I'm gaining on you!

Hey guys!

I am totally, super, crazy, excited about the fact that I am actually seeing results in my running. I had a major set back last week but now I'm back up and running. (Literally!) For the past six years I've needed surgery on my left foot. It is something that flares up on me if I wear the wrong shoes for too long, or if I do huge amount of walking in bad shoes. I looked into surgery and honestly the surgery isn't what scares me... its the recovery time. I would be on crutches for at least 3 weeks and in a boot for up to three months. I am far to active to be out of commission that long.. especially when its something that doesn't happen all the time. Lately I've been very lucky that I haven't had any flare ups until recently.

The past few times I've gone to the gym to run I've been wearing these...

When my foot was really giving me a hard time about a year ago I looking into the Vibrams five fingers. I'd heard that they were great for people with feet issues. However I just couldn't see buying them for over $100 when I didn't even know if they would work for me and lets be honest all of these shoes look a bit funny. My sister told me about the FILA Skeletoes and that they were only $38. I figured I would give them a try and I have to say THEY WORK! Its like you've got nothing on your feet and I have to say that running in these is a totally different and better experience.

If you follow my blog I posted about running around my neighborhood last weekend. It had rained the night before that run and there were some puddles. It also was only in the high 40's low 50's. I didn't really want to have cold , wet feet while I ran so against my better judgement I put on some regular sneakers. BAD MOVE! Not only did I feel a lot more strain on my shins (that shin splint pain) but the next day I had a massive flare up in my left foot to the point where I couldn't even put any weight on it. I was so bummed out. I still went to the gym and worked out my arms and back but, I couldn't help watching everyone else on the treadmills and actually missing it!

Over the past week I read a lot about the condition I have and about what I can do to prevent flare ups. One of the things they say is to get shoes like the ones I have. Specifically the Vibrams brand. So after talking to Adam I think I'm going to invest in a pair of the Vibrams. The FILA's were fine for a while but the material is starting to come apart from the sole and they do feel cheap in comparison. Regardless of whether i'm running or not, they are better for my overall foot health so I can see spending the money on the best of the best since I'll be using them on a more everyday use. The other thing I read about to help prevent flare ups is to ice after every run.  Even if my foot isn't hurting I need to ice it to stop any swelling. Thats easy enough!

My foot started feeling much better and by Saturday morning I was having no pain and I was feeling ready to get back to the gym. I got up early, put on my FILA's and hit the gym. I knew I didn't want to push it so what I did was jogged. I didn't want to focus on speed I wanted to focus on endurance.... I was so proud of myself! I told myself just to listen to my music and not even focus on how far I went. Which is something I torture myself with... I constantly look at how far I went and how long i've been running. I am so proud to announce that I wasn't even winded and I had already gone one whole mile jogging! I thought it would be fun to see exactly how far I could go! I went 1.75miles jogging! I power walked the rest of the 0.25miles to make it an even 2 miles. I was so proud. I know its not that big of a deal next to a half marathon let alone a full marathon but to me it was a great accomplishment!

Don't get me wrong I am pretty sore today but I feel great! I had so much more energy yesterday and I was in such a good mood. I started thinking that if I'm making this much progress in just a couple weeks and with a bum foot for a few days, How much can I do before the wine and dine in November?? Maybe I can convince Adam to start training with me and we can do the marathon relay! :)

How are you guys doing on your new years resolutions? If you're training for any of the Run Disney events how are you doing?

xoxo

Bringing World Showcase to my Kitchen

I've been missing wdw a lot lately. I usually find that around this time of year I miss warm weather, being on vacation, and that warm and fuzzy Disney feeling. I think it has to do with being smack in the middle of winter, being in-between vacations and now that the holidays are over I'm not getting my warm and fuzzy feeling anymore from anything. Luckily I have some ways of coping with my Disney withdrawal depression. One way is through my Twitter friends. I love how there is always atleast one person in the parks and a multitude of friends who wouldn't mind talking Disney with me. Another way Adam and I like to get through it is it bring alittle world showcase to us! One of our favorite world showcase pavilions is Germany. It is tradition that we always get the bratwurst and sauerkraut with an ice cold German beer! We thought it would be fun to try our hand at it! I am happy to report that this recipe is not only pretty easy but its rather tasty as well!

BRATWURST WITH SAUERKRAUT AND APPLES

6 slices bacon 1 sm. onion, chopped 1 clove garlic, minced 1 (32 oz.) can sauerkraut, drained and rinsed 2 medium potatoes, peeled and sliced 1 c. water 1/2 c. dry white wine - apple juice, or apple juice 1 tbsp. brown sugar 1 tsp. instant chicken bouillon 1 tsp. caraway seed 1 bay leaf 1 lb. bratwurst 1 lg. apple, cored and sliced Cook bacon in large skillet until crisp. Crumble; set aside. Reserve 2 tablespoons dripping. Cook onion and garlic in dripping. Stir in sauerkraut, potatoes, water, white wine or apple juice, brown sugar, dry bouillon, caraway seed, and bay leaf. Add more water, if needed. Score bratwurst. Add to mixture. Cover. Simmer 1 - 1 1/4 hours until potatoes are tender. Add apple. Cook until tender. Remove bay leaf. Serves 5.

While its not exactly what you'd find at Epcot its close enough! Definitely brought back some good memories, and cooking with Adam is always a fun mini adventure. What do you do in-between vacations to help get you through?? Xoxo

Day 2 - Ready, Set, GO! (Part 1)

Happy Sunday everyone! Day light savings is totally screwing up my internal clock. Even though its only 5:30 I feel like I should be getting ready for bed, not getting ready to cook dinner. I can't believe how dark out it is already! Anyway let's start with day 2 of our amazing trip!

