My Training Plan for the 2019 WDW Half

Whoa! 2019! That was weird to type! It's true, the 2019 Marathon Weekend training has begun. This year, we are heading down to the world for Marathon Weekend with the real purpose being a vacation. We're doing all the things: meal plan, staying on property, fast passes galore. We even are using a Disney Vacation Planner to help us coordinate our party of 11! Disney Runs in the Family has really grown!

Even though we are mostly focused on vacation, we still are there for the races, so training is a must. In fact, in some ways, training is even more important this time. There's no down time after the races, no super early nights (because we're doing all the things), and our main focus is to see as much as possible. After all, this is our California family's very first time to the world!

With that said, I'm also coming back from a big hiatus from running. Yes, I trotted a bit when I was pregnant with Ryan, but truth be told I was not training for anything! Even before he was born, I wasn't doing a great job at training for races. It's been a LONG time since I was chasing after the 2-hour half! My goal for January is to run a faster race than I have been doing (so definitely under 2:30), but also to not kill my legs since we have a lot of vacationing to do after the race
. I also have to scoot along quickly because Robby has his race at 10:30 that morning. Thanks to Mom/Babci for getting both boys to the race on her own (and hey, if you see her getting on and off the buses with 2 kids, give her a hand!).

I am not only coming back from a running break, but I am also dealing with a few injuries. My knee has some cartilage damage that flairs up from time to time and I have a foot pain that is constant when running. Don't worry, I'll be working with doctors to find relief and to make sure nothing is getting worse, however both injuries are not "rest and they get better" type things. I have to run with proper form and continue to work on strength to compensate.

In running, since I am starting over again and working through injuries, I plan to use the run-walk-run method that is wildly popular for runDisney events thanks to their partnership with Jeff Galloway. His running method has been very successful for me at these mid-range goal races. After listening to him speak and reading a few of his books and publications, I am working with either a 2 minute run/30 second walk or a 90 second run/30 second walk cycle. I will play around with those in October and see which works best.

I have made my own training plan using a 3-day-per-week rotation of running. Again, with the injuries I don't want to run too much. I teach 5 classes per week at the gym, minimum, and often will be doing a 6th or even 7th. Since I teach BodyPump twice a week, that will be the base of my strength training. I plan to add in some therapeutic strengthening for my knee and I definitely need to work on core strength. Two babies in just about 2 years has done a number on those muscles!

Each month I gave myself a main focus. Again, time is precious around here and I feel like if I try to do too much I'm setting myself up for failure. October, my goal is to get my intervals set and work on a strong base. I worked backwards for the long run, and will spend the final month getting in distances of 10+ miles.

I'm tracking my progress using a printed paper calendar. Fancy, I know, but if it ain't broke...you know the drill. I will write my successes and know that at the end of this training cycle, if I can look back and see more wins than losses, I'll be happy!

Stay tuned for progress posts! I can't wait to see all my runDisney friends in January! I think this is actually the longest I've gone without running at Disney! I need some bling STAT!