Barca33Runner's Journal: Thanks For Noticin' Me(Comments Welcome)

I've been a little bit hiding in plain sight, commenting in other threads and such, but I'll be resurrecting this and posting in here a little more. Just adding a quick note tonight to thank everyone for all the encouragement. Be back with a longer post tomorrow.
 
I've been a little bit hiding in plain sight, commenting in other threads and such, but I'll be resurrecting this and posting in here a little more. Just adding a quick note tonight to thank everyone for all the encouragement. Be back with a longer post tomorrow.
You post longer and maybe I'll get around to starting a training journal. ;) I can pretend people are listening.
 
The first week+ has gone pretty well. My plan is to go at least 3 miles every Sat, Sun, Tue, Wed, Thur, and 1 mile on my normal rest days of Monday and Friday. So far I’ve cut one run down to 1 mile because I had to mow the lawn after work and I was tired and had my allergies going crazy. It’s a step in the right direction.

I’m currently getting everything nailed down for my PoT race. There exists the distinct possibility that it will coincide with a short trip to WDW for MNSSHP. The race I’m looking at is Sept. 9th and begins at 8AM. We are looking into flying down for the Halloween party that same day. The timeframe is tight, so I think we may change some things up, but I think we will end up getting down for a celebration at some point so I’ve got some pressure on myself to put down a time worth celebrating.

Songs of the Week

Marking my return with one of my stranger musical tendencies; I’ve recently come to the undeniable conclusion that I’m a fan of Celine Dion. I have no idea how this happened or when but, yeah, I’m weird. Anyway, here are my 5 faves of hers and the obvious Disney inclusion:

That’s The Way It Is

The Power of Love-I guess there’s something about songs with this title

Ashes-The tie in with Deadpool 2 is unexpected and pretty amazing.

Because You Loved Me

It’s All Coming Back To Me Now-my overall favorite.

Disney

Beauty and the Beast (w/ Peabo Bryson)-No disrespect to Angela Lansbury or either of the new versions, but clearly my favorite version.

I can and do run to these songs as well. Slow burns can be bangers. There is an obvious omission as I’ve never seen Titanic and have no interest in doing so; I think that song can’t shake its ties to that film for me. Plus, I just like the others better.
 
Yay you're back!!! Great job getting started on the new plan.

Love that you are embracing the Celine Dion fandom. :D

I know you didn't like the live action Beauty and the Beast, but I do love Celine's version of How Does a Moment Last Forever.
 


Yay you're back!!! Great job getting started on the new plan.

Love that you are embracing the Celine Dion fandom. :D

I know you didn't like the live action Beauty and the Beast, but I do love Celine's version of How Does a Moment Last Forever.

That’s a great call. Embarrassed to say I forgot to include that one.

It wasn’t so much that I didn’t like it as much as it was fine. Nothing particularly great or terrible. I’m so used to the arrangements from the animated film that some of the changes were a bit gimmicky or forced. The originals feel somewhat like perfection so anything new was bound to fall short.
 
So glad you're back!

If you're weird for liking Celine Dion, then I'm weird too. ;) Saw her in Vegas and she is an amazing performer. Gave me goosebumps!

I'd say I'm not the target demographic, weird may have been the wrong word choice.

I've never been to Vegas; seeing her would be the primary draw if I were to ever venture that way.
 


Had to change the title to the Journal. I feel pretty safe saying things are back on track now. I'm slowly building my mileage back. I think one of the big things that was holding me back was feeling unwilling and unable to train the distances I used to be able to cover in a run(leave alone at my former pace). Rather than sucking it up and getting done what I could, I just decided to do nothing. It was very self-defeating and obviously was setting myself up for failure. The only way to get back to those levels is to be willing to take the steps necessary to build that strength and endurance. I feel like things are going well for the first time in a long time. I'm psyched to get back into better shape and to surpass where I was before. I'm not sure how I lost that feeling, but I'm glad it's back.
 
Plans have changed

I am now aiming for a PoT race on August 19. The Cleveland Rock Hall Half. This came as a result of...finalizing plans for a trip to Disney World!

