Never Tell Me The Odds!: From the Hospital Bed to Club 71

2019 Giant Race Lou Seal Challenge Recap!

Let's go back first to last year. The Giant Race Half Marathon was supposed to be the dream. I was happy with my new training plan from @DopeyBadger and felt confident that I could pull off the sub 3 hour half that was a mental barrier to my ability to complete the marathon. Then everything went wildly off the rails. I was in a bad place mentally heading into the race, completely wiped out physically the night before the race, and that all cascaded into my most difficult race ever. In spite of everything going wrong that day, I still actually set a new PR, but was still miserable. Now that said, my misery on that day taught me invaluable lessons that helped me truly enjoy my first marathon at Disney World this past January.

When I could register for the 2019 Giant Race, I debated between the Half and the 10K. I chose the half in part because I wanted to avenge last year's showing and meet my goals. Then a nasty cold wiped out all my planned training for June and I had to go back to square one. Coach told me that I should focus on using this race as training to get ready for Dopey and not worry about avenging last year. Better to be injury free. I appreciated him dialing back my aggression.

So I headed into today's races with the only goal of finishing the half marathon injury free and walking the 5K with my dad and little sister. Unlike last year, I made sure to start slow and just let the race come to me. My last race before today was a 5K in June. On that day, I felt like I had a lot in the tank, but needed to be conservative because my primary goal that day was to appropriately pace my 8 year old nephew and keep him from attempting to sprint the 5K.

Well as it turns out, today was my day. I basically used run/walk/run as I felt the need to slow down for a bit before pushing myself again. I didn't worry about pace at all aside from checking to make sure that my pace was in the ballpark of the race required 15 minute per mile pace. As I came upon each mile marker, I realized that the sub 3 hour half and with that a new PR just might be in reach. However, I chose not to worry about it. I knew I was on pace to finish and that would be good enough. But as miles 11, 12, and 13 continued to show that those goals were within reach, I decided to push myself to see if I could do it.

When I crossed the finish line, I realized that my gun time indicated that I may have broken the sub 3 hour half and I was pretty sure I had set a new PR even if I didn't break the sub 3 hour half marathon.

I looked up the preliminary race results and they show 2:58:58. So in the race where I was perfectly content with finishing ahead of the sweepers, I have at least set a new PR and probably broke the sub 3 hour half.

Giant Race San Francisco 5K

As part of the 10th anniversary of the Giant Race, they added the Lou Seal Challenge. Run the Half Marathon or 10K at 7:00am and then run the 5K at 10:50am.

I figured after the marathon, this would be less difficult. Admittedly, it's substantially easier to walk the race instead of trying to race it, but I was fine with that. My dad came into town to run the 5K because he wanted to experience being on the field at the Giants ballpark, so I was more than happy to walk the 5K with him and my racing buddy little sister. As we left the ballpark after the half to proceed to the 5K start line, I could really feel it on the stairs. However, my soreness had dropped substantially after the 5K. So my 58:33 5K time worked as a great recovery walk.

All in all, a happy race day for me. I feel like I handled the life happens stress much better this year than last year and enjoyed the race even before I realized that my set aside dream goals were still within reach.
 
So life gets in the way of updating my training journal. Partially a function of having spent a whole lot of time in the past few months of spending too many hours in the day in front of the computer at work and therefore a desire on my part to not spend much time recapping my running here in the training journal. Suffice it to say, marathon training continues so that's good.

September 2019: 14 hours, 47 miles

October 2019: 15 hours, 50 miles

November 2019: 30 hours, 105 miles
 
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away I was much more consistent, frequent, and better about updating this training journal. But 2019, not so much.

December: 66 miles.
2019: 483 miles.

I remind myself that while December does not look great for marathon training, it does involve multiple multi day visits to Disneyland so there was a whole lot of walking on those days which sort of suppresses the miles for the month, but does involve fatigue in my legs.

Other major December news for me was obviously The Rise of Skywalker. Without getting into spoilers, I loved it. I then spent the next 2 days in Disneyland doing exclusively Star Wars. Hyperspace Mountain, Star Tours, Star Wars characters, and mostly wandering Galaxy's Edge and just geeking out yet again over everything there. I've spent enough time in Galaxy's Edge this year that CMs are starting to recognize me and just smile and nod.

I leave for Disney World and Dopey Challenge #2 on Tuesday. I have thus far avoided getting sick, so I hope that continues. Aside from finishing Dopey, my major goal there is to experience Rise of the Resistance as many times as I can. This goal will also involve sleeping in until 5:30 or so on non race days so I have that going for me.
 


