A Goof Became Dopey: Running After Dopey (comments welcome)

Dopey Challenge and the Worst Disney Trip Ever

So, I decided to do a brief trip/race recap, before getting into my future running plans.

So the trip was a family get together. My parents are DVC members, and got a 2-bedroom suite at OKW to be shared with the family. The players involved were my parents, my brother, my SIL, my nephew, my wife, my son, and myself. As the trip approached my wife and I had some apprehension about spending so much time with my parents, as they are really bad about listening to us when it comes to our son. They seem to think they know him better than we do. In advance, I called my mom and talked to her about it. I informed her that Alistair is very attached to his mom right now, and that if he gets fussy or starts to cry the need to listen to us when ask to have him back. He only really cries for one of three reasons usually, he's hungry, tired, or needs a new diaper. She seemed on board as my brother was the same way as a baby, and frankly still is to an extent.

Well sadly my mom being on board didn't last more than 24 hours, and my dad was never on board. At least when my brother showed up, my dad became much more interested in my nephew. Still, anytime we needed to feed or change Alistair, there was visible annoyance with my dad. I tried to tell him in advance not to pack the days so full when there would be a 7 month old and 13 month old, but he wouldn't listen. This behavior went on most of the week, but on Friday I came down with a stomach bug, that was then passed to my wife. This gave us an excuse to not spend every waking minute with them for the rest of the trip. That was a small relief.

Ok, enough with the venting and on to a brief recap of the races. Thursday morning arrived and it was time for the 5k. I told my brother I planned on going to the race early to join the disBoards meet up. He wasn't thrilled about having to get up so early, but I told him he didn't have to come with me. It was great meeting the member of the board that showed up for the meet up. As the race approached we made our way to the corrals. I'm pretty sure a single corral was bigger then any race I've ever participated in. The 5K was a lot of fun, and my race was going well, until GI issues hit me, and I had to walk a little between Imagination and The Land. If it wasn't for that I would've achieved my goal of beating my brother and his time from 2014 Dopey. I finished in 24:24, which I wasn't the most happy with, but it was a good start.

Then Friday morning We woke up for the 10k. Made it to the meet up again, and had some more good conversation. As the race started my brother was running with me. Then somewhere around mile 2 I noticed he was gone. I have no idea when I dropped him, but I just kept my pace. I ended up having some lower back problems, and walked most of the "uphills" after we left EPCOT to head to the Boardwalk area. The crowd support around EPCOT the boardwalk was great and I kept my pace as well as I could. I finished in 53:25, not a PR, but better than my brother and his 2014 time. YAY!!!

Friday night the news broke that the half marathon was cancelled. I, for one, was relieved. Shortly before hearing the news I had spent about 20 minutes outside of Mouse Gear in EPCOT puking. I had hoped it would pass over night, but no such luck. I was hardly able to eat Saturday, so things weren't looking good for a decent marathon effort Sunday morning. I decided I would go into the marathon and give it the best effort I could, but knew I would likely walk a good portion of it. We started out, and things were feeling good. My time at the 5 mile mark was 48:16. Not too bad considering. I was a little off my goal pace, but it was still within reach. Shortly after that is when the wheels started to fall off. I took my first gel around that point, and shortly after it decided to come back up. Well so much for fueling on my gels during the race. So, not only did I not have much energy to start the race, I couldn't even supplement my energy during the race. I chugged along as best I could, walking when I needed to, running when I could. Around mile 10 or so I started running .75 miles and walking .25. At about mile 15, it dropped to run .5 walk .5. My body wouldn't let me run more than .5 miles at a time at that point. I tried taking on anything I could for fuel. Powerade at every aid station, candy from spectators, even had a Coke in WWOS from the spectators handing them out, but at that point it seemed to late. My body wasn't absorbing the glucose I was pumping in. All I could do was hang in there and give everything I had to make it to the finish. Around mile 19 in WWOS I got a text from my wife, who was waiting at the finish with our 7 month old. She told me she knew I could do it no matter how long it took me. I really needed that at that point. It nearly brought me to tears. Eventually I made it the the 25 mile marker. I thought I would try to run it in from there. I figured I could push myself for one last mile. Nope, that didn't happen. About a half mile later my legs all but gave out on me. I was determined to run across the finish line though. So I walked to the 26 mile marker and ran it in from there. I did it. I finished my first marathon. Was it how I had hoped? No. Was I disappointed in how it went? Very. Am I determined to run and finish another marathon on my terms? Absolutely. I finished in 5:18:35. Not at all what I wanted, but given the circumstances, I'll take it. I know now I can do it, and I can only get better from there.
 
