To Infinity and Beyond - Becoming a Better DopeyBadger (Comments Welcome)

Can't really say why. She's always known since she was a baby how to play up to the camera. I've never been to one of the photo sessions, but the stories I hear are adorable. The hair-flips and the constant "blue steel" looks she gives.

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"WHAT?!? Is this a center for ants?!? It has to be at least 3 times bigger." Or the complete awe when he finally unveiled Blue Steel. In college, we held funerals for home appliances mostly so we could say the word eugoogoly. Well that and entertain ourselves.
 
"WHAT?!? Is this a center for ants?!? It has to be at least 3 times bigger." Or the complete awe when he finally unveiled Blue Steel. In college, we held funerals for home appliances mostly so we could say the word eugoogoly. Well that and entertain ourselves.

:P

In case anyone needed another reason to love Hansons Marathon Method: https://www.runnersworld.com/elite-...d-mom-of-three-has-huge-marathon-breakthrough

Great article!
 
24 Days to Go (BLIND!)

blind-gif-5.gif

Date - Day - Scheduled Workout (Intervals within desired pace)

12/4/17 - M - MBW
12/5/17 - T - 2 mile WU + 3 x 2 miles @ T w/ 2 min Rest + 4 x 200m @ R w/ 200m RI + 2 mile CD (5/8)
12/6/17 - W - 7 miles @ 7:54-8:28 min/mile
12/7/17 - R - 3 mile WU + 8 miles M Tempo ***BLIND*** + 3 mile CD (6/8)
12/8/17 - F - 7 miles @ 7:54-8:28 min/mile
12/9/17 - Sat - 11 miles @ 7:54-8:28 min/mile
12/10/17 - Sun - 12 miles @ 7:35 min/mile (8/11)
12/11/17 - M - MBW

Total (training) mileage = 61.0 miles
Number of SOS intervals within pace = 19/27 (70%)

Monday
Standard medicine ball workout

Tuesday
2 mile WU + 3 x 2 miles @ T w/ 2 min Rest + 4 x 200m @ R w/ 200m RI + 2 mile CD

Winter has arrived! And so has the wind!!!! My goodness the wind!!!

WC 14, wind 15-25 mph, night

T Pace = 6:33 min/mile
T window = +/- 5 seconds

R Pace = 5:36 min/mile (41s)
R window = +/- 1 sec (41.0-42.99)

The wind was too much for me. I pushed hard to maintain pace through the wind, but after a few miles decided it would be best to pull back.

T Pace = 6:38, 6:28, 6:34, 6:42, 6:44, 6:44
R Pace = 42.5, 42.99, x, x

Running in the wind (especially 15-25 mph wind) is no joke. I did my best after struggling to hit the pace to just relax and let effort dictate the remainder of the run. I felt a twinge at the top of my left calf at the beginning of the third 200m R interval. So I shut it down immediately. I didn't like that feeling one bit. Hoping it's just a momentary thing. On to the next one!

Wednesday
WC of 17, 12-18 mph wind, night. Average pace of 8:24 min/mile and HR of 132. I was prepared for my calf to give me issues. There was a little "clicking" when I first started running (like the tendons were rubbing against each other or something). There was also a momentary tightness when I stopped for water and then restarted. Otherwise, it was a relatively normal run. I was prepared to not do the M Tempo on Thursday if things didn't feel right. Because things were ok on an easy day, I was eager to see what would happen.

Thursday
28 days to go!

3 mile WU + 8 miles M Tempo + 3 miles CD

WC of 8, 6 mph wind, night

I decided to run this blind. Because of the calf pull/issue on Tuesday's T run I was concerned with whether it would reappear. After doing some brief research I was pretty convinced that it was because of the cold weather and the muscle cooled down in temp very quickly during the resting intervals. So then the muscle wasn't primed well enough to attempt R pace. So I had a feeling that as long as I didn't stop running, that a continuous pace wouldn't cause an issue. So since I wasn't quite sure what my body would give me today, I decided why not go blind!

M Tempo = 6:58 min/mile
M Tempo window = +/- 10 seconds

So how did I do blind?

M Tempo = 7:06, 7:08, 6:53, 6:56, 6:53, 6:48, 6:45, 6:44

That's not surprising to me at all. My typical blind race comes with a standard "U" shaped curve. Slow in the beginning, fastest in the middle, and then fade at the end. The goal is to aim that fade as close to the end of the race as possible. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't. So no surprise to me that the beginning was slow, and then it just kept getting progressively faster and faster (regardless of elevation changes).

