The past couple of weeks have been the worst of the worst as far as running in the summer in Las Vegas is concerned, in my opinion. With pre-dawn temperatures hovering in the high 80′s to low 90′s there is no escape from the heat, even when there is no sun. To make matters worse (for me, personally) I’ve had to run without a running partner for the last week. Dary just re-joined me over the weekend, but last week I had to hit the pavement alone, something I haven’t done since I was in my 20′s (the 90′s). I don’t mind running alone in theory; it just gets a little creepy out on the trail before sunrise when I’m certain that every shadow is really a prowler ready to attack. My logical mind insists that even a thief would have to reason that anyone out at 5:00 a.m. running probably doesn’t have much to steal from except maybe a cell phone (and who really cares about that), making that effort a hot, annoying and unprofitable venture. But what about the creeps up to no good? Again, 5:00 a.m. is pretty early, right? See, this is the debate that rages on in my mind as I’m scooting down the trail toward the park, grateful to see all the early morning dog walkers (they’re not up to no good, right) as I zip around the park. Needless to say, I’ve posted some of my quickest times yet this week, running alone, if only to get it over with sooner.

Dary re-joined me just in time for our Sunday long run. Although we have gotten quite comfortable with a 10 mile run, the heat is really unbearable. You just cannot run fast when it’s over 90, and once the sun rises, it’s just painful. So long sub-1:40, hello 1:50+. But it’s still a great feeling to reach the end and feel like you’ve gotten 10 miles in and the entire day is still left for you’re enjoyment! Right after that long nap in the cool A/C!

This week we are back on our running schedule for the most part. Last Sunday our long run was only 8 miles (it has been 10 miles since January), and we walked the better part of the last 2 miles due to my coughing and hacking up a bunch of leftover blech from being sick last week. Yesterday we went out on our normal 3 mile “easy” run and completed that in 30:01 which, honestly, I was pleased to see. I was beginning to wonder if my legs remembered how to run; turns out they do (although one day later I am sore, which I haven’t been in a long long time). But that was my legs. I distinctly remember being on the trail in the middle of the run, trying to remember why I run in the first place. Usually, even the easy 3 milers are a great time for me to loosen up mentally, meditate on the day, on life, enjoy the peace and quiet of the early morning and the time with my husband. Yesterday it was all huff, puff, cough and hack. And I hated it. If running always felt this way there’s no way I would continue, so I really had to remind myself that I do love to run, that it doesn’t usually suck this bad. That typically I arrive home feeling energized (I arrived home doubled over, coughing up more blech). I’ll keep trying, and hope that I find my way back.

 

We're not in Vegas anymore...

Prologue

 

It’s strange for me to call our vacation a “chill” vacation, given I lost 10 lbs of sweat per day in the heat and humidity of Florida in June/July, but by “chill” I mean I really had one goal in mind for this vacation: to relax, to “chill.” I’ve been very bad at this in the past; my role as Vacation Planner means I spend lots of time researching, planning, filling out the “Master Planning” vacation spreadsheet (Thanks Will!), and making sure each space of that spreadsheet is filled with an activity, dining reservation, whatever.

This year I did a spreadsheet; but like the Pirate Code it was more of a guideline than actual law. And I’m happy to report, it worked well for the most part; at least, it allowed me lots and lots of downtime. So, without further delay, onto my trip report! (It will be in three parts.)

Part I: June 17, 5:31 p.m.: My vacation begins.

We didn’t actually leave Vegas until June 19 at 6:30 p.m. But I am certain that having those two extra days at home to get ready really made a world of difference in my overall enjoyment of our vacation. I was packed, all the laundry was done (I mean ALL of it); dogs were dropped off, car was washed, hair was cut, got to have lunch with best friend, ran 10 miles, cleaned bathrooms, etc., and I didn’t feel rushed at all! Lesson One: I will always try to have at least a full day at home before future vacations!

June 20, 6:00 a.m.: We arrive in Orlando!!

Red eyes are rough! But with five of us flying we saved enough money to stay at WDW for the two days before the cruise and still pay less than flying during the day. We stayed at Port Orleans Riverside, our first time at a WDW moderate, and we really fell in love with this resort! We arrived at the resort around 7:00 a.m. and were extremely lucky enough to have a room ready for us (check in was at 3:00 p.m.). So we dropped off our bags and headed to breakfast; the excitement of being at WDW was still providing some energy despite just a few hours of sleep on the plane.

