Disney’s Tangled Royal Family 5K
Mar 5, 2012 What's Going On
Heading over with our group to the Tangled Royal Family 5K on Saturday morning I wasn’t quite sure what I was going to do. It was the first day all week that I was feeling myself, my really bad cold having finally exited my body. And while most of the people in our group were taking it easy (Colleen was even doing the race with her six-year-old daughter) I kind-of wanted to do a test run for the half marathon, which would be the next day. I’d felt sick and exhausted the day before after stumbling along for just two miles, so I was curious how I would do if I tried to go at my half marathon pace of 4 miles an hour.
This was also the first time that I’d be using the vibrating run-walk-run pacer I’d purchased from Jeff Galloway at the Fit for a Princess Expo the day before. It ended up being the best $20 I’ve ever spent. I’d been doing Jeff’s run-walk-run method for a while, but it was annoying to have to constantly look at a watch or my phone. This timer can be programmed for a single pace or two alternating paces, and it can beep or vibrate to tell you when to switch from walking to running and back.
It was awesome! I could finally just enjoy moving and not concentrate on the timing. Switching paces became automatic each time the beeper-sized device vibrated on my waistband. If you do any kind of interval training, I highly recommend this timer.
The Family 5K was a blast. There were so many kids participating, and a lot of fun costumes. For the first time since getting to Disney World I wished my kids were there – they would have loved this!
This couple just cracked me up. I want to be them when I get older. Of course, I may have to trade my husband in for someone a tad more whimsical.
continue reading: Disney’s Tangled Royal Family 5K Read the rest of this entry »
Disney’s Fit for a Princess Expo
Feb 28, 2012 What's Going On
In my last post I mentioned how terrible I felt when I woke up on Friday, but things improved rapidly from there as the cold finally started to leave my body – just in time, since the Tangled Royal Family 5k was the next morning! After our early run with Jeff Galloway (more like a crawl for me) I went to sleep, and woke up feeling better than I had all week. I headed to the Fit for a Princess Expo with the rest of the group, and engaged in some retail therapy – a sure sign that I was on the mend.
I picked up a couple new pairs of running pants, an arm band case for my phone, a sparkly skirt and headband to wear for the half marathon, and a vibrating timer that Jeff Galloway had told me about that morning.
I also found some more shirts that I related to:
And, I got an inspirational look at a whole bunch of metals you can earn for running Disney races. I could see how this could become an obsession.
We also picked up our race bibs for the Tangled Family 5K and Princess Half Marathon. That’s when things got very real for me, when I saw my race number. That makes it very official.
I even caught a glimpse of Cinderella’s coach and footmen!
One more long nap later, and I was feeling about 90%. Everyone on our press trip met up for the big Pasta in the Park dinner at EPCOT. This is a great opportunity for carbo loading, dancing, and watching Illuminations from a special spot reserved just for the pasta partiers.
I, however, missed everything but the pasta, because I was exhausted and went back to my hotel after eating! Yes, lame, I know. But I tried to make up for it by eating two helpings of two different delicious (and vegetarian) pasta dishes. And, at least I got to see Spaceship Earth all lit up – I love the way it looks at night!
I got to sleep at a decent time Friday night, and managed to get six hours of sleep before the 5K. I’m so relieved that I didn’t spend the whole trip sick and miserable, that would’ve been such a waste!
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has Compensation Levels of 7, 8, & 16. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Want to catch up on my runDisney adventures? Here are the other posts (newest first):
Disney’s Tangled Royal Family 5K
From bad, to worse, to great with runDisney
And then a few zebra wandered by
A half marathon that fits on a t-shirt
From couch potato to 26K with runDisney
Diary of a Disney Princess Half Marathoner – Part 2
Disney Princess Half Marathon: Done
Diary of a Disney Princess Half Marathoner – Part 1
So this is what Disney does to me
Tags: Disney Princess Half Marathon, Disney World, exercise, Tangled Family 5K
From bad, to worse, to great with runDisney
Feb 25, 2012 What's Going On
I’d been sick for several days before heading down to Disney World on Thursday for the Tangled Family 5K and Princess Half Marathon. By Friday morning, when my alarm went off at 5:30, I was feeling terrible. I’d woken up every fifteen minutes or so all night until 4:30, then finally managed to get one solid hour of sleep. And even though I just had a cold, it was a bad one, and I wasn’t sure I could walk to the lobby, let alone do a two mile walk/run.
