gone goofy, again

this time, as a spectator.

back in the spring of 2011, josh got a wild hair and decided he wanted to do a marathon. (he ran his first half in the fall of 2010). he entered the nyc marathon lottery (unsuccessfully) so of course the next logical thing to do was sign up for the goofy challenge.

poll: who needs psychiatric help?

a) someone who runs their first marathon in cotton spandex and only a 14-mile long run under their belt
b) someone who runs their first marathon the day after running a half-marathon but did actually complete a good amount of long training runs
c) both a and b
d) neither. these are both perfectly wise actions.

we arrived in orlando late thursday night, and hit up the expo first thing around 10am friday before spending the day in hollywood studios.

saturday we woke up dark and early at 3am, got stuck in traffic on the 7-mile drive from the hotel to the epcot parking lot, and arrived at the start/finish area just in time for josh to take the additional 20-minute trek to the start line.

half-marathon day

for the half-marathon, i spectated at the start and mile 13. due to josh's anticipated pace, there wouldn't be enough time to catch him up by magic kingdom. while i waited, i took a few random photos and chatted with an older woman who's husband was running the half-marathon after having suffered a heart attack last fall, pretty amazing.

half marathon - 2:02

josh was aiming for a sub-2 (he can easily run this) and ran pretty much on target, but he had to deal with a lot of congestion in the early miles of the race due to being placed in corral d. ultimately the 3 extra minutes weren't a big deal since he still had 26.2 miles to go.

marathon day

for the full-marathon, i spectated at the start and mile 4 (same viewing area), mile 9, mile 12.5-ish, and the finish. the only way to see your runner between miles 12 and the finish is if you have a park ticket to animal kingdom, hollywood studios or epcot (i wish disney could improve upon this).

josh's goals for the marathon were a) survive, b) sub-5:00, c) 10:00/mile pace. it was his first marathon afterall, and the day after a half no less.

at the start/mile 4 i stood next to a guy holding up his ipad with "inspirational running slogan" typed on the screen (great idea to use the ipad as a "sign" in the dark morning hours). i also chatted with two older women both watching their husbands. after josh passed, i took the monorail to the ticketing center/mile 9 and josh wasn't far behind.

as josh ran on into magic kingdom, i walked over to the polynesian resort to mile 12.5-ish. all this walking and i hadn't had anything to eat yet, i was tempted to buy a $14 muffin (disney extortion fees) but was able to resist. they're all sugar anyway.

josh ran by one last time - i told him he was running sub-10:00-miles and that he could "relax" a little. i had suggested before the race that he 'just run' the first 20 miles and then pick up the pace if he felt like it for the last 6.2. he ran two 20-mile training runs and was a big baby after both of those whining about his aching legs, but they paid off. his knee was bugging him a little at mile 12.5-ish and he said he might slow down, but he held on to the 10:00/mile pace for the remainder of the race.

i met up with his parents after seeing him around mile 12 and we took the monorail back to epcot to wait on him at the finish. i commiserated with fellow clemson fans standing near me about the recent basketball bowl game and soon we saw josh coming down the homestretch of his debut marathon. i was proud.

marathon - 4:22

back-to-back races at goal pace, he must've had a pretty good coach.

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considering 39.3?

contemplating whether you are goofy enough to run both a half and full marathon back-to-back? i definitely recommend it! just sign up for it already! :o)

running the goofy challenge was so much fun. it was cool to run through all of the parks, see some "behind the scenes" areas of the park, and feel like a vip running through the parks while the crowds were held back to let you through. we were able to take tons of pictures with so many characters, and had we tried harder we probably could've gotten even more. i know i would never have the patience to traipse around the park looking for all the characters on a normal day, but in these races they were right there at your disposal. you just have to deal with the fact that you might not look your best after 15 miles! disney did a terrific job organizing both races, putting together sweet shirts and medals, and providing plenty of food/water/crowd support throughout the 39.3 miles. these were definitely the two best-organized races i have ever ran.

i had such a great experience in both races. i know i have to give a ton of credit to my long and consistent training. after a huge pr in the half on saturday, i toed the line sunday with stiff and sore legs, but felt great throughout that race as well. i am still in awe of how awesome my body and legs held it together and gave me two great races. it was easier to walk after this marathon than it was to walk after the atlanta marathon (and i didn't race a half the day before that one).

perhaps it was because the goofy races were the culmination of my 20+ weeks of training, and atlanta fell in about 6 weeks shy of my "peak". or maybe it was also the assistance of gu roctane, advertised to have the "additional amino acid complex ornithine alpha-ketoglutarate (okg) which limits the body's tendency to break down muscle protein tissue during extremely hard training and racing days. okg keeps you going longer and promotes a speedier recovery."

well i think i can agree with that! my legs were sore on monday after carrying me for 39.3 miles, but i have definitely had more soreness after other (just) marathons. tuesday i woke up with no soreness! i was definitely not expecting that, but i'll take it. now gu just needs to come out with a few other roctane flavors. like something with chocolate. then i'd eat gu roctane as a meal.

technically the goofy was the first race (of marathon distance) i truly trained for. atlanta i was fairly-well trained for (definitely better-trained than any previous marathon) but it wasn't the race i was aiming to peak in. perhaps my speedy recovery is also due in part to better physical fitness.

although my legs have been moving fine and don't hurt at all (amazing!), i still gave them the week off from running/any activity other than walking around. the 12-degree weather lately has helped keep me in the house and out of my running shoes this weekend. i came down with a pretty good cold on monday (ahh the nasal drip), which became a constant sneeze on tuesday (as we walked around magic kingdom) and moved on to phlegmy-ness for the rest of the week. i visited the chiropractor for a post-race adjustment on wednesday which helped make me feel 10 times better. hopefully it'll be all cleared up for my return to running in a couple days.

i think my legs were having a bad dream about running friday night. i got a really bad calf-cramp in the middle of the night. i get them periodically in my calves and feet sometimes. they hurt like the dickens. my muscle gets like it is totally flexing, is rock hard, and hurts so bad. i could hardly walk when i got up for a middle-of-the-night bathroom trip and it was sore when i woke up saturday morning. anyone ever get these in their calves/feet? any ideas as to why or how to prevent them? they suck so much. it felt like my calf muscle was going to rip in half, and i can't be having that.

it's been nice to have the week off but i'm feeling blubbery and ready to get back in a running routine again. the next few weeks will be light and easy as i continue to recover from the goofy and build back up to 40mpw. i think my race plans for '09 are changing already, but i'm still hoping to get in at least 2 more marathons and continue to cut down my half pr. thanks to andrea of go the distance, i've discovered that i should have a guaranteed entry to the nyc marathon in november, so i think that'll be my next focus. since i obviously don't have to start training for that for a few months, i will probably follow daniels' "gold" plan in the meantime and run a few random 5k to half marathon races along the way.

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disney marathon (goofy challenge) recap

sunday began at 2:45 am, just like saturday, although thanks to running a hard 13.1 miles i slept soundly at least. jess texted me expressing how glad she was to be getting up so early. i offered to share my ibuprofen with her but she declined, she has stronger stuff for her plantar. i was kind of jealous.

we left to pick up jess and her dad at 3:45. the guard to their resort was being lame and called their room, waking up jess's mom, to make sure it was ok to let us in. so lame rent-a-cop. it's 3:45 in the morning. i'm dressed in my running clothes with my race bib on. where else would we be going.

anyway, we made it over to epcot again, took a trip to the port-a-potties, and stood around for a bit feeling tired and sore. around 4:30 we decided we should probably go ahead over to the start area since there were so many more people than the half had. i felt kind of bad for making j go hang out alone already, especially since he had been a real trooper getting up pre-3:00am, being our race chauffer, standing around alone for hours on saturday and now sunday while we ran, and trying to make it to the few spectating spots he could actually access to see us. he is super supportive of my obsession with running and even encourages me to stick with it. on top of all that, it was his birthday weekend. when we woke up at 2:45 i said i bet you'd rather just now be getting home from the bars instead of getting up. he was a real trooper and great 'fan' throughout this goofy weekend. :)

ok back to the race... jess, her dad, and i made the mile walk to the start line and hung out in our corral (b! for bad idea to run 39.3 miles) stretching and talking with other random people until the race started. my legs were stiff and sore, nothing too bad, but sore, and i was developing a headache. because we headed over to the start so early, i missed a text from denise (rundmt), so i didn't get to see her again. (sorry again denise!) i sure could've used some of her energetic aura. i thought all the stretching would loosen up my legs but it didn't. mickey, minnie, donald and goofy climbed back up on stage and counted us down to another firework sendoff, and we were off.

jess and i started out taking it easy, aiming to keep our mile splits under 10:00, hold off letting her dad pass us for as long as possible and just survive. within a few minutes of running, we reached the area where spectators could watch the start of the marathon and mile 4. we kept an eye out for j, which was tough with all the spectators, but we found him. the first 4 or 5 miles sucked. my legs were sore, my head hurt, and i kinda wanted to just call it quits. (obviously i wouldn't really, but i just was not in the mood to run 26.2 after saturday's 13.1.) the first 4 miles wound us through epcot, and we stopped for pictures with the characters we encountered along the way. around mile 2, jess's dad passed us already. what a bummer. i was hoping we could at least hold him off until the double-digit miles. we were warming up already so when we passed j again at mile 4 we gave him our long-sleeved shirts.

