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Magical Mickey Mondays: HatBox Ghost Returns!

5/18/2015

Video taken from hatboxghost.com (click on the picture for more background information)

It is Monday so we are linking up with another Magical Mickey with John at run.geek.rundisney and Katie from Adventures by Katie. This week I will talk about the Hatbox Ghost's Return to the Disneyland Haunted Mansion.

Since the Disney parks Blog officially announced the Hat Box ghost was returning to Haunted Mansion, I have been so excited!

The Hatbox ghost was originally used in advertising for the Haunted Mansion before it opened. He was briefly in the attraction in 1969 and then disappeared. It is rumored he was taken out because he never worked how Imagineering wanted him to. He has decided to make his appearance known again (as has been noted by Disney, there are still 999 happy haunts in the Haunted Mansion, he has just decided to reappear so he is counted in that number). He has a strong legacy out in So Cal and people freaked when his animatronic was at D23 2 years ago.

He officially returned on Saturday, May 9th. After the 10k, I hurried back to the hotel to shower, roll and go grab breakfast before heading off to DL at opening to walk right over and get in line. I needed to see him!

We waited about 30 minutes in line to see him and let me say, he DID NOT disappoint! He is such how quality and looks so great, I may have squealed a bit! His effects are so cool and the gif above (I borrowed it from hatboxghost.com does not do it justice).

I can't wait to see him again this weekend!

Has anyone else seen the Hatbox Ghost yet?

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Healthy Living 5/18/2015

5/18/2015

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Time for some weekly accountability! I will recapping how I have done on the 4 Well Rules over the last week: Eat Well, Sleep Well, Exercise Well and Be Well. I have decided to link up with Tara of Running n Reading as I love linkups. Make sure to check out the other bloggers there too!

EAT WELL
Oh wow-really went off the rails! After the races, I allowed myself to eat more carbs than usual as it does seem to help my recovery.

Coupled with that, the end of the semester, graduation, graduation parties, I definitely indulged. I felt tired and bloated by yesterday so I decided to do a fast starting at dinner and will clean up my diet this week. Less than 3 weeks until I'm in Florida and I want to be In good shape by then! Without any races on the horizon, I can go pretty low carb which will be nice.

SLEEP WELL
Sleep was great until thurs and then it was horrible! Eek! I only got 5 hours of sleep on thurs (got to bed late and got up at 430), 5.5 on sat (got home very late and had to get up and be on campus by 8) and Saturday (stayed out late and couldn't sleep in).

I'm pretty exhausted and with school starting on Weds, I need to get a lot of sleep. My goal for the week is to be in bed by 10 except weds because I don't get out of class until 1015! This weekend I should be able to catch up on sleep which should be good.

EXERCISE WELL
Monday: rest day
Tuesday: yoga
Wednesday: rest day (had to be at work early unexpectedly)
Thursday: 2 miles
Friday: rest day because of graduation
Saturday: Rest day because of dissertation conference
Sunday: 3 miles

Monday: rest day + light core work
Tuesday: 3 miles
Wednesday: Yoga +light core work
Thursday: 3 miles + core work
Friday: Piyo upper body then Disneyland
Saturday: rest day but a bit more intense core work
Sunday: 6 miles

BE WELL
This was a very hectic week. Graduation week is always busy with events and with the rain on Friday, it was even crazier than usual. To make it more tough, one of my good friends was graduating so I went to her ceremony and party-so much fun!

To make this week even harder, we have been dealing with a sudden passing in my boyfriends family and I've been helping as much as I can with arrangements and ceremonies. That has been very emotionally draining for all involved also contributing to my crazy week.

One positive was the dissertation conference I attended on Saturday. I listened to some of my potential chairs and have narrowed it down nicely. I am hopeful I will get my first choice!!

