Hanging up my running shoes

[ZellyB]

Are you guys in to space (like, NASA space) at all? If so, maybe a trip to Kennedy/Cape Canaveral? That'd be on my list, but I'm a space nerd...

I would love that, but not sure my girls would be as interested, although worth an ask for sure.

When we went in Nov 2016, we drove to Cocoa Beach for a day and had a great time! The drive itself was so unique. I also hope to go to the space center someday.

Hmmm, maybe throwing in Cocoa Beach would be a winner.

Do you guys do ferris wheels? The Orlando Eye is supposed to be great, and I'm pretty sure there are a few other things to do in that area.

I've never really venture outside the theme parks, so I don't know much, but I'm sure there must be a beach somewhere ...

Sorry, I'm less than helpful on this one. Last time I left property was 2011, and that was just a trip to Hogwarts.

I thought about the Orlando Eye. We actually have one of those big Ferris Wheels in Branson near home, so they might not think that's as interesting. Although we haven't ridden it!

One year when I went with my sister, we were going to take an air boat ride somewhere in the area the morning before our flight, but it was raining, so we opted not to do it. So, I can’t necessarily recommend it, but it is something to look into if that’s your thing.

I think an airboat ride would be fun. We debated that one time in NOLA, but ran out of time to do it.

We made a trip over to Tampa when we went to WDW last time. My mom really wanted Cuban food and the city was really cool. We also went to Cocoa Beach one day and had lunch at a place on the beach.

So, two votes for Cocoa Beach. We stayed near Tampa one year and liked that area as well.

Cocoa Beach is really nice! We stay there before every cruise and really like the area. There are also some pretty good outlet malls in Orlando where I stock up on running gear, but that might not help with the whole argument to offset costs. LOL

Cocoa Beach is racking up the votes!!

What about an escape room? My teens love those.

- Wekiwa Springs
- night kayaking through springs that glow https://www.adventuresinflorida.com/day/biolum
- zip lining at Forever Florida
- day trip to St. Augustine
- gatorland. sounds kind of hokey, but everyone i know who has been said it's worth it

Good list of things. The girls do love escape rooms and we've never done that with them, so that's a possibility. I'll check out the others.

We did the IFLy indoor skydiving in Orlando and all loved it.

The girls and Chris would probably love this too.

I would recommend St Augustine. That was a lot of fun and very interesting the day we did it. I lived in Tampa for a year and Clearwater beach is very nice as well.

Chris and I went to St. Augustine once on our own and loved it!

We did Gatorland a couple of years ago. It's a good spot to kill a few hours and I don't remember it being very expensive.

I could actually see the girls enjoying Gatorland. I'm not so sure I would though.

Congrats on the race!

I’m no help on things outside Disney...

Thank you!

You guys are all the BEST!!

 

[FFigawi]

Cocoa Beach is 10-15 minutes from our house. I'll add another vote for it as one of your side trips.

 

[ZellyB]

FRESH WEEK OF TRAINING - HOW'D IT GO?

3/18/18 - 3/25/18
​

Sunday - 3/18 - Day after our 15K race and thankfully, my groin seemed to be holding up pretty well. Still some tenderness there, but definitely improvement. 3 miles today at Easy Pace. Overall pace of 12:26.
Monday - 3/19 - Easy/LR 4.5 miles. 12:24 overall pace. HEY!! Look at us hitting those easy paces much better. Go us!!!

Tuesday 3/20 - Easy Continuous run. 4 miles now at continuous running. Overall pace 11:26. Oops. I guess we bragged a bit too soon, but I think Coach told us we could go a bit faster (like 11:40 maybe) on our EC runs so maybe this was okay?
Wednesday 3/21 - REST!
Thursday 3/22 - This was originally set for a HM tempo run, but given my challenges and time off, Coach told me to just keep this to an easy run. We didn't run in the morning and Chris had a meeting, so I was unsure where I wanted to run in the evening. I ended up just running up and down our little private road and our neighborhood which is VERY hilly. UGH. I ended up just running 3 miles because I got bored and tired. I did stop to visit with my dad's horses too. Say hi to Charlie Brown and Lucy. They were in the mood for some petting.



