayed me.  I need to run that day anyway, so why not race?  Who knows when we’ll get temps like these again?  Gotta keep taking advantage!

Anyway, I’ll fill you in with a race preview tomorrow.  Holla!

 

How to Train to be Dopey

So I’m still in “pre-training” for the Dopey Challenge at Disney World in January ’14.  And I’m trying to decide which plan(s) to follow.  I do NOT want to sacrifice my cross training as I believe that is key to avoiding injury for runners.  So however I attack it, I’m going to have to remember to add x-training to the running schedule.

I’ve asked several people how they think I should train for Dopey and I get a lot of this, “You’re on your own on that one, brutha.”  All I know is that I’m going to have to do back to back “long runs” to get my legs used to working when they’re full of lactic acid.  So here’s some plan options:

Here’s Jeff Galloway’s.  He’s Disney’s official trainer and advocates doing a walk-run approach.
http://as1.wdpromedia.com/media/ewwos/pdf/rundisney/training-programs/2014/DopeyChallenge14.pdf

Here’s Hal Higdon’s Intermediate 2.  He says it’s good for people doing the Goofy.
http://www.halhigdon.com/training/51140/Marathon-Intermediate-2-Training-Program

Here’s another option called the Hanson Method.  They don’t go more than 16 miles in a long run, but do advocate running more miles more often.
http://www.runnersworld.com/race-training/marathoning-hansons-way?page=single

I’m kind of leaning toward Hal Higdon as he has the whole back to back long runs I think I’ll need.  I’ve had a few people recommend his to me.  The Hanson one is intriguing, as I do like the idea of not having to go out on some 20 milers, but also don’t want to have running overtake my entire life – I wish running was my job, but it ain’t.  Galloway’s I think is geared more toward novice level, and that’s great, but I want to be able to run this challenge, not walk/run it.

So that’s what I’m looking at.  Anyone have any suggestions??????  Hollaback if you do!

In Training: The Run Disney Dopey Challenge

So I did something that might be a little suspect.  It went down a couple months ago I was in North Crackalaka to run The Flying Pirate Half Marathon.  I was at the apt. of my good friend Christie, or Xty as I call her.  She has a gluten allergy and can’t drink beer, so wine it is!  After a couple glasses I get a text from my sis in Florida.  She was getting ready to join us in NC for the race, but had just done something a little suspect.  She had registered for the Dopey Challenge at Disney World.  The Dopey is a brand spankin’ new event.  It takes place during Disney’s Marathon Weekend.  It’s four straight days of racing with each day increasing the distance.  Thurs=5k Fri=10k Sat=1/2 marathon Sun=Full marathon.  She registered because she lives there, wants the challenge, and wants the bling (you get 6 crazy medals for completing the challenge).  Also, after a day and a half of being on sale, the Dopey was already 99% full.  Drats!  I had to make a choice to join her or not then and there.  It was about to sell out, but I wanted time to ponder.  No time to ponder.  Another glass of wine.  Registered!

Let’s get doped up.

Registered.  Now time to train.  But how does one train for this?  I’ve asked several people but they usually tell me I’m on my own with that one.  Some say I should treat it like an Ultra.  The official training guru for Disney is Jeff Galloway, and he does have a plan on their web page.  I will reference it in my training, but I know his method is the run/walk one.  I want to attempt to run each race, to me that’s part of the challenge.

One thing I do know is that our bodies won’t get much recovery time between races.  So what I’ve been doing is trying to make my body sore/tired all the time to get used to it.  I’ve been basically doing two-a-days of running and weights or yoga, back to back long runs, etc.  Last week I was so drained that it was a struggle just to walk the dogs around the block, and when I got on the floor to do my foam rolling, I promptly fell asleep. On the floor.  On my foam roller.

But it’s all good.  I think my body is getting used to the constant (as can be) motion.  Already lost some extra lbs.  Adjusting my diet too to keep up with the extra energy I need.  And I think the lactic acid in my legs are getting flushed out faster so they can be ready to run again sooner.  But in reality, I haven’t started the actual training yet.  The race isn’t until January, which is good.  Gives me time to get ready.  So I’m trying to be smart about it and not do too much too quickly.  Avoiding injury is key!  But I’m wondering how my body is going to respond in a few months when I have to run 10+ miles one day, and then 20+ miles the next.

As far as training programs go, I already mentioned Galloway, which I will reference once in a while.  I’m also looking at Hal Higdon.  I think he advocates back to back medium/long runs.  So that could be useful.  I’ve also looked into the Hanson marathon method.  They never have you run more than 16 miles, but you are running almost every day and going pretty good distances each time.  Something to consider.  I will look at all of it and try to figure out a plan of attack.

I know I’m probably just telling myself what I want to hear, but I’m thinking it won’t be so bad.  I’ve been running these distances for about 5 years now.  And this past year was the first time it all felt like it was starting to click.  I’ve been injury free (mostly) for that time and I keep getting faster.  I recently read that they tell elites coming out of college that it will take them about 3 years before it clicks for them, and it makes sense.  You’d think running is just running, but it’s not. It’s a lifestyle.  You’ve got to learn to put it all together – the diet, sleep, cross training, etc. etc.  It can take a while to get it.  I still have more to learn, but I hope I’m getting it.

Good news is the 5k is not timed.  My goal will be to get a PW (personal worst).  The other races are timed, but I’m hoping to be smart about it.  I do NOT want to PR in the 10k or half marathon.  I want to keep as much in the tank as possible for the full.  It will hurt the ego and competitive spirit to run slow in a race, but it is necessary.  And I know it’s dumb, but I’m secretly hoping I can still PR in the full.  Like I said, I know that may be a dumb wish.  It would be pretty cool to PR though after three straight days of racing.  We’ll see how it goes.

Anyway, I’ve resisted in the past using this blog as a place to post my routine workouts, but I might start doing more of that now.  Hopefully some of you others doing the Dopey can get some use out of my training posts.  And maybe some of you can offer me some advice from your own perspectives.  Runners helping runners.  There you go.

So it starts here.  I’ll recap my week.  Saturday, 7 miles then 1 hr yoga.  Sun, 7 miles.  Mon, weights.  Tues, 4 miles. Wed, weights then 5 mile track workout.  Thursday (today), weights then running around 4 miles.

Like I said, it’s Thursday.  That means evening social run.  This week we’re running from one of my fav local pubs (they always have good quality beers and it helps that I know the owners) – Rugby House.  Last week we ran from the Katy Trail Icehouse Outpost in Plano.  GREAT patio!  It’s close to 100 degrees outside in North Texas right about now, but on the patio you wouldn’t know it.  Blanked with tree shade, chilled with cold brews, and fanned by misty fans.  Though on my track workout yesterday, I definitely did know it was close to triple digits….HAWT!

That’s enough for now.  I’ll leave you with a pic from our social run last week.  Join us sometime why don’t you?

We run. We socialize. It’s cool.