Life After Marathons: A Running/barre3/Coffee/Life Journal

[Sleepless Knight]

Thanks for sharing this, it definitely helps to hear that others are being cautious as well! We masked in most places (I was double masked just because I had cute character masks that didn't fit + masks that did fit underneath) and I think that knowing that I was doing the best I could to protect myself helped. Fingers crossed I didn't bring home any unwanted souvenirs ... so far so good on rapid tests, but I'm definitely self-monitoring and will get a PCR if anything feels off.

Yeah, I definitely felt better once I was in the parks (also, side note, Galaxy's Edge was amazing!!!!), maybe not 100%, but definitely being in Disneyland makes me feel so much better than anywhere else.

Even in the pandemic, the Disney magic is real. And sometimes I think it helps a bit of normalcy even with masks helps.

The trip was amazing and felt like coming home. I didn't want to leave. I didn't buy nearly enough stuff. I want to go back. And that's all I'm gonna say (although I will try to remember to attach a picture or two to this post).

In a pandemic twist of events, I have not been to Disneyland in over 2 years now and am not yet sure when I will return although I hope that will be sometime this summer especially if my 4 year old nephew has anything to say about it. In his world, his plush Mickey brought him love from Disneyland Mickey and that helped him make it through the restrictions. Not being able to attend church or even the playground and such was very difficult.

I'm glad you had a great time there with Beth. Disneyland has a charm to it that is simply different from Disney World, particularly its sister park the Magic Kingdom. Not better, not worse, just different. And I miss that charm. Well that and I miss being able to experience a castle and Galaxy's Edge within 5 minutes.

 

[garneska]

Glad you enjoyed Disneyland. It's been a long time since I was there.

 

[SarahDisney]

In a pandemic twist of events, I have not been to Disneyland in over 2 years now and am not yet sure when I will return although I hope that will be sometime this summer especially if my 4 year old nephew has anything to say about it. In his world, his plush Mickey brought him love from Disneyland Mickey and that helped him make it through the restrictions. Not being able to attend church or even the playground and such was very difficult.

I hope you (and your nephew) can get back there soon! Yeah, the restrictions have been especially rough on young kids. I'm glad he had Mickey to help him through it.

I'm glad you had a great time there with Beth. Disneyland has a charm to it that is simply different from Disney World, particularly its sister park the Magic Kingdom. Not better, not worse, just different. And I miss that charm. Well that and I miss being able to experience a castle and Galaxy's Edge within 5 minutes.

Disneyland is definitely different. And that's why I love to do both WDW and Disneyland trips. I like to get in both types of magic as often as I can.

Glad you enjoyed Disneyland. It's been a long time since I was there.

Thank you!

 

[SarahDisney]

United NYC Half Training: Week One
1/24/2022 - 1/30/2022​

The Plan:
2 runs (approx 8 miles), 2 barre3 classes, 2 walks (approx 5-6 miles)

The Actual:
2 runs (7.4 miles), 2 barre3 classes (1 in-person, 1 livestream), 1 walk (2.1 miles)

The Details:
Monday:
barre2 Livestream with Jess. This was my first afternoon class in a bit, because I needed to do grocery shopping in the morning. It was a good class and a nice reminder of why I love Jess's classes.

Tuesday:
3.00 mile run, 41:39 minutes, 13:53 min/mi. The only note I have written down about this run is "meh" so ... that's what I got.

Wednesday:
2.13 mile walk. It was too cold to walk in the morning so I took a break from work in the afternoon for my walk. Probably should have done a barre3 class in the morning but I decided to sleep in instead. Watched Captain Marvel after work - more on that below.

Thursday:
4.39 mile run, 58:53 minutes, 13:25 min/mi. I woke up not wanting to run but kinda knew I’d be okay once I got out. Was pretty thirsty most of the run (I didn’t bring water because I was afraid it would freeze) but otherwise it was okay.

Friday:
Rest Day

Saturday:
Rest Day

Sunday:
barre3 In-Studio with Vicky. Good class! It’s been a hot minute since I was in the studio and it was nice to be back. I think this was my first time doing class in a surgical mask and it was fine (I usually use a cloth mask, but I’ve also been pretty much exclusively wearing surgical masks for the last few weeks because I got a box of masks that are actually fairly comfortable).
I usually walk down to class on Sunday morning but it was very cold and the ground was covered in snow so I played it safe and took the subway. Was considering a walk later in the day but its not gonna happen.

Next Week Plan:
3 runs (14 miles), 2 barre3 classes, 1 walk (2-3 miles)
Timing of things is TBD. I was planning to do my long run Sunday but that means skipping Sunday morning barre3 and I'll be missing the following week for other reasons so I may try to do the long run during the week and do barre3 on Sunday but we'll see if I can make it work.