And, it's finally SPRING here, y'all. Trees and flowers are blooming!!
https://flic.kr/p/22L8r7o



The other fun thing was one of our neighbors has a little Italian Greyhound. He's very skittish and won't let you get near him, but as I was running past him, he came bounding up to me and ran beside me briefly before SPRINTING ahead and then running back to me. Holy cow, that little guy is FAST. He did that a couple of times before retreating back to his yard to bark at me.


Friday 3/23 - REST!
Saturday 3/24 - Easy/LR 6 miles. Overall pace 12:18. It was 61 degrees at 6 AM for this run. LOVELY!!! More bushes in bloom!!!
https://flic.kr/p/22L8r73


Sunday 3/25 - Easy/LR 7 miles. Chris' brother was in town visiting from Virginia so he ran with us. He does intervals as well, but runs faster than us, so we got going too fast on this one. 11:38 overall pace. Oops again!

Question for you @DopeyBadger . It looks like on the schedule if I'm reading it right that maybe we are supposed to do a Magic Mile tomorrow? It's a 4 mile EC run, but the color-coding if I'm reading it right would mean we do a Magic Mile as part of that. Maybe? What should we do on that? Thanks.

So, there you have it. A good week overall I think and we are doing better (mostly) at hitting our easy paces I think. My leg is feeling almost back to normal. Still some mild twinges every so often, but I'm feeling good again. YAY!

 

[DopeyBadger]

FRESH WEEK OF TRAINING - HOW'D IT GO?

3/18/18 - 3/25/18
​

Sunday - 3/18 - Day after our 15K race and thankfully, my groin seemed to be holding up pretty well. Still some tenderness there, but definitely improvement. 3 miles today at Easy Pace. Overall pace of 12:26.
Monday - 3/19 - Easy/LR 4.5 miles. 12:24 overall pace. HEY!! Look at us hitting those easy paces much better. Go us!!!

Tuesday 3/20 - Easy Continuous run. 4 miles now at continuous running. Overall pace 11:26. Oops. I guess we bragged a bit too soon, but I think Coach told us we could go a bit faster (like 11:40 maybe) on our EC runs so maybe this was okay?
Wednesday 3/21 - REST!
Thursday 3/22 - This was originally set for a HM tempo run, but given my challenges and time off, Coach told me to just keep this to an easy run. We didn't run in the morning and Chris had a meeting, so I was unsure where I wanted to run in the evening. I ended up just running up and down our little private road and our neighborhood which is VERY hilly. UGH. I ended up just running 3 miles because I got bored and tired. I did stop to visit with my dad's horses too. Say hi to Charlie Brown and Lucy. They were in the mood for some petting.



And, it's finally SPRING here, y'all. Trees and flowers are blooming!!



The other fun thing was one of our neighbors has a little Italian Greyhound. He's very skittish and won't let you get near him, but as I was running past him, he came bounding up to me and ran beside me briefly before SPRINTING ahead and then running back to me. Holy cow, that little guy is FAST. He did that a couple of times before retreating back to his yard to bark at me.


Friday 3/23 - REST!
Saturday 3/24 - Easy/LR 6 miles. Overall pace 12:18. It was 61 degrees at 6 AM for this run. LOVELY!!! More bushes in bloom!!!


Sunday 3/25 - Easy/LR 7 miles. Chris' brother was in town visiting from Virginia so he ran with us. He does intervals as well, but runs faster than us, so we got going too fast on this one. 11:38 overall pace. Oops again!

Question for you @DopeyBadger . It looks like on the schedule if I'm reading it right that maybe we are supposed to do a Magic Mile tomorrow? It's a 4 mile EC run, but the color-coding if I'm reading it right would mean we do a Magic Mile as part of that. Maybe? What should we do on that? Thanks.

So, there you have it. A good week overall I think and we are doing better (mostly) at hitting our easy paces I think. My leg is feeling almost back to normal. Still some mild twinges every so often, but I'm feeling good again. YAY!

I don't have it with me, but I'm guessing it is marked in red. I generally don't do MM unless I feel the need to reassess fitness. So my guess is because this was a continuous run, then the actual goal was a blind run at continuous pacing. Therefore, no peeking!

 

[ZellyB]

I don't have it with me, but I'm guessing it is marked in red. I generally don't do MM unless I feel the need to reassess fitness. So my guess is because this was a continuous run, then the actual goal was a blind run at continuous pacing. Therefore, no peeking!

