I'm going to Disney World!

I keep saying that as if I just won the Super Bowl.

As I've mentioned a few a million times already - Donny and I are leaving for Disney World this weekend!

My husband and I really enjoy traveling. We went to Brazil on a missions trip before we were dating. *Funny/cute story actually - I've been crazy about Donny since Jr. High, but it took him a little longer to come around.  But while we were in Brazil, we were both assigned the "shovel piles of rocks for hours on end" station (totally the Lord's doing, by the way). And it was during that time of shoveling, shoveling and more shoveling that he says he really fell in love with me.... sigh... :)* -end side note.

Brazil - 2009

But we've also been to Hawaii (for our honeymoon), Toronto (for the Hockey Hall of Fame) and Niagara Falls, Italy (another missions trip) and Jamaica!

Honeymoon in Hawaii - at the top of Diamond Head

 

 

Since we both have so many places we want to go, we've decided to take turns with who gets to plan that year's trip.  So this year is Donny's turn and he's fulfilling a childhood dream.

He was a big fan of all things Disney as a kid.  When Donny was 11, he and his friend Matt took tickets from his parents' bedroom, packed snacks and actually started riding their bikes to Disneyland in Anaheim before giving up on the plan (they lived 30 miles away from the park). His favorite episodes of the TGIF lineup were when they took trips to Disney World (Step by Step, Boy Meets World, Full House, etc.) and he even called in for the free Disney World vacation planning video. In 1993, when he heard that Disney was starting a hockey team based on his beloved movie, The Mighty Ducks, he decided that the Ducks would be his hockey team, and he was their biggest fan before they even played their first game - true story (granted, he was only 8).

So that brings us to today, he's still a big Disney fan (and probably, an even bigger Ducks fans) and we're combining both of those loves!

He wishes this were his car

Not only are we going to Disney World, but we're stay at the All-Star Disney Movie Resort in our specially requested Mighty Ducks Building!

They have a hockey rink swimming pool

and rooms with Mighty Ducks comforters and movie posters

Basically, a dream come true.

I went to Disney World with my grandparents when I was in 7th grade so I'm excited to go again and share it with Donny, and probably appreciate it much more.  And we're both just really looking forward to a break.

The Disney World website has a whole page dedicated to the running paths around the property so I'm kind of curious to try to some of them out. I'm not planning on doing any serious running though.

We're giving each of the 4 parks a full day, and are planning to have a day off in the middle to recover.

We've had Disneyland annual passes off and on for the past 5 or 6 years, so we know most of the ins-and-outs of our park - so I'm excited for the new-to-us-ness that Disney World will bring!

Anyone have any suggestions of must-dos? Things we shouldn't miss? Things that aren't worth the time?

See ya from Florida!

Fitting running in with the rest of life

Let's see... where did we leave off?

Training was going well up until last week.  I just wasn't feelin' it.  I had a GREAT 10 miler last Saturday and a pretty decent tempo run last Monday... but then the rest of the week just sort of got away from me.  I still did my 2 cycle classes and a bootcamp... but no additional running.

I coordinated a wedding and reception for some friends on Saturday - which was beautiful, by the way...

But with Mother's Day yesterday I didn't get in a long run.  I think I'm going to have to do it before work tomorrow.  I'm not quite sure how I'm going to finagle (I can't believe "finagle" came up as a real word...) a 12 miler when I start work at 7:30... but it must happen so I'll find a way!

Donny and I leave for Disney World on Saturday morning and then the Laguna Hills Half is on Monday so my timing is actually really good since I'll be tapering on vacation.

I decided to sign up for the City Impact Ventura Beach Half Marathon on June 15th. (I'd mentioned before that I wanted to do the Run Montecito in Santa Barbara in July - but my family will be on vacay in San Clemente that weekend and I decided to be with them - so this is replacing that.)

It's hosted by City Impact which is an outreach for at-risk children, youth and families in Ventura County.  I've read a couple good reviews about the race and it's cheap so that makes me happy... but I also get a little nervous when races don't have super official websites... has anyone done it before that can give me any more info on it?

 I'll be wedding-ing it up both the night before and the day after but the wedding the night before is in Santa Clarita which is where I went to school (The Master's College - woot woot!) and is almost half way to Ventura, so I might see if we can stay out there with someone...

