Three Things Thursday

1. August was kind of the suck. I started all gung ho on strength training, and SFM recovery before jumping into CIM training. And I did that, for a few weeks. And then the lazy was funner than the training. And now I'm just lazy.

I'm in a funk. <-- I seem to say that a lot. I am perpetually unmotivated and lazy.

I did what should have been a pretty easy speedwork session Tuesday, and dude, it was HARD. Paces that I could hold even a few weeks ago, I was struggling. I don't know if it was "recovery" from Disneyland, or what, but it sucked, hard.

BLAH.

2. On Saturday, we ran the Hyundai Hope on Wheels 5k at UCI. We found this Schwaggle deal a few weeks ago, and since we weren't running the Disneyland 5k, we thought this might be fun.

Becka recapped the race here (and A's PR*!). It was kind of a weird race, the course was strange and inbound/outbound runners had to cross paths a lot, it was SUPER hilly, the course was SUPER short, and the logistics were nutty, but you know what?

I don't care.

Hyundai donated over $174,000 to Children's Hospital of Orange County, where Gabby receives treatment. In 2011, Hope on Wheels donated $10,000,000 to fund a project focused on pediatric genomics researchpediatric at CHOC.

There are a few other race locations this fall - Sept. 9th in Chicago and Sept. 29th in Miami. If you're in the market in one of these areas, please consider running - click here for info.

Plus, we were freaking cute.

Julie, Gab, me, A, #1, Madison, Becka

3. Can you handle another back to school picture? Our school district started MOST kids yesterday - except #1 started today. I don't know why. It's weird. It made getting a group bts picture tricky. So here's a pretend one.

They're the cutest.

With the world as a starting point... Wordless Wednesday

First day of kindergarten

Magic in Every Mile - runDisney Meet Up Recap

**warning, picture intensive**   On Friday, I was one of a few lucky participants to attend the runDisney Disneyland Half Marathon Meet Up with Jeff Galloway at Disneyland.

 

 

 

Our group met up under the Sorcerer hat outside of Downtown Disney, and just after 6am, we were off, with Jeff Galloway leading the pack in our run-walk-run (30 seconds, 30 seconds - this definitely took some getting used to!).

We took off through Downtown Disney, into Disneyland, through Adventureland, Fantasyland, the Castle, Down Main Street USA...
 

 

 

There's room for one more......

     

 

 

Then on to California Adventure....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hey, Sparkle, tell me about Hood to Coast!

  We finished up at Animation Academy, where runDisney had coolers full of cold water (it was 6:45am, and already HOT and HUMID).

...and, had bibs and tee shirts for everyone registered for the half marathon on Sunday (RAD).
Our first speaker was Ferren Kelly, the head of runDisney.

While Ferren declined to reveal even a hint of the 20th mile SPECTACULAR for the Disney World Marathon, he did say that they are in discussions with ALL Disney parks worldwide.... and that they'll never run a race that doesn't run through a Disney park.

Some other tidbits that he shared:

• There are currently no plans to make Dopey an official event.
• 60-65% of the runners running Disneyland Half this year were women
• For the first time ever, the majority of runners in the Disney World Marathon in January will be women! (If you haven't registered yet, there is still a chance - go, do it!)

Next up was Jeff Galloway.

Jeff gave tons of great tips for our race Sunday - a lot of people were concerned about the heat, and his suggestion? Slow down. Thankfully, I'm an expert at slowing down.

Dimity and Sarah from Another Mother Runner were on stage following Jeff, discussing the importance of making time to get your work outs in.

As Sarah said, she doesn't magically have an extra 30 minutes in her day that no one else has, she just MAKES the time to make it happen. I know this is going to sound snotty, but whatever - I work full time, I have three kids, and I trained for 2 marathons. There's no magic recipe. You just do it, if you want to do it. If you don't, that's cool, but claiming you don't have time... it's an excuse.

Our last speaker of the morning was Suzy Favor Hamilton, a three-time Olympian and the holder of seven U.S. National Championships. Suzy shared her story of overcoming depression, and gave us a little pep-talk for Sunday.

And then she danced.

After the dancing was over, Mickey came out in his track suit for some pictures!

runDisney hosted breakfast for the meetup at Flo's V8 Cafe, part of the newly-opened Cars Land!

As with everything Disney does, the themeing is amazing.

And then.

Honestly, running with Jeff Galloway, exciting. Running through the (second) happiest place on earth, very exciting. Pep talks from olympians and some of my favorite authors? Super exciting.

But then we went on a private tour of Soarin'. I don't think there are even WORDS for the amount of exciting involved here.

Sorry, no pictres allowed - very secret things!

On the way out of the meetup, some guy stopped me in Downtown Disney, and asked for directions to the expo, you know, because I look like a runner.

Really? Was it the sparkle, or the shirt that gave me away?

It was a fantastic morning, seeing the ladies of Team Sparkle is always a good time, and I finally got to meet SBS and Dimity. Thanks so much to runDisney for hosting!

Three Things Thursday: Awesome/Not Awesome

1a. I've been super exhausted lately. Last night, I think I went to bed and was passed out by 10pm. Awesome.

1b. Until I woke up, sweating and heart racing, at 3am, because I'd been dreaming about running from zombies. Not just, like, jogging through the woods from zombies. Like, with my entire family - all my kids, my parents, my brother and sisters, all of us. IN A SMART CAR. I don't even know. It was stressful. Today, still exhausted. I feel like I stressed out, all night. Not Awesome.