Ah, ok. Yes marked in red, so that will be our first blind one. Exciting! You've had us at 12:25ish for our EC, but we've yet to hit that. We seem to end up closer to 11:30 or so. Do you want us to shoot for that 12:25 number or can we do closer to what we've been at?

 

[DopeyBadger]

Ah, ok. Yes marked in red, so that will be our first blind one. Exciting! You've had us at 12:25ish for our EC, but we've yet to hit that. We seem to end up closer to 11:30 or so. Do you want us to shoot for that 12:25 number or can we do closer to what we've been at?

Aim for the same effort level that you have been using to complete the non-blinded EC runs.

 

[SarahDisney]

Horsies!!! Charlie Brown and Lucy are super cute.

Great job (mostly) hitting your paces!

 

[Bree]

I love the horse names!

Good job this week!

 

[run.minnie.miles]

Great week of running!
For my dad having a ranch, I am not much of a horse person. But these look very nice and I love their names!
I really do love greyhounds though! My grandpa had a retired racing one when we were kids, named Cindy. She was the nicest dog ever.

 

[Anisum]

Sounds like a good week of running. Charlie Brown and Lucy are adorable!

I had regular greyhounds growing up and so I'm partial to them in all sizes. There is a house in town that owns quite a few Italian Greyhounds and fosters a few more meaning they have between 4-7 living with them at any one time. They like barking and chasing me when I run by their fenced in yard but they're the sweetest things when they're on walks. Usually if one is out and sees me the whole pack comes running to bark.

 

[ZellyB]

YES, I'M STILL ALIVE!

​

It's been a challenging couple of weeks with LIFE keeping us pretty preoccupied, so I've done little on the boards, except fly-by postings. Sigh.

Sadly LIFE has also meant we've been a bit hit and miss on some of our runs.

We've still managed most of them, but it's been a tough go lately. Some of that was travel out of town, inspections for me at work, stress for Chris in finishing up his dissertation and job interviews and basically...

So where are we now? We've got a half marathon planned for this Saturday up in Kansas City. This is the Rock the Parkway half that we've run before. It's a pretty good course. Starts out with the first couple of miles being gradually uphill, but then flattens out and a nice long, gradual downhill finish. So, it's a pretty good course, and originally I was hoping to improve on my current PR of 2:12. Now, with some of the hit and miss training of the last few weeks, that may be overly optimistic.

We've had a couple of HM tempo runs over the last two weeks, and they've gone reasonably well. I mean we've been able to hit the required paces fine, but I also could feel the fatigue building for sure on them, so can I actually hit that pace for a half? I'm not feeling confident of that. Current PR pace is 10:04. I was ideally hoping to get below 2:10 for the final time which would mean I'd need to run 9:55 pace. And, since we know that you rarely actually only run 13.1, I really need to be close to 9:45 or 9:50 probably to be safe. Ummmm, not sure that will happen. But, then again, as long as I don't push to injury, I really have nothing to lose with trying for that right? Weather looks possibly decent, cool, but that's good for me. But, possibly windy. Maybe really windy. That would stink. I'm motivated to slightly improve my time for a better PoT for WDW Marathon Weekend 2019, we were tantalizingly close to a possible C corral placement last time, and with a better HM PoT and only running the marathon and not a challenge, could we get so lucky??? So, do we start out from the get-go hitting 9:45ish paces even though it's uphill and just try to maintain? Do we start out closer to 10:10ish and ease into it sparing some juice on the hills and then try for negative splits and really pushing on the downhill finish? Do I just not worry about a PR and just enjoy the race? *deep breath*

What do I do people? COACH????

Also, send lots of good vibes for Chris. He's hoping to hear something tonight about his job opportunity. So many fingers crossed!!!

 

[rteetz]

Definitely get the life aspect... I am in the thick of the semester with three tests this week. I have had limited time on the boards as well. I have been working more and we are stuck in a perpetual winter so my running has been non-existent.

 

[ZellyB]

Definitely get the life aspect... I am in the thick of the semester with three tests this week. I have had limited time on the boards as well. I have been working more and we are stuck in a perpetual winter so my running has been non-existent.

