One week until I leave for the USA and Wine and Dine and Avengers Half!

The countdown is on! Well the countdown has been on since registration, but it is so close now I can practically taste it. Because we are coming over from Australia, we arrive at WDW on the Monday and stay until the Wednesday after Wine and Dine, before travelling across to Disney Land for the Avengers Half. This means 9 more sleeps until we leave for the trip! To say I am excited is a massive understatement.

I haven't raced in a long time, and Wine and Dine is part redemption, part birthday fun and part bucket load of excitement. I have been to WDW once before but only for a day, so going this time with a Premier Passport will give me a lot more freedom to explore the parks. Wine and Dine falls on my birthday so I am hoping to squeeze in a couple of fun birthday activities- and if you see me on course please stop and say hello (and happy birthday!) :) 

I was fortunate enough to have Avengers fall the weekend after Wine and Dine which has allowed me to a) extend my holiday a little b) earn my coast to coast and c) have double as much runDisney fun in one holiday!

I am super excited to see if this round of intense training has paid off, and looking forward to just having fun. I live in remote Australia as a teacher and haven't seen my partner in 15 weeks (as he stayed in Melbourne for his work), so a big part of me is excited for the holiday just because it will be with him. 

Second last hard run before I leave for America! YAYYAYAYA! :) 

Any tips for touring the parks while on a runcation?

Ash :) 

Week 16 of Dopey Challenge and the big scary 17 miler!

Well. 17 miles (27.2 km for us metric peeps). If I had to choose one word to sum it up, it would probably be SOUL-CRUSHING, I am pretty sure if I use a hyphen it only counts as one word.

Maybe not soul crushing, but enough to make me feel like I am not good enough. I am not a natural runner, and after a bad long run, a seed of doubt begins to flower in my head. Not a beautiful flower either, an ugly 'YOU ARE TOO SLOW AND RUBBISH FOR A MARATHON'  flower. That is a bad flower. So I was feeling a bit deflated after my run, but talking to my running group buddies, this is not an uncommon feeling. So I think even though I am allowed to feel a bit disappointed that it didn't go as planned, the important things are to learn some lessons and not make those mistakes again! Here is a bit of break down of the run.

Kilometer 0-13.5 I was feeling awesome. Better than awesome. I was sure I was positively going to dominate this run.

Kilometer 13.5-21 Maybe not awesome, but still feeling pretty damn good. I was feeling strong and happy and glad to be out running.

Kilometer 21-24 Still feeling pretty good, and thinking that this 24 kilometers felt a lot easier than last fortnight's long run of 24 kilometers.

Kilometer 24-27.2 The wheels fell off. I could barely lift my feet. They were aching and I was hot, thirsty and hungry. It didn't matter how much water I drank I was still thirsty and I felt like it was never going to finish. But then it did. So, yay me!

Although it's easy to whinge about about a rubbish run, I am hoping I can take a few things away from this.

1) I need to run earlier. Even though I started at 5am, where I live it is just too hot to still be running after 8, so now I am doing longer runs I might need to start at 4am. Even though 4am is gross.

2) I need to work out my fuelling strategies. Just because 1 packet of chews works in a half marathon, doesn't mean it will carry me over 28km. Take more chews/gels/something to keep me fuelled the whole way.

3) Try wearing compression socks on a long run and see if it helps with the aching feet.

4) Be happy that I completed my long run. Not every long run can be awesome, and if they all were, everyone would do it and there would be no glory in a marathon.

Any tips on how to pick myself back up after a crappy long run?

Ash :)

Week 14 of Dopey Training

Back to back no. 2 done! With a 10.5 km run walk on Friday (1:2) and a 24km run walk (1:1) on Saturday, it is fair to say I am starting to see what Dopey is all about. I was lucky enough to be on holidays in Darwin this week, so I had some new scenery to enjoy on my long runs, which definitely made it easier!

Some amazing views from this weeks long run.

I was feeling pretty good in my 24 km, aside from some nasty arch pain in my right foot. Although probably not the smartest idea, I was too stubborn to stop so I just kept pushing through. The past couple of days have been filled with icing, anti inflams and rolling on my beloved spikey ball. I am hoping an additional rest day and my smart recovery strategies will have it feeling strong again in no time. Having said that, I am hoping it is not something more serious because I have trained too hard to quit now!

The run walk method made the km's tick by quickly, and aside from the 89% humidity, I actually really enjoyed my runs. They give me such a feeling of accomplishment and I really enjoy the alone time just to think. I feel like the 10km the previous day didn't have much an influence on how I felt running the 24km, but I didn't feel like I could have run a marathon a day after the 24km. Right now all my training has felt pretty bearable, but I am preparing for a few tough runs in the coming months of training. Seeing numbers like 32, 36 and 42km training runs is really scary.

Do you have any advice for arch pain? How do you cope with injury in a training cycle?

Ash :)