Tag: Disneyland

Week 51- Disney

Another reason I was so paranoid about running last weekend is because I had big plans for the week ahead.

I was going to Disneyland!

It’s kind of becoming and annual tradition for my mother and I. Unfortunately, part of that tradition includes me being sick… every single time. So when I felt a sore throat coming on, I hibernated in hopes of kicking it to the curb. Not so much but I was able to get through 2 days of Disneyland and California adventure and 2 mall stops. Whew.

Disneyland was awesome, we hit all of our favorite rides. Made it into Star Wars land which looked amazing but the ride was kind of a snooze. I had higher hopes.

California Adventure was awesome- it was the first time I had been there. Riding the River Ride at 9:30 in the morning might not have been a good idea but oh well. I managed to ride the Incredicoaster without running away screaming. However, I literally screamed my way through the Guardians of the Galaxy ride. Like the entire time. A nice woman next to me warned me that I needed to stow my purse much better before we started and then laughed while I screamed. Holy crap, that thing needs a better warning.

If characters are your thing, this trip was so much better than the last too. Last year, we saw no characters but this year- Chip and Dale, Stormtroopers, Rey, Woody, Jessie, Groot, Captain America, Lightnig McQueen and Mater. I feel like I am forgetting someone too. Oh- Chewie!

Then I made it home in time on Thursday for a later showing of Star Wars with my brother- another kind of tradition.

Friday rolled around and I told myself to go run but this introvert was tired. I kind of just hibernated again and recharged.

I did make it out for some miles on Saturday and crossed 5K off my list. I overdressed since I still wasn’t feeling great and alterated between being to warm and freezing. Probably not a good sign,

Sunday brought the pouring rain and an intensified cough. So instead of risking making things worse and running in the rain, I kept my workout indoors. I did 10 miles on the stationary bike and a few minutes with the kettlebell. It is sad how 6 minutes with a kettlebell exhausted me.

Is it sadder that I want to count all the days of walking around Disneyland as training for Napa? Oh, and I still need to tell you about Napa. Oops.

How was your week?

Week 50- Disneyland

After last week’s race, my Garmin told me I needed a ridiculous amount of time to recover. It was something like 50ish hours. Yes, I was sick but really? After a couple of days, I realized it have been smarter than me.

But, wait- what about Monday? Hello Disneyland!!!!

My mother and I hit the park first thing in the morning and stayed until 7:30ish. Our plan was stay until closing but I just couldn’t. We rode all our favorite rides and some new ones. Wow, the Jungle Cruise driver was snarky- funny but not what I was expecting. 😛 We even got to ride the Matterhorn twice in row- who knew they did bonus rides sometimes? I learned you should sit in the very back row on Star Tours- so much better! We finally found moderately decent food. Spent too much money on souvenirs. Took lots of pictures. Both ships were moving for the first time that I’ve ever seen. You could glimpse Star Wars land from the highest points of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.

By 6, I was exhausted and my feet and legs were throbbing. Man, I feel old. I couldn’t fight the mob of strollers any more- aren’t kids still in school? Then, as we are making our way out of the park at 7:30, an announcement comes over the loudspeaker that they are going to dim all the lights so they can light up the castle. 😯🤬 That wasn’t on the schedule and there’s no way I could fight my way back through the crowds.😢

Tuesday- Shopping/ Travel

We were supposed to go to Universal Studios. However we both realized we would be phoning it in; we were both exhausted. So instead we fought LA traffic and hit a large mall on the way back north. Dude, just walking around the mall made my feet hurt and tired me out.

Wednesday- Rest

I almost ran but I wasn’t feeling well. I knew my heart rate was crazy high the entire race and my resting heart rate was still oddly high. I’d rather rest and get 100% healthy than push for some junk miles and get sick again. I was sick long enough. Plus I had a Ton of laundry to do.

Thursday/ Friday –
Hi ho, hi ho, it’s back to work I go. I still felt crappy on Thursday but was starting to feel better on Friday and what do you know, my resting heart rate was coming back down towards normal. What does it say about me that I am calmer at work?

