From Magic Run Weekend 2019 to Dopey 2020 (Comments welcome)

DerTobi75

Mouseketeer
Joined
Aug 19, 2016
After reading a lot of Tripreports, Racereports and Trainingsjournals, I want to start my own! The most challenging thing about writing a Trainingsjournal and later hopefully also a Racereport onto this Forum, is the fact, that English is not my native language. So, please excuse my bad writings, if it bothers you, just stop reading or just send me a PM, if I wrote something wrong, and help me to improve my English ;-)

Ok, you are still here, great! I guess, it is now time to introduce myself.

My name is Tobias, you can call me Tobi. I started running a few years back, here in Germany, at a local Charity Race. We ran 5K just for fun, without any training, just for a good cause. After this run my „running carrier“ started and I did a little bit more training and started at other local Races.

tag05_01.jpg

My first Disney Run was the Inaugural 5K & HM at Disneyland Paris in 2016, which I ran every year since then. In 2017 a (small) dream came true, I started at the WDW Marathon. But all I really wanted was Dopey.

It took me another two years to convince my girlfriend, that running Dopey is not a total self-destruction and I can do it with the right training. Dopey 2020 here I come!

Speaking of Dopey, right now I am on a @DopeyBadger Trainingsplan for Magic Run Weekend 2019 (36K Challenge) in September and a Marathon in October. My goal is running a good HM at Disneyland Paris to get a good PoT and Corral Placement at WDW.

Training startet on June 10th for the Magic Run Weekend 2019 and the Marathon in October and went well. The last weeks Europe was hit by two heat waves with temperatures at 100F and above. For this week, I am a little bit behind my schedule, because of the heat, but I can still see progress.

Besides running, I also swim a bit and do some exercises once a week to strengthen my body.

Feel free to comment, Trainingsreports are coming shortly, ...
 
he most challenging thing about writing a Trainingsjournal and later hopefully also a Racereport onto this Forum, is the fact, that English is not my native language. So, please excuse my bad writings, if it bothers you, just stop reading or just send me a PM, if I wrote something wrong, and help me to improve my English ;-)
Welcome. It takes a lot of courage to speak and write in a language that is not your native tongue. I served a 2 year mission for my church in Moscow, Russia and have so much respect for the effort it takes to learn a foreign language and be able to converse sufficiently in it. It's not easy.
It took me another two years to convince my girlfriend, that running Dopey is not a total self-destruction and I can do it with the right training. Dopey 2020 here I come!
It also took me a long time to work up to feeling like multiple races in a single weekend is not a total self destruction. I used to think that running a 5K followed by a half would destroy my legs for the half. Between running a half marathon at Disney World at the end of a visit there and Star Wars races, I decided that proper training particularly back to back training runs would be enough. Turned out that it was. In 2015, I ran the inaugural Star Wars Rebel Challenge and after running 5 multi race challenge weekends, I began to feel like I might actually be able to tackle the marathon.

The mental gymnastics to get me to attempt Dopey as part of my first marathon went something like this.

1. I wanted to run the marathon once. If I enjoyed it, I could attempt another.
2. If I enjoyed it, I might want to attempt Goofy and/or Dopey on a subsequent attempt.
3. But if I didn't enjoy it, I might still wish I had done Goofy or Dopey for the runDisney experience, but would not want to do it again.
4. So I decided to go for Dopey.

Suffice it to say, I'm now training for Dopey 2020.
 
Welcome. It takes a lot of courage to speak and write in a language that is not your native tongue. I served a 2 year mission for my church in Moscow, Russia and have so much respect for the effort it takes to learn a foreign language and be able to converse sufficiently in it. It's not easy.
Thank you. Well, I have learnt English in School. Reading, listening and understanding is ok. I did several Behind The Scene Tours at WDW and also enjoy watching movies and TV Shows in English. But when it comes to talking and writing, it is a little tougher for me :-)

It also took me a long time to work up to feeling like multiple races in a single weekend is not a total self destruction.
Suffice it to say, I'm now training for Dopey 2020.
As I saw the first announcement of Dopey, I wanted to do it. But my girlfriend was against it, so I had a long way to go. Believe me, training is much easier, than all those discussions ;)

Congrats on training for Dopey, hope to see you at the Starting Line!


