Have you ever wanted to participate in Walt Disney World Marathon weekend but thought that there is no way you could run the 26.2 or 13.1 distances? Welcome to your own personal Philoctetes(Phil). With every good hero and tales of mythological proportions, we have to start at the beginning. Which in this case, would be the Mickey 5K (3.1 Miles). Hercules had to start somewhere, and so do you. With running, you have to start slowly and build up your base. If you just took off out the door today and ran 3 miles, you would definitely feel some pain in places you did not know you had. I only ask that you dedicate 10 weeks to the Disney Driven Life Zero to Hero Plan, and you can go from Zero miles to running a 5K.
I am not asking that you make this journey alone. I will be there to help you along the way, just like Phil did with Hercules. If you dedicate yourself, and heed my advice you will finish your first 5K. After that, maybe you can work on a 10K or maybe even the Walt Disney World Half-marathon. While some people can jump right into training for a Half-marathon with little to no training, I just ask that you curb your excitement and start slowly. It will make running more enjoyable and hopefully keep you involved in a great activity for a long, long time.
Please remember that this is a gradual plan, I am not asking you to go from not running to running 3 miles overnight. This is a 10 week progression plan to get you from Zero to Hero. There will be some sore muscles and hurt pride at the beginning, but we all have had to start somewhere, and this will only be temporary.
The plan calls for you to commit to running/walking 3 days a week. The spreadsheet I will provide has defaulted to Monday, Wednesday and Friday. You can use any 3 days you want, I just ask that you leave a day between workouts for recovery. Feel free to submit to me any questions or concerns, I am here to help you meet this challenge!!
I will leave you with this. Christopher Robin once told Pooh, “Promise me you will always remember: You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.”
You can do this, please do not get down on yourself if a workout gets missed or does not go well. It happens, just pick yourself up dust yourself off and keep moving forward.
(note: we now have the a page for the Disney Driven Life Zero to Hero Plan)
Contributed by: Thom W. (NDD#145). Thom is our resident health and fitness expert.
When he is not obsessing about his next Walt Disney World trip, Thom can be found running anything from a 5K to a 200 mile relay. Having grown up across the river from Louisville, KY, Thom’s family never really took trips to Walt Disney World. He only went twice as he was growing up. Thom changed this in adulthood, though, honeymooning with his wife at Walt Disney World in 1998 and returning regularly after that. Now that he has kids of his own, his family goes at least once a year. But when they are not in the World, you can expect that Disney movies are helping them stay connected to their “laughing place.”
Through his experience of becoming a long-distance runner and losing almost 80 lbs., Thom hopes to help and encourage readers of The Disney Driven Life, to lead a Disney Driven Healthy and Fit life.
For those that are interested I have a spreadsheet that lays out the whole plan. You can message me here or DM me on Twitter and I will get you the spreadsheet and more detailed instructions.
Thom, if this is something you’d like to post here somehow, email me at my username (look above this post) at gmail – shouldn’t be too hard to manage.
This is great! I started on the treadmill about 3 months ago and I got up to walk/jog 3 miles and didn’t feel horrible and then life happened and I got sidetracked. I’d like to join in on this and would love to do the 1/2 marathon at Disney or the Princess 1/2. I will send you a message!
I sent you an email.
I think this is a sign! I’ve been saying I want to start training for a Disney Half Marathon (motivation to lose my baby weight!) and I popped on this site and here it is! I used to run, but then had 3 kids in three years and suddenly forgot about myself, though that is not a complaint, I feel very blessed to have my three little ones. Now that my oldest has started kindergarten and my other two are potty trained, I have a tiny bit more time on my hands and would love to see your spreadsheet so I can get back into the swing of things. Thank you so much! I’ll send you a message.
Beth I look forward to hearing from you!!
Received… working out with NDM1 how she wants “the plan” presented.
Back in March, after a few months of discussing it with friends, I started running. I weight about 255lbs and now weigh about 205lbs. I was never a runner, and now I run those 3 days a week. I used a plan called C25K, and while I haven’t gone over your chart yet, it sounds similar. And I can tell everyone here that it really works. Those 3 days a week I run now a bit over 5K per run. It’s been exactly what I needed and my first “official” 5K will be in Jan 2011
We are actually hosting the spreadsheet here: https://thedisneydrivenlife.com/ddl-zero-to-hero-plan/