Dopey Training
All of those races will, of course, lead up to...
WDW 5K on January 8, 2015
WDW 10K on January 9, 2015
WDW Half Marathon on January 10, 2015
WDW Marathon on January 11, 2015
AKA the Dopey Challenge!
The registration price will be crazy, waking up at dark-thirty in the morning will be tough, and I'll be a walking zombie by the end of it (assuming I actually WILL be able to walk when all is said and done
)...but I'm EXCITED!!
This is what I need to get my mojo back. I'm thinking of training as sort of 3 parts...the Life Stuff, the Non-Running Stuff, and last but not least, the Running Stuff.
Life Stuff
During training, I'm planning to...
1. Not put my relationships on the back burner - training is important but not as important as my family, particularly my husband and dog, and friends. I don't want them or anyone else to feel neglected. Right now I have a girls weekend trip to WDW booked over the Princess Half Marathon weekend (not running, but will be cheering on a friend) as well as a cruise on the Dream in late July with the same friends and their husbands, plus Will. We've also got 2 weddings over the summer: Will's cousin in May (which will require some travel for us) and my cousin in June (local, but I'm in the wedding party so I know I'll have some responsibilities with that). I've got tickets to see Lady Gaga with my cousins in May (SQUEEEEEE
). Woohoo, fun times ahead! Anyway...I need to fit my training around those things, plus any other family and friend commitments.
Pic of the dog...just because this report needs more pictures!
2. Not let my work suffer - again, training is important, but I like my job and I want to continue to be good at it and grow in my position (hence the work trip in October). Plus, I gotta pay for this trip and these races somehow!
3. Drink lots of water. I'm pretty good with this at work - I keep a 32-ounce Nalgene bottle at my desk and try to drink 2 per day, so I'm hoping to increase that to 2.5 or 3 bottles per day when training really gets going. I'm VERY bad at drinking water at home so I want to be better about this. Beyond that I have a Starbucks habit that I'm not really interested in taming - I don't drink a lot of alcohol (1 glass of wine per week normally) so Starbucks a few mornings each week doesn't seem too bad. Or maybe I just like to tell myself that!
I also have 1 Coke per week, and ONLY one, because for a few years I was borderline-addicted.
But yeah...more water is a goal of mine
4. Sleep more. Always a problem for me...if I could get to bed by 9:30 or 10 each work night that would be super. Right now its more in the 10:45-11:00PM range, which means I'm getting up later than I want to and to the gym later than I want to (I use the gym here at work in the mornings). So that needs to change.
5. Eat better. I was REALLY bad about this while training for Goofy in 2012, and while I expected to gain a few pounds (it's just inevitable with marathon training) I put on a few more AFTER training was done.
I'm about 7 pounds overweight for my height and it would be lovely if I could just go ahead and lose 10-15 pounds. Just lovely.
So I'd like to reign it in a bit this time around and possibly get rid of what I gained. I'm not sure I'll write a lot about weight loss here (if at all) but I read somewhere that every pound lost = 2 seconds per mile faster running...so that would be nice.
Non-Running Stuff
1. Strength training - VERY important for injury-free running, especially (in my case) for healthy knees. While training for Goofy/5K 2013 I did
IronStrength twice per week, and while it kept me healthy it was so BORING and repetitive, and had almost no core work (which is important for me as I have a history of back injuries - having a strong core is important for a healthy back). But it did keep my knees healthy...so right now I'm not sure what I'll do this time around when Dopey training starts. When I was recovering from that injury in November I did the Jillian Michael's 30-Day Shred and liked it a LOT. My main takeaway from IronStrength is that squats and having a strong butt and legs are important, and Jillian's 30DS doesn't skimp on that. After 6 weeks of shredding (no way I could do all 30 days in a row with no rest days) I could definitely feel that my legs and butt were stronger during yoga (more on that in a minute). Plus, it's 3 different workouts that I could rotate to keep things interesting.
: So I'm going to stick with 30DS for a bit and see how it works with the 10-miler in April. If I continue to like it I'll keep doing it this year through Dopey training. If it doesn't work with running I'll design my own plan, something that's 30 minutes at the most and 1-2 times per week...and probably based on IronStrength since that's worked for me in the past.
