The Disney Wine and Dine ½ Marathon was a blast – as usual. What can you say? It’s Disney. They’ve corrected the few problems they had
the last time I ran it. I didn’t get to
do it last year. The registration and
Expo was the usual Disney great. I don’t
think I’ve seen a registration for >15k runners go so smoothly. There weren’t as many vendors as show up for
the January marathon weekend, but there were more than anyone would ever need.
If there was something for running that you wanted, it was there, along with a
lot of other stuff. All of the major
producers had company reps there, which was very helpful because I was looking
for something specific.
If you’ve never done a Disney marathon, they are really
great. They are well organized and loads of fun. They all run through two or
more parks, depending upon the length of the race. For example, the January
marathon runs through Magic Kingdom,
Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios and ends in EPCOT. Disney characters and staff cheer you
on. Many runners stop and have their
pictures taken with characters. The Wine and Dine starts at 10pm, runs from the
Sports Complex, through Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios, and ends up at
EPCOT where, after you get your beautiful Disney medal and nutrition, you get a
beer that you can drink on your way into the after-race party at EPCOT and
World Showcase which goes until 4am. In
your goody bag was a gift card for $10 for food and drink in the park.
You need to sign up for a Disney race well in advance. For the January race you need to be signed up
9-10 months ahead to be sure to have a place.
There are 75-80,000 runners that weekend. You also need to get your room at the same
time. The most economical is to stay at
a Disney Resort. Disney resorts come in
all sizes and prices, and no matter how you crunch the numbers, they come out
the best buy. If you stay at a Disney Resort you also have a lot of perks. If you fly, they pick you up and return you
to the airport. If you drive, you can
park and never need to drive until you’re ready to go home. I was there for 10 days for the Wine and Dine
and never drove once. The bus, boat, and monorail system is phenomenal. They also provide
transportation to and from the race which is invaluable. If you’ve ever tried to get to the starting
line at a really big marathon, you know exactly what I mean.
The Wine and Dine was perhaps the slowest ½ I’ve run since I
started running and I was really happy with my time. If that last sentence didn’t make sense, I’ll
explain. In 55 days, 10 hours and 16
minutes I have to be ready for the Goofy . . . a 63k B2B ultra. When I started running long trails and ultras
the first advice I received from every veteran was ‘learn to keep your pace
slow.’ Believe it or not, that isn’t as
easy as it sounds. That’s why I was so
happy that I averaged 12:45 without the benefit of my Garmin. My typical ½ is 10:30 to 11:00 min/mi, which
isn’t fast but is faster than I need or want.
I hate calling any race a “training run” or “training race”. For some reason that seems like I’m being
demeaning and every race is worthy of the effort no matter why you’re running
it. Unfortunately I don’t have a clever
alternative so let’s just say that Evansville
in Oct. and Disney in Nov. were my last chances to practice my new skills. My
last chance is in Dec. when Kelly (daughter) and I will be running the Memphis marathon.
(We’re signed up for the full but Kelly said that the ½ is a much nicer race.)
If you haven’t run a B2B it is a new challenge that is much
more difficult than it appears. I’m not sure yet whether I like the B2B or not.
My judgment is clouded by the fact that I much prefer the trail run to the road
race under any circumstances. So right now give me 63k of trail to cover in one
day. But I’m trying to keep an open
mind.
Most people would think that the break between the two
portions of the B2B would make it easier. Au contraire!!! The Goofy, for example, is a 21km on Saturday
and 42km on Sunday. You must be up and to the bus pickup by 3am Saturday
morning and you won’t get back to your resort until after noon. That means that
you will have less than 12 hours to attempt to recover, carb-load, rest and be
on the bus at 3am Sunday morning. To
recover and replace carbs and calories, and get 8 hours sleep in less than 12
hours is a physical impossibility. So you must train your body to conserve,
recover as much as possible, and be prepared to do 42km more on minimal rest
and physical resources. This is what is harder than preparing to run 63km (39.3
miles) of roads or trails in a single race.
To get ready for this challenge has been an interesting
challenge in itself. I found two approaches: 1 – two training sessions a day,
and 2 – increasing miles during the week, 2 cross-training days, a short-long
run on Saturday and long-long run on Sunday.
#1 is most often used for shorter B2B’s like a 5k+10k or 10k and ½
because most people don’t have the time to build up the length of two daily
training sessions. Besides, I must admit
that I’m not a morning runner. Until I
retire (which many of you know will be only 44 days from now) I always worry
about getting to work no matter how early I start. I don’t do that type of
stress well. End result – I opted for approach #2. I think I prefer it anyway.
You might find what I’m doing interesting and think of all
sorts of other applications. The first alternate application that came to mind
was for those of you who, like me, are tempted by the running vacations out
west where you run 15-20 miles from camp to camp or lodge to lodge each day for
several days. This would be a good way to prepare.
Let me start by giving John Hanc credit. Of course I can’t
find a copy of his article right now so that you can read it for yourself, but
I’ll find it after I post this and let you know later. In any case, I didn’t
come up with this on my own, John Hanc did.
I just modified it to fit my needs.
The plan is really rather simple and straight forward. The table below is my version of Mr. Hanc’s
plan. To build the foundation, I do three runs during the week with the
distance increasing each week until 4 weeks prior to the race and then I start
to taper down. I do my runs on Tuesday,
Wednesday and Thursday. On Monday and
Friday I do cross-training or rest. Most
of the time I have been riding my bike or going to the gym.
