GAPS/Gluten Free Disney World & Universal Studios Trip

we saw lots of princesses and other characters, but LMS only got a pic with Ariel- she had a really short line because it was the end of her shift

We finished the 6 phases of the GAPS Intro Diet back before Christmas (I still need to finish that post), but since we went to my sister’s house for Christmas, I took advantage of that time to do some judicious cheating. I knew our Disney trip was coming up and I wanted to gauge how we would react to eating non-GAPS approved foods. We still reacted, but it wasn’t as bad as it used to be, which shows that we have made progress- YAY!

Since we wouldn't have access to a kitchen, we couldn't just cook all our meals. I thought about our options and made a plan. GAPS foods for breakfast, gluten free park food for lunch, miscellaneous gluten free restaurants for dinner.

Breakfast

I cooked down and dehydrated 10 quarts of chicken broth (following directions I found here) to make homemade chicken bouillon that we could take with us. I prepared butternut squash, divided it into baggies, and froze it. I blanched some broccoli, lightly sautéed some zucchini and summer squash, then froze baggies of them and some green peas. I also chopped up and divided some roast chicken.

For breakfast, I walked up two flights of stairs to the nearest microwave, where I heated up some squash, some chicken, and some veg, and made some broth using the bouillon. Not ideal, and I could have sworn there was an in-room microwave, but it all worked out.

The last two nights we were in a different hotel (more on that in another post), and there was no microwave available.  We ended up using a one cup coffee maker to make cups of broth, and ate fruit for breakfast. The coffee maker worked surprisingly well, especially compared to microwaving it.

The dried broth turned out great, though I didn't double check the instructions before starting to cook it down. I should have scooped all the fat off, but only remembered after the fact. I kept the bouillon in the fridge just to make sure it didn't go rancid, and it was fine.

The zucchini and summer squash ended up kind of soggy when reheated, so I think I'll stick with broccoli and peas in the future.

We didn't end up eating all the food we brought, but I'd rather have too much than too little.

Lunch

For lunches we ate at counter service restaurants in the parks. I tracked down the updated gluten free lists beforehand, which was helpful. Unfortunately, they made some changes in the last year, and they don’t have dedicated fryers for gluten free fries anymore L They’ll bake them for you, but they take forever, and everyone else’s food is getting cold and the little one is getting impatient….

Monday we ate at Pizzafari in the Animal Kingdom. LMS and I ordered the gluten free pizza. I don't remember the brand, maybe OMG It's Gluten Free? Whatever brand, it was disgusting. The pizzas were very small and tasted like pasty cardboard. Gross! They came with caesar salads minus the croutons and dressing, but we didn't eat them- I found multiple bread crumbs in the salads. I don't think they picked croutons off, I think the cheese or lettuce bin was contaminated with bread crumbs. Not worth the hassle to get them replaced, so we gave them to the guys. Our meals cost the same as the guys' pizzas and salads, despite the drastic difference in amount of food, and were grossly overpriced.

Tuesday we ate at Liberty Inn in Epcot. LMS and I ordered gluten free hamburgers and grapes for her and an OMG It's Gluten Free brownie for me. The wait was long, but the food tasted pretty good, though I had to save my brownie for later since it was still frozen. It tasted pretty good once it defrosted.

Wednesday we ate at Fairfax Fare in Hollywood Studios. LMS got a kids meal turkey sandwich, applesauce, and Enjoy Life gluten free chocolate chip cookies. They used a gluten free bun for the sandwich, but it was still frozen and very stale. Yuck. I ordered a half rack of ribs with slaw and baked beans. They weren't on the gluten free list because of the potential for cross-contamination, but I decided to risk it. The flavor of the sauce was good, but the cut of meat was substandard- very gristly and not at all fall-off-the-bone tender. I didn't get glutened, so I was happy.

Thursday morning we picked up our race packets, and weren’t actually in one of the parks yet, so we went to 5 Guys for burgers and fries.

Friday we went to Islands of Adventure at Universal Studios, but I hadn’t been able to find any gluten free info ahead of time, and nothing looked promising while we were there. So we made do with some snacks (Butterbeer is quite tasty!) and ate a late lunch/early dinner at PF Changs. I’ve heard good things about PF Changs in general, as well as their gluten free options. I’ve never eaten there because we don’t have one nearby, so when I found one in the Orlando area, we decided to give it a try. It was quite yummy, and a nice change from our other dinner choices.

Dinner

We ate at Outback one night- we’ve always had good luck with their gluten free menu, though it does get pricey. We also ate at Chili’s several times, but that started getting old. We ate at 5 Guys a couple times, and we did Chipotle for lunch Saturday after the races.

End result
13 meals not prepared by me, but no gluten! Unlike last year, when I got glutened two days in a row. Whether this was because there was truly no contamination or because my intestines have made progress, I don’t know, but I’m not complaining. While LMS and I did react a bit to what we ate (dairy, rice, and potatoes were the major offenders we ate), it was a lot less pronounced than I was afraid it was going to be.

