Using Music to Break-Up the Race: Part Three

Dave here....

To recap, I'm setting up a playlist for the Walt Disney World Half Marathon to help me break the 13.1 total miles down into 4 3-mile segments with a little leftover. In Part One I wrote about using music from Jamaica to help set my pace. In Part Two I wrote about trying to maintain that initial steady pace by listening to some songs from Paul Simon's Graceland album. Next up, how I plan to cover miles 6 through 9. Mile 6 looks like it either starts in The Magic Kingdom, or just outside of it. There's a pass by The Grand Floridian Hotel and The Walt Disney World Speedway. After that the long stretch down World Drive will begin. I don't think there's going to be much fun here so I'll need to invent my own fun. What could be more fun than music from the 80's?

Having a birth year of 1970 makes me part of 80's Nation! What better way to re-energize the 2nd half of the race than with music of my youth. I won't be putting the iPod on shuffle through my 80's genre group - that might give me something horrible for the race like Ebony and Ivory, Bette Davis Eyes, Gloria, Hello, or Islands in the Stream. I'll be pulling together some fun stuff that I can sing along with in my head. Songs from Blondie, The Cure, Men Without Hats, Haircut 100, The Violent Femmes, J. Geils Band, The Outfiled, Slade, Van Halen, Howard Jones, INXS, U2 (nothing later than October), R.E.M., Eddy Grant, Big Country, Milli Vanilli, Duran Duran, Depeche Mode.....this list could go on but I only need about 45 minutes worth of music for this leg of the race.



Here's a typcal early-80's music video

Impromptu Drive

Quick Hurricane Sandy Update. The weather held for the Marine Corps Marathon on Sunday. Unfortunately we had to enact a backup travel plan since American Airlines canceled our flight home. We will leave the details for the race report, but we will tell you we are in a rental car in Ohio right now. We should be home within the next seven or so hours.

Hurricane Sandy Watch

Team Tizzel is in Washington D.C. this weekend so Holly can run The Marine Corps Marathon and Dave can play with his new camera. We booked this trip many months ago, since the marathon sells out in hours. One of the last things we never figured we'd have to worry about is a hurricane (Hurricane Sandy). Apparently the real storm won't hit until late Monday, but we are in for some rain tomorrow. We've made some backup car rental plans in case our flight is cancelled.

We kept an eye on this all week and packed extra weatherproof items like wind pants and garbage bags. Holly even bought those disposable pants at the race expo today. She's run races in snow in Florida! and a couple light drizzles, a few heat waves, but never full-on rain.

Other than that it's been fun so far. We're across the river from Georgetown so we've had some meals and drinks over there. We visited Georgetown Cupcakes and had one derailment. We preordered 5 Georgetown Cupcakes online the other day for 3pm pickup today. Got there on time and one of the flavors we ordered wouldn't be available for another 45 minutes. They knew we were coming.... To make it up they threw in an extra 5 cupcakes. Decent recover attempt, but they should have held our flavor on a Pre-order. Feel free to retweet with #firstworldproblems hashtag.

Other highlights of the day included visiting The Mall (forgot that this would have been a good place to bring our National Parks Passports), going to Capitol City Brewing, and complaining about the variable rate Metro fare schedule. Most subways are flat-rate. DC charges by destination, Make some sense but still a hassle.

Here are some photos. We'll try to post a couple of live updates on twitter.

 

Using Music to Break-up the Race: Part Two

Dave here....

The other day the Mickey Miles Podcast posted this quote on their Facebook Page:

"Divide the race into thirds. Run the 1st part w/your head, the middle w/your personality, and the last part w/your heart." -M. Fanelli.

Well that's just great! I've been mentally breaking my half marathons into 4ths with a little bit left at the end. Do I revise my outlook based on this nugget of wisdom? Probably not. I'm used to 5ks so I'm sticking to my plan.

To recap, I'm setting up a playlist for the Walt Disney World Half Marathon in January to help me break the 13.1 miles down into four 3-mile segments with a little leftover at the end. In Part One I talked about using music from Jamaica to help set my pace. The next segment of the is a bit more challenging to plan. It looks like there's some fun stuff to look at during this segment - The Polynesian Resort, The Contemporary Resort, Monorails, and of course the Magic Kingdom. This portion of the playlist is going to get the short end of the stick. Sorry Mr. Paul Simon, but I will probably only listen to a couple of song from your Graceland album.