I guess this is the right time to remind those who know me
and to tell those who don’t that this isn’t chiseled in stone. Just because I love the technology,
psychology, physiology and nutrition of
running, as well as just really loving the act of running, doesn’t mean that I’m
a hard-boiled fanatic. I have no
problems with changing, skipping or otherwise modifying the program. After all, it’s just a plan . . . a
guide. For example, you will notice that
on Week 9 I show that I have a race and the Saturday distance is 13 instead of
10. That was the weekend of Wine and
Dine. I was schedule to do 20 miles the
Sunday after the Wine and Dine. No
problem. I skipped the after race party –
because I was cold and sleepy not because I was denying myself the party – and was
in bed by 2:30 am. I got up around 9:30.
That was 7 hours sleep but I felt good.
I started my 20 mile run.
Somewhere around mile 8 I started thinking, it was a beautiful day and I
was in Disney World. Now there’s nowhere
else better to do your long-long run than Disney World. I weave in and out of resorts, Downtown
Disney, and just have a great time. But, I thought, this would be a great day
to enjoy the parks. I can always run,
even though it might not be as much fun as running in Disney, but I can’t
always go to EPCOT or Animal Kingdom or the Magic Kingdom. End result … I cut
my run short, only did 14 miles and went to EPCOT. The world isn’t going to
end, and I doubt that it will cause any problems on race day. I try harder not to go too far over the
distance. That’s just because the
important part of the plan is (a)
avoiding the Terrible 2s – too much, too fast, too soon, and (b) gradually help
your body become accustomed and comfortable with the increased distance. Yes, I was doing >8 miles a day and 15-25
miles on weekends before I started, but the purpose here is to develop and
maintain lasting stamina. My body
already knows that it can do the miles. The important thing is that, now that
my body has that ability, I maintain and reinforce that ability.
|
Week
|
Date
|
Week Days (x3)
|
SAT
|
SUN
|
Pickups
|
Total Wk Distance
|
|
13
|
10/13/2012
|
7
|
8
|
16
|
1/2
|
43.68
|
|
12
|
10/20/2012
|
7
|
8
|
17
|
2/4
|
46.65
|
|
11
|
10/27/2012
|
7.5
|
8
|
18
|
3/6
|
48.5
|
|
10
|
11/3/2012
|
7.5
|
9
|
19
|
4/8
|
50.5
|
|
9
|
11/10/2012
|
8
|
13
|
20
|
RACE
|
57
|
|
8
|
11/17/2012
|
8
|
7
|
14
|
5/10
|
48.75
|
|
7
|
11/24/2012
|
8.25
|
8
|
16
|
6/12
|
48.75
|
|
6
|
12/1/2012
|
8.25
|
8
|
19
|
RACE
|
51.75
|
|
5
|
12/8/2012
|
8.5
|
10
|
22
|
RACE
|
57.5
|
|
4
|
12/15/2012
|
8.5
|
12
|
24
|
7/14
|
61.5
|
|
3
|
12/22/2012
|
7
|
8
|
18
|
none
|
47
|
|
2
|
12/29/2012
|
6
|
8
|
14
|
none
|
40
|
|
1
|
1/5/2012
|
4
|
6
|
13
|
none
|
31
|
|
0
|
1/12/2012
|
The pickups appear to be a fraction - 1/2, 2/4, etc. The first digit of the fraction is the number
of pickups I do during the Saturday run and the second digit is the number of
pickups I do on Sunday. The pickups are
a quarter of a mile and can be at any point of the run. I’m not fast, so you’d have to adjust your own
pace. Since my target is to stay around
the 13 min/mi pace to conserve energy, my pickups are generally no faster than
10:00. There’s nothing sacrosanct or
scientific about my target being around 13:00. It is just based on the fact
that 13:00 is a median between my normal marathon pace of 10:30-11:00 and my
ultra-trail pace of 15-16:00. You must work out your own numbers. The big thing
is to remember that, unless you’re in the race to win or win your division, you
want to set a pace that you can easily maintain over the two days with no time
to really recover in between.
One last thing . . . nutrition.
The only thing about which I am hard-boiled is nutrition. Your
body can’t do what you ask if you don’t feed it properly. I’m not going to go into details about
nutrition now. Perhaps I’ll write a series of blogs on the subject … someday. There is a lot of good information out
there. Just be sure to check your
sources – i.e. what are the author’s credentials? Runners World, Trail Runner or one of the
reputable running magazines are generally good resources. Matt Fitzgerald’s
book “Performance Nutrition for Runners” (2006. Rondale Inc. ISBN 1-59486-218-4) is pretty good. I would suggest, as you relate nutrition to
preparing for a B2B, to prepare for your Saturday and Sunday long runs as you
would for the actual race days. This
means not only nutritional preparation starting on Friday, but replacing
calories, sodium, electrolytes, etc. as quickly as possible after your Saturday
run. You should also get plenty of
protein. Experts will tell you to
consume whey protein within 2 hours of a hard run to repair muscle. Somewhere I
picked up the idea of mixing whey protein with my Gatorade and drinking it as I
run. This way I don’t have to worry about the 2 hours window. Either way, a whey protein smoothie is a good
idea after both runs. Don’t forget you lose about 100 calories per mile, so a
10-13 mile run takes a lot of calories that need to be replaced for your 20-26
mile run the next day. If you don’t replace them, you’re going to be in
trouble.
As I said, I’m not sure how much I’ll “like” the B2B but it
has been a new and challenging experience to get ready. I am trying to raise money for American Heart
Association. To raise the bar I’m asking
people to contribute to AHA if I can do the Goofy, travel 400 miles, do a 50
mile bike ride and run a second ½ marathon all within a week and 6 hours of the
Goofy. If I don’t make it, I’ll make their contribution for them and they’ll
get the tax deduction. If you’re
interested, send an email to revance@gmail.com.
I’ll let you know what I think of the long B2B after I’m done.
If you’re considering a B2B, I hope this has been
helpful. Even if you’re not, I hope it
has some ideas for you.
Happy running!
Russ
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