The Long Road to Run Disney

[JAMIESMITH]

Hi,

Not been on the board since October so had not seen you update.

We had similar issues with our Daughter growing up and struggled at that time 20 years ago to get a diagnosis, I understand your struggles.

Just wanted to say hang in there it will get better, I am sorry you have had to cancel your trip but don’t forget to take some time to look after yourselves.

Col

Thank you! I've spoken to several real life aquaintances who have gone through similar struggles. It's nice to know we aren't alone. Unfortunately, with Covid the psychiatrist is only doing phone appointments. I don't think that's appropriate for mental illness, but there's not much we can do about it.

 

[col1]

Thank you! I've spoken to several real life aquaintances who have gone through similar struggles. It's nice to know we aren't alone. Unfortunately, with Covid the psychiatrist is only doing phone appointments. I don't think that's appropriate for mental illness, but there's not much we can do about it.

Yes I agree phone appointments are less than ideal I see that the USA is soon to begin the vaccination program as we have just begun here hopefully that will see some return towards normality and face to face appointments hopefully soon

 

[JAMIESMITH]

I'm pleased to say that I've maintained my weight loss though the holidays. I wouldn't mind dropping another 5-10lbs, but I'm also totally okay if that doesn't happen. My twelve year old got her first Garmin watch, the Forerunner 35, for Christmas. She's run with it a few times already and she likes that it looks like an Apple watch. She is in a much better place mentally than she was a few months ago! She started taking tennis lessons through the school. I'm not sure if she will actually get to play on the team this year, but she's pretty good for a beginner. The 5K we planned to run on February 6th has been moved to May. Thankfully we hadn't registered for it yet. That puts our first potential 5K of 2021 on March 27th. I'm hoping that it doesn't get cancelled, too.

I'm registered for the Hattiesburg Half Marathon on April 10th. This is a deferral from last year. My daughter wants to run the 10K. The first five miles of the HM and 10K are together. I'm kind of on the fence about dropping down the run the 10K with her or sticking with the half. From a logistics/practicality standpoint, the closest hotel to the start/finish line is three miles away so I would need my husband and younger daughter to drive us to the start and wait for the older daughter to finish and then come back for me over an hour later. If I run the 10K with her, we could let them sleep in and I could just drive us to and from the race. Selfishly, I want to run the longer distance because it is flatter than the one in my hometown so it's a great chance for a PR. The HM course also goes through the Hattiesburg Zoo and University of Southern MS campus, which would be neat. The race is not offering deferrals for this year and it could transition to virtual only, in which case I would rather us do the 10K distance together. Decisions, decisions...

I'm also super excited about the hotel reservation I made for the night after the run. It's another hour south of Hattiesburg in Gulfport, right on the beach.

 

[DopeyBadger]

Would this be her first 10k? If it were, then I think I would drop down to her distance. Only get to do a "first" once and it creates a pretty special joint moment in life. If it isn't her first, then I could see going one way or the other based on your own desires and circumstances.

 

[JAMIESMITH]

Would this be her first 10k? If it were, then I think I would drop down to her distance. Only get to do a "first" once and it creates a pretty special joint moment in life. If it isn't her first, then I could see going one way or the other based on your own desires and circumstances.

That's a great point. This will be her first 10K.

 

[JAMIESMITH]

Now that I think about it, it will be my first 10K as well. I've done lots of 5Ks, a 12.5K trail run, and the half in Meridian, MS twice, but not a 10K.

 

[col1]

I'm pleased to say that I've maintained my weight loss though the holidays. I wouldn't mind dropping another 5-10lbs, but I'm also totally okay if that doesn't happen. My twelve year old got her first Garmin watch, the Forerunner 35, for Christmas. She's run with it a few times already and she likes that it looks like an Apple watch. She is in a much better place mentally than she was a few months ago! She started taking tennis lessons through the school. I'm not sure if she will actually get to play on the team this year, but she's pretty good for a beginner. The 5K we planned to run on February 6th has been moved to May. Thankfully we hadn't registered for it yet. That puts our first potential 5K of 2021 on March 27th. I'm hoping that it doesn't get cancelled, too.

I'm registered for the Hattiesburg Half Marathon on April 10th. This is a deferral from last year. My daughter wants to run the 10K. The first five miles of the HM and 10K are together. I'm kind of on the fence about dropping down the run the 10K with her or sticking with the half. From a logistics/practicality standpoint, the closest hotel to the start/finish line is three miles away so I would need my husband and younger daughter to drive us to the start and wait for the older daughter to finish and then come back for me over an hour later. If I run the 10K with her, we could let them sleep in and I could just drive us to and from the race. Selfishly, I want to run the longer distance because it is flatter than the one in my hometown so it's a great chance for a PR. The HM course also goes through the Hattiesburg Zoo and University of Southern MS campus, which would be neat. The race is not offering deferrals for this year and it could transition to virtual only, in which case I would rather us do the 10K distance together. Decisions, decisions...

