I’m seven weeks into training for my first Dopey Challenge, and I have had some thoughts and realizations in this first round. If you are unfamiliar with the Dopey Challenge, it takes place during the Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend in January. Challengers will complete the 5k, 10K, Half Marathon and Marathon over four days; hence, Dopey. Now, at this point, my longest run has been 9 miles, and my mileage is only going to go up much more. Here are some things I have realized over the last seven weeks.
Dopey Features a Long Training Block
I started training on July 1. Races start January 8. Most marathon training blocks are roughly 16-20 weeks for beginners, and I still have 20 weeks to go until the 5k. I’m glad that I have the Runna app to feed out different workouts for the week, so I’m not just constantly running and making things up on my own. If you are curious about Runna a want to try premium for two weeks free, click this link! Use the code RUNNANHHZJYJ. I do use Runna and Strava to manage everything. Runna also can help you predict race times, which I love.
You Can’t Drop Time Every Weekend
I love to think that I’m this elite athlete who runs an 8-minute mile and will run a sub-3:30 Marathon. None of those things is true. Not even remotely close. I’m an intermediate runner at best. I’ve done a few races. Done a few challenges through runDisney. I don’t know why I am expecting to drop time drastically. Don’t get me wrong, I have primary and secondary goals for this training block and race day. But I’m a little hard on my self. More on that later.
Every Week Won’t Go Perfectly
Life gets to lifing, and every week won’t go as scheduled. I can’t expect every session to go as planned. Some sessions might be skipped – for example, my strength training today is getting skipped. I just don’t have the mental capacity today. Besides, isn’t this how to reduce burnout?
Training in Texas is Horrendous
All the memes you have seen about fall marathon training in Texas is true. I’m out by 5:30 AM because it it awful. I’m desperately waiting for cooler temps to activate. I guess I won’t be seeing that until mid to late October.
Be Nice to Yourself
My friend Theresa had to get me right the other day. I was being hard on myself, as I am a competitive person. I’m competitive with myself, and in anything where there is a scorecard. This is also why I have only done Fantasy Football a handful of times. I am way too competitive. So much so that it gets on my nerves. I have to be nicer and give myself a bit of grace. Like Theresa said, I’m not doing something easy. This is going to be hard. There will be hard days and days when I want to quit. I need to be a little nicer. Honestly, we should all be nicer to ourselves. Sometimes, it’s just not that serious.