Training: Week 5

Ran a total of 20k this week (not all at once)!!

• Tues – 5k
• Thurs – 5k
• Sat – 10k

Hit my first weather related ‘speed bump’ this week. Thursday morning was pouring with rain – in fact it had been raining most of the night. I decided I didn’t really want to go out and run in the wet if I didn’t have to as I’d only end up injuring myself. So I took my running gear to work and ran around the Fitzroy gardens during my lunch break (fortunately my workplace has a shower!)

Hit two significant milestones this week. The first - my run around the Fitzroy gardens ended up being my fastest 5k to date. Not sure if it was because it was later in the day, it was light outside or because there were other ‘more serious’ looking runners training in the park making me go a bit faster. It could also be that my training is paying off. Whatever the reason, I was stoked to run my first sub 30min 5K (time 29:33).

The second milestone came today, when I ran 10k for the first time in my training (I ran 10k once before years ago and it nearly killed me). Felt pretty strong today, but was ready to finish by the end. My legs were starting to get bit tired. Really pleased that I maintained the same pace for the 10K that I had for the 9k run I did last week. I think for runs longer than 10k I’m going to have to start thinking about fuelling. Picked up some Gu Chomps this afternoon, so I’ll try them on my next 10K+ long run.

I’m quite amazed at what I have been able to achieve in the past 5 weeks of training. I’m an NOT a runner and certainly not athletic. This is all a big experiment. If you are reading this and even vaguely think you might be interested in doing a runDisney race, I say give it ago – you might surprise yourself!

I’m now toying with the idea of doing the Dopey (crazy I know!!). I’ll be doing the 5k with my Dad (probably more of a shuffle), and I can do the 10K pretty comfortably now. Still trying to talk Dad into doing the 10k– we’ll see. I plan to do the full marathon – so it occurred to me I only (only!!) need to do one more race to complete both the Goofy and Dopey challenges.

Look, I have no idea if it’s even possible to complete such a thing. Maybe I’m crazy to even think it given I have never even run a half or full marathon before. But my training is going well so far and I am enjoying the running. I’m sure the Dopey is going to sell out – so I might just sign up and see how I go. I can always ‘drop’ the half if I don’t think I can go the distance by January.

Training: Week 4

I’m still really stoked to be training for the marathon, which has helped getting up at 5:30am for training runs. Last week I found that I was developing some chafing on my upper thighs. After doing a bit of research online, I decided that some compression shorts might be helpful. I don’t know that I can be bothered applying body glide for every training session – particularly so early in the morning. Turns out Rebel Sport had compression shorts 30% off last weekend, so I picked up a pair of Body Armor shorts – and they did the trick. Feels so much more comfortable running in them. Not sure that the ‘compression’ aspect will make any difference to my muscles etc, but it has eliminated chafing!

This week I ran:

• Tues – 5k (Ave pace 6:43/km)
• Thurs – 5k (Ave pace 6:23/km)
• Sat – 9k (Ave pace 6:36/km)

So I feel I am improving.

Training: Weeks 1-3

I’m now three weeks into training. I have been following the Galloway training plan from the runDisney website – three runs a week, 2 x 30 runs during the week and a longer run on Sat. In just three weeks I have been able to bring my average pace down from 7:10min/km (11:32min/mile) to 6:20min/km (10:12min/mile). At this stage most of my runs (run/walk intervals) are at about 5km (3.1miles)

Things are going well so far.

Committing to the Walt Disney World Marathon

I am by no means a runner. I very occasionally get out for a jog, usually when I am feeling particularly unhealthy. I usually make resolutions about getting fit, run for a few weeks and then fall off the bandwagon. Early this year my wife suggested that I make a goal of running a runDisney event, specifically the Walt Disney World Marathon. The idea appealed to me because

1) I am a big Disney fan and I have always thought it would be fun to run a runDisney race at Disney World, and

2) If I commit to running a marathon I will have to stick to the training through fear of not being able to finish.

So the decision was made! I’m committing to running and (hopefully) finishing the 2014 Walt Disney World Marathon. All 42kms -Yikes!  A big challenge that will test me physically and mentally. Hopefully it will also improve my health and fitness.

For a while I have also wanted to do something that would help people, particularly kids, less fortunate than me visit a Disney park. So I have decided to use this personal challenge as a way to raise money for Make-A-Wish. A little over a year ago we had to take our young daughter to the Children’s Hospital for some tests. Fortunately our daughter is fine and healthy but I was moved by some of the seriously sick, and brave, children we encountered while we were there. It really brought home to me the importance of the work of organisations like Make-A-Wish.  If you’d like to support my fundraising efforts you can make a donation through the link on the right of this blog.

There are 10 months until Marathon weekend, and if you are interested I invite you to follow my journey through this blog. I’m sure there will be ups and downs along the way. I have no idea if I can run a marathon – but there is one way to find out.