i took my first gu roctane somewhere around mile 5 or 6, mostly in hopes that it would help with my headache that was really sucking. it seemed to do the trick, and my headache faded. we continued running sub-10:00 miles overall, although some of our photo stops put us over our target mile pace at times. a pit stop around mile 7 or 8 made for a really long mile split, but didn't set us back on our time as a whole. i took a second gu around mile 10 or 11, i'm guessing, i really can't remember. they handed out bananas near mile 16-ish and clif shots at mile 18. i took the clif shot around mile 20 and my third gu at mile 22 to carry me home. as with the half, the gu roctanes gave me a boost in confidence and energy throughout the race.


jess and i kept running, stopping for a quick picture with characters and usually taking a brief walk-break through the water stops. we didn't stop or walk at all otherwise, which was pretty amazing since we ran so hard saturday. i guess i just thought i'd be really tired and hurting, but my training paid off more than i could have expected. i know you're not supposed to try anything new on race day, but when jess wanted to stop for some biofreeze at one of the med tents i decided i'd try it out. it felt pretty good on my legs, and my quads seemed to loosen up a little and felt less sore.


once we hit mile 21, we passed jess's dad back and i picked up my pace. i pulled away from jess a little but she was only a few minutes behind me at the finish. i felt strong; i had no aches or pains; i ran hard for the last five miles and it felt great. i'm still in shock over how well i felt in the marathon overall and how strong i was able to finish after having ran so hard on saturday. (maybe i should've ran harder in the half?)

in the last mile of the race, i picked up my pace even more. i was hurting some, but i told myself "this is the last mile i am running for the next few days, let's make it worth it." i had my super killer kick and j just barely happened to look up in time to see me finish. he had been getting the "tracking" update text messages which gave him an estimated finishing time so he wasn't expecting me. the last update was provided around mile 20, and he figured i'd continue to hold the same pace i'd been running the whole time, mostly because i just raced the day before (so he claims). well i tore up the last 5 miles, put everything i had into the last 5k, and put even more into the last mile. my average pace for the whole race went from a 9:43-ish to a 9:19 because of 5 little miles! (i was really ready to be done already.) i think i finished about 8 minutes sooner than the tracking updates were predicting.

just like the half, the marathon was well organized and tons of fun. it was even more enjoyable to get to stop and take quick photos with the characters. racing saturday helped use up most of my competitive brain cells and allowed me to pull back, take it easy, and have fun for 26.2 miles. the disney marathon is definitely the funnest marathon in my book - i highly recommend it!

clock time - 4:05:53
chip time - 4:04:26
overall - 2335/14953
gender - 579/7144
age group - 60/706

mile splits and hr
mile 1 - 9:38, 168
mile 2 -9:31, 141
mile 3 - 10:23, 143 *multiple photo stops
mile 4 - 9:21, 145
mile 5 - 9:37, 146
mile 6 - 9:13, 146
mile 7 - 9:23, 144
mile 8 - 11:47, 139 *port-a-potty stop
mile 9 - 9:27, 146
mile 10 - 9:20, 148
mile 11 - 10:20, 152 *multiple photo stops
mile 12 - 9:29, 154
mile 13 - 9:03, 153
mile 14 - 9:14, 153
mile 15 - 9:18, 152
mile 16 - 10:16, 150 *ate a banana
mile 17 - 9:59, 152
mile 18 - 9:45, 152
mile 19 - 10:05, 154 *had to wait on some dude with camera issues to get a pic with cap'n hook
mile 20 - 9:16, 161
mile 21 - 8:56, 162
mile 22 - 8:32, 167
mile 23 - 8:12, 172
mile 24 - 7:30, 177
mile 25 - 7:57, 179
mile 26.2 - 8:46, 183 *missed the mile 26 sign

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disney half marathon (goofy challenge) recap

after a hectic day of traveling and a delicious dinner at macaroni grill, i finally dozed off for a brief nap around 11pm friday night. saturday morning came quickly, and i was up-and-at-'em by 2:45 in the morning. the race was supposed to start at 5:50 and race organizers had been saying to get on a shuttle no later than 4:00am.

i checked the weather and realized that although the forecasts i'd read all week said 70, it was going to be a little cooler at 6am and once again i did not pack appropriately. i ended up wearing one of my race shirts (the one for the half) since they are all tech long-sleeves. it's still dorky of course (in my opinion) but it seems to be my lucky charm. jess was so kind as to wear hers too so we could be dorky together, and obviously there were other folks wearing theirs as well.