One of my favorite podcasts, Stuck in the 80's, did a 25th anniversary feature on the album. When this episode aired I hadn't listened to the album in its entirety in probably 24 years. I put it on one day during a workout and thoroughly enjoyed it. Multiple genres of music help to create a great story-telling album. The tempo is still pretty relaxed which will help me keep my pace steady. I will admit now if "Call Me Al" comes on I'll skip it.

Give Graceland a listen if you haven't played this great album recently.






From the Graceland concert filmed  in Zimbabwe, 1987:

Using Music to Break-up the Race: Part 1

Dave here....

Week 2 and the training schedule is being thrown off-kilter. My doctor's appointment Thursday will delay that day's workout until Friday. Saturday is thrown out all together because we'll be in Washington DC for Holly to run the Marine Corp Marathon on Sunday. I have a feeling between the race expo and touring I'll get the miles.

One of the things I've picked up from hanging out with runners is to mentally break up your race into pieces. So I'm not doing half marathons - I'm doing a bunch of consecutive 5k's with a long walk back to the car for the last mile. I knew right away the best way for me to break the races  up is with music. So for each three mile segment I have a plan for certain musical themes. The last mile (in Disney World) will be through Epcot so I'll either have the earbuds out, or listen to the 5th theme I have picked out for the last mile and finish line approach.



RunDisney still using the 2012 map for this year's WDW Half Marathon

 So for Miles 1-3 in Disney World (not sure yet what I'll do the following week in Disneyland) I'm going Jamaican. I need to make sure the first 3 miles sets my pace and keeps me where I need to be from heart rate and speed standpoints, so it's going to be some slower stuff. I'm thinking a heavy dose of rocksteady, some early ska, and a touch of lover's rock. Here's a sample of songs I may add into the playlist (Depending on your browser you may or may not see the widget below):

In the mix: The Heptones, Bob Marley, U-Roy, Gregory Isaacs, Dennis Brown, Freddy McGregor, Beres Hammond, Tarrus Riley, The Paragons, Alton Ellis, Toots and the Maytals.

Pluto Puppy Cartoons on YouTube

While browsing YouTube this morning one of these two Pluto shorts was on the recommended side-bar. Intrigued, I browsed the video and found another one just like it from a few years earlier.

Apparently Pluto, Mickey Mouse's dog, had puppies with Mrs. Pluto. In 1937 he had quin-puplets. In 1942 he had Pluto Junior. We're assuming the first litter grew up and left the nest to have pups on their own. Enjoy!

13.1 x 2 Training Has Begun

Dave here.....

It won't be too long until I have to tackle the challenge of participating in my first two half marathons. And now the time has come that my training cycle has begun. That's not to say I've done nothing before this. I would usually go to the gym at work 2-3 times a week to use the elliptical or use the indoor/outdoor track. A few Saturdays I ventured out for walks through some local neighborhoods. I also got an age group medal in a local 5K. Now, Holly has set my 14 week schedule. I need to do a set milage every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday. The first half of the schedule is not so bad. It kicks up the week we start our Thanksgiving vacation.  Joy!

One thing I'm trying to learn how to do is control my heart rate and not go into the upper ranges of where the doctor has suggested. I think the key for me to maintaining an even  rate is learning how to hold a pace. I seem change my pace many times during a mile walk. Go fast, rate goes up, slow down to lower it. Repeat.

So for the next couple weeks I am sticking to using the treadmill (dreadmill). I keep it between 4.2 and 4.3 mph and try to pay attention to the rhythm of my step for application in the real world. I was never a fan of the treadmill because I had the option of an indoor track at work. Now I am liking it a bit because it's keeping me at pace without tiring me, I can watch Netflix on my iPad (currently watching the documentary "Helvetica". Yes it's about a font), and I don't have to share the track with this new dork at the gym who brushes me when he jogs by me. There's room buddy.....get left!

I'm going to check in here a couple more times before the races and let you know other ways I am getting ready for them. Please keep in mind I'm taking this on in the name of fund raising to help fight breast cancer. I'd love for you to hit one of the pink buttons throughout this site and make a donation. Oh look, there's one!

Avon Breast Cancer Charities  
2013 Coast to Coast Challenge

Race Report: Twilight Zone Tower of Terror Ten Miler

This will be a bit of a different race report format for Teamtizzel.com.....