I'm also super excited about the hotel reservation I made for the night after the run. It's another hour south of Hattiesburg in Gulfport, right on the beach.

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I am happy to hear your daughter is in a better spot that is awesome. Well done on maintaining your weight loss which is more than I achieved I really hope you get to run the 10k and it does not transition, we still have no organised races here and likely will not be for the foreseeable so fingers crossed for you

 

[JAMIESMITH]

I am happy to hear your daughter is in a better spot that is awesome. Well done on maintaining your weight loss which is more than I achieved I really hope you get to run the 10k and it does not transition, we still have no organised races here and likely will not be for the foreseeable so fingers crossed for you

Thank you! I'm so ready for life to go back to normal.

 

[JAMIESMITH]

I finished out January with 27 miles ran. I've finished the Couch 2 5K plan from the Zen Labs app and moved into their 5K to 10K bridge plan. Madilyn and I ran four miles on Saturday, which was her farthest run to date. She's definitely got the potential to be faster than her mama! Tennis is taking over her evenings, with practices four times a week. I'm running a good bit at a 3/4 mile track that goes around a small pond across from the tennis courts. The school uses the courts at the local community college for their practices. Only ten weeks until our 10K! Fingers crossed it happens this year.

 

[JAMIESMITH]

My daughter and I were able to run an actual in person 5K race this morning! We both placed first in our age groups. She had a lot more competition than I did! She also snagged a shiny new PR of 33:28. I finished in 34:01, which is about 30 seconds per mile off my PR race from 2018. Maddy also played in her third ever tennis match on Friday night and came away with her first win! Her school is small so she's playing junior varsity as a sixth grader.

We are now two weeks out from the 10K in Hattiesburg, MS. My longest runs this month have only been five miles. I want to push past that this week before tapering back down. I am glad that I opted out of the half marathon. The 10K seems to be a sweet spot for me; it's more challenging than the 5K, but it doesn't require the same level of training as the half marathon distance.

 

[JAMIESMITH]

Our weekend started off pretty rough, with softball sized hail falling as my husband got home from work Friday evening. Thankfully, by the time he took a shower and was ready for us to head out, it was only misting rain. We drove an hour and a half south to check into Hotel Indigo in Hattiesburg, MS so that my daughter and I could get up Saturday morning and run the 10K portion of the Hattiesburg Half Marathon. Just before we went to bed, the race directors made the call to push the race start back from 7am to 9am. They were concerned with lightning from the storms predicted to last until early the following morning.



When Madilyn and I got up at 6:30, it was still raining fairly hard and lightning. We got dressed and drove about three miles to the start of the race so that we could pick up our race packets. We had missed the expo the day before because my husband got off work late. We picked up some really amazing cinnamon rolls at a local bagel place and snacked on those in the car before heading back to the Saenger Theater to use the restrooms and wait on the race to start. By now the rain was gone and it was a blissfully cool 60 degrees with a dewpoint of 60.





The half marathon runners were in a coral just ahead of the 10K runners so we got to watch them start. We started about three minutes after the half marathoners. Madilyn and I made a pact to start slow and stick together until the last mile. I can't tell you how proud I am of how well she did in her first 10K! She was one of the youngest three runners on the 10K course. There was a nine year old and two twelve year olds in a field of 233. With that said, we took short walk breaks at two water stations (during miles 3 and 5) and I do feel that I may have held back a little too much. I know I can do better, especially with such ideal running conditions.

My splits were:
Mile 1: 11:52
Mile 2: 11:40
Mile 3: 12:08
Mile 4: 11:41
Mile 5: 12:18
Mile 6: 10:54
.2: 9:57

All this came to a total time of 1:11:27, which was just under my goal of 1:15. I passed seven people in the last mile and Maddy finished almost exactly a minute behind me. We both really enjoyed the flat course which started downtown and passed through some residential areas as well as the entrance to the Hattiesburg Zoo before looping back downtown. The energy along the course was the best I've experienced yet. Even with the rain, there were paintings and chalk art on the streets throughout the course. This was my favorite.



Maddy was skeptical about the 10K distance going in, but she's ready to sign up for the next one, so that's a definite win in my book!



We didn't stick around the finish area long. We needed to checkout of our hotel by 11:00 and we were both keen to squeeze in a quick shower. We also skipped out on the after party at the Hattiesburg Zoo. When (not if) we participate in this run again, we will definitely stick around for that as well.

We used the 10K as an excuse to have a fun weekend. We headed another hour south to Gulfport were we spent the night at the Grand Centennial Hotel, which is a remodeled V.A. Hospital with a small water park, right across from the beach.









