To recap: I registered for this set of races back in early April. I ran the Rock N Roll Marathon in New Orleans in late February of this year, and swore I wouldn't run another full marathon. Between the huge time commitment to training for the marathon, the lingering IT band issues that had me limping from Christmas until the race, and the post race soreness and lengthy recovery period I didn't feel the need to try and run 26.2 miles again. It was definitely a "bucket-list" kind of thing for me at that point, and I had crossed it off the list. I had also started dabbling in triathlons, and found that I really enjoy the cross training even though I'm a horrid swimmer.
But April 9th, I got the email from RunDisney announcing the Dopey Challenge. And my enabler (and wife's boss) made the mistake of calling me and asking me if I wanted to run it. I started thinking about it and the idea of a marathon through all 4 Disney parks seemed kind of fun. And adding to that the 5K, 10K and Half-Marathon? That sounds like ultimate bragging rights. So I talked to the wife, whose reaction was "Another Disney Vacation? *Sigh* Sure, why not?", and the kid ("We're going to Disney again? YAY!!!!") and they were both onboard with dealing with my training as well as another trip to the House of Mouse. I had to sweeten the deal a bit for the wife with a spa day at the Grand Floridian Spa, but otherwise they were both completely on board for the trip.
There was one other minor instance of bribery involved. Disney also runs kids' races that weekend. My daughter wanted to run a race as well, so I signed her up for the Disney Kids' Race and the Mickey Mile. The Kids' Race is a 200M sprint for kids in her age group, and the Mickey Mile is a mile fun run around the Wide World of Sports complex. She'll get her own bibs and medals for finishing, just like Dad. Needless to say she's excited as well.
I did my last Triathlon at the end of May (Big Easy Sprint Tri) and while I had a horrid swim I still had a respectable finish on the strength of my run. I then took off a couple weeks before beginning training in earnest for Dopey. Through June, July, and August I built my endurance and durability up with several weeks of training 5 and 6 days a week, but spread out between the pool, the bike and running. I followed a couple swim training plans from Swim Smooth and a running plan I had found online by a trainer from Purdue and sprinkled in some bike rides as well. My peak mileage running in this phase was 17 miles (on a brutally hot August morning). At the end of August, I took another planned break of a week at the beginning of September (and took my wife to Vegas for our 10th Anniversary to have Elvis renew our vows at the Welcome to Las Vegas sign) before diving head first into Hal Higdon's Dopey Challenge plan.
Higdon's plan was basically one of his marathon plans altered to have several weekends of back to back (to back [to back]) long runs, as well as stepping back mileage every other week with cross training on the second weekend day (yay, more bike time!) In the middle of this was the Jazz Half Marathon and the Gulf Coast Half Marathon on back to back October weekends. I decided I'd rather race those two races than follow the plan for those weekends. I even posted my second best HM time at the Gulf Coast Half and got to hang out with some friends I haven't seen in a long while.
November and December, though, were all Dopey Challenge focused. Starting the second weekend of November I'd do three days in a row of increasing mileage (2, 7, 17 and 3, 8, 18 that turned into 20) with a step back long run of 11 miles. My mileage total for November was 133 miles, by far the most I had run in a calendar month. But I came through it injury free with minimal soreness and still felt fairly fresh.
December was the toughest though. It started off easy enough with a relatively short 12 mile run the Saturday after Thanksgiving. The following weekend got a bit nutty as I went 4 miles on Friday, 9 on Saturday followed by my daughter's last piano lesson before her recital...
Oh yea... while I was doing all this running I was also getting my daughter ready for her Christmas piano recital. I made the mistake back in mid-summer of finding an easy arrangement of Fur Elise that she started learning. That led to her piano teacher recommending a couple books of classical music for a beginning piano student because she liked it so much. She picked up the arrangement of Ode To Joy fairly quickly as well and then (in her words) she said she wanted to learn "duh duh duh DUUUHHHH" (Beethoven's 5th). With her recital coming up and her knowing all three pieces were by the same composer, she wanted to do all 3 at the recital. None were even close to stage ready at this point. Maybe Ode To Joy she could clean up to perform... Possibly adding Fur Elise... But there was no way she'd get all three down. She wasn't hearing it though. She wanted to do all three, she had the order she wanted to do them, and she even figured out how she wanted the pieces to be segued into each other. Discussing minor chord resolutions with her teacher who is about a gazillion times the musician I am and an eager 5 year old who knows nothing about theory (yet) made for an amusing Saturday afternoon at her lesson. "We need to finish on the sad chord because Fur Elise sounds happy, OK?" I thought I was in some weird Twilight Zone episode.
