My Weekly Update: 8/19/13-8/25/13

What a hot week we had here in Southern California! We did not catch a break at all this week and it looks like this week will be no exception. I know I should not be complaining about the weather because in some parts of the US it is 90 degrees at 6:00 am! I am not sure how you runners do it. I would be dead!

I was not in treadmill mood this week but had to run on it once this week since it is easier for me to stick to a goal pace on the treadmill. Here is a summary of my week.

Monday:REST DAY
 

Tuesday:6 Mile Night Run @8:25 pace. It was not in the mood to run on the treadmill so I decided to run outside in the 88 degree heat. The first three miles were tough but I caught a good breeze on the way home and was able to pick up it up a little. It turned out being a progressive run (9:30, 8:43, 8:32, 8:16, 8:05, and 7:22) that I did not plan on so I will take it!

Wednesday:Cross Training Day: 45 minutes on the bike trainer (11.50 Miles). My quads were feeling pretty tired but I pushed through it!

Thursday:7.25 Miles on the treadmill. Warm up and Cool Down@10:00 pace and 6.25 Miles@ 8:00 pace.

Friday: REST DAY

Saturday: 22 Miles@8:41ish pace. My Garmin decided to act up so I am not really sure what my actual pace was since I had to reset my watch one I realized it was not longer picking up my pace. In any case, my strategy for this run was to run the first 5 miles easy, miles 6-15 as close to marathon pace as possible and then miles 16-22 with a fast finish. I wanted to keep the pace better than 8:30 the last 7 miles but the heat started getting to me and I knew that it was going to be rough if I pushed too hard. I was close enough.

Sunday:UNPLANNED REST DAY. This should have been a cross-training day but I skipped out on it and ended up at the Happiest Place on Earth instead. Our passes are finally unblocked and my son wanted to go so I figured that walking around Disneyland for hours could possibly be counted at cross-training.

Total Miles: 35.25 Running and 11.5 Cycling 

This weekend is the Dumbo Double Dare and the plan is to keep it easy this week. I feel like I am ready to commit to Marathon #4 but need to get some last minute arrangements together before I can commit. I might have some marathon news for you soon!!

Did you have a good week? What was the most exciting part of your week?

I think the trip to Disneyland was mine!

Marathon Training: Week Two

My calves were a little sore after my 15 mile run last week but it was a good kind of sore. I threw some hills in and I kind of expected that I was going to feel something. I have been very disciplined with my stretching, icing and foam rolling and it seems to be working. I ran about the same amount of miles this week that I ran last week but increased my long run from 15-17 miles. I have been focusing on my long runs and will be alternating between "fast finish long runs" and "long, steady distance runs." You can read about these types of long runs in detail from McMillan Running if you are wondering what the heck this all means. 

We had a really warm week here in California so two of my runs were done on the treadmill but I found a way to make them more enjoyable! 

Run #1: 7 Miles @8:53 ( I did this run on the treadmill @runemz style #444!) After Mile 6.44 I kept going to get to 7 miles.

Run #2: 7 Miles @8:47 (my Pi Day Run)

Run #3: 17.5 Miles @9:14 (long, steady, distance run) I struggle with bringing down the pace on my long runs because I want to be done. I need to work on my endurance and let my body get used to running for long periods of time. This run felt great and the weather was perfect as well. The first half of my run was the worst part since it was all uphill but I need to challenge myself a little bit more and prepare myself for the course of the marathon I am planning to run.

TOTAL MILES: 31.5 with some cross training which included walking around the Happiest Place on Earth on Sunday. We just love this ride and can't get enough of it!

I am already nervous about my next long run as I will be attempting a distance that I have not tackled since last year. It will be a fast finish long run so it's going to be tough!

Did anyone run the LA Marathon?

The weather was actually perfect in Los Angeles and I heard there were lots of shiny new PR's!  I love laying in my bed watching the LA marathon on TV but I have to admit that I did feel kind of sad that I was not running it too!

Three Things Thursday

It has been a while since I have done a "Three Things Thursday" post so this will be my first one for 2013.