Future Running Plans

After running the Dopey challenge, I took some time to think about where I want to go from here with running. I decided I want to keep running marathons and improving in them, but I also know that even if I'm there physically, I'm not quite there mentally. I'm yet to have a race in the last year where I haven't walked at least some portion for one reason or another. The most common reason is my own head games. I decided to take some time to work on shorter races to overcome some of my mental issues. This year I will be running the Stillwater Half Marathon on 5/27, the Lift Bridge 10 Miler on 7/22, and the Log Run 10 Miler on 9/16.

I reached out to @DopeyBadger to create a custom training plan for me, and he graciously agreed to help. My "A" races for the year will be the half marathon and the Log Run 10 Miler. My training for the Stillwater Half begins tomorrow, 1/21. The first couple of weeks will be easy, to get myself back into running after taking the last two weeks off after Dopey. I will be doing blind runs throughout to try to help mentally prepare for the race. Hopefully I can conquer that demon this go around. My two goals for the half are to not walk any of the race, and to set a PR, with a goal of sub 1:50:00. I hope to keep my journal up to date as a means of personal accountability and keeping Coach Billy up to date on how things are going.
 
They seem to think they know him better than we do.

I know this one. Enough said.

She seemed on board as my brother was the same way as a baby, and frankly still is to an extent.

:lmao:

Friday night the news broke that the half marathon was cancelled. I, for one, was relieved. Shortly before hearing the news I had spent about 20 minutes outside of Mouse Gear in EPCOT puking. I had hoped it would pass over night, but no such luck. I was hardly able to eat Saturday, so things weren't looking good for a decent marathon effort Sunday morning. I decided I would go into the marathon and give it the best effort I could, but knew I would likely walk a good portion of it. We started out, and things were feeling good. My time at the 5 mile mark was 48:16. Not too bad considering. I was a little off my goal pace, but it was still within reach. Shortly after that is when the wheels started to fall off. I took my first gel around that point, and shortly after it decided to come back up. Well so much for fueling on my gels during the race. So, not only did I not have much energy to start the race, I couldn't even supplement my energy during the race. I chugged along as best I could, walking when I needed to, running when I could. Around mile 10 or so I started running .75 miles and walking .25. At about mile 15, it dropped to run .5 walk .5. My body wouldn't let me run more than .5 miles at a time at that point. I tried taking on anything I could for fuel. Powerade at every aid station, candy from spectators, even had a Coke in WWOS from the spectators handing them out, but at that point it seemed to late. My body wasn't absorbing the glucose I was pumping in. All I could do was hang in there and give everything I had to make it to the finish. Around mile 19 in WWOS I got a text from my wife, who was waiting at the finish with our 7 month old. She told me she knew I could do it no matter how long it took me. I really needed that at that point. It nearly brought me to tears. Eventually I made it the the 25 mile marker. I thought I would try to run it in from there. I figured I could push myself for one last mile. Nope, that didn't happen. About a half mile later my legs all but gave out on me. I was determined to run across the finish line though. So I walked to the 26 mile marker and ran it in from there. I did it. I finished my first marathon. Was it how I had hoped? No. Was I disappointed in how it went? Very. Am I determined to run and finish another marathon on my terms? Absolutely. I finished in 5:18:35. Not at all what I wanted, but given the circumstances, I'll take it. I know now I can do it, and I can only get better from there.