Anyway, back to the running. That Sunday I was scheduled to do 19 miles, but I went 22. I did the extra 3 miles mainly as a test to see how I'd feel the following day (not bad) as well as push through the magical 20 mile barrier once before Dopey. The weekend of the recital I did an easy 13 miles on Saturday, preceded by a Tweet of "Remember when 13 miles was OMGWTFBBQ long?" Sunday was scheduled for an hour on the bike, but it was cold and raining so I took an extra rest day.
My mid-week runs through November and December had been a 5 mile recovery pace run on Tuesday, an hour of speed work on Wednesday, and a 5 mile half-marathon pace run on Thursday if that weekend wasn't a back to back. If it was I'd do an easy 5 on Tuesday and a quick 5 on Wednesday.
This last weekend was a simulation of Dopey. The #runchat and #dopeychallenge groups on Twitter were all looking towards this weekend with a mix of anticipation and dread. To be honest, I was leaning to the dread side. The Sunday I went 22 miles, it felt like it took me forever to get my legs back under me after my 9 mile run on Saturday. In all honesty though, I ran a too hard on that 9 mile run. It was cold and I wanted to just get it done. My pace on the 22 mile run was a bit slower than I would have liked and even though I didn't fade much at the end, I was definitely sore and tired. That experience had me concerned about the Dopey Simulation Weekend.
Thursday, I left work at 5:30, battled the traffic past the mall to get to the gym, and knocked out 2.5 miles on the treadmill before heading home. I purposely kept my pace slow in hopes of maintaining some gas in my tank. Friday morning I got up and did a 5 mile loop through my neighborhood. I honestly felt fantastic on this run, but found myself running a bit too fast. I was concerned that I'd blow myself up for the weekend but at the same time it felt good to be running a sub-8:00 pace. I finished the 5 mile run, went home and got my wife's Christmas present together (new washer/dryer and painted laundry room). After that I picked up the prodigy from Nana's (my Mother In Law) and went home to play some video games while we waited for my wife to come home to her surprise. I stayed hydrated throughout the day and ate fairly carb-heavy all day in hopes of keeping my glycogen stores up.
Saturday, it got real. I had a couple things in mind for my 10 mile run. Don't go out fast. Don't push my pace. Don't get injured. Don't run like an idiot. I watched my pacing closely, held about a 9 minute mile keeping my heart rate in the low 140s and finished up my run in a little under 90 minutes. And instead of bumming around the house, I quickly took a shower and met the family out for lunch. After a carb heavy lunch and dinner, I settled in to watch the New Orleans Bowl (Geaux Cajuns) and finally crashed out about 10 minutes after the game ended.
I woke up Sunday feeling refreshed and not sore at all. This was a good thing®. Weather on the other hand, wasn't as good. A cold front had moved through the area and stalled out meaning we were getting some rain. When I got up, it looked like the front had moved through and the rain was over.
It wasn't.
I ate a bowl of oatmeal, got dressed, and headed out for my 20 mile run. I settled in pretty quickly at about an 8:45 pace which crept down to around 8:30 over the first few miles. Everything looked to be lining up for a really strong 20 mile run... Until about mile 8.5. That's when I felt the first couple drops. And I only had one choice being I was so far from home: Just run.
At first the rain was really light. From about mile 9 to around mile 12 it was barely a drizzle. But the skies were getting darker, wind was picking up, and I could hear the occasional clap of thunder. Between miles 12 and 14 the rain got progressively heavier. By this point it was just shy of a downpour. Since there was no shelter until the playground a couple miles ahead, I was forced to continue running. I saw two women who I had seen earlier on my run and we waved and laughed at each others' stupidity for running in the rain. I stopped at the playground which is about 4 miles from home to check a radar on my phone and saw I had finally gotten north of the storm. But now I was completely soaked from head to toe. I cruised home the last 4 miles, got pointed at and laughed at by a neighbor on his way out and hit the magic 20 mile mark at 2:49:56 for a pace of 8:30 per mile. And I had found that my wife left some towels for me on the porch so I could dry off and not track water and dirt through the house. :)
Surprisingly, I felt good all day yesterday... Well except for the last 2 minutes of the Saints game. I didn't feel like I had been run over by a truck, didn't need a nap, and entertained some friends in the evening. I'm a little sore today but it's completely manageable. I'll knock out a couple short midweek runs this week, do 12 on Saturday, get a couple even shorter midweek runs next week with 8 on that Saturday, and then it's off to Walt Disney World for 48.6 miles in the Happiest Place On Earth.
And about the recital? Well, judge for yourself:
Merry Christmas everyone.
It's kind of fun to do the impossible - Walt Disney
"There's no such thing as bad weather, just soft people." I think about the quote anytime I have to run in crappy conditions.
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