Weekly & Monthly Wrap-up!

Happy February!  

This is the month I have been waiting for, for over a year! 

 And no, that was not nearly enough gifs to express how I'm feeling!  I flipped that calendar this morning and can see my race, right there in plain sight! 

January was a strange month for me, I hit my longest run of 10 miles but my lowest mileage for a month since being injured last summer.  With my new runner's knee issues, I had to cut back drastically.  Although I don't love missing my 11 & 12 mile runs planned before the race, I think I've handled it better than my last injury.  I trained all year for this I KNOW I'm finishing this race and there's no stopping me. 

  This week I only got in a 2 mile walk with a few running intervals thrown in and then yesterday I ran 5 on the treadmill.  It was not pain free (and BOTH the knees are giving me trouble although the right knee is worse) but I was able to run.  I taped and wore my braces, although halfway through the run I pulled them off and ran without.  They were starting to chafe me and felt better off anyway.  I took a 30-60 second walk break each mile and that really helped.  I will most likely do that for the race as well.  

I'm doing a lot of other things to help my knees and overall health.  I have been doing a 10 minute arm workout every morning with some crunches thrown in.  I have also made friends with this bad-boy...don't let the pretty color and "pool noodle appearance" fool you, this thing hurts to roll on! 

AND, coincidentally, Rey's mom sent him a T.E.N.S unit for his back and he told me to try it until he gets home.  I found some info on using EMS machines on your quads to help with knee pain and it definitely has helped.  It's bizarre to watch your muscles contract when you aren't doing anything though, I almost have a sick preoccupation with staring at my leg while it contracts. LOL.

 

 

Since we're starting a new month, I'm going to do the Team #runDisney Photo-a-Day challenge again.  I might not make it through the month (again) but it's fun until I get tired of it.  This time I'm only posting them on instagram, so you can follow me there if you want to see them (twoboysnmygirl). 

My first photo today, I thought was fitting, so I'll share it here. 

 There are 3 weeks until the race and this is my plan: 

I'm going to continue to go light on the running.  I may do a short run mid-week this week but I may not.  I have a client that I walk a couple miles and that may end up being my only short distance for the week.  

Next weekend I plan to do one more longish run.  I'm unsure how far I will go, I wanted to get up to 8 but I don't know how the knees will feel. It looks like we are in for a lot more freezing temps.  The treadmill actually seems to aggravate my knees MORE, so I'm not sure 8 on the TM would be wise.  The following week I hope to do at least a 5-6, which I think is still plenty of taper before the race.  I feel like since I didn't get up in mileage I need to at least keep my cardio ability up until the race.  I am definitely playing it by ear though because I would rather be a little under-trained and not injured for the race! 

How are you feeling about February?!?  Any special goals? 

Princess Half Marathon and Glass Slipper Challenge Corrals are up!

Crazyexcited today because RunDisney posted the Corral assignments and course maps for the Princess Half Marathon and Glass Slipper Challenge!! 

You can find your waiver with bib number by entering your info here: Waivers 

Then you can find your Princess Half or Glass Slipper Challenge bib number on the corral assignments:

Princess Half Corral Assignments

Glass Slipper Challenge Assignments


For those friends and family that follow me and don't really understand what this means, it's just where I will start the race.  There are 20,000+ running the race, so they section us off in "corrals" based on our speed so that we are running with people that run about the same pace.  It looks like I will be in corral "F", the sixth corral out of sixteen.  More importantly, it's "F" for FABULOUS!!  LOL

I'm thrilled with that mostly because of my knee issues.  If I need to go slower, I will have a bit of a buffer from when the last people leave the last corral.  Once those people leave the last corral, there is a 16 minute mile enforced and if you don't keep up, you are "swept" and taken on a bus to the end of the race, and don't get to finish. I feel like my corral placement will help ensure I don't have any problem getting swept, even if I'm crawling limping along by the end.  

I'm also pretty excited because a few of my running blogger friends are in my corral!  Yay for not being alone! (which I realized must have been a bigger fear than I initially realized).  

