I thought I was excited before...

I am even more excited now!

A bit of history: this last January I ran the Disney World Half Marathon and was amazed with everything about this event.  I had never ran a Disney event before and did not know what to expect.  Everything was perfect and the humidity, well, I was in Florida so that is to be expected.  What I didn't realize was that I would get hooked on Run Disney events!

 After my Donald Duck Half Marathon Jan. 14

While I was there, I noticed people wearing multiple medals at once.  I can understand like wearing two, but on the day we left we saw people wearing 4 and 6 medals!  I was amazed and thought WOW!  I asked a few people about them and they informed me about these challenges.  I really don't know why I never really knew about them in the first place - maybe because I just did not buy in to the Disney hype before and could not be bothered with running an event there.  But since I was given a chance to run this last Jan., I took it.  Well worth it.  Thus began my quest to run more Run Disney events. :)

As soon as I got back home I marked my calendar for when the registration opened up for another Disney Race.  I also did not want just one race, I wanted the multiple medal experience.  I read more about the Disney races and also learned that if I run in Disneyland in the same calendar year as my Disney Half, I would get a Coast to Coast medal.  Cool.  Then I looked at the possible events and found the Disney Dumbo Double Dare would be perfect.  Now to just get in...

I literally sat by my computer, prayed, and to make a long story short...

 I got in!!!! 

In total I will be getting four medals: Alice's 10k, Disneyland Half, the Dumbo Double Dare, and the Coast to Coast. :D  As long as I am careful and diligent about my training, I think things will go not bad - especially when I am running the SeaWheeze Half in Vancouver the weekend prior.  I have already decided that both races will not really be an A race for me because in Disney I just want the experience and to compare my time with Jan in Orlando, and the SeaWheeze is a week before so I don't want to go to hard there either. (mind you the yoga will be beneficial).

So, if that was not enough, I watched the posts about the other Disney races, saw how fast the events sold out in and then thought about really challenging myself to something hard.  I had already went with the Dream Travel group to the Jan. Disney event and wondered if I could gain a spot in the biggest challenge of them all at Disney...

I did!!

Next Jan. I will be participating in my biggest event challenge yet by completing Run Disney's Dopey challenge.  For those that do not know what this event is: you run 48.6 miles over four days, which is a 5k, 10k, half, and full.  In the end you get 6 medals: the Goofy 5k, the Minnie 10k, the Donald half, the Mickey full, the Goofy challenge medal (for doing the half and full), and the Dopey Challenge medal for doing all events.  You also get 6 shirts, one from each race.

The best news out of all of this is that I asked my hubby if he wanted to go to Disney World with me this time and he said if he was going to go, he was going to run a race.  So, my hubby is now signed up for the Mickey Mouse full marathon!! I am both shocked and impressed because he is not really a runner (does not like to run).  The longest event he has done was walking a half with my friend and I.  I told him that there will be lots of training, and he responded casually "no problem." ;)  This should be fun. lol  

For me, this event is going to mean more than just acquiring the six medals, it is going to be about accomplishing more than many have said I would ever do.  It will be an emotional ride.  There is one quote that I heard on TV today that I thought was very suiting to my new challenge:

"If you let everyone define your limitations, you'll be limited forever"

(author unknown)

There you have it, my BIG news and I guess I should now admit,

Hi, my name is Heidi and I am a Run Disney-a-holic. ;)

What happens when you are away from running for a bit...

So, today I head on my treadmill for a 45 min run - yes the treadmill as I was too lazy to head outside for some unknown reason - and the run went really well, but... it was after the run that I realized that oh my, I really need to get back in to routine again.

The first part was that when I went to get my foam roller to do some rolling, I noticed that it looked like a shark had used it for a chew toy.  It seems that my cat has decided that it was now theirs... not going to happen.  I used it and it still did the job so that part was fine.

The part that really made me realize that I have been neglecting things is when I was rolling.  Ouch!! All those days sitting doing assignments and studying had taken their toll on me and I was now paying for it dearly.  Parts that I rolled that are not usually painful at all were screaming at me as I rolled and paused, and rolled and paused.  I came to the conclusion that I need to roll a few times a day right now until things are a bit better.

The obvious part about not running and being active at all for a bit is my weight.  I ended up gaining a bit from sitting on my butt.  Thankfully I have been back on track with that also and only 3 more lbs to go till I am back to where I was before my university end of semester fun.

Before my little hiatus from all things running, I was participating in the Canadian Bloggers #RuntoCanadaDay challenge and was doing quite well at it until the stress of school started.  Then it just did not happen.  This week I have walked everyday thus far and as of today, back on track with everyone joining the challenge today, May 1st. :)

In the mean time, I am going to head back to my decluttering and spring cleaning of my house with all my new spare time that I have now.  I am officially done my university classes for good and only have my Education internship in the fall.  I have found that I have been so busy the last few years that I am going nuts not being busy now - I have even taken up learning Spanish and back to learning getting better at the guitar.  Summer campfire season is coming! The Spanish will help with the travels.