My alarm wasn't even necessary since I didn't really fall asleep that night. I was almost waiting for it to go off so that I could have an excuse to get up and Adam wouldn't be mad at me. When it did go off i jumped in the shower, got dressed, did my make up and had everything back in the luggage bags before Adam even started to get ready. I took a walk down the lobby to see what the weather was like and to check and see how busy the diner was. If Adam got ready fast enough maybe we could grab some breakfast there. When the elevator doors opened all I saw was the buckets of rain coming down outside. It looked like a monsoon! The diner didn't seem busy so I went back up to the room to check on Adams progress. He wasn't moving as quickly as I thought he would be (Try barely moving) and breakfast at the diner went out the window.

We gathered our things and went down to the lobby to check in for the shuttle service to the airport. We must've been the only people under fifty that were heading to the airport that day. I don't know if there is some sort of a senior discount in Vegas during the fall or what but everyone using the shuttle service that morning were eligible for medicare and had fanny packs on that said some sort of "what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas..." slogan on it. Meanwhile i'm in my mickey t-shirt and Adam is looking at the food and wine festival information on his phone... We were definitely the minority.

After a quick trip to the airport we said headed to the nearest dunkin doughnuts for some much needed coffee and bagels. The flight was pretty uneventful... flash forward two and a half hours to landing! My first sight of palm trees always gets me insanely excited! We flew through security and down to Magical Express. We walked right up to the next Magical express attendant and I made a terrible discovery... I had packed up my magical express transfers! I almost had a heart attack! The nice man at the desk told me not to worry and looked me up in the system. He printed out a whole new voucher for me and told me to have a "magical day!" to which i replied "I most certainly will!"... God i love hearing "have a magical day!" Lesson learned... Do not panic at disney! They fix everything!

We boarded the bus headed to the Wilderness Lodge. I could hardly contain myself! The entire time I was tweeting and facebooking that I was on my way! We arrived at the Wilderness Lodge and went to the check in desk. I got a really nice cast member who chatted with me about Disney Cruise Line and told me all about the fun things that were going on around the world the few days i'd be there. Our room wasn't ready yet but we did the text thing that would let us know when it was ready and what room number we were in. It was so convenient. By this time Adam and I were pretty hungry. We went to the roaring fork and grabbed some chicken fingers and a pizza. I was so happy to be back in my happy place!

Excuse my finger in this one

After lunch we jumped on the next boat to Magic Kingdom. The first thing I wanted to do was ride the haunted mansion! I hadn't been on it since the new queue refurb. It was so much fun. I won't spoil it for those who haven't done it yet but just know that we loved it! After Haunted mansion we did Space Mountain. The whole time we were in line I was praying that we got the back... I LOVE the back of the train on space.. I feel like it goes faster and you get whipped around more. Guess what we got... the back! woohoo! I had my hands up and scream/laughed the whole time! Space is one of my most favorite rides! 

After space mountain I think the early morning, the flight, and running around got to us. It suddenly felt like we were moving in slow motion. We sat down in tomorrowland when I started tweeting with Scott from Collect the mouse and a Disney Driven Life. He and his wife Peggy were in the park that day and wanted to meet up with us! After some tweeting and a quick phone call we found each other and rode the TTA together. Scott and his wife are such nice people, it was like we'd known them for a long time.  It was so nice to just sit and relax on the TTA and have a nice chat with cool people! I wish I had gotten a picture with them but somewhere my brain totally blanked out and i forgot! :( 

After our TTA ride we said goodbye to Scott and Peggy. Next up was Pirates of the Caribbean, I can't go to Magic Kingdom and NOT do it! I still know all the words to the song and sing it in my head through the whole ride. Sadly this wasn't my favorite trip on pirates... there was some guy behind us who clearly didn't care about the "no flash photography" rule and kept blinding me! It was so bad that they stopped the ride twice and asked him to stop and he still didn't. At the end of the ride a cast member did pull him aside and said something to him but at that point the ride was over. I love a good photo but don't ruin someone's ride with a blinding flash! 

After that bad experience and our energy levels going down the tubes we thought we'd try one more ride... Splash Mountain. We got over to the queue area and the line was super long... we tried fast pass but the fast pass return wasn't until 5 o'clock and we had a dining reservation 5:30. Feeling defeated I heard the train whistle... it was sitting in the frontier land station. PERFECT! We ran up the stairs with every last bit of energy and were the last two people they let on. 

Adam and I started talking and as much as we wanted to keep going in Magic Kingdom we knew we were pushing it. We decided to go back to the Wilderness lodge for a quick nap, shower, and change before heading to the yacht club for dinner and Hollywood Studios that night. I checked my phone and sure enough we had a text telling us our room was ready. The train pulled out of the frontierland station and we were on our way to the main gate. We kept trying to peak behind the fences to see the fantasyland expansion construction but we couldn't see much. What we did see though looked super cool!  

We pulled into the main gate station and went down the ramp to leave...WAIT! I can't leave without a castle picture! I told Adam I need to get our picture in front of the castle and he reluctantly agreed, I think the poor guy was falling asleep on me. We got the nearest photopass photographer to snap this picture of us. 

Not our best photo but we're going to blame it on the crane in the background and not the fact that we look exhausted....hahaha

Wow this post is long... Ok i'm going to stop here. Don't want to loose you guys to too much in one post! Things to look forward to next include, Dinner at yachtsman Steak House...ummm omg yum!, Mulch Sweat and Tears, Star Tours meltdown, and Passing out!

Thanks for reading! And don't forget to leave a comment so I know you were here! 

xoxo