My training calendar-now LIVE on my blog!

I figured how to embed a Google calendar, so my planned training calendar is now live on my blog on the "Training Calendar" page here.  I stress the word "planned" since of course days can flip-flop and be adjusted depending on what pops up in the family/friend/work world-if there's one thing I've learned during prior race training, it's that you have to be flexible.  There's still some tweaking to happen as time goes on.  This plan is both a Tower of Terror 10-miler and WDW Full Marathon plan merged together so it's about twice as long as just the full marathon plan by itself...so I'm hoping my endurance on the run intervals will grow faster so maybe once it's time for the full marathon I could hopefully be at a 2 minute walk/2 minute run instead of the 3/2 that's currently on schedule.  And again, I might alter it to make it so I'm walk/running every other day instead of just 3 days per week (so would be 3 days/4 days repeated), I just am not sure how to change the intervals if I do that.

Planning on really working on the yoga this time around (which I love) as well as core strength workouts (which I hate).  I'll probably be trying the 100 pushups program again, starting with wall pushups (yes my upper body strength is laughable), then hopefully moving on to "girly" pushups (from the knees but on the floor)...then if I'm really dedicated finally a "REAL" pushup.  Miracles do happen you know.

Did I say yet I'm going to try the morning-run thing?  We'll see how that goes.  It's cooler, just more humid.  Like 95%+ humid.  But the 90+ degree blaring sun won't be out to play yet.  It's a trade-off, need to see what's the lesser of the two evils.  Anything to stay away from that awful modern-day torture device known as the treadmill.

One thing at a time.  First to tackle this:

Then we move on to this (typed with the determined-face smiley):

Damn straight!

Oh, and if you see something amiss in the calendar or have suggestions or questions, please let me know.  The ToT part is based off of Hal Higdon's 15K/10 mile novice training plan and the WDW Full Marathon part is based off of the Walk/Run Marathon plan in Marathoning for Mortals...both with some slight alterations from me.  And yes, I know June and half of July is empty...the calendar is my "official" fall/winter training calendar.

Do you have your training plan in place yet?  What plan(s) do you use?

Yup, officially registered for the 2013 Disney Marathon!

I'd already committed to doing the Disney full marathon in January 2013, but now it's official-I handed my money over to the mouse this evening.

I'm actually looking forward to that crazy training again, I've already filled up my calendar with a blended plan that starts July 23 with Tower of Terror training, then moves in to the training for the Disney full.  Right now it's a 3-day-per-week running plan, but I'm thinking of altering it to every other day being a run day (which would mean my long run day would alternate back and forth between Saturday and Sunday).  I could just turn one of my cross-training days into the extra run day, but I think I prefer having the day in between each run day for recovery.  Any thoughts on that?

The only thing I'm not looking forward to about training?  Starting July 23.  No, I don't mean I want to procrastinate because I don't feel like training--I really am looking forward to it.  I mean the time of year.  Smack dab in the middle of the scalding SoFla summer when we'll be having daily high temps in the mid- to upper 90s...not to mention the frequent thunderstorms.

And yes, my training WILL be outside.  I more than despise the treadmill for running-the last time I tried running on one, I felt so wrong, so uncomfortable, I had to immediately stop.  I can't even explain what it felt like.  I tried just walking on it to finish out my training session but couldn't even do that.  I'd rather chance the heat and rain...thankfully there are many shaded areas around my neighborhood to help out.

And honestly, my body is used to it. When I was training for my first-ever half marathon (2010 Disney Half), even waiting until an hour before sunset to go out (during the week when I couldn't train in the mornings) it was still in the mid- to upper 80s...and I still went out.  I didn't know any better, I figured everyone trained like this, didn't they?  And since I've lived here in SoFla for over 35 years of my life, the temps just seemed normal to me anyway.  But don't get me wrong-I'll take those temps in the 40s at the start line every time!

Looking forward to seeing all the Running of the Ears peeps for another spectacular Marathon Weekend at my favorite place on earth!

Have you registered yet?  Which race are you doing?

Shot from the 2011 Disney Marathon...I wouldn't have minded making a permanent stop here ;-)

Some good news...and back to the training!

Check out my post on my other blog, The Disney World Files, about my winning a contest for a great Disney prize!

And to prep myself to properly enjoy said prize...back to the grindstone!  Took all my measurements yesterday and weighed in.  Did my grocery shopping today to re-stock with the proper foods (not that I hadn't been all along-most of my backsliding had to do with eating out and getting hooked on soda again)...loving Publix right now as they had blueberries on sale for $1.99 a pint!  I bought two pints which I know will be gone by the end of the weekend-even with just me eating them all by myself.  Yum!

