Comments (17)

By kilax, June 30, 2011 5:51 pm

I am so small talked out and ready to get back to Illinois. I spent the last three days with the same people*, and I swear, if I wouldn’t have been talking (at meals and in between meetings) we all would have been staring at each other. I know some people don’t like to chat much, but at meals? Ugh…

Do you ever get sick of making small talk? Do you think it would be awkward to sit at a meal with people you don’t know and not say anything?

Good thing I am seeing my family this weekend – no struggle with small talk there. It’s a struggle to get a word in. Well, with certain people. Muah ha ha. You all (family members) know who I am talking about.

Anyway, our meetings ended early enough for me to catch the 5:30 flight to Chicago… but it was all booked. So I am still on the 8:20. Since I didn’t want to sit in the airport for five hours, I drove to Iroquis Park to go for a run. Holy hills!

Most of the run was on a nice shaded road:

but I ventured on the trails to check out an overlook:

It was in the low 90s, but I felt pretty good. Just took it nice and slow. And I showered off at the end:

I was kind of wondering how I would “clean off” before my flight but knew I would figure something out. Ha ha ha. I am pretty sure that was not the intent of those spray fountains, but it sure felt good to stand in them after my run (yes, Steven, I will take a shower before I go to bed).

You know, I ran more miles this month than last month by about 6 miles. And I ran a freakin’ marathon last month. At least I think I did? I can’t remember… it’s so far away. Anyway, I have been feeling good lately – let’s hope I stay that way so I can keep training for my two (gulp!) fall marathons!

*Client and contractor – my coworker and I can chat it up forever.

Comments (17)

By kilax, June 28, 2011 9:38 pm

It is AMAZING how much you can do during a workday evening when your commute is only 15 minutes. Ah, work travel. I normally get more sleep and a lot more free time than when I am home… but I am away from Steven. Sad face.

Anyway, today we finished work at 5:00, so I went to the Louisville Visitor’s Center (right next to our hotel!) grabbed a trail map and a brochure for bike rental and ran to the bike rental place. The lady gave me a (7-speed, ha ha) bike, a helmet (won’t ride without one) a map to get to a park, and I was off!

Right away on my ride I noticed a tiny little distressed bird laying in the middle of the trail. I was worried about him getting run over so I put him on a piece of styrofoam and moved him off the trail.

I placed him by a tree and that little bugger moved right back over to the middle of the trail and continued to squawk. He (and his body parts) were not around when I came back that way so I hope his parents found him.

I rode on trails then on to roads which mostly had bike lines, then I was on a pretty trail along a river:

I saw turtles sunbathing, lots of fish, other bikers and runners, and a cat and some dogs. I tried to get pictures of the turtles but they didn’t turn out. Sad face II.

The bike path lead to Cherokee Park, which has huge frickin’ hills in it. I saw LOTS of runners there. Go runners go! The park was beautiful:

An older bike rider (think 70s) actually showed me the way and we chatted for a bit while riding.

I rode back the same way and snapped a picture of the Louisville Slugger Field. Anyone know the significance? Andrew, do you still read my blog?

I rode around the riverfront a bit more when I got back. There are a lot of cool things along the riverfront – parks, memorials:

and water features…

This is a public fountain that people play and swim in! WTH?! I am TOTALLY going there tomorrow if it’s in the 90s again. FO SHO. No shame. I have my suit with me. I almost went in with my exercise clothes on today.

After I returned the bike I ran back to the hotel and had time to eat dinner with my coworker, talk to Steven on the phone and video chat and write this post (and make updates to the running club race website (!@#$^&$%*@&!!). Note: I still need to catch up on blogs, emails, and Facebook. Sigh. Maybe I didn’t get that much done after all?! At least I had fun! I would have kept the bike a lot longer if I didn’t have to eat dinner. I told my coworker I would be a half hour late for our dinner (well, meeting time to get dinner) as it was! Oops!

P.S. My black toenail started to come off at some point during this bike ride/run. Gross/exciting at the same time.

Comments (22)

By kilax, June 27, 2011 9:20 pm

I feel like I need to say something on my blog:

I am here!

I am just too busy lately doing stuff (it’s SUMMER!!!). I haven’t been around my computer at all to write blogposts or to read blogs. I’ll get to it. But first…

I am in Louisville again this week for work. And gone for the Fourth of July. Then Steven’s family is in town for five days. So, we’ll see. Be patient with me (please)!

Anyway, it’s so frickin’ hot (sometimes?) this summer, that I decided skirts are the only option (air flow) for work clothing. I went to JCPenney last week and picked up a few new ones for my trip.

