Kazrak's In My Day We Had A Kessel Run Training Journal (Comments Welcome)

[Kazrak]

Week 7 update.

Son and I skipped Wednesday due to another 8am appointment, but the Monday and Friday runs went very well. We went up to week 3 (90s/90s/3m/3m x2), aiming for a 12:30 pace, and we ended up doing a bit better than that. I'd been worried that the 3m runs would be too long, but he kept to them well. On Friday, at the end of the 3m walk, we were still (barely) faster than a 16:00 pace - so, theoretically, if he could keep up that cycle the whole race, he'd stay ahead of the sweepers. Planning to repeat this week with the intent to move up to week 4 the following week.

Wife tried a run on Tuesday and her knees said 'lol no'. So she took Thursday off to let them recover more, and went back to running on dirt on Saturday. She looped the park a few times until her knees started to warn her, and called it there.

I felt really good starting up this morning, and decided to push the pace for a sub-12:00 run. Dropped to a walk at about 1.3 miles for a bit under 0.1 miles, and ran the rest, trying to keep my pace faster than 12:00 whenever I was running.

3.1 miles, 36:37, pace 11:48. Splits were 11:27, 12:23, and 11:41, with a 10:59 pace for the last tenth.

I'm very, very pleased with this. I think my goal for next week is to slow down the pace and push for more distance - might loop the college twice, which would get me close to a 5 mile run.

 

[disneygpa]

Kazrak, we have a similar weight history. I'm slightly shorter and my weight has been as high as 265, and has been up and down through my entire adult life. 15 months ago I decided to have the bariatric sleeve procedure done. Since then I have lost over 115 lbs and have kept the weight off. I know this is an expensive procedure and I'm fortunate that my insurance covered most of the cost. However, its something to think about!

Happy to see you are making progress with your running and weight loss! Good luck with the future!!

 

[Sleepless Knight]

But, yes, I've definitely found the same with my runs. There's something different about race day, and not just in Orlando or Anaheim. (Although more so there.) I've never fallen back to the balloon ladies, but I've also never paused for pictures. My hope is that I can pick up enough speed between now and my PoT race in December that I can get some serious photography done in the 10k and then push for speed on the half.

I ran 2017 Dark Side 10K and Half from the last corral and 2018 10K and Half from the second to last corral. I was able to make all the photos that I really wanted aside from skipping Vader and Palpatine during the 2017 Half. I probably could have made them too, but didn't want to deal with the line. That actually worked out better because in 2018, they had an huge Imperial group including Vader, Palpatine, Royal Guards, et all near mile 13, so by that point I knew I would finish just fine and waited in the very long line for that incredible group shot.

In both races, I was near the sweep point a couple of times waiting for a photo. And they told me exactly where I stood. As in, when the balloon ladies get here in 5 minutes, you either have to join them or stay in line and be swept. Or this line is 5 minutes long and the balloon ladies are 8 minutes behind you. In the first case, I was 3rd in line, so I stayed and saw the buses pull up a few minutes later during the 10K. In the second instance, I stayed in line and never heard where they were in relation to me again. I made a few character stops in that second instance after that time "warning."

I finished the 2018 Dark Side 5K in over 90 minutes. I waited a very long time for the stormtroopers in front of Spaceship Earth photo and a few others around mile 3.

Obviously, training matters. It's the key. But I think properly trained runners have a bit more flexibility for photos than they fear do. And remember they will tell you if you're in danger of being swept. It doesn't just suddenly happen. They tell you and give you an opportunity to stay with the balloon ladies. And some of these lines can move quickly because there's no autographs or similar stuff.

 

[Kazrak]

Kazrak, we have a similar weight history. I'm slightly shorter and my weight has been as high as 265, and has been up and down through my entire adult life. 15 months ago I decided to have the bariatric sleeve procedure done. Since then I have lost over 115 lbs and have kept the weight off. I know this is an expensive procedure and I'm fortunate that my insurance covered most of the cost. However, its something to think about!