Saturday- HaHa
I could have run but I didn’t. I tried to Christmas shop but I failed. I am really struggling this year. Nothing like the final countdown!

Sunday- 3.1 miles
I do know how to run! I meant to run more but it was cold and again more shopping fails took up time. My goal was to keep this run all in the green or lower according to the heart rate monitor on my watch. Yeah, I need to work on that. It actually felt good to get out there. I’m still wheezing but thanks to my asthma, that will likely accompany me on all my runs for the next month.

I also did a Beachbody Transform 20 workout last week but I can’t remember what day. So 2 activities, not great but I do actually feel slightly healthy for the first time in a month so win!

How was your week?

Week 50/ Vacation Week 1 Recap

Otherwise known as Disneyland fail, the flu and a DNS. 😛

I had so many plans for this first week of vacation. They were good ones too! Since when do I have plans? It was kind of exciting. So how did those plans go? Ha ha!

I came down with the flu. I spent Friday through Sunday alternating between my bed or my comfy chair. I stopped eating on Wednesday. I know I talk about wanting to lose weight but not like this, this was miserable. My back hurt from coughing so much, stomach muscles I forgot about were aching in protest. I’ve slept too much and yet not enough. But let’s backtrack to the one fun day of the week.

With my mother’s birthday and Christmas both being in December, I thought it would a great gift and a fun way to spend a few days if we went to Disneyland. The plan was to drive down on Tuesday, check into the hotel, hit the main park all day Wednesday and then California Adventure on Thursday. Neither of us had ever been to California Adventure before.

After some nightmare traffic in La, we arrived at our hotel like planned. I had a tickle in my throat but I was trying to ignore it. I was hoping a good night’s sleep would make things all better. My throats didn’t hurt and I felt super tired in the morning but I always wake up a little rough so I put my game face on and we were at Disneyland before it opened. Yay!

I’ve always wanted to see Disneyland at Christmas and while it was just as awesome as I had hoped, I hadn’t anticipated how crowded it would be. Ouch. As crowded as it was, the wait times for the rides weren’t too bad. We were able to ride every ride we wanted to except for Indiana Jones as it was having technical difficulties throughout the day. Boo. I rode a couple of rides for the first time- Autotopia, It’s a Small World, Storybook Canal. I think I have the name wrong on that last one.

The problem was is that I was losing serious steam throughout the day. I thought I was doing a decent job of hiding it until my mom pointed out that I was walking hunched over. Oh, oops. I had some troubles in the Pirates of the Caribbean line and leaned against whatever I could. Luckily Pirates is a longer, low key ride and one of my favorites, so it was a good way to get off my feet for a bit.

We were having fun but I was fading fast. We hoped food would help, but instead I could barely finish it. Then Space Mountain made me a little green. Once drenched by Space Mountain, we decided to find a spot to watch the parade from. The parade was great but oh so cold. We wandered through a few shops before deciding that we were both cold and tired and heading back to the hotel. So instead of staying at the park until late in the evening, we were back in the hotel by 6. 😢

The next day I was worse. So bad we checked out and headed home instead. I was so ill that I gave my mom the keys so she could drive while I hung my head out the window like a dog. The proximity to me and an open car window did my mom no favors and instead of a second fun day, I got her sick. #birthdayfail We made it home by early afternoon where I showered and then crawled into bed.

And I’ve barely moved since. I’ve put off errands and Christmas shopping. I was supposed to run with Ashley on Saturday. Wah! And Sunday? Sunday was supposed to be my last race of 2016. A 5 mile trail race out at Montana de Oro. But considering walking to the bathroom tires me out, I probably shouldn’t be running up a mountain. Wah. I love this race.

At the rate I am going, I have no idea when I am going to run. I may end up binging on too many Christmas movies. One day I’ll be hungry again. I did manage to drag myself to the DMV though-

How was your week?

Ever go to Disneyland during the holidays?

How long does the flu knock you out?