1) After my big win in Las Vegas we gave into the Mouse and decided to upgrade our Disneyland hopper tickets to annual passes. It was a difference of $54.00 per person so we decided to go for it. We absolutely love Cars Land and our favorite ride is the Radiator Springs Racers. It is so much fun! I also plan to get some use out of this pass the weekend of the Disneyland Half Marathon!

2)  I love this Year End Report that DailyMile sends out but it is kind of confusing if you are tracking how many miles you run in a year. This Year End Report includes all miles from cycling, elliptical etc. I think I only ran 883 mile and the rest was elliptical, walking and other activities. In any case, I am going to attempt 1200 miles this year and need to figure out a way to log my other activities so I can use DailyMile just for running miles only.

 3) I am determined to get my Beach Cities Challenge medal this year! I am signed up for two of the three races that are needed to complete the series. I am holding off on signing up for Long Beach in October since I am not sure if I want to run the half or the full. After the super hot summer we had in 2012, I am tempted to go for the half since training in the summer heat was brutal!

Our Visit to The Happiest Place on Earth!

So we finally made it to Disneyland AKA "The Happiest Place on Earth." The weather was perfect and we survived without our jackets until the evening. BEWARE! I am about to overload you with tons of pictures from our Disneyland trip!! We had a great time and I want to share our experience with all of you!

Both parks were super busy but we expected it due to the holidays. This was the wait just to get through the security check before you can even enter the parks. Don't forget that I am Black Friday shopper so I can handle the crowds! If you are familiar with the parks and know your way around, that also makes life easier on busy days. The parks are decorated so beautifully during Christmas time and there is just so much to take in. There is just no way that you can see it all in just one day. Some of my favorite things to see at Disneyland are the huge Christmas tree, Sleeping Beauty's Castle and the Firework Show and the falling snow on Main Street.

We bought 4-Day Hopper tickets from Costco so we still have three visits left to see everything that missed. We had not been to Disneyland for almost two years and so many new and exciting changes have taken place since then. The main purpose of our visit was to visit Cars Land which opened about six months ago. My son has been wanting to go since June and I promised him that we would go before the end of the year. My son doesn't like taking pictures all that much but I bargain with him to take pictures with us before he can get on the rides. No trip to Disneyland would be complete without a picture with Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck right?

We were only able to get on four rides at California Adventure because all of the waits were at least an hour long. By the time we arrived at the park at 10:00 am, all of the Fast Passes to many of the rides were already gone. Our favorite ride at California Adventure was by far the Radiator Springs Racers! The wait was about three hours long but so worth it! This ride is a must do if you go to the California Adventure Park. My hair was flying all over the place as you can see in the picture and we had a blast! I wish we could have experienced it a second time.

My son also convinced me to buy him this souvenir cup that he so desperately needed! I have to admit that it was pretty cute but pricey. Everything is so expensive at Disneyland but you have no choice! 

We also went on the Luigi's Flying Tires, California Screamin' and Toy Story Mania.

I passed on California Screamin' but these two tackled it on their own and had a blast!

We headed over to Disneyland about 3:00 p.m and stayed in the park until the end of the evening. We ate dinner and rode just a few rides to pass the time before the firework show started at 9:30 pm. We were able to get on It's a Small World, The Matterhorn Bobsleds and Indiana Jones. 

The plan was to stay until the fireworks show and then return on another day that was less busy. After the fireworks, we rushed out of the park to beat the long tram lines and the rush to get out of the parking structure. SUCCESS! We had a great time and cannot wait to go back and experience some of the other attractions that the crowds did not allow for.

We are even considering upgrading our tickets to annual passes since I am planning on running the Disneyland Half Marathon again this year. It would be nice to have the annual passes so we can visit the park while we are there taking care of other important business, like running races!

Have you ever been to Disneyland/California Adventure? What is your favorite ride or thing to do when you visit the parks?

I think my new favorite ride is the Radiator Springs Racers! I love the end of the ride when you get to race against another car full of people! We actually lost the race but it was a ton of fun!! If you have never been to Disneyland you have to add it to your Bucket List.

Double Dare Me and 28 Miles to Go!