New journal title might mean more regular updates around here. Maybe. But I can't promise anything.

January stats:

15 hours
58 miles with 48.6 of those miles being extremely Dopey miles especially in that heat.

Star Wars Rival Run training has officially begun, but I'm still working on getting more consistent on that front. We'll see how it goes.
 
Well February did not get off to the start I hoped for. My allergies have been unusually awful for this time of year and that left me with a nasty headache that caused me to cancel some runs. Then I came down with a bad cold that completely wiped me out for 2 days last week and that started this week off on the wrong foot. But I feel like I'm trending in the right direction and may indeed be back on track.

2/3 3.44 miles First run back after Dopey
2/8 5.75 mile walk wasn't planned, but it happened.
2/10 1.44 miles
2/12 2.44 miles
2/14 2.44 miles
2/19 3.44 miles
2/21 3.44 miles
2/22 5.4 miles

Finally got all my flights figured out for Rival Run and fastpass+ reservations booked. Spending a lot of time in DHS, but I already knew that was happening. Hopefully Rise of the Resistance boarding groups will not be impossible.

I missed out on Star Wars Nite at Disneyland party tickets for August, so that's not happening. Disappointing, but that's the way it goes sometimes. Besides that my first Star Wars Nite party morphed into a longer visit with my sister and her family wherein I spent lots of time with my then 16 month old nephew hanging out with Lightning McQueen in Carsland so now when his parents and older brother go on rides that he's not quite tall enough for yet, he takes me to Galaxy's Edge where we hang out with Chewbacca, help Rey hide from the First Order, visit R2-D2, and get out picture taken in front of the Millennium Falcon. He's informed my sister that he wants to play lightsabers with me in Galaxy's Edge in May.
 
February got off to an uneven start, but I feel good about how it finished.

Monthly totals: 14 hours, 47 miles.

Coach tweaked my plan for the week in order to keep me from pushing myself too hard as I get completely back in my groove. In the past I've been laser focused on simply resuming a plan if I had to leave it for whatever reason. Only now am I beginning to understand that consistency and adjusting as needed are a better way to win the day. Running is one area of my life where there are many different paths to success. Because many other areas of my life are of necessity in varying degrees of rigidity, I let that spill over into my running and that created unnecessary stress in my life when things did not go according to plan.

Sunday: Planned rest
Monday 2/24/20: 3.19 miles
Tuesday 2/25/20: 3.44 miles
Wednesday: Planned rest
Thursday 2/27/20: 3.19 miles
Friday 2/28/20: 3.94 miles
Saturday 2/29/20: 5.94 miles
 


Well, we all know what happened in March. The workload in March is always very heavy and extremely stressful, so once it became clear that Star Wars race weekend would be canceled, I chose to stop running and use what little free time I do have in March to unwind in other ways. Since I'm an accountant and we are classified as a necessary business, I continued to work in the office.

March 2019: 22 miles

After April 15th, I chose to stop working on weekends, but continued to work longer hours in the office on weekdays so I did get some exercise in. On April 19th, which would have been the Star Wars Rival Run Half Marathon, I went for a walk to at least do something.

April 2019: 6 miles

May has started out a little bit better. I am finding that getting outside and going for a walk helps my mental outlook some during this time. My workload remains much higher than normal for this time of year given all the questions that Covid-19 created on the financial side of things. Nevertheless, I am grateful to have work right now given that so many others face so much uncertainty right now.

So far this month, I've been going for walks and just taking it easy. It's more about getting out there and doing something than trying to push myself. Nevertheless, I'm starting to feel the itch as it were so I may resume running in the next week or so. As it stands, I've already walked more mile this month than I did last month and I've logged more "exercise" time this month than all of March.

I signed up for the runDisney virtual summer series to keep myself motivated to get out and exercise. I'm giving serious consideration to registering for the now virtual San Jose Giant 5 miler or 5K race next month as well as sign up for the San Francisco Giant Race in September. While that race is still listed as happening in San Francisco, I suspect it will end up converting everyone to virtual. This race has offered a virtual component for at least the last 2 years so that's nothing new.
 
May 25-May 31, 2020: Continuing in my efforts to just get out there and walk anywhere from 30-60 minutes a day depending on how I feel and what time I get off work. Work is still extremely busy, but I find that I just cope better with all the stress if I get out there and do something. I continue to not worry about pace since I just want to get out there and there is no goal race on the horizon. Still looking at some virtual races as ways to keep me motivated.

5/25 3.23 miles in 57:19. Average pace of 17:45 per mile.
5/26 Brutally hot; no run
5/27 Still brutally hot; no run
5/28 3.03 miles in 53:53. Average pace of 17:47 per mile.
5/29 2.99 miles in 46:04. Average pace of 15:23 per mile.
5/30 Run 1: 1.05 miles in 17:51. Average pace of 18:45 per mile. Cut short due to downpour of rain.
5/30 Run 2: 2.98 miles in 54:09. Average pace of 18:10 per mile. Went out later after rain cleared up.

For the week: 13.2 miles in 3 hours and 50 minutes.

May 2020 Totals: 59 miles in 18 hours. 21 days exercise for the month. Mile high point for the year, but more importantly a more consistent month of getting exercise in.
 
Update time.

June 2020: 42 miles in 12 hours. A step back from May, but the worst was yet to come.

July 2020: 33 miles in 9 hours. A major work deadline wiped out the first two weeks of this month.

August 2020: 31 miles in 8 hours. An extended nasty heat wave (high temps around 110 which is 20 degrees higher than usual also contributed to major wildfires that caused horrific air quality.

September 2020: 42 miles in 12 hours.

Similar to August, but a virtual 10K and virtual 5K at the beginning of the month helped up the miles. Those virtual races turned out to be very positive experiences as they gave me a purpose for those runs after a training just to get outside mentality since April. So much so that I'm now signed up for the WDW virtual 5K, Marathon, Castaway Cay 5K, Princess 10K, and Princess Half. Now I just have to determine how to train for the marathon and keep proper motivation for a virtual 26.2. My nephews are also running the virtual kids races, but they don't know that yet.

Year to date: 339.6 miles.
 
I always intend to update this journal much more regularly, but I never do.

October: 11 miles. I knew it would be a difficult month and I spent a lot of time really disliking running in a mask so I didn't go as often as I should. I really need to remember that how I feel after a run is always better psychologically than how much I dislike running with a mask.

November: 19 miles. A little bit better. Does not include any miles from walking around Disney World for a week so the exercise days in November were much better than they have been for a while.

Realizing that Star Wars is coming in April may get me out of my slump and result in a month that matches more of what I want it to here at the beginning of the month.
 
December Miles: 44 miles and 12 hours running. A major improvement over October and November and my best mileage month since May 2020. My nephew invited me to do a 35.3 mile challenge for the month, which I did. Not sure if he did, so that is likely to happen again in January.

2020 Miles: 418.6 miles and 120 hours running. A step back from 2018 and 2019, but all things considered, I feel good about how I ended.

Week ended January 2, 2021: 18.22 miles

Monday 12/28: 2.96 miles
Tuesday 12/29: Off
Wednesday 12/30: 3.36 miles
Thursday 12/31: 3.43 miles
Friday 1/1: 5.11 miles I managed to lose my keys while on a fun run with my family so we attempted to find my keys while retracing the fun run. Fortunately, my sister thought to look on Facebook for the community page and a kind neighbor had posted about finding a set of keys, so headed towards their home and I happily had my keys back. So, don't lose your keys. Makes for a lot less stress.
Saturday 1/2: 3.36 miles. The last of my Christmas light runs. Or at least I think it will be.

Coming soon to a week near you: The Walt Disney World Virtual 5K and Walt Disney World Virtual Marathon. Based on where I'm at and future goals, I'm highly likely to do a multi day marathon and just get 26.2 miles in for the week at the current easy pace I'm running to reduce injury risk and keep myself preparing for Princess in February.
 
Week ended January 9, 2021: 26.3 miles. My objective for the week was to run 26.2 miles over days as a compromise between the virtual WDW marathon I registered for and the the covid impacted training that meant I was nowhere near marathon fitness level. To provide some level of toughness on the final day, I wanted to have at least 6.2 miles remaining for the final day.

