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Goofy's Race and a Half Challenge Training Tips from Previous Runners

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OK this is really not a minimalist’s plan as it relies heavily on strength runs mid-week and follows a regular marathon plan’s weekend mileage build up. My plan as I have run it during the first two Goofy’s Challenges does not rely on a regular regime of back-to-back long weekend runs.

Weekday runs

Around July I start my weekday buildups running long hill and short hill intervals on the treadmill. Long hill intervals start at 6% and range up to 12% in 1% increments repeating 5 times for an hour long run. Intensity during this run ranges from a moderate aerobic effort (I can talk and it feels like a medium effort) to a just under anaerobic effort (you can say 2-3 words per breath; max and it feels hard to run). Short hill intervals are shorter hills ranging up to 10% hills recovering on a relatively flat 2% interval. Every so often my schedule will throw in a speed interval workout in place of the short hill interval. In October I will push a few weekday workouts into the anaerobic effort range (very hard, legs burning unable to say more than a syllable or two) in an effort to further build cardio and leg strength. Just remember hills are free speed work.

Weekend Long Runs

I differ from many others on the weekend plans. I do not believe that the middle to the back of the back runner needs to run both days. Injury is a big concern during a regular marathon build up and doubling the effort multiplies the stress exponentially. I modified and followed a well known mileage based plan in 06 and a time based plan in 07 for my long runs. During both years is only ran 2-3 back-to-back long runs in early November and then only on a weekend where the schedule pulled back the planned long run. I use these back to back runs just to get a feel of fatigued legs. Remarkably, in both 06 and 07 my longest long run was 16 miles.

On average, I run 3-4 times a week during marathon training…. two hard weekday runs, an easy effort long run and a shake the cobwebs out run sometime during the week. Following this plan I have set personal bests in all distances 1 mile through marathon in 2006 and 2007.

Changes for 08? Well I am not sure as I am planning to run IMFL the first weekend of November so I may well recover/taper into Goofy 08. Absent that, I would not change my training all that much. I did not push hills as hard in October and early November for 07 as I have in previous years, so I am re-emphasizing hills for 08. I am sticking with time based runs in most future training plans to minimize injury possibilities. Race day changes are the biggest change in front of me. I overcooked my half in 07 setting up a bad marathon before I even hit the line. I did not bring (and hadn’t trained all that much with) my electrolyte tablets from home and the expo did not offer them. I just failed to recharge the salt levels in my body on Saturday afternoon (science would suggest that one couldn’t really recharge the levels that quickly anyway given the heat of the weekend). So in 08 I’ll pay better attention to ambient conditions and force myself to slow down on the half if temperatures look to be above 50.

FAQ’s

I have never run a marathon, should I sign up for the Goofy? Running the Goofy challenge prior to completing a marathon is probably not a great idea. One should really understand how to successfully make their way through a marathon first; learning how to deal with the challenges of the last 6 miles of the race. The real challenge of Goofy is to know how hard to push on Saturday so the legs will not feel too bad on Sunday.

I am running Goofy, should I just walk Saturday? It really depends. My advice is to make Saturday a training pace day and then push a little harder (if you have it) on Sunday. Others would suggest making the half the race and just cruising Sunday during the full while a third view is to take both days at equal effort. Whatever you do Saturday just make sure you have done that in training. For instance if you run 10 minutes and walk a minute in training, you could very well over use stabilizer muscles by walking the entire half on Saturday, making Sunday a death march from the start.

What should I do about shoes? For Goofy I have two pairs of shoes. The half is run in a pair that has less than half their running life left. The marathon is run in a pair of shoes with less than 100 miles in them. 07’s shoes had 46 miles at the start on Sunday. Plan on two pairs and shoes using the fresher pair for the longer day.

I am usually tight and sore after a long run. What should I do to be able to run Sunday? Several tools are out there for your use and trial. The best piece of advice I can give is to stretch regularly AFTER running. (Never stretch cold muscles). So after completing the half on Saturday, walk for 10 – 20 minutes in the finish line area. This will give you time to assess your post race condition prior to leaving the med tent area. After walking, find an open location and stretch you legs paying attention to the quads, hams, calves and glutes. Saturday afternoon make sure to get up and walk around to warm up the legs and restretch a few times to help loosen up the legs. Also, as you get to the resort, take a cool water bath. It not important to get the water deeper than the top of your legs. Theory has the cool water calming inflammation and forcing blood from the legs back into the core. (I am not sold on this but have used it both years (just in case)). The other thing is that it is important to move around Saturday afternoon. You don’t have to go to the parks but a couple loops around your home resort will work wonders for the legs.