I think I'll go into this one as a little more low-key, fun, supporting kids, etc. type of goals - we'll see though - I'm way too competitive with myself...

Dress Update ('cuz I'm sure ya'll have been dying to hear)

I realized that I never followed up on my post about dresses for upcoming weddings!

I ended up hating all three that I ordered. The gray was too small, the pink was too big and the blue was too short. (They were all the same size though - go figure). So I returned all of them. Sad times.

I did find this dress from Nordstrom Rack that I wore to the Disney Concert Hall last week.

It was half the price of the cheapest dress from Mod Cloth so it will probably make an appearance at the wedding in May, and I can still feel justified getting another for the June weddings.

I also still need to work on shoes and accessories... I'm hanging out with some girl friends on Saturday so maybe we can get a little bit of shopping in...

Just say no to speed

You know what really sucks? Speed training. That's what sucks.

 Donny came with me on my long run on Sunday.  I was supposed to do 9 miles but couldn't remember how long that particular route was so we only ended up doing 7.6.  Oh well.  But during the run, I was feeling pretty good.  It was near the end and Donny and I were talking about our plans for the week.  I said that I needed to do some speed work, and do you know what he said? He said, "I'll say!" Apparently I was running too slow for his taste.

So yesterday afternoon I headed outside and did about 30 minutes of speed work on my street.  I live on a pretty quiet street so it was easy to just go back and forth and not really worry about cars. But it was NOT fun. I was breathing so hard and it was pretty warm so I was drenched in sweat.

I came home and stretched and iced but apparently I over-iced and froze my skin just a little bit... it was really weird because it felt like there was just a little piece of ice attached to my skin, but then I realized it was my skin! Nasty, right? It left a little welt/burn thing.... whoops!

I know you're not really supposed to do two hard days in a row. But because my "long" run was shorter than it should have been, I felt like I needed to get some harder effort in there.

I would have run Saturday but it was another full (but great) day.

I met up with some ladies from church for a 4 mile hike Saturday morning.  We went to Fish Canyon in Duarte.  The hike ended at a waterfall that would have been great for swimming. 

I got home around noon and quickly cleaned up before we headed out to a local food truck festival with our friends and their 3 year old.

There were sooo many options.  I ended up with a carnitas taco from Gringos Tacos and a spam-egg-masubi from Rice Balls of Fire. Donny got the Grilled Cheese Truck so I also picked at his tater tots and mac-and-cheese-grilled-cheese-with pork-kill-me-now-it's-so-good sandwich.

 

It was really cute because they had inflatable slides and obstacle courses for the kids.  Shay-bug wanted me to slide with him and I ended up getting another little burn.... I'm kind of accident prone lately...

I know my training schedule has me doing 3 miles today... but my legs are really achy so I'm going to take a day off.  I might try to run on Friday instead.

What type of training run do you prefer? Long? Speedy? Easy?

Easy... duh!

Uh oh...

It's official Yogurt Land is now open just blocks from work... this could be dangerous...

You better believe I was there for the grand opening yesterday - 16 flavors baby!

Too Much Fun

The last few days have been filled with events and it's hard to keep track of everything.

This is going to be a long one, so grab some coffee and maybe a sandwich, and feel free to skip all the boring text and just scan the pictures (I'm not the only one who does that, right?)

Saturday...

I was supposed to get in a 7-8 mile run, but some friends stayed over on Friday night on their way from Portland. We ended up chatting until after 2 a.m. so a 7 a.m run just wasn't going to happen.

We were celebrating my dad's birthday on Saturday by taking the train down to San Juan Capistrano.  We had a slight mix up with our tickets... and may have boarded a train to San Bernardino on our way home (instead of Los Angeles) but all in all, it was a great day!

 

Sunday...

Because I skipped the run on Saturday, after staying at church until 2:30 because of a friend's bridal shower, I rushed home, changed, and headed out to the gym. I usually try to avoid long treadmill runs, but because it was the middle of the day and about 85 degrees - that was my best option.