j and i left to pick up jess from her hotel at 3:45ish. when we got down to the car i realized i forgot my bib number and had to run back up to the room. we scooped up jess and got to the race site around 4:00am (only 2 hours until race time), parked in a sweet parking spot right next to the pre-/post-race festivities site. (like 3 spots from the entryway!) we stood around for a bit, then hopped in line for the port-a-potty and hoped it would tide me over until after the race. (thankfully, it did.)

got a text from denise @ rundmt while i was port-a-pottying. went and found her, she is so cool! (you are so cool denise!) she had way more energy than i did for 4-something in the morning. she told us that disney collects all the clothing discarded by the runners, washes it, and distributes it to local homeless shelters. i wish i had known that in advance so i could've worn something to donate. (sorry, but i kinda want my race shirt.)

jess, j and i hung around a bit more and then jess and i decided we should probably head over to the start since we didn't really know where it was. they just kept announcing "please proceed behind baggage check and there will be a lighted path to take you to the start". they conveniently left off the fact that it's a mile walk. alright, it's probably not really a mile, but it wasn't all that close either. the walk warmed my muscles and probably helped me out a little since i still neglect to actually warm up before a race.

j went off to where they said spectators could watch (which ended up being the other side of the divided-highway from where we actually ran so all those people couldn’t really see who they were cheering for), and then after the start he went and camped out in the car. there wasn’t any way for him to get to another view point and back to the finish with my lightning speed. har har.

jess and i herded over the start with everyone else, found our corral (a! for awesome, duh) and we were actually really close up to the start. it only took 20 seconds or so to cross the start line from the gun (/fireworks). (brian i remember seeing the 1:40 balloons in front of us as we waited at the start but i do not remember when i passed the group. i was looking for "brian's" on bibs in the corral and "a runner's blog" on the back's of shirts i passed though!) mickey, minnie, donald and goofy got up on stage and counted us down to the start of the race and i took off.

i love how much easier a 7:15-ish pace feels in a race compared to my tempo runs. i’ve been struggling to run my tempo runs lately at a 7:41-ish, but in this race a 7:15 was no biggie. i never felt tired; i remained strong, clear-headed, focused and relaxed. it was a-ma-zing.

the first four miles were on the highway-like roads, dark and kind of boring, but there were random people/groups providing music and they had some spotlights set up to help light the way. my stomach was empty when the race started. i mean grumbling, completely empty, and i was worrying about draining my glycogen stores too early on in the race. i’d brought 2 gu roctane’s (one vanilla orange and one blueberry pomegranate). since i was so hungry, i took the blue-pom really early on, about 20 minutes into the race, which helped make the grumbly feeling going away. i had my mind set on these things being magical and they didn’t let me down. each time i took one my spirits were lifted, my upper body became more fluid, my legs were given a second life. when i took the vanilla orange around mile 9-ish, my legs were just starting to feel fatigued, but the gu roctane kicked in and carried me home. it seriously felt like i had changed into a new pair of legs. and, in my opinion, vanilla orange is even more delicious than blue-pom, but i’m still a little prejudice to the word “pomegranate” since i still don’t know what that is.

there were two guys in red shirts running right in front of me for the first mile, and when we hit the one mile sign they commented to each other on the pace (~7:30) and picked it up a hair, so i decided to try to hang with them. i stuck with them for a bit, but then it seemed like they were going too fast and i fell back a little. i caught back up to them pretty easily and hung with them until mile 10. there was also a kid running a really sweet pace for a middle schooler. i’d guess 6^th or 7^th grade but i have no idea how old kids look. we traded the lead a few times and i ended up beating him, sorry kid. i’d been telling myself that the last 5k has to feel like a 5k so i picked it up and left the kid and the red shirt dudes in the dust. i started counting people i picked off to help motivate me to keep pushing; it was starting to hurt a little. (i met my initial goal of 10 people but then lost count.) in the last half-mile i passed the united kingdom guy, sporting his extremely short, uk flag shorts and singlet. (we’d seen him pre-race, kind of hard to miss those ridiculously short shorts.) i also passed a handful of other guys (mwah ha ha, beat by a girl… just kidding) and kicked it hard to the finish.

i didn’t pay much attention to the surroundings throughout the race because i’m not coordinated enough to sight-see and run fast-ish at the same time. i do remember cruising through the castle though. a chick in a hansons-brooks singlet was running near me and tripped on the uneven bricks (but didn’t wipe out). i’m probably laughing in the shot of me exiting the castle. i’m assuming she isn’t really on the team because i beat her, and there's no way i beat a true member of the team.

after crossing the finish, i got my space blanket, donald medal, a couple bananas and made my way to the goofy tent to have my half bracelet replaced with the one for the full. the post-race area was so empty i was able to just stand in an open area and keep an eye out for both jess and j. jess came through the tent after a little while and was so giddy. she's been battling plantar fasciitis since we ran baltimore (2006) and didn't exactly train for the goofy. somehow she still pulled out a 1:46 / 4:09 -ish in the races. she's insane. we eventually saw j making his way over from the finish line and he asked me when i finished; he didn't even see me come in. :( oh well.

