Comments (31) Tomorrow is our four year wedding anniversary! Time flies when you’re having fun!
Happy Anniversary Steven! Love you!
We don’t have any plans for our anniversary. Any ideas for us? We have Thursday night together, but have to go to someone else’s wedding on Saturday and might spend the rest of the long weekend with our family.
If you are in a relationship, how do you celebrate your anniversaries?
I told Steven we should go somewhere tropical for our fifth!
I am training for the Milwaukee Marathon on October 2nd.
Day 673 | August 22, 2011: cross
I rode 30 minutes on the recumbent bike during lunch. I am not really sure if that counts for anything, health-wise, but it got me away from my desk and kept me from having a meltdown at work.
Bike Time: 30:00 | Distance: 4.56 | Set on Manual, Resistance Level 4
Day 674 | August 23, 2011: 6 m run
Another after dinner run. Only this time, dinner was at Mickey Finn’s Brewery and included fried pizza dough balls, a veggie burger and fries. BURP.
So obviously I was running back to the house at mile 1 to use the toilet. I felt surprisingly okay after that, but had a strange nagging headache behind my left eye that was bugging me a bit. The funny thing about this run (and the one the next day) was that there were all these frogs I had to dodge on the sidewalk! How bizarre!
Distance: 6.0 | Temp: 71° | Humidity: 80% | Time: 58:31 | Avg Pace: 9:44 | 1: 9:59 | 2: 10:03 | 3: 9:44 | 4: 9:48 | 5: 9:37 | 6: 9:14
Day 675 | August 24, 2011: 5 m run
This run was harder than the run the night before. I had another fatty dinner meal and felt kind of down on myself. The old “I could be really good at running if I could lose some weight” speech I give myself.
Distance: 5.0 | Start Temp: 82° | End Temp: 74° | Time: 53:02 | Avg Pace: 10:36
Day 676 | August 25, 2011: 3.45 m bike + 10 m run
On Thursday night when I was riding my bike home, the chain came off! That was the first time it had ever happened to me. Luckily, I figured out how to put it back on. It was a pleasant ride, except for my super heavy backpack.
Bike Time: 22:30 | Distance: 3.45 | Avg Speed: 9.2
After I got home and took Data on a walk, I went on a run to decompress after my crappy end to the work day. I put on a Jillian Michael’s podcast so I couldn’t zone out and think about work. It made me feel a lot better and I ended up running 10 miles!
Distance: 10.0 | Time: 1:49:19 | Avg Pace: 10:55
Day 677 | August 26, 2011: rest
Day 678 | August 27, 2011: 5.13 m bike + 5 m run + 6.9 bike
On Saturday I happened to be close to my friend Jen’s house while Steven was doing an event, so I asked if she wanted to go for a run. She said yes, and suggested we bike to Busse Woods, run, then bike back – that’s why I love Jen – only a few of my friends would find exercising like that to be fun!
It was really great to catch up with Jen. I haven’t had a chance to see her all summer. She is a lot of fun, and is 6 months pregnant so I loved hearing all about the baby stuff. What is funny is that during our text conversation about the run, Jen said “You know I am slow, right?” Uh… sure. I was looking forward to running 11 minute miles. No way. Jen was averaging sub 9:00s. I had to ask her to slow down!
And man, the run was kind of brutal. It was sunny and I was dehydrated. So dehydrated that I decided to drink some nasty pump water that was on the trail – I was desperate! But the funny thing is, despite the run feeling so hard, the whole time we were biking and running just flew by. It’s not until I entered my stats below that I realized we biked over an hour together and ran at least 35 minutes together (she walked while I did part of my run). I feel like our time together was too short (and we even had a quick lunch together afterward)!