This week will be great at work-very quiet and I already have my to do list to work on! I start class on weds and can't wait to be with my cohort again (they're seriously all so amazing!).
And on Tues, I get my first root canal-eek but I'm ready for this hole in my mouth to be gone. Hopefully the recovery will go fine.
I will be at Disneyland on Friday to start the celebration of the 60th anniversary! I will be going back for a full day with my boyfriend so we can see the Parade and Fireworks (and since we will probably have to wait to see them, I will most likely bring schoolwork with me to read #nerd)

How was your week? Attend any graduations lately?

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Friday Five: How I Organize my Gear

5/14/2015

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Hi all! Linkup Friday!! Thanks to our amazing hostesses: the DC Trifecta Bloggers (Courtney from Eat Pray Run DC, Mar from Mar on the Run, and Cynthia from You Signed Up For What?!). This week's topic is How I organize my race gear. I am always updating how I organize all of my running stuff so let's get started.

1. Short sleeve shirts
I keep all of my shirts in one drawer. I separate them by tanks and short sleeves. I also keep my sports bras in there as well. I try to keep them organized so I can see them all but that does not always happen. I usually wear race shirts.

2. Long sleeve shirts and bottoms
My long sleeve shirts have greatly expanded with 13 shirts in less than 6 months! I organized them by Disney and non Disney. On the other side is my shorts/skirts. I try to organize them so I can see them all but I of coure forget about some of them.

I'm going to have to figure out another plan soon because I'm running out of space!

3. Running electronics and sweatbands
I keep these by my door so I always know where everything is. Usually my headbands are a game time decision so I love having them there. It was raining when I finished running today so my electronics are a bit of a mess.

4. Fuel and extras
I just moved my fuel because it was getting out of control. I keep it all in shoe box behind my door. In other boxes I have other things such as one box for winter wear (caps and gloves) and one for extra supplies with baby wipes, Mylar blankets and anything extra I get.

5. Storage for costumes and throw away
Above my closet, I put everything in bags and label them by costume. The big bag in front has an excessive amount of throwaway clothes I can use on a whim. I keep trying to reuse costume parts so I don't have to buy fully new stuff before every race.

Bonus: My routine
I picked out all of my workout clothes for the week on the Saturday or Sunday. Everything is in a stack and ready to go quickly and it helps me get out of the door fast in the morning for my workouts. It also helps my drawers from getting too overcrowded, like they are now after 3 new shirts.

That's it for me! It's definitely not perfect but it works for me, at least for now. Whenever I decide to move, I want to buy some drawers that are just for workout gear as I keep getting more and more! In the meantime, I may switch to baskets as needed.

How do you stay organized with all of your workout gear?

Short sleeve shirts

Shorts and long sleeves

Electronics and headbands-so messy right now haha

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2015 Tinkerbell Half 10k Recap

5/14/2015

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First time in Corral A for a Disneyland race!

I have decided to join a new linkup: Triumph Thursdays hosted by Smitha from Running With SD Mom, Linzie from Sharp Endurance & Carlee from Carlee McDot. This week I will talk about The Tinkerbell 10k and how it was the best Disney 10k I have ever run (even though the DL 10k of 2013 was amazing as it was the first one!)!

The morning started early at 4am. I was slow moving and eventually got ready and out of the hotel by 445 and at the pre run area by 5. My costume for the day was Iridessa, the fairy of Light. I used the portas (first one in the porta!) and then checked my bag and headed to the corral. I chatted up a few people and before I knew it, it was time to take off.

I decided to run by feel and get over on the sidewalk to do my walk intervals and the plan worked well. I walked the first 3 "hills" aka overpasses and finished the first mile around 10:45 and before I knew it, we were in the backlot! I took some water and headed into the park.

We hit Disneyland first so I stopped for a pic with the outside. Then I stopped for a pic driving the Fire Truck and with chip and Dale.

Made it to DL!

the Fire Truck!!!

