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By kilax, May 6, 2010 5:43 am

Do you ever find yourself so heavily dreading doing something, or (worse yet?) seeing someone, that it sours your current mood? Is this healthy?

I thought about this yesterday morning, as I spent time dreading the afternoon full of work meetings ahead of me. And it’s not just meetings I sometimes dread. It’s seeing certain people. It’s doing other certain things. And with the amount of time I spend on it, and how it affects me, it can’t be healthy.

I live in an unhealthy manner with my mind mostly in the future, looking forward to things. It’s something I’ve been trying to work on for a long time, and feel I’ve somewhat improved in. However, I still find myself with my mind in the future, from time to time, and it’s not always looking forward to things – sometimes it’s filled with dread for things I have to do or people I am going to see.

The dread is based on past associated experiences of uncomfortableness, uncertainty, annoyance, unhappiness… you get the idea. But by dreading a future event and linking it with these feelings of the past, I am only bringing those feelings in to the present.

How do I get away from doing this? It really sets me up for a sub par experience or interaction. And it’s unfair to the other people involved.

Any tips?* Can you relate to my feelings of dread?

I do want to say that most of the time, I am doing the opposite – feeling so excited about something, that there is no way the thing I am feeling excited about can live up to my expectations. So maybe the two issues are interrelated.

*And it is not as easy as “don’t do those things” or “don’t see those people.” That, unfortunately, wouldn’t work.

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By kilax, May 5, 2010 7:43 am

I forgot to mention in my last post, I was interviewed over at Robin’s blog, Running Circles Around the Turtles! Check it out!

I love Robin’s blog. You can tell she is a total sweetheart who really cares about people. I get to meet her in September – we are running the Chicago Half Marathon together! Can’t wait!!!

Comments (52)

By kilax, May 5, 2010 5:14 am

And not the ones you wear on your feet!

TMI Time: I wear a thong every day to work, unless it is Friday – then I go panty-free. Just kidding! I only do that at home. Friday is jeans day, so I wear normal underoos.

Anyway, on Monday, I got down to the gym (in the basement) and realized I left my change of underwear in my wardrobe at my desk (floor 33). Being lazy, I decided to just work out wearing the thong, and… I liked it!

No fabric riding up, no wedgies to pick, no pantie lines… it was great! The only downfall? My jiggly butt.

So I am wondering, do other people wear thongs to work out, on purpose? A quick visit to Lululemon* confirms that they do sell thongs with “venting to keep you cool while you work out” which implies that other people do, in fact, do this. You know what is coming next. Oh yes.

What kind of underwear do you wear when you work out and in what material? Have you ever worn a thong when working out?

Here is a pic of me from a few weeks ago.
Not!
It’s from here.

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I have been really curious about exercise underwear. Because, come on, if you wear those cotton ones, and have to stop in a middle of a workout to use the loo, you know how disgusting it is to pull up sweaty underwear. Oh wait, you don’t sweat? Well, I hate you.**

Side note: I hope my spam filter works today.

*A place I have never shopped and cannot pronounce but have seen praised all over the blogosphere.
**Just kidding. I love you. Welcome to Costco, I love you.

Comments (47)

By kilax, May 4, 2010 5:22 am

Do “ideal” and “40-hour work week” belong in the same sentence?

If you had to work 40 hours in an office each week, what would your ideal work schedule be? Five 8-hour days? Four 10-hour days with one day off? A two week schedule with eight 9-hours days, one 8-hour day, and one day off? Something else?

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I only ask because in my office, we have what is called an “Alternate Work Schedule” (AWS) – basically, option C. I work mostly 9-hour days then get every other Friday off.

I was talking to a new employee in the elevator yesterday and asked if she was all signed up for AWS*. She told me people keep preaching it to her, but she can’t imagine staying an extra hour at work. She listed all the things she wanted to do each day – walk the dog in the morning, make her brother dinner at night, work out, etc.

Hmm.

For about a year, Steven has suggested that I switch back to five 8-hour days, because I am so tired. The logic is, I get home an hour earlier, or get to sleep in an hour (and lose my every-other 3-day weekend**).

The thing is, I used to work five “8-hour days” at my last job, and was just as tired. It’s the freaking commute. More and more, I am thinking we HAVE to move closer to the city***. Someday. Before I lose my mind.

