A RunDisney addicted Brit - Training w/b 26th Feb

[Dopey Devon]

As this is an introduction to this journal I apologise for the incoming wall of text!

So a little intro to me - I'm Devon, I'm 25 and I currently live in bonny Scotland. I've been running now for about 2.5 years having graduated from Uni and no longer finding time to participate in team sports. I have taken part in about 40 races covering pretty much all distances up to marathon distance and my favourite race length is 13.1 miles. Thats it for the kinda boring yet necessary info!

So what makes this training journal any different you may ask yourself....well I'm from the UK and therefore most of the race reports and races I'll be talking about will be based in the UK (mostly Scotland and Northern England). This doesn't mean I am not well and truly addicted to RunDisney - it just makes it a tad trickier to get there and participate (I'm always jealous of reading about peoples weekend trips to Disney!) I did Dopey in 2016 as my first RunDisney weekend (and marathon) and despite having been to Disney several times (maybe about 30+) it was by far one of the best holidays I've ever had. Since then my family have signed up to race at Dark Side 2017 and Marathon Weekend 2018. I'm signed up to a load of other races during this year and thought it would be fun(?) to talk about them and my training on here. I'm no expert in running or Disney but I'm always willing to help out and chip in my two cents based purely on my own experiences. I will also admit to being no expert in how to manage these boards - so any help with inserting pics/links would be very much appreciated!!

Some of the bigger races I have taken part in that you guys might have heard of are the Great North Run, Great Scottish Run and Rock n Roll Liverpool. Also apart from Dopey I've also ran the Space Coast half in 2016 and Rock n Roll Vegas in 2016 - I'm a sucker for racing when I come to the states as you guys just do the whole experience so much better - I mean pancakes after a race, amazingggggg!

So far I've signed up to the following races for this year with the big aim of completing Dopey in 2018:
Feb - Coastal Trail Series Northumberland Half Marathon (my first trail race and in a weeks time)
April - Dark Side 5k and Challenge
May - Liverpool Rock n Roll 5k and Half
July - Conti Thunder Run (24 hour relay race)
September - Great North Run
October - Dark Skies 14M
Jan '18 - Dopey

I can almost definitely say they'll be more added throughout the year as I'll be on the lookout for a PoT half sometime during Autumn. I'll be hopefully keeping track of my training on here as well as races and trips I have to the states.

Hopefully that wasn't too much text and they'll still be some people with me at this point! If you're still with me then lets get on with some training (and maybe some Dark Side planning)...​

 

[Sailormoon2]

I can't believe how many times you have visited WDW given how far away you live!! Sounds like you have quite the race schedule there. Best of luck on your training and execution!

 

[Dopey Devon]

I can't believe how many times you have visited WDW given how far away you live!! Sounds like you have quite the race schedule there. Best of luck on your training and execution!

Just lucky enough to have family members who also love Florida. We also have a lot of friends who moved to the states so we often stay with them.

 

[Dopey Devon]

So as soon as I post this thread documenting my training I go ahead and hurt my foot! Must have been the way I was sleeping or something in my shoe because for the whole of Wednesday I couldn't put my weight on my foot - to the point where I honestly thought I might have done some damage! Luckily enough I woke on Thursday and pretty much all pain had gone. I decided to take it easy though through this week cos of my foot as my next race is next weekend and I didn't want the dreaded DNS!

Heres what my training looked like this week:
Monday - 5k in 28 mins (treadmill)
Tuesday - Rest
Wednesday - Rest
Thursday - 35 mins static bike + weights (gym)
Friday - 7k walk
Saturday - 10k in 59 mins (Outside, last long(ish), slow run)
Sunday - 5k walk (I'll pretend this was to rest my foot but in reality I was out for drinks for a friends birthday last night and running just wasn't happening!)

So there it is, a lot more walking than the usual week but like I said wanted to take it easy and prevent any possible injury (something I'm working hard on). Next week is a mini taper for the weekend, so a few slow 5ks and probably not much else. Hoping that this week is light enough to run after work in the parks - I've been sticking to roads due to safety but I wayyyyy prefer running in the parks after work.

Also, only 2 months until we fly out for Dark Side!! I've been so busy with work recently I hadn't realised until my phone notified me today!! 2 months is nothing and I still don't have outfits sorted. I am usually chief planner for all out Disney holidays (allows my mam and family a bit of time to relax) and I'm pretty much all sorted with the hotel and ADRs, but all that chat is for a future post!

Hope everyones training goes better than mine did last week! ​

 

[Dopey Devon]

Me again! After a rather hectic weekend and then feeling a bit run down all this week I decided to combine the last two weeks of training into this one post. Last Saturday (25th) was my first stab at a trail race and theres nothing like having your butt handed to you on a plate to make you realise you're still not great at the ol' running game! But more on that in a later post...

w/b 20th (Taper time)
Monday - 5km after work (Around a hilly park)
Tuesday - 5km (treadmill) + circuits
Wednesday - 5.5km after work (again hilly park)
Thursday - Rest
Friday - Rest (Drive down home)
Saturday - Half Marathon! (I will post a mini recap of this race later on this week)
Sunday - Rest

w/b 26th
Monday - Rest
Tuesday - 5k treadmill (Drive home)
Wednesday - Rest
Thursday - 5k treadmill + weights
Friday - rest
Saturday - rest
Sunday - 15km @ 7min/km pace + 2km walking cool down.

So training was a mixed bag really. The first week I wanted to wind down with the half being at the weekend, so no more than a couple of 5ks. I am always pretty bad at resting up after a race - I always wanna rush straight back into training - and as a result feel a lil tired and sick at the back end of the week, resulting in a few rest days. Heres hoping I feel a bit better next week and manage some more consistent training. We're also having some crappy weather here in Glasgow at the moment. I can deal with most types of weather but I really put my foot down at heavy rain - I just don't enjoy it and always seem to get a cold afterwards! Its been pretty torrential recently however I feel the running gods might have been smiling down on us today as on todays long run it felt very Spring-like, to the point we were getting a tad warm in the exposed sunny parts of our run. It was my boyfriends longest run to date and gave him a pretty good confidence boost for Dark Side - he plays a lot of field hockey and therefore can't dedicate as many days as me to running so he's been a bit nervous about some of the longer runs. He was a little stiff at the start (having had a game yesterday) but soon relaxed and we could have ran for a bit longer, but we don't want to invite injury with Dark Side being so close...

50 days people, 50 days!! I am so excited! I'm signed up for all 3 races and they're up next on my race calendar (which just makes me even more excited). I'm heading out with my boyfriend, sister and mam with my boyfriend and sister also taking part in all three races. This will be my boyfriends first half marathon and although my sister has run a few halfs before, her training hasn't been great due to some health issues. So the plan for the weekend (as always with challenges) will be to finish and finish happy. Now that the hotel is sorted (we're staying in a 2 bed villa at OKW) and ADRs are booked we're now just trying to sort out outfits. We've got a slightly hectic next few weeks before we head to the states so outfits might have to take a back seat but we're all so dam excited! Our only previous RunDisney experience was marathon weekend in 2016 so we don't really know what to expect at Dark Side, but we're all such big Star Wars fans that as long as theres a few character meets we will be happy! We also don't know what to expect crowd-wise at the parks - we're hoping to go to Epcot one day for the flower festival but other than that our plans are pretty flexible. Apart from after the final race when we always focus on food, rest, food, drink and more food!

I'll outline our full plans for Dark Side in a later post! Hope you all have a great week and the running gods smile down on you!

Devon