mattn792's Journal

Well unfortunately I missed out on my usual Friday yogurt session and today’s training run, for a reason I’d have never even considered until I was hideously ill…food poisoning.  Struck Thursday night after a prominent chicken lunch.  Short duration, hard hitting.  I’ve had a previous bout or three in my life, but this one was easily the worst.  The stomach was bad, but when I say everything hurt, I mean EVERYTHING hurt.  And the fatigue was such that I could barely even lift the baby, had to call in grandma to fill in because I was useless.

Luckily I’m pretty much back to normal today, but I gave my body one more day to recoup before getting back at it tomorrow.  This weekend was supposed to be roughly 5/12, so tomorrow I’m just planning to go and see what I can accomplish.  If I make 12, then yay!

I had to skip today, unfortunately still dealing with bouts of light headedness.  

I think 2-4-6 will be the plan over the next three days.  I feel like I should aim for longer distances, but as my pretty half / consigliere reminds me, don't increase by too much from week to week.  So especially with this week's shortfall in mind, I should probably keep this coming week to 24 miles, max. 

I edited 2-4-6 to 4 today, 4 tomorrow, 4 Saturday, and hopefully 12 Sunday.  Today went awesome with the energizer husky, but she’s now on holiday at her vacation home, so we’ll see what tomorrow brings.

I let the baby plan our route on Wednesday.  4 miles uphill, straight into an icy headwind, or at least that’s how it felt.  

We did a family 4 today, and baby definitely did not get a say in our route 

This was actually the first time we’ve been able to run together in quite some time as our respective training plans are finally overlapping again.  But it’s in the 30s these next several days, so we can’t take the baby for tomorrow’s 12 miler.

And it’s not only cold, but the air is stupid dry right now.  Wish it was still in the high 60s…

Today’s splits:

 

 

Today was supposed to be in the low 30s with snow for an hour or so in the AM.  It instead snowed for about 9 hours.  Not a huge amount of accumulation, but I’m not training for conditions like this, so onto the treadmill I went!  Got in 11, solely because the gym was closing before I could make 12:

Salt tablets were a huge boost today, no 8 mile boogeyman!

Yesterday was 5 on the treadmill as it was still icy out.  Temps hit 50 today and melted everything, so with low to mid 40s forecast through the weekend, we plan on doing a practice Goofy Challenge.  That’s the first three legs of the Dopey - 5k, 10k, 1/2er.

The distances fit perfectly in our training schedule, so we’ll see how this all shakes out. Hoping to hit my goal times for all three, and I feel good about that happening.

First two legs are in the books and went very well, load management plan seems totally workable too.

I’ll post the full results for all three legs after tomorrow, but I found myself dwelling today - I’m going to do a half marathon tomorrow.  For practice.  This isn’t the pinnacle event.  Yow.

Practice Goofy complete, all time goals met!  

5k goal - 37:30

10k goal - 1:15:00

Half Marathon goal - 2:30:00

Not sure why Strava didn’t show the total time, but it was 2:26:23.

No sign of the 8 mile boogeyman today, and my foot held up real well throughout these three days.  Real happy with how things are trending.  

For those wondering, “load management” means I walked a significant portion of the end of each, roughly 0.5 to 1.1 miles, depending on the race distance.  It definitely helped me stay that much fresher from day to day.  There will be no load management for the monster though.  Come game day, it’s all hands on deck for day 4.

Edited December 4, 2023 by mattn792

Next day, feeling pretty good.  Foot is a touch sore on and off, but I could definitely get back out there.  And getting an idea of how I’ll feel on day 4 was much more important than hitting my time goals during the practice run.

These last two days have each presented their own challenges.  Yesterday I felt good but got on the treadmill and immediately did not want to be there, turning in an ugly 4 miles, while today I did not want to run at all, yet me and the energizer husky went out and turned in a 30 minute 5k.  I wanted to take advantage of tomorrow's weather to try and sneak in my 16 or so miles, but that probably won't happen because I have to put in a half day of work and get my new car registered.  Hopefully I can at least do a few, but...it looks like another high in the mid-30s on Sunday kinda long run again.  

Well to start off today’s post, I want to announce that the charity thread will kick off tomorrow morning and run through the night of January 1.  I wanted to launch it tonight, but…

I put in my final long distance training run today.  15 miles, and boy did I feel it by the end.  And while I’m comfortable journaling from the recliner, I need to be at my pc to properly attend to the charity thread.

Last night was not a righteous preparation for today as my parents had their annual Christmas party, with party food and party beer.  Despite the improper prep, I still nailed the time goals for the first three races, but that back half of the marathon is going to be dicey, no matter how ready I am from a dietary standpoint.  So the 5 hour goal time might be optimistic.  But we’ll see when game day comes!

I’ll probably do another journal update or three, but I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has tuned in, and I hope you’ll all visit the charity thread and consider putting in a few bucks!

About 24 hours after I kicked off yesterday’s odyssey, I’m really impressed at how good my body feels, including my right foot.  I could definitely get at it today, which again bodes well for day 4!

We are checked in and ready to get to it!  Got our bibs, six souvenir shirts,  and purchased a couple other small items from the expo.  I feel about as good as can be with all the training ups and downs and am ready to get started tomorrow morning.  

If you’re reading this and interested in using my results to make a contribution toward @jimjum12’s fundraiser, please click over to the thread in G/S/B (specifics from me are on page 4):

 

Edited January 3 by mattn792

Day 1 (5k) is in the books, unofficial time 33:44.  Didn’t end up doing any walking, there was enough congestion at certain points to keep my pace nice and comfortable.  Feeling fantastic so far 

 

Day 2 (10k) is wrapped up.  A little slower paced today as we ran together until the Cinderella photo line, where my prettier half broke off.  Also did some strategic walking and took a few more park photos.  Unofficial time 1:13:45.

 

Being totally transparent, odds are I’m going to bag my official marathon time in favor of taking in the full experience of the marathon day.  Photo ops, food, drinks, whatever, as Disney intends marathon weekend to be.  I know I would leave Florida with regrets if I didn’t do that at least once on this trip, and for the half marathon I really want to use it to hopefully erase the ghost of Nashville.  

So tomorrow is going to go as originally planned, and hopefully my official time will meet my goal.

For Sunday, in terms of measuring up to my time goal for the fundraiser, I’ll use my moving time as calculated by Strava rather than the official time.