Dary was looking a little tired at breakfast, but Corey was still wide-eyed!

Breakfast at the Riverside Mill Food Court was very enjoyable; it wasn’t crowded at all at that early hour, and the breakfast stations provided many choices–I highly recommend the omelet station! After breakfast we checked out the pool at Ol’ Man Island. we definitely wanted to take a swim later, but we decided to head back to our room in Alligator Bayou to figure out what to do. By now it was around 8:30 a.m.; we laid down for what I thought would be a half hour nap, but didn’t wake up until noon! Guess we were more tired than we thought! We hit the pool, the kids played bingo, splashed around, and enjoyed the slide, but after about an hour it started raining! Oh well…we went back to the room to get cleaned up and get some dinner. It was Father’s Day, so we wanted to have a nice dinner (no fast food). We also had a car, a first for us at WDW, so we decided to wander out of the bubble (another first) and had dinner at Pizzeria Uno (I’ve been to the original in Chicago!!). After dinner what else? Of course we had to go to a park!

Mission Space! Orange team only! Green Team is for babies! ...and Dary!

I was so happy when the kids chose EPCOT: my favorite! It was 6:00 p.m. by now, and FutureWorld would close soon, so we only did a couple of rides: Spaceship Earth and Mission: Space (Orange Team for me)! We got back to our resort and was sound asleep by 9:00 p.m. Didn’t take long to adjust to that time zone!

I'm careful not to mention it's really 3:00 a.m. back home right now.

June 21, 5:30 a.m.: Really, we’re gonna run on vacation?

Dar and I are signed up to run the Disneyland Half Marathon in September. And I have this fantasy of breaking 2:10 (shooting for the moon)! So I wanted to make sure we did at least a little running while on vacation. Now, trying not to think about the fact that 5:30 a.m. in Orlando is the same as 2:30 a.m. in Nevada (yikes) we rolled out of bed and hit the Riverside trail right before sunrise. There is a trail at Port Orleans that, between Riverside and French Quarter sums up to around 1.7 miles. That was all I was asking of Dary. And yes, it was warm and steamy, even at that hour. But it must be said, Port Orleans Riverside is such a beautiful resort, so green, with these huge, lazy trees and a trail along the Sassagoula River, that even as we were running, I felt so at ease. Our pace was very, very relaxed as we wound around the resort, down to French Quarter, and back to Riverside. Once back to our turn off at Alligator Bayou we doubled back to the the food court to get some cappuccino (and another omelet for me….yummy!), then returned to the room to wake up the kids, get them fed and head over to Typhoon Lagoon.

Hanging out in the shade

Ah, water parks. Historically, not my favorite way to spend a day, for a myriad of reasons (crowds, hot cement, slides that cause wedgies, overpriced food, dehydration, sun burn, etc). But there is just something about Typhoon Lagoon that really clicks with me. Now, all of those factors I mention definitely come into play at Typhoon Lagoon, but the tropical feel of the park, the very cool “snorkeling with the sharks” attraction Shark Reef, their long and winding lazy river, and the general layout of the park really works for me. The kids loved the wave pool, and we all dug Crush-n-Gusher. I, myself, took a few rides around the lazy river while the kids were playing in the waves. Shark Reef also provided an opportunity for Corey to practice his snorkeling (and for me and Dar to determine if we would bring him on our snorkeling excursion in Nassau in a few days).

Our first full day on vacation...already feeling nice and relaxed!

We said we’d stay until it rained. We figured it would rain around 1 p.m., like the day before. By 4 p.m., there was still no rain, but we were thorough baked and wanted to get to sleep early since we’d be driving to Port Canaveral the next morning, so we left, got cleaned up, had an interesting dinner at Fuddruckers (interesting meat choices), and again, got to sleep around 9:30 p.m.

Next…we return to the Disney Wonder after 2 long years!

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The Pre-5k briefing on Castaway Cay

…I am super-bummed. We just returned from an amazing vacation, amazing because, in addition to all the fabulous places we went, things we did, people we met, we also managed to keep running. RUNNING! On vacation! We ran at Port Orleans Riverside in the wee hours of the morning. We ran circles around the deck four of the Magnificent Disney Wonder! We ran a 5k on a private, tropical island nestled in the Caribbean! We ran to Magic Kingdom, around the Contemporary. We were running fools!

