Wife Mother Runner Star Wars Dark Side Challenge Archives

Injury Update – Making A New Plan

April 30, 2016

It’s been a while since I blogged and there are several reasons for that. One good reason was because I was on vacation with my family to Disney for Spring break and also to run the runDisney Star Wars Dark Side Challenge. I’ll have more on the race specifics in a future post. I have also been recovering from my recent bout with patellar tendonitis. I had been very good about resting it, icing it and doing various PT exercises to strengthen it. I did not run at all prior to the race; but wasn’t too concerned about conditioning for the race. I was able to walk around the parks at Disney with the family just fine and had my knee taped by my friend Merle while at the expo for the race.

That was great support for me while I visited the parks the two days prior to the actual races. I also took the advice of my chiropractor and purchased a knee strap for support to use when I run.

Once it was time to run the races, I felt good about the 10K. My plan was to run my intervals and see what happens. If things weren’t better, then I was going to walk the half the next day if necessary. I was running with Diana and Mandy and they were supportive of my needs. I ran the 10K with a few issues; but what I noticed with this race was that instead of doing my intervals, I kept running through them. I didn’t want to stop every 30 seconds. Part of the reason for that was because it was crowded and the second part was because I was feeling so good. I hadn’t run in three weeks and my legs felt fresh to run almost a mile without stopping for a walk break.

It’s when i stopped for the intervals that I was starting to feel the twinges. I also noticed it when I ran downhill. So I was very careful. All in all, I was very happy with my recovery and knew that I would be ok for the half marathon. I felt good the entire day after the race (despite the fatigue from being awake since 2:30 a.m.) and went to the Magic Kingdom with my family and met up with Diana and Mandy for pictures of us together for Dapper Day.

The next morning was the half marathon and I was going to take the same approach for that race. My legs were a little bit sore from running continuously but my knee felt ok. However, I had quickly gotten sick with some type of respiratory issue. I don’t know if it was allergies, or not having my oil diffuser with my in our hotel room; but I lost my voice and my lungs were very heavy. Once the race started I did ok for the first section and my knee survived it very well also; but by mile 6 I was deteriorating. I was very tired, I had trouble with my breathing and my throat and chest was burning from the illness I was fighting off.

I was not happy with my race results, and I am still processing this race mentally; but that will be left for a future blog post.

What I plan to do now that I am back home again and was able to go on a few runs with no knee issue is to put together my plan for the year going forward. I am signed up for the Marine Corps Marathon. I thought about my successes in the past and what I did to be successful with my races. The answer is to have a plan. So I went to my favorite website, www.jeffgalloway.com and printed out his marathon training plan and penciled in the dates from the Marine Corps Marathon date back. So now I have a plan. When I was successful with my races, it was because I used that plan religiously. I want to get back to that.

I am also exploring Heart Rate Training. I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts, Another Mother Runner and Dimity and Sarah were talking about Heart Rate Training, which Dimity has been doing a lot of because she is training for an ultra. They talked about Heart Rate training having benefits of better aerobic training, reduction in the risk of injury and an increase in your speed. They offer a heart rate training plan which I am going to join and give it a fair shot in addition to my Jeff Galloway training plan.

That’s where things are as of now, I’ll dig deeper into my race recaps, training plans and Disney vacation recap as soon as I can. Stay tuned!

I’m On The Bench

April 8, 2016

Well, I haven’t run since March 30 and that feels like an eternity for me. I haven’t even substituted my runs with a walk because I am being diligent about healing my tendinitis in my knee as fast and best as I can. This has been very hard for me. I need my fresh air fix and Vitamin D exposure. But I also need to be able to run the Star Wars Dark Side Challenge a week from this weekend.

So what happens when you get tendinitis of the patella? I didn’t go to an orthopedic doctor for a prescription for PT; but my chiropractor did tell me that is what I was battling. So I have been icing my knee often. I also went to my online doctor, YouTube, to learn the proper way to tape my knee. I also experimented with taping the tendon earlier in the week to see what my options will be so I can make it through the races. I am hoping that I won’t have to walk the entire races.