Chip n Dale but double exposure from the Marathonfoto flashes

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2015 Tinkerbell Half Marathon Expo Recap

5/13/2015

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The expo for tinkerbell was Thursday-Sunday. I couldn't justify taking another day off work especially with it being during Finals at work. Luckily I had all of my papers turned in before the weekend or it would have been even more stressful!

This is the first time for a Disneyland race I took off for the entire day before the race and I really like it! It was so much less stressful and I had the whole day to relax and it ensured I was in bed at a good hour.

I headed down early to avoid traffic which was great with the weather. I hung out and caught up with some sorority sisters (and I ran into Merenda as well!) before going to the expo at 9:30 (it opened 30 min early). Of course the official merchandise was pretty much done, but luckily I got to finally meet Pam from WeRunDisney while there. One thing I don't like is they put out regular park merchandise so that the shelves don't look bare but over 50% of the stuff was gone. I also got to meet Pam which was lovely! All I bought was a magnet.

I do think it's sad to get the merchandise you want, you have to go on the first day. It's not fair to everyone that can't come on the first day because eBayers are greedy and want to make a profit and buy 5 of everything. It makes the runners just upset and something needs to be done about it. Maybe limit purchases to 1 item per person? Show your bin for race specific merchandise? Do a pre-order--this is what I would like to see. You could preorder what you want but not pay for it until you get there and all the overflow can be sold in an open arrangement for anyone.

Afterwards, I went to get KT tape and buy the packs they had the day before but they never had them out even after checking back multiple times. Oh well-I will definitely need to buy more tape at Dumbo and wine and dine.

After I went to Procompression and bought 4 pairs of compression socks, stopped by GoodSense and won a free bottle and finally went to New Balance. I was supposed to start at 10 but I got the text at 9:30 but since the expo wasn't busy, I wanted to hit some booths early. I waited about 10 min and finally got my shoes! They came with free poms and I took an Instagram pic with them for free wings!

Next I went downstairs and got my bib and then got my shirts. They are so cute this year!

After I went to Fit2Run to get extra fuel and a new roller to keep at work, I stopped by Flipbelt and got a black one. I love my lime green one but its getting dirty and it's super bright.

My final stop this round was Sparkle Athletic to pick up my shoe poms I ordered online. They were 2 dollars cheaper in person but it was worth the peace of mind to know they would be there and not sold out. At dumbo, I need to buy some hats-green, yellow and maybe pink as well.

I went to drop everything off at my car and then headed to grab food with my friends. They were staying concierge level at the DL hotel and it was incredible. We had a light lunch of veggies and dip, fruit, chips and salsa and espresso and lemonade. The view was gorgeous and we had such a relaxing afternoon. We then went back to the expo, I ran into Lacey briefly there as well! We stopped by the Stick booth and I ended up buying a stick (to use mostly while traveling) and a device to help with my sciatica/piriformis.

After that I helped out with gift bags for the tinkerbell Facebook group before heading to the park to ride Little Mermaid and grab a super early dinner of Stirfry and a macaron for dessert.

I checked in at the hotel and unpacked and prepped everything by 7. I stretched and rolled and was in bed relaxing by 7:45. I had trouble sleeping but got 7 hours of sleep! My wake up was 4:00am.

Overall, I spent more money at this expo than ever before-they shut my credit card down because they thought it was fraud. (TIP-alert your credit card company because the companies at the expo charge where they are from. So new balance showed up as Anaheim, but fit2run showed up as Florida and The Stick showed up as Atlanta).

Everything I bought, I needed and had just been waiting to get it at the expo as it was cheaper-for example, the Procompression socks are 25 each at the expo but retail for 50 dollars each.

Overall, I'm very happy with my purchases and had a great Expo experience minus the fiasco with the official merchandise.

Anyone else attend the Expo? Your thoughts? Do you usually like Race Expos?

New Tink shoes

pic with my bib

Expo haul! Shoes, 2 rollers, fuel, flipbelt, ProCompression socks, shoe poms, Goodsense, free coppertone and my shirts

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Tuesdays on the Run: Running Hacks

5/12/2015

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Another Tuesday, another Tuesday on the Run hosted by our favorites:
April from Run the Great Wide Somewhere, Erika from MCM Mama Runs, and Patty from No-Guilt Life. This week's topic is Running Hacks.

I don't consider myself a good "hacker" but I have found shortcuts that have helped my runs. Here are my Top 5!

1. Laying out your stuff the night before
And that means everything! The night before a race and also before training (it gives me practice!) everything: all my clothes, electronics and all of my pre race food. It speeds things up in the morning and allows me to get out pretty quickly. I also pack my checked bag that I'm bringing to ensure I have everything I need.

2. Flip Belt
This is a miracle invention. It is a piece of fabric that you can stuff everything in and flip over to make sure nothing escapes. It can hold my phone, spray, combo Chapstick and sunscreen, fuel and still have room for more stuff.

3. Compression Gear
I have been wearing socks during recovery for over a year now and it has helped. After having calf tightness issues while training for Dopey, I decided to give wearing compression gear during races a try and I'm now a convert! I have been racing in compression socks since the end of March and have seen such a difference in my recovery. I'm pretty much not sore at all after races which is a godsend! I swear to another pair of socks after and my compression leggings. (If you're looking for leggings, these are great. I just ordered 4 more pairs as they are on clearance).

4. Music
I have separate playlists for different distances-5k, 10k, half and full and usually update them once a month with a new song or a new order. It prevents me from having to create a separate list and allows me to always be ready to go! Every list ends with the same song progression to help me push myself towards the end.
I also have an audiobook for longer runs as it forces me to slow down and take my time.

5. Planning
Planning is crucial to the whole experience. I have a notebook that I use to plan out my race prep. Every detail is there-where and what I will eat, times I will go to sleep, wake up, where to park, where to go, etc. it helps me get on task and not be late.
After the race, I also go back and write notes for next time and helpful hints as well.

How about for you? What are some of your best running hacks?

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Healthy Living Recap 5/11/2015

5/11/2015

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Time for some weekly accountability! I will recapping how I have done on the 4 Well Rules over the last week: Eat Well, Sleep Well, Exercise Well and Be Well. I have decided to link up with Tara of Running n Reading as I love linkups. Make sure to check out the other bloggers there too!

EAT WELL
I was pretty gluten free all well and carbloaded well. Eating definitely got complicated on Monday afternoon as one of my fillings cracked while eating popcorn and I had half of my tooth gone. After an emergency appointment with the dentist, they fill it with temporary stuff and I will go back in two weeks for a root canal and crown fitting. Oh what fun :/

SLEEP WELL
My sleep was great up until Thursday night because I needed to get up at 4 to call for dining reservations for wine and dine in November and then 6 for the virtual shoe queue. However the early morning wake up was great because I got 7 hours of sleep both nights before the races! I need to get back to 7+ hours of sleep before races, it really makes such a big difference.
I am hoping to sleep at least 7 hours this week. It's graduation on Friday and I have to be on campus at 5! Eek.

EXERCISE WELL
Monday: rest day
Tuesday: biggest loser weights
Wednesday: 2 miles
Thursday: 2.2 miles
Friday: rest day but walked around expo and park
Saturday: Tinkerbell 10k-new Disney PR of 1:21:53
Sunday: Tinkerbell half-new Disney PR of 2:35:57

Monday: rest day + light core work
Tuesday: 2 easy miles (:30/:30) with core work
Wednesday: Yoga +light core work
Thursday: 3 miles (1:00/:30) + core work
Friday: rest day because of Graduation
Saturday: rest day because of school but small weight workout in the evening of time
Sunday: 3 miles

BE WELL
This was a great week!
Monday: turned in my last paper! Goodbye first year of my Doctoral program
Caught up on tv shows and relaxed for the first time in a long time. I have so much more free time when I'm not doing at least an hour of schoolwork every night. I'm only reading commuting to work to start to try to get ahead on the semester.
Friday-Sunday: Pixie Dust Challenge was beyond my expectations. I did very well and feel pretty great today.