Here we are showing off our bellies (note: I am not pregnant):
Bike Time: 26:22 | Distance: 5.13 | Avg Speed: 11.7
Distance: 5.0 | Temp: low 80s | Time: 48:32 | Avg Pace: 9:41 | 1: 9:14 | 2: 9:25 | 3: 10:05 | 4: 10:02 | 5: 9:42
Bike Time: 37:49 | Distance: 6.90 | Avg Speed: 10.9
Day 679 | August 28, 2011: 20 m run
I am spoiled. I have been able to do my long run with Erin three weeks in a row now. The first week we were in Iowa together. Last week she came to my house for the relay. And this week she came up because our husbands wanted to do stuff together. Sounds like it’s my turn to go down to her house next! It’s really good we’ve been able to run together, because we plan on running the Milwaukee Marathon together. So… training together would be smart, methinks.
Steven and I were actually with Erin and her husband almost all day yesterday, until late in the evening, so I knew none of us would want to start our day early. So Erin and I started running in Independence Grove at 9:45 am. Pretty late for a long run, but the high was only in the mid 70s. The sun did come out and give me a new awesome bizarre tan, but, oh well.
Bobbi was at Independence Grove finishing up her 20 miler! We ran with her for her 16th mile, then ran her in for the finish. She was doing really well. It was great to see Bobbi! I have been missing her. Damn, I am now realizing I have something for her and I could have given it to her. Dammit. Anyway.
At first we went north on the trail. But that’s hilly, so after we ran Bobbi in, we went south.
We ran out and back and came to the car at 14.5 so Erin could grab her bike to ride the last 5.5 with me. We took walk breaks every two miles and stopped a few times to get water. I drank so much water (took my normal 4 mile GUs). I have no idea how much, but I felt good. I also had a bowl of cereal and 1.5 bagels with PB for breakfast and felt great too.
We were chatting the entire time during our run and it made it just fly by! I was surprised when we hit 10 miles! I did turn on music on for the last 5.5 miles while Erin rode. I thought it would be a suckfest at the end but I was actually doing pretty awesome and had a few sub 10:00 miles. There was a breeze and the trail is mostly shaded, so that helped. And just having the company. I think this is a really good sign that Erin and I will be able to push each other at the Milwaukee Marathon! I think we should be a running team. Team ≤ 4:59:59!!!
After our run we got food and went to the beach at Independence Grove to do an “ice bath” (the water was not that cold but it felt great!). Then we went and got more food (more fried pizza dough balls) and went to my house and ate the food… and more food around my house. AWESOME day!!!
Oh, and check out my awesome sock tan line. Don’t be jealous!
Also, that was the BEST 20-miler EVER!!! No pain, minor chafing and I felt hydrated and like I had enough fuel in me! YAY!!!
Distance: 20.0 | Temp: mid 70s | Time: 3:28:40 | Avg Pace: 10:25
Week Summary: 46.00 miles
You know what I am going to say – where is the strength training?! Ahh!!! I want my trainer back! He had to take time off for medical reasons, but left me with workouts and equipment… so I have no excuse, other than being a lazy smackaroo.
I cannot believe I ran 46 miles and feel so great. I am not sure what I am doing right, but I am happy to feel this way! Let’s hope it sticks for a few more months!
I really didn’t learn a lesson last week, I guess.
Oh well. At least I had the best 20 miler EVER! More to come on that later today, I hope!
Side question: Are you ever uploading photos to Facebook and haven’t even edited them before people start commenting?! GAH, that is annoying! Sometimes I lock the album until I am done editing it then realease it to the wild. It’s tough being this popular.*
*I am SO SO SO being sarcastic with that comment.
What’s the strangest/funniest thing you’ve ever seen on a gift registry? Have you ever put anything strange/funny on one for yourself?
We’re going to a wedding next week, and I totally geeked out when I saw my friends had the monkey bathroom decor from Target on their registry. We got them the trash can and shower curtain. We have an on-going joke that Steven loves monkey themed things* so it made me laugh even more.
Should I keep doing Friday Questions? Aren’t they kind of cheesy?
I really fall behind in doing Friday Questions. Right now I have a list of quite a few I could ask, but what do you guys think – keep them? Yay or nay?