I came well prepared with my music, magazine, water, towel and Gatorade chews.  The gym was pleasantly empty and Discovery Channel was showing a Myth Busters marathon, so it wasn't as miserable as I anticipated.  I'm also not gonna lie... it also feels pretty epic to have the treadmill shut down after an hour and tell you your workout is over.  I still had a couple more miles though, so I rebooted it and kept going.  And then I also got self conscious that people might walk by and see that I'd "only" been running for 20 minutes but was drenched in sweat...so I covered the screen with my towel... my pride knows no bounds...

I didn't leave myself much time to stretch and cool down because friends were meeting us at our house at 5:30 to head down to San Clemente to see the band The Brilliance. I think I've mentioned them before?  We're big fans. 

These are my friend Valerie's photos 'cuz mine turned out crappy. Check out her fitness blog too!

 I don't usually like staying out so late on a school night, but once I realized how close the venue was to Pedro's Tacos, I was sold.  If you haven't ever had Pedro's Tacos you are missing out.

They have probably, the best burrito I've ever eaten.  It's called Pedro's California Burrito and after one bite I regretted not ordering two (even though they're huge).

The show was great and we didn't get home as late I anticipated.

Monday...

On Monday Donny and had tickets for the Brooklyn Festival: Planetarium with Sufjan Steven's at The Disney Concert Hall.  Donny loves the Disney Concert Hall and has really been wanting me to go... but I'm just not all that into Classical music. He'd been waiting for a show that we'd both be excited to see so when he found out about this show, he jumped at the chance. He may have gotten a little over excited and we may have had the best seats in the house.... it was a once in a lifetime experience.


The music was weird and amazing.  I didn't really know what was going on half the time... but, and this is saying a lot for me, I was disappointed when it was already intermission.

I also enjoyed the chance to get dressed up and wear sparkly things!

Tuesday...

We celebrated Administrative Professionals Day on Tuesday and all of us administrative professionals were taken out to Hook Burger.  My stomach had been a little off since Monday but my usual piggy-ness didn't let that stop me from enjoying a HUGE burger, onion rings, a "jar" cake and iced coffee. 

 My stomach was hurting pretty badly (shocking, right?) but again, wise decision of the day #2, I thought a run might settle it.  I joined some friends at the local high school track and got in about a mile and half before I had to call it quits and by Tuesday night I was basically puking my brains out.  I didn't make it to work yesterday because my stomach was still churning and even still today I'm not quite 100%. I've been sick waaay more than usual over the past 6 months so I really need to figure out what's going on...

Well there you have it.  It was a fun, friend, family, music and puke filled few days!

 I won't be running today and I'll probably have to cut Saturday's long run a little short since my body is still in a weakened state. Thanks for sticking it out with such a long and rambling post!

5-week 1/2 marathon training plan

Yesterday was such a weird day.  It started normal, then I got super pumped by watching the elite runners finish the Boston Marathon, and then I was horrified and grieved to watch the rest of the events unfold in Boston as the afternoon wore on.

So probably like many of you, I was pretty out of sorts by yesterday evening.  I had planned a 6 mile run from work to home and was looking forward to just getting out there.  But when I got dressed I realized I forgot my watch and then my phone completely wigged out on me. I decided to put it away and run tech-free - which sounds freeing and glorious - but really, it just sucked.  I like knowing where I am, and how I should be feeling.  I know they say that it's good to just "listen to your body" but if I "listened" to my body all I'd hear was "this hurts, why are you doing this to me??"

It wasn't a bad run per-say but I also just kind of stopped feeling it toward the end.  I was sad about Boston and just wanted to be home.  I cut it short by about .4 of a mile and don't really feel bad about that.

Donny and I had a really relaxing evening in and I iced and rolled/stretched a ton.  I've got this naggling little pain at the back of my leg where my knee bends so I'm trying to be very careful with it.

My next race is The Laguna Hills Memorial Half in 5 weeks. I kind of love creating charts/graphs so I put together my personal training plan to get me there...

You'll see some random-looking inconsistencies with days (some of the long runs aren't on Saturdays, I'm taking a random Monday off, etc.) but I had to factor in life - so that's why. I also don't have any runs scheduled for when I'm on vacation but that's because we're going to DISNEY WORLD!!! and we'll be walking a TON.  I may try to squeeze in a couple runs though... (more on that to come!)