Happy Monday! Week 15 was a good one for me in spite of the fact that I missed two workouts. The first I missed was for a good cause. Last Thursday, my wife and I celebrated 4 years of being married! Yes, it was our 4 year wedding anniversary. What a day our wedding was…

Since our anniversary was on a Thursday, we were limited on what we could do to celebrate. So, we went to Cafe Bizou in Old Town Pasadena. If you’re in the area and looking for a romantic place to eat, I highly recommend Cafe Bizou. The service was outstanding as was the food. Of course, the ambiance helped set for a more romantic mood…perfect for celebrating special occasions with your special someone.

As for the workouts I did complete…On Tuesday, I decided to kick up my mid-week training runs to 4 miles (from 5K’s). The experiment was totally successful. My finishing time was well within the normal range for me. Earlier in the day, I was doubting that I would have the energy to complete a longer distance. However, by the time I got home from work, I decided to give it a try to see what would happen. The first three miles went by well and I felt great at the end of the 4! The route I take for 4 miles is a funner route than the one I take for my 5K’s. Although, running through the sometimes crowded sections of Old Town Pasadena gets a little tricky. So, I think I’m keeping this as the new normal mid-week route.

Wednesday, I headed back to the gym after missing gym workouts for nearly 2 weeks. I will own up to being a little intimidated to getting back there. As I’ve gone through preparing for this half marathon my attitudes about running outside and gym workouts have changed. When I started running outside, the gym workouts were more comfortable for me. Now, the opposite is true. I love running outside and would prefer to do that. However, I know the gym workouts and cross training is also important. So, in spite of feeling a little psyched out, I went to the gym anyways and had a great workout!

On Saturday, I completed my last “magic mile” in training for the Disneyland Half Marathon Weekend. It was my fastest time yet! The plan that Jeff Galloway put out in training for Dumbo included 5 “magic mile” time trials. I only completed 3 of them. I missed one due to running a 10K and the other due to running in San Francisco while on vacation. So, I might have gotten more out of these time trials if I had more times to compare with. However, I’m very happy to see that I went faster on each “magic mile” in this 18 week training plan! The first one, I finished in 10:44. The second one, I finished in 9:45. On Saturday, I finished in 9:25. So, it’s been cool to see the progress. After the “magic mile,” I had 3 more miles to finish. I’m proud to say that the result was a 5K PR! I know that I had 3 more miles, but my time was so good as I approached the end of the 3rd mile, that I decided to stretch out the run into a 5K. It was pretty amazing to see my trusty Nike+ Sportwatch tell me that I had a 5K PR! It was a great way to start Saturday!

Just a little while ago, I received this from runDisney…

Yep…this is getting real! The final race instructions have arrived! I also heard that the runDisney meetup anouncement is coming this week! For those of you who want to be apart of the few who will participate in the meetup for the Disneyland Half Marathon Weekend, keep you eyes peeled to the Disney Parks blog and follow runDisney on twitter. The Disneyland Half Marathon Weekend is now less than 3 weeks away! I found this funny video over the weekend that not only gives you a feel for what the Disneyland Half Marathon course will be like, but will make you laugh. The guy hosting the video is way over the top and the result if a fun video.

For those of you who are running at Disneyland, are you ready?