the half was a lot of fun and well-organized by disney. the course was mostly flat, with the occasional highway-ramp incline, but they weren't bad at all. it was cool to run through magic kingdom but most of the race was getting to and from the park. still, it was fun, and i'm totally thrilled with my time and cooperation from my legs throughout the weekend.

clock time - 1:34:40
chip time - 1:34:13
overall - 180/12440
gender - 30/7180
age group - 5/515

mile splits and hr
mile 1 - 7:31, 170
mile 2 -7:15, 174
mile 3 - 7:17, 176
mile 4 - 7:17, 177
mile 5 - 7:11, 180
mile 6 & 7 - 14:22, 181
mile 8 - 7:07, 181
mile 9 - 7:09, 181
mile 10 - 7:19, 179
mile 11 & 12 - 14:16, 179
mile 13 - 6:44, 183

*big thanks to devon at outside pr and gu energy for hooking me up with a great product that really helped me through these two long days of running. i'm definitely hooked!

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summary of training - goofy challenge

recap of training week 18 (1/5-1/11):
[day - mileage, time, avg hr]
mon - 4.4 easy, 41:29, 143
tue - 4 (2xmile @ 6:55), 33:01, 172
wed - 3.4 easy, 30:52, 146
thu - 2 easy, 19:12, 148
fri - off
sat - 13.1 race, 1:34:13, 178
sun - 26.2 race, 4:04:25, 155

mileage total - 53.10

an easy week with boring short runs to rest up for the races. apparently it paid off well enough. i did my yoga session for the week on saturday after the race in hopes it would help my muscles survive through sunday. 'race reports' to come soon, but for now a recap of how i got here.

---

in january of 2008 i took some serious drugs and signed up for the goofy challenge. later in the summer, i put together a 23-week training plan to get me into shape for the races. i progressed from a 24-mile week up to consistent 50+ weeks and even a 62+ mile week. i lost 15 pounds (ahem jess and j... proof to you people who told me i didn't have the weight to lose... obviously i did! k, just had to throw that out there), and discovered that long, hard runs didn't hurt if you trained well for them.

this is a summary of my training for the 2009 goofy challenge, a journey from august 4th, 2008 through january 9th, 2009 --

# of runs - 134 (usually 6 runs/week)

miles - 1,017.78

average mpw - 44.25

highest weekly mileage - 62.75

percentage of solo runs - 82%

runs missed due to injuries/sickness - 4 (asthma, recovery from atlanta marathon, abnormally high rhr, family emergency); injury-free for 23 weeks!

# runs of 15 miles or more - 7

hours of running - 149

average pace - 8:46

races - 5 (bmw 2-mile, furman 5k, spinx half, atlanta marathon, paris mountain 20k)

pr's - 3 (bmw, atlanta, technically also paris mountain)

speedwork - 16 workouts (5 mile repeats, 11 800 repeats), avg pace 6:46

tempo runs - 22 runs, ~144 miles

hills - 0 workouts, although considered doing them a few times if that counts

other workouts:
bike - commuted to work 8 times in august/early september (95.1 miles)
yoga - 15 times (9hrs 30min)
abs - 37 times (crunches/planks/ball work)
pushups - 527 (in aug, sep, dec)

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still alive

walt disney world marathon - day 2 of the goofy challenge

5 m - 48:31*
10 m - 1:37:40*
13.1 m - 2:07:34
20 m - 3:14:30
26.2 miles - 4:04:25

2328th overall / 579th female / 62nd place ag

i woke up with sore legs. had a headache for the first four miles, and was just aiming to stay under a 10min/mile pace. jess and i stopped for a bunch of pics with the characters, stayed within the 9's, and i still had plenty of gas left at mile 21 to start picking it up. we averaged around a 9:43-ish for the first 21 miles and i picked it up so much in the last 5 miles i dropped my average pace for the race as a whole to 9:19. not too shabby. when i saw i was doing (much) better than anticipated, i tried to push it for a sub-4. however, at mile 23 that would've meant i'd have to run 3.2 faster than i have ever done 3.1. i passed a lot of people in the last five miles, picked it up to make the last 5k feel like a 5k (again), had a super sweet kick, and not to mention i did just race a half yesterday. i really thought we'd be out there for five hours.

my legs are more sore now. (right now i don't really care if that's supposed to be 'sorer'.) i just drained the hotel ice machine dry, and it's time to go sit through an ice bath.