Happy to see you are making progress with your running and weight loss! Good luck with the future!!

I've considered it. If the current attempt fails, I may see about something along those lines. And congratulations on your weight loss.

Obviously, training matters. It's the key. But I think properly trained runners have a bit more flexibility for photos than they fear do. And remember they will tell you if you're in danger of being swept. It doesn't just suddenly happen. They tell you and give you an opportunity to stay with the balloon ladies. And some of these lines can move quickly because there's no autographs or similar stuff.

Part of the issue is that I didn't feel properly trained. For Light Side Half, I started in the second-to-last corral (pre-batching), and for Dark Side Half, I was in the second-to-last batch in the last corral. My best guess is that I finished with about 20-25 minutes of slack between myself and the balloon ladies in both cases. While I could have used that slack for pictures, I was paranoid enough that I wouldn't have been comfortable that way. (Also, in both cases I was running for a challenge medal, so I really didn't want to get swept.) I think some people cope better with being that close to the sweepers.

My plan right now is to run the 10k for photos and the half for time, and I expect to be trained well enough by then that this is possible.

 

[Sleepless Knight]

While I could have used that slack for pictures, I was paranoid enough that I wouldn't have been comfortable that way.

I completely understand that. My first half was that way. No pictures. I missed out on some neat opportunities too, but I wasn't going to risk not finishing. Since I finished that with a 25 minute cushion, I knew I had some room for photos in future races if I deemed the lines short enough. While I certainly have stopped for photos in all subsequent Disney races, I make sure it's a photo I want to stop for. Having learned firsthand how the sweep works without the actual being swept part has liberated me in how I approach stops during Disney races. But at the same time I needed experience finishing many races with time left over compared to the required minimum pace before I could feel that way.

I don't always wait in the lines. I look at things like who/what the line is for, how many people are in it, where I'm at in relation to the finish, et all. If someone has a goal to stop for every single photo on the course, then they will need to be trained to be able to absorb those stops. I heard of some ladies who stopped for every photo and were swept. While their actual running pace was fine, they didn't realize that waiting in line 30 minutes for a character means that you ran that particular mile in your actual running time for the that mile plus 30 minutes for the character.

I would never risk a 15-30 minute line like the Imperial group shot at this year's Dark Side Half early or even partway through the race. But when it's between miles 12 and 13, I know I'm safe and if I'm not safe, they will tell me.

Like you mentioned, experience is key especially on the race side of things. Before my first race, I hoped my training would be sufficient but did not know for sure. So I erred on the side of no photo stops to make sure I finished. The great thing about runDisney is that if you're visiting the parks after the race, there will be plenty of photo opportunities with that earned medal.

 

[Kazrak]

The great thing about runDisney is that if you're visiting the parks after the race, there will be plenty of photo opportunities with that earned medal.

Indeed. I got some fantastic pictures of Mickey fawning over my Kessel Run medal, and I've been pondering swapping my avatar here to a shot of me with my Light Side Half, Dark Side Half, and Kessel Run medals in front of Everest.

It's an interesting trade-off between running for time and trying to get the photos. I find myself wondering how many runners go past before the first one stops for a photo op - clearly anybody who's running for a podium spot isn't going to stop, but does the person running 10th? 20th? 50th?

 

[Kazrak]

I've been pondering swapping my avatar here to a shot of me with my Light Side Half, Dark Side Half, and Kessel Run medals in front of Everest.

And there we go. Can't see Everest, because if I use an image large enough to see Everest, you can't see me, much less the medals.

 

[Kazrak]

Early week 8 update:

Monday with son went well. Harder keeping to pace for some reason. The total time ended up about like last week, with some intervals faster and some slower.

This morning, I decided to do a speed test for myself - how fast could I run a chunk of the greenbelt?

Results: 0.20 miles, 1:42 time, 8:23 pace. I'm moderately pleased. On the way back, I caught up with my wife as she finished her first lap around the dirt trails by the park. I joined her for the rest of the run, getting in another 3/4 of a mile or so. She's trying to only run on dirt, to help build up her knees without killing them, so she gets natural intervals - run one side, walk across to the other on concrete, run the other side, walk across on asphalt.

