I have embarked on a bit of a crazy quest to run the Dopey Challenge in 2020. It’s in Walt Disney World in January 2020 and takes place over 4 consecutive days of a 5k, 10k, half marathon, and full marathon. I’m trying to document my training weekly to help keep me on track! I am following the Jeff Galloway training plan.
Even though I haven’t always been posting my training updates on the blog, I’ve definitely still be running. And now the Dopey Challenge is basically here! The first of the 4 races is on Thursday, so this is it. This is what I’ve trained for. Let’s take a look back at the past few weeks:
Week 24
This was my first week back after our trip to Disney in December, so back to the old daily grind. I joined my Tuesday night running group for one of the 45 minute runs and felt really good, going along at a good pace. On Thursday I had to work an evening shift so I ended up going to the gym in the morning and just running on the treadmill. For the longer Sunday run I went to a Sunday morning group I don’t usually join because I am not a morning person. I was just not feeling it all weekend and avoided running Saturday, so I knew if I told myself I’d join the group I’d actually do it. And while it wasn’t my best, I did get it done.
Week 25
This was my last week of really long training runs. I was planning to do 4 days of back to back running to mimic the Dopey Challenge. I intentionally did not plan to run the 26 miles and “only” do 22. So I started off with 2.5 on Wednesday at a slow and easy pace. Thursday night was my running group (we did a holiday group run where we all dressed up as Christmas movie characters – I was Buddy the Elf!). I did 5 miles that night. Friday morning was 11 miles on the treadmill. Saturday morning I got out there and did my 22 miles. I was definitely starting to feel some pain towards the end, particularly in my back, but it was at least a little better than the last long run (and my pace was actually better for the 22 miles than the last 20 mile run!).
Week 26
This is a crazy time of year for running because it’s also the holidays! Still, I got in 3 runs this week. I only did 2 miles on the 22nd because I had just done the 22 the day before… and as you can see it was a bit of a slow pace 😉 That’s because our Sunday morning run group did a scavenger hunt! So there was a lot of stop and go. Thursday I was back with beer runners for a 45 minute run that felt pretty good. Saturday I headed out to do 6 and had a bad pain in my back. I think I pulled a muscle or something because it was bad enough I needed to stop, but a few days later I felt back to normal.
Week 27
The last week of training! I did my two weekday runs, and felt pretty great on Thursday! On Saturday I got out and did 7 miles with a friend and it felt a little rough, so I know I need to take it easy and just recover. I’ve done the training, so I should be ready for this.
This is it. The first of my 4 races is in TWO DAYS. I get on a plane tomorrow for this trip. My anxiety is definitely starting up but I’m trying to stay positive and try to enjoy it. Wish me luck!
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