*5 miles were slower than yesterday's 10k mark; 10 miles were slower than yesterday's entire 13.1

am run: 26.2 miles, 4:04:25 (9:19 avg pace), avg/max hr (155/192)

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bringing the heat

walt disney world half marathon - day 1 of the goofy challenge

5k split - 22:57
10k split - 45:15*
15k split - 1:07:36
13.1 miles - 1:34:13

183rd overall / 30th female / 5th place ag

i was hoping for a 1:35-1:38! i am so stoked. beyond stoked. a new half-pr by 6:38! (only 4:14 left to shave off in '09) ;-) huge thanks to gu for their awesome awesome roctane and saucony for their grid type a2's.

i also got to meet denise of rundmt! she is so cute and energetic, even at 4:xx in the morning. no wonder she breaks out into song on long runs. (please don't forget to email me the pic so i can upload it!) but more on everything later when i have brain power and tons of free time from 7 days of no-running. time to rest up and eat like phelps!

*a pr, can you count it as a pr if it's during a longer race?

am run: 13.1 miles, 1:34:13 (7:11 avg pace), avg/max hr (178/188)

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murphy's law

most of my previous marathon's were so nicely planned out and covered by others (my parents or jess's, gotta love "second parents") so for these most recent two (atlanta, disney) i haven't put much thought into the actual logistics of getting into town, to the expo, etc.

for atlanta, we got stuck in traffic for 4 hours and barely made it to the expo on time. the next morning i had to walk/jog 2 miles to the start line (and 2 miles back to the car) because i didn't check online to see that you could actually park near the start/finish. two miles isn't a lot most days, but pre-/post- marathon.... it can be quite miserable.

you'd think i might be semi-organized about planning a marathon trip by now (this is #6), but i'm still not.

after my experiences today, here are some tips you might want to consider when traveling to a marathon (or really, traveling period):

1. check what airport you are actually flying into.
2. arrange transportation to your hotel from the airport you are actually flying into.
3. in the event you have to rent a car at the last minute, get directions to your destination.
4. don't ever travel without at least a little bit of cash. there will probably be a toll road.

number 1 is key. how surprised we were when we landed at not-orlando-airport, found zero hotel shuttles, discovered that the cab fare would be $120, decided to rent a car instead, discovered that the road we had to get on was a toll road, had no cash so turned around on the one-way on-ramp to find a gas station and get some cash... i hate feeling like nothing is going right and was stressing out a good bit - i just wanted everything to go smoothly and easily!

we made it to the expo in decent time, met up with jess and her parents, picked up my race bibs and chips and shirts, and browsed through the vendors a bit. cigna was there with these face-screening machines that showed you if your skin was oily (showed up orange) and if there was any sun-damage. j and jess both had "signs of sun-damage" but i was told i have great skin. hah! riiight. i'm sure my dermatologist would agree. it was still neat though.

well i'm off to nap so i can rise bright and early at 2:XX. can't say i'm diggin' the 5:50am start and all the "you must be on the shuttle by 4am" business.

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goofy training week 17

recap of training week 17 (12/29-1/4):
[day - mileage, time, avg hr]
mon - 6.8 easy, 1:00:45, 166
tue - 7 easy, 1:02:16, 159
wed - 5 easy, 46:21, 149
thu - 8 tempo, 1:08:50, 173
fri - off, actually stuck to my schedule!
sat - 6.1 tempo, 48:23, 175
sun - 9 easy, 1:24:41, 161

mileage total - 41.9

this "taper" week had more mileage than last week... i also woke up on friday and realized, wow, i actually ran monday-thursday like i was supposed to. i was able to fully enjoy my scheduled rest day for once. true to my new year's resolutions, i even did yoga on my non-running day and 3 ab workouts throughout the week. my hr was being crappy on all the easy days and i'm a little annoyed at my new-to-me treadmill for not being accurately calibrated, but i guess it was an alright week of running. i'm feeling kind of slow though and hoping i can locate my faster muscles next weekend.

on a side note - i happened to check and see how much flights were now from here to orlando for next weekend... i think we paid around $140 roundtrip, direct. yeah they're definitely selling now for $40 but, no biggie! i just got an email telling me i won the u.k. lottery! 1 million gbp's baby. $100 on a plane ticket is chump change. there were only 5 or so misspelled words, it has to be legit. if you leave your bank account number and current balance in the comments below i'll send you $100,000 (usd) from my winnings. *just kidding of course*

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goofy training week 16

recap of training week 16 (12/22-12/28):
[day - mileage, time, avg hr]
mon - 5.4 easy, 50:32, 147
tue - off, family emergency
wed - 6 tempo, 47:08, 176
thu - 8 easy, 1:10:58, 159
fri - off, effects of a rough week
sat - 8 easy, 1:12:59, 152
sun - off, laziness

mileage total - 27.4 (wow do i really have to count this week?)

seems like i hardly ran. less than 30 miles? i ran more miles last weekend than i did this entire week. ahh well, life happens. while i love running, there are just some things it can't replace, like time with friends and family.