Overall, our experience eating gluten free at Disney World was quite a let down after last year, when we had a much better experience. I know suppliers and options available are always changing, but having a wider variety of options that taste good would be nice.

I’m really glad I brought the broth. Before we left, we were getting sick, so I did some research and found a suggestion here to add kudzu root starch to our broth to help us get over our colds quicker. I actually had a bag of kudzu root starch in the cupboard, so I added it to our broth all week. I really think it helped LMS recover quickly and shortened my symptoms. Though running a half marathon and fighting a cold was a bit too much for my body to handle at the same time, so I did relapse a bit.

Disney Kids Races

After the half marathon the Little Miss ran in one of the Disney Kids Races again (read about last year's race here).

This time Mr M paced her and I attempted to get a decent picture of her running. 

Hmm. Yeah, that didn't work out so well.

LMS had fun and was happy to get another finisher's medal (just like Mommy!), though she was disappointed that her race shirt didn't have Minnie Mouse on it :)

Disney World Half Marathon

tail end of the fireworks starting corral A- I was in corral C

Saturday I ran the Disney World Half Marathon again (here’s last year’s re-cap).  Despite not training as much as I’d have liked, I felt better prepared than I did last year. I had a 9 mile long run, as opposed to a 6 mile long run, my knee hasn’t been giving me any problems, and I had a great, fast 5k on New Year’s Day.

Since it was so cold last year, we made sure we were prepared this year: fleece pants and jacket for LMS, as well as an extra jacket for layering, and I brought a $3 fleece from Goodwill that I could wear and take off when I got warm, leaving it on the side of the road to be donated back to Goodwill.

So naturally it was on the warm side. Unseasonably warm, in fact, and they were warning us to make sure we stayed properly hydrated and not over-exert ourselves.

Cinderella's castle during the race. Mr M wasn't able to get a pic of me running past because of a very rude person's incredibly bad timing just as I ran past.

This year I managed to figure out how to use my Garmin (I haven’t used it much because I’ve been doing more treadmill running than outdoor running) and was able to accurately track my pace and split times. And according to it, I actually ran 13.23 miles, not 13.1 miles J

Because I love comparisons and seeing my progress, here’s how I did this year, compared to how I did last year:

	2013	2013 average pace per mile (min:sec)	2012	2012 average pace per mile (min:sec)	How much faster I was this year (min:sec)	How much faster my average pace per mile  was this year (:sec)
5k split (3.1 miles)	36:15	11:42	36:43	11:51	:28	:09
10k split (6.2 miles)	1:11:40	11:34	1:12:50	11:45	1:10	:11
15k split (9.3 miles)	1:48:20	11:39	1:51:33	12:00	3:13	:21
Finish time (13.1 miles)	2:32:28	11:38	2:37:27	12:01	4:59	:23

Overall, I was faster, and I managed to keep my pace up even as the race went on. Last year my pace slowed as the race progressed, and my overall speed was slower.

And the damage? Just two small blisters- one on each foot, though I didn’t notice them till I took my shoes and socks off, as well as some {not unexpected} sore muscles. I did the same basic prep as last year (BodyGlide, etc) and carried the same items, though I ditched the Fuel Belt pouches in favor of the RooSport pocket I picked up at the prerace convention.

convention craziness

I know you’re not supposed to try new things during a race, but I was fairly confident it would work better than the Fuel Belt pouches I used last year. This proved to be the case: I loved it! So much easier to get stuff in and out of, and it felt more secure. It uses strong magnets that hook it securely to your waistband. You put the pocket inside your pants/shorts/capris/whatever, and it doesn’t bounce around (the Fuel Belt pouches did a lot of bouncing). Wonderful! 

The only potential problem I saw was that the pocket holds a lot, and overloading it could cause your pants/shorts/capris/whatever to sag down a bit. The easy fix is to not carry too much. I had two packages of ShotBlox, my clip-on sunglasses, and my chapstick in it during the race. Towards the end of the race I moved my iphone from the pocket in the small of my back in my capris into the RooSport pocket because there was only a couple ShotBlox left. This weighed it down more, but it still felt secure.

I had half-hoped to beat my previous PR of 2:29:46, but I missed that mark by 2 minutes and 42 seconds. If I hadn’t been sick all week, I might have made it. Despite that, I am pleased with how I did- I finished almost 5 minutes faster than last year. I may be getting older, but I’m getting faster!