At the end of the day, I hit 6/8 intervals within the 10 second window. The last two were certainly flying. The average pace was 6:54 min/mile and average GAP was 6:47 min/mile. In the process, I set a new 10k PR of 42:35, and my 2nd and 3rd fastest 3 mile loop. But was it appropriate? Well the effort felt good. Calm, relaxed and strong. The HR tells an interesting story as well and it's hard to say I trust it 100%. The HR for the 8 miles was 144, 142, 145, 142, 143, 143, 147, 153. My normal M Tempo is 148-152. So this would be 1/8 miles within expected HR area. Seems to good to be true really. I think the WC of 8 played a big role here.

Predicted TRIMP = 219
Actual TRIMP = 185

Not surprising that the TRIMP was off when the HR was so far lower than expected.

Only 4 weeks to go and I'm still in a good place! Almost game time!

Friday
WC of 28, minimal wind, and night. Average pace of 8:30 min/mile and HR of 127.

Saturday
I was interested to see how much snow we got when I woke up. I tried to push this run as late into the morning as possible to allow the sun to come out and warm the roads/air. The plan somewhat worked...WC of 8, 15-25 mph wind, light snow, and minimal snow on ground. At first blush a minimal snow sounds good, but what it means is there is little traction and the wind has really made what is there slick. So most of the run was COLD, WINDY, and SLICK road... UGH! This was one of those few days in my running career where I've really questioned whether I wanted to be out there. And out there for 11 miles no less... But, I like to keep things in perspective. 1) You don't get to choose the race day weather conditions. While I highly doubt these conditions for Dopey, I know that races in my future may be like this. I need to get out there in this to make a record in the memory bank about what I can and can't do. 2) Cherish the days you get to run. Because some day you may not get to. Average pace was 7:53 min/mile with HR of 134. This was an interesting paced run because of the wind. Sometimes I was at 7:30-7:40 on an easy run and sometimes around 8:00. All a matter of what direction the wind was in. Happy to walk in the door and have that one be done.

Sunday
25 days to go!!!

12 miles @ LR

WC of 20, light wind, cloudy

Long Run = 7:35 min/mile
Long Run window = +/- 10 seconds

I was excited to have this run in non-miserable conditions like yesterday. It was a WC of 8, 18 mph wind, and it snowed a little that evening. Led to little traction and a fairly miserable wind/temp combo.

I've been feeling pretty strong this week. The blind M Tempo went well (slightly under pace) and then the two easy runs felt easy (other than yesterday's wind/temp combo). But when you take into consideration the conditions, to be able to hit a 7:53 average is pretty good (just below EB). So I was interested to see what LR pace felt natural today.

Long Run = 7:26, 7:25, 7:24, 7:28, 7:25, 7:26, 7:25, 7:27, 7:26, 7:21, 7:24

Needless to say I was pretty locked in today. These paces are astoundingly close when you take into consideration that I have near constant elevation gain or loss on every mile. I tried to catch myself to quick on a few intervals and a few times I snuck it in and a few others did not.

Overall a pace average of 7:25 with an average HR of 139 (historical 138-142). So while it may have been 10 seconds too fast on average, the HR suggests (as well as effort) that it was right on target. For comparison, a year ago my HR average at a pace of 7:25 (which was just between M Tempo and HM Tempo) was 150-153. So what was 150-153 a year ago is now 139. Good sign of progress given the conditions are relatively similar. The same HR (138) was an 8:09-8:17 a year ago (compared to 7:25 now).

Predicted TRIMP = 170
Actual TRIMP = 158

Not surprising since the HR average was on the low side of historical.

Predicted Weekly TRIMP = 852
Actual Weekly TRIMP = 795

This was a step down week from last week's almost peak. But because of the recent HR gains, the step back was a little more dramatic. At this point there isn't much I can or want to do about it. Next week is brutal, so I'm sure the intensity will increase just fine. Just one week of tough training left and then it's time for the taper!

Lastly, I've been working very hard to get my weight back in order. During the Lakefront 2017 training cycle, I gained a few more pounds that I would have wanted. But I allowed it because I was concerned about maximizing performance and not necessarily weight. After the Lakefront race, I decided to needed to get things back in order. I had been between 155-160 for most of the Spring, but had gotten up to 167 on Lakefront race day. After some time off, and quite a few more apple fritters than I care of admit (it was 3...) I was up to 169.8 on 10/18/17 (it was 167 on 10/19, thanks fritters). So I got on MyFitnessPal and did some calculations to come up with a plan of action. The goal was to lose 1 pound per week, but to not sacrifice training in any way. Since training has gone well I've continued to slowly drop weight. Now 53 days later (7.5 weeks), I'm down to 159.6. Very happy with where I'm at and I can certainly tell the difference in my current performance.