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goofy training week 15

recap of training week 15 (12/15-12/21):
[day - mileage, time, avg hr]
mon - 7 easy, 1:03:34, 149
tue - 11.75 (7xmile), 1:37:33, 171
wed - 7 easy, 1:05:50, 150
thu - off (swapped with friday, again)
fri - 8 tempo, 1:01:32, 176
sat - 9 easy, 1:27:17, 158
sun - 20 progressive, 2:48:56, 161

mileage total - 62.75 (finally, a new record high)

the easy runs felt junky this week but that's ok as long as i can have quality hard(er) runs. the weather was extra nice all week. i can't believe i complained about the 60/70 degrees, as it was 21 degrees when i woke up this morning. (i'm sorry mr. warm front! please come back.) this was my last tough/high-mileage week before goofy and i hope i don't go nuts with the reduced mileage. the excessive christmas cookies aren't going to help much either!

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goofy training week 14

recap of training week 14 (12/08-12/14):
[day - mileage, time, avg hr]
mon - 5.45 easy, 51:24, 133
tue - 8.4 tempo, 1:08:10, 164
wed - 7 easy, 1:04:50, 146
thu - off (swapped with friday)
fri - 6 (6x800), 50:53, 167
sat - 13.2 "race", 1:58:26, 175
sun - unscheduled off

mileage total - a lowly 40.05

tuesday's tempo was a little slower than preferred but decent for just over a week after a marathon i suppose. (or maybe i'm just still using that as an excuse?) this week's 800's went well but i called it off early because i was freezing. saturday's race wasn't really raced, but it made for some good hillwork.

i took sunday off because my resting heart rate (rhr) has been 10 points higher than normal. typically i check it in the morning before getting out of bed, and it hangs out in the mid-upper 40's. this week it was in the upper-50's and trying to go higher. i'm not an expert on all the heartrate monitoring stuff but i think i've read that an increase in your rhr can be hinting towards an oncoming cold or the overworking of your body, neither of which i need right now. so i didn't do my 2nd long run of the week, and i felt a little guilty but it was kind of nice to just relax all day. i have some hard workouts coming up this week and hopefully a little extra rest will pay off all around.

only one month to go until the 'goofy challenge'!

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goofy training week 13

recap of training week 13 (12/01-12/07):
[day - mileage, time, avg hr]
mon - 5.3 easy, 48:43, 149
tue - 8.04 easy, 1:13:25, 155
wed - 6 easy, 57:03, 140
thu - off (swapped with friday)
fri - 7 easy, 1:01:32, 153
sat - 10.3 easy, 1:32:46, 157
sun - 15 easy, 2:15:09, 153

mileage total - 51.64

during most of my runs this week i felt tired and slow, but my times weren't bad and i had to remind myself that i was taking the week easy to recuperate from atlanta. now that i'm looking back on the week as a whole, i can't really complain. my legs did a great job of holding it together for 51 miles the week after a marathon. nothing is aching or bothering me and i'm hoping i'm not doing too much too soon. i need to recover but i also need to press on and finish out training for the goofy challenge.

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goofy training week 12

recap of training week 12 (11/24-11/30):
[day - mileage, time, avg hr]
mon - 3 easy, 26:50, 145
tue - 3.1 easy, 27:45, 163
wed - off (skipped the 2 easy)
thu - 26.2 race, 3:39:24, 169
fri - off (but went hiking)
sat - 3.8 easy, 47:16, 129
sun - off (yoga & abs, skipped the 5 easy)

mileage total - 36.10

it was a bad week mileage wise but i was intentionally pulling back for the atlanta marathon. i haven't taken 3 days off in a week since august. post-marathon, i was sore and stiff all day friday and saturday. sunday i could still feel a hint of soreness in my quads, and i figured it would be best to take the day off, plus it was cold and pouring rain. i hiked friday and 'ran' saturday, and would like to resume normal training monday. as much as i wanted to run sunday i knew i probably shouldn't. i'll cut myself a little slack and get some rest to finish out training for goofy. atlanta was supposed to just be "another long training run" and i'm glad i finished it injury free and am recovering quickly.

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goofy training week 11

recap of training week 11 (11/17-11/23):
[day - mileage, time, avg hr]
mon - 5.3 easy, 52:09, 137
tue - 6 tempo, 47:25, 167
wed - 7.1 easy, 1:03:29, 145
thu - 8 easy, 1:12:47, 145
fri - off
sat - 7 (4 @ pace), 59:09, 174
sun - 8 easy, 1:15:08, 151

mileage total - 41.40

yeah this 41 mile week was a "cutback"/"taper" week for the atlanta marathon next thursday (thanksgiving). not much of a taper but a cutback for the most part from 55 mile weeks i suppose. i had aimed to get in 3 days of ab work this week but i only got in 2 - better than the usual 0.

