Dining while Dopey: runDisney Marathon Weekend Preparations Begin

So yes, it is still many months away, but the January 2015 Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend is still very much on our minds.  

1) Dopey Challenge:  if you are one of the Dopeys completing the 4 day, 48.6 miles challenge and you are following one of Jeff Galloway's official training plans, you should now already be into your second week of the plan.

2) ADR (Advanced Dining Reservations) opened up for our travel dates today. If you are staying at a WDW resort during Marathon weekend, don't wait to make your reservations. 

DisneyGroom:

With the first week of training for Dopey 2015 behind me, this is a good time to bring everyone up to speed.  I have been slacking a bit lately, writing down my training plan has finally got me back to running on a regular basis.  I have my plan written down to account for all my fall races, and I plan to get it into an electronic format that I can share here on the blog.

I think it is tempting to underestimate the importance of training runs early in the plan.  But, I am living proof that consistency early in the plan does work.  I'm not fast, my form isn't efficient, and I'm not in great shape.  But I stuck to it the last time around, never got injured, and finished all the Dopey 2014 races within my goal times. So by creating good habits and following through with the shorter runs now, you will go a long way to being consistent when the training runs start to get really long. 

My first Instagram pic! Dopey (and ultra) training of course

The first few weeks in my plan only have me running 3 days a week.  Two timed runs during the week and a long run on the weekend.  I have managed to keep up so far, lets hope I don't have any issues this summer.  Its been pretty hot, so I have concerns about staying cool on my long runs.  I'll be keeping to the trails to try and escape some of the heat. 

My next race is this Saturday.  Race 2 of 4 of the Summer Trail Series here in Tallahassee.  I'll provide a recap of the first few races next week.  And I'll provider some progress updates as I prepare for Dopey 2.0. I even started an instagram account to keep me a bit more accountable. You can follow me here.

DisneyBride:

RunDisney weekends require a bit more strategy when it comes to booking your dining reservations.  You don't want to book an early breakfast because you may not be done with your race in time to get there. Or you might cut it close - but you won't have time to shower or change.   Then you don't want to have late dinners or big heavy dinners if you have to wake up at 2am to go run 13.1 or 26.2 miles.  Even though we always have a car, during race weekends we prefer restaurants accessible by monorail.  Because there are also the road closures that affect your ability to get around from resort to resort.

So Advanced Dining Reservations became available for us today, allowing us to book our meals during January 7th - January 12th, 2015.  If you have a reservation 'on property', at one of the Walt Disney World Resorts, you can make your reservations a bit earlier than the general public.  If you are a frequent visitor to Disney, you will have your favorite places - and want to try to get in before they book up.

The very popular places (Chef Mickey's, Be Our Guest, O'hana, etc) do book up quickly and your favorite restaurants may not be available if you wait too long before reserving.  We were not able to get into Boma for breakfast on the dates we wanted for this trip - so DG and I spent our lunch hour on the phone juggling and rescheduling all the other reservations to accommodate for second choices and availability.   

Big kids at heart - we are all about the character dining.  So we'll be at Chef Mickey's twice, for dinner and breakfast, The Garden Grill, Akershus, and O'hana to see Mickey and Friends, Chip & Dale, the Princesses, and Lilo & Stitch respectively.  We got into Boma for dinner - so I suppose we will have at least one 'grown up' meal during the trip. I use the term 'grown up' loosely - as I am often shocked when forced to remember my age.

So are you preparing for a big out of town race that is still many MONTHS away?  

How far out do you start your training plans and think about planning your meals?

Run Happy!  

DG & DB