And then I got sick. I felt the burning in my throat around 4 a.m. last Thursday; I remember, because it woke me up and prompted me to drink an Emergen-C and gargle some warm salt water. Then we went for a super-quick run. And then I…ran…down.  Long story short, it was (and still is) one of the worst colds I’ve had in a long time; it seems unfair that while I jammed vitamins down my throat morning and night, ate my veggies every day on vacation, exercised, washed my hands to “Happy Birthday” every hour, etc., I got this horrible, terrible, nasty cold while my 7-year-old who touched every inch of the Disney Wonder and Walt Disney World, swam in every pool, failed to wash his hands even when it was disgustingly obvious that he should, and ate processed chicken every single day is perfectly healthy, save for about one hour of sniffing last Friday. Grr. I guess I underestimate the healing power of a thousand chicken nuggets.

And so I have not run for five days now. Tomorrow will be six. In fact, I probably won’t run again until Friday. I am falling apart at the thought. With a half-marathon 9 weeks away, it feels like a recipe for injury. So much for PRs, I guess I’ll have to be, once again, just “happy to finish.” Sigh.

When I run, I’m often thinking about these three things; what my time will be, what pace I’m running, and how fast I’m getting there. But I was thinking about how time, pace and speed apply to (my) life in general. Feels like time is flying by, the older I get. Because of this, I find myself longing for a much slower change of pace, yet I find myself speeding through the day to get everything done. And I never ever do; I cannot remember a day when I reached bedtime and felt that I got everything that I wanted to accomplished, or better yet, got everything I NEEDED to do done.

I don’t know how to solve this. I think that the main problem is that my life is full of clutter, and I would point a big fat finger at my computer as a major culprit. I spend way, way too much time on my computer at home; I spend 9.5 hours a day at work on a computer, then I come home and try to get things done (checking bank balances, reading email, completing any tasks that I can online like paying for school lunches, school fees, checking school calendars for upcoming events, etc.). And that’s fine; but while I’m here, I’m 100% prone to wandering off into surf-land; checking in with Facebook (although I have made a concentrated effort to stay away and am just around the corner from deleting my account altogether), reading through the posts of online communities focused on my interests (Disney and Running); getting sidetracked by news and entertainment sites. Almost every evening, 5 minutes of bonafide computer “need” time turns into 2 hours of mindless online crap. Honestly, it’s amazing that I find the time to run.

So my goal that begins after I publish this post (hey now, my blog is a need, I am an aspiring writer and it gives me the creative outlet I need while helping me hone my skills). I must step away from the keyboard. And do ANYTHING else. Play a game with the kids. Work on our horrible back yard (oh yeah). Read. Here’s an idea: go have some FUN doing something SILLY. Perhaps visit with a friend “in-person.” Woohoo, I’m getting wild now!

Oh, and of course, go for a run. Never miss the run!!

Actually, I didn’t know what to call this post. It’s Sunday, we ran 12 miles this morning, I felt GREAT afterward, not drained, full of energy, no injuries, no dehydration. Yes, my legs are definitely tired, but it’s a good tired. After our long runs I’ll hop over to my laptop to upload my Garmin info and since that sometimes takes a minute, I’ll do a little surfing. Today I stumbled across a running article on Active.com about training for people of different ages. I’ll cut to the chase; the article defined three distinct “stages” of running in terms of age. According to the article I was in stage three (“somewhere between the ages 40 and 45…”). I was agreeing with most of the article, especially the idea of making sure my mileage was “quality” mileage and not just throw-away or “junk” miles. We definitely only run what we need to run to maintain our current fitness, which is 4 days per week: 10 long-run, 3 easy (recovery from long run), 3 speedwork, and 4 tempo. That’s 20 miles per week, we are always half-marathon ready, and it just plain feels good. But then the writer started talking about how us “Masters” are beyond the point of setting PR’s. WTF? Uh, excuse me? I better be able to still make gains because I am freakin’ slow right now! This time last year (still a “Master) I couldn’t run 10 miles under 2 hours; today we ran 12 in 2:07 (11 miles UNDER 2 hours). That’s a gain. I also have a dream of someday qualifying for Boston, which means I MUST increase my speed. I’m willing to put in the work, the mileage, and the TIME. If it takes me 2 or 3 years to slice 30 seconds per mile off my speed, that’s fine with me. But telling me that at (sigh) 43 years old I’m beyond setting a PR? What a bunch of CRAP! I would suspect the author of the article, Matt Fitzgerald, is not quite a Master right now. Let me tell you something Mr. Fitzgerald, you’ll be singing a different song on the other side of 40, I promise you. Perhaps Mr. Fitzgerald should get to know Dean Karnazes, my age 48 ultra-hero. Ugh, it’s not worth carrying on about this. I just cannot stand people who put limits on other people’s abilities.

