Running update

Last time I blogged, I wrote about my first running injury. Well I am happy to say that it finally has gotten better! I developed runner's knee back in the beginning of January during the WDW marathon. It took almost 2 months to start feeling better to the point I could start running on it again. I started building my miles back up again this month and am up to 6 miles as of last weekend. And so far no pain! I signed up for a half marathon in the beginning of June. The Echo Half Marathon in Osteen/Debary. So fingers crossed my long runs still continue to be pain free! I am also running an 8k next weekend in Titusville, the Space Walk of Fame 8k. This will be my first 8k distance for a race. I was signed up for a 10 mile race back on March 19th, but I unfortunately could not participate in it. I had just gotten back into running and there was no way I could complete 10 miles without risk of re-injury. So I signed up for the half in June as a way to make myself feel better about missing that one! It is basically the last chance to get a race in before the weather becomes unbearable here in Florida.

If anything I have definitely learned that I need to take better care of myself during training. Cross training, stretching, and strength training are a must! I'm not getting any younger, and if I want to continue to run well into my 40's an 50's I really need to be more careful. This whole experience has definitely confirmed my love of running. When I couldn't run, I really struggled thinking about a life without running. 

Other than the few races I have lined up we have a busy few months ahead of us. We are attending Star Wars Celebration in a few weeks here in Orlando. My husband and I attended back in 2010 shortly before I became pregnant. We had a blast and are looking forward to bringing our son this time around. He has become obsessed with Star wars over the past few months and are already planning a Star Wars themed birthday party including Jedi Training with Darth Vader. In May we will be camping out at Fort Wilderness at Disney with some friends who have a trailer. I have never been over there before and am really looking forward to experiencing a new part of Disney.

My First Running Injury...

Ugh... 

So as I mentioned during my post about the Marathon last month halfway through my knee started hurting me. It didn't hinder my performance that much, I did slow up some and had to take some walk breaks towards the end, but still finished around the time I was expecting. After the marathon I took a few days off and then went out for just a 2 mile run about 3 or 4 days later. My knee had been fine the day after the marathon. But during that 2 mile run it started hurting again. I thought huh this is strange. It was sore that day but then the next day was back to normal. The following week I completed my usual workouts and with each one my knee acted up again. So I gave in and took a few days off. After about 4 days I went back out for anther 2 mile run, and again it acted up. So I took a week off started doing some research and it sounded like I had developed runners knee (aka patellofemoral pain syndrome). This can usually result from weak muscles in the quads, hips, hamstrings... So in addition to icing I started some strengthening, stretching and rolling exercises that I had read about. I also looked into getting it checked out. Found a local Chiropractor and made an appointment. After 10+ years of running injury free this has been really tough forcing myself to take some time off. I am also beating myself up for not doing any leg strengthening exercises! Stupid me thought, I'm working those muscles when I run, so I focused on abs and arms during my cross training.... boy do I regret that now! 

So the Dr is pretty sure it is runners knee, but sent me for an xray today just to rule out anything more serious. I am so bummed that I am having to take this break and praying to the exercise/running gods that it isn't anything more serious! He had given me permission to participate in the 5k I had already signed up for this past Saturday. I ran this after a week off of running. My knee was feeling not too bad during the week but as soon as I got out there running on it the pain came right back. 

So here I am really struggling to stay positive. I have several races that I wanted to participate in over the next few months before the awful Florida summer heat hits again. Hoping I will see some improvement after these 3 sessions this week!  

Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend 2017

After 7 months of training the day was finally here. January 8th, 2017 the day I was finally going to run my first marathon. Since I only live an hour away from Disney I was only planning on spending Saturday night there. 

On Wednesday the first day of the expo I headed out to ESPN World Wide of Sports to join thousands of other people to shop and pick up my bib. I hadn't attended a Health & Fitness Expo for Marathon weekend since 2010, and I couldn't believe how many more people were there compared to Princess weekend and Wine & Dine! Lines were wrapped around the Jostens Center and down past the tracks just to get into the Expo! I did manage to actually get everything I went for, so that was a nice surprise. My past expo experiences with the runDisney booth had been a nightmare! It felt like Black Friday x1000 with all the people crammed into that small area all grabbing and reaching and shoving at the same time. This time they had queline and only allowed a certain amount of people in at a time. My mom and son joined me on this trip. After I picked up my bib and commemorative merchandise we headed over to the Beach Club resort for an early dinner at Beaches and Cream Soda Shop.