I look forward to when I get to participate in the work from home (one day a week) program. Until then…

What kind of work schedule would you follow if you were in control? Does your office offer something similar? Do you have flexible arrival and work from home days?

*We love acronyms where I work.
**Which is especially awesome in the summer.
***But I really want to stay in Lake County.

Comments Off on Akismet issues, part iii

By kilax, May 3, 2010 5:19 pm

Repeat post:

I am having the same Akismet issue I had back in March and in November – Akismet (my spam filter) cannot connect to my server, so it is not working. I am getting hit with a lot of spam, so activated WP-SpamFree in the meantime (which doesn’t show comments, just spams them).

It should fix itself eventually, but please shoot me an email if your comments are not showing up (kimilax@yahoo.com). Thanks!

Comments (20)

By kilax, May 3, 2010 5:12 am

If you missed my Wisconsin Half Marathon Recap this weekend, check it out here.

I know summer doesn’t officially start for quite a few more weeks, but once my schedule becomes full, it begins to feel like summer to me. And right now, I have something going on every weekend until the middle of June, and I won’t be surprised if the following weekends become booked as well. Fun times ahead!

Is your summer (or warm weather) calendar filled with more activities than your winter calendar? Do you tend to lay out your summer plans very early on, or are you looser with your schedule?

The first winter after we got married, I kind of lazed around at the house every weekend. So the next year, and this year, I made more of an effort to be active and see friends more. However, my summer still fills up more quickly. Races, travel, meet-ups… it just seems that summer is the time to spend more time with people. I wonder if that is why some people get depressed during the winter months as well (along with SAD) – less interaction with friends.

I don’t try to plan every summer weekend in advance, it just seems to happen that way! When things pop up that we want to do, it seems we always have other things planned, so we end up scheduling on the few available weekends left… and we keep doing that until our schedule is full.

I used the Random Number Generator for the Calphalon Pans Giveaway (before I put the entries in though, I deleted all the non-entry comments to make it fair).

Here are your random numbers:

24	

Timestamp: 2010-05-03 00:47:15 UTC

Comment number 24 is Alice! Congrats Alice! Please send me your mailing address, and I will send it to CSN stores to get the pans your way!

Thanks to everyone who entered, and thanks to CSN stores for sponsoring the giveaway!

Comments (9)

By kilax, May 2, 2010 7:43 am

My next race is the Kicking the Trails for Kic-Leukemia 8K Walk on May 8 (this is the week of the Wisconsin Half Marathon).

Day 190 | April 26, 2010: cross

Ugh. I had shin pain starting Sunday and I could still feel it on Monday while walking! Not a good sign. At all. I stuck to a low-impact recumbent bike workout in the gym.

Bike Time: 30:00 | Distance: 4.42 (Resistant set on 5.0)

Day 191 | April 27, 2010: cross

My shin was still bothering me on Tuesday, so I skipped the run, and rode my bike behind Steven while he was running (stats below are from Steven’s run).

We ran by two geese and seven goslings during the run! The first I have seen all year! Aww…

Day 192 | April 28, 2010: rest

Took the day off to baby my shin.

Day 193 | April 29, 2010: 5 m run

Hot. Humid. Windy. These are not the three words I would have hoped to use to describe my last training run, but I take what I can get!

I just didn’t realize it was going to get so warm that day (78°). I hadn’t even packed the hydration belt for our short run, but luckily, Steven grabbed it.

The run wasn’t perfect – again, it took me about 2-3 miles to warm up! But after I did, I felt pretty good (only one shin twinge after the 4-mile mark) – maybe that is because we took it so nice and slow! We ran on the Des Plaines River Trail again, because we hoped the trees would provide some shade and block the wind! They kind of did.

Distance: 5.0 | Time: 54:37 | 1: 11:05 | 2: 11:03 | 3: 11:00 | 4: 10:45 | 5: 10:41

Day 194 | April 30, 2010: rest

Day 195 | May 1, 2010: Wisconsin Half Marathon (13.22 miles)

Read the race recap here!

Day 196 | May 2, 2010: rest

Week Summary: 18.22 miles

Not sure if this weekly recap is even worth posting. As you can see, I had a pretty lax week. And I really think this next week will be the same as well. I plan on taking the next five days off from running, and focusing (hopefully) on yoga and strength. I have an 8K walk on Saturday, and if I am feeling good, I would like to run again on Sunday. I really think my legs need a break though. They feel super tired. Do you ever plan rest from your workout routine?

