Running On Empty

Dopey Challenge Week!
4 runs for a total of 49.70 miles and a total time of 8:45:21.

In addition to running the four races, I put a lot of miles on my feet touring the parks. Here are my step counts for last week:
  • Monday - travel day - 11, 449 steps
  • Tuesday - 25,988 steps
  • Wednesday - 20,063 steps
  • Thursday - 29, 526 steps
  • Friday - 36,487 steps
  • Saturday - 45,361 steps
  • Sunday - 69,344 steps
  • Monday - travel day - 10,467 steps

Here is a brief summary of the 4 races:

Thursday - Dopey 5k

Ran the 5k with my daughter. She did not do too much training this winter for the race and I was a little worried she would struggle to get through the 5k. Boy was I wrong! She was determined and never stopped running once (except for two character photos). I am proud of her.

Our final time was 51:01 and a distance of 3.26 miles.

Here are the stats I had on my Garmin watch...

638080
638081


Friday - Dopey 10k

I ran the 10k by myself. I had planned on not pushing myself too hard on the 10k, but ended up running it at an average pace of 9:25 min./mile. That was a little faster than my training pace over the last few months. Here are the stats from the runDisney team:

Gender Place = 829
Place = 1126
Div Place = 100
3 Mile Split = 28:20
Clock Time = 1:18:09
Net Time = 59:30

...and the stats from my Garmin watch:

638082

638083

I felt good after the second race. I am glad I did not push it too hard.

Saturday - Dopey Half Marathon

Ran the Half with my son. The plan was to go at a comfortable pace and save myself for the full on Sunday. Here are the stats from runDisney:
  • Gender Place = 1627
  • Place = 2571
  • Div Place = 181
  • 5k Split = 0:35:11
  • 10k Split = 1:11:19
  • 15k Split = 1:43:42
  • Clock Time = 2:40:33
  • Net Time = 2:19:38
We ended up with a decent enough result. My son got excited as we hit our last 5k and started pushing the pace faster. He took it to the point where I was questioning if I should just let him go on his own or not. But the competitor in me decided to hang with him as long as I could.

Here are my Garmin stats:
638084
638085

We had a strong finish and ended up running the back half quicker than the front. Because we pushed it a little harder near the end, I ended up getting lactic acid build up in my quads. That increased my stress level for the rest of the day and made me wonder all the way until mile 2 or 3 of the marathon if I would be able to finish it.

Sunday- Dopey Full Marathon

Ran the full alone. As mentioned, I was stressing over my sore leg muscles and doubting if I could keep up my running for 26.2 miles. It took a mental shift at around mile 3 for me to get into a groove and forget about the pain.

Here are the runDisney stats:
  • Gender Place = 1207
  • Place = 1766
  • Div Place = 118
  • 10k Split = 104:28
  • 10 Mile Split = 1:44:26
  • Half Split = 2:20:03
  • 20 mile Split = 3:29:21
  • Clock Time = 4:43:38
  • Net Time = 4:35:12
This was my first official Full Marathon race. Last year I ran a full at home, but that does not count as an "official" race to me.

Here are the stats from my Garmin watch:
638089
638090
638092

  • At lap 12/13 I pressed the lap button to mark when I stopped for a photo with Dopey. I got to the photo stop just as Doepy went backstage for a rest. This added about 5 extra minutes to my run.
  • I took on 2 glasses of Powerade and two glasses of water at every water stop.
  • I walked through every water stop.
  • I took in food/fuel every 3 miles until I got to mile 15. After that point I could not stomach anymore solids. I may look into a liquid fuel the next Marathon I run.
  • I ended up doing some walking intervals over the last 3 miles whenever there was an uphill section.
  • I am pleasantly surprised that I ran the second Half faster than the first.
  • I am thinking I need to incorporate a lot more leg workouts for next time. I feel if I had a bit more leg strength, it would have been easier on me.
I hope everyone is doing well and keeping healthy in their running journeys. I am going to rest for a few days before I start some recovery runs.
 
Congrats on Dopey! After doing last year's by yourself in the cold, this must have been some shift!
 
Congrats on Dopey! After doing last year's by yourself in the cold, this must have been some shift!
Thank you.

It was definitely a shift. It was a good one though. There is something about an in person race that cannot be duplicated with a virtual one.

However, it boggles the mind on how cold I was each morning before the runs. I really need to rethink my strategy next time and bring a lot of donate-able clothing that I can shed as we start the race.
 


Post Marathon Weekend - Week 1

Number of runs: zero

No runs this week. It was time to recover and take care of myself after a wonderful and physically draining week in WDW. I did spenda few extra hours in bed this week catching up on my sleep. This has done wonders for the fatigue I have been feeling.

Up this week is a slow return to running. I will go out for a couple of runs this week with new set plan or scchedule. I will go by feel and see where it takes me.

My goal is to look for what race is next and start to formulate a plan. I will also be looking into a leg training plan to combat the lactic acid build-up I had this year.
 
Hello fellow Disney runners!

I have not posted an update since January 17th.

I have been going through the rollercoaster of post-Dopey depression. The feeling you get when you have completed your race and do not have anything next on your schedule.

What got me out of the post-Dopey depression? Successfully securing a Dopey bib for MW2023. Now I can start developing a training routine to ramp myself back into Dopey fitness.