UGH, I didn't even mention the weather. One run we missed was due to ice on the roads. ICE!!! It's been crazy. It's approaching the middle of April and it was snowing on Sunday. I know once we are in the dog days of summer, I'll be begging for colder days, but right now...not so much.

 

[DopeyBadger]

I think taking the slower approach and working your way up is the best strategy. Just don't set yourself up to fail at increasing pace by believing you can't do more. Remember that fitness gains and losses are slow. So while the last few weeks of training may not have been ideal, they certainly could have still been good. All that hard work you put in during January, February, and March is still there. Just don't put too much pressure on yourself and let what happens happen. As I always say, "Do the best you can today. Sometimes your best tomorrow would have been better. Sometimes your best yesterday would have been worse. But all you can ask of yourself, is to do your best today."

 

[run.minnie.miles]

So glad to see your little notification pop up! I think it's always a nice reminder that running is a part of life, not our entire lives.

Good luck this weekend!!

 

[ZellyB]

I think taking the slower approach and working your way up is the best strategy. Just don't set yourself up to fail at increasing pace by believing you can't do more. Remember that fitness gains and losses are slow. So while the last few weeks of training may not have been ideal, they certainly could have still been good. All that hard work you put in during January, February, and March is still there. Just don't put too much pressure on yourself and let what happens happen. As I always say, "Do the best you can today. Sometimes your best tomorrow would have been better. Sometimes your best yesterday would have been worse. But all you can ask of yourself, is to do your best today."

Yes to the bold, okay, good advice. We will strive to do our best that day. One thing with me is that I don't always have a good fire in my belly for races, so when I get tired, I do tend to get a bit defeated on pushing through. It's always easy to just let up knowing I'll comfortably finish and that the time isn't THAT important. I need to try and get myself psyched up more this week as we approach this race and push myself through during the race. Chris also thought starting out a bit slower and building up would be best as well. Thank you!

So glad to see your little notification pop up! I think it's always a nice reminder that running is a part of life, not our entire lives.

Good luck this weekend!!

So true about running and life! Thank you.

 

[FredtheDuck]

Hey fingers super crossed for Chris!

Also, I think it's funny you mention not always having a fire in your belly for races. I was just telling @MoanasPapa that this is how I feel about anything longer than a 10k. I kinda just want to run and not get too uncomfortable. I'm trying to get better about having more stretch goals, but I'm still not there yet, and I think that's OK. Same goes for you. A half is an accomplishment, not matter how much you put your body (and your mental game) through.

 

[SarahDisney]

Sending lots of good vibes for @Chris-Mo!

I think it's a good idea to start slow. If you go out there and you're feeling better than you thought you would be, you can speed up. If you're not feeling so great, slow down. If you start slow, you can make up the speed later in the race. If you start faster than what's right for that day and that race and wear yourself out, it's a lot harder to come back from that.

Whatever you decide, remember to have a good time, and I'm excited to hear all about it!

 

[Anisum]

Good luck Chris! Hoping all the best.

I am currently meh about races. I have them and I'll be excited when I get to them but right now I have other things on my mind. Good luck on your half, you got this!

 

[ZellyB]

Hey fingers super crossed for Chris!

Also, I think it's funny you mention not always having a fire in your belly for races. I was just telling @MoanasPapa that this is how I feel about anything longer than a 10k. I kinda just want to run and not get too uncomfortable. I'm trying to get better about having more stretch goals, but I'm still not there yet, and I think that's OK. Same goes for you. A half is an accomplishment, not matter how much you put your body (and your mental game) through.

Sending lots of good vibes for @Chris-Mo!

I think it's a good idea to start slow. If you go out there and you're feeling better than you thought you would be, you can speed up. If you're not feeling so great, slow down. If you start slow, you can make up the speed later in the race. If you start faster than what's right for that day and that race and wear yourself out, it's a lot harder to come back from that.

Whatever you decide, remember to have a good time, and I'm excited to hear all about it!

Good luck Chris! Hoping all the best.

I am currently meh about races. I have them and I'll be excited when I get to them but right now I have other things on my mind. Good luck on your half, you got this!

Thanks everybody!

HE GOT THE JOB!!!!

Did I even tell you guys what the job is?? I don't remember. HA! He is the new Superintendent for his school district. It's the job he's worked his whole career to get. It's all sort of surreal right now, but so exciting!!