Week1 of Dopey Training Round 2!

I can't believe we are back here! It feels like just yesterday Alex and I were running down the streets of Main Street USA, questioning whether or not I would make it to the end, getting to Animal Kingdom and crying saying I was all done and that it was all over, to hitting mile 25 and realizing we were not only completing DOPEY, we were PRing our freaking marathon time, and now we are here. Gearing up for another round of Dopey training and building the base for what will hopefully be my first 50 mile race in May! (Yes I know its crazy but I like to see how hard I can push myself and this seems like a great challenge, plus dopey is helping me build my base for it, win, win right!?)

My goal is to bring you guys a recap each week of how training is going, any learnings I am having, or favorites that are working, and to remind all you other runners out there training that you are not alone in those negative thoughts and questioning!

So training technically started on September 5th (its a rest day), I was still down in Anaheim for this as was visiting my very first Stoney Clover store. I was in heaven and exhausted at the same time. If you didn't catch it on the gram, we went HARD Sunday in Disneyland, drop drop to security escort out at 1am type day, hitting up 20 rides, but I am getting side tracked. So Monday was a rest day, it was also the day that new broke about the body of Eliza Fletcher possibly being found, and the fear started to creep in.

Tuesday Morning was the first run day of training, and it was 3 miles. While on my run my husband came up to let me know that the body was in fact Eliza and we started to talk about what my training was going to be looking like. I already knew given the area we live in not being well lit and no sidewalks that I would do what I did last time and run my 3 week day runs on the treadmill at our home and that the weekend runs would be outdoors, with him joining me for them. (I mentioned he is going to be running the 50 mile race too right? His third) He would use it to get into running and base building with me. Tuesday I was just sad all day, I was sad for Liza family, sad for the running community and just in shock. Then that night news broke that we was a RunDisney runner and the sadness grew even more.

Wednesday I woke up with pure rage, I was so angry at the world, at this man who took this incredible women away for the world way to soon, so angry that so many of us were being reminded of safety precautions (that shouldn't have to be!), angry about peoples comments about the time she was running, what she was wearing, where she was running, that she was solo. It was rocking me to my core and I found myself after me run at my desk just crying with how mad I was. The 5 miles were dedicated to Liza, and among my anger I wanted to find away to remember her and have her with us while we are all training and completing races. Its then that I thought of bows for my shoes with her bib number and name, as a reminder for myself when it gets hard that people have had this taken from them and I get to be out there doing this!

Thursday was another 3 and the feelings where still there as well as pure exhaustion, but we finished the miles and was shocked with how quick the week felt like it was going! I couldn't believe that the week day runs where all over and that it was time to start looking towards the weekend runs.

For the weekend, we had a 3 miler followed by 13. For the second time in a row I filled them, I knew that Saturday we wanted to get some small things done around the house and that I didn't want to be trying to focus on 13 miles while we did that so the hubs and I prepared for 13 on Saturday and 3 on Sunday.

Saturday morning came with A LOT OF SMOKE! There was a wild fire that had broken out just 20-30 miles from out house (we didn't know it was that close at this time, as Eastern Wa, Oregon, and Idaho all had wild fires happening as well). My hubby asked me if I wanted to go try a new trail or do that same one we have always done, I opted for the new, thinking it was going to be a nice distraction. We got to the trail and I should note this is like a trail trial with gravel, rock, dirt, grass all that good stuff that is not a concrete trail. Mentally I was good until we got into the parking lot, then I started to get nervous and was very much wishing Alex was there to run with me (she is one hell of a running buddy). I have this tendency to want to prove something when I run with my husband and psych myself all out and put stupid stress on myself, its a thing I am working on lol. The first few miles were ROUGH y'all, we had some STEEP hills to climb and my quads felt each one of them. We got to the bottom of the steepest one to find that the trial ended and turning into private property, we were just a little over 3 miles in at that point and my head was like WTF. Thankfully with my hubs previous ultra training he knew a great loop that we could do that would get us on some concrete for a mile or two and then put us into a beautiful watershed preserve with lots of single trek. We hit mile 5 and my stomach asked for a bathroom break, thankfully there was a Starbucks not to far away and we got there. At this point I took a Gu (the first one that I was suppose to take back at mile 4), we were 6 miles in and I knew that the halfway point wasn't to far away. We left Starbucks and got back on to trail , I was nervous at first but a little coaching from the Hubs had me loosen up and become one with the trail ( I ran some of my fastest times in this part) the trail looped us right back to the original trail we started on, we checked our milage and where at 10.5 the car was about a mile away, we ran past it and both said lets just get to 12 and call it, we were tired and this was our first big training run. So that's just what we did, and on our way home I said I need to finish the 13 so I will do the mile on the treadmill when we get home, and that I did finishing out the first big run of the training was in the books.

Sunday was my 3 miles to wrap up week 1, I felt good doing them minus the sore quads from all the hills the day before. After my run I started to play with some of the ribbon and fabric paints that came in for Liza, it was a nice way to close out the first week making my first one and starting to prepare to make many more for so many that are joining me in wearing these bows on their shoes.

Week one came with a lot of unexpected emotions, it came with a motivation to run for more than just myself, and it went by so dang fast! Its crazy to me that in less than 17 weeks I will be doing this beast again, and I am ready for it. There are days where the nerves come in and I am like WTF am I doing and then other that I feel on top of the world and like I will be crushing this thing.

Something that is making this training cycle so special for me is that I am doing this race weekend with Kellsie Hope Foundation an organization who is raising funds for kids who are fighting cancer, for the half marathon I am dressing as Bo Peep and using her dots as a place to put all the names of those who have helped me fundraise for this amazing foundation. I am at 75% of my fundraising goal as I type this right now and feel so honored to be doing this for so many!

Next week will probably be much shorter as we cut back a bit on mileage and the numbers of days we run, I will be focusing on my core and strength more on these cut back weeks and will keep you all posted on how it goes!

Until next time babe!