Christmas Time & Dopey Challenge Training Week 25 (Final One!)

Now that our Christmases are all complete, life can somewhat return to normal around here. I really really really enjoyed this Christmas season and the way the weekend fell. I didn't feel rushed or pressured to make too many dishes/desserts at one time and all was calm...and bright. :)

On Saturday morning, we had my parents over for a delicious brunch of homemade cinnamon rolls and breakfast foods. We had so much fun and loved kicking back and relaxing with them on Christmas Eve Eve.

We attended a candlelight service at church on Christmas Eve and enjoyed lunch with my parents and a few friends after!

Jason had to work on Christmas day and none of our famlies were doing anything significant that day, so Brayden and I spent a majority of our time at my parent's house, eating gumbo and watching Christmas movies. How have I never seen White Christmas?! I loved it!

That evening, Jason and I opened our gifts with Brayden and had a blast! It was fun to see how he tore each little piece of paper off of each gift and threw them into the trash bag. That kid keeps us laughing for sure.

I sure do love my little family!

On the day after Christmas, we had our Christmas gathering with Jason's family at Jason's sister's house. 

She completely transformed her garage into our eating space and it was perfect! Everything looked beautiful and the food was yummy too!

Brayden's great-grandmother read the Christmas story from Luke, then it was time to open gifts!

Jason's family is huge and it was fun celebrating with them!

On the day after the day after Christmas, we celebrated with my family!

After an amazing and yummy dinner made by my parents, we opened gifts and enjoyed spending time together!

This shirt is perfect, what can I say?! :)

Brayden LOVES his Cozy Jeep! Best gift ever!

It sure is strange going from Jason's huge family to our small one, but I absolutely love it just the same!

We definitely know how to have a good time! :)

On Wednesday afternoon, my brother, sister-in-law, and I saw The Greatest Showman. Y'all. This movie is AMAZING and I want to go watch it again like right now. Jason had to work and wasn't able to see it with us, so that's my excuse to see it again!

Since it's the final Friday of my Dopey Training cycle, I couldn't let today pass by without a last and final Dopey Challenge Training Fitness Friday!

 
Currently Training For:

• Dopey Challenge 2018 - Walt Disney World
• Rock n Roll New Orleans Half Marathon 2018 - New Orleans, LA

Week 23:
Saturday - I ran on Friday instead since I knew Saturday would be crazy - 3 miles for Friday
Sunday - 6 mile run
Monday - Squats/Lunges/PT with cross training
Tuesday - The weather turned NASTY so Tuesday became a rest day instead!
Wednesday - Squats/Lunges/PT with cross training
Thursday - 3 mile run
Friday - Rest Day

On Friday, I wasn't so sure about this "winter" thing...

It definitely wasn't anywhere near me and my chances of a cold Christmas were looking slim.

After returning home from our Christmas Eve service, I decided to head out for my weekly long run. Six miles was all I could muster and I was completely ok with that!

The sky and sunset gave off a beautiful view during my run!

This week I've also done a LOT of leg work as I'm trying to be completely prepared for Disney and Dopey Challenge. I don't want my knee or hamstring to act crazy any time during the week we are there! Hopefully all works out ok and in my favor!

It's been a fun but challenging training cycle and I honestly can't believe we are already at this point! How has this snuck up on me so fast?! Back in June when I began training, it felt so far away and now it's actually here...crazy! Just five days until we leave and I haven't packed a single thing. Sounds like my weekend will consist of a long run and Disney packing!

Thanks for following along in my Dopey Training journey! I'm excited for January 8th and the final culmination of it all!

Have a great one and Happy New Year! How was your Christmas weekend? Did you watch any new (to you) movies during your time off?

Dopey Challenge Training Week 23 & 24

With all of the craziness of the holiday season, I somehow missed posting last week's Dopey Training recap because well...hello, sleep. Exhaustion took over and I had a lot going on at one time, hence the lack of posting. Anyway, here's two weeks of recaps looped into one!