Our meet-up that morning was with Jeff Galloway, a training consultant with runDisney and someone I have a huge amount of respect for. I first met him before last year’s Princess Half, and he introduced me to his Run-Walk-Run method. This was a revelation to me, because I know a lot of runners and they all seem to see it as a failure of some kind if you have to walk part of the way. But here was this amazing athlete, who in the early 1970s competed in the Olympics and ran 10 miles in under 48 minutes (only slightly longer than it takes me to “run” 3 miles), telling me that it was OK to alternate walking with running, that it’s a completely legitimate way to complete a half or full marathon.
Jeff Galloway
We gathered just inside of EPCOT as the sun was coming up.
Jeff led us on an easy run/walk through EPCOT as the park’s workers were getting things ready for opening. Well, it would’ve been easy, but I was feeling awful. By the end of the two miles I felt like I was going to pass out. I was getting really worried about the rest of the weekend.
I stopped to take this picture on the way. Partly because it was one of the most beautiful things I’d ever seen, and partly because it gave me an excuse to stop for ten seconds.
We were met at the end of the run with tiaras and breakfast, and really, I’d like someone to arrange for that to happen when I get back to my house from a run. OK? Every time, please.
As we ate we got to hear from an interesting group of speakers: Rachel Booth has won the Disneyland Half Marathon twice, and is going for a win at Sunday’s Princess Half Marathon. We also heard from Betty Wong, editor in chief of Fitness Magazine, Lori Stultz Lovell, the current runDisney mom on the Disney Moms panel, and Suzy Favor-Hamilton, an elite runner who has battled depression and anxiety and is now a motivational speaker.
Rachel Booth
Honestly though, it was kind-of a blur because I felt so awful. But I couldn’t pass up some very special Disney photo opps.
The best part of these Disney press trips is the private time with the characters. You’ve never seen a bunch of grown-up women so excited. We were beaming. And the characters made each one of us feel special, just like they would have with little kids. :-)
When I got back to my room I crawled back into bed, sweaty and exhausted. I really started to think that I had made a big mistake getting up so early and heading out sick. When I woke up from my nap, though, I started to feel better. That was the turning point, and things got better very fast.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has Compensation Levels of 7, 8, and 16. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Want to catch up on my runDisney adventures? Here are the other posts (newest first):
Disney’s Tangled Royal Family 5K
Disney’s Fit for a Princess Expo
And then a few zebra wandered by
A half marathon that fits on a t-shirt
From couch potato to 26K with runDisney
Diary of a Disney Princess Half Marathoner – Part 2
Disney Princess Half Marathon: Done
Diary of a Disney Princess Half Marathoner – Part 1
So this is what Disney does to me
Tags: Disney Princess Half Marathon, Disney World, jogging, Travel
Tangled Family 5k: Done!
Feb 25, 2012 Posted From My Phone
Originally posted on Selfish Mom, from Amy’s cell phone (so please excuse any weird formatting). All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 8. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Want to catch up on my runDisney adventures? Here are the other posts (newest first):
Disney’s Tangled Royal Family 5K
Disney’s Fit for a Princess Expo
From bad, to worse, to great with runDisney
And then a few zebra wandered by
A half marathon that fits on a t-shirt
From couch potato to 26K with runDisney
Diary of a Disney Princess Half Marathoner – Part 2
Disney Princess Half Marathon: Done
Diary of a Disney Princess Half Marathoner – Part 1
So this is what Disney does to me
Tags: Disney World, exercise, run disney
And then a few zebra wandered by…
Feb 24, 2012 What's Going On
Zebra
So after a check-in glitch that left me without a working room key until 11pm last night (very un-Disney-like!), I’m now happily ensconced in Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge. The thing about these press trips is that we do more in a day than I usually do in a week, and I’m still not feeling well, but my first twenty-four hours here have still been really fun.
Ostrich
I’d never been to the Animal Kingdom Lodge before yesterday, but it’s like staying in a hotel next to some kind of wildlife preserve. When you check in you’re asked not to bring any plastic straws or lids into your room, and to not throw food to the animals.
Antelope
Animals are roaming around right outside of the hotel. Sitting on my balcony so far I’ve spotted roan antelope, reticulated giraffe, zebra, and an ostrich. And no, I’m not some sort of animal expert. There’s a guide in my room that I can use to identify the animals, and check off the ones I see.
Last night our group of bloggers were taken to Sanaa for dinner, which is in the Kidani Village section of the Animal Kingdom Lodge. I was a little nervous that there wouldn’t be anything for me to eat, because I imagined that an African themed restaurant would serve mostly meat dishes. I was thrilled that just about everything brought out to us was vegetarian, not to mention delicious! Plus, it was all very spicy, and since I’ve had a very bad cold this week, I was glad to be able to taste something. From three kinds of bread with about twelve dips, to the best roasted cauliflower I’ve ever had, and a tangy, oniony chickpea salad, the meal was wonderful.