I am a huge fan of Disney races! I have ran the Disneyland Half Marathon for the past three years and it has become my annual PR race so naturally I love it! I also love Disney medals since they are so fancy and beautiful! Today I saw a post on Facebook from Run Disney which mentioned a new challenge for 2013 known as the the Dumbo Double Dare. In 2013 they are adding a 10K, known as the Disneyland 10K, as well as a new challenge to run 19.3 miles in two days. Participants who take on the challenge would run the Disneyland 10K on Saturday followed by the Disneyland Half Marathon on Sunday and will be awarded the all-new Dumbo Double Dare medal in addition to the Half Marathon and 10K finisher medals. This is very tempting to me but I am not sure if I will sign up for it since the cost is $280.00! Disney races come with a hefty price but I have until January 22nd to think about it which is when registration opens.

In other news, I am 28 miles away from reaching my goal of 1000 miles for 2012! I have two more runs scheduled for 2012 and one of them is a 20 miler! I haven't ran 2o miles in quite some time so I am nervous and excited all at the same time. The weather has been perfect so I am looking forward to tackling 20 miles in cool and crisp temperatures!

Tomorrow is going to be a fun day! We are finally heading to Disneyland!

Disneyland Half Marathon: 9/4/11

Weather Report: 62 degrees!  Amen!!

This is going to be a long one with lots of pictures and you will soon found out why. If you just want the details, scroll to the bottom of the page!

THE EXPO:

I was so excited when I picked up my race bib because they placed me in Corral A!  Corral placement is based on your official time in another timed event so I used last year's time from the Disneyland Half Marathon and this is where it got it me!

After the Expo, we walked around Disneyland for a little while since we are annual pass holders. My son loves the monorail so we rode it into the park and we even got to sit in the very front! After leaving Disneyland, we headed over to Red Robin to have lunch.  My lunch was probably not a very appropriate one but I love the protein burger at Red Robin and I skipped the fries for broccoli. I even ate a couple of onion rings.  They are the absolute best I have ever had! Oh, and I also had a freckled lemonade too.  Gotta have my drink...it's non-alcoholic don't worry!

Course Map: The course is pretty flat for the most part and has lots of entertainment for runners to enjoy. I am too focused on time and never seem to enjoy what this race has to offer.  There are characters throughout the first 4 miles of the course within the theme parks but just a handful of people stop to take pictures. I really want to run this race for fun in the future so I can take full advantage of it!

I was really worried about the weather and had been monitoring it for the last week or so.  I hate the heat and never train in it for any reason so I will never be prepared for it.  The hotel we stayed in was about .65 miles from the start so we decided that we would leave the car at the hotel and make life easy on ourselves.  Last year we stayed at a local hotel that was about 1.5 miles away and then drove to the race in the morning and boy was that a mistake.  This year it worked out much better.  We took a walk to the Start the night before to see how long it would take us and how long of a walk it was.  We ended up walking and grabbing a sandwich from Subway for dinner while we were out since the hotel parking lot was completely full!  If we would have driven I not sure that we would have had a place to park because everyone seemed to be walking instead of driving. I did more walking than I wanted to and started to wonder if it was going to work against me on race day...

RACE DAY:

I woke up at 4:00am and got dressed.  I am pretty anal about laying out all of my stuff the night before because I would kill myself if I happened to forget something important. I could hear all of the other runners leaving their hotel rooms and heading down to breakfast.  We left the room at 4:30am and headed over to Disneyland. It was still dark and there were runners on every corner of the intersection.  I wasn't nearly as nervous as I was last year when I ran this same race. I was pretty nervous last year because it was the first race I had ever entered a race and I had no idea what to expect. I made a quick stop to the port a potty and then headed to the corrals.  Corral A does have it perks and I was loving it!  You can see Mickey and Minnie, the officials only let those whose bib identifies them as belonging in Corral A through, you get to take off first and avoid weaving around those who are slower than you, all of the special guests and famous people who are running the race are placed in Corral A and you just feel important being there. I am not used to this like many of you speed demons might be so I was pretty excited!! 

The singing of the National Anthem with fireworks!

I was pretty close to the Start!