(Pre-order commemorative tumbler and ornament)

Training for my first marathon

After running a few half marathons I had been entertaining the idea of running a full marathon (I mean it only seemed like the next logical step?) I knew I wanted my first marathon to be at Disney since my first half had been there, so last year I finally pulled the plug and signed up. I chose to just register for the marathon and not any of the challenges. The Goofy challenge is the half and full, and the Dopey challenge is all 4 races (5k, 10k, half & full). I was already intimidated enough by the idea of running 26.2 miles I couldn't add 3 more races on top of that! I know a lot of people do go for all 4 for their first marathon, but I just couldn't do it! 

Unfortunately I did not keep up with my blog to journal about my training journey, so I will try to remember the highlights now. I started my training in June of last year. There are many different marathon training plans out there. The most popular for runDisney is Jeff Galloway. He uses interval based running based on the run walk run method. I have never been an interval runner. I know it works for a lot of people, but after running several half marathons continuously I wasn't sure I wanted to switch. The miles after 13 did make me nervous so I thought well I will take it week by week and if I start struggling when I get into the higher miles maybe I will try out some intervals. I did loosely follow the Galloway schedule. He has you run for 30 minutes twice a week and than run your long run on the weekend. The long run would increase every other week until the end and then it was every 3 weeks. I am also a member of Orange Theory Fitness. OTF is an interval based work out that is a 1 hour high intensity workout that incorporates treadmill work with rowing and weight training all while being monitoring while wearing a heart rate monitor. The workouts goal is to maintain a target heart rate zone that will stimulate your metabolism and increase energy so you will burn calories upto 36 hours post workout. Since the majority of the classes you spend 30 minutes on the treadmill, I used my OTF classes as my cross training days. My schedule was to attend OTF classes twice a week. Run fast 2-4 miles once a week, my long run on the weekend, and I also incorporated some weights and ab work. For the most part I stuck pretty closely to my schedule. I always made sure I hit my long runs, but life does get in the way sometimes.

Max's 5th Birthday Party: Calling all Superheroes!

This past August we celebrated Max's 5th birthday. He had finally moved on from his train obsession to a new one... superheroes! He especially loves the Marvel characters, with iron man being his favorite. But I decided to incorporate a mix of Marvel and DC comics in the decor along with Superhero word bursts. 

Disney Princess Half Marathon Weekend

Last year when I ran the 10k during Disney's Princess weekend I learned about the Glass Slipper Challenge. During each of runDisney's events they usually offer some sort of challenge that includes running 2 or more races during their race weekend. And if you complete all the races you not only get a medal for the races you ran, but also a medal for the challenge (plus some very sore feet!). The Glass Slipper challenge consists of running the 10k on Saturday morning and then the half marathon on Sunday. Princess weekend usually falls around my birthday and I thought what better way to celebrate my birthday but with a weekend of running with my best friend! After our awful, cold, and rainy first half marathon experience during Wine & Dine 2014, I somehow convinced Chrissy to participate in this challenge with me! 

On Thursday morning I drove up to the Expo in order to guarantee we were able to get some merchandise from the runDisney booth. From my past experiences if you didn't get to the expo on the first day it was slim pickings when it came to runDisney merchandise! I knew it would be busy, but I was shocked at how insane it was! It felt like black friday shopping for runners! It was shoulder to shoulder people jam packed into a small little area trying to scramble and grab what they wanted without trampling everyone else. People were attacking the employees coming out with boxes of the wine glasses! I was able to grab the couple of things I wanted and get out of there before losing an arm! 

The next day was Friday (also my birthday) Chrissy and I headed over to Orlando. I had made several reservations for our meals months ago. Our first stop was lunch at Beaches and Cream at Boardwalk. We had some delicious grilled cheeses followed by much necessary ice cream sundaes!

After lunch we headed over the the Expo to pick up our packets and see what other goodies we could find.

All things pink

This past January I had the honor to host a baby shower for my best friend, Katie. We have been friends since our junior year in high school. We met at my first job in Liverpool, NY at Discovery Zone. She was assigned to teach me the ins and outs of birthday party hosting and how to properly clean a ball pit. We quickly bonded and became inseparable.  (We even dressed alike on occasion!)

Even though we live in different states now she is still one my best friends. Shortly after finding out she was pregnant I asked her if our friend Chrissy and I could throw her a small baby shower down here in Florida. Both of mine and Chrissys moms also live down here and were very close to Katie growing up and wanted to be part of celebrating baby girl M! 

I absolutely loved being able to do this for her. Not to mention I was able to create decorations and a theme using pink! After 4 years of birthday parties for my son it was fun to immerse myself in all things girly! I quickly decided on a theme of pink, gold, silver, and all things sparkly! (My husband says he still finds glitter around!)