Above our table at Sanaa
Disney World is known for how well they can accommodate special eating requests. One person in our party had some kind of food allergy and they took great care of her. Our servers also came right to me as each course was brought to the table and let me know which of the dishes were vegetarian.
I managed to keep my camera in its bag all through dinner, making fun of everyone else snapping away, but I had to join in and take a picture of our desserts. And they were as delicious as they were pretty.
Chocolate cake, chai cream, and mango sorbet
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has Compensation Levels of 7, 8, and 16. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Want to catch up on my runDisney adventures? Here are the other posts (newest first):
Disney’s Tangled Royal Family 5K
Disney’s Fit for a Princess Expo
From bad, to worse, to great with runDisney
A half marathon that fits on a t-shirt
From couch potato to 26K with runDisney
Diary of a Disney Princess Half Marathoner – Part 2
Disney Princess Half Marathon: Done
Diary of a Disney Princess Half Marathoner – Part 1
So this is what Disney does to me
Tags: Disney Princess Half Marathon, Disney World, Food, Travel
A half marathon that fits on a t-shirt
Feb 23, 2012 What's Going On
I arrived at Disney World a little while ago for the Disney Princess Half Marathon, and on the plane I was looking over pictures from last year. I’d forgotten about the t-shirts.
When you pick up your race packet you do it in a giant expo hall at Disney’s ESPN Wide World of Sports. This Expo has everything you could possibly need for the race. Really, you could show up with nothing and buy everything you need, from sneakers to sports bras to a fancy plaque for your awesome race pictures.
Pictures from last year’s Expo:
I didn’t buy any of the t-shirts because I’d already made my own at the Hanes Design A Tee store, but I had fun looking at them.
I can relate.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has Compensation Levels of 7, 8, & 16. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Want to catch up on my runDisney adventures? Here are the other posts (newest first):
Disney’s Tangled Royal Family 5K
Disney’s Fit for a Princess Expo
From bad, to worse, to great with runDisney
And then a few zebra wandered by
From couch potato to 26K with runDisney
Diary of a Disney Princess Half Marathoner – Part 2
Disney Princess Half Marathon: Done
Diary of a Disney Princess Half Marathoner – Part 1
So this is what Disney does to me
From couch potato to 26K with Run Disney
Feb 22, 2012 What's Going On
I’m weird when it comes to exercise, I’ll just admit that there’s no logic to it. I will bribe my kids to get something for me from upstairs, but voluntarily participate in long races. What can I say: I like a big challenge more than I like getting off of my couch to find my cell phone.
Last year I finished the Disney Princess Half Marathon, and despite having to get up at 2:30am and the exhaustion and the pain, it was worth it. Dare I say, it was even fun. And that’s because it gets the Full Disney Treatment.
I even managed to post right before, and during, and then right after the race.
From muscular men bouncing on trampolines to photo opps with Disney Princes, this is a race designed for women. There are men who participate, but they’re in on the joke: often they’re dressed in costume and there to support the woman they’re running with. Plus, they’re not allowed to win medals. [To clarify, they get the bling at the end, they just can't be awarded any medals fro finishing in a top spot.] And while I didn’t think I cared about the medals, this is some serious bling.
The first real race I ever ran was a four miler in Central Park, and it was intimidating. It was filled with real runners, many of them using that short run as a qualifier for the NYC Marathon. I was twice as big and half as fast as most people there. And while I finished just fine (slow but fine), I would not recommend a race like that for your first one.
The Princess Half Marathon, though, is perfect for a first timer. There are runners of all sizes. Many are in princess skirts. A lot of people walk/run it like I do. Everyone around you is supportive. They want you to succeed, they don’t want to beat you.
Well, except for the people in the front. There are some serious runners who take part. They want to beat you, and they are not in costume. But they are in the minority, and I will never be close enough to them for it to matter. In fact, the closest I got to the frontrunners last year was just a couple miles into the race. It takes a long time to get 17,000 runners started, so about half an hour in for me, the first ones to start passed us on the highway, going the other way, almost done. That was weird to watch. They were flying!
So, back to this year. I’m less nervous, now that I know I can finish. I would love to improve on my time, even by a few minutes, but I haven’t been training hard. I started jogging again in October, but I had gained a lot of weight since the last Princess Half, and could barely finish a couple of miles. I realized that I had to focus on losing weight instead, so while I haven’t been running much, I have taken off twenty-five pounds since October, bringing me back to roughly what I weighed for last year’s race.