Holly left for Disney World at night on Friday 9/28 to participate in RunDisney's Twilight Zone Tower of Terror Ten Miler the next evening. Dave stayed home. He was required to be at work Monday morning and could not risk any flight mishaps Sunday night. We got a sense for how Dave filled his time that weekend in a recent post, so now it's time to relive Holly's weekend.

The Tower of Terror 10 Miler was a night race (starting at 10pm) through portions of the Walt Disney World property. Once the race was done runners and their friends and family could enjoy some fun in Disney Hollywood Studios Park until 4am. Aside from the race Holly was able to cram in some time at Epcot's Food & Wine Festival, see a Night Ranger set, dress like a Mouseteer at Mickey's Not so Scary Halloween Party, go to a Disney's Moms Panel Luncheon, and spend some time with friends.

Course Map made ugly by Dave

As far as a report, we figured you can hear it directly from Holly two different ways:

Hear her during the race on The Marathon Show with Joe Taricani. Holly had a very quick interview with Joe on the course. If you are a runner The Marathon Show needs to be on your must-listen list. Joe is one of the nicest people out there and does his best to feature all race participants regardless of ability. He's been a big supporter of our charity team, Team AllEars. Here's the episode link.

Holly was on Episode 3 of The Mickey Miles Podcast. This is a new podcast hosted by our friends Mike and Michelle and covers all aspects of participating in RunDisney race experiences. This show is gaining some great momentum quickly and we wish our friends much luck with the show. Here's the episode link.

Making Oregon Ugly

Here we go! Dave takes what are usually nice photos and puts them through the wringer using different apps to create artistic photos. to see some of the apps used, check out prior photography posts.

Oregon Part 6: Fly Fishing, Lakes, Mountains

To see related posts in this series, click this link.

We had one scheduled event today: A Fly Fishing class at Bend's Orvis store. We found this free 2-hour class via a Facebook post from Visit Bend. There were 10 students with varying ages and degree of fishing skills. One guy has been fly fishing for 50 years. Dave's never taken a fish off a hook. Sing with us: "One of these things is not like the others. One of these things just doesn't belong". Trey, our instructor, gave a decent overview of equipment, casting, how fly line differs from regular fishing line, etc. after over an hour of class room time we went out to the lawn and practiced casting. This was fun...especially when a local cat chased after the instructor's line. We casted for about 25 minutes then headed back in. There were 3 more topics left and only 15 scheduled minutes- this was going into overtime. At that point we decided to cut bait and said our good byes. This was a great intro to a world we knew nothing about and on our next trip into nature we may look for a 1/2 day fly fishing excursion.

We knew we wanted to drive by Mount Bachelor but we weren't sure of the best route or if there was anything else in that area. We stumbled upon the Central Oregon Tourist Office and got some maps and advice. The lady suggested we go to Elk Lake Resort and have lunch. We really wanted food from 10 Barrel, but what the heck.....

There's one road to Mount Bachelor from Bend and it was full of slow moving trucks and under construction. Great......Finally we made it close to Mount Bachelor and some other mountains. We kept on going and hit the north-end of the lake district. It was similar to the Chain o' Lakes area we live in, except there were no homes or towns, the water was clean, and it was pretty.

Lunch at Elk Mountain Resort was basic (and by resort we're talking 18 cabins and campgrounds) but offered a quiet setting to enjoy some great views. After lunch we headed back to Sunriver on some fun mountain roads. One 4 mile stretch of the trip was on a gravel logging road. Hertz must have had fun washing that car.





the rest of the day Was spent at the pool, hot tub, dinner at Sunriver Brewhouse, and then The Owl's Nest.

The next morning was departure day. We had to get up early for the almost 4 hour drive to Portland. For the return trip we took Route 2 on this map through portions of the high desert and the Mount Hood National Forest. The desert portion of the drive was different, we never expected this kind of landscape in Oregon. We drove by rocky formations and over canyons you'd expect to see in New Mexico. There weren't many places to pull over for photos and by the time we found places you couldn't see through the thick forest fire smoke. Oh well.

As we drove onward we were treated to a fairly constant view of Mount Hood. The spot we chose to pull over for a picture was pretty lackluster, but at least we got one.

Just when we thought we had visited our last brewery.....Rogue and Laurelwood had locations in our terminal. Both locations featured nice malty beers. Perfect last impressions of Oregon.