I'm currently planning to try Thursday as well, with a goal of trying for a single mile under 11 minutes. Not sure if I can or not, but it's worth a try.

 

[Kazrak]

Mid-week 8 update:

Wednesday, more of the same with son. A bit slower overall.

Goal for today was an 11-minute mile. I did a mile in 10:36, out to the trailhead and back. Went pretty well overall - I was mostly holding at 10:25-10:40 pace, with a couple dips late that got as low as 12:00. As I got into the last 1/6-mile or so, I realized I still had some left in the tank and pushed, and peaked at about 9:33 pace approaching a mile.

Doing daily runs has been interesting, but I think it's not something I can do every week. My knees and ankles have been making occasional complaints about it when I'm starting a run. I'll think about plans for next week - might do Tuesday but not Thursday.

 

[Kazrak]

Week 8 update:

Friday, repeat of Monday and Wednesday, a little faster. We're going to go to week 4 next, which is 3m run/90s walk/5m run/2m30s walk, and repeat. This is a pretty big step up, so I'm going to take the pace down a bit, aiming for 13:30 or so. (Running 16 minutes vs. 9.)

Wife is sticking to the dirt trails still, and doing okay there.

Went for distance today - looping the college twice gets me a five mile run when getting to the loop and back is counted. My plan was to aim for a 13:00 pace, but I fell into a comfortable 12:30ish for the first mile. I decided to drop to a walk after every mile, for about 0.05 miles. Second mile went slower, closer to the 13:00, and then I found I was picking up the pace without really trying. Fourth mile was the fastest, with a 12:16 split. Overall time was 1:02:48, average pace 12:33.

Plan for this week: MWF are week 4 training with son. Tuesday, try for a faster mile - goal is faster than 10:30. Thursday is a rest day. Next Saturday...still thinking. Might do a 5 mile run again, or might push for a 5k without walking, or might push for a 5k at a faster pace.

PoT 10k is 10 weeks from tomorrow. Lots of work to do still. I'm still behind the pace I was at three years ago, where I barely hit PoT speed at the WDW 10k.

 

[Kazrak]

So, after discussing the Diet From Hell, I said "And then an attempt to make something up to my daughter changed everything - but that’s a story for another post."

Time for another post.

Let's go back to January 2013. My kids are 14, 12, and 8. We've been doing WDW visits every five years, renting DVC points from friends. The friend we had previously rented from had to back out this time, but another friend had recently been divorced and wasn't using his points at the time. So, 8 nights at Boardwalk, our first time staying anywhere but Wilderness Lodge with the kids.

This trip is remembered as 'the time we got norovirus'. Daughter caught it first, starting to puke in the middle of the night. Older son and I came down with it as well. Wife seems to have caught a very mild case, just enough to make her lose her appetite. Younger son was fine, and had a blast - he got extra time in the Luna Park Pool.

My daughter then realized that, at every five years, she'd be at college by our next trip - might not be able to go, because of school timing.

We'd been pondering buying into DVC ever since our first rental in 2003, but hadn't been able to. But...our finances had changed. We had the money. So in late 2014, we bought 200 points (resale) at Beach Club Villas, with the intent of going back in January 2016.

We ended up with a 10-night stay, with Marathon Weekend right in the middle.

My daughter and I had tried running earlier, and it had failed because we didn't have a goal. This time, she said, "Let's run a race. 5k, maybe 10k."

Since it was an 11-month DVC reservation, we had about a year to prep. So we started with Couch to 5k. We worked through it slowly, but by the summer, we were running fairly well.

We decided to do the WDW 10k. We trained for it, running several 5ks during the fall. I'd run the Turkey Trot 5k where my in-laws lived (we visit them for Thanksgiving) once before; this year, it was a special anniversary, and they were offering a 5-mile run as well. We signed up for it, and finished toward the back - but we finished, in under an hour.