Like last year, I’m on this trip as press, but unlike last year, they’ve put Saturday’s Tangled Family 5K on the itinerary, so that will be like a warm-up for Sunday’s half marathon. Plus we’ll be watching the kids’ races, which sound like a lot of fun. I’m considering bringing Jake next year if he keeps jogging with me (he’s been helping me train – he’s a great cheerleader!).
It will be a long weekend of not much sleep. Our press events start at 6am on Friday, and we have to leave for the races at 4:45am on Saturday and 3:30am on Sunday. Ouch.
But it will be worth it. I can’t believe I’m looking forward to this. There’s just nothing like that feeling of accomplishment when you achieve something that’s not at all easy. And the fact that it happens in Disney World makes it even more special.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has Compensation Levels of 7, 8 and 16. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Want to catch up on my runDisney adventures? Here are the other posts (newest first):
Disney’s Tangled Royal Family 5K
Disney’s Fit for a Princess Expo
From bad, to worse, to great with runDisney
And then a few zebra wandered by
A half marathon that fits on a t-shirt
Diary of a Disney Princess Half Marathoner – Part 2
Disney Princess Half Marathon: Done
Diary of a Disney Princess Half Marathoner – Part 1
So this is what Disney does to me
Tags: Disney Princess Half Marathon, Disney World, exercise, jogging, Travel
Diet Bet #2: My weight loss strategy
Feb 20, 2012 Weight Loss
Yesterday was the initial weigh in for the Diet Bet I’ve organized. We have twenty participants with a pot of $1,000! My husband was the first to join, which was totally shocking. He ended up being the only man. The next three people to join all live near me in Brooklyn, and I thought “Well, this will be easy. I’ll just deliver fresh baked goods to them every few days.” But then people started signing up from all over the country, and we even have someone participating from France! It’s a mix of bloggers, readers, tweeters, and personal friends who have nothing to do with my online life.
I’ve got four weeks to lose seven pounds. I’m using the same basic strategy I used the first time around, when I lost ten pounds, but I’ve added an element: eating dessert with my breakfast. Don’t laugh, there’s actual science behind it! I wrote about it here. I’ve been doing this for over a week and I swear it makes a difference. I mean, I don’t know if the difference is because of the large breakfast or the dessert, but whichever it is, I’m not messing with success. The weird thing is, if I have to pick between dessert and something salty and fried, I’ll always pick the latter. But that doesn’t seem to matter.
So, here’s my weight loss strategy for the next four weeks, a combination of my low cal/low carb alternating plan, and eating dessert with breakfast to help curb cravings and appetite all day. I’m calling it The Sweets First Carb Lover’s Diet. (Yes, I realize you hardly get any carbs two days a week, but you can eat all the carbs you want for five days! Totally worth it!) Shout out to @dgmommyblogger for the “Sweets First” part of the name.
- Four days a week I eat 1,400 calories a day, with no restrictions on carbohydrates.
- For breakfast on those days, I eat 400 calories of breakfast food and 200 calories of dessert – chocolate, brownies, whatever is around.
- Two days a week I eat 700 calories a day, and limit my carbohydrates to between 50 and 60 grams.
- For breakfast on those days, I eat 200 calories of breakfast food and 100 calories of dessert.
- One day a week I eat whatever I want, with no restrictions on anything.
Today’s breakfast, for example, was heavenly: half of a giant bagel with cream cheese, veggie bacon, strawberries, and chocolate.
About a third of the way in to the plan I’ll be starting the Power 90 workout. I’m a little worried about how this will affect my weight loss in the beginning, but I’m going for it anyway. I’m not worried about getting so ripped that my muscles tip the scales (I should have such problems). I’m more worried that I won’t be able to sustain my eating plan with all that exercise. If I have to adjust, I will.
Just like during my last Diet Bet, I have a very ill-timed trip. I managed to keep control and lose two pounds while I was in Las Vegas for CES last month, but this one will be harder: I’ll be on a press trip at the end of this week to Disney World for the Princess Half Marathon. At CES it was practically impossible to find food on the show floor anyway. But Disney World? There’s food everywhere!
However, the last time I went with the kids I noticed that Disney World was making a huge effort to put healthy food front and center in the parks. At every store and stand, bags of grapes and packs of carrots were right in the front, by the register. So, I’ll do my best. I’ll probably also bring some Slim Fast bars with me, which really helped keep me on track at CES.
A few people wanted to join my Diet Bet after it had already started. Remember, DietBet.com is a free site and anybody can use it to organize a Diet Bet. Also, I’m sure I’ll be having another one of these to keep my momentum going, so stayed tuned for an announcement about the next one!
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 0. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Tags: DietBet.com, Disney Princess Half Marathon, Disney World, Power 90, Slim-Fast, Sweets First Carb Lovers Diet, Weight Loss