Ugh... I'm sorry this happened to you. Sounds like some miserable conditions. Not what I'd believe you imagined your first marathon experience to be like. Although, we can look at this and say we can only go up from here.

I reached out to @DopeyBadger to create a custom training plan for me, and he graciously agreed to help. My "A" races for the year will be the half marathon and the Log Run 10 Miler. My training for the Stillwater Half begins tomorrow, 1/21. The first couple of weeks will be easy, to get myself back into running after taking the last two weeks off after Dopey. I will be doing blind runs throughout to try to help mentally prepare for the race. Hopefully I can conquer that demon this go around. My two goals for the half are to not walk any of the race, and to set a PR, with a goal of sub 1:50:00. I hope to keep my journal up to date as a means of personal accountability and keeping Coach Billy up to date on how things are going.

Happy to help! I have full confidence that the plan we've drawn up for you will come with great success and I have no doubt you will crush all of your goals! I think the blind running will pay huge dividends for racing.
 
Ugh... I'm sorry this happened to you. Sounds like some miserable conditions. Not what I'd believe you imagined your first marathon experience to be like. Although, we can look at this and say we can only go up from here.

Yeah, definitely not an ideal way to run a race, but at least I completed it. I can now say I'm a marathoner. My plan is to work on the mental game this year and tackle Twin Cities Marathon in October 2018. Then get ready for another go at Dopey, hopefully with no cancelled races.

Happy to help! I have full confidence that the plan we've drawn up for you will come with great success and I have no doubt you will crush all of your goals! I think the blind running will pay huge dividends for racing.

I hope it does. I'm definitely feeling confident about the plan, and certainly hope the blind running will help.
 


If you are anything like me, you will want to peak at your watch or phone SO BAD during a blind run! I literally had to do everything possible to make it hard on myself to peak (like hiding my watch under a shirt sleeve that is hard to pull up or putting a sticker on top.)
It gets easier the more weeks go on, to where your runs where you are allowed to look at your pace freely, you might find yourself forgetting to look for a lot longer than normal.

But it's so tempting to peak!!! Especially with new paces or the first few times.

Stay strong! Being off pace in either direction is not wrong. (even if it feels wrong)
 
If you are anything like me, you will want to peak at your watch or phone SO BAD during a blind run! I literally had to do everything possible to make it hard on myself to peak (like hiding my watch under a shirt sleeve that is hard to pull up or putting a sticker on top.)
It gets easier the more weeks go on, to where your runs where you are allowed to look at your pace freely, you might find yourself forgetting to look for a lot longer than normal.

But it's so tempting to peak!!! Especially with new paces or the first few times.

Stay strong! Being off pace in either direction is not wrong. (even if it feels wrong)

I know that will be one of my problems. I will definitely have to find ways to keep myself from looking. Not sure how that will be accomplished yet, but I will figure it out.
 
Back to Training - Stillwater Half Marathon

As previously noted the Stillwater Half Marathon will be my next race, and will be one of two "A" races I have planned for the year. @DopeyBadger put together a training plan for me, and yes I am trusting someone from Wisconsin. :) I took two weeks off of running after the marathon, and am ready to get back out there, even though I'll miss the sleeping in I've done over the last two weeks.

Date - Day - Workout
1/19/17 - Th - REST
1/20/17 - Fr - REST
1/21/17 - Sa - 3.0 @ 10:54 pace
1/22/17 - Su - 5.0 @ 10:09 pace
1/23/17 - Mo - REST
1/24/17 - Tu - REST
1/25/17 - We - 5.0 @ 10:09 pace

My son decided to bring home a cold from daycare, and share it with me, so I was a bit under the weather going into my first couple of runs. That was very nice of him. The weather was nice, for Minnesota, all week leading up to my return to running, but as we'll see that can only last for so long.