Those of you doing the Half or the Challenge, are you pleased with your corral placement?  I have heard some proof of time submissions were not honored and some were put in the back when they should not have been.  I hope RunDisney is going to fix those issues. 

Wide-angle Wednesday

Continuing with my Disney theme...and there's only three more WAW's until the race!!! *happy dance*

I thought I would go with a ride theme today!  I have a few favorites, Big Thunder Mountain,  Expedition Everest, Haunted Mansion...ok, I have a lot of favorites! LOL.  I think  Big Thunder at night is one of my all time favorite things to do.  Last trip Savannah and I rode it over and over at the end of the night, we kept running back around, rode it 4 times in thirty minutes. So much fun with my girl! 

and I love my EE! 

 and although I adore Rockin' Roller coaster once you get past the take-off, my stomach flips just THINKING about it.  Hate the take-off!  Do you see that blur there on the track?  That's it taking off.  Can't they make the ride without that part? ;)

What's your favorite ride at WDW?!?!  Oh and for those of you doing the PHM or GSC, did you get your bib number?  I was bouncing off the walls yesterday!!  #3554!  Cannot wait to see the corral assignments now. 

4 weeks to go!!!!

It's seriously just 4 weeks?!?

I don't know about you, but other than the concerns I have about my knee, I'm ready to go to Orlando.  It's cold here, like the worst winter in over ten years kinda cold...I'm ready for some Florida sun!  I'm ready for time to speed up because I really can't do a ton of running before the race and doubt I'll get in anymore long runs.   My biggest worry is that I'll lose my stamina but feel like resting the knee has to take precedence over that. 

I'm being good.  I ordered a foam roller and it's on the way.  Until then I have been using a rolling pin and a tennis ball.  I found a lot of info on rolling and stretching quads to help with runners knee.  The first time I rolled them, my right quad was much more painful, which makes sense since my right knee is the one that is bothering me.  

Uh... I might have overdone the rolling a bit though...

who, me?!?!

I'm pretty sore, BUT,  it really did seem to help my knee a bit to roll the quads.  I'm taking things slow and properly taped and wore my brace to run this week.  I only ran 1 mile on the treadmill Thursday (first time in a week I had run) and then today I ran... 

3 miles!! 

 

The good news is my cardio really has not suffered from the break in running.  I am slower because of the knee but I felt like cardio-wise I could have gone the whole distance!  My head and my lungs were in it!  It felt so fantastic to run.

The bad news is that it was not pain free.  My right knee, even taped with a brace, gave me some trouble.  I tried to take a few walk breaks and that seemed to help.  I slowed my pace and noticed that downhills hurt more than anything, so adjusted accordingly.  I'm not sure I could have done 13.1 today in the state I'm in, but at least it's a start.  More resting this week, it looks like I may only run once a week until the race.

 

Since I haven't been able to run a lot, I have started doing a 10 minute arm workout video that I found on Pinterest.  I'm doing it each morning and my arms are pretty sore.  Maybe that's why I seem to have an arm raising theme going on in my gif's today.  ;)

 So! Who else is ready for the Princess Half?

Told you there was a theme!

Today is Rey's last day home and when he heads out tomorrow, I will not see him again until I have finished a half marathon! 
 That is crazy. It's definitely getting real around here.

 Are you feeling ready?  Have you started packing? 
(ahem...I admit it, I have. LOL)

WAW

Is it Wide-angle Wednesday again already?!?!  Continuing on with my Disney themed WAW for the next 4 weeks until the race...

This one is a personal one and a perfect example of why I love Disney World so very much. I'm not sure I have talked about it on my blog, but my daughter Savannah has a severe social phobia. When she was younger she was actually selectively mute in front of most people, except for our immediate family.  (she was a complete motormouth to us! LOL) 

We found out in 2008, on our first trip to Disney World with friends, that Disney magic "cured" her of this a bit.  It wasn't totally gone, she cried when cast members tried to sing her happy birthday once, but there were moments that she was able to completely let go.  In this shot,  we walked up to get a photo with Thumper and  he grabbed her and started dancing! PURE magic catching this moment!    It's one of my favorite photos of her ever.