Belted Pleated Skirt

Pleated Sateen Skirt

Poplin Print Skirt

Diamond Border Skirt

I spent $100 and got four skirts and two tops. Gotta love JCPenney. Where do you love to shop for cheap deals?

Here is the skirt I didn’t get. It was more of a pencil cut and a size too small for me. But I thought it was super cute.

If they would have had it in my sister’s size I totally would have purchased it. Sorry Christina, no luck.

Comments (8)

By kilax, June 21, 2011 5:58 pm

We visited our garden this weekend on Saturday just to take a peek:

And on Sunday to put up the fence and water the garden (yeah, it didn’t rain at all this weekend, but it POURED on Monday).

Some of our tomato plants are looking a bit sad:

Let’s hope it’s okay if the leaves look like that.  Here’s where I am placing all of my optimism:

Yep – the green beans. The cucumbers are also starting to pop up (I planted another kind on 6/12, so we have two kinds now):

And the sugar snap peas:

Notice how clumpy our soil is? It’s kind of like clay. It’s not very fine, and it’s somewhat difficult to work with (excuses, excuses). It would be so cool if we had a garden in our yard, and could have someone bring in nice soil and fertilizer. And if watering it meant turning on the hose, not carrying kitty litter buckets full of water back and forth from the water basin (which was mostly empty on Sunday, by the way) to the garden.

It’ll be worth it. When all of those delicious green beans start showing up, it’ll be worth it. Oh yeah, and the other stuff too.

Steven worked on the fence on Sunday while I tried to get water for our crops. It seems that we threw away half of our fence last year and don’t recall:

Oops. We better get out there and finish the fence up before real produce pops up!

Other garden project posts from this year:

The Garden Project: It’s Back
The Garden Project: Getting Our Act Together

Comments (16)

By kilax, June 20, 2011 6:35 am

One of the first things Steven bought when he moved in to our home in winter of 2004 was custom blinds for all the windows. But we never bought shades.

Until now! We FINALLY have blackout shades for out bedroom! Look at how much light came in our blinds before (picture above taken during the day, picture below at dusk). The moon would always shine in to our room at night before, as well as the streetlights.

That is no more!

Now all we see is this:

Ha ha. Not really. We have too many electronic devices in the room, so there was still some light in there, but it’s much better than before.

It only took us FOUR tries to find the right shades. Do you know what a pain in the butt it is to take shades home to check the color, unfold them, decide you don’t like them, then try to fold them back up perfectly in to those little plastic containers? Yeah. Steven did that part.

And did you know my title at work is Interior Designer? Ugh. So NOT an Interior Designer. I can tell you how to build a wall, not how to match colors.

Anyway, it is going to be so nice to have these shades to sleep in on the weekends in the summer (when the sun rises at 5:00 am!). And maybe it will confuse Data and he won’t wake me up super early anymore. And maybe I can sneak in for a nap some afternoon and have it be nice and dark. Ahh… 

The only bad part is that it is that much harder to get out of bed. And I have really been struggling with getting out of bed lately. Oh well!

Comments (9)

By kilax, June 19, 2011 7:40 pm

Day 603 | June 13, 2011: strength

Brian came over for our fourth strength session together. We used handweights, a step, and the bench to do a lot of dynamic movements. He also had me do walking planks on the step (from side to side and also up and down), complete with pushups on each side of the step, and some plank holds in the middle. My abs were understandably sore. That is what I am looking for though, so it’s a good thing!

Day 604 | June 14, 2011: cross (3.46 m + 10.50 m)

I rode my bike home from the train station, (fed Data) then rode 10.5 miles in my neighborhood and the neighboring neighborhood (ha ha).

Bike Time: 18:05| Distance: 3.46 | Average Speed: 11.5 mph
Bike Time: 48:41| Distance: 10.5 | Average Speed: 12.9 mph

Day 605 | June 15, 2011: 4 m run (speedwork)

It’s the return of speedwork! Let’s see how long this lasts. Who thinks I can do one session a week until the Milwaukee Marathon (that would be 16 sessions)? Yeah. Don’t hold your breath.