Saturday finally came, and it was time for my first run in nearly two weeks. The weather was really nice. It was mid- to upper-30s with a relatively light breeze. It's been a long time since I ran in shorts at home. Got geared up and headed outside. I took to my standard 3 mile route. No major surprises here, but it definitely felt good to get back to it. The miles were done all within +/-10 seconds of target, then I got cleaned up so the wife could go shopping. Her company was having their annual holiday party tonight, and she didn't like any of the clothes she had. The party was at U.S. Bank Stadium, home of the Vikings. It was a cool venue. We got to go out on the field to throw balls around and attempt field goals. I managed to send the two attempts I took wide right. We then took a tour of the stadium, and despite being so ugly from the outside it is quite the impressive facility. I also go to check out the seats I'll be buying from my tickets for when the Ravens come to town next season. Pretty good view from there.

Woke up a little later on Sunday for two reasons. One, I had a few drinks, and slept really well. Also, Alistair had woken up in the middle of the night, so I was trying to catch back up. I was out the door by 10 to get my five miles in. I took a route I normally avoid due to a decently steep hill the appears later in the run, but I want to challenge myself a little more this training cycle so I went for it. No real problems encountered. The weather was nice again today so it made getting out their easier.

Monday was a scheduled rest day. The worst of my cold was hitting me so I appreciated the rest day and worked from home. Tuesday had 5 miles on the schedule but thanks to Alistair waking us up at 1:30am, getting out of bed wasn't high on my list of things to do at 4am when the alarm went off. I pushed the run to Wednesday, and took another day to kick the worst of the cold.

Wednesday I woke up nice and early. Alistair slept through the night for the first time since we left for Disney. We aren't entirely sure why he hasn't been sleeping through the night lately, but hopefully that will return soon. He's always been a good sleeper. I woke up this morning to about an inch of snow on the ground. Who doesn't want to run through that? Other than that the temps weren't too bad. It was just below the freezing, so not too cold. Most of the sidewalks hadn't be cleared yet, and actually that was an advantage. The snow provided some grip on top of the ice that formed thanks to all the melting we've had recently. As I hit the shoulder's of the road it became a bit slicker, and then I had the pleasure of playing dodge the snowplow. That was a real treat. I ended up having to change my route on the fly as I wanted the wind at my back later in the run due to the sting from the falling snow. Got the miles in all with in my target, though a little fast.

There it is. Week 1 done, many more to go.
 


I'm so sorry you were ill for the Disney marathon. But, honestly, you still did great to stick with it and finish under really difficult circumstances. Congratulations. Your training plan sounds really good and glad to hear you are back out there!!
 
It's 5:00 am, You Need to Wear Lights

This week was an exciting one as weather goes. Had a little bit of everything one would expect in Minnesota during the winter. Wind one day, warm over the weekend, a little snow, and then a lot of black ice.

Date - Day - Workout
1/19/17 - Th - 4.0 @ 10:09 pace
1/20/17 - Fr - 5.0 @ 10:54 pace
1/21/17 - Sa - 4.0 @ 10:09 pace
1/22/17 - Su - 6.0 @ 10:09 pace
1/23/17 - Mo - 4.0 @ 10:54 pace
1/24/17 - Tu - 5.0 @ 10:09 pace
1/25/17 - We - REST

Come Thursday most of the snow from the previous day had been cleared, and roads salted, so it was less treacherous to run. Still running in easy mode. Took to the shoulders today. Always a little nerve wracking at 5 in the morning. Luckily I had no close calls and all cares gave me room to run. Nothing too exciting on the run today. All miles were within pace today.