As for running this week, I'm still resting my knees but they feel much much better!  I am planning to do a test run of a mile tomorrow morning on the treadmill!  WOOT!

How about you?  Has the Disney magic ever surprised you or transformed you? 

If You Can't Fly...

Perfect timing! Leave it to MLK to have just the right words.  Fitting for almost anything in life, yes?  

 I will keep moving forward and to do that, I am having to regroup and rest a bit.  My self-diagnosis (b/c you know I like to play a doctor on the interwebs. LOL) is runner's knee.  I had it many years ago when I first started to try and run and I quit because of the pain.  Not this time! This time I rest and recover...then keep moving forward.

I found a really helpful article at Running on Empty  that not only gave me some good suggestions, but gave me HOPE!  I'm not going to run for a week or so and then I will see how I'm feeling.  I believe my 10 mile run last week will be my longest before the half.  I risk injuring myself more if I try to do another long run in the next few weeks.  I'm hoping to get in some short runs and maybe up to 7 or 8 miles before the race but I'm going to go by what my knees tell me.  Everything I have read says that running on them will only make it worse, I have to let them heal first and then trust my training.  

I ordered a couple of these for when I can run:

 and also some Glutamine, which is supposed to help in recovery.  

I'm definitely hopeful right now, what else can I be?  I know that the next five weeks are not all that matters.  What matters are the months and months of training I have put in.  I believe that I will be able to do the miles, I just need to make it to the race healed up and not injured.  That's the plan.  

In other race news, I'm superduper excited that my costume is nearly done!  It's actually at the seamstress right now, she is connecting the petticoat to the race shirt (the shirt was riding up a bit, I thought this would help) and sewing on the ruffles on the shoulders.  I am wearing my Sparklebottoms under the skirt since I cannot live without my Sparkleskirt pockets!

Aaaand, to make things even more exciting around here, our Mickeymail came yesterday!  I cannot believe it's so close now, we leave in 33 days!

 Congratulations to all of the Tinkerbell 10K & Half Marathon runners this weekend!  I loved following your races and seeing all the pics. You can fly!!!

So who ran Tink and is running the PHM for their Coast to Coast? So exciting!!! Do you have your costume picked out?  Going as a Princess or something else?!?!  Tell me! Tell me!

Megs Miles

It's a new day and I nearly deleted my post from yesterday but decided against it.  It will be good for me to look back and see that my journey was not always sunshine and daisies.  I bounce back pretty quickly after venting, and I find that just putting it out there allows me to let it go and move on.  I'm working on finding some supplements that will help my recovery and some strength training to help support my knees.

I might be easily injured but I can and will run, which I am grateful for daily.  We have to embrace the moment and cherish it when we have it.  Tomorrow I won't be able to run, but I do plan do walk and the next run I am able to do, it will be in honor of Meg.  

Photo credit: Meg's Miles facebook

"Meg Cross Menzies was tragically killed by a drunk driver while out for her morning run on January 13, 2014. As an avid runner, member of the Richmond Road Runners Club, and Boston marathoner, she was a member of the running family nationwide. In her honor, our hope is to raise awareness of drunk driving, texting and driving, and overall safety of runners and cyclists everywhere.

This Saturday, January 18, 2014, no matter what your distance, no matter where you live, run for Meg. Take in the fresh air, be aware of your surroundings, keep your headphones on low, feel the heaviness in your lungs, the soreness in your legs, and be grateful for it--for all of it. The sweat, the pain, the wind, the cold…everything. Be grateful for that moment.

Feel free to post pictures of yourself pre-run or post-run, post your distance, post your thoughts, prayers, condolences with the hashtag #megsmiles. Twitter, Instagram, Facebook. Let all runners unite together and remember the loss of a beautiful spirit. It's not a coincidence the hashtag reads either "Meg's Miles" or "Meg Smiles." She will be smiling on all of us forevermore."