So, week 3 ended on a high! Star Wars Rebel Challenge finished. I was feeling great. For most of Monday, I felt great. I took a shower to get ready to do some chores that needed to be done in the early evening. Came out of the shower and everything started going downhill. Whatever my wife had over the Star Wars Half Marathon Weekend trickled down to me. Shortly after dinner on Monday, I felt feverish. The wife took my temp and sure enough…I was just over 100 degrees.
I thought to myself…it’s okay. I won’t run on Tuesday. I’ll get to bed early on Monday and hopefully feel better on Tuesday morning and go to work. Then, I’ll make up the run on Wednesday. Sounded good. Right? Unfortunately, it didn’t work out that way. I was feverish throughout the night. It was one miserable night, y’all. So, at 6am, I sent in the email to my bosses that I was going to miss Tuesday because I was sick. I knew that meant I’d miss a run for the week.
The plan for Tuesday became to sleep when I needed to and have a completely lazy kind of day. Hopefully, by the end of the day, I’d feel better, make it into work on Wednesday, and get a run in on Thursday. That didn’t happen. I slept for almost all of Tuesday. Although I didn’t feel as bad, by the time I went to bed on Tuesday, I was at 101 degrees.
I woke up on Wednesday morning and tried to get ready for work. That didn’t work out so well for me. I still felt miserable. Although the fever seemed to have broken for good overnight, my body was telling me that it wanted and needed more rest. So, after talking it over with my wife, I was convinced to take one more sick day. It also meant that I wouldn’t be running again until Saturday.
On Wednesday, around 4pm, I finally started feeling normal-ish again! Although my stamina would still need time to come back, I would be able to return to work on Thursday.
On Saturday, I finally made it out for my first post-Star Wars Half Marathon Weekend run. I had 7 miles on the calendar, but wanted 10-12. My body gave me 6. It was a really strange kind of run. I had no idea what to expect from myself since I had taken almost an entire week off from running and was really sick for part of the week. The first mile around the Rose Bowl loop went amazingly well. For the first half mile, my feet and legs felt like blocks. However, I finished the first mile in 11 minutes, 40 seconds! That’s the fastest first mile I’ve done at the Rose Bowl! Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad after all. The second mile, I was still 20 seconds under a 12 minute per mile pace! I was entering the easy mile (or so I thought). Up until 2.5 miles, everything felt good…and then it didn’t. I gave up 20 seconds per mile pace in that last half mile. I finished 3 miles in 36 minutes. Not bad. However, all I wanted to do at the end of the mile was stop.
I tried to continue on. The fourth mile was a difficult one both mentally and physically. I gave up a couple of minutes in that mile which was a huge mental blow. The fifth mile was more of the same. I was giving up time and feeling exhausted. During the 5th mile, I convinced myself that I’d quit at the end of 6. I did have to finish the lap after all. My legs felt like jello and I just felt exhausted. This was not my day. What I did find funny about this run is that I finished faster than I did for the Disneyland 10K (or at least the first 6 miles of it).
Realistically, having the week I had, this wasn’t that bad of a run. It got me back out and I feel like I gave it my best effort. When working through a fever and flu-like symptoms, you can’t expect to be back at 100% on the first run. On top of that, my two previous weekends were crazy. I ran 12+ miles two weekends ago. That was followed by the Star Wars Rebel Challenge (19.3 miles). So, I think I really needed a down week. This coming weekend is the Surf City USA Half Marathon! I’ve decided to go out and see what I have on that day. If it’s a PR kind of day…awesome! If not, I’m going to use this race to see where I’m really at.
The news is not all bad, though. I lost exactly 1 pound this week! That brings my total weight loss for the month to 4.6 lbs. I’m 3.4 lbs away from the goal I set for myself. We shall see next week how close I get to that goal. On my last race week, I lost 2.8 lbs. No matter what happens, the Journey to 160 continues.