Friday morning came around and it was time to drag myself out of bed again. The beginning of a training cycle is always difficult when trying to get used to getting up early again. In fact today it didn't happen. I turned of my alarm and went back to sleep. This meant I was going to have to run after work. To make things a little more complicate, the wife was on call for work, which meant she could be called any time. This meant she didn't want to be left alone with an awake 7 month old in case the phone rang and she had to work. This meant I wasn't going to get my run in until after Alistair went to sleep. Around 9 I was able to get outside and run. The run was uneventful, though the course I was running seemed to change with every turn. I wasn't sure how I wanted to get the 5 miles in, so I just made up the course as I went along. The one thing I noticed was the heart rate graph was odd on my Garmin. I've noticed this a few times, but have no idea what the cause is. Anyone have an idea?

upload_2017-2-1_9-50-8.png

Saturday I slept in a little due to my later than normal run the night before, but was still out the door a little after 10. It had been just over 12 hours since finishing my run. I usually give myself more recovery time, but wasn't worried since I'm still in the easy phase. The weather the past few days has been pretty nice, an it is continuing through the weekend. mid- to upper-20s and minimal wind. Not much more you can ask for during a Minnesota January. Managed to get every mile within desired pace, though they were on the fast end of the +/-10 second range.

Since my wife was still on-call for worked she asked me to wait until her parents came over on Sunday to run. Her parents come over every Sunday to spend time with Alistair. I agreed this made sense, and is a relatively common occurrence for me as we run errands in the morning. Her mom brought over egg rolls, and it was very difficult to not just stay there and eat the egg rolls. She makes the best egg rolls ever. Ugh. Well I didn't give into temptation and went out and ran instead. This was the longest run since my return to running. It was still at easy pace, so no real challenge. The weather was still relatively nice too, so it was a good afternoon for a run. Every mile within desired pace.

Sunday night the temps decided to take a nose dive. Monday morning I woke up to high teens, so not terrible, but not as nice as it had been. It was an easy 4 miles today. I started running and went to turn out of the neighborhood and realized I forgot both my headlamp and Tracer360. Good job, Chris. I had to quickly change my planned route to one where I knew I'd be on the sidewalk the whole time, so I could reduce risk to myself being hit. I made it all the way safely, with each mile within desired pace.

During the day Monday it was warmer and sunny so a lot of the remaining snow and ice melted some. Unfortunately, the temperatures over night were right around freezing. This left a nice layer of black ice on all of the sidewalks. I didn't realize this so I left the house to run without my spikes, oh and forgot my headlamp and Tracer360 again. I'm really winning at making myself visible lately. At least the roads I was running along had really wide shoulders, and a decent amount of street lights. I had to move to the shoulder because the sidewalks were just too icy. I few slips, but no falls. I was able to complete all 5 miles at the desired pace.

Today is my rest day. YAY!!! Due to the decision to run Wednesday instead of Tuesday last week yesterday marked 7 straight days of running. One of my old co-workers and neighbors texted me today though. She has season tickets to the local theaters Broadway season, and can get a discount on tickets for me, so she asked what I wanted. Now the wife and I have to determine what are budget is and what shows we can make it to, though we have to wait until the 2018-2019 season for Hamilton to come to town. Can we just fast forward until then? She also promised me two of her Vikings season tickets for the Ravens game, and let me know she bought into a timeshare when she was at the Pro-Bowl and said we can use her benefits any time. So yay to more Broadway shows, Ravens tickets, and hopefully cheaper travel.
 
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The one thing I noticed was the heart rate graph was odd on my Garmin. I've noticed this a few times, but have no idea what the cause is. Anyone have an idea?

Hmm... to me it looks like it isn't picking anything up. It shows little to no variation. Is the HR monitor working right now (just daily HR)? You could try turning your Garmin 235 off and back on again.

One of my old co-workers and neighbors texted me today though. She has season tickets to the local theaters Broadway season, and can get a discount on tickets for me, so she asked what I wanted. Now the wife and I have to determine what are budget is and what shows we can make it to, though we have to wait until the 2018-2019 season for Hamilton to come to down. Can we just fast forward until then? She also promised me two of her Vikings season tickets for the Ravens game, and let me know she bought into a timeshare when she was at the Pro-Bowl and said we can use her benefits any time. So yay to more Broadway shows, Ravens tickets, and hopefully cheaper travel.