Captain Marvel Thoughts:
Overall thoughts: It was okay. I didn’t really get into it. I like my heroes a little more flawed (is that the word I’m looking for? I’m not sure it is). But the cat thing was kinda funny.

Minor Comments:

• Was this the first movie that came out after Stan Lee died? It felt like it was from the opening Marvel logo situation.
• Why do the “smaller” movies (for lack of a better word) have the best music? Why can’t we get “Celebrity Skin” over the credits of an Avengers movie?
• Mid-Credits Scene: Why does Cap still have that dumb beard?

Next Up: Spiderman Far From Home. Was gonna maybe watch it this weekend but I don’t think I’m going to get around to it (I’ve been feeling a little off today so I don’t really want to watch something I need to be super invested in) so hopefully during the week. After that is Avengers: Endgame, but I will have to do some research before I watch that to make sure Cap’s dumb beard is gone. I cannot watch more of that dumb beard.

 

[SarahDisney]

I just opened my last beer so it's gonna be a rough week (unless I go into the office in which case I will stop by Torch & Crown and get more beer).

I'm still figuring out my schedule for the week. I'm planning to run tomorrow, probably on the treadmill (so I should probably charge my bluetooth headphones, which will definitely annoy me on the treadmill). That'll probably be my shortest run of the week. If it's ok to run outside on Tuesday, I'll do an outside run then. If not, barre3 class and then the next outside run on Wednesday. Current plan is long run Thursday and barre3 on Sunday, but if rain is still in the forecast for Thursday, I may do barre3 on Thursday instead and long run on Sunday. I would like to do b3 on Sunday, but it's not a must-do.

 

[jmasgat]

• Was this the first movie that came out after Stan Lee died? It felt like it was from the opening Marvel logo situation.
• Why do the “smaller” movies (for lack of a better word) have the best music? Why can’t we get “Celebrity Skin” over the credits of an Avengers movie?
• Mid-Credits Scene: Why does Cap still have that dumb beard?

Yes on the Stan Lee reference...which gets a little explanation here.....

https://www.thrillist.com/entertainment/nation/captain-marvel-stan-lee-cameo-tribute
Cap loses the beard in Endgame (although apparently that wasn't supposed to happen)

 

[SarahDisney]

Yes on the Stan Lee reference...which gets a little explanation here.....

https://www.thrillist.com/entertainment/nation/captain-marvel-stan-lee-cameo-tribute

Ooh, thanks for sharing that article! I totally missed the Mallrats reference

Cap loses the beard in Endgame (although apparently that wasn't supposed to happen)

Good to know. Thanks. Now I can watch it in peace. (Although I don't know why they wouldn't want him to lose the beard, the beard is terrible)

 

[SarahDisney]

Update: I did not go into the office but I ordered beer for delivery.
Also, I don't have running water at the moment so we'll see if I end up running tomorrow (not gonna run if I can't shower after). Water was supposed to be back 5 hours ago and apparently (according to the picture someone sent in the building whatsapp group) the plumbers are still here. Sigh.

 

[SarahDisney]

Another update! (This week is full of updates apparently)

Water came back on just before bedtime on Tuesday, so I was able to wash my dishes before bed. And run (/shower) on Wednesday. I did something to my back on that run so I'm taking a rest day today. I'm okay sitting in my chair at work but moving around too much hurts (although I was fine baking last night, but I also took something yesterday, which I didn't today). I'm thinking about what next steps are but so far it's looking like today, Friday, and Saturday will all be rest days and I'll re-evaluate on Sunday.

Also, my beer delivery came. 4 cans of my favorite pilsner and 4 cans of a beer themed after Kirby's Dream Land (which I haven't tried yet but I hope I like because Kirby!!).

ETA: Forgot to mention, I'm planning to watch Far From Home on Saturday night (with the Kirby beer). I also need to work on two playlists, including one for the NYC Half (the other is for a work thing).

 

[SarahDisney]

Wait why did nobody tell me that Endgame comes before Far From Home? I thought Endgame was the last movie of Phase 3. That changes tonight's plans.
(I have about 5 minutes to decide if I got started too late for a 3 hour movie and should just watch tomorrow or if I'm good to watch now).

 

[FFigawi]

Did you watch it?

 

[SarahDisney]

Did you watch it?

I did! It was very long. I finished after midnight so I haven't really had time to collect my thoughts but I will hopefully share my thoughts on it later.