2. Yoga - something that I really came to love in 2013 when I was sick of running. I tried to incorporate yoga into my training in 2012 by taking free classes at work on my lunch hour and failed miserably. During the Great Running Funk of 2013 I started going to a studio near my house and LOVED it. So while it stinks that I need to go to classes outside of work and pay for them, this studio is a better fit for me, I think because I like the teaching style more than whats offered at work, and I really love the hot yoga classes (where the studio is heated to 99 degrees!). I think this will be really important, because if I'm more flexible I'll be less likely to get injured. Plus...I just really like yoga. So I want to do this 1-2 times per week.
3. Rest Days - Must have at least one per week for recovery, injury prevention and my sanity.
4. Foam Rolling - I was not so great about this in 2012 and barely ran enough in 2013 for it to matter, but I need to be better about this. Again - INJURY PREVENTION!
And last but not least...
Running Stuff
Quite often I've looked into trying any number of training plans, but I always seems to come back to those from Hal Higdon. I like them because I feel like they get me well-prepared for whatever event I'm running without piling on too much mileage. For both the 2012 marathon and the 5K/Goofy Challenge in 2013 I used the
Novice 1 marathon training plan, and it was perfect for me. It starts at 15 miles per week with a build to one 40-mile week, spread out 4 days of running per week. I went into both Marathon Weekends feeling pretty great and successfully completed the marathon in 2012 and all 3 races in 2013, so Novice 1 holds a special place in my heart. So do I use a plan that I know works for me or do I turn it up a notch to this plan -
Hal Higdon's Dopey Training plan?
The Novice 1 Plan...
1. Is comfortable and familiar...I've used it twice now
2. Definitely works. I successfully used it for the marathon in 2012 and Goofy/5K in 2013 (with minimal tweaking, adding 2 weeks to the plan and shuffling the days so they worked better with my schedule), so it seems like it should work this time too
3. Is 4 days per week of running, which I know I can handle
BUT...
4. Is it really enough for Dopey?
5. Should I test the limits and see if I'm capable of more?
The Dopey Plan...
1. Is designed specifically for Dopey
2. Turns things up a notch but doesn't have crazy mileage (tops out with a 42.5 mile week, not that much more than the peak week for Novice 1)
3. Might give me more confidence than Novice 1
4. Works out better with the other races I've planned for this year
BUT...
5. Every other week there are 5 days per week of running on the schedule
6. The mid-week runs are longer.
What to do???
I mean...I'm sure Novice 1 could get me there. But I think I need to go with the Dopey plan. Signing up for these 4 races is serious business and I would hate myself if I arrived at WDW in January undertrained. The only things holding me back from fully committing to the Dopey plan are the higher-mileage mid-week runs and the thought of running 5 days per week...I'm currently at 3 days per week of running and am planning on adding a 4th day next week. Four days per week of running is really what Im used to, so adding a fifth would be taking it to the next level for me. But I guess Dopey requires taking things to the next level, so thats probably what I'll do.
I'm very lucky that I have a few helpful things at my disposal...
1. A gym at work - so most of my Monday - Thursday runs will be on the treadmill (if we go to the gym a certain number of times per month we get a break on our health insurance)
2. A "gym" at home, i.e. a dedicated workout room in our house with free weights and a bench (no treadmill yet)
3. A yoga studio close to home...2-3 miles away so no more than a 10-15 minute drive
4. One work-from-home day per week - this is HUGE. Normally it's on Friday, meaning that my schedule is more flexible then and I just need to get my work done. So I'll be able to get some of those longer mid-distance runs in.
5. A supportive husband! Couldn't do it without him!
So that's the plan! I was pretty proud of my training in 2012 - I missed, I think, one run (had a pretty painful sinus infection Labor Day weekend) and cut one run short (my 2nd of two 20-milers...miserable weather, super snowy and cold, so I bagged it after 16 miles). If I could come close to that with training for Dopey in 2015, I'd be thrilled.
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