While we trained together, we'd found that we don't cope well with racing together. She was in the corral ahead of me for the 10k, anyway. (I'm not sure why. I put in the same time estimate for both of us.) We both finished around 1:15.

We tried to keep training, but we kind of coasted. We ran a 10k in March, but then...there wasn't anything really on the schedule.

I'm not sure how we ended up deciding to run the Light Side Half last year, or how we talked ourselves into the Rebel Challenge. But, we ended up doing it. We weren't as ready for it this time, though. Our half-marathon times were both around 3:10-3:15.

It occurred to me that I could actually run the Dark Side Half as well. She had class the next day, and wasn't willing to miss it, so I went solo - the "commando run", as I call it. I flew in on Friday, hit Expo that night, spent Saturday at Epcot, and ran the race on Sunday. I was slightly better-trained, but my time was slightly worse due to the severe heat that year.

We kept training, mostly coasting. She has joint issues, and had to bail out sometimes because of them; if she did, I did too.

And then, after the summer, she went off to college. I roped my younger son into training with me. He puts up with it, but he's not really that thrilled at running. We were really just coasting all along.

Over New Years, we ran the NYE/NYD races - I did 5k/10k, she did 10k/half. Unfortunately, we hadn't realized just how brutal the NYD race is. My 10k time was about 2 hours due to an evil hill - about 600' over one mile, worse than a 10% grade on average. She did the half in just barely under 4 hours, the last person to finish - again, the hills were horrible, with total ascent/descent over 2000'. Younger son did the 5ks both days, as did my wife (walking).

With the DVC points, we were looking at WDW trips every three years. Next January is 3 years from 2016. Daughter and older son are at college now, but we can make the trip during Christmas break for them. (Okay, son has to head back a couple days early - we're flying him straight back to school from Orlando.) We looked at whether we could do Marathon Weekend, but her classes start the day after the marathon.

After booking the trip, I had a few points left. I banked them, then looked at the schedule. If I wanted to use those banked points and all of 2019's points, younger son, wife, and I could get a 1br for the Star Wars Half...and that could get me running again...

So it happened. I'm in for the Kessel Run and the Rival Run Challenge. And I'm taking it a lot more seriously than I did for the 2017 races.

 

[Kazrak]

Early week 9 update:

Yesterday with son went pretty well. We ended up with 1.23 miles at a 15:40 pace, and after the third walk cycle we were at about 16:20 pace - not quite at Disney pace, but pretty darn close with months to go.

Today, goal was to do a faster mile than last week. I'd been pretty proud of the 10:36 mile last Thursday...until I realized it was about the same speed as I'd done in Atlanta a month before.

Result: a 9:38 mile. Strava says it's my third-fastest ever. Fastest is apparently 8:52, from my PR 5k about three years ago.

I'm pleased, but there's still work to do.

 

[JennysSeven]

That seems pretty impressive to drop nearly a minute off your mile time in one week! Sounds like good progress.

 

[Kazrak]

That seems pretty impressive to drop nearly a minute off your mile time in one week! Sounds like good progress.

Thanks! I don't think it's so much that I couldn't go that fast last week as that I wasn't trying to, if that makes sense. I had a goal of 'faster than 11:00' so I beat that goal. Yesterday's goal was 'faster than 10:30, faster than 10:00 if you can', so...

In other news - weight dropped below 220 today. It took me a little bit to realize what the number on the scale meant.

 

[Jules76126]

Enjoying following along. Sounds like you have great motivation.

 

[Kazrak]

Week 9 update:

C25K week 4 has been going well with son. We'll do that level again next week, and then consider from there. Pace is better than 16:00 before going into the final run interval, which is a good sign. I'm more pleased about the increased distance, though - we're up to about a mile and a half in total. Maybe some Friday (when I generally WFH and have a bit more slack) we can do a 5k-ish run around the college...probably after DST ends so it's actually light out when we start running.

This morning...oog. Didn't want to move because we were up too late watching the World Series. But, it's not like anybody is going to go run for me.