This past week has been a strange one in terms of what I ate and didn’t eat. I have kept myself at 1 soda per day for the past 3 weeks! Of course, if Ginger Ale does not count as soda, then I had a couple of days this week with no soda at all. For this coming week, I’m going to attempt to limit myself to 1 soda every other day. So, on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday, I can have 1 soda. On Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, I will be soda free. That’s the goal for the week.
I only added 6 miles of running to the week. For January, I’m now at 64.47 miles.
Miles Remaining for 2015 – 936.53
I’m a little late in reporting this. However, I thought I should share that, with the Avengers Super Heroes Half Marathon, I qualified for the Half Fanatics! It took me a little while to get around to making it official. However, on January 7th, I was made an official Half Fanatic #10175. If you’d like to know more about this group of fine runners, check out their website here. I qualified under the Neptune level (which is the entry-level) by finishing 3 half marathons in a 90 day period. On the web site you can find out what it takes to qualify on each level. I’m still learning about all this group has to offer. But, for now, I’m excited to just be an official Half Fanatic!
In other exciting news...I’M GOING TO DISNEY WORLD! This past weekend, I booked the room reservations and will be staying at the All Star Movies Resort from April 28 – May 4! The funny part is that I will be at Walt Disney World during the Expedition Everest Weekend, but will not be running the race. A friend of my sister-in-law wanted to go to Walt Disney World for her birthday this year (May 2nd). So, Brooke and I got included in the plans. That means, we’re heading out to Walt Disney World in the Spring! I can’t wait! By the way, if there are any Walt Disney World regulars here that could help me out with a question I have, please leave your response in the comments below or send me an email….whyirundisney@gmail.com.
The question is this…what is the quickest way, using the Disney World transportation, to get from the All Star Resorts to the Beach Club Resort? I’d really like to get up early one or two mornings and make the run between DHS and EPCOT. When I looked into this for the Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend, all the results I got back involved taking a bus to EPCOT and walking through the park to the international entrance gate. If I go early, this might not be possible. So, any advice for this West Coaster? I’d really appreciate it. Also, if you’ve run on property before, what are your favorite running trails at Walt Disney World. I might have to try one or more of them out (since we will be there for about a week).
It’s Surf City USA Half Marathon Week! I’m feeling much better and can’t wait to get back to work. I hope you all have a fantastic week!
Why I runDisney 
You might have to take the bus to Downtown Disney and then back to the Beach Club. Ugh! Glad you are feeling better! I too was under the weather after the half. I think i should have worn a long sleeve shirt instead of my tshiet. Oh well! Worth a little sneezing for those medals!
That’s how I ended up getting to the Beach Club during WDW Marathon Weekend last year. It takes forever, though. I’ve got to look it up. However, it seemed like during the WDW Marathon, we exited DHS and ran along a path that took us all the way to the International Gate at EPCOT. If I can find it, I could take a bus to DHS and run to EPCOT and back.
Sorry to hear you got sick as well. I totally agree with you, though. It’s a small price to pay for the awesome Star Wars finisher medals.
glad you are both finally feeling better-I havent been sick yet this winter (knock on wood!) and I am hoping to keep it that way.
for getting to the running path, it will depend on what time you go. You could take a bus to DHS if it is within an hour of DHS opening hours and then run from there to the beach club/boardwalk area and run back-it would be a good distance run and really nice.
You can always take a taxi as well if it is earlier than the buses are running-from All Star to Boardwalk (it is closer than Beach Club) is less than 4 miles. We took a taxi from pop century (which is pretty close to all of the All-Stars) to Boardwalk and it was only 6 bucks!
and avoid DTD buses at all costs-the construction over there is a nightmare and it will take you forever no matter what time of day you go.
Thanks for the advice! I loved running this route during the marathon. So, I’m pretty sure it will be apart of my vacation to WDW as well. If it’s early, I may just call up a taxi. Thanks!
I’ll be running the Everest Challenge in May! I was going to suggest a taxi, too.
Awesome! You’ll have to be on the lookout. I won’t be running Everest. However, I’ll be at WDW when it’s running. Thanks for the suggestion. You can never get too much good advice.