Welcome! You're going to do great!
Thank you! I hope so :-)
 
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7/22/19 - 7/28/19

Monday
- Day Off

Tuesday - Track Tuesday *1) + 6K @ EB
We are in the middle of summer vacation here in Germany. Also my „Running School“ is on vacation, though I asked a couple of fellow „Running Students“, if they like to join me on Tuesday and do some intervals. We met and did a 2.2K WarmUp Run. Followed by 8 Intervals of 1 Minute Fast & 1 Minute Recover. With Temperatures in the 95F, we first said, to not run full out. Skip this, we ran full out, which was a pace under 5 Minutes / KM for me. Cool Down was another 1.9K and, because of the heat, I skipped the 6K @ EB. Sorry Coach, ...
Was: 6.8km - 46:24


Wednesday - 6K @ EA
With the missing 6K from yesterday and Temperatures in the 100F I thought it would be a good idea, to run in the woods and do some of the missing 6K on top of the 6K for today. A friend who also did the Intervals wanted to join me, so I would not be alone on that trip. For some reason, I had to run from my home to the meeting point.

I started slowly, because on my way to the meeting point was very less shadow. After 4K I reached the meeting point. The wood felt a little bit cooler and I could breath a lot better now. We did a 5.9K run through the woods and that was enough.
Was: 9.9km - 1:11:59


Thursday
- 10K @ EB + Strides
Temperatures still rising, 105F a lot of Heat Records broken in Europe. Planned to do the run at a Lake. Running around the Lake is 6K, but you can add another shorter Loop, so you can easily run 10K. But after 6K I was still done and skipped the last 4K. After the run, I sat in the shadow of my car and was not able to stop sweating. Boy, what a weather, ...
Was: 6.0km - 41:46


Friday
- 18K @ Long Run
After the high Temperatures from yesterday, I texted DopeyBadger and asked him, what to do on a long run. He explained what to do. But luckily Temperatures dropped in the Evening, so I was able to run 16K @ my Long Run Pace, even a little bit faster. We use the long runs also for nutrition test for the Races. At 16K I ran out of my Maurten Drink and was not able to hold the pace. Stupid brain! Have to work on that mind set, as it was just a mental thing. Physically I had been able to do the last 2Ks.
Was: 16.1km - 1:47:33


Saturday
- Day Off

Sunday - 9K @ EA
Wow, what a relief, Temperatures down to 66F in the Morning. A little bit of rain as well, cannot complain about that ran. Did an easy 10K out of it.
Was: 10K - 1:16:22

Sunday
- Swim
I am not on a Trainingsplan for Swimming right now, so I do, what ever I want.
Todays Swim felt a little bit like a Forrest Gump Swim. I had 500m so I thought I could do another 500m, when I was at 1.000m I thought, let’s try my longest ever „nonstop“ swim and hit 1.900m. Coming so far, why not try to swim 2.500m and at 2.500m, I was like, let’s get the 3.000m nonstop i the books.

Once I swam 3.000m in a Trainingssession with several breaks. This was a „nonstop“ swim of 3.000m in a 25m pool. I am pretty proud ;-)
Was: 3.000m - 1:05:32


This Weeks Total:
Running:
49.4 km - 5:44:04
Swimming: 3km - 1:05:32


54 days to go until Magic Run Weekend first Race!



*1) Tuesday is meant to be Track Tuesday. I joined a few years ago a „Running School“, you can get a Training Plan written by one of their Coaches and every Tuesday, we run together in a small Park near the River Rhine on a dirt track. There is a small Warm Up run, some stretches, RunABC and other exercises, followed by the „main run“, which mostly contains some Intervalls. After a short Cool Down Run it is always time for some Water & Talk ;)
 
Looking forward to following your training. My mother is German and I have a lot of family still in Germany. It's an amazing country!! I wish my German were anywhere close to as good as your English!!!!
 
Looking forward to following your training. My mother is German and I have a lot of family still in Germany. It's an amazing country!! I wish my German were anywhere close to as good as your English!!!!
Thank you :-)

In which part of Germany does your family live?
 