My goal pace was 8:18 in hopes of finishing in 1:49.  Last year I completed this same race in 1:50:58 and one of my Running Goals is to complete a half marathon in under 1:50.  I was able to make it way to front of my corral and started within 5 seconds of the official start.  I took off faster than I wanted to because all of the fast people are in Corral A and you have no choice but to move it or possibly get trampled!  I was laughing to myself because I was now the runner that everyone was passing!  I think I was the slowest runner in Corral A! I still loved being in Corral A because everyone was so spread out and there was lots of space around me.  I ran a 7:58 for Mile 2 and I usually kill myself to pull off a lap like this in the very end of my training runs.  My husband and my son were waiting for me right around Mile 4 which is where you actually exit the theme park and hit the streets of Anaheim.  They made me a great sign this year so that I couldn't miss them. Please notice that my son also has on his "Run Mommy Run" t-shirt.

They got so many compliments on their sign!

My son and his sign for Mom!

Mile 4 was exciting because I saw my two biggest fans.  They were able to take some great pictures because not a lot of fans were waiting at at this location. They actually had to sneak into this area because once the race started they closed this area and this is where I was looking forward to seeing them.

High Fiving my Son!

Immediately after I seeing my husband and son, came the overpass on Ball Road which is probably the worst part of the whole course.  It's really not that bad and I was definitely distracted by the beautiful sunrise. I actually stopped to take a picture of the sunrise and I didn't want to stop unless I really needed to, but I couldn't pass this one up. Mile 5 was my only lap that was under 8:18. It was actually 8:23 due to the Kodak moment. 

Another exciting part of my run was around Mile 5.5 when I noticed that the man in the yellow shirt that had been beside me for quite some time was Drew Carey.  He was very friendly and has actually lost 80 pounds since he started running. I really wanted to take a picture of him but didn't want to piss him off so I decided to secretly take a picture of him and hope he didn't notice and go off on me. By the way, I am faster than Drew Carey! I also GU'd at Mile 5.5 because I needed it!

That's Drew Carey.  He PR'd by 7 minutes so good thing I didn't try to stop him for a picture!

Drew Carey got really excited for Mariachi but I don't think that had a clue who he was!

I knew that I was ahead of schedule around the halfway point and I was very tempted to stop and take a break but I wanted this one so I pushed myself to keep going. By Mile 7, the sun had made it's way out but the temperature was still pretty cool.  The part of the course that all of the runners really look forward to, running through Angel's Stadium, was really close and I needed that boost of excitement to keep me going.  The volunteers handed out GU right around Mile 9 and I was Gu'ing through Angel's Stadium for some odd reason?? No, I am not a big Angel's fan and I hope I wasn't on the jumbo tron Gu'ing! I didn't even want to look.

I was getting tired by Mile 10 and my legs were feeling it but I was determined to get my PR so I pushed hard.  I also noticed that my Garmin and the Mile Markers were off by about .12-.16 miles so I knew that I had to pick up the pace a bit to make up for the "added mileage."

By Mile 11, I was pretty beat!  I could feel my pace slowing down but I fought it and pushed hard!  I was so happy to see Mile 12 and I gave it all that I had left, which wasn't much.  I could feel the burn in the legs and I knew I was going to be sore the next day...and I am! I took one last look at my Garmin and I knew that I was going to come in around 1:48 and I was elated! Official Time 1:47:43! This was much more than I had hoped for!  Moments like this really make you feel good about all of the hours of training that you have put in and all of the sacrifices that you have made to stick to your training plan.

Can you tell that I was beat??

Disneyland was definitely the "Happiest Place on Earth" on this particular day.  So how did I celebrate?  I had a good breakfast which included pancakes....

There is an egg white omelet with spinach under all that cheese and tomatoes!

and then I went to Disneyland and had a double scoop of ice cream in a waffle cup! My birthday is right around the corner and my new PR was the perfect birthday present!

Chocolate Chip and Mint Chocolate Chip are my two favorites!

Here are my splits and my official results if you care to take a look. According to Run Less Run Faster, a BQ of 3:45 is realistic if you can run a half-marathon in 1:47:25. Kind of makes me wonder if I hadn't stopped to take the pictures of the sunrise and Drew Carey, then maybe I  could have finished 18 seconds faster!  I guess it's time to step it up and keep pushing for Boston just a little bit harder! I have the Long Beach Marathon coming up in about a month and this Sunday I will attempt a 20 Miler!! That's going to be a tough one!! I was looking forward to tackling 20 miles with Shawna, my running buddy, but she is officially out of the race due to an injury!  Bummer!!