Was originally trying to plan a celebration trip with my sister, niece and nephew for MNSSHP following running my Half on Sept. 9th. Long story short: race started at 8AM, flights were limited, even anticipating the most ideal time windows nothing worked. So we changed course and looked for another race and just planned the Sept. 9th trip to get us down to Disney in time and without feeling rushed. I'm going to be in Cleveland for my cousin's wedding on the weekend on the 19th and I need to be able to fit into some clothes for the wedding so, you know, added motivation (as a person with limited acquaintances and little to no reason to ever get dressed up it's not practical to buy new clothes to wear once).

Anyway, I've booked my flights and have my party ticket, so I'm pretty excited. We are going to be going to a single park on Monday as well before flying home Tuesday morning ( :sad: I miss my AP). My vote is for AK since my traveling party has still only walked through Pandora (we didn't stay on property last Marathon Weekend, couldn't get FP+, and were at AK when it was basically at capacity). My niece and nephew have been captivated by the Toy Story Land commercials so I'm pretty sure we'll head to HS. Super stoked regardless of what we decide to do.
 
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Glad you are getting back on track. Sounds like you've got a good plan for your POT race in August. The Halloween Party is so fun, how exciting!
 
Happy to say I'm doing a better job keeping up with my running streak than I am with my posting. I guess things would have been pretty bad if I was doing better posting:confused3. Pretty soon I'm going to have to start developing a bit more of a plan, but this is working pretty well so far. When you're starting at basically zero anything and everything is helpful.

Anyway, inspiration hit so had to post some Songs of the Week:

Africa and Rosanna-Weezer-I've professed my feelings for Africa before, it's an undeniable banger. The Weezer covers are straight forward without many bells or whistles, but any extra appreciation for these songs is welcomed.

Buddy Holly-Weezer-One of the coolest music videos from my youth and an awesome song as well.

Hold the Line-Toto-Maybe Weezer will bring some more publicity for this classic as well?

Punk Rawk Show-MXPX-Something a little less mainstream.

Disney Song

Sugar Rush-AKB48-It's an ear worm for sure, but I love this song.
 
Decided it was time for some updates:

First, the Bad: I will not have a PoT for Dopey 2019. I was not properly prepared for my last race and was incapable of running a qualifying PoT. I'm beyond mortified by this. I've never been a good runner, but there is no excuse for my current physical condition. I have no possibility of adding another race before the cutoff (and I still wouldn't be properly prepared). I'm at the bottom of a 4+ year decline in my abilities as a runner. I'd say there's nowhere to go but up, but that's simply not true and is the type of thinking that has enabled me to put off getting things back on the right track. I mean, it's a lot of bad. Running-wise, it's basically impossible to say anything has been going well.

The (marginally) Good: I'm not injured. That's probably the extent of my running-related good news. There is nothing physically preventing me from getting my training back on track.

The Hope: I just returned from a short Disney World vacation for MNSSHP and a day at Hollywood Studios to see Toy Story Land. While I was there I was reminded of my longstanding goal for Marathon Weekend, to be prepared enough for the races to really enjoy my vacation in the process. The last few years I have traveled to Disney with doubt in my mind about whether I could finish Dopey. It has weighed heavily on me during my vacations and has made enjoying the fun of Disney very difficult. Going on a trip without that pressure and without those doubts was so nice and I want Dopey 2019 to be that way. The only way that can happen is if I start putting in the work.


Anyway, I'll be posting some pics and a bit of a trip report in the next few days. I stopped posting in my journal because I wanted to make huge gains and have a big triumphant return. Really, all it did was make it easy to put off even attempting to achieve my goals indefinitely into the future. So I'll be posting semi-frequently again.
 
Being healthy allows all of the small gains to add up.... even if the sum is not the triumphant achievement you want. Even without a PoT, you have the opportunity to train as if you did. It seems as if Marathon weekend is a multi-event race. Part of this is park vacation fun- look! you have already started training for that at MNSSHP!
 
Glad to see an update from you! I think we all get a little too caught up in the whole PoT thing for Disney. I know you'll have a great race regardless of corral placement. The fact that you are uninjured is great news and you are just now hitting the window when you'd be starting a formal training plan for Dopey anyway, so nothing really lost. You know what's ahead of you and you know that you've done it before and can do it again. I'm so glad that you had a great trip to WDW and that it helped remind you of what really makes runDisney and marathon weekend so special. Looking forward to your trip report and reading along on your training.
 