Charles

I did great in my races with a 1hr 35 minutes on the ½ marathon and 3 hr 26 on the full (close to my PB for Disney). I wasn’t sore at all and even the 5k after the ½ race was still a lot of fun.

I am looking forward this year to run through the MGM-studios.

Greetings from Belgium

Bart

Welcome to the Goofy Challenge! It is a challenge and very rewarding at the same time. As others on the list stated the back to back runs are key. I did a adaptation of Hal Higdon's 18 week Intermediate marathon program. The Sat/Sun runs were my focus and I also allowed more flexibility during the week. I did my peak at18 weeks in early Dec. at the Honolulu marathon. After that did a short rest and then an abbreviated build up for the Goofy. Results - Half - 1:43, 5K - walked w/ Wife, Full - 4:00. Never felt too tired or sore the whole weekend. Have fun and keep us updated.

Scott

I tried to get in more longer runs (more than one 20 miler for instance) and used a marathon as a training run. I tried to do some back to back workouts that would simulate the half/full distance, but did not do too much of that. I always knew that I could at least finish the full following so my focus was on running the half well. All in all, since my thought process was "race" the half (I use that term loosely, but I did PR the half :), survive the full, and I did just that, it went well, but the full did not feel so well.

This year I would try to figure out a better game plan for the full. I think it would help that the 5K is not right after the half, and it would probably be smart to avoid the parks completely after the half, which I did not do. However, when I woke up Sunday morning, I did not feel sore at all, so I at least started well. :)

Good luck!

Julie

Last year I overtrained for the Goofy doing back-to-back long runs on Sat-Sun and in reality, upping the mileage too much. I ended up injured and had to limp my way through the races. This year I’m trying to train just as hard but a lot smarter. This past weekend is what I’m going to model many of the upcoming weekends after. I ran a nice easy 18 miler on Saturday at a pace about a minute to a minute and a half slower than marathon pace. Took Sunday off to recover (although in the future I’ll probably fill Sunday with an easy 5 or 6 miler or an hour of spinning on the bike). Then on Monday ran a nice hard 16 miler at about 15-30 seconds off the race pace I hope to run at the DL half next weekend. Followed that with another off day on Tuesday. What’s important to me is not only the long days, which are pretty typical, but the rest days which I tend not to be very good at. I’ll fill out the rest of the week with my daily 6 mile runs, most at an easy pace but some tempo and speed work thrown in. With any luck this plan will let me race the half on Saturday hard and still come back and run a quality marathon the next day. So for me the key to Goofy training will be well placed rest and recovery time.

Tom

I know we are all excited about upcoming races and the first ever Disneyland Half Marathon, but I thought I should mention that there are now 26 WEEKS remaining until the Walt Disney World marathon weekend. I know that sounds like forever, but it might be a good time to run a quick systems check and assess our preparation.

First, if you have not entered either the half or full marathon for January, do it now. Over the past several years it seems like both races have reached capacity in July or August. (I know the Goofy Challenge is already fully subscribed. Darn!)

Are you building a solid distance base? Starting to see those 3 mile runs creep up to 5 or 6 miles? Perhaps throwing in a longer run every few weeks? It is not too early to push out to 10 or 12 miles every week or so.

If you are going to be using one of the many excellent 16 or 18 week training plans (like Galloway or Art Liberman), use the next 8 to 10 weeks to lay in a good base of solid, comfortable miles. That way, when you actually start the program, you will already be fit and able to handle the heavier workload.

Hope everybody is running healthy and happy, and it continues for at least 26 more weeks!