 
Currently Training For:

• Dopey Challenge 2018 - Walt Disney World
• Rock n Roll New Orleans Half Marathon 2018 - New Orleans, LA

Week 23:
Saturday - 7 mile treadmill run + Swamp Stomp Half Marathon (20 miles total)
Sunday - Rest Day
Monday - Rest Day
Tuesday - 3 mile walk with Jason and Brayden
Wednesday - Rest Day
Thursday - Squats/Lunges/PT with cross training
Friday - 3 mile run


Week 24:
Saturday - Dashing Through the Chuck 5K + 2 mile run
Sunday - Rest Day
Monday - 4 mile run
Tuesday - Squats/Lunges/PT with cross training
Wednesday - Rest Day
Thursday - 3 mile run
Friday - Squats/Lunges/PT with cross training

 
Over the past two weeks, I officially hit my highest training point in this Dopey Challenge training plan. No, I haven't followed it to a tee and I didn't plan to when I first started out - I kind of formed and shaped it to work with my body and physical limitations...and I'm seriously thinking this will be my final full marathon. My IT Band just can't handle it.

 
Anyway, the treadmill and half marathon combo did the trick and before I knew it, a 20 miler was under my training belt! :)

After Saturday, I gave my legs a little bit of time to recuperate from my run and I felt great by the time I picked up running again.

Throughout the past two weeks, I've also run several 3 and 4 mile training runs as well as a small back-to-back this past Friday and Saturday.

On Friday's run, my outfit consisted of a red Christmas themed shirt and Christmas tights. I'm sure the neighbors thought it a bit crazy but oh well...who cares!

Also, I started to break in another pair of Mizuno's this past week since I plan to travel to Marathon Weekend with two pair (just in case). I LOVE new running shoes and the way they feel!

Saturday's run consisted of a 5K followed by a quick 2 miler around town. Brayden also enjoyed chasing the birds after our run and I'm sure I tacked on an extra mile chasing after him!

I also managed to squeeze in a 4 miler before dark on Monday of this week before the rain hit. Yesterday's afternoon 3 miler was the second run of the week and will be combined with a long-ish run on Saturday for the culmination of the week. I can't believe that there's just two weekends to go until we are in Disney World! Time sure has flown by!

The first day of winter came and went in the south which left yesterday's run complete with...shorts and a short sleeved shirt. Yes. Gotta love these southern winters. I hear there's going to be a freeze on Christmas day. The weather never can make up its mind in the winter - it's always one extreme to another.

Happy Christmas weekend! I hope you all have an amazing time with your family and friends, soaking up all of the wonders this season has to bring!

Merry Christmas!

20 Mile Saturday (Swamp Stomp Half Marathon)

With a 20 miler officially in the books, I can honestly say that I'm feeling slightly more confident for Dopey Challenge in January. The snow on Friday evening threw a huge kink in my original plans. I wanted to get up super early, drive downtown to the area where the race was going to take place, and run 7 miles around there. After processing the idea, I decided that probably wasn't a very good one because it would be super dark, freezing temps, and possible ice patches on the road. I did NOT need to slip and break something!

Instead, I woke up early and hopped on the dreaded treadmill at my house to run 7 miles. I was actually thinking of selling that thing but it's come in handy here over the past few weeks so maybe I won't. Hah.

My parents also watched Brayden which was a huge help to me. I was going to have them bring him out there for the finish of the race but decided against it once it snowed!

So, I laid all of my race clothing out the night before. I also wore a different set of clothing for the treadmill run so I wouldn't freeze to death from sweaty clothes once I got to the race start.

This is what I woke up to....26 degrees! Some of the snow from the day before had melted away but a lot still remained which was really neat to see! Snow that lasted two days here? Unheard of!

To date, this is the second longest treadmill run I've ever done. My first was in 2012 when I was training for Goofy Challenge and had to run a 9 miler on the treadmill.

People kept asking me..."how are you going to do this on Saturday morning" and my response was..."well, I just gotta wake up and not think about what I'm doing and just go out and do it"....and that's what I did!