I have also been using my Deep Blue essential oils to massage the tendon and doing leg lifts, squats and some mild physical therapy exercises to strengthen the quads and IT band. I plan to visit the expo prior to the races and am hoping the line for the KT tape booth won’t be too long and I can get professionally taped prior to the races. If I can’t, I feel pretty confident with the methods I tried.

Per the advice of my chiropractor, I am going for a massage today to help with my body’s recovery from all of the running that I do and have done in the past with little reprieve or recovery and pampering to help my body remove the lactic acid and loosen up the tightness.

My yoga class was cancelled last Monday because of the SNOW, yes snow in April. But I am kind of glad because I didn’t want to make any movements or do any poses that would cause strain on my knee. So as I have 7 days until these races, I am going to be very diligent to take it easy and not do anything to jeopardize my ability to run next weekend.

I will say that even though i miss my outside fix, the weather has been helping me not feel as guilty because we have been suffering through rain and snow for the the past week. Random snow showers and downpours or rain with 50 mph winds have been hammering since last week. It’s been raw and cold so it’s helping me mentally give myself the OK to stay inside and workout indoors instead with weights and my PT exercises.

Planning Our Disney Vacation This Spring

March 15, 2016

I don’t usually create a schedule or put together a to do list when it comes to what we will do on our Disney vacations; but this year we are going during a time of year we never went before and I am a little nervous about it. We never go during school vacations because it’s school vacation time and the whole world seems like they are in Disney during that time of year (besides Christmas). But I did some research tonight and am printing out some information and getting my bearings to help make some decisions and plans.

We are also doing things a little different this time. My Star Wars Dark Side Challenge races conveniently fell during the same time we were taking this trip; so some of my park touring may be altered slightly to accommodate my early wake ups for the two races. But we also didn’t purchase an annual pass this year like we always due. Last October the price of the Annual Pass increased to an amount that just wasn’t going to work for us. When we went in January for marathon weekend we were able to purchase park passes with my Dad’s military discount. This time we are going to purchase multi-day park passes through an employee discount website so we can purchase as many days necessary and we will just factor in some non-park days to this trip. All in all we won’t lose much. We just won’t be able to hop on the monorail some nights to go for a spin around the park on the train and do some rides at night. But since we are staying in resorts on the monorail loop we will take advantage of watching the fireworks shows from the beaches.

There are things I would like to do on this trip that we have never done with the kids before. Surprisingly, we haven’t taken them to the following attractions. Don’t judge, there never seems to be enough time and they always want to do their favorites! So here are a few of the attractions that are a must do on the trip list this year:

Enchanted Tiki Room
The Country Bears
Enchanted Tales with Belle
Indiana Jones
Star Wars Launch Pad
Jedi Training Academy for Adrienne
The New Star Wars Symphony in the Stars: A Galactic Spectacular fireworks show at Hollywood Studios

And I would REALLY love to try to be at the Magic Kingdom for rope drop to see the welcome show. I also want to do a water park and this year I found some great discounted tickets for Aquatica. Since we have done Blizzard Beach twice in the past, I am not opposed to trying something different. Again, this trip is about being cost conscious. We will do our grocery shopping and stock up our room with the essentials, water and alcohol to save on the cost of drinks and food and pack our lunches for the parks and mainly eat our dinners in a park or resort. We have a few reservations for some restaurants that we know we want to go to for sure.

The Epcot Flower and Garden Festival will be in full bloom during this trip so I will be doing my research and posting on my blog some great resources for what is happening for kids this time of year at Epcot. I heard that there are a lot of great kid-centric activities going on this year. I also want to have the children go around to each country and have their name written in the language of that country to put into their journals.

I am also planning on participating in Dapper Day and dressing up for the Magic Kingdom. Diana and Mandy and I are going to get all dolled up in cute dresses after the 10K and take pictures in the Magic Kingdom. Dapper Day celebrates “stepping out in style”. There is no specific period of time that is recreated; but the looks are vintage-inspired. Active and retired military are encouraged to wear their dress blues or service uniforms. I have never been a part of this before so I am looking forward to seeing what everyone looks like!