I ran a 10 min warm-up (@ 6.3mph) and 4×3:00 min (@ 7.5mph) with 3:00 min recoveries (@ 6.3mph) with a 5 min cool-down (@ 6.0 mph). This workout was hard. But not in the sense that my body hurt or my breathing was off – it was in the “damn you’re heavy” sense. Or maybe it was just the “Sh*t this sucks; I haven’t done this in awhile” sense. Who knows. Let’s hope next week is easier… 12x400s? Damn. I wish I wouldn’t have looked ahead. Might have to cut that down…

Time: 36:05 | Distance: 4.0 | Incline: 1.0

Day 606 | June 16, 2011: 3 m run

Another treadmill run – despite deciding I hate the thing a few weeks (months?) ago, I decided I would rather sit on my butt in the evening than run. So treadmill during lunch it is. I ran an easy three at 6.3mph. Gah, it is so hot in the office gym! I was absolutely drenched when I was done. The lunch-time shower never felt so good!

Time: 28:35 | Distance: 3.0 | Incline: 1.0

Day 607 | June 17, 2011: strength + cross (20 m)

I did an am strength session with Brian. Lots of dynamic handweight movements, as well as some good core work and planks/pushups. And the return of these yellow bars for pullups:

(photo from April 26 class)

The weirdest thing happened when I was doing pullups. I would do 5, then hold the last one, and Brian would put a weight on my stomach. But every time I tried to hold the position, I would get a very painful cramp in my hamstring and fall to the ground! It was so bizarre! And a bit frustrating. It was a good workout though, especially for my back/shoulders – they were really sore Saturday and Sunday.

In the afternoon I headed to the Millennium Trail for a bike ride. Holy hills:

This is where I will go to conquer hills this summer. If I ever get the guts to run there.

This was the first time I rode to the end of the trail. It’s very pretty, but not as shady as the picture below makes it seem! And I felt like I was riding in to the wind on the way down the trail and back. How does THAT happen?!

I wore my glasses this time, but still had a lot of bugs hitting my face. So I rode with my mouth closed the whole time, except to smile at other bikers/runners. The funny thing is, even when I am riding my bike and NOT injured, it still makes me sad to see other runners – I feel like I should be running too!

Bike Time: 1:32:52| Distance: 20.01 | Average Speed: 12.9 mph

Day 608 | June 18, 2011: cross (9.15 m) + 6 m run

Steven and I rode our bikes to the garden to see how our plants were doing, then went to the park to play catch and chill out, before riding our bikes back home.

When we were leaving the park we noticed these goslings were sleeping in the water, resting their heads on their bodies. Too cute!

I ran 6 miles when I got home. It was supposed to be a tempo run, but I felt too hot (where was the wind from the day before?), so I just made it a survival run. Actually, I think I was a bit dehydrated, because I ran out of water at mile 2, then felt like I could throw up the rest of the time. Not cool. It took me a few hours to feel better after I was done.

I had a few funny encounters during my run – I jumped through a sprinkler on purpose, asked some girls to spray me with their water guns, and had a little boy ask me if I wanted to see a wild turtle (I said yes and gladly took the break).

Bike Time: 55:48| Distance: 9.15 | Average Speed: 9.85 mph
Distance: 6.0 | Temp: 80s  | Time: 59:08 | Avg Pace: 9:51 | 1: 9:49 | 2: 9:57 | 3: 9:48 | 4: 9:49 | 5: 9:51 | 6: 9:51

Day 609 | June 19, 2011: 8 m run

I met my friend Yvonne for a run through a path I had never been on near my home. I was hoping for 9:30s, but it was so humid (90%)… or am I just making excuses? Either way, I am happy to run with Yvonne… she is faster than me and keeps me going.

Distance: 8.0 | Start Temp: 62° | End Temp: 65° | Time: 1:19:34 | Avg Pace: 9:56 | 1: 9:37 | 2: 9:42 | 3: 9:46 | 4: 9:39 | 5: 10:15 | 6: 10:06 | 7: 10:21 | 8: 10:02

Week Summary: 21.00 miles

My runs have been feeling really slow lately, and I can’t tell if it’s from being heavier, the hotter weather, or both. Maybe both? Oh well. It’s only going to get hotter (and hopefully I won’t gain anymore weight) so I might as well get used to it now. I will be happy if I can keep my long run around 10:00 minute miles this summer.

Comments (19)

By kilax, June 18, 2011 8:01 am

1. My Shaker Bottle – Brian recommended one for mixing protein powder. I didn’t think I needed one because I was using a spoon, but after many clumpy shakes, I bought one, and damn, it works really well!



