Dopey Challenge Training – Week 8: Feeling Overwhelmed

Do you ever feel like you have so much to do that you don’t know where to begin and you end up just moving paper from one side of your desk to the other. Well, that’s me right now.  

 

Even though I’m seeing so many races coming back in person, my State is having increasing Covid cases and large annual events are beginning to cancel, AGAIN. I fear we are heading into another year similar to 2020, and to be honest, I do not have the strength to do that again. When the country shut down last March, I was one of seven employees remaining from over 200 employed at my Club. We all took on extra duties, however being in charge of membership at a private Club meant the number of irate phone calls sky rocketed. Trying to keep our membership number up without lowering dues too much was quite the struggle since we shut down twice and then reopened with limited amenities and lots of restrictions.

 

With Disney’s Princess weekend registration opening up next week, I’m wondering if I should bother should it be cancelled and if it doesn’t, that will mean two travel races in February. I also have a very expensive oral surgery coming up in October that will put my training on hold for a couple of weeks. I’m stressing about that cost as well as those expensive Disney races, not to mention the loss of training during surgery recovery.

 

I am a goal oriented person and I’ve set daily, weekly and month goals for myself which I’m not coming at all close to meeting. This makes me discouraged and frustrated. Plus those Disney Virtual races…. Not done, I’ve made one of the costumes, but between the heat and the smoke, I’ve not had the chance to get out and run them. My summer is quickly coming to a close and the deadline to complete them is fast approaching. I’ve rationalize in my head that I’ve already completed well over three 5K’s doing the “Close Your Rings” Challenge of 30 days 30 5K’s back in June, but I really wanted to do something special for those cute Lion King themed races. 

 

And what about those Craft fairs that sent me confirmations, one in October and one in November. Although my basement is overflowing with inventory, all my displays and such are stored away in different areas of the house and garage. I hate the feeling of not knowing where everything is….my own personal OCD. Will these actually take place with our Covid numbers increasing?

 

Then there is making sure all my Race-Cation travel details. Already had a near miss when I discovered I reserved our rental car for the Surf City race for the wrong weekend and I almost forgot to call my travel agent to move my Disney resort reservations because Princess weekend was booked for the week prior. Trying to keep all my races, reservations and details straight is much harder, why? Is it because I’m out of practice with that COVID year of isolation? Who knows, but I am always on the brink of hysterics and feeling nervous all the time. 

 

Plus the added task of making costumes for all those Disney races. I made the mistake of counting how many I need to make………..10 COSTUMES! and they is not even counting the ones for the mystery Spring races if I choose to register for those.  I have so many ideas, and absolutely no plan on how I’m going to get them done.

 

Balancing work, training and just keeping my house clean is almost becoming too hard to manage. This week I have a 9 mile run on the weekend, and I have to go in to work on Saturday. Plus I have to plan and prepare those weekly recipes… I actually really love that part, but it’s one more thing on my plate.

Recipe this week is from the Disney Cookbook – Kronk's Famous Dish, Spinach Puffs.

Well this recipe proved to be a hot mess, just like me this week. I did roll the dough out thin enough so rather than 18 puffs I had 10 kinda thick crusted puffs. However they tasted wonderful and I used the left over spinach cheese mixture and pan fried it with the leftover egg yoke. This has become our new favorite chip dip.

How beautiful are Mickey's version of Kronk's puffs.

And then there is my attempt, delicious but not so pretty to look at.

Take a look at my struggle this week and the comedy of errors in the kitchen, then click here

Dopey Challenge Training – Week 7: Stretch It Out!

 

This week I started putting in some strength training and stretching exercises into my routine. I can feel my muscles tightening up with all this running so I need to work on lengthening those muscles to improve my running. Although it caused sore muscles at first, staying flexible not only makes me feel better, but will reduce the risk of injury and help recover faster after those long runs. 

 

I’m taking it very old school, does anyone remember an exercise called Callanetics? I bought my first VHS tape in the mid 80’s and when it came out on DVD later on, I had to have it. 

I’m going to be showing my age here, but I remember doing Jane Fonda tapes in the basement when my son was just a little guy and 2 years ago he surprised me with DVD replacements of most of all my Jane Fonda workout videos. I love ‘em!

 

The fires around Spokane have not stopped and the smoke in the air has caused unhealthy breathy conditions. 

So I took to the Treadmill for my second run this week and because I was engrossed in a TV show as able to increase my mileage to 4.5 miles in 45 minutes. It wasn’t because I was running faster, I just didn’t take those walk breaks. 

 

My final run of the week was an easy 3 miler.  I headed out the door early Saturday morning before the temperatures started to climb. Because of the smoky air, the sun rises have been just beautiful. It was a great ending to a nice easy run week. These photos really don't show how beautiful this sunrise was, but believe me it was spectacular!

 

 

This weeks recipe is from the Disney Eats Cookbook – Mickey Turkey meatloaf and Aladdin’s Fattoush Salad. 