I've got my race training schedule on the calendar for the Tower of Terror 10-miler at the end of September and the Disney FULL marathon in January (yup, you read that right, going to do the full again!).  My "official" training doesn't start for another 6 weeks so I might play around with C25K for a bit until then...and work on my yoga.  I want to get the pound-dropping going before the real meat of my training schedule hits since that's when it gets soooo hard to keep dropping those pounds with the sheer volume of miles I'll be doing.

Those are actually the only races on my calendar right now.  Toying with the idea of throwing in a half marathon at the right point during my full marathon training schedule but I haven't made my mind up on that one yet.

Come on peeps...I'm doing this mostly all by myself so would love to have some online buddies to check in with and remain accountable to.  Drop me a line on my contact me page if you're interested.

Looking forward to anniversary bling at Mickey XX!  Time for another picture like this:

A non-Disney vacation? Blasphemy! But oh so relaxing...

Every now and then I go on vacation---to somewhere other than Disney World.  Shocker, right?  I wasn’t planning on doing anything over Memorial Day weekend but my mom asked if I wanted to join her at her favorite vacation spot so I decided to tag along.  I didn’t go far...just went over to the west coast to Sanibel Island.  I left after work on Friday (we got out around 1:30pm) and went home Monday afternoon.

When I was a kid our parents would take us over to Sanibel and Captiva Island every now and then.  Now, both my mom and my brother go over once or twice a year and stay at a condo place on the beach (gulf side) called Sanibel Arms West which is where we were for this trip.  We had a nice 2-bedroom/2-bath condo.  We weren’t right on the beach, but it was just on the other side of the little parking lot...like maybe 50 feet away.  Yeah, close enough for me.

Our building is in between these two that are right on the beach--see it back there?

Driving in to Sanibel is pretty nice, you get to drive over the causeway which is three bridges hopping little land areas.  The first bridge is pretty steep (I certainly wouldn’t want to see it during a race!) so it looks like you’re driving up into the sky...so steep you can’t even see the buildings on the other side.  The next two are mostly flat.  When I was driving over the second one, I was passed by a pelican flying along the side of the bridge going the opposite way.  Then onto the island and a couple of minutes later I’m pulling in to my home away from home for the holiday weekend.

Friday night I was just all tuckered out from a busy week so just relaxed in the condo.  My mom made us dinner (nice perk of having a condo instead of a hotel room, a kitchen so you don’t have to pay to eat out every meal) and I wound up falling asleep just after 10pm.  I got to sleep a little over 9 hours before finally getting up in the morning.  After some breakfast I grabbed a chair, my beach towel and book and headed across the walkway down to the beach.  No worries--I was smothered in sunscreen and didn’t turn pink at all.  A few hours on the beach reading in the morning until the temps started to soar (we got all the way up to 93 on Saturday), then out for some island shopping before heading to the Jacaranda Restaurant for dinner...with a restaurant.com gift certificate of course.  They had some amazing olive oil infused with garlic and rosemary to dip our bread in (along with parmesan cheese...yum!).  

Trail down to the beach

These little birdies were so cute running from the waves on their tiny birdie legs...

Now this is the life...

Storm coming in Saturday night after dinner...it was a doozy!

Shortly after getting back from dinner we had a crazy storm-torrential rain, wind and lots of thunder and lightning.  Had a great spot on our screened in patio to watch the show. Early to bed again so I could head back out to the beach early...can’t believe I was already out there by 7:45 or so on Sunday. This time I had an umbrella for shade and stayed on the beach until noon.

A good book, sun, sand, waves...ahhhh......

The birdies liked the beach too

Saw several people both Saturday and Sunday jogging on the beach, including some lady in a bikini and flip-flops jogging at a pretty good clip...IN FLIP-FLOPS.  Nuts.  One guy came by at about the same pace the marathon leaders passed by when I was working the water stop at the Disney marathon in 2010.  Me?  I had no desire to move any faster than a very...very...very leisurely stroll.  Maybe with another “very” in there.  I was even doing some shell-hunting.  For me, beach=relax.

Monday dawned a bit cloudy but I still went out to sit and read on the beach for a couple of hours before packing up to head back home.  It may sound boring to some of you--just sitting on the beach and reading for the whole holiday weekend, but for me it was pure relaxation.

If you’re looking for a nice place to have a beach vacation here in Florida, I highly recommend Sanibel.  One thing to know before going though--this is very much a shell beach.  There are tons of beautiful shells all over the place (including small conch shells--but PLEASE check first before just grabbing them up, many still have the animals inside.  Please put those back in the water and move on until you find an empty one!)...so you may want to bring water shoes or wear sandals to walk the beach in-ones you don’t mind walking in the water while wearing.  Right by the water’s edge is usually better, but right before and right after there are shells everywhere so it can be a bit ouchie on your feet.  Regardless, it’s still a fantastic place to relax.

Don’t forget to walk all the way down to the lighthouse...

Sanibel Arms West on Dwellable