In 25 days I get to go out there and Prove it. Like I always like to say, "If you want it, PROVE IT, by doing what is necessary to get it!"

After the run we went to the Nutcracker!

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One last item of business. The DopeyBadger Dopey Prediction Contest will open next week after the last week of tough training. Some might remember the complicated scoring system (according to some). Well I haven't forgotten a certain someone's offer to come up with this year's contest rules:

I don't think this prediction contest is appropriately complex enough. :crazy: Next year, I'm putting the rules together.

So let's hear what you got @opusone!
 


Impressive week. Good for you for getting out there in the snow. I guess I will stop complaining about my "cold" desert mornings that are between 42-50*. Hahaha.
 
I am gonna 2nd the OMG the wind. It's been in the 15-20mph for a while here and of course this week for my last Dopey sim the forecast calls for all week 25-40mph. I hope I can pull through as well as you do in it. Sounds like some solid training. Love the family photo. The nutcracker is always a fun holiday event. I am excited to hear there is a Dopey Prediction contest as I didn't get the courage to join DIS in time for your last marathon contest.
 


Great job this week as usual!

I'm glad I'm not the only one who hates the wind. Sometimes I think I'm just being a wimp but then on Sunday it was literally blowing me off the road. Calm down wind!
 
Right?! It was brutal this past week here too.


:cheer2:

Sounds like a difficult week given the weather conditions, glad your calf didn't give you too much grief!

I can deal with a lot of different weather conditions, but honestly I think wind is the worst! Happy to have the calf be a one time thing.

Impressive week. Good for you for getting out there in the snow. I guess I will stop complaining about my "cold" desert mornings that are between 42-50*. Hahaha.

Thanks! Lol! Outside of running at Disney, I'm not sure I see a run above 40 until March/April.

I am gonna 2nd the OMG the wind. It's been in the 15-20mph for a while here and of course this week for my last Dopey sim the forecast calls for all week 25-40mph. I hope I can pull through as well as you do in it. Sounds like some solid training. Love the family photo. The nutcracker is always a fun holiday event. I am excited to hear there is a Dopey Prediction contest as I didn't get the courage to join DIS in time for your last marathon contest.

Oh man that wind sounds awful! Hoping the weather predictions are wrong. Happy to have you join since. The Dopey game is much more complicated hence @opusone 's comment last year. We shall see what we come up with for this year.

Great job this week as usual!

I'm glad I'm not the only one who hates the wind. Sometimes I think I'm just being a wimp but then on Sunday it was literally blowing me off the road. Calm down wind!

Thanks! We can be wind hating buddies (at least when it comes to running in the wind, as I'm sure the wind plays pivotal roles in other aspects of life...). Calm down wind is right!
 
Glad you've been able to troubleshoot your calf a little, that makes total sense. I love G's boots with her dress, it's a very fun look : ) Excited for the prediction contest again, and also wanted to say congrats on your weight loss!
 
Glad you've been able to troubleshoot your calf a little, that makes total sense. I love G's boots with her dress, it's a very fun look : ) Excited for the prediction contest again, and also wanted to say congrats on your weight loss!

Thanks all around! Hoping the calf is behind me, G loved her "big girl dress", last years prediction contest was fun because it was multi-layered which meant each race mattered and how well you did on a race scored points, and the weight loss has been a fulfilling venture.
 
Bring on the prediction contest! I always stink at my predictions, but it's fun anyway. I love that family picture of you guys. Great!
 
Bring on the prediction contest! I always stink at my predictions, but it's fun anyway. I love that family picture of you guys. Great!

I'm interested to see what tweaks @opusone has to the rules from 2017:

General Rules
-All predictions must be made between 12/19/16 and 12/28/16 in this journal (unless verbal to me).
-Only one set of predictions per person.
-A person should predict 5k, 10k, Half Marathon, Marathon, Goofy and Dopey finishing times (not paces). In addition, a tie breaker of final cumulative time Dopey rank will be used as calculated by @opusone.
-There is no limitation on guesses and there closeness to others. Therefore, two people can make the same exact prediction for any of the times (ie. two people can predict a 5k time of 25:00).
-The official RunDisney time for William Blaser for the 5k, 10k, HM, and M will be used as the official finishing times for this contest. The Garmin/Strava times do not count. The Goofy time is the HM + M and the Dopey time is 5k, 10k, HM and M combined.
-A person's Goofy guess (or Dopey guess) does not have to be a sum of their individual race times. Therefore, a guess of 1:00 for HM and 2:00 M does not mean you have to guess 3:00 for Goofy. You are free to "hedge" your bets with a different time.
- @roxymama has graciously volunteered her time to update the standings after each race and give the final standings after all 6 events have been completed. I will inform her of the official race time (or she can look it up herself) and she will post on here the standings from that day's event as well as the current total standings (with all completed events totaled up to that day).