Cheers!

Yepprrs I am still alive!

Wow... The last bit of university classes really did a number on me and I had to take time off of everything and just veg... Basically just get my life back in order from the chaos.

Things are good right now and back to my running, although decreased mileage from where I should be. That's ok though as my body was able to have a good break from the pounding. I was hoping to race the end of May here doing a half but if I want to do it for any type of time, that is not goin to happen. If to just finish, I can do that. BUT I have a few races coming up this year that I do not want to tempt fate and injure myself so will prob go with a smaller race like a 5 or 10 k. We will see.

So there you go, a bit of an update with me and I look forward to catching up after my bit of hiatus. The race season is now in full swing so get out there if you are able and enjoy yourself. :)

Me, I just finished a canoe pool session with high school students for their upcoming canoe trip and the weather is finally sunny and warm again... I just may head out for a small jaunt. 

Still Knee Deep in School, Mail, and Training Re-cap

This past week has still been quite hectic for me trying to keep up with everything and I can see it lasting for about another couple of weeks here till this last semester is done.  I have been trying to keep up with reading blogs or even writing mine, but time has been very limited.  Sorry, I will get better at this. ;)

Well, I feel bad for those of you out east and all your new snow... I don't mean to rub it in but I have been thankful to run outside again.  It has been a long wait for most of us to be able to enjoy the outdoors again the way we like it.

This weekend's long run was bitter sweet for me.  The weather was perfect...

I sat at home trying to get as much done on my assignments as I could and really contemplated not heading out for my run - because I have so much due right away.  I debated for so long that I really did not consider fuelling or hydrating enough.... yeah.  I ended up leaving my house around 2 pm and drove in to the city to head out for 11 mi.  I filled up my water with a Nuun tab, grabbed 2 GU gels, and a Luna Bar to eat on the road there.  I really should have thought things through more, and I know better.

My run sucked. Well, not completely, but for the first while I just had a hard time, was out of breath, and every step was major effort it seemed.  Dodging the puddles and ice, and drudging through deep snow to avoid flooded areas were getting to me.  As I ran I started to think about why was it so hard today?  My conclusion: lack of preparedness.  I was dehydrated, did not fuel properly and ate way too close to running (felt sick to my stomach). I really know better than that.  I know getting out there and running instead of sitting on the couch doing homework is better physically for me, but to expect that demand suddenly out of my body... not realistic. Not when I did not give it what it needed first. 

In the end I ended up slipping a few good times and even landed on my knee once.  I have iced, stretched, rolled, had an epsom salt bath, took ibuprofin, and today (Tuesday) I still feel twinge on that knee so I called off my run for today.  I will be repeating the latter again tonight here after more homework.

I was pretty excited yesterday though when I received my new Road Id in the mail!!! I lost mine and ordered a new replacement one.  This time I went with the rubber band one and of course wanted the tin. lol (yes I am a sucker for novelties) :0P  I also ordered a spare band incase I wanted to change colours.

Now, I am not trying to convince anyone of anything here, but if you do want one and want a coupon, just let me know because they gave me a few codes (seen in the picture).  This image is a picture of the coupon and what I get if you use it I guess.  Just so you know.  I have also been an affiliate with Road ID for over the last 5ish years but this has nothing to do with that - my affiliate button is on the side (not trying to hide anything here). 

So, now for my training re-cap from the past week:

Mon: Rest
Tues: 2.65 mi  11'39"  30:55
     Steady Run, core work
Wed: 3.11 mi  12'36"  39:17
     1 mi warm-up/cool down, 3xHills
Thurs: 2.74 mi  10'56"  30:03
     Steady run with accelerations, core work
Fri:  core work
Sat: Rest
Sun:  11.01 mi  12'45"  2:20:28
     10:1's outside on trail

So there you go, all updated for another week. ;)

What a Slushy Mess!

FinBut I did it! I ran my first outside hill workout in a while. It had me dodging large deep puddles, slushy messes, ice areas, and running back and forth between the sidewalk and the road. 

These photos don't do much justice to show the conditions, I was just trying to show the hill when I was done running. 

Just a muck image for you. You have to love the finger photo bomb. (Small puddle) 

I will have to say that I really feel for those out East that got hit with snow again. This has been another weird winter. 

This was the end result of today's hill workout. Ran up 3 times which was the same number as last week on the treadmill but didn't wanted to risk getting injured right now. Figured first outside hill run? Yeah, gonna be a bit careful.

Anyways, sorry for the huge images today but I thought I would try using the blogger app... I think I need to be a bit more prepared to use it. It's great though if you you have no computer on hand. ;)

Anyone else run hills today?