Also – if I am quiet next week it is because I am stressed at work. I had an awful week that will continue in to next week. I am hoping things will quiet down the week after Labor Day.
*Everytime I travel someplace new, I try to find Steven a stuffed monkey with a locale-specific shirt. Steven has so many he keeps them in the closet and calls them “closet monkeys.”
I just saw another one at work (click to see larger)!
Erin works in one of those buildings in the picture so I called her (and left a message) to tell her to go check it out. I wonder if she saw it…
It disappeared quickly (in a minute or so)!
Hopefully this rainbow means tonight is going to be effin’ awesome. Just sayin’.
*Really three, since the other was a double, but we’ll say it was two rainbow sightings. Yeah. That’s what we’ll say.
I had to get my fingerprints taken at work today (hence the pink fingertips). The start of this process involved me filling out a form with identifying information. The person taking my fingerprints transferred that information on to three cards (for three sets of prints) then asked me to confirm all of the information, and that I had no aliases or tattoos/scars.
No aliases for me. No scars/tattoos.
We start taking the fingerprints, on my right hand, and we’re chatting about whatever… we get to my left hand and when she starts the prints for my middle finger, she looks over at my wedding bands and says “Wait! You’re married!” I say, “Yeah…” She tells me, “Well, you said you didn’t have any aliases!” Oh! So that is what the form meant by aliases.
Seriously, I was thinking, “Aliases! I’m not Batman! I don’t have any aliases!”
DUH.
So we re-did the forms and the whole process took me twice as long as it should have. Oops. She was cool about it.
What is interesting is that wikipedia describes alias the same way I was thinking about it – as a way to hide your identity. And dictionary.com does too – although the second description there sounds more like what they were looking for. So, I don’t feel too stupid about it all.
But I was thinking, “If I had an alias, why would I give it away?!”
Have you ever had to get your fingerprints taken? Or given away your alias?!
Maybe I should have scrubbed harder in the shower so I didn’t have the number 69* peeking out from under my sleeves today:
Oh well. It made for some interesting conversations.
*We were team 1069 in the triathlon relay.
A few months ago, one of my running club friends asked me if I wanted to participate in the Danskin Triathlon on a relay team. I said yes right away – I’d been wanting to experience a triathlon up close for a long time! And this seemed like the perfect one – it was sprint distance (1/2 mile swim, 20K bike, 5K run), only 45 minutes from my house, aimed at beginners, and an all-women triathlon.
Originally, I was going to be on a team with two other people from my running club. But in August I asked Erin if she wanted to be on our team and she said yes – she would love to go all out on the bike without having to worry about running afterward. So, it was me, Erin and another person from our running club… who sent us a message a week before the race to tell us she fell off her bike and broke her wrist! Luckily, we hadn’t registered yet, and Erin quickly recruited her running club friend Claudia to join us as the swimmer. So really, I was on an Oak Park Runners Club team, as I was the only Grayslake Running Club member. I thought that was kind of funny. Anyway.
We headed up to packet pickup/the expo on Saturday. It was kind of a mess and the volunteers didn’t know what they were doing. It was hard to get information from people, and when we did, it conflicted with information on the literature about the race. But! We were there to have fun, knew it was for beginners, and didn’t really care. I thought it was kind of funny.
We had to wake up early (4:30!) on Sunday to get to Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin in time for Erin to rack her bike before the transition area closed at 6:30. Parking was two miles away from the triathlon site, so Claudia and I walked while Erin road her bike in.
Because we were on a relay team, our wave didn’t start until 7:41 (elites started at 7:00). The triathlon staff was really pushing people to get to the swim area early, but there was no need to for us. We had plenty of time.
It was actually a beautiful, sunny and cloudless day. Perfect for a picnic. Not for a race! The swimmers swam from west to east so they were swimming right in to the sun, making it hard to see.
But Claudia still kicked butt, and swam half a mile in 12:29!
Transition time from swimming to biking was 1:37.
Then Erin was off on her bike! She completed the “20K” (her watch said it was nearly 14 miles) in 47:51.