Bill

I used the furman first (sp?) 16 week program for goofy 2 years ago. It was my first marathon (out of 4 and an ultra not counting goofy) and i found it to be the easiest. I modified their program and changed my mid week tempo run to make it 1/2 the distance of my LR and i did it the day b/4 the LR. i ended up only doing 3 back to backs. I do a lot of endurance racing (adventure racing for up to 24 hours continuous), so I think that helped make goofy seem not so overwhelming. Also, i chose that program specifically b/c it only had 3 day/week running and I needed the others to work on paddling and mt. biking. I even substutited a few long runs for a 100 mile bike ride and 2 adventure races which were 9-12 hrs each. I ended up doing enough running during the race to count is as my run that week anyway. I don't know if that helps or not. The first year they did goofy, they interviewed hal higdon and he said his intermediate marathon program was a good fit for the event. That was way too long, but i hope it helps! Congrats on signing up and good luck w/ your training.

Mel

Goofy training plans- I used the intermediate 1 level plan on hal higdon's website for the run portion mileage to get three runs per week and then for the last 7 weeks I was also doing the winter maintenance bike plan off beginnertriathlete.com. So one sample week, I rode M, W, Th, S, S and ran T, Th, 20" transition run on Sat and long Sun. The Sat rides where in the vicinity of 3-3.5 hours. My highest running mileage week only topped out at 35 miles. I didn't bother doing any back to back long runs at all.

So how did this work for me? Great. Ran easy but not super slow on Sat and felt great on Sun. Could have done another long run on Mon and never hurt at all. Caveat to my unusual Goofy approach- I train to run a marathon tired as a matter of principle since most of my marathons(including the next 2) come after a 2.4 mile swim and 112 mile bike. I've now done 6 marathons and 3 have come at the tail end of an Ironman race and one was Goofy 2007 so...the biggest reason I posted this was to just give another perspective on how it can be done. MelR didn't mention it but I know she did alot of cross training especially on the bike too.

My coach says his goal is to get it so I actually like to run since doing the marathon during Goofy w/ Kevin and Howard was only the second time I ever actually described a running race as 'fun.' The other time was a half marathon I entered on a whim because a friend decided 5 days before the race she wanted to do her first half. So we ran 13.1 miles in the rain up some nasty hills(Big Lake 2006 for the NH peeps) at a pace for me that caused her to tell me to shut up about mile 11. I was allowed to talk again once we hit mile 12 so apparently I'm only happy running when I'm socializing. Luckily we've got a great WISH group that will be happy to help me out with that I'm sure

Welcome to all the new people.

XT

Goofy training. I used Hal Higdon's Intermediate 1 plan and modified it slightly. I changed the shorter LR on Saturdays to be approx half of the LR on Sundays. Most of his Intermediate plan does this already, but as you get near the 20 milers, he tapers back a bit on the shorter LR. I also changed the final "big week" to end with 11 Saturday and 22 on Sunday. My longest weekly mileage was around 48 or so. It seemed to work well for me, although I was pretty tired near the end of the marathon on Sunday (I'm thinking that had more to do with the heat, though). I think the most important thing was to get my body used to the short recovery time it had between the Saturday and Sunday LRs. I tried to stretch and take an ice bath after every Saturday run, which seemed to help with overall soreness on Sunday mornings. And near the peak weeks, I had pasta on Friday night, some protein and carbs on Saturday after the first shorter LR, and pasta yet again on Saturday night. After that spell in Nov and Dec, Krista said we are never going to frequent Italian restaurants again. Hope this helps.

SK

Starting around the middle of September, I started following Galloway's plan. It had 2 short runs and one long run a week. Every other week, I would move a short run to Friday and make it half the distance I was planning on for Saturday. This would give me the back to back runs to get ready for Goofy. I think the highest mileages I did were 12/23.

It seemed to work out pretty good for me especially since I had every other Friday off from work so I could go out and do this.

Bill

I did basically what Bill mentioned above. I used Hal Higdon's intermediate 1 plan, which has a semi-long run the day before the real long run. I tweaked it slightly to have the last big week before the taper end with an 11 miler followed by a 22 miler. Your plan sounds good, just be careful you don't do too much. Starting out with 10 milers for the "short long run" from the beginning is pretty ambitious, and kudos to you if you can do it. Just make sure to listen to your body. I think that was the single best thing I did during training last year. The back to back long runs get tiring, so make sure to take it easier on the shorter "maintenance" runs during the mid-week. If my legs were tired midweek, I would sometimes cross train instead of doing a 4 or 5 miler.

Hope this helps.

Steve