I promised a recap on my recent trip, so here we go...

This was a very short trip, but I had an absolute blast. Everything went nearly perfectly (outside of Disney buses). This was our itinerary:

Sunday, September 9
8 AM-Flight from Cleveland to Orlando
10:20 AM-Arrive
12:20 PM-Lunch at Sanaa
4:00 PM-MNSSHP

Monday, September 10
9 AM-Hollywood Studios
Whenever we’ve done what we wanted and it got too hot-Back to Resort
5:40 PM- Dinner at ?

Tuesday, September 11

7:25-DME to airport

So we were there essentially for two days and for two purposes: the Halloween party and to see Toy Story Land. Everything went great with our flight down and DME to Art of Animation. Our room was not ready (as expected) so we stashed our luggage and took an Uber to our lunch reservation at Sanaa. My niece and nephew had never been, but they had a great time. The bread service was a big hit and they loved their desserts:
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After lunch we returned and our room was ready. We took a short nap and prepared for MNSSHP. We all had Haunted Mansion themed shirts on in lieu of costumes. We had a bit of a wait for a bus, but we were in MK by 4:15 and headed back to Frontierland. I won’t go for a blow by blow, but we did every attraction open during the party working from Frontierland over to Tomorrowland. It was amazing. Our longest wait of the night was 30 minutes for Space Mountain. That was because there was a storm that passed through and shut down a few attractions for about an hour so the ones that were open got some increased traffic. Here were a couple of my highlights:
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The Peter Pan Float was amazing. Maybe my new favorite. I hope that it sticks around for good. My niece and sister opted for the Maleficent Cone. I was so happy we were able to get our picture with Tigger, Pooh and Eeyore. We got in line just before Hallowishes so we viewed it from the line. Not the best vantage point, but we're not really fireworks people so it wasn't bad. We had planned to do the second parade and final Sanderson Sisters show, but it was such a long day for everyone that we decided to leave (since we knew it would be after midnight when we got back to the room as it was). Another early wake up was calling.

I'll spare the details on the next morning. We had a pretty uneventful trip to HS and were back in Toy Story Land at 8:51 and in line for Slinky Dog Dash. We were only 60+1 for FP+ so we had Toy Story Mania booked as SDD was unavailable. Although we knew we should have arrived earlier to have a shorter wait, we needed the sleep and only ended up waiting a little under an hour anyway. I enjoyed SDD much more than I expected. Very smooth, faster and taller than I expected, and the kids loved it. Definitely superior to 7DMT from the comparable ride perspective.
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Afterward we had time for breakfast at Woody's Lunch Box. We all shared a Turkey and Egg sandwich, one each of the pop tarts, and the kids got some of the little cheese snacks. I was impressed with the sandwich and tarts. It's nothing special, but the food is very passable for a theme park quick service.

We then had our FP+ at Toy Story Mania, followed by Star Tours and Rock n Roller Coaster. My niece still isn't tall enough for RnRC so we traded bands and my nephew went twice once each with me and my sister and my sister took my niece to ToT during the first ride. One ride was enough on ToT for my niece so we just waited in the AC during the second RnRC ride. We'd hit up all the rides and a couple shows by 1 PM and decided to head back to the resort so the kids could swim and we could see if we could find one of our favorites to eat. We made one last stop to see Donald on the way out:
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It was hotter than the surface of the sun waiting for the bus at HS's new temporary bus stops. Concrete enclosed by walls is not a good idea. I felt like I was melting.

We were fortunate to find an ADR for Boma when we got back to the room. We got to relax and the kids got to go swimming beforehand and that was very much needed. Dinner was fantastic. I'm pretty sure I could eat exclusively at the AK park and resort restaurants during a trip and be very happy. We made a trip to Disney Springs to pick up some caramel apples to bring back for family members and our trip was basically over.

I'll give a few more impressions on the trip and thoughts moving forward tomorrow. Thanks for reading.
 

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