	Race	Date	Finish Time
First	Disneyland Half	Sept 2007	2:59:18
Second	Top of Utah Half	Aug 2008	2:29:46
Third	Disney World Half	Jan 2012	2:37:27
Fourth	Disney World Half	Jan 2013	2:32:28

I brought my travel size foam roller and used it, which helped keep everything looser. I can definitely tell a difference in my knees and hips when I’m rolling. Going to physical therapy last year really made a huge difference in my body mechanics. I learned which parts of my body need more work to stay loose and how to keep things better aligned. They also gave me pointers on improving my running form (focus on shorter strides and forefoot strikes rather than longer strides and heel strikes).

LMS caught a cold while at a play date on New Year’s Eve and she was kind enough to share it with me. By the time race day came around, she felt fine, with just an occasional phlegmy cough. I, on the other hand, have been fighting a fever and a nasty cough since last Tuesday. If I coughed, my lungs hurt, but if I didn’t cough, I couldn’t get the phlegm moving. It was a conundrum I don’t want to have again.

I felt bad enough that I stayed in the hotel room Thursday afternoon while everyone else hit up the Magic Kingdom (and it only bothered me a little to miss out, if that tells you anything). I kept dosing up with broth, Advil, and Airborne and took detoxing baths and by Saturday morning I felt well enough to run, but knew that I was definitely not at a hundred percent. Experimental coughs did not yield good results, so I determined to make sure I avoided future coughs if at all possible. Thankfully, I didn’t need to cough, and my lungs cooperated. I was really afraid that the air would be cold and would cause me to start coughing and have my lungs seize up while I was running.  My lungs did not feel good before or after the race, but they held up throughout the race, and the warm air didn’t aggravate them.

Mr M's brother, LMS, and I pre-race

Other than that, I ran strong and my legs felt good. I kept a fairly steady pace, but I had to work harder the second part of the race to keep my pace up, since I was trying to break 2:30. The heat ratcheted up the last mile or so and my body started telling me it was really feeling the effects of the cold virus and not appreciating what I was demanding of it. Consequently, I had to stop and walk several times during the last mile (I’d only stopped to walk 3 times before that). Physically I just couldn’t push my body enough to shave off that extra 2 minutes and 42 seconds. On the other hand, I beat last year’s time by just under 5 minutes!

Mr M's brother and I post-race

I was able to run the first 8.3 miles without stopping- a personal record for me, since I tend to do the run/walk thing, even on training runs. I was still feeling pretty good at the 10k mark (that’s 6.2 miles, for those wondering), so I think I’ll try to run at least one 10k this year to see how I do.

I'm definitely happy with how I did in my fourth half marathon and am now planning out my race schedule for the rest of the year. So many races, so little time....

Me and my cheering section after the race

Platform 9 3/4

I've got some long posts coming in the next few days,  but since I'm also battling a cold that LMS was kind enough to share with me, I don't have one quite ready yet.

Does the picture above give you a hint of where we were last week?

New Years Day 5k

look! my sparkle skirt matches my shoes!

(or my shoes match my sparkle skirt, since they're newer)

I know I said I wasn't going to be posting again for a bit, but I can't help myself on this one.

Yesterday morning I ran a 5k hosted by the local running club. It was pretty low-key (and cost a lot less as a result): no shirts or fancy things. We parked in a farmer's field and ran an out-and-back course on country roads. It was fairly flat, with no steep hills- just some gentle hills that weren't too horrible.

There's two reasons I'm excited about this race:
1. I ran the entire course without stopping, which is not how I've been running races the last few years.
2. I finished in under 30 minutes! 29:36 to be exact. I haven't done that since high school. Maybe in college I managed it, but I don't have a record of those times, so I'm not sure. I know that in the last 5 or so years since I started running races again I haven't completed a 5k in under 30 minutes. This is super exciting for me :)

So why did I finally break the 30 minute barrier? I figure it's a combination of things:

• I have increased energy and am physically feeling better since going gluten free and free of all the other foods that cause problems for my body.
• Since I'm training for a half marathon, my mileage is higher than it's been for previous 5ks. It's not as high as I'd like, but I'm making progress. Saturday I did a long slow 9 mile run, and I think that made a huge difference for my endurance yesterday.
• I've lost 20 pounds- less weight being carried around is definitely easier on the body and exercise takes a bit less effort.
• GAPS is helping my body heal, and nutrients are getting absorbed much better, so I have fewer injuries, more energy, and am more healthy overall.

I did run this race hard- I haven't put that much effort into a race in a long time. Not pushing LMS in the jogger helped my speed and endurance :) I haven't done a lot of speed work so I used this race as a good last speed workout before the half marathon. I'd like to say it was a tempo run, but at this point, I'm not capable of maintaining a 9:30 pace for 13.1 miles. My last two half marathons were 2:37:27 (in 2012) and 2:29:46 (in 2008), and my goal for this one is under 2:30, which would be about an 11:30/mile pace (much more manageable than a 9:30 pace). A PR would be great, but I'm not stressing too much about it since there's a lot of variables I don't have control over that could affect how I feel physically that day.

How did  you start the New Year?