The Dopey Challenge--Re-entry to the blogosphere

First Run Selfie

Happy Cross-Training Day Selfie (in an Oberon Jersey!)

Imagine my surprise when I signed on to my running blog this morning and realized it has been four years since I have posted. Fear not, I've been running for the last four years. I just haven't been writing much about it. No time like the present, though, to kick off a new round of entries with a cliche and everything! 

I have signed up for (and plunked down a good chunk of change for) the Dopey Challenge at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida taking place in January of 2018. I will be running a 5k on January 4, a 10K on January 5, a half marathon on January 6, and a full marathon on January 7.  Why? Bucket list, of course. But also because it just sounds badass and hard, and I like doing things that sound badass and hard. 

There are all kinds of logistics things running through my head as I write this first entry. I'm a teacher, and I'm supposed to be back in class on January 8. I'm not going to make it. But I'll be in class on the 9th! My best friend usually goes on these adventures with me, and I'm still trying to convince her to at least join me for the full (the Dopey Challenge closed pretty soon after registration opened). My mom has offered to come to Florida with me so that I'm not down there alone, and now I want to run around the parks with her, but that isn't in the race plan.

But the training plan really should be the focus of this first entry. So I'm using the Galloway training plan for right now. It started yesterday. And he lists the goal for the plan as something like, "To finish upright." That seems like a reasonable goal. But in September, I'll be switching to what I perceive to be a slightly more rigorous program--the Hal Higdon training plan.  Galloway sticks with a three-day per week training plan early on. It doesn't feel like enough given how much I have to get done between now and then (much getting in shape to happen), but I like it for the summer months of July and August so that I can get in some biking. I just finished up a Hal Higdon training program to run a marathon in April, and I was feeling pretty burnt out by the time I was done. Hoping that cross training will help me maintain some sanity.

On that note, I took a day 1 selfie for the run (look at that happy smile!). And a day 2 selfie for my first cross-training ride (look at that jersey!). I am a runner who loves a plan, and I've got the next several months of training runs mapped out.