 

[SarahDisney]

United NYC Half Training: Week Two
1/31/2022 - 2/6/2022​

The Plan:
3 runs (14 miles), 2 barre3 classes, 1 walk (2-3 miles)

The Actual:
2 runs (11.29 miles), 2 barre3 classes (1 in-person, 1 livestream), 0 walks, 1 back injury

The Details:
Monday:
3.06 mile treadmill run, 43:02 minutes, 14:04 min/mi. This run came after a few days of rough sleep, so I was afraid I’d have trouble dragging myself out of bed, but it wasn’t too bad. This was the first time I was in the fitness center with someone else, though, which was awkward but ok. I had to use the treadmill with the broken screen, though.

Tuesday:
barre3 Livestream class with Jenna. This was an after-work class (I forgot to sign up for morning class and there was a waitlist once I remembered) and I was stressed about the water situation, so not my best class.

Wednesday:
8.23 mile run, 1:57:10 minutes, 14:14 min/mi. This run was in jeopardy for a bit because of a plumbing situation that lasted 6 hours longer than originally advertised. Once I knew it was gonna happen, the plan was 3 miles. I woke up thinking “why can’t I do my long run today?” (it was definitely the best long run weather of the week) but then remembered the reason (I had morning stuff). Did it anyway. My back hurt all day. I have some thoughts on that but whatever.

Thursday:
Unplanned rest day. After yesterday's run/back pain, I wanted to take it easy.

Friday:
Rest Day. My back was feeling a little better but not 100%.

Saturday:
Rest Day

Sunday:
barre3 In-Studio with Vicky. Class started off good, but at some point while we were stretching mid-class my back just started to hurt. I took a few minutes to regroup and was able to finish class mostly pain-free, but it was definitely not great for my back. So yeah. I'm taking it a little easy today and trying to figure out what's next.

Next Week Plan:
???
It was supposed to be 2 runs, 2-3 barre classes, and a walk. But with the back, I don't know. I might take a full rest week. I might take tomorrow off and see what I can do Tuesday. I really don't know.

Avengers: Endgame Thoughts:
Overall thoughts: Honestly the movie was way too long and there came a point where I really couldn’t bring myself to pay attention anymore. I almost missed the part with Cap and Mjolnir.
But the parts I was paying attention to definitely felt like an ending, and actually a good one.

Some highlights:

• I'm very excited that I now understand "I love you 3000"
• Thor and Captain Marvel meeting
• Drunk Thor
• Ant-Man "Somebody peed my pants"
• Everything having to do with Tony Stark and Peter Parker. Seriously those two are too cute.

I kinda realized during this movie that Spiderman-related things made me not hate Tony Stark. Which is weird. Also, I maybe like Thor a little now? Which is also weird. These movies are making me like characters I shouldn't like and I'm not sure I'm okay with that.

Anyway. Avengers disassemble?

Next Up: Spiderman Far From Home. For real this time.

 

[Sleepless Knight]

Some highlights:

• I'm very excited that I now understand "I love you 3000"

So I have a funny story involving how Frozen, runDisney, character meets, and Avengers all intersected in one awesome moment.

The afternoon of the 2017 Avengers Superheroes Half Marathon, I decided to get a photo with Anna. She asked me if there was anything I was going to do for the first time that day. I answered that I was going to try and meet Captain America later that day. She got very excited and asked if I could do them a huge favor. I answered yes and she told me that they thought his shield would make for a great sled in Arendelle but they were too afraid to ask him on account of his being frozen for so long. So she wanted me to ask him on their behalf. She then made me pinky swear that I would do this.

So I ask this of Cap. He did not expect this question, but agreed that if he was not fighting any bad guys, they could use his shield for a sled.

And now you know why I nearly fell out of my seat laughing when Morgan Stark was using Cap's shield as a sled in Avengers Endgame. I had lived it before it was even a thing.

Also that same day I had to get my picture with Spiderman because my then 4 year old niece told my brother "That's Spiderman daddy. He's in Star Wars."

 

[SarahDisney]

So I have a funny story involving how Frozen, runDisney, character meets, and Avengers all intersected in one awesome moment.

The afternoon of the 2017 Avengers Superheroes Half Marathon, I decided to get a photo with Anna. She asked me if there was anything I was going to do for the first time that day. I answered that I was going to try and meet Captain America later that day. She got very excited and asked if I could do them a huge favor. I answered yes and she told me that they thought his shield would make for a great sled in Arendelle but they were too afraid to ask him on account of his being frozen for so long. So she wanted me to ask him on their behalf. She then made me pinky swear that I would do this.

So I ask this of Cap. He did not expect this question, but agreed that if he was not fighting any bad guys, they could use his shield for a sled.

