Happy New Year! To Resolve or not to Resolve?

I’m both a perfectionist and a realist, with the former being a natural tendency and the latter a learned response to deal with the former.  See, life is a lot easier for the perfectionist when approached with an attitude of “be prepared for the worst and enjoy the delightful surprise if things turn out better than expected.”

As such, I’ve never been much for New Year’s resolutions.  Why make a list of promises that can so easily become derailed, ending in extreme disappointment?  I get why others engage in the annual resolutions, but it’s not my thing.

However…

I find myself considering a few running-specific goals as 2013 rolls to an end.  

Yesterday, I went for a little run and found myself playing a game called Try-To-Ignore-The-iSmoothRun-Voice-Every-Time-She-Says-“Walk”-For-As-Long-As-Possible.  The more walk breaks I ran through, the easier it became and a couple miles in, it hit me: maybe I can someday run an entire 5K without walking.  And if I can do that, maybe I can do 10K.  A half-marathon, maybe?  Maybe.  I smell a 2014 goal.

I’ve also found myself lately kicking my own behind when I blatantly ignore a lifetime of experience and try something new to me because the “experts” say I should.  It almost never works out for me, hence my new blog series on “Breaking the Running Rules.”  So there’s a goal right there – to rely on what I know works for me and tune out the naysayers.

And then there’s Leo, my 11-year-old son.  The kid who got me started with this running stuff in the first place.  The kid who’s been left in my dust as I discovered how much I really enjoy distance training, even as he’s discovered he really doesn’t  enjoy it.  Or does he?  I’m not real sure anymore; these ‘tween years are a challenge.  But I aim to find out just what he enjoys and see if I can’t help him also find the peace and strength physical activity brings to my life.

So there you go – three solid goals for 2014.  All achievable?  I don’t know.  And that’s pretty scary to a perfectionist.  But I’m willing to give it a try.

Wishing you all a Magical 2014!

How about you?  Do you have any running resolutions for 2014?  Let’s hear ‘em!

Breaking the Running Rules #1: “if you want to run more, you have to run more”

If you’re a runner and haven’t heard that idiom yet, I’m guessing you’ve been running under a rock.  Another variation has it that, “if you want to run faster, you have to run faster.”  I’m completely on board with the second variation, but I’m finding that the first is questionable.

The standard beginner’s distance race training plan has a runner add on miles over a number of weeks in preparation for a race, and usually advocates an easy, comfortable pace.  Some plans add miles each week, while others up the ante every other week, but generally speaking, they have you run steadily increasing miles in order to… well, run more miles.

I’ve been following plans like that for the better part of two years now… and I’m ready to shake things up.  Because this runner’s body doesn’t seem to respond well to that approach.

After battling yet another painful and irritating round of overuse issues, this article caught my eye: Can reducing your mileage and relying on short and fast intervals put you on a path to better running?

Back when running was just part of my overall fitness routine, and not something for which I was specifically training, I would generally walk quickly for around 10 minutes, alternate short sprints and shorter, slow recoveries for 5-10 minutes, then walk comfortably for 10-15 minutes to cool down.  Apparently I’d been doing High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) for near-on 15 years, long before it had a commonly-recognized acronym.

Know what happened to my knees/back/hips/ankles/shoulder over that 15 years?  Nothing.  Not a single injury.  In the two years I’ve been piling on miles at a slower, but steadier, pace?  IT Band Syndrome.  Runner’s Knee.  Bursitis.  Piriformis Syndrome.  Hip flexor strain.  Frozen shoulder.  Hmmm…

Given that I only have four weeks left to train for my next race – the WDW Half-Marathon, Jan. 11 – now seems like a good time to start breaking some rules and try a new approach.  Instead of running long and slow on weekdays, I’m aiming for more HIIT-like workouts.  And instead of adding on small amounts of distance over a longer period of time, I’m ramping up quickly: five miles two weeks ago, seven last week, and I’m aiming for nine this weekend, with a cut-back to four next weekend before going back up to eleven the weekend after that.  That will leave me with two weeks/one weekend before the race; I’ll go by feel for that – but I doubt I’ll increase my mileage any further and will probably stick with short and fast.

