Comments (8)

By kilax, June 14, 2011 8:32 pm

My bike was still there when I got to the train station so I got to ride it home. Yay!

I got to take a closer look at the baby geesers in the park (normally we are driving by so fast).

And I got to ride on the new trail almost all the way to my house (note to Bobbi – the hills still suck on the bike):

Overall, the ride was about 3.5 miles and took less than 20 minutes. I will have to do it again. But bring sunglasses and bug spray. The bugs were getting in my eyes and biting me.

Comments (25)

By kilax, June 14, 2011 7:48 am

I have not been in my office to use my salad dressing since I wrote this, and look at it this morning:

I knew it! I knew someone was using it. Sigh. I put the bottle in a brown paper bag and stapled it shut. Hopefully that will deter people from using it without asking. Or maybe I should measure out a serving each morning and bring it to work in a plastic container.

In other news, my two nephews sent me these drawings in the mail (the two sheets with lines on them below):

They have drawings on them and Star Wars stickers all over both sides. And look at what my older nephew wrote:

Ha ha. Too cute!

Also, I left my bike at the train station this morning to ride home. I hope it’s still there when I get off the train!

Maybe if I like riding my bike today I will do it more often… then Steven won’t have to get up at the buttcrack of dawn* to take me to the train station.

*Or as my mom said once, and we won’t let her live down, “the crack of buttlight.”

Comments (11)

By kilax, June 13, 2011 12:23 pm

Day 596 | June 6, 2011: rest

Day 597 | June 7, 2011: cross

I was in Louisville on travel and used the hotel gym, appropriately called Club 360° – for its location on the top floor of the hotel and 360° views of Louisville!

I used some elliptical bike thingy, then the recumbent bike and the regular bike.

NUStep Crosstrainer Time: 5:00 
Recumbent Bike Time: 30:00 | Distance: 6.8 | Level 5
Bike Time: 25:00 | Distance: 5.7 | Level 10

Day 598 | June 8, 2011: rest

Day 599 | June 9, 2011: strength

I had my third personal training session with Brian. We used these giant soft balls to do fun crunches and passes, and used huge disk weights with handles to work my lower and upper body. I felt like I had a bit of a core break so that was nice!

Day 600 | June 10, 2011: Ragnar Relay (6.5 m run)

I ran my first leg of the Ragnar Relay on Friday afternoon. I didn’t record the temperature for any of my runs, but I am SO HAPPY it was not as hot as it was in the beginning of the week. It was in the 60s/50s for each run. Very humid though.

Distance: 6.50 | Time: 1:00:05 | Avg Pace: 9:21 | 1: 8:50 | 2: 9:34 | 3: 9:18 | 4: 9:18 | 5: 9:31 | 6: 9:40 | 7: 3:52

Day 601 | June 11, 2011: Ragnar Relay (2.5 m run + 9.8 m run)

My second run was at 2:00 am on Saturday, and my third run was at 11:00 am.

Distance: 2.50 | Time: 21:57 | Avg Pace: 8:48 | 1: 8:21 | 2: 9:17 | 3: 4:18
Distance: 9.80 | Time: 1:44:34 | Avg Pace: 10:39 | 1: 10:03 | 2: 9:54 | 3: 10:20 | 4: 12:13 | 5: 10:52 | 6: 10:29 | 7: 10:31 | 8: 10:52 | 9: 10:55 | 10: 8:21

Day 602 | June 12, 2011: cross + brick (15 m bike + 2 m run)

In the morning I attended the Families of Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) walk in the Independence Grove Forest Preserve. My personal trainer’s son has SMA, and a few of us from the club attended the walk to support him.

It was a beautiful day for a walk, and great to see so many families and their supporters out there.

Afterward, I met Erin at the Half Day Forest Preserve for my first brick workout! Ha ha. Can I call it that? We rode 15 miles and ran 2 afterward.

It felt good to get my body moving again after the relay. I think it was better to get outside than to sit on my behind.

And I had a fun time chatting with Erin! Despite being together for almost two whole days before we still had a lot of talk about. Ah, the sign of true friendship (or maybe just that I am a blabbermouth?).

Bike Distance: 15.04 | Time: 1:15:17 | Avg Pace: 12.0 mph
Run Distance: 2.0 | Time: 18:41 | Avg Pace: 9:19 | 1: 9:16 | 2: 9:22

Week Summary: 20.8 miles

I am really impressed with the amount of exercise I can get in at this weight, but I need to LOSE weight. I am such a fattie right now and am making every workout more difficult for myself by carrying all of this extra weight around.

Comments (14)

By kilax, June 11, 2011 8:46 pm

I’m home, had a warm dinner, took a nice shower and feel like a new person! The Ragnar Madison to Chicago relay is over. I’m not sure what our overall team finish time is yet, but I know we started around 10:30 am on Friday and finished around 4:30 pm on Saturday.