It was such a fantastic weekend! I've missed running events so much! I'm glad that Madilyn seems to share my love of running and that she's so much happier than she was back in the fall. I'm also glad that we were able to have a fun weekend as a family.

 

[disneygpa]

Congrats to both of you on a fun race! Sounds like a great weekend!

 

[JAMIESMITH]

I got up really early yesterday morning and did week 5, day 1 of the Couch 2 5K program which was a five minute warm up, three five minute running intervals, separated by three minute walk breaks, and a five minute cool down. This is the first time I've run in a little over a month. This run wasn't super hard, but I can tell I'm not where I was physically when we ran the 10K in April. If I stick with the early morning runs through the rest of June and all of July, I should be in a position in August to start training for my hometown's Magnolia Half in late November. I have a deferral entry paid for since the race was cancelled last year, but in all honesty I probably wouldn't have registered this year since I'm starting accounting classes at Mississippi State University in August.

I spoke with my advisor at MSU this week and I got some good news and bad news. The good news is that I can take twelve credit hours instead of fifteen and still be considered a full time student so I won't lose any of my scholarships or grants other than $250 per semester from the state. I will need to take six hours over the next two summers if I only take twelve hours each fall/spring, but I think this is a good plan to keep me from getting overwhelmed. The bad news is that the online classes I was hoping to take have not had enough people register and are being cancelled. I will have to take two classes in person. I'll have be at the college on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons from 4-6:30. I will have one class that is fully online and can be taken whenever I have time. I will also either need to take one more class. One option is a synchronous online class from 6:45-9:15 on Mondays, which will be tough because Maddy has tennis practice from 7-9 on Mondays. I might be able to park near the tennis course and use wifi from the local community college. My other option is a hybrid class from 6:45-9:15 on Thursday nights. I'm just not sure how much of this class will be required in person until the instructor releases the syllabus.

I think I will still have enough time to train for a fall half and it should be a good way to deal with the extra stress. I'm hoping the Thursday night class is mostly online because I really enjoy running at the track while Maddy is at tennis practice.

I'm also eyeing the Rock N Roll Series 10K in NOLA next February. I haven't visited New Orleans in YEARS, but it's only three hours south of me. I've wanted to do a Rock N Roll run almost as long as I've wanted to do one at Disney. I'm concerned with the Covid measures (ie mask requirements) and we are taking a bigger family vacation in May, but I think we could easily swing a one or two night stay for the run. Has anyone done a recent RNR race or ever run the one in NOLA?

 

[JAMIESMITH]

I registered for the Rock N Roll 10K in NOLA next February. I'm trying to convince my cousin to run it with me. If she doesn't end up running, I will try to find someone to keep my girls that weekend so my husband and I can have a grown-ups get away. My cousin will actually be at Disney World the last week in January for a conference. She's hoping to squeeze in some park time with her husband and kiddos. I'm not going to lie, I'm jealous!

 

[JAMIESMITH]

It has been an eventful few weeks! My husband visited a chiropractor on June 24th who did some x-rays and then sent him off to an imaging center for an MRI. He was then referred to a neurosurgeon who specializes on spinal surgeries. We met with the surgeon on June 29th, by-passing his normal six week waiting list, and discovered that my husband had two slipped discs in his neck and bone spurs growing into his spinal cord. After battling with our insurance (Cigna sucks!), he had surgery on July 6th. Everything went really well, but he is in some pain. He will be recovering at home for the next six weeks.

Since my husband is burning through his sick and vacation leave and we are looking at some hefty medical bills even after our insurance pays, I've cancelled the smoky mountain trip we had planned for next May. We will now make a long weekend out of the Rock N Roll 10K in NOLA which means my older daughter can run with me. I'm also hoping to eat some good food and visit the aquarium and the zoo.

I recently ordered a pair of Hoka Rincon 2s to start swapping up with my high-mileage Hoka Tracer 2s. I don't like how cushioned the new shoes are so I will be sending them back to Hoka. They make my legs so sore! I tried to visit the running store near the hospital my husband had surgery in, but they are closed indefinitely because some moron drove a truck through the store, injuring an elderly customer. https://www.clarionledger.com/story...k-crashes-into-flowood-shoe-store/7065471002/

I'm really bummed that Hoka is no longer making the Tracer line and I'm not sure what shoe to to try next. I've had decent luck with Saucony's Kinavra and Fastwitch lines, but they don't last as long as the Hoka Tracers. I do know that I'm looking for a relatively low heel toe drop shoe. Any suggestions?

 

[JAMIESMITH]

With the Magnolia Half Marathon four months away, I reached out to the DisBoards favorite running coach , @DopeyBadger, and asked him if he would be willing to put together a training plan for me. I have finished this race twice, once in 2017 and once in 2019, with times of 2:46:30 and 2:45:48. I'm proud to have trained myself to finish a HM at all, but I have come to the conclusion that I need help to get faster. I want a new PR at this race. More specifically, I would love to see a time of 2:30, although that may be a lofty goal considering my current level of fitness and the 615 feet of elevation gain/loss on this course. I can already tell that this training plan is going to be a good learning experience, regardless of how I finish the HM in November.