What have I been up to? I have been running 5ks every other day at a relaxed pace (keeping the HR under 130 BMP) and adding in a 10k every other week. It is by no means been a maintenance plan for keeping my fitness up, but it helped keep me active.

I plan on dusting off my old DopeyBadger training plan and tweaking it a bit over the next few weeks to see how the schedule will look.

In addition, I have signed up for a local 10k run in June and the fall half marathon. Those should get me moving and ready for the Dopey training grind.

I hope everyone is doing well and keeping healthy in their running journeys.
 


Hello fellow runners.

I finally sat down and cobbled together a pre-Dopey plan and also how to bridge it into my existing Dopey plan. Here is what it looks like right now...

1652308887670.png

The green sections are the pre-Dopey, and the orange section is the start of my typical 22 week plan I have successfully used in the past.

The Sunday of week 3 of the green plan will be a local 10k fun run. The purple row on the plan is my usual Half-Marathon in Canmore, Alberta.

I set the pacing with an estimated finish time for a Marathon would be a 4:04:21. I have not run that fast yet, but feel the pacing for the speed work at 5k, 10k , and M Tempo speeds is just about right.

Tuesday was my first Interval run in over a year. It was nice to get that speed work in again.

I hope everyone is doing well and keeping healthy in their running journeys.
 
Hello everyone.

It has been a long time since I have posted an update. I wanted to drop in and just let you know that I am still training and I am still on track to run Dopey again in 2023.

On Sunday, I ran the Canmore Rocky Mountain half marathon again. It was nice to get back to the race I typically use as a PoT for my runDisney races. Not having been able to run last year due to health issues really made this year feel special.

My DD ran the 5k and posted her best time yet. I am proud of her for keeping up on her running. It will be special to run with her again during MW in 2023. This year she is taking on the 10k.

My DS and I ran the Half marathon. Before the race our goal was to treat this as a training run in our MW training plan. We started out at a controlled pace and ended up increasing our pace every mile except for one around mile 10. This is where we hit the large hill in the race. At the last mile of the race, I kicked the pace into another gear. All my interval work has paid off. I was able to keep a fairly high pace for the full mile. I ended the race strong and feeling good.

Having the steady increase in pace and the last kick at the end helped my DS to get a new PR in the Half. I was super happy for him. He was very excited.

The downside of the race for my DS is that he ended up being super sore and is having a bit of knee pain since the race. I told him this is probably related to his inconsistency in training. This was a good lesson for him and hopefully motivates him to keep on plan for the Marathon on MW.

I am in week 6 of my DopeyBadger training plan and feeling good. This is also week 19 since I stepped up my training since MW 2022.

We are 111 days from the 5k! I hope everyone's training is going well.

Stay safe and healthy out there.
 
I have been guilty of not updating my running journal, but I did compete my second official Dopey (3rd if you count the year we got forced into a virtual one).

Here are some of the stats for the week in Florida:

Tuesday (Travel Day) - 8,050 steps
Wednesday (Universal & Bib pickup)- 17,350 steps
Thursday (5k day & Kennedy Space Center)- 20,702 steps
Friday (10k day & Hollywood Studios) - 39,213 steps
Saturday (Half & EPCOT & AK)- 46,592 steps
Sunday (Full & MK) - 70,085 steps

I did not shy away from the parks during this trip and enjoyed all of it.

I ran the 10k with my Daughter and enjoyed every minute of helping her achieve success in her first official 10k! What a wonderful experience.

I ran the Marathon with my Son and had a super enjoyable experience. This was his first Marathon and he did fight with the struggle bus quite a bit. We were able to finish the race and I am super proud of him. He mentioned never again at the end of the race, but he is already talking about how he would like to do it again or maybe move up to a challenge race.

I had a great Marathon. I was able to start fueling earlier in the race and I was able to fuel longer than I did last year. I knew what to expect from the race and it made it easier to overcome. I also was not as sore and felt mush stronger this year.

The added bonus this year was that we were able to ride Expedition Everest during the race. What a wonderful experience that was. It gave me a boost of energy to complete the Marathon.

Here are some of the stats for my Dopey:

I placed 108/352 men in the 50-54 age group.
I placed 679/2591 men in all age groups.
I placed 1060/6685 overall.

It was never about speed this year. It was all about crossing the finish line with my children.

I look forward to many more Disney races in my future. I hope that I will be able to snatch up bibs in this more than ever competitive environment.
 
Here are some of the stats for my Dopey:

I placed 108/352 men in the 50-54 age group.
I placed 679/2591 men in all age groups.
I placed 1060/6685 overall.
How did you calculate the stats? I could only find a PDF for overall (versus the nice breakdowns for the individual races).
 
How did you calculate the stats? I could only find a PDF for overall (versus the nice breakdowns for the individual races).
I did a couple of things.

For the Dopey, I copied the entire PDF into Excel and did some sorting/filtering to come up with the numbers above.

In addition, I went to the individual races and copied them into excel from the following links.

The 10k : https://www.trackshackresults.com/disneysports/results/wdw/wdw23/10k_results.php?

The Half: https://www.trackshackresults.com/disneysports/results/wdw/wdw23/hm_results.php?

The Full: https://www.trackshackresults.com/disneysports/results/wdw/wdw23/mar_results.php?

This allowed me to get the stats for my son in daughter in their individual races.
 

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