I made it to the race start with six minutes to spare. Thankfully, I'd picked up my race packet the night before! After convincing myself to get out of my warm car, I walked up to the start line and thankfully didn't have much time to wait...we were off and running before I could get too cold.

As we ran through the local neighborhoods, we spotted various snowmen that were still somewhat standing. Seriously y'all....seeing snow that was still standing from the day before was hilarious! That has NEVER happened in my lifetime!

It was a BEAUTIFUL day for a long run! I never had to shed any parts of my clothing at all, including my gloves or ear muffs.

As we ran downtown, we would hit these cold patches where the temps seemed to drop more in that spot than others. It was there where we would see bigger snowmen that weren't quite so melted.

Like this guy for example!

I only experienced mild hamstring discomfort while running and my IT bands didn't bother me too much. I forgot to foam roll as much as I should have this past week so that was my fault. Oh well.

In total, this run took 80 minutes for the 7 miler and 2:34 for the 13.1 miler. Total time of 3:54. Not too bad for my overall long run time as compared to previous years!

After crossing the finish line, I started talking to an old neighbor I grew up with when I heard my name...it was my DAD! He surprised me!!

It was so sweet of him to come out and support me! Love that guy!! :)

After taking a few finish line photos, we decided we were getting too cold and decided to head home. This race didn't do finishers medals, it did finishers jackets...and I registered too late to have one on race day. Whomp whomp. Oh well...hopefully it'll be available in a few weeks!

While my mom was at home watching Brayden, she made us breakfast!!

Yum!

I loved everything about Saturday morning! The race was a great one and I loved having breakfast with my parents after the race!

Another one down for Dopey Challenge! I'm feeling better and better about the race after each training run I complete!

Dopey Challenge Training Week 22

My training this week was INCREDIBLY lackluster. The weather turned yucky which then turned icy and crazy enough, turned to SNOW this morning! I even busted out a treadmill run this week, which means I'm pretty desperate and have zero motivation. I missed one of my planned training runs this week but added a bit of extra cross training instead. When my only option is the treadmill, I seriously have to drag myself onto it and convince myself it's a good idea. Bad, I know...

 
Currently Training For:

• Dopey Challenge 2018 - Walt Disney World
• Rock n Roll New Orleans Half Marathon 2018 - New Orleans, LA

Saturday - 8 mile run

Sunday - Rest Day
Monday - Cross Training
Tuesday - 3 mile treadmill run
Wednesday - Rest Day
Thursday - Squats/Lunges/PT with cross training
Friday - Squats/Lunges/PT with cross training

On Saturday morning, I ran an 8 mile training run and it was a gorgeous day! The weather was perfect!!

After the run, my friends and I traveled to Baton Rouge, Louisiana to visit a plantation home! We had a great girls day and I enjoyed hanging with them! :)

It's been a busy week along with the crazy weather, so I decided on Tuesday that if I didn't jump on the treadmill, I probably wouldn't get to run at all. So, a treadmill run it was! Honestly, it wasn't terrible, I would just much rather run outside. It has to be pretty crazy conditions to make me choose a treadmill over outside!

This morning, I received a 5 a.m. text message from one of my friends telling me to go outside because it was snowing. Y'all. SNOW...in Southwest Louisiana. This is unheard of. It's maybe only legit snowed here like twice in my lifetime and definitive not like this! It was coming down hard!!

I couldn't believe it!

Yes, we get excited about snow! Schools were also canceled for a super rare "Snow Day"!

I just HAD to build a creepy little snowman! Once in a lifetime, right?!

SNOW!

The frozen conditions here are going to make tomorrow incredibly interesting. So, I'm scheduled to run my 20 mile training run for Dopey Challenge tomorrow. My plan is to run 7 early am miles followed by a half marathon around town.  Crossing my fingers I don't finish like a popsicle!

Ok, now I'm off to wake Brayden up so he can play in it too! Who knows when we will see this again!

Have a fabulous Friday!