One last thing that I am hoping we will get to see is the Rivers of Light Show at Animal Kiingdom. This show is debuting in April and rumor has it, that it will be opening on Earth Day , which is April 22. So I am keeping an eye out to hear more about it and how we can participate in this event when it starts showing. It would be so neat to be one of the first people to see this new show! I will also blog about this new feature separately, so stay tuned! Despite all of the construction going on in Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom, there is still enough for us to do in Hollywood Studios to keep us busy for a few hours that day and also allow us time to rest for the afternoon and then head to another park for the evening.

So as you can see, this trip is going to take a little bit of planning. I’m going to have to figure out which days will be park days, which days will be relax by the pool days and I also have to get to the Expo and fit my races into the vacation. It’ll all work out, this is nothing compared to Marathon Weekend in January! But I also do want the trip to be so busy with activity that it goes by in the blink of an eye either.

What else do you recommend we try on this trip?

What Have I Been Up To?

February 6, 2016

It’s been a little less than a month since the Dopey Challenge was over and I’m still getting out and enjoying my time on the roads. Some days I have been choosing to walk rather than run. Part of it is because I was fighting off a cold. I typically don’t care and just run through it; but I figured what do I have to prove? Why not just walk and enjoy the time out there?

We have been having the strangest weather. One weekend it will be 50 degrees and everything has a hint of Spring on it; then we will get a snow squal and everything is coated with white; only to melt a day later. Then the following weekend we will have a snow storm dump 12 inches on it – 7 days later 50 degrees and all the snow is gone. We are now on the colder trend of weather and the talk is that there will be more snow coming this week.

On Thursday I went for a walk. I planned on getting in at least 4 miles. The weather forecasters kept changing their forecast throughout the day from what was to be a potential 1″ dusting for our area to a much more significant snow. I knew something was up when I was out on my walk because all of the geese were in the fields gathering up food. I took a detour from my usual walk and went into a cornfield and followed it back into a section I have never walked before. I wanted to mix things up a little bit. I was enjoying my Laugh or Go Crazy podcast and felt like I was getting some soul healing that I was needing.

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The following day the kids had a snow day. I worked all day and then around 4:30 I needed to get out of the house and run. The roads were plowed and the kids were playing in the snow. I was antsy for my fresh air fix. Although it was slippery in spots I really enjoyed my time on the road. It was just before the sun set and the views were spectacular!

A first for me – I took a picture without make up on!

So what am I up to race-wise? I have been averaging between 3-6 mile runs but need to get in a little bit of a longer run to prepare for the runDisney Princess Half Marathon weekend Glass Slipper Challenge I am running with Mandy. I was planning to do the Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon in Washington D.C. in March but am going to pass on that since it is a long drive for a half marathon. I was going to turn it into a family trip; but we want to spend more time in the city and enjoy the sights. The runDisney Star Wars Dark Side Challenge is taking place in April so I will run that with Diana and Mandy and it takes place during our family vacation to Disney.

I haven’t made decisions yet for my other race plans. Since I am passing on the D.C. race, I will run the Chicago Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon because I was given the bib by Team Chocolate Milk. I wasn’t sure that I was going to want to run that race again; but I loved Chicago and had a great time with Susana Cruz so I hope we can hook up again and maybe I can encourage some of my other friends to run this race also.

I did toss my hat into the ring for the sweepstakes for the New York City Marathon. So now I wait to hear if that is going to fall into my plans for “not running a Fall marathon”. If that does turn up as a Yes then I have some thinking to do. I believe it also falls on the same weekend as the runDisney Wine and Dine Half Marathon. So I may defer for the following year if I do get into NYC. Again, time will tell.

So that’s what I have been up to lately.

runDisney Star Wars Dark Side Challenge Medals Released

December 4, 2015

Are you running the Inaugural Star Wars Dark Side Challenge in April? I am! I try to run almost every inaugural event that runDisney launches. But then that means I have to keep running them so that I can eventually earn legacy status with their special recognition.

Today runDisney launched their medal designs for the Star Wars races in April and they look awesome! I wish I were running the Star Wars challenge in January in California so that I could also earn the Star Wars Kessel Run Challenge Medal. It’s all about the BLING!!!

Photo by runDisney

There was another teaser in the email which was the announcements for the registration dates and race dates for 2016 and some for 2017. As a fellow Mickey Miler, Eddie McCoy pointed out. There is the caveat at the bottom of the list telling us to stay tuned for 2017 additional race dates. Wonder what that means!