I’m feeling pretty optimistic about this approach.  If it works, well… I’ll start looking at my next round of training with an eye for breaking the rules again.

Route Review: McGough and Bonner Parks, Largo, FL

I’ve been a visitor of George C. McGough Nature Park for years, and have used its paths for a number of short runs, including the Turtle Trot 5K race held annually to benefit the park.  It’s a lovely area full of old- and new-growth flora and lots and lots of fauna, such as wading birds, woodpeckers, fish, bunnies, squirrels, snakes and, prompting the park’s “Turtle Park” nickname, a healthy population of turtles and tortoises.  Additionally, park volunteers have rescued and rehabilitated a number of wild birds, a few of which, with injuries that prohibit their return to the wild, have become permanent residents of McGough Park and can be viewed in their spacious enclosures.

The John R. Bonner Nature Park is located a few blocks away from McGough Park.  Playing host to a large and diverse number of migratory birds, Bonner Park is part of the Great Florida Birding Trail.  In addition to dense forest sections, the park also provides picnic and playground areas.

Note that these parks reside within one of the most densely populated and developed counties in Florida.  Outside of well-manicured lawns and roadways, it’s hard to find much greenspace where I live.  Even harder to find good trails to run.  So, faced with a 6-mile training run on a hot, sunny day a few weeks ago, I opted to enjoy the shade of the parks and run a route that incorporated both parks and the residential neighborhood between them.

I began in McGough Park, which features paths and trails composed of asphalt, wooden boardwalk, hard-packed dirt, and loose gravel.  

Staff and volunteers do an incredible job of keeping the paths clear and free of litter.  Two pedestrians can comfortably walk/run side-by-side or pass freely on the paths, while the boardwalk sections are a bit tight for more than one person at a time.  

One of the things I love most about this park is the sheer variety of plant life in such a small space.  Starting at the front of the park, I ran amongst tall, old-growth pine and oak trees, which gave way to ground-hugging saw palmettos as I made my way toward the back of the park.  At its far side, McGough ends at the Intracoastal Waterway, which separates the mainland from the barrier islands.  There, on the west side of the boardwalk paths, the landscape changes to mangrove swamp and any number of crabs, fish, and wading birds can be seen swimming or fishing amidst the roots.

Just a few slithery creatures one might encounter at McGough.

Heading back to the park’s entrance, the path turned to asphalt and led me to the parking lot, from which I exited and ran up and down several streets between McGough and Bonner Park.  I learned a few things on those streets: 

1. They are not particularly shaded.  And I did not wear sunscreen.  Oops.
2. We have hills in Coastal Florida.  More accurately, we have a bluff.  And it runs through that neighborhood.  I wasn’t planning to run hills that day.  Oops.  Again.

I knew from my Turtle Trot experiences (the race goes through both parks) that Bonner Park boasts an actual, unpaved, single-track trail that snakes through a small, lush corner of the park.  The Turtle Trot 5K takes place in early May – a typically dry month following a cool to sometimes cold, dry winter.  In mid-October, following an exceptionally rainy summer, that section felt deep, damp and far removed from the congested civilization surrounding it.

Several bridges have been built to cross over small, babbling brooks, but there were places, too, where water trickled freely over knotted roots and rocks that littered the trail.  The landscape inclines and drops steeply through the trees, turning sharply around giant old oaks, and thick ground vegetation had spread out into the trail.  Theoretically, the trail eventually curves around to a second entrance/exit in the park, but when the vines that looked eerily like poison ivy become so thick that they crossed the entire trail, I backtracked my way out to where I’d first entered.

I made my way through a section of well-maintained asphalt paths in Bonner, where I saw a few woodpeckers hard at work, then headed back out through the neighborhood for a final loop through McGough Park.