Thanks to everyone who commented on my in progress posts during the actual relay!

A lot of people (in real life) have asked me how this relay works, so I will try to explain it here too. The relay is 36 legs long, and goes from Madison to Chicago, covering 197 miles total. Each non-elite team has 12 runners, and each runner runs three legs. The distance in each leg varies. There are two vans, one carrying runners 1-6, the other carrying runners 7-12. While runners 1-6 run their legs, their van (#1) goes from point to point, carrying each runner to meet up and continue the relay. While they do this, van #2 carries runners 7-12 to the next major point to meet runner #6, then after the meet up, carries runners 7-12 from point to point, while van #1 goes to the next major meet-up point. Each minor meet up point has porta parties and parking, and the stuff at the major meet up points varies – porta parties and food for sure, but some had places to sleep and real bathrooms.

Anyway, the two vans do that leapfrog thing, meeting at major points, until you finally meet in Chicago.

The amount of organization behind doing one of these relays is kind of crazy. You have to get a team together, inevitably find new members later on when people can’t do it anymore, find drivers and volunteers, figure out who runs which legs, rent vans, coordinate who’s bringing what, when you meet, when you take off, directions, decorations (we didn’t decorate)… the list could go on and on.

I ran with Erin‘s work running club, and everyone was pretty organized. I felt like I didn’t have to do much except show up. That was nice! I was in van #2, and we left Chicagoland at 11:00 on Friday morning, to meet our team up east of Madison by 2:30. We had to do a safety check-in, then our first runner was off around 3:30.

I ended up running at 4:30 pm on Friday, and 2:00 am and 11:00 am on Saturday. My first leg was 6.5 miles, windy and uphill, but I felt fine. My second leg was the hardest. I expected it to be the easiest because it was only 2.5 miles, but I ran too fast and my knee felt sore at the end. My last leg was 9.8 miles, and actually felt really good, because I ran so slow. Overall, I ran 18.8 miles in less than 24 hours!

Everyone in our van had a really funny sense of humor. Okay, it was a bunch of smart asses. So that was fun. There was lots of joking going on the entire time. Which was good – you spend a lot of time waiting around for other people to get to checkpoints.

This type of race is definitely a unique, fun experience. I am not sure if I would do it again though! I think I am too much of a party pooper and the sleeping situation was just not good for me. I didn’t feel well rested. I am not used to getting by on less than an hour of sleep a night. I think if I did this relay again I would have the team drive to my house during one of the long lulls while the other group was running. We could sleep on real furniture and take real showers.

It was really fun finishing as a team in Montrose Harbor – running in together on the sand. We got really neat medals (here it is next to the shirt we got). It’s funny – we hardly spent any time with van #1, except for a bit of chatting at the major exchanges. I feel like we need to have another get-together to catch up on all of their experiences!

I am sure I will have more to say when I am less out of it! I can’t wait to get in to bed tonight!

Comments (2)

By kilax, June 11, 2011 12:59 pm

I just finished my 9.8 mile leg! Hurrah! The start:

(The good ole McDonald’s to baton pass off)

The finish:

I took this run very slow and easy, and… my knee felt fine! I was actually running through towns I know in the northern suburbs of Chicago. Very pretty course that went from city to naval base to path. I was worried I got lost a few times though – I was running for a long time in what felt like industrial areas without many other runners. But I was actually never lost.

I was able to sleep a bit in our van before this leg too. Yay!

Only four more legs and my team will be finishing in Chicago!

Comments (9)

By kilax, June 11, 2011 2:58 am

The drive up to the relay and the first legs were really fun. The trying to sleep in the high school gym? Not so much. I basically laid there awake for two hours, listening to the hustle and bustle of people coming in and out. Oh, and there was the person who stepped on my right ankle while I was laying down. But they had spaghetti there in the cafeteria (I ate before)!

I got really pumped up for my second leg. I AM SO HAPPY IT WAS ONLY 2.5 miles.

It was really misty and foggy when I was running it. When I got to the end they asked my number and I said 625 instead of 165. I tried to call my teammate’s name but I was so out of it I couldn’t remember it. Oops.

And now we have a bit of this going on:

I went out too fast and now my knee is bugging me. My last 9.9 mile leg should be interesting!

I want to be in my bed right now.

Comments (8)

By kilax, June 10, 2011 6:23 pm

Go Team Norm and Friends!

I am in Wisconsin running the Ragnar Madison to Chicago relay (with the Most Interesting Man in the World). I am runner #8 (of 12). My first leg was about 6.5 miles, hilly and windy.

Here’s the pass off to start my leg:

And the pass off at the end of my leg:

Geez, the photos look like they were taken in the same place.

Only 24 legs left (and two more runs for me)!