And now you know why I nearly fell out of my seat laughing when Morgan Stark was using Cap's shield as a sled in Avengers Endgame. I had lived it before it was even a thing.

Oh wow this is the greatest story. I love characters. Seriously.
Spiderman wanted to know if my ears were made of vibranium (I was wearing silver sparkly ears).

Also that same day I had to get my picture with Spiderman because my then 4 year old niece told my brother "That's Spiderman daddy. He's in Star Wars."

This is also great. Although Spiderman did go to space in Infinity War, so close enough, I guess?

 

[Sleepless Knight]

Oh wow this is the greatest story. I love characters. Seriously.

When you give the characters an opportunity to show you that they are the characters, it becomes a different kind of experience.

On a different note. When my nephew was 2 and 3 years old, he would quite often pretend to be at Disneyland. Given his age, there were obviously many rides he was not quite tall enough to go on yet. He became obsessed with these rides such as Incredicoaster and the Matterhorn. One day he was playing in his room for a couple of hours after he woke up from his nap. He then told my sister that he had gone to Disneyland with Jack Jack from The Incredibles and they had done the following things. They rode the Incredicoaster, the Matterhorn, and then went to Galaxy's Edge where they helped Rey hide from the stormtroopers. The funny thing is that the first two things were clearly his imagination. But the last one? Well, that was something he and I did one day while his parents and older brother were on Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain.

The joke in my family is that if they don't know where I am while we're at Disneyland, they just need to head to Galaxy's Edge where they will inevitably find me. Like the time everyone was going on rides in California Adventure that my then 1 year old niece was too little for. She was napping in her stroller so I knew I had a good 45 minutes or so of pushing a sleeping baby in a stroller. Naturally, I left DCA and went over to Galaxy's Edge where I had lots of fun pushing the stroller around for 35 minutes or so. And she woke up naturally, so we got our picture in front of the Millennium Falcon.

 

[SarahDisney]

When you give the characters an opportunity to show you that they are the characters, it becomes a different kind of experience.

Yes!

On a different note. When my nephew was 2 and 3 years old, he would quite often pretend to be at Disneyland. Given his age, there were obviously many rides he was not quite tall enough to go on yet. He became obsessed with these rides such as Incredicoaster and the Matterhorn. One day he was playing in his room for a couple of hours after he woke up from his nap. He then told my sister that he had gone to Disneyland with Jack Jack from The Incredibles and they had done the following things. They rode the Incredicoaster, the Matterhorn, and then went to Galaxy's Edge where they helped Rey hide from the stormtroopers. The funny thing is that the first two things were clearly his imagination. But the last one? Well, that was something he and I did one day while his parents and older brother were on Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain.

The joke in my family is that if they don't know where I am while we're at Disneyland, they just need to head to Galaxy's Edge where they will inevitably find me. Like the time everyone was going on rides in California Adventure that my then 1 year old niece was too little for. She was napping in her stroller so I knew I had a good 45 minutes or so of pushing a sleeping baby in a stroller. Naturally, I left DCA and went over to Galaxy's Edge where I had lots of fun pushing the stroller around for 35 minutes or so. And she woke up naturally, so we got our picture in front of the Millennium Falcon.

I love both of these stories. Lots of adventures to be had in Galaxy's Edge!

 

[Sleepless Knight]

So I saw your question over on the running thread, but since I'm still catching up there, I thought I'd share my thoughts here in the event that they are useful to you. They may also be useless, though I hope not.

Question: Has anyone run a race without really training? It's a bad idea, right?
My goal is definitely finish, not time, so there's that. But I really probably should do some training and I don't really want to.

So I made the absolutely insane decision to sign up for Avengers 2017 Half Marathon at Disneyland completely having not run at all in 6 weeks just 3 weeks before the race. I found a 4 week training plan and adjusted it to fit my time and went from there.

This proved to be an excellent learning experience. I made a lot of mistakes which would eventually result in me getting a mild case of runners knee a couple of months later and the 6 days a week running that I had to do in order to pull it off broke down a lot of my mental barriers about training and eventually wound up with me running the Marathon a little over a year later. You can decide for yourself whether or not that was a good idea.

My youngest sister ran the Giant Race Half Marathon in September 2019 completely untrained and would eventually run the 2020 Dopey completely untrained. She finished all 4 races although spent more time than she would have liked near the balloon ladies. She had a time from 2019 that gave her a high enough corral placement to pull it off. I think that running untrained began to eat away at her enjoyment of running, even the love/hate relationship with it that many of us have.