I absolutely looooved this run.  It was hot and felt entirely too much like summer for, you know, fall… but I’m finding that my favorite runs are in natural settings.  

Trails make V happy.

I’m looking forward to a repeat visit to Bonner and McGough in the future, not least of all because I can end my run with these guys…

The famous McGough turtles.

Meet Matilda, the rescued owl.

And Shay, the Red-Shouldered Hawk.

Disney's Wine & Dine Half Marathon / Jingle Jungle 5K - Race Recap(s)

I know you're all like "Whaaaaat?  V never said she was running those races..."

I didn't.

And, after hearing so many folks rave about the Wine & Dine Half-Marathon, I'm pretty bummed I skipped it.  I "ran" the Jingle Jungle 5K last year - but my experience was hampered a LOT by injury and 'tween antics.

I have a feeling I'll be signing up to run the Wine & Dine next year, though.  Until then, I enjoyed spending this week reading all about the 2013 races, so in the spirit of #FollowFriday, I'll share with you the recaps from some of my favorite Disney-running bloggers!  Enjoy!

Goober Monkey: runDisney Pre-Race Meet-Up, Jingle Jungle 5K and Wine & Dine Half

Margaritas, Miles & The Mouse: Wine & Dine Half

Plus the Magic: Jingle Jungle 5K  (Okay, she hasn’t posted the full Jingle Jungle Review yet… but it’s coming.  And.  She’s a fabulous blogger. So click through anyway, and read some other awesome stuff while you wait…)

Run. Walk. FASTPASS. Repeat.: Wine & Dine Half

Pink Elephant on Parade: Wine & Dine Half

We Run Disney: Jingle Jungle 5K

Mom’s Magical Miles: Wine & Dine Half

15K views! And Fuzzy FastPass+

I don't have anything new and exciting to report about running.  But I do have an exciting announcement about this blog...

It just hit over 15,000 pageviews!  I'm not a numbers gal, and not even the Fuzziest of math will ever help me analyze web data, but 15,000 is a pretty big number for a dinky little blog.  So thanks for reading, sharing and making my Fuzzy world feel warm and, well... fuzzy!

Note: Googling "warm fuzzy" is interesting... in a super creepy way. This was the least creepy image I saw. Shout-out to oopsydaisyblog.com for being fuzzy, not creepy.

And now, I'd like to direct you to my other, non-running-specific blog, for some Fuzzy FastPass+ info.  I'm off to the Mother Ship, Walt Disney World, this weekend and will be trying out the whole Magic Band/ FastPass+ thingy.

www.VsFuzzyWorld.blogspot.com

Change of Plans. Again.

With the Tower of Terror 10-Miler behind me, it’s time to look toward my next race.  Which was supposed to be the Halloween Halfathon on Oct. 27.  It’s not anymore.  The race is still happening… but without me.  

After training hard through the HOT summer for the 10-Miler and dealing with my recent hip problems, I felt beat-up and tired.  Bone-deep exhaustion.  I felt physically ill at the prospect of tackling a half-marathon three weeks out from the 10-Miler.  I knew what I needed most was a rest, for both my body and my mind.  Fortunately, Florida Gulf Beaches Road Races offers a stellar refund/transfer policy and, while I’m a little bummed to miss the Halloween event, I am pleased to say that I’ve transferred my registration to the Beach Halfathon in late March.  A mere four weeks after the Glass Slipper Challenge and its cumulative 19.3 miles.  Whatever; I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.

So now my next race is the Walt Disney World Half-Marathon in early January.  That little change gave me a few weeks to scale back mileage and recover from the summer.

And…

To develop a new training plan.

Yep, another one.

