Preparing for the Disney Marathon: June Edition

June running journey 

This will probably be another weekly series trying to keep accountability for running. I haven’t been overly consistent in this, with just a couple of runs a week. My longest run is 7 miles. I was doing a consistent rise of mileage but then something horrible happened. The summer months arrived. So running super early in the morning is my best option but it isn’t great on my stomach for some reason. The Disney marathon is at 5 in the morning so it will be an interesting change. A bit nervous about the big crowds and if I can even enjoy it but that’s what practice Is for. It will be a mind test for sure. 

I think it would also be a great place to add that I am slightly overweight and by slightly, I mean my stomach has increased in size rapidly over the last year en route to my heaviest body weight yet. I’m hoping this journey will bring me back down. I was a skinny kid growing up and was able to run under 7-minute miles all my life. I tried to run as fast as I could a couple of months ago and it AMAZED me how slow I was. To match weight classes I would have had to strap 70 pounds of weights as I ran back in high school. I have also never been a multiple-mile runner. Typically, I would cap out at 2 miles but now I’m trying to run 26. A bit of a change. The weekly program I am “trying” to uphold is the beginner marathon program that Disney makes available. While doing this I am trying to get steps in at my desk job, a healthy diet, and attempting to get back into weight training. I have felt that the easiest way to cut my runtime is to lose weight. I started a month ago trying to be at a deficit and most days I am doing well, but then some days I have an explosion of calories that derails my progress. Still down 5 pounds in the month so let’s just do a monthly inventory of June at the moment. I’m not counting the walks, but I have a ton in here. A really big, conscious effort to get steps in at my desk job. 

6/4/24 2.68 miles 39:15 minutes 14:38 pace

6/8/24 2.07 miles 31:19 minutes 15:04 pace

6/11/24 1.8 miles 35:18 minutes 19:33 pace

6/20/24 3.16 miles 48:55 minutes 15:27 pace

6/22/24 3.20 miles 54:45 minutes 17:06 pace

5 runs in a 3-week period isn’t great. The plan should be 3 runs a week, so room to improve. 

The marathon is 28 weeks away now which was a surprise that I screwed around so much and gave away valuable weeks of training. The plan is 28 weeks long. I now officially have to start. So join me! 2 basic runs a week with one long run on the weekend. Easy peasy. Come back next time to see if I can do it!