2a. Disneyland Half Marathon is this weekend, and with that, comes Becka and A!!!! I love when they visit, and so does Gabby - she's been counting down the days until they get here. Awesome.

2b. wtf.

Not awesome.

3a. I got 400's back on my schedule this week. I LOVE 400's. Awesome.

3b. That's what I thought Sunday when I saw that on my schedule. Turns out, I like them a lot less when I haven't been doing ANY speedwork. They're fast. And hard. It was not awesome.

The laziest laze that ever lazed

The "Plan" for last week...

Monday: Cross training
Tuesday: 7 miles, 1 easy, 1 @ 10:00, 1 easy, 1 @ 9:45, 1 easy, 1 @ 9:30, 1 easy
Wednesday: Into the Wild OC Trail Run!
Thursday: 6 miles, 10x400
Friday: Rest
Saturday: Cross training
Sunday: 8 miles

Things I actually did:

Wednesday: 5 mile trail race
Thursday: Shopping
Saturday: 6.2 easy miles with Will

*******************************************************************************
My days of lazy are dwindling down, I know, and a whole new marathon training cycle is closing in. So I guess I decided to take full advantage of the "No Plan" Plan while I can. Also, I'm really lazy.

Plan for this week, maybe:
Monday: Dinner with friends
Tuesday: 7 miles, 10x400
Wednesday: Cross training
Thursday: 7 miles, 5 easy, last 2 hard
Friday: Cross training
Saturday: Maybe a 5k?
Sunday: Disneyland Half with BECKA!

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Two excellent purchases I made this weekend:

Add caption

And part of our Disneyland Half costume....

I KNOW.

Purchase I did NOT make....
TaTa Tamer my ass. False advertising, I say.


Sunday morning I spent trying to find a fall 10K. As luck would have it, I took #1 shopping later that morning, and my favorite local race company was offering 20% off their fall races outside Whole Foods! I've been wanting to run Make Room For Santa for a few years, it just never worked out for me, until now. With the discount, it was a steal. (Related, I've updated my Come Run With Me! page up there ^^)

INTERNET! FIX ME!

Last night, I'm sitting innocently on the couch (which is broken, thanks, kids, and currently being held up on one corner by MY COOKBOOKS, I know, don't laugh, I swear "new couch" is on my to do list for this weekend), when I decided I was thirsty, or something. Maybe I wanted ice cream. Who knows. Anyway.

I stood up, and BAM. Searing pain.

From where, I hope you're wondering?

My big toe.

Specifically, running along the side of my foot, radiating from the base of my big toe.

Here.

And then it went away, so I didn't think about it again.

Then, this morning, I woke up, and just MOVING my toe hurt. After I walked around for a minute, it was okay.

These are the facts:
It seems to hurt worse when my foot is flexed.
It seems to hurt specifically when my foot is flexed AND my toe is flexed - as if I'm pushing off on that foot. So basically, when I'm MOVING. (this does not bode well for 10x400's tonight)
It has not hurt at all, ever
I have not introduced anything new - no new shoes, socks, etc.
The pain kind of radiates from where I'm pointing ^^, then sort of down underneath, ending at the top part of my arch. Does that make sense?

You guys. What is happening to my foot??? Is my toe going to fall off?

Into the Wild OC Trail Run - Recap

Things I learned tonight:

Sand is REALLY HARD to run in


Small races really ARE my favorite

Trail run finish lines are THE BEST EVER.

I've been wanting to try some trail racing for awhile, but with marathon training taking over my life the last 6 months, I just didn't bother. Yeah, I ran on some trails a couple times, but no real training.

I wanted to find a low pressure race, inexpensive, and low mileage. What if I hated it? What if I sucked at it? I hate to invest a ton of time and cash on something new.

So when I found Into the Wild OC Trail Runs - 8k race, at a park on my way home from work, and for only $35 - I was on it.

After fueling up with some delicious stuff...

I headed over to Irvine Regional Park, to find the packet pick up area. Heads up, if you're running Race 2 in the series, there were no signs for where to go - but head to the zoo. You can't miss the race area. Picking up my bag, race tee, and bib was super fast and easy, and there are real bathrooms in the parking area.



I was running with Julie, and her foot is semi-injured-ish, so we lined up towards the back.
With a cowbell jingle, we started through the start line, down a bike path, before we hit the dirt.
I've never been to this park, so I didn't really know what to expect. Turns out, a LOT of the trails were loose gravel...
and beachy like sand.

So less than ideal for running.
There were a few climbs...

...but nothing super crazy. We ran through some open scrub brush areas, some woodsy type areas, straight up beach sand, and then back out to the bike path for the end of the loop.

The course was well marked for the most part...

not that way!

The only sketchy part was through a sand field, but I think it was my fault - should have just followed the ties, not watched for the white arrows in the sand (duh).

The scenery did not suck


At the end, we passed everyone in our sights, including the dude who wore his camelback (why!? There were three aid stations!).

It was pretty much the most fun ever, and I'm totally in love with trail racing. I mean, while I was running, I'm pretty sure I told Julie I was never running this race again, with the sand and gravel and tiny boulder fields, but runnesia tells me otherwise, I'm really excited to try this again in a few weeks. I don't think the hills were anything unmanageable, and I think racing it a little bit might be fun.

TL;DR, the race was really well organized, the course well marked, trail runners are the nicest people in the world, and the swag was RAD.

awesome tech tee AND a keychain medal!

If you don't mind slogging through some sand, highly recommend.