I think Steven has a similar plan to take a few days off from running and let his epic blisters heal. Then, he gets to start the fun process of looking for the perfect pair of running shoes. I hope he finds something he loves! He really enjoyed the training we did for this half and wants to stick to a similar 3 day a week schedule of one each tempo/interval/long run.

Fun Note: I created a race recap page that shows all 18 of the races I have done so far! Check it out!

On a not fun side note: my left heel pain came back this Friday with a vengeance.

Comments (55)

By kilax, May 1, 2010 6:34 pm

This is the second year of the Wisconsin Half Marathon, and our second year running it! As you’ll see below though, we ran a bit slower than last year… (on purpose, mostly!).

Here’s the overview since this is long: 2:19:14 (update, official time of 2:19:11), hit the wall at mile 9:00, have a few things to work on. Full stats on the Garmin website here, and below.

I’ll start with the night before the race. Steven’s parents were in town, so they came to our house for homemade pizza, bread sticks and brownies (good pre-race food?). Then, we all went to Kenosha to spend the night in a hotel.

I met with Erin at the hotel to give her her race packet and joked about how I would have pre-race nightmares. Sure enough, I did. I dreamed that Steven and Erin started the half marathon without me and I missed the entire thing (the dream was more detailed but that is the overview) but I woke up feeling a bit awful. Do you ever have pre-race nightmares?

I woke up bright and early at 5:00 to eat some oatmeal and get ready. I went outside in a tank top to see if it was warm enough. Yeah, it was 60° and already a bit humid!

We rode to the race with Erin and Jason. We left at 6:00, but hit race traffic and got there a bit later than we all probably would have liked (and then Steven and I wasted time putting our bibs on). We didn’t even get to warm up! Steven had to wait in line at the porta potties and jumped in to the race right before it started at 7:00.

It seemed like there were a lot more people there this year (3300) than last year (I think between 2000-2500). The race start was a tiny bit crowded, but really, it evened out right away and I didn’t feel irritated at all!

We saw Steven’s parents right after the start! This race is an out and back that goes south then north then south again… so you end up running through downtown Kenosha 4 times, giving spectators a lot of chances to see you.

The first three miles flew by, at 10:07, 10:09 and 10:12, and I was feeling great. Sure, I felt humid and sweaty right away, but I felt pretty good for not being able to warm up! I was also enjoying the scenery.

Unfortunately, right after taking these pictures above, around mile 2.5, I landed in a pothole and rolled my left ankle. Ouch. It made my knee hurt a bit.

We started to slow down on purpose at mile 4, 10:24. There were a few small hills (that I had forgotten about from last year!) and they were taking their toll. Also… the humidity. We had taken water at the first stop (at 1.5) and had already gone through one of our water bottles. We ended up drinking more water at the stop at mile 4 (I think we walked through this stop), and trading an empty water bottle for a full one from Steven’s parents when we saw them after mile 4. Unfortunately, I dropped the water bottle when we did the trade off and I had to sprint up a hill to catch up with Steven. That made me feel very blah. (But, Steven’s parents got a very funny video of it which I will post later!)

Right before the water stop

After catching up with Steven – it was SO sunny at this point!

The next four miles (4-8) felt great for me, 10:26, 10:29. 10:37 and 10:36. We were at the part of the course right next to Lake Michigan, where you could see people who had already turned around, and I was having fun looking for Erin. There were a few more hills I had forgotten about, but they didn’t seem so bad at first.

Lake Michigan

We both ate some jelly beans around mile 5.5. Around mile 6.5 I rolled my right ankle in another pothole! Damn, parts of the course were ROUGH. That made the area below my right hip hurt for the rest of the race.

We kept drinking LOTS of water, and I think, walked through every water station after this. Last year, Steven got dehydrated, and we were trying to prevent that, so I wore a belt with two bottles and we grabbed two cups at each station. Despite that, I felt parched.

However, I was super psyched when we saw Erin!

Awhile after we saw her, we got to the northern turn around point. There was a breeze that felt great and the sun had gone away for a bit. But a bit after the turnaround, it happened.

I bonked.