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goofy training week 10

recap of training week 10 (11/10-11/16):
[day - mileage, time, avg hr]
mon - 5.2 easy, 47:55, 139
tue - 7.25 tempo, 56:47, 172
wed - 8.15 easy, 1:12:03, 150
thu - off
fri - 7.25 (8x800), 57:17, 174
sat - 9 easy, 1:19:27, 170
sun - 13 easy, 2:00:06, 154

mileage total - 49.85

i even did 1 day of abs (300 crunches/45 back extensions) this week and am planning/aiming to get back on track with the ol' ab work 3x/week starting next week. running went well all week although i mentally psyched myself out for thursday's run and ended up doing it friday instead. the weekend long runs didn't go as well as i would've liked but i got the mileage in and am content with the paces. next week should be pretty easy with lower mileage and hopefully i won't get all worked up about the upcoming marathon in the extra free time i'll have.

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goofy training week 9

recap of training week 9 (11/03-11/09):
[day - mileage, time, avg hr]
mon - 5 easy, 49:00, 144
tue - 8 (4x1mile), 1:07:40, 163
wed - 7 easy, 1:07:05, 148
thu - 8 (5 tempo), 1:08:51, 163
fri - off
sat - 10 pace, 1:21:15, 173
sun - 20 (last 5 @ pace), 3:06:32, 153

mileage total - 58.00 *another record, hopefully broken soon

monday was hard, still tired from sunday's 18. tuesday was still kinda hard too, the mile repeats were slower than i would've liked but i was content with having pushed the pace. wednesday was ok and thursday i finally felt 'over' the previous week's long run, just in time for my day off and more long runs! lovely. saturday went well at goal pace and sunday feels good to have survived. it feels good to be on track with my training plan, and hopefully my future race times will reflect it. patience is sometimes hard to come by - i just want to be fast already, but hopefully i will continue to stick with my training and see the success my consistency and hardwork will bring.

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goofy training week 8

recap of training week 8 (10/27-11/02):
[day - mileage, time, avg hr]
mon - 5.4 easy, 55:45, 136
tue - 7 easy, 1:01:59, 161
wed - unscheduled off, bad asthma
thu - 8 easy, 1:09:56, 167
fri - off, traveling + letting the lungs rest
sat - 4.55 easy, 40:28, 169 (+2.9 walk, 49:23)
sun - 18 easy, 2:45:58, 164

mileage total - 45.85

sunday i arrived at my aunt's house in ct and they have a pet bunny to whom i am apparently very allergic. my asthma flared up bad - the worst it ever has - and it made for an interesting week of 'running'. luckily i was due for a cutback/easy week so i thought i'd be ok if changed the game plan, and i ran all my runs 'easy' this week instead of the usual tempo & 800 runs.

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goofy training week 7

recap of training week 7 (10/20-10/26):
[day - mileage, time, avg hr]
mon - 5.15 easy, 47:20, 139
tue - 8.4 tempo, 1:08:02, 170
wed - 7 easy, 1:04:31, 143
thu - off, traded with friday
fri - 6.3 easy, 53:41, 159
sat - 13.1 race (tempo), 1:41:49, 176
sun - 16 easy, 2:16:59, 155

mileage total - 56.00

the spinx half was successful in that i did not push the pace and just ran it as a tempo run. of course i was slightly disappointed that i didn't pr still, but it felt good to have ran a semi-hard effort and still feel energized afterwards. the 16 the day after went well. i wasn't sore and i never slowed down significantly although i felt my legs and feet getting tired.

now i'm one month out from atlanta and starting to feel the tiniest bit of confidence that i can run my 8min/mile average goal. here's hoping the next few weeks go well.

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goofy training week 6

recap of training week 6 (10/13-10/19):
[day - mileage, time, avg hr]
mon - 5 easy, 46:43, 138
tue - 8.4 (5x1mile), 1:08:58, 165
wed - 7 easy, 1:00:46, 155
thu - off, laziness
fri - 8.25 (4x800), 1:11:27, 167
sat - 10.4 pace, 1:22:05, 175
sun - 12 easy, 1:50:15, 150

mileage total - 51.05

all i can think of right now as i type up this week's summary is how hungry i am. ended up being an ok week since saturday's long goal-pace run was a success. the two speed workouts kinda sucked as i fell short of my repetition goals but i met my time goals. would be nice if my weight wanted to get a clue from the higher mileage and start decreasing... anytime now...

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