Nice!

Kudos on the great recovery week!
 
Hmm... to me it looks like it isn't picking anything up. It shows little to no variation. Is the HR monitor working right now (just daily HR)? You could try turning your Garmin 235 off and back on again.

Yeah, that's what I thought. It's happened a few times, but most runs seem to be correct. I'm not wearing it right now. I was charging the watch last night and forgot to put it on this morning. It was working correctly during the day yesterday though. I'll just keep monitoring and see if it keeps acting up like that.
 
So I have no real updates here, because I haven't been able to run in over a week and a half. My son decided to share his diseases from daycare with me and I have had this horrible chest cold for what seems like forever. This morning was the first time in a while where I woke up not in an all out coughing fit. I hope to get out there for a run tomorrow, but we'll see how it goes.
 
Sorry to hear you've been sick. Lots of respiratory stuff going around here along with straight up flu. Hope you are well enough to get out tomorrow.
 
I managed to get out Saturday, but was only able to complete 3 of 7 planned miles. Then was able to complete my interval run yesterday, though my intervals were a little slow, in part due to black ice on my interval loop and part due to loss of fitness. My lungs are starting to feel close to normal though, so we'll see how my run goes tomorrow.
 
Happy to hear you're back out there! Depending on the amount of time you had to take off I would suggest easing back into it, which is what seems like your body is doing. We can certainly rework the plan if you'd like.
 
This training cycle does not seem to be for me. I finally got back into the swing of things after my illness and things were going well. Then Thursday we took our son down to Mayo Clinic for a third opinion with a urologist on in issue he's been having and we were told he would need surgery. We decided to try to do it as soon as we good so it would be done before he started walking. Well that lead to us driving back down yesterday for surgery. His surgeon tried something that has never been tried before as far as he know and was able to leave him uncircumcised for a condition that has historically required circumcision. We are very happy with the outcome. Though he has a catheter now for the next week which all but requires two people to change his diapers, and yes diapers is the right word as he wears two at a time. One with a slit in it to stick the catheter through and a second to catch the urine. The frequency of diaper changes and the adminstratio of various medicines ever 1-3 hours is making it difficult to get runs in. Hopefully in the next day or two the frequency of his pain meds will reduce and I can try to run. While I'm released everything went well and there were no complications with the surgery it's annoying that I can't get into flow of things with running. And if you met my son today, you would never know he had outpatient surgery. Nothing slows down infants I'm pretty sure.
 
This training cycle does not seem to be for me. I finally got back into the swing of things after my illness and things were going well. Then Thursday we took our son down to Mayo Clinic for a third opinion with a urologist on in issue he's been having and we were told he would need surgery. We decided to try to do it as soon as we good so it would be done before he started walking. Well that lead to us driving back down yesterday for surgery. His surgeon tried something that has never been tried before as far as he know and was able to leave him uncircumcised for a condition that has historically required circumcision. We are very happy with the outcome. Though he has a catheter now for the next week which all but requires two people to change his diapers, and yes diapers is the right word as he wears two at a time. One with a slit in it to stick the catheter through and a second to catch the urine. The frequency of diaper changes and the adminstratio of various medicines ever 1-3 hours is making it difficult to get runs in. Hopefully in the next day or two the frequency of his pain meds will reduce and I can try to run. While I'm released everything went well and there were no complications with the surgery it's annoying that I can't get into flow of things with running. And if you met my son today, you would never know he had outpatient surgery. Nothing slows down infants I'm pretty sure.

Sorry to hear about this but it sounds like your son is on a good path to recovery. Hang in there. Running will still be there for you when you can find the time again.
 
I'm praying for your kiddo and for you guys! That's tough to go through that. I'm sure so much worry. Infants are really resilient, you are definitely right about that.
 

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