At mile 9, the watch beeped, I looked at it, and said to Steven “I am running out of steam.” And boy, did I EVER! At that point, it was Steven pushing me to keep going, as I struggled big time (in the beginning, I was leading us). The hills seemed killer. We ate more jelly beans, but they didn’t help. We ran on the gravel, since it was softer. I focused on making it through mile 9 and 10, 10:28, 10:44, because I knew I would get a rush when I saw all the spectators in the downtown area again at mile 11.

A little optimistic.

We did run through downtown (10:44 at mile 11) and everyone was cheering, and we saw Steven’s family, but I was still struggling. We walked through another water stop right before we saw them, so I didn’t trade off the water bottles, but maybe I should have. We drank our water right away, and there was not another stop until 12. We stopped to walk before it, then walked again through it (10:45 at mile 12). It was at the turnaround point, and I filled up the bottles again and started running. Apparently, I dropped one, and a full marathoner was nice enough to throw it to me as he went straight!

I kept saying to myself, “You can run one more mile!” but I was OUT OF STEAM. I crabbily told Steven to “get out of my way” (huh?) and asked that we walk again. So we walked, maybe for a bit at 12.5. Our last mile was 11:24. I just couldn’t do it.

We did speed up a bit for the last .10 (actually .22) mile and finished it in 2:03, for a final garmin time of 2:19:14. I was actually very pleased with our overall time and average pace of 10:34 (despite positive splits) but felt awful for feeling so awful!

I grabbed my medal and 3 bananas. I ate two and a half of them. SCARFED them down. I skipped my morning banana (bad idea) and I think that was part of the problem.

We met up with Steven’s parents, Erin and Jason, and Erin’s parents (who she didn’t know would be there!). I took my shoes off because the bottom of my left foot (near the front outside) had been killing me for the last few miles (a picture that Steven’s parents took confirms I do, indeed, land on the outside ball of my foot when running). And it felt like the ends and tops of my toes were covered in blisters (they were).

We walked around a bit looking at the (lame) booths. Erin got in line for a massage and I took a pic with this guy:

Then I met with this guy:

Tony!

It was so nice to finally meet Tony. I love meeting other bloggers, and could tell he is super nice! He lives pretty close to me and did really well at the race! I cannot wait to read his recap!

After I chatted with Tony, we waited a bit with Erin and Jason so Erin could get her massage.

Steven, Kim and Erin

After she did, we hobbled (me) back to the car. Then went to the hotel and sat in the hot tub (wasn’t that hot, which is good!) then ate a TON of Mexican food afterward. Well, I did anyway.

So, perks of the race:

• I didn’t have to POO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
• Crap, is that all I can think of?
• Okay, I still had fun, even though I bonked.
• Meeting Tony.
• Seeing Erin at the turnarounds!
• Running with Steven, who did great!
• The polka music at the end
• My right shin did not hurt

And here is what I am thinking regarding my performance:

• I have become too cocky of a runner. Not in the “I can run a fast pace” sense, but in the “I can run any distance and feel great” sense. It is TIME to refocus on NUTRITION. I have another one of these to run in 6 weeks.
• I have gained too much weight. When I PR’d last year, I weighed maybe 20 pounds less. I’ve been eating too carelessly. Yep. I am not worried about the time, but think it would make me feel better.
• When I was running, I kept thinking, “Why do I want to run a full again?” Ha. I think I just had an “off” end of the run!

And a few complaints:

• The water spots were not where they said they would be, AGAIN.
• The built-in bra (riiiiiiight) in my tank seems to have chafed a line across my back, even though I used body glide. It stings.
• Updated to add: I wasn’t planning on wearing this top. I had a new, orange Nike top to wear, but it was too hot. Well, you can’t see my nipples, but let me tell you, they hurt!
• My left heel hurts. Wah. (It hurt when I woke up).
• I got a sunburn, despite putting sunscreen on.
• Update to add: Someone running near us for the entire race had a watch that beeped a weird tune every 30 seconds.

In conclusion…

• I had a ton of fun and am so happy Erin came out!
• I will learn from this race and use that knowledge to hopefully NOT bonk next time.
• Time to get serious about my diet!

Wisconsin Half Marathon | Distance: 13.22 | Time: 2:19:14 | 1: 10:07 | 2: 10:09 | 3: 10:12 | 4: 10:24 | 5: 10:26 | 6: 10:29 | 7: 10:37 | 8: 10:36 | 9: 10:28 | 10: 10:44 | 11: 10:44 | 12: 10:45 | 13: 11:24 | 14: 2:03