Flipping Your Fins You Don't Get Too Far (First Dopey in 2020 - Comments Welcome!)

merrunner

Earning My Ears
Joined
Jan 21, 2019
My first post here, but I have been learning from all of you over the past few months and am excited to join the positive energy, enthusiasm, and support with this awesome group.

A bit about me:

I am a 41 year old female who just completed my second (in 10 years) Disney Marathon. It was slow (just 6:46) with a mix of run/walk...but I was coming off of an injury that saddled my training for a bit...so was happy to finish without subsequent injury and a big smile :)

So, my goal this year is to train for my first Dopey. Staying healthy and injury-free is key, but also picking up speed over the course of the year.

I've never really been a runner - my background is as a distance swimmer (hence the title - I am MUCH better in the water than on land, where I tend to trip over my two feet often). Those yards are long ago, as well, so I am trying to find a way to stay in shape with a fair amount of time traveling while challenging myself.

About 3 years ago, I was at the lowest point I've experienced to date - my father, who I was very close to, passed away after a year-long illness that saw him in and out of the ICU. I had started a new, relatively high stress job that I moved across several states for, and I was trying to get out of a pretty toxic personal situation. I was just barely hanging on mentally, was sick often, and had gained around 30 lbs.

By the end of 2016, I finally left the bad personal situation and started the journey back to finding myself and my mental/physical health. I have always been resilient, but that time in my life taught me a lot about what I could handle, who was by my side, and what was important in life.

Needless to say, finally crossing the finish line this year at Disney for the Marathon brought a few happy tears.

So, here we go! Next Challenge and moving FORWARD! Every step counts, right?!

Thank you in advance for your inspiration (through your own workouts and posts) and any comments down the line :)
 
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Welcome to posting on the board and looking forward to reading about you and your training!
 


Thank you for the kind welcomes!

Slowly ramping back up mileage here after the marathon and being kind to my achilles given previous issues and a tweak of pain in the mornings.

Squeezed in 2 quick miles this morning before hopping a flight to Germany for a week of work - excited to explore our surroundings there by foot (one of my favorite things about travel, getting a long walk or run in to see the sights). Was planning on 4 but I switched out with a time crunch and will do a slow 4 when I get there tomorrow.

Happiness was this was the faster 2 miles I've run in over 10 years (at a pace of 10:19 per mile - seeing the speed picking up with time and miles is always a motivator!)

Upcoming races goals for 2019 (didn't include these earlier):

March 9: McGuire's St Patrick's Day Prediction 5K (more oriented towards beer drinking plus a little running)

April 7: Gulf Coast Half Marathon

April 27: Fiesta of Flags 5K

June 22: Grandma's Marathon

September 7: Big Shoulders 2.5K Openwater Swim

November 2: City of the Oaks Marathon (they allowed me to transfer to this year after last year's injury)

Dopey 2020!!!!!!

Goal is to keep losing weight, safely build back miles, and add in strength and more yoga into my weeks.

Off to Germany, hope everyone is having a great training weekend!
 
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Week two post-injury wrapping up with some easy miles, strength training, and swimming to get booted back up.

My major race list from a few months ago has been whittled down to:

OW 2.5K Swim in Sept
Dopey in Jan

Others might pop into the training picture, but those are my two goal races over the next 8 months.

My other major focus after the car wreck is to stay healthy and injury-free.

I have an awesome coach who has me starting into formal training using the MAF approach. I find it a bit frustrating at the moment, but have read a lot about how frustrating the early phase can be. There are times that I have to speed walk a good portion of my workout (especially as the FL heat is picking up). I am not questioning her in any way, and I have read amazing results from this type of training...but any words of wisdom to get through this early phase from other MAF'ers are welcome!
 
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Week of May 27:
15 miles total
M:MAF 3.5 m/core
T: Yoga for runners
W: MAF 3 mi
H: Rest
F: Rest
Sa: MAF Test 5 miles : VERY humid but times are dropping (this is just my second monthly MAF test so look forward to watching the results)
Su: Pyramid run workout (hard/ez intervals 2min through 5min and back down) 3.1 mi after warm up/ 30 minute strength workout

Starting to get back in the swing - off to San Diego and San Francisco next week for work, excited about running in some cooler temps!
 
Dropped offline from here with a crazy schedule, but I have been sticking with training and actually getting a bit more into the swing of things :)

Have been following the rest of you all for motivation, though! Thank you!! :worship:

Totals are getting close to 20 mi/week and feeling good/injury-free. Can still see the low heart rate training paying off, but I will really be happy when things cool down. Have started every run when I am home with a Real Feel over 95 (even at 5AM) and sometimes up to 105 or so for the past several months since kicking off training - those fall temps will feel so good!

M- Rest day
T- Run 50 MAF intervals
W- Travel day/off!
H- Run 45min MAF intervals and Strength training
F- Swim 2500 (distance work)
Sa- 7 miles at MAF
Su- Downhill sprints (50 min)
 
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