As I am on out my long run this morning I asked myself, “Why did I sign up for Dopey?”  I did a 5 mile run yesterday per Jeff Galloway’s instructions and my 16 mile run this morning.  I felt ok considering I did 5 miles yesterday, but then I was doing the math in my head…5 and 16 not so bad, 13.1 and 26 the following day — kind of scary.  3.1 (5K), 6.2 (10K), 13.1 (half marathon) then 26.2 (full marathon)… WHAT THE HELL AM I DOING????!!!!  Seriously, I had a bit of panic over the idea.

The back to back 5K and 10K races don’t scare me, but the “Goofy” part of the challenge, the half and full marathons do.  I must trust in the training Jeff is setting up for me to prepare my body for this and hopefully not get injured during the training as well.  I did as he instructed and changed my intervals from what I normally use (45/30) to 15/30.  It slowed down my pace to 13 minutes/mile, but also having the shorter bursts of running and longer walking helped me to not be as sore and endure the distance better. Compared to my 16 mile run a few weeks ago, I did finish it 7 minutes slower, but that was mainly because I did the 15/30 intervals.

I set my alarm for 5:30 this morning.  My kids tucked me into bed last night and I read my book and fell asleep rather quickly and relatively early compared to my usual bed time.  I didn’t stall when the alarm went off, I got up, made some toast and tea and got my butt out the door by 6:20.  I was concerned with the storms that were in the forecast on the news and it was still a bit more overcast at that time of the morning.  But once I was out there it didn’t feel as dark.  There was a point in time around 7:15 that the sun came out and I was worried because it was very humid already.

As usual, my iPod was loaded up with my favorite Disney Pod casts, Mickey Miles, Be Our Guest, The DIS Unplugged so I had my usual Disney magic in my ears.  The Mickey Miles Podcast was talking about California and that made me a little excited about the Dumbo Double Dare coming up next month.  I haven’t had been thinking about it as much lately with other events going on in my life right now.  But the training I am doing now for the Philadelphia Marathon and Dopey is rolled in with that race weekend as well.  I haven’t been thinking about Philadelphia as much either.  It’s funny how you put your head down and push forward with what’s on the training plan without thinking much about where you are racing.  At least that is how it is for me. November and January are a long time from now for these upcoming races, but the work needs to be put in now to build up to them.

So the lesson I took out of this weekend’s training routine was about being dedicated to get up early and hit the road in the early hours before it gets too hot and also so I can spend more time with my family.  With the longer runs coming up on the training schedule and my work schedule I don’t know how I will get them all fit in so I may be using my weekend mornings like I did this weekend with early starts.  In the winter, I have no clue what I will do when it is dark out so early.  I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.

I was also very conscious of cars when I was on the main roads.  I was thinking a lot about the poor young man who was killed recently in the town next to me, on the roads that I run on.  I am a very conscious runner and did move to the side of the road a few times when I wasn’t sure if I was being seen.  I pray that nothing like that every happens to me, leaving my family without a mother and a wife.  I hate to think that way, but it has been on my mind a lot more lately.  I won’t stop doing what I love, but I will be more aware and make changes accordingly (like choosing different routes to run on that are less busy).

Here’s to looking forward to a weekend of low miles and recovery in the next coming weekends and to an excuse to sit in the movie theater with my family this afternoon!