2. Personal Training – I haven’t lost any weight because of my poor eating habits, but I am really enjoying my personal training sessions. I look forward to them each week!
3. Riding my bike outside – so much better than the bike in the gym, and a lot of fun. Yay, crosstraining! Pictures from my ride yesterday:





4. Not having anything planned for this weekend and the next one
5. Spending time with Steven – we haven’t been around each other much lately
6. Running Times magazine – I picked up a copy a few years ago and really didn’t like it. I needed something to read for a flight back in April and gave it another try and fell in love. I think it’s for a higher level runner than me, but it’s full of a lot of useful information, and interesting bios on runners.
7. Rain in the forecast – means less time watering the garden (our garden is a 10 minute drive from our house and we have to haul water back and forth from a basin to water our crops)!

I could also make a list titled “Things I am hating lately” but I am going to stick with the positive today. It’s Saturday, afterall!

What are you loving lately?

Comments (18)

By kilax, June 17, 2011 6:14 am

What is your favorite email client/webmail and what do you like about it?

Most Popular Email Clients, Winter 2011 (from here):

I’ve been using yahoo mail for years and have just stuck with it. I like it when it works. I like using the shortcuts to compose and respond to emails (I know most systems have that). I like all of my folders, although recently I have deleted many and combined them. Their search feature is okay. I like being able to download several attachments as one zip file )(again, other systems do this now too). I sort of like the built-in chat, when it works. Their interface for smartphones really stinks, but I don’t have a smartphone, so it’s no bother.

Next Monday, we are making a transition to a new email client (well really, webmail) at work, and it’s a really big deal. We’ve been with the old email client for over 10 years and the new system is going to be very different. I need to spend some time thinking about how I am going to organize my email in the new system.

Comments (11)

By kilax, June 16, 2011 6:08 pm

I am not signed up for a running race until the October 2nd Milwaukee Marathon. And it feels good. I think I overdid it a bit with racing this winter/fall – 11 races and 2 walking events. And 5 of those were in the month of April – in four different states. Too much racing. I don’t think I am (mentally) built to race every weekend, or even every other weekend. Maybe every three weeks to a month.

Of course, that doesn’t mean I don’t have events in mind for the upcoming months before the marathon. I do, but those events are supposed to be for fun (I say that now). I want to take a breather, focus on getting healthy (ha ha), and work on my mental running game (triple ha). I don’t want to lose the excitement of racing by overdoing it. Racing is supposed to be a treat!

How often do you like to race? What frequency of racing is “too frequent” for you?

Alright, so I am “training” for the Milwaukee Marathon, and I am a little bit less than 16 weeks out. I made a nice little plan for myself that builds me back up to marathon distance in 16 weeks.

I am not cool, so I don’t have a google doc to share, but here is my long run distance for each of the 16 weeks:

And here’s my question – I have somewhat of a high mileage base built up, so should I be maintaining that base or giving my body some rest by running the shorter distances in the table above?

I’d appreciate your thoughts/input!

Comments (16)

By kilax, June 15, 2011 7:07 am

It’s a rainy day in Chicago, but I don’t mind. The more rain we get, the less we have to go water our garden! The lazier a gardener I can be, the happier I am!

I took this photo in April – umbrellas are kind of useless in Chicago

And I will take the rain and the lower temps over the sunny days we had in the 90s last week. That was just too much for me!

Speaking of rain, I didn’t get ONE blister when I was training for the Madison Marathon – I think because my shoes fit me so well, and I never ran in the rain. I  kept getting some sort of weird wind burn on my face from all of my runs in the wind, but no blisters on my toes/feet. I figured I wouldn’t get any blisters during the marathon.

Well, it rained the last eight or so miles of the Madison Marathon (and it felt oh so good) and at one walking break, I said to Erin “Ugh. I can feel a blister on my toe.” Wet socks = blisters for Kim, apparently. I immediately took my shoes off when I finished and had a blister on the side of my Morton’s Toe that rivaled the one I got at the Chicago Marathon (on the same toe). The blister was almost the size of my toe. It was like I had a conjoined* twin toe. Also, I had all of this really hard skin on top of my toe.

It hurt just to have the bedsheets touch the toe at night, so a few days after the marathon, I cut off most of the top of my toe and finally felt some relief. But then I noticed my red toenail polish on my Morton’s Toe seemed to have some black lines around it… so I removed the polish and saw that the toenail was all black. I wonder if that toenail will eventually fall off**.

And why I feel the need to tell you about my toe today? I have no idea. I guess I think it’s kind of funny and interesting, because I am a weirdo.

Do you get blisters from running? What seems to cause them?

For me, it just seems to be the rain… or maybe I will get more when it’s hotter in the summer, and my feet get sweatier?

*I looked up “conjoined” to make sure I spelled it right then got distracted reading about conjoined twins.
**And really, they don’t fall off, at least for me. They get loose then I clip them or pull them off.