But this idea of not running the race isn't a luxury I feel I have. I'm kinda surprised that so many people are just willing to eat the registration fees but I guess its just a different people feel differently about money thing?

I understand what you're saying. In the case of my little sister, given the cost of Dopey and that she had not trained due to circumstances having nothing to do with health, I think she did not want to feel like she wasted that kind of money. I get not wanting to feel like you spent all this money for the race and then just decided not to do it.

Ooh, that's something I hadn't thought of! I fell kinda out of love with virtual races during the pandy when everything was virtual, but its been long enough since I did one that maybe that's worn off ... maybe I'll try a free virtual race (the race organization that does my half also does some virtual runs that have a free option and the strava badge is strangely motivating to me) to see how that feels before I move on to paid races. But that's a good call.

... or maybe I'll register for virtual princess and force myself to run a half a month earlier than planned, which is a crazy idea but good bling

For me, I found that virtual races were a lot more fun when I found ways to make them fun. For last year's Princess and Star Wars races, it involved music choices themed to the races and even to some degree themed costumes. I purchased Mandalorian armor running shirts themed to Belle and Sleeping Beauty for last year's Princess races. So it was a costume without completely feeling like I was nuts for running around the neighborhood with a shoulder plushie baby Yoda.

3 - It feels so time consuming. Even when its not. Sometimes I come home, look at the clock, and realize I had time for another mile or two. But while I'm out there, I always feel like I'm rushed. Which is probably in part because I'm slow, but also probably a reflection of the fact that running isn't important enough to me for me to want to spend that much time on it.

It really does feel very time consuming. I alternate between feeling that running alleviates stress and takes away from decompression time.

I've done podcasts and it doesn't usually feel that different. Although its been a bit so maybe I'll try again.
I don't like audiobooks because I find that unless I'm really paying attention, I miss a lot and nothing makes sense. And if I have to pay that much attention, I'd rather read the written book. I'm very snobbish about my book consumption.

I enjoy audiobooks, but by and large limit them to light entertainment type reading. If I'm reading something along the lines of War and Peace, no audiobook for me. But a Star Wars story is great for audiobooks. I have found that I get more depth out of reading than audiobooks so I leave audiobooks for the fun stuff so to speak.

 

[SarahDisney]

So I saw your question over on the running thread, but since I'm still catching up there, I thought I'd share my thoughts here in the event that they are useful to you. They may also be useless, though I hope not.

Thank you for sharing! I appreciate your insight and experience. I'm glad you decided to share.

So I made the absolutely insane decision to sign up for Avengers 2017 Half Marathon at Disneyland completely having not run at all in 6 weeks just 3 weeks before the race. I found a 4 week training plan and adjusted it to fit my time and went from there.

This proved to be an excellent learning experience. I made a lot of mistakes which would eventually result in me getting a mild case of runners knee a couple of months later and the 6 days a week running that I had to do in order to pull it off broke down a lot of my mental barriers about training and eventually wound up with me running the Marathon a little over a year later. You can decide for yourself whether or not that was a good idea.

Yeah, I definitely see how it can be a learning experience. And how having to squeeze in a shorter training period can break down barriers about what you believe you can and can't do.

I think that running untrained began to eat away at her enjoyment of running, even the love/hate relationship with it that many of us have.

I hear this. And I think that would probably also be my experience, except for the fact that I think my enjoyment of running is already gone. There's no more love/hate, just hate (or maybe tolerate/hate). So there's that.

It really does feel very time consuming. I alternate between feeling that running alleviates stress and takes away from decompression time.

I'm a morning runner so for me it takes away from my sleep time, but yeah, I get that feeling.

Thanks again for sharing your thoughts, experience, and insight - I really appreciate it!

 

[SarahDisney]

United NYC Half Training: Week Three
2/7/2022 - 2/13/2022​

The Plan:
????

The Actual:
1 walk (1.75 miles)
After last Sunday's fiasco, I decided to wait until I was pain-free for 24 hours before doing any exercise. By the end of the week I was going stir-crazy in the apartment so I went for a walk on Thursday morning.

The Details:
Monday:
Rest Day

Tuesday:
Rest Day

Wednesday:
Rest Day

Thursday:
1.75 mile walk. Original plan was one mile but I was feeling okay so I went a little farther.
Also I forget how chaotic my Starbucks is in the mornings. I waited almost 20 minutes for my coffee.

Friday:
Rest Day

Saturday:
Rest Day

Sunday:
Rest Day. Back is finally feeling good.

Next Week Plan:
???
Still up in the air. Today has been my first pain-free day, so I'm going to try to do something tomorrow, but I'm not sure if it will be a walk or barre class. The rest of the week will depend on how that goes.