Monday 1/4: 3.46 miles
Tuesday 1/5: 3.8 miles
Wednesday 1/6: 3.8 miles
Thursday 1/7: 4.1 miles
Friday 1/8: 4.2 miles
Saturday 1/9: 6.97 miles

Interestingly enough my fastest run of the week was my Saturday run. The only day I truly forced myself to not go too fast was Friday in an effort to make sure my legs were sufficiently strong for the long run Saturday. I treated Saturday as a day to just make sure that I felt okay and stayed upright. Which happened. Overall, I am happy with how it went down. I had given thought to some sort of 26.2 in one day wipe myself for weeks out because that's what I signed up for, but realized that I would be much better off accepting that a full 26.2 in one day would not safely happen. Accordingly it's smarter to push myself over 6 days and then cut back with a rest week. Consistency without injury leads to more miles and better fitness than a stubborn pursuit of 26.2 in one setting just to prove something to myself.

Other objectives for the week: watch lots of playoff football and take naps. Both were accomplished.
 
Week ended January 16, 2021: 12.64 miles. I knew this needed to be an easy week after the previous week, but also contain work so that I'm ready for virtual Princess next month.

Sunday 1/10: 3.52 miles. My life got upended Saturday the 9th with a major new assignment in my church that will require a lot of time. After the whirlwind of starting the new assignment immediately and trying to process everything, I decided to take a walk to clear my mind. Mission accomplished although I probably should have cut it short.
Monday 1/11: Off to watch the college football game.
Tuesday 1/12: 3.1 miles
Wednesday 1/13 Castaway Cay Virtual 5K: 3.3 miles
Thursday 1/14: 3 miles
Friday 1/15: Off
Saturday 1/16: 2.72 miles. This was either going to be 2.5 or 4 miles depending on how I felt. For whatever reason, I just felt off during the run so opted to keep it shorter.
 
Week ended January 23, 2021: 18.36 miles

Sunday 1/17: Planned rest.
Monday 1/18: 3.06 miles in 52:08.
Tuesday 1/19: 2.89 miles in 51:26.
Wednesday 1/20: Planned rest.
Thursday 1/21: 2.87 in 51:21.
Friday 1/22: 3.18 in 50:14.
Saturday 1/23: 6.36 in 1:37:33.

I can tell from my paces that my speed is getting better as consistency is becoming the pattern. Still taking it easy.

Week ended January 30, 2021: 12.57 miles

Sunday 1/24: Planned rest.
Monday 1/25: 2.7 miles in 47:20.
Tuesday 1/26: 2.72 miles in 47:02. Also ran in light rain.
Wednesday 1/27: Planned rest.
Thursday 1/28: Skipped due to rainy weather conditions.
Friday 1/29: 2.99 miles in 48:24.
Saturday 1/30: 4.16 miles in 1:07:08. After a trend of recent faster than the rest of the week Saturday long runs, I made a concerted effort to slow down today. I can push it whenever Princess race day comes.

January 2021 Total: 82 miles. My best month mileage wise since December 2019. Still on track for Princess although I continue to have internal discussions about when it will be best to run those races. I still like the idea of doing both the 10K and Half during what would have been Princess weekend although I've been asked to speak in Church so my tentative plan is to move the 10K to Thursday February 21st and run the Half on the 23rd. However, I reserve the right to change that if necessary and just make this week's planned 8 miler a retroactive 10K.
 
Week ended Saturday February 6, 2021: 19.99 miles

Sunday 1/31: Planned rest.
Monday 2/1: 3.22 miles in 52:10
Tuesday 2/2: 3.01 miles in 49:10
Wednesday 2/3: Planned rest.
Thursday 2/4: 2.63 miles in 42:01
Friday 2/5: 2.95 miles in 49:31
Saturday 2/6: 8.18 miles in 2:05:21

Gear update: For a while now I've noticed an emerging dark spot on my FitBit. It was in the very corner, so I could deal with it. Nevertheless, I decided to look into repairing it and discovered that the repair estimate would be close to $100. So that's not happening. I've had it since September 2019 so it's out of warranty now. Between my first FitBit suddenly malfunctioning and being unable to hold a charge and this one having a screen issue, I decided to look elsewhere. Being a Star Wars nerd, the Garmin Star Wars smartwatches have intrigued me for a while now. And at least I have a good reason to get a new smartwatch. I preferred the Rey one given the Jedi aesthetic and the quote on the backside reading "Nothing's Impossible" compared to the Vader "Rule The Galaxy." Admittedly, rule the galaxy is a great quote, but I feel that nothing's impossible is much more appropriate to me given my running journey. Still I was not sure how it would fit me and look on me since it's a smaller watch. So I went ahead and ordered the Rey watch figuring I can return it if necessary and get Vader. Either way it's Star Wars. So I win. And the day after I ordered the Rey smartwatch, the FitBit developed a new dark spot, but now in a much more conspicuous place.