I wasn’t sure how long it would take Erin to do the biking part, so I made sure to hang around the transition area. I was really burning up in the sun! I should have put sunscreen on, but was worried it wouldn’t allow me to sweat properly (sunscreen makes me feel awful when I am running).
Anyway, I was distracted for awhile by chatting with Ian. I didn’t even know he would be there! That was a fun surprise. I first ran in to him at the Snowshoe 5K in January!
Erin came in off her bike and I grabbed the ankle bracelet (with timing chip) and was off! Transition time was 1:01.
When I saw Erin, she told me I would be passing a lot of people, and boy, was she right! I was passing people the whole time! I only got passed by about 5 people, but passed at least 50, and probably more. I felt bad though – I am sure I was passing all the people who were NOT on relay teams and were exhausted from doing it all on their own!
The 5K was tough, but just because it was so sunny and there was no shade. I still managed negative splits though – 8:45, 8:37, 8:26, and sprinted the end. My final 5K time was 26:04 (which is off from my watch – not surprised by that).
I saw a lot of my running club friends at the finish, and of course, Erin and Claudia! I remembered to grab medals for all of us.
Our final time was 1:29:03, and we found out we were the third relay team in the “friends” divisions (3rd out of 33)! Placing so high in our division was pretty exciting.
Here are the three teams from our running club: Big Bang Theory (blue and red shirt on left), One Leg at at Time (Claudia, me and Erin) and Two and a Half Women (white and pink shirt on right):
After we finished, we had to walk the two miles back to the car in the hot sun. That was definitely a slow walk!
Overall, I had a lot of fun and thought the three of us made a really good team. I think we should try it again next year and go for first place in the relay division, ha ha!
However, participating in this made me uncertain if I would ever want to do a triathlon on my own. Just seeing so many people wobble around with almost no energy… I know I would feel awful if I felt like that at a race. Maybe at less of a beginner’s race, it would be more inspiring. I just thought I would leave having the “I have to try a tri” bug, but I really don’t. I still want to get back in to swimming, but I think I would really want to be prepared to try a triathlon all on my own!
I am training for the Milwaukee Marathon on October 2nd.
Day 666 | August 15, 2011: 3.45 m bike + 7 m run
I road my bike home from the train station then went for a run awhile after I got home. It was one of those nights where I wasn’t sure if I had the energy/desire to run, but once I got out, I felt wonderful. I didn’t have to stop at all (not even to go to the bathroom or for traffic) and wanted to keep going when I quit. I think I felt so awesome because the temps were low and I was listening to Lady Gaga’s new CD, which is great for running.
The bad part about this run? The Asics I was wearing are definitely DONE. And at only 270 miles! I wish I could get my shoes to last longer. Oh well – I was able to get some of the Asics Gel-Cumulus 12s for a pretty good price when the Asics Gel-Cumulus 13s came out. Time to bust out a new pair.
Bike Time: 18:16 | Distance: 3.45 | Average Speed: 11.3 mph
Distance: 7.0 | Temp: 69° | Time: 1:07:31 | Avg Pace: 9:38 | 1: 10:28 | 2: 10:06 | 3: 9:42 | 4: 9:42 | 5: 9:11 | 6: 9:17 | 7: 9:00
Day 667 | August 16, 2011: 4 m run
I was able to make it out for a lunch time run with Erin and her work running group (a lot of the people I ran the the the Ragnar Relay with) which was great – because they are all fun people and I am rarely able to meet up with them during their lunch runs because of my schedule. Ugh, I felt super rushed about making it back to my office in time though. But it ended up being a good (although tough and hot and stressed about time) run and I was happy to get it done in the middle of the day, so I could chill at night.
I made the unfortunate mistake on running on another pair of shot shoes though! This time, it was some Asics from 2007 that I keep in my gym locker. Time to swap those out too. Landing hurt my feet – it felt like all the cushioning was gone!