My last plan was entirely too ambitious for the summer heat and got scrapped a while ago.  Add in my change of race plans, and the rest needed some tweaking, too.  Also, I listened to an awesome Another Mother Runner podcast interview with Greg McMillan, in which he explained the ins and outs of his training approach.  What really struck me was the conversation about how important the need is for slower-paced runs in one’s training program.  That’s something to which I’ve never before subscribed, other than when hobbled by impending heat stroke; on the contrary, I’ve spent the past year and a half thinking every run needed to be run at the fastest pace I had in me in order to get faster.  Well Mr. McMillan?  You talked some serious sense into this lady.

I spent some quality time on www.mcmillanrunning.com, where I first used McMillan’s world-famous calculator to find my best training paces.  It works like this: enter your best time at a certain distance, preferably a distance as close as possible to the distance for which you wish to train, and then enter the distance you plan to race and the time in which you hope to finish it.  I entered my last 10K finish time of 1:16:23 and a hopeful 2:31:12 finish for the upcoming WDW Half, identified myself as a “Speedster” (easily able to go short and fast, but challenged by endurance) and got this list:

Pretty nifty, no?!  But… what do I do with it???

First, each type of pace – Steady State, Long Run, Tempo, etc. – has a video explanation here: www.mcmillanrunning.com/tips.  I took a few notes on each, to have as a handy reference when my mom-brain stalls next week and I can’t remember what in tarnation heck I’m supposed to do with "Tempo Intervals."  Then, I moved on to McMillan’s detailed explanation on how to create a training plan.

Okay, let me say this: it’s intense.  And complicated.  And riddled with ~shudder~ math.  Of the non-Fuzzy variety.  But as I read on (and glossed over the math, as I realized it wasn’t really imperative that I understand the numbers, only that I trust them to work), things started sliding into place in my mind. 

1. Figure out my weakness – stamina, for sure.  And make strengthening that the core of my training plan. 
2. Add in some speed because A. that’s my area of some talent and B. increasing speed can only be beneficial in the long run.
3. Figure out how many weeks I have until race day and create a spread sheet listing each week; include columns for long runs, main workout short runs, secondary short runs, and, for the Glass Slipper Challenge, back-to-back runs later in my schedule.
4. Assign each week’s training runs, based on a couple weeks of base-building, a larger portion of stamina-building weeks, a small chunk of speed-building weeks, and a couple weeks to taper.

At the end, BOOM!  I’ve got a plan that looks very do-able, is very specific to my individual needs, will fit in nicely with my cross-training days, and just may lead me to a nice PR.

McMillan also offers training plans for purchase, which I imagine takes out a lot of the work, and I’ve heard very, very good things about those paid plans… but I’m broke. And I really think my customized plan will be good for me.  I started using it already and I can’t say enough good things about knowing what pace range I’m aiming for before each run, depending on what type of run it is.  Knowing that an expert says to aim for a certain pace removes from the equation the mental anxiety of worrying that I'm not doing enough.

Last Saturday, for instance, was a 6 mile long run; I checked my chart before heading out and knew I should aim for a pace between 13:17 and 14:17/mile.  It was hot and humid, so I aimed to hit the slow end of that range… and I did!  Before, I’d have tried hard to push my pace down to where I hope to race in January, and would have spent those 6 miles courting heat exhaustion.  This time, I felt like I was putting in some effort, but comfortably so; no gasping for breath, no muscle cramping, no dizziness.  It was a tough run, thanks to some overgrown trails and scorching sun, but I recovered from it quickly and was able to spend the rest of my day getting non-running things done and enjoying some quality time with my son.  This new methodology may make me a better distance runner… and a better Mother runner!

Tower of Terror 10-Miler Recap, Part Three

To conclude this very log-winded race recap, I want to offer my thoughts about the race from a personal perspective, as well as a list of pros and cons that may help others considering a future Twilight Zone Tower ofTerror 10-Miler race.

If you read my recap and its follow-up from the 2012 Tower 10-Miler, you know that the 2013 race carried a lot of emotional baggage, through no real fault of its own.  I wanted redemption this year, and I wanted it badly.  So, did I get it?

Yes!  Kind of.  My fantasy goal was to run this in two hours or less, but I knew with a bum hip that was highly unlikely.  My wish goal was to run it in less than two hours, fifteen minutes.  I didn’t quite make that, officially… but Disney’s timing chip and my Garmin have different ideas of how much time it took me to finish the race: my Garmin reported 2:14:48. That’s despite turning it on just before crossing the Start line, and turning it off at least 30 seconds after crossing the Finish.  So, while my official time may say otherwise, I know that I did, in fact, make my wish goal.  And I beat my base goal of sub-2:30:00 in any case.  So redemption?  Yeah, baybee!

I've had my eye on a Hollywood Tower Hotel bell for years - I got one for my work desk
to celebrate this year's race finish!

I’m so glad I opted to run this race again.  In addition to feeling like I got a second chance at running it more like I know I can, I also got a first-hand look at the changes runDisney implemented after receiving feedback last year.  More on that below, but they got an awful lot very, very RIGHT this year.  I absolutely recommend this race going forward!

That said, I have no plans to run it again next year.  I think the race itself was great, but the late start combined with my pre-race anxiety and early-to-rise schedule, plus my body’s total breakdown in the face of too little sleep, is a bad mix for me.  I don’t love the super-early start races, either, but I can at least take a nap after those and recover pretty quickly.  I also don’t want to train hard through another Florida summer.  I’m convinced that the heat takes a major toll on my body and makes me more susceptible to injury.  I look forward to scaling back both the distance and intensity next summer to give my body the break it deserves.

But for those thinking of running the 2014 Tower 10-Miler, here are my Best and Worst parts of the race this year...

Best

• Photo opps: Disney listened and added a TON of photo stops to the course.  I don't stop for character photos in the parks, let alone in a race, but I was glad to see they stepped it up, anyway.  
• New corral system: Breaking up the field into more, smaller corrals really seemed to help with course congestion.  Nancy and Peter reported that they had ample room to run without much weaving in corral D.  Starting from G, I encountered some congestion, but less than last year, and MUCH less than I found starting in C for the Princess Half-Marathon this year.
• Bag check: As with last year, dropping off my bag pre-race was quick and easy.  Unlike last year, picking it up was also a breeze this year!  Instead of going through the park and then down and back up entirely too many stairs at the Indiana Jones amphitheater, this year we passed through a backstage finish chute right into the amphitheater's floor, where a super-efficient crew retrieved our bags.  Brilliant!
• Post-race snack box:  Okay, I'm still not a fan of the box format, but this year?  The boxes had HANDLES!!  Much easier to hang on to, along with water, a banana, a medal, etc., as we made our way through the finish chute.

Worst

• New corral system: Yeah, I just listed this as a best, and it was... but Disney let me down by not having porta-potties in every corral, as they did last year.  I guess they really couldn't make them smaller and keep banks of potties in each, but it was a really nice feature and I was bummed to see it gone.  
• Weather: This is beyond Disney's control, unless they change the time of year they hold this race.  But it was still a negative to me.  The weather just changed down here in FL - finally! - and I'm getting a taste of what 5-10 degrees cooler plus lower humidity does for my running experience... it's nice.  Really, really nice.  I never want to run in TOT 10-Miler conditions again.
• Gear bag:  Disney cheaped out on gear bags this year.  They look the same - clear plastic with a nylon drawstring - but they were nowhere near as sturdy.  Peter's tore almost immediately after he got it.  Nancy's not long after.  Mine survived the race, but tore all down the side as I walked away from bag pick-up.  Fortunately, I had all of my things inside a backpack, inside the gear bag, so I just tossed the gear bag and carried on.  But it would suck to lose all of your stuff if it was loose in there.
• Loudness: I think this is probably just my hang-up.  But the sound level of pre-race festivities did a number on me; I was battling a fierce headache by the time the race started.

I think my "bests" far outweigh my "worsts," even if I have no interest in running this one again.  Angry Running Mickey agrees.  If you ran it, what was your Best and Worst?