Work will be crazy this week as its Graduation on Friday! I can't believe it's been 4 years since I got my Masters and only 2 years until my Doctoral graduation! One of my good friends is graduating so it'll be fun to celebrate on Friday night. Also-I have my Dissertation Conference all day Saturday meaning I'll listen to presentations and then pick my chair. This process is getting so exciting!

How was your week? How was Mothers Day?

Tink 10k

Tink Half

all the medals that got me to the Pink Coast to Coast

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Magical Mickey Mondays: Quick Overview of the Tink Half Weekend

5/11/2015

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It is Monday so we are linking up with another Magical Mickey with John at run.geek.rundisney and Katie from Adventures by Katie. I am going to do a quick overview of the Tink Half Marathon weekend because it is once again my favorite DL rundisney race weekend.

I arrived on Friday in the rain and hit up the Expo and spent a lot of money on well meaning purchases including my new Tink shoes (full review coming as soon as I run in them this week!)

Expo haul

I went to bed early on Friday and was up bright and early at 5am for the tink 10k. I dressed as Iridessa the fairy of light. I got a new Disney PR by almost 3 minutes (1:21:57) which included a bathroom break and FIFTEEN PHOTO STOPS!! woo-hoo!

I met Iridessa!

Saw the Hatbox Ghost in Haunted Mansion and hung out in the parks for a bit before going to a Facebook meetup and having a solo dinner at Carthay Circle. Up early on Sunday for the half dressed as Tink.

I got another Disney PR by almost 8 minutes (2:35:53) which included TWELVE photo stops and 2 bathroom breaks.

Full recaps for all of the events: Expo, 10k, and half are coming this week along with a review of a few new items I got at the Expo.

I had an amazing weekend and can't wait for next year and the 5th anniversary race! yay for being a Legacy!

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Friday Five: Spreading the Fitness love

5/7/2015

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Running with my boyfriend and his brother-always great to run with others

Hi all! Linkup Friday!! Thanks to our amazing hostesses: the DC Trifecta Bloggers (Courtney from Eat Pray Run DC, Mar from Mar on the Run, and Cynthia from You Signed Up For What?!). This week's topic is on sharing the love of fitness.

Here are 5 ways I share the love of fitness:

1. Invite friends to be active
I always invite friends to do races with me and love when they do. That's how I've gotten my friends into rundisney! People love to do things that are social and running can definitely satisfy that.

2. Wear your race gear proudly
I love to run in my shirts as they are comfortable and also are great conversation starters. People love to talk about the races they have done and it's a great way to also learn about other races and get people's opinion.

3. Encourage Others
If you hear others talking about running, speak up! Talk to people about running and help them get involved if they so chose. As I have told many people-anyone can be a runner, all you have to do is run!

4. Share on Social media
It's called social for a reason. I love to post about my races and such because it always starts a conversation. I love when people reach out to talk to me about races to run and help with training.

5. A blog!
I have loved growing and developing my blog and sharing it with everyone. I love to help people and love to help people grow. One thing I hope to do in the future is to become a certified coach so I can help others even more!

How about you? How do you share your love for fitness?

and a note: I will down in Disneyland all weekend running the Pixie Dust Challenge (10k on Saturday and Half on Sunday). Follow along on Social Media: Facebook , Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest!

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Tink Merchandise is Here!

5/7/2015

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Expo day is here! I will be heading over bright and early tomorrow but here is a sneak peek at the merchandise.

I was super excited for the jackets but they all seem a bit plain for my taste. I do like the teal tink one thought so I will have to check it out in person.
The only other things I want are the Pixie Dust challenge sweatyband and the magnet for my office.

What do you think of the merchandise?