I decided to go for one loop without stopping. I didn't do the cut-out at the end to get it up to a full 5k, so the final stats were 2.9 miles in 33:38, 11:36 pace. First mile was the slowest, at 11:55, and then my pace just picked up and I was cruising around 11:30 for the rest of the run. I had a few times where I was trying to convince myself to stop, but managed to keep going.

Plan for this week: MWF with son, C25K week 4 (3m run/90s walk/5m run/2m30s walk, then repeat). Tuesday, I'm thinking I go for a mile and a half or so for time. I have no idea what I'll do next Saturday - another 5 mile seems likely, but it'll depend on how much time I have. I'm tempted to try a 10k by adding another loop, but it might be a bit early for that.

 

[Kazrak]

Early week 10 update:

I'm really looking forward to the DST change on Sunday, because it's just too dark at 7am right now.

Monday run with son was a bit slower - about the speed of last Monday. Which isn't unreasonable, really. He seems very unimpressed by the idea of the C25K week 6 runs - day 1 is 5m run/3m walk x3, which isn't so bad. Day 2 is 8m run/5m walk/8m run, and day 3 is a 20m run. I suspect he's more scared of these than he needs to be, but we'll need to ease him into them.

Today, goal was to try for a mile and a half, pushing for faster than an 11:00 pace. And...not a problem, really. Final stats were 1.57 miles, 16:27 time, 10:27 pace. I wasn't expecting quite that fast, but I'm not at all upset.

Normal runs with my son on Wednesday and Friday, and then still thinking about Saturday.

 

[Kazrak]

Week 10 update:

Wednesday went fine, about as fast as last Wednesday. Friday, I mis-set the RunDouble app and we ended up doing the next week's run, 5m run/3m walk x3. It went okay but a bit slowly. We'll continue that setting next week.

Wife has dropped down to two runs a week because her knees are still not happy. Her shoes were getting trashed, so we got her a new pair, and I got her some Balega Blister Control running socks - we'll see if the extra padding helps.

Today's run didn't go so well. Main problem was that I was up at 4am to get Fastpasses for our January trip, and then couldn't get back to sleep until about 6. I got about 2/3 of a mile in before my willpower hit zero, so I walked back from there. Pace wasn't too bad, 12:13.

Managed to get SDD and (late in the trip) FOP and Peter Pan, but didn't get 7 Dwarfs at all. Guess we rope-drop that one.

Tomorrow's a 25-hour day and I get to sleep in, so hopefully I can recover.

This week: repeat 5m/3m x3 with son on MWF. Get in a 5k training run next Saturday, aiming for a 12:00 pace or better. Turkey Trot is less than three weeks away, and it'll be my first test to see how well I'm really doing at improving my times under race conditions.

 

[JennysSeven]

I had to ponder SDD for a bit, lol...I was trying to figure out how to get "Seven Dwarfs something else with a D" out of it. Then finally ah...Slinky Dog Dash! We had to rope drop Slinky Dog on our trip in September, and walked right on. It was a good thing we were at the front of the tapstiles to enter the Studios, because when we exited SDD the line was already beyond the entrance to Toy Story Land!

I'm sure your next (well-rested!) run will be much better!

 

[Kazrak]

I had to ponder SDD for a bit, lol...I was trying to figure out how to get "Seven Dwarfs something else with a D" out of it. Then finally ah...Slinky Dog Dash! We had to rope drop Slinky Dog on our trip in September, and walked right on. It was a good thing we were at the front of the tapstiles to enter the Studios, because when we exited SDD the line was already beyond the entrance to Toy Story Land!

I'm sure your next (well-rested!) run will be much better!

So, just posted over in the Attractions and Strategies thread - half the fastpasses were booked for November, not January. I got an email today that Space Mountain was down during my fastpass, which made me realize. (Good thing, too!) I did manage to get most of the ones I wanted, including two for Mine Train and one for Peter Pan before it closes for refurb.

I can only blame 4am.