The Rey vivoactive 4s arrived. Yep it's smaller, but not horribly so. The band fits. Not sure how I feel about the white band as I would prefer a darker band. I tried ordering a dark blue band, but it was not constructed very well and literally fell apart the moment I tried to put it on, so I'm still using the white band. Maybe I'll try another band. Or maybe I just live with the white. I'm a guy so the reviews that said it's a "feminine watch" whatever that means gave me pause. Having used it now, it's just smaller and circular and having had square watches for years now that is different.

But performance is what really matters. I find that I like the Garmin ecosystem better. I like that it adjusts my hydration according to activity. For now I like the adjusting step goal. I think it tracks sleep a lot better. You get what you pay for, right? So I'm sticking with the Garmin, but may still decided that Vader is a better choice for me. I did have a good laugh. One morning my new watch said I was stressed. What's going to happen when the stress really mounts? Because I know that's coming.

The "temporary" running shoes that I bought for pandemic running as I did not want to accumulate mileage on my tried and proven race shoes are nearing 250 miles, so it may be coming time to get another pair of "temporary" running shoes.

Work is really starting to get busy, so that's going to present a new challenge. The weekend that Princess would have taken place is going to be very hectic so since it's virtual anyways, I may move Princess back two weeks just to hopefully enjoy that more. And maybe even have shiny race medals to celebrate finishing.

In a lot of ways, I feel overwhelmed right now. Professional and church responsibilities are fixed and take up a lot of time and/or sleep. So now I have to determine how running fits into those plans until work becomes sane. As much as I want to run Star Wars in April as it "should have been" maybe it makes more sense to push it off a month or two when training will not be a source of greater stress when I'm constantly under extensive stress. So we'll see.
 
In a lot of ways, I feel overwhelmed right now. Professional and church responsibilities are fixed and take up a lot of time and/or sleep. So now I have to determine how running fits into those plans until work becomes sane. As much as I want to run Star Wars in April as it "should have been" maybe it makes more sense to push it off a month or two when training will not be a source of greater stress when I'm constantly under extensive stress. So we'll see.

I find running and exercise in general to be a very effective way of keeping me sane when other stresses begin to pile up. It's one of the very last things to be sacrificed. I prefer to make the often difficult but necessary decision to set boundaries elsewhere than to forego my workouts.
 
Did you buy it with a credit card? Check to see if your card offers extended warranty protection. Some cards will double the warranty (max of 1 extra year). This has saved me some bucks in the past.
I'm almost sure I did, so I need to look into that. Thanks for the heads up.
I find running and exercise in general to be a very effective way of keeping me sane when other stresses begin to pile up. It's one of the very last things to be sacrificed. I prefer to make the often difficult but necessary decision to set boundaries elsewhere than to forego my workouts.
The demands on my time are such right now that running every day reduces "free" time which includes meal preparation and unwinding to less than 2 hours per day. Sadly that can increase stress. It was a price I could pay when I reminded myself that the reason for this is getting to completely relax and take a break from work pressures immediately following the deadline, but without that guarantee, the equation changes. I'm not sure what I'll decide yet. Running certainly helps, but the time it takes is measured differently when the one thing I need more of, but do not have is time. Still I greatly value the thoughtful feedback. It gives me something to consider and analyze as March gets closer.
 
Week ended Saturday February 13, 2021: 13.39 miles.

Sunday 2/7: Planned rest. Watched the Super Bowl. Disappointed by the result.
Monday 2/8: Unplanned rest. A 2 hour zoom call combined with a very late lunch left me with brutal headache and I wanted to simply do nothing.
Tuesday 2/9: 2.86 miles in 46:37.
Wednesday 2/10: 3.17 miles in 53:46.
Thursday 2/11: No run. Can't remember why.
Friday 2/12: 3.08 miles in 50:58.
Friday 2/13: 4.28 miles in 1:09:23. Also my birthday. Celebrated with an appointment free day at the office. Some friends were kind enough to drop dinner off to me that evening. My nephews decorated a Star Wars birthday card that I bought for them to give me and have fun with.

Starting to readjust to running later. Not as bad after dark as I feared.

This weekend will be very busy between working on Saturdays for the next couple of months and having a lot to do in church, even virtually. I've decided to run Princess in a couple of weeks so I can enjoy the run and not feel like it's this thing that I have to squeeze in just because it would have happened this weekend. It's two virtual races. I'll do them at a better time for me.
 

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