Comments (15)

By kilax, June 8, 2011 2:20 pm

We’ve had to travel so much in the past year, and a few of the trips have been the sudden “we have to leave now” type, which means you sometimes forget to pack a thing or two.* So I’ve starting a working text document for my packing list. I’ve listed almost everything on it that I would ever want to bring for any type of trip. After each trip, I usually add an item or two to it. Then I print it out for the next trip, and cross off the things I want to bring, after I pack them.

Here is a pdf version if you give a crap.

I used the list to pack for a work trip to Louisville on Monday (I will be going home tonight, but be coming back quite a bit).

The Ohio River from the Indiana side, across from Louisville

I NEED to make an entirely new list for the Ragnar Madison to Chicago relay this Friday. Or at least start with that one and add a bunch of stuff that you bring on a trip where you are in a car for two days and not getting much sleep or really taking showers.

Ugh, I was hoping this post would be more coherent, but I am tired from traveling! And hope I can find the energy to do the relay in a few days (I am running 3 legs that total up to about 19 miles).

Do you have a master packing list or do you make one for each trip? Or do you just throw stuff in your bag and call it a day?

*Okay, it was always the same thing, over and over – the make-up remover face wipes I used at night.

Comments (24)

By kilax, June 7, 2011 5:11 am

In August of 2007 I wrote this:

Yes, you’re sick of hearing it. Yes, I’m sick of complaining about it. But this time, I am offering a solution.

Regarding the commute. I now realize that what makes people dread it is not the amount of time, but all the annoying people. To me, the most annoying thing is the noise – the woman who clears her throat every thirty seconds (I timed her), the children who scream at the top of their lungs, the drunk adults, the cell-phone talkers… you get the idea.

I don’t use the commute as a means to communicate with other people. Its sole purpose is to get me to work, but since it is more than an hour, it might as well be a relaxing ride. IT’S NOT when all those people won’t STFU (sorry, had to use the acronym).

So, here’s my brilliant solution – a “quiet” car. One train car could be dedicated for those who wish to ride in silence. You pay a premium price and are guaranteed a relaxing ride. No kids scream. No one talks on their phone. No one talks to their friend/family/neighbor. Sorry. Just silence. All you would have to listen to would be the train on the tracks and the announced stops.

Yes, I’m really losing it. I’m just so frustrated with the screaming children that cause me to re-locate my seat each night.

Yeah, you could say that was a little bit whiny.

Well, guess what was enacted on all Metra lines yesterday, June 6th?

Quiet Cars! Almost four years later, I am getting my wish! Quiet car rules are as follows:

The rules are simple: No cell phone calls. If passengers must answer their phones, they should make it brief or move to the vestibule or another car. Conversations are discouraged; if they must be held they should be short and in subdued voices. All electronic devices must be muted, and headphones should not be loud enough for anyone else to hear.

Quiet Cars will apply to all inbound trains arriving downtown before 9 a.m. and all outbound trains leaving downtown between 3:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.

As with the pilot program, Metra expects Quiet Cars to be largely enforced by peer pressure and conductor intervention when necessary. Many riders said that having a rule in place empowered them to ask noisy people to be quiet or move. Conductors will carry small notices that they can discreetly present to passengers who are violating the quiet car rules.

I rode on a Quiet Car yesterday morning to work, and it was quiet until a few stops to downtown when some people started having a loud conversation. Hopefully passengers will soon get the hang of it.

Would you ride in the Quiet Car?

Sometimes I don’t mind being in a noisy car. In fact, there is one car that is kind of like a party car – and I used to ride in it. I would rather be surrounded by a lot of noise or none. Just a few loud conversations makes me nuts.

Guess I am still a bit whiny, four years later.

Comments (30)

By kilax, June 6, 2011 12:38 pm

I’ve never had my lunch stolen at work* but people use my salad dressing without asking all. the. time. Honestly! Just ask me! I will share! But I get annoyed when I buy a brand new container of salad dressing, and the second time I use it, more than a third of it is gone. That happened to me last week – I used it once, even measured out two tablespoons** – then went to use it the second day and a lot more of it was gone.

So… I started marking where the salad dressing is at when I am done using it.

Yes, I am crazy. But when I went to use my dressing today it was at the same level where I left it! Yay!

And really, I don’t care if people want to use it. I will share! Just please, ask! It says my name on it… I am usually at my desk… why don’t you ask me? And you should know, sometimes, when it spills over the top I lick it off the bottle, so maybe you don’t want to use it? Just warning you…

(Really, this isn’t a big deal to me. I actually think it’s kind of funny. But, we do have a camera in our lunch room because people steal each other’s food. Isn’t that ridiculous?)

*Seriously, who would want my salad and leftovers?
**Because I am trying to be good and track my food and ugh BORING.