Thank you :-)

In which part of Germany does your family live?

Most are in the area near Stuttgart. Swabia to be more precise. Partly why my German is so bad. My mother and her siblings would always speak Schwäbisch, so I understand that reasonably well, but not high German.
 
Ok, I see. Dialects can be a little bit tricky, my (german) nieces and nephews even do not understand my girlfriends mother, when she speaks in a dialect :-)
 
Tobi!!! I remember you from the 2017 marathon board. I'm happy to follow along on your journal! From time to time, I have had to re-convince my family that I'm not going to die if I run another marathon too, I have looked a little rough at the end of most of them, so I get the struggle with your gf. Hope to see you again at Marathon Weekend this year.
Edited to add I shouldn't have said, "see you again" because I missed you last time! We were assigned to the same corral but I didn't find you.
 
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Tobi!!! I remember you from the 2017 marathon board. I'm happy to follow along on your journal! From time to time, I have had to re-convince my family that I'm not going to die if I run another marathon too, I have looked a little rough at the end of most of them, so I get the struggle with your gf. Hope to see you again at Marathon Weekend this year.
Edited to add I shouldn't have said, "see you again" because I missed you last time! We were assigned to the same corral but I didn't find you.
Yes, I remember you too!

That sunday morning in 2017 was so damn cold. I did not find the Disboard Meeting Point and did not know if I was too late or looking in the wrong corner. We had the same timegoal (Sub5), and the same strategy like, just walk at the waterstations. So much went wrong that morning, I hit the first porta-potty right after the start and ran slower than expected.

The only one I met that morning was someone from a FB Group & his wife.

Maybe we are luckier in this year and meet :-)
 
Yes, I remember you too!

That sunday morning in 2017 was so damn cold. I did not find the Disboard Meeting Point and did not know if I was too late or looking in the wrong corner. We had the same timegoal (Sub5), and the same strategy like, just walk at the waterstations. So much went wrong that morning, I hit the first porta-potty right after the start and ran slower than expected.

The only one I met that morning was someone from a FB Group & his wife.

Maybe we are luckier in this year and meet :-)
I wanted to run with you because we had similar goals! In fact when my husband met me at mile 19 he asked me "Where's your German" haha. I couldn't find anybody that morning either but hopefully this year the meet ups will be more visible. I met up with some folks from onhere before the Star Wars races this past April and it was great for pre-race nerves to have folks to talk to.
 
I wanted to run with you because we had similar goals! In fact when my husband met me at mile 19 he asked me "Where's your German" haha. I couldn't find anybody that morning either but hopefully this year the meet ups will be more visible. I met up with some folks from onhere before the Star Wars races this past April and it was great for pre-race nerves to have folks to talk to.
Do you have already a goal for 2020?
 
This time around I'm doing Goofy, in part to keep me from getting too wrapped up in a goal time while I'm on vacation. I tend to get a little over-invested emotionally in my time goals and doing the challenge will make sure that I have a sense of accomplishment just from finishing something I haven't done before. My marathon goal for some other time is still to run a sub 5 hours. I think that was the goal for both of us in 2017 but I was way off, I got runner's knee pain pretty bad somewhere around mile 19-20 and limped in to the finish in about 5:50. With Billy's help I brought my marathon PR down to about 5:16 the next year so you are in good hands!
 
@SheHulk That is right, we both had the goal 2017 to run a Sub5, I finished in 5:40 that year.

With my actual TP, Billy wants me to run a 4:20 Marathon. Before Dopey, I am going to run a Marathon here in Germany in October. Sub5 would be a great success, 4:20 sounds like a miracle for me. But, on the other side, I am doing good, and looking forward for the Magic Run Weekend in September and the Marathon in October.
 
With July in the books, there is only one full month and like two and a half week until Magic Run Weekend in Paris. I am, more or less, happy with my progress and I was able to do all runs on my TP. Some of the runs have been shorter, then they should be. That was because of the heat wave we faced here in Germany,

I am not so happy with my Long Runs, as they fell too short. But this seems to be a common issue with some of @DopeyBadger Runners. But in the end almost every runner had no issues going the full distance. So, I have faith ;)

Anyway, I was able to do all runs, and had no breaks like last year because of any health problems. Fingers crossed!

Today I got a TP from my local „Running School“ for Athletic Exercises, which I am going to integrate in my Running TP, until the Athletic Course starts again after school vacation, end of August. These exercises helped me a lot to stabilize my Core. Feels much better now, while Running or Swimming.

Swimming is also doing great, but at the moment I am only able to hit the Pool once a week. Which is far too little.

july19.jpg

Running in July
22 Runs, 177.66km, 20:22h

Swimming in July
5 Swims, 8.2km, 2:57h

Looking forward into my TP for August, it looks like this month can be another milestone for this year. 200km of Running! Woot, ...
 
I am not so happy with my Long Runs, as they fell too short. But this seems to be a common issue with some of @DopeyBadger Runners. But in the end almost every runner had no issues going the full distance. So, I have faith ;)
If it helps you at all, this was my experience with a @DopeyBadger plan:

I started consistently running in 2014. In roughly 2016 or so, I began to think I might want to attempt the marathon someday. Race reports inspired me and I wanted that experience for myself. But I always found that my 10+ mile training runs for half marathons left me exhausted and honestly, rather tired of running. As recently as 2017 this feeling always ended those marathon ideas. If I can barely tolerate running for 10 miles and only do so because I enjoy the runDisney half, why would I want to double that distance? Why?

After coach patiently and repeatedly explained his planning ideas to me, I began to get a sense of why it could work. So I tested it out on a half marathon where my longest run was round 7 miles. Despite dealing with a variety of issues stemming entirely from my life in the days and weeks leading up to the race, I still managed to shave 3 minutes off my PR despite having to walk the entire course.

Now to the marathon. Though I did not know this until sometime in December when coach told me, I was actually running a higher volume of miles than the runDisney Galloway plan called for. I just followed his plan as best I could. My longest single run for the marathon was 11 miles. But the cumulative volume of following the plan day in and day out proved to be plenty sufficient come race day. I'm still only beginning to understand how cumulative fatigue works in running, but it really does work. The first time through there is a lot of learning to trust your training. But it prepare you and it works wonderfully.
 
@Sleepless Knight Yes I know. Billy also repeatedly told me, that consistency is the key in his TPs ;-) I understand this, somehow!

Maybe one thing, why I am a little bit nervous about the long runs. Here in Germany a lot of runner think, when training for a marathon, you have to run at least 3 - 4 times 30km or farer before raceday. And also Galloway has those long runs in his Plans. But, personally, I like Daniels philosophy much better, saying not to run any longer then 2:30h in training.
 
7/29/19 - 8/04/19

Monday -
Day Off

Tuesday - Track Tuesday & 4K @ EB
Met with three other Runner and we did a short warm up, followed by 5 Intervalls of 2 Minutes Fast, 2 Minutes Slow, 1 Minute Fast and 1 Minute Slow.

Fast Intervalls had most times a Pace under 5 Minutes / KM, which is pretty good for me. Resting in the Slow Intervalls at a pace at around 7:30 Minutes / KM helped to get back to breath again and the heart rate down.

The Workout ended with a Cool Down Run back to our meeting point.
Was: 9.3km - 0:58:19 - Pace: 6:17 Minutes / km

Wednesday
- Day Off

Thursday - 11K @ EB + Strides
Easy B run, nothing special happens there. Did six strides at the end, which felt pretty good.

Funny about that run! We were invited to a wedding, which we had to leave before the party, because we had to travel to another wedding. After coming home from the first wedding, my girlfriend had to pack some of her stuff. After a few minutes I could see in here eyes, that she needs a little longer. So I took my chance, jumped into my running shoes and did that run before our travel to the northern part of Germany. Once we would arrive and meet the family, chance are pretty good, that I am not able to do this run ;)
Was: 11:3km - 1:15:19 - Pace: 6:41 Minutes / km

Friday -
3K @ LR, 1K @ Daniels T, 3K @ LR, 1K @ Daniels T, 3K @ LR
Yesterday trip to „Bad Bederkesa“ where the second Wedding is going to take place on Saturday was less fun. A lot of traffic and it took us longer than expected. Anyway we made it and we had a great day today, meeting the family and just relaxing a little bit.