Points are accumulated in the following manner:
--The time difference between one's guess and the official time as recorded by RunDisney will be calculated.
--All time differences will be calculated as absolute differences. So, being 5 seconds too fast or 5 seconds too slow are both equal to being off by 5 seconds. There are no price is right style rules.
--Everyone's time difference for each individual category will be ranked against other participants. The person with the closest guess to the actual time (therefore, the smallest difference between guess and actual time) for an individual race is given the most points. The 2nd closest person is given the second most points. etc.
--Each individual event's time difference is calculated separately and ranked separately from other events. Therefore, the time difference/rank of the 5k guess has no impact on the time difference/rank of the Half Marathon.
--The highest number of possible points is based on the number of participants. If there are 27 people playing, then the person with the closest 5k guess gets 27 points. The 2nd person gets 26 points. etc. Same for each of the other events (10k, HM, M, and Goofy)
--If two people have the exact same time difference, then they share the total points. The next person in rank then receives less points (determined by the number tied at the same time difference). Therefore, if 10 people are playing and the top time difference of 7 seconds is shared by 3 people, then those 3 people all get 10 points for that event. The next person in rank (4th) gets 7 points.
--The person with the highest time difference (worst or furthest from the actual time) receives only 1 point.
--In the event, I do not finish a race (therefore, pulled from the HM course because of injury or another reason), then the ranks will be done with slowest being 1st place and down the list to the fastest prediction being last.
--If someone predicts the exact time of the event, then they receive double points. If there are 27 people playing, and the final 10k time is 44:22, and someone guesses 44:22, then that person receives 54 points.
--All points are doubled for Dopey time predictions. If there are 27 people playing, then the first place person gets 54 points. Second place gets 52 points. Third place gets 50 points, etc.
--If someone guesses the Dopey time perfectly, then they get double double points (quadruple). So, if 27 people playing, then they get 108 points.
--The final rank of each person is the accumulation of points from each individual event (5k, 10k, HM, M, Goofy, and Dopey) summed together. The person with the most accumulated points wins the game.
--In the event two people share the highest cumulative point total, then a tie breaker will be used. The tie breaker is guessing the final cumulative Dopey time rank as calculated by @opusone. The absolute value from the final Dopey rank will be used to determine who is closest (no price is right rules). However, in the event that two people tie in top final rank, and tie in absolute value difference from final Dopey rank, then the person with the lower guess (closer to #1 ranked Dopey runner) is the winner. If the two champions are still tied (because they both guessed the exact same final cumulative Dopey rank), then the person who made their guesses first wins.
--In the event of a disagreement, I will make the final decision.

Winner receives one (1) $10 gift card to Amazon via email. Email will be requested via PM using the DISboards (or verbally if I know the person here).

Yep, it was complicated, but I thought it was fun!

Thanks! G had a fun time talking through the entire Nutcracker. Not sure if G ever really stops talking until she's asleep. But in fact, she has on several occasions been talking in her sleep as well! LOL!
 
Love it!! Just like a true contest it has all the fine print rules. Thanks for hosting it and to all your Vanna Whites helping out. Will begin to contemplate my guesses.
 
Love it!! Just like a true contest it has all the fine print rules. Thanks for hosting it and to all your Vanna Whites helping out. Will begin to contemplate my guesses.

My scientific specialty is logic. So I try and cover all the bases and come up with all the possible scenarios. As you can see I listed - don't finish HM because of injury as an example - but forgot cancellations. We dealt with that on the fly.

excited for your contest! And super cute pictures lately. Both your family one and little G!

Thanks! She's such a ham when the camera is around.
 
Ah CIM is the race I wanted to BQ at. That article was so inspirational, but I find running is easier once they turn 2. So I probably won't make my goal for 2018-2019 - oh well, life happens.

Another prediction contest! I'll be on the sidelines for now since I'm only on these forums sporadically and I've done terribly in the past, but good luck!
 

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