Bring on that Marathon – Week 13 Recap

13 weeks of training for my first full marathon have now been finished and only 6 weeks more remain. Yikes! It’s hard to believe that 6 weeks from today, I’ll be hanging out at the Magic Kingdom with this beautiful medal around my neck…

It’s getting soooooooo close. I seriously can’t wait for January to get here. However, there is still much work to do before then. This past week was an awesome week for me in every way. I finished 4 workouts in preparation for the Walt Disney World Marathon. There were 3 training runs and 1 gym workout! Four seems to be a good number for me. It’s a number that allows me to do enough work that I can feel good about what I’ve done, but not so burdensome that I feel mentally drained at the end of the week.

Last Monday, I ran for 4 miles which was two miles less than I had intended. However, I learned some lessons with that run. First, I learned that four, 6 mile or longer, runs in 7 days is a little much for me right now. Also, I ate a little more at dinner than usual before a run and that hurt me as well. I actually felt fine through the first 3 miles of the run. However, in the fourth mile, I had 3 consecutive run intervals that left me feeling like I could vomit. Not good. So, at 3.6 miles, I decided to walk a little more and shortened my run intervals until I reached 4 miles. Then, I would call it a day. On Wednesday, I got in a really good gym workout that left me feeling very strong. I followed that workout up a little over 12 hours later with running a 10K around my neighborhood on Thanksgiving.

Since I had seen so many people posting about their 5K and 10K (or sometimes greater) races they did on Thanksgiving, I decided I needed to go a little further than the 6 miles I had originally planned. It was a good run, not great. However, two things kept my time a little slower than I would have liked. First off, my first mile was a little sluggish. I probably needed a little more downtime between the gym workout and running. Then, I was stopped by almost every red light I came across. When you have to spend so much time not going anywhere, it’s bound to have an effect on your finish time. Still, it felt good to be out on Thanksgiving. It was fun to see empty parking lots on a course that I’m used to seeing them filled. Plus, lighter traffic on the roads was awesome because there were fewer worries about a driver not seeing me.

All of that was good. However, what has me feeling really good about the Walt Disney World Marathon was finishing all 23 miles on my training run this past Saturday! The last 3-4 miles were brutal. However, the first 19-20 were my strongest over that distance ever! I’ll talk more about that run tomorrow. It was a fitting end to a great week of training!

Of course, I did more than just train this weekend. It was Thanksgiving on Thursday. My wife and I had a wonderful meal with her family! On Friday, Brooke and I got to see Frozen, the newest Disney animated film. All I can say is that it was a fantastic film that I highly recomend…especially for Disney fans. This movie had it all. There was a fun story line, awesome characters, and great music. Two thumbs waaaaaaay up for this film. Unlike most of the recent Disney films, I actually paid full price to see this one and it was totally worth the money. I think I may have found the perfect song to have playing in my ears as I cross the finish line at the Walt Disney World Marathon. If you haven’t seen Frozen yet, you absolutely must see it.

After Frozen, the wife and I headed to BJ’s so I could carb up in preparation for my 23 miler on Saturday…

Yeah, pretty good stuff. Of course, with a plate that size, I had plenty left over for a second meal. The grilled chicken was heavenly…even the left over chicken was amazing! We finished our meal by sharing this holiday Pizookie…

Lastly, yesterday was the Hollywood Christmas Parade. My church is located at the corner of La Brea and Hollywood Blvd. So, we were just outside of the parade route. They had to cancel the night services because of the parade. Then, those of us who were at the second service (me and my wife) had to rush to get back to our car in order to avoid the road closures for the parade. Our pastor was funny about that. He said that, while we are all free to hang out afterwards, we might want to think about getting to our cars a little quicker because they were going to start closing off streets for the parade really soon after the service. Ah the fun of going to a church in Hollywood! We also face some street closure fun around the Academy Awards because the place where they hold the ceremony is a few blocks away. Anyways, on the way back to the car, I got to see Santa’s sleigh for the parade…

I love this time of the year! It was a great week last week! I’m so excited about this week as well. This coming Saturday, I’ll be singing in the Disney Employee Choir for the Disneyland Candlelight Processional! We have a dress rehearsal on Thursday night. So, I’ll have to make some alterations to my training schedule. However, I should be able to fit in 4 workouts this week in the midst of the craziness. I also get to play my trumpet in the orchestra at the church I grew up attending for their Christmas production! Let the Christmas craziness begin!

How was your week? Are any of you preparing for the Dopey Challenge at Walt Disney World? Oh, I almost forgot…today runDisney released this video.