I’m happy to report that I’m finally feeling back to normal after my bout with the flu last week. I did 8 miles this past Sunday (very slow), followed by an easy 3 on Tuesday and then a quicker 3 yesterday. Actually, Thursday is usually our speedwork day and I like to change things up on Thursdays by alternating hills with intervals and even some bleachers. We were in no mood for hill repeats yesterday, though, so I set my Garmin to chime every minute, and we switched between an easy pace and a quick (not full-out) pace and I was very pleased with how I felt at the end.

Now the only thing that really concerns me is my stupid shoulder. A few weeks ago I found out that I have two partial tears in my left shoulder. The pain has been getting progressively worse over the last year, with my sleep being most affected (I sleep on my left and the problem is my left shoulder). If I am standing or (thankfully) running I really don’t have any problem at all, but my range of motion is way, way limited and if I reach in certain directions the pain takes my breath away. After weeks of physical therapy with my chiropractor he ordered an MRI which is how the two tears were found. So after our vacation I’m headed to an orthopedic. If I have to have surgery, then I want to get it over with, but not until after the Disneyland Half Marathon (which I have high hopes of breaking 2:10 in). Unfortunately, I was hoping to run the Seattle Marathon in November but I’m not certain how long I’ll have to “not run” after a shoulder procedure, whatever it ends up being. So…I’m really hungry for another marathon, want to break 5:00 so bad! But it might have to wait.

Nevertheless, great to be “up and running” again!

…is the worst! Well, it’s not the worst. Having the flu, with symptoms so bad I can barely walk from my bed to my bathroom, THAT is the worst. And that’s how I spent the better part of two days this week, shuttling back and forth between my bed and my bathroom. No details will be provided about those trips, but suffice to say I cannot remember the last time I felt so bad; I even missed two days of work due to the flu, and that NEVER happens.

So I haven’t run since last Sunday; today is Friday. Yesterday when I returned to work thinking I was feeling better, it made my head spin to walk more than 20 or 30 feet, so talking my usual lunch-break walk was out. This morning I toyed with the idea of trying to run for about 20 seconds. I hate this! I am hoping that tomorrow Dar will oblige me a very slow jog (with lots of walk breaks) but this Sunday I’m thinking there’s no way we can do 10. Maybe 8 if I’m lucky. On the one hand it’s okay because I was wanting to change our training up so that we alternate a longer long run (12 miles) with a shorter long run (8 miles) every other Sunday. So looks like this Sunday is the 8 miler, next will be the 12. But I think it’s gonna be a damn long 8 mile run…

The last two weeks of running have been all out of whack. Last weekend we didn’t run at all; we participated in a scavenger hunt at Disneyland and decided to let the running around we did for that substitute for our normal 10-mile long run. Then we got back and did an easy 3 last Tuesday, and bleachers on Thursday.  Dar said the time off helped; I guess it did. I don’t like to miss a run, but I know that from time to time it is a good idea to let the legs rest. I’d been having some strange pressure in my left heel, but thankfully that is gone, along with my “almost, sort-of, but not quite” shin splints.

So yesterday we did our normal Saturday 4-miler; normal meaning I tell Dar we need to take it easy, and we end up running too fast. Then yesterday, after treating my family to Star Wars in Concert (which was AWESOME by the way) I came home and felt like I was burning up. My youngest son, trooper that he is, had what appeared to be the stomach flu and spent the better part of the pre-concert and intermission time in the bathroom (he didn’t miss a blink of the show though, devoted little trooper)!

Yes, I love Running and Disney, but I was a Star Wars fan before any of that!

So we hit the sack very early; I was in bed by 7:30 p.m. and out within the hour, feeling like it was not likely that I would run in the morning. When I woke up, just after 5 a.m., I definitely felt better, but could tell that darn fever was still there. I didn’t want to miss another long run so I checked with Dar, who was also feeling crappy, and he agreed to give it a go.

Well, to be perfectly honest, about every other minute of the first 3 miles I was ready to stop and walk home. I’m glad I stuck it out though; at the 5 mile turnaround I suddenly felt much, much better. We ended up finishing in 1:42:01, which was, I felt, pretty darn good considering how horrible I felt. I’m still not certain how intelligent it is to go out and run with a fever (I didn’t take make temperature so I don’t know just how bad I was).