After last week 3 hour tour in the Kitchen I wanted something a little bit easier. These two recipes fit the bill. Normally when I cook using Turkey it comes out on the dry side. Not so with meatloaf. It made so many mini meatloaves we were able to fest on it for two days following. The Salad was my personal favorite, maybe it was because I goofed up on the dressing adding 1 tablespoon salt rather than 1 teaspoon….. and I’d do it again, it was so tasting for this salt aholic. 

My finished dish looked surprising similar to the cookbooks. This is Disney's version of the recipe.

And this is mine....so yummy!

Check out Week #7 training video by clicking here

Dopey Challenge Training – Week 6: Beat the Heat

 

Since my neighbors left me in charge of watching their house over the weekend, I helped myself to their above ground pool. I’m pretty sure that was implied with “watching the House”.

 

With this heat, it was so refreshing to float around enjoying my adult beverage. When I was growing up we had a pool in our backyard and it was wonderful on those hot hot days. I actually learned how to swim before I learned to walk. Mom was adamant about that since it was hard to keep track of us three kids and God forbid one of use accidentally falls in when no one is watching. 

 

I am running so much slower this week and it’s because of the heat. As all good training plans say, you should slow down once the temperature increase. I know once the season turns it will cool off and running will be much easier. 

 

This week I learned a very important lesson on waiting to run after you eat. My Thursday run was miserable because I ran out the door after a huge dinner. I adjusted my interval timer to 3 minutes run/2 minutes walking to accommodate the bulging tummy. I didn’t want to see my dinner on the pavement (if you know what I mean)

 

This was a big week in my son’s life. He finally purchased his dream car. A brand new Tesla. 

Welcome to the wonderful world of debt my boy. Seriously though, I am so proud of my son. He is only 24 years old, college graduate, terrific job, no student loans and able to afford a new car of his choosing. I feel a pat on the back is deserved for the fine job I did raising such a fiscally responsible young man. 

 

This weeks recipe is from the Villains cookbook: Olympus Moussaka. 

Probably the hardest and most time consuming recipes so far. I ended up cooking for 3 ½ hours and the kitchen became so hot the sweat was pouring down my face. I use a lot of dairy substitutions in my recipes, this causes many of my dishes to be a little on the runny side, however the flavor of this dish was so good. There was no photo in the cookbook so hopefully this is what it is supposed to look like.

 

Week #6 and my son's new car can be seen by clicking here

Dopey Challenge Training – Week 5: Officially Dopey AGAIN!

 

It’s Official – I’m officially Dopey….. Again!

 

Tuesday was Dopey Challenge registration day and I was even more stress out than I was during Wine and Dine registration. I brought this on myself because I wanted in so badly and if I didn’t get in, what would become of all my training videos. (I know, real world problems right here).

So, once again I hauled my old laptop, my IPad, my new laptop, and my cell phone to the office at the crack of dawn, seriously it was barely light outside. I just knew it was going to be mayhem. Well, once again all that anxiety was for nothing because I got registered with no drama and even a week later there were still races available, even Dopey. I am got to calm the heck down.

 

Since registering for the biggest series of races in my life, what have I done? Well……NOTHING!!

I didn’t get either of my 45 minute training runs done this week. Tuesday after registering I was full of adrenaline and ready to run after work… until the down pour of rain started shortly after 5PM. I fully intended to make up for it on Wednesday, however work conflicts kept me well past the time I wanted to venture out. Then Thursday began the triple digit temperature and smoke from surrounding area fires covered the city on Friday. Yes, I know the treadmill was calling out my name. But somehow I didn’t hear it.

 

Saturday morning I woke up and had a “come to Jesus” talk with myself and pushed my butt out the door even though the heat was beginning to rise, I did my three miles and was proud of myself for doing it.  

 

I ordered a new Disney cookbook this week off of Amazon. I want to say I bought it only because it was Villains themed and since this years’ Wine and Dine weekend is also Villains themed it seemed a justified purchase. 

But in reality I’ve developed a new addiction to Disney Cookbooks. By total coincidence I was able to find corresponding fabric at JoAnn’s to make an apron that matched the cookbook design. I didn’t break into my new Villains cookbook this week because I already had a recipe picked out and ingredients bought.

 

This weeks recipe was from the The unofficial Disney Parks Cookbook: Dole Whip

Make sure to have a lot of time on your hands to make this recipe because after the first step you have to wait 2 hours!! 

Once the mixture went into the ice cream machine it was only 20 more minutes. 

And yes I did add a little Capital Morgan’s spiced rum to the mix. The result took me back to the Tiki tiki room, it was so yummy.

Mine did not look at all like this beautiful photo from the cookbook

But it was sure tasty, and the rum, yes that is a must do every time.

I am not at all disappointed in myself for missing those 2 training runs. I feel refreshed and strong, so who knows maybe I needed the break. Don’t beat yourself up, you have to keep it fun or you will surely give up. Even professional athletics have a bad week.

 

If you want to watch Week #5 and learn how to make delicious Dole Whip then click here