At the evening I did my 11 KM run around the Bederkesa Lake, each lap around the lake would be 6.5 km, so I had a little bit more, than written on my TP. The run contains 3K @ Long Run Speed, 1K @ Daniels T Speed, 3K @ Long Run Speed, 1K @ Daniels T Speed and finally again 3K @ Long Run Speed.

From the beginning I was a little bit too fast. Tried to slow down me a bit, but it does not work so well. The Daniels T Speed is at 5:42 Minutes per KM, that was fun and worked really good! Back at my Long Run Speed (6:43 Minutes per KM) I had to fight a few Mosquitos and other Flys! And suddenly I got a Message on my Smartphone!

„How far are you?“
„Round 1 done!“.
„Run faster, we are at some Restaurant and the food looks good!“
:oops:

At first I used Siri, to write my Messages, then I tried to type by myself, because I expected Siri to not understand my order. I texted my Girlfriend what I would like to eat.

Checked my Pace, saw that texting slowed me down and picked up my Long Run Pace.

Lap 2 went well, the fast KM was again fun and 2km before the end of my run I got the next message!

„How long do you need?“
🤔 2x 6:43 ... „10 Minutes“ (I know, ... !)
„Can we make the order?“
„Y-E-S, but I have to shower before I can meet you, I am sweating and wet all over!“
„But they are going to close the kitchen soon!“ (1 1/2 Hours, ..)
„Just make that damn order!!! 🙄

At the end of my run, my girlfriend watched out for me and gave me the key for our hotel room and I could take my shower. 20 Minutes later I joined them and we had a great dinner with them.
Was: 12.6km - 1:20:37 - 6:24 Minutes / km

Saturday -
Day Off (Wedding & Party 🥳)

Sunday - 11K @ EA 🥴
The Wedding was a blast! Great party, with a little bit too much booze, but in the End I ha d good ratio between Beer and Water.
We headed back to our hotel around 2:30am. I wake up at 4:30am, nature was calling and at 7:30am my smartphone woke me up.

Another 11km @ EA was written in my TP and with that nice Lake around the corner, why not!

Uhhm, well, ...

I walked to the Lake, started my Garmin and ran at easy pace. My legs felt a bit sore, from all the dancing last night and my stomach was like „What are you doing, Idiot?“.

The air was clean and fresh, it helped to get around the Lake. But after one round, I decided to call it a run and ran back to the hotel.
Was: 7.1km - 53:02 - 7:32 Minutes / km

Sunday -
Swim
After breakfast with the family and saying everyone good bye. We checked out and visited a swimming pool with a sauna.

Swimming was not that much fun here. They only had a small pool with only three lanes and it was a little bit crowded. 550meters for me, enjoyed the waterslide and visited the sauna two times.
Was: 550m - 11:26 - 2:05 Minutes / 100m

This Week Total
Running:
40.2km - 4:27:22
Swimming: 550m - 11:26


47 Days to go until Magic Run Weekend in Paris
 
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Here in Germany a lot of runner think, when training for a marathon, you have to run at least 3 - 4 times 30km or farer before raceday. And also Galloway has those long runs in his Plans.

It's a pretty common thinking for most marathoners. The roots of it come from the 1970s-80s when most runners who ran the marathon distance were on the faster side of the spectrum. So when they did their 20 mile long runs they were completing them in about 2.5 hours. As more people got involved in the sport, the 20 mile long run distance held as a measuring stick of sorts that people would use. However the people on the slower end of the pace spectrum were completing those 20 milers in 3, 4, 5, or 6 hours (albeit at the appropriate pace). There are some arguments to be made that it should have been the 2.5 hour timeframe more so than the 20 miles that should have held as a common training practice. At the end of the day, I've had runners complete as little as 11 miles (2.5 hrs) as their long run and still convert their previous HM time on the higher end of the conversion table. It comes down to the totality of the training plan more than any single individual run. But it's a hard mindset to break for sure.
 

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