In trying to pinpoint my current level of fitness, Billy suggested that I run a mile trial. My previous personal best mile was a 10:10 during my PR 5K race from March of 2018. I'm really pleased to have a new best mile of 9:44!



I missed the very first run on my new training plan, but I did complete the second one this morning. I was supposed to run 2 miles @ EA using 80/30 intervals of 12:55/17:00 to average 13:51. I used the interval function on my Forerunner 235 to set up fifteen 80/30 intervals and ended up running 1.94 miles at 14:08 per mile. The intervals were all over the place, some too fast, some too slow, and some just right (like Goldilocks and the three bears). Pacing myself is something I definitely have to work on. T+D was 143 at 6am. Elevation gain was 41 feet over the entire run.

 

[JAMIESMITH]

I finished my first week of the new training plan. Friday was 2.5 miles at EB + strides. The first mile was done in 13:32, a bit fast considering T+D=143 at 6:00AM. The second mile was done in 12:49 due to the incorporation of strides. The final .5 was done in 6:31. I feel like I still need to work on slowing down, but I feel like this was a solid easy run. I enjoyed the strides during the final mile.

Yesterday was 3 miles at LR with my older daughter. I'm going off all the numbers on my Garmin Forerunner 235, but it amazes me how different the figures are from her Forerunner 35 when we ran together the entire time. T+D=158 at 7:30PM. We averaged 13:27 per mile, which is still too fast according to the T+D chart @DopeyBadger sent me. Mile splits were 13:36, 13:29, 13:19 on a route with 90' total elevation gain. We weren't exhausted at the end of this run, but so sweaty!

We also spent about an hour and a half in the pool earlier in the day yesterday. I wasn't doing much swimming, but mostly working with my younger daughter who is learning how to swim.

Today is a rest day. Despite running two days in a row, I'm not sore. I've avoided back to back running days for years because of my tendency for shin splints. I'm hoping this slower approach will allow me to run more miles during a week without injury.

 

[JAMIESMITH]

Two weeks down, sixteen to go!

Monday was 2 miles @ EA. T+D=162 at 6:45 PM. 36' elevation gain. 2.06 miles completed @ 14:14 per mile using 80/30 intervals. I'm still working on improving consistency. I keep catching myself "speeding".

Tuesday was an off day.

Wednesday was the same 2 miles @ EA as Monday. T+D=144 at 6:00 AM. 32' elevation gain. 2.08 miles completed @ 14:08 per mile. Still working on consistency...

Thursday as an off day.

Friday was 2.5 miles @ EB + strides. T+D=165 at 7:15 PM. 134' elevation gain. 2.53 miles completed @ 14:01 per mile. First mile was 14:00, second mile was 13:04 (strides were in this mile), .53 was at 15:48 pace (I allowed myself to walk up a big steep hill).

Saturday should have been 4 miles @ LR. I slept in with the intention of running that evening, but just before dark it was still 95 degrees outside with a T+D=171. I decided to set my alarm for Sunday morning instead.

Sunday should have been an off day, but I ran Saturday's run. T+D=150 at 7:15 AM. I had intended to get up an hour earlier, but when it went off at 6, I changed it to go off again at 7. 4 miles completed @ 13:25. I did not love this run. I felt stiff when I started. The 13:30 pace I was aiming for, taking T+D into account feels so awkward. I ended up going a bit faster, but walking for a minute so I could have a water break at the end of each mile. Mile splits were: 13:21, 13:46, 13:12, and 13:22. I also saw two dead rattlesnakes on the road on my route which made me start scanning for live ones. I hate snakes!

Today is my older daughter's thirteenth birthday. I don't know how I already have a teenager! We're having a pool party at Newton Country Club's pool later today so I have to go pick up her cake and make ice cream for this afternoon.

@DopeyBadger, please let me know if I'm butchering your plan too badly.

This was my highest mileage July ever at 28.5 miles.

 

[DopeyBadger]

It's early in the plan, so not the end of the world to make small changes here and there. Although as we move further into the plan you've got to do your best to keep that Fri/Sat combo together. Having that rest day on Sat is going to make Sun easier than intended which takes away from the goal of it. But you'll be alright. Just make sure those easy days stay easy as well.

 

[JAMIESMITH]

It's early in the plan, so not the end of the world to make small changes here and there. Although as we move further into the plan you've got to do your best to keep that Fri/Sat combo together. Having that rest day on Sat is going to make Sun easier than intended which takes away from the goal of it. But you'll be alright. Just make sure those easy days stay easy as well.

I hear you loud and clear! Thanks, coach!