Distance: 4.0 | Temp: 80° | Dew Point: 59° | Humidity: 49% | Time: 37:11 | Avg Pace: 9:12 | 1: 9:15 | 2: 9:01 | 3: 9:21 | 4: 9:10
Day 668 | August 17, 2011: rest
Day 669 | August 18, 2011: strength
During lunch I did a 25-minute kettlebell workout. And got all nice and schweaty. And my butt and hamstrings were sore for two days afterward.
Day 670 | August 19, 2011: 6 m run
Oops. I left too late for this hilly run and felt like I was melting in the sun. Ugh – I was happy to be done!
I saw two tiny baby deer during my run. Can you see the outline of one in the picture below? Hee hee:
Distance: 6.0 | Start Temp: 76° | Dew Point: 60° | Humidity: 58% | End Temp: 81° | Time: 1:07:52 | Avg Pace: 11:18
Day 671 | August 20, 2011: 16.35 m run + 3.68 m bike
Erin and her running club friend Claudia arrived at my house early Saturday morning so we could drive up to Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin to pick up our packets to do a relay triathlon (!!!) together the next day. After doing that, our brilliant idea was to get our long run in (just before noon) starting at the trail head of the Des Plaines River Trail, since it’s right by where we picked up our packets, on the Illinois/Wisconsin border.
For a few minutes, the rain was so bad it kind of looked like we wouldn’t be getting any sort of run in at all! But it all cleared after we parked the car, and we didn’t get rained on at all. It was mostly overcast, humid and in the high 60s/low 70s. I didn’t think it was sunny at all, but somehow I got a funky burn so it must have been. Damn sneaky sun.
I warned Claudia that I have been running slow, but we managed a 10:31 pace for 16.35 miles, and I felt pretty good! We stopped to walk every two miles, and once to use the bathroom, another time to buy water at a gas station (I drank 70+ ounces for the whole run and ate GUs at 4, 8, and 12), and once during mile 15. I played music for all of us on my phone starting at mile 10 and that seemed to help too.
This was one of those runs that just flew by because we were chatting the whole time and I was barely looking at my watch! I loved it! Sometimes I wish all runs were like that! Running with Erin and Claudia was a blast. I think we make a good team.
Distance: 16.35 | Time: 2:51:11 | Avg Pace: 10:31
After Claudia and I finished running, we got on our bikes to help Erin finish out her first 20-miler of the season (around Van Patten Woods, which is really close to the trail head)! Ha – I will admit that getting on to the bike was hard. It hurt to lift my legs after running so far!
Bike Time: 37:48 | Distance: 3.68 | Avg Speed: 5.8
Since we essentially skipped lunch to run/bike, we had to stop at McDonald’s to get pies and drinks afterward. Then I ate everything in sight for the rest of the evening.
Day 672 | August 21, 2011: 2 m walk + 5K + 2 m walk
Erin, Claudia and I got up super early to go compete in our relay triathlon… which I will have to tell you all about tomorrow!
(My 5K is sandwiched by two 2-mile walks because that is how far away we had to park the car!)
Week Summary: 36.45 miles
I had a really fun week, but am exhausted. Just exhausted!
There are a lot of cool running tops out there with unique backs. Here are some I have been lusting after from jcp.com:
Here is one I have:
You can kind of see how it has a racerback and regular shoulder straps going down the back. Well, apparently it can give you a funky tan, even when you are running on an overcast day:
As if my tan wasn’t already FUNKY enough! Ha – look at that funny strip! And look at how white my back is compared to my shoulders. Whoa. Funny funny funny.
What is the funkiest tan you’ve ever had?
Hi! I'm Kim, a 34-year-old living in Chicagoland with my husband, Steven, and our cats, Khali, Apollo, and Starbuck. I work in the design industry (architecture), follow a vegan lifestyle, am addicted to running, and am an ACE certified personal trainer (working at Essential Fitness, LLC ("Efit"))! I write about a variety of topics, and consider this a "life" blog - a place I can share anything that's on my mind. Please visit the "About" page to get a better idea of who I am! :-)
Panorama Theme by 
Themocracy