Slacker does Disney

Sorry, couldn’t help myself. 🙂

Ok, I hadn’t been to Disneyland since Disneyland Grad Nite my senior year of high school. People, that was last century!! I’ve been trying to go for a couple of years now but never made it work. My birthday, mom’s birthday, random day in March, nothing seemed to work out. Then last year, it occurred to me- Surf City! Disneyland is like 5 minutes from Huntington Beach. Ok, more like 30. But then that was in the middle of their not so little measles outbreak. Yeah, umm no thank you. Cut to this year.

We were torn between going to Disneyland on Sunday after the race or Monday. I was concerned with how sore I would feel- Disneyland is a lot of walking. Then my little lung issue put a kibosh on a Sunday trip. After lounging around the hotel on Sunday, we headed to Disneyland bright and early on Monday. Yay! So while this is not running related, how about a little recap of my little adventure?

Favorite Ride-

More like experience but Star Tours rocked. I remember loving it years ago, but the addition of Star Wars made my inner nerd so very happy. We even managed to ride it twice. Which was sweet because there was more than one story line!!! The second time was also the longest wait in line of the day but that’s ok, we had some visitors while in line-

Other Rides-

Throughout the day we managed to ride the Matterhorn (2x), Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (story there), Hyperspace Mountain, Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, the teacups, Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion and Indiana Jones. Indiana Jones is still one of my favorites, the sharp turns and drops are awesome. Haunted Mansion as an adult is only meh, kind of cheesy. And Pirates of the Caribbean?! Where did that come from? I don’t think I had ever been on that ride before because I remembered nothing! And considering I ended up drenched, I would have remembered that! Oh and there’s a random restaurant inside the ride? How do you get reservations there?

Fun Story-

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Yeah, normally this is a pretty speedy coaster (for Disneyland) and our first ride had started normally. Halfway through, the coaster had just started to go up a hill when it just stopped. There was a pre-recorded message about a slow train ahead on the tracks so we thought it may have been part of the ride. Nope! Soon another voice came on the speakers announcing that all the trains had stopped due to technical difficulties and that we needed to stay in our seats until we were evacuated. What?! Eventually some cast members came out and instructed us to stay in our sits as the coaster had to be anchored before we could get off. Apparently the coaster could roll if it wasn’t tied down. Then the fire department showed up. Meanwhile the couple sitting behind me and my mother were throwing a fit about their lunch plans and trying to get off before the fire department showed up. One of the cast members threatened to get security. Truthfully, I was trying not to laugh. Once off we were escorted through the tunnels on foot.

Bummer-

Due to the building of Star Wars land and some scheduled refurbishments, there were quite a few rides closed. Splash Mountain, Autopia, Jungle Cruise, Mark Twain’s Riverboat, the pirate ship and some other attractions were all closed. Boo. 😦 Also, we were in line for Hyperspace Mountain again when it too was shut down. Also it turned out to be a school holiday so the place was very crowded. And hot- who predicted temps in the 80’s in February?!

Nerd Moment-

Super Hero HQ was nerd-vana for me. Well, that and Star Wars Launch Bay. Seriously awesome. And I finally found myself a trucker hat. I’ve wanted one for running but could never find one I liked.

The take home-

We saved all the stores for last as we didn’t want to have to carry anything. I am not a huge Mickey or Minnie fan (sorry!) nor am I fond of the princesses. My favorite Disney cartoon is Lilo and Stitch. I remember seeing it in the theater when it came out years ago. I was a little over 20 and I went with my best friends-at that time they were all guys. All 4 of us were sniffling by the end, I still get teary eyed watching it today. So I wanted a Stitch stuffed animal. I finally found one in the very last store. I swear I picked it up, hugged it and proceeded to carry it around the store like a 5 year old. #noshame

Fail-

Everyone was gathering to watch the parade in the afternoon but we chose to skip it and go try Big Thunder Mountain Railroad again. While this ride was successful, we missed something big. Peyton Manning was in the freakin’ parade!!! Seriously?!

All in all it was a fun and tiring day. Maybe someday I will finally make it to California Adventure. 🙂

Ever been to Disneyland?

Favorite ride?

Favorite Disney character? Who is Mr. Toad?