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By kilax, November 20, 2011 11:11 am

Day 757 | November 14, 2011: rest

Day 758 | November 15, 2011: 4 m run

My first run since the marathon! 8 days off! I expected this run to be great. The sun was out, it was 60 degrees… my first few steps felt great. Then I turned south into a wall of wind for two miles and was miserable. I figured that meant the two miles on the return side would feel great but they just felt too hot. Geez, when did I turn in to such a whiny baby?!

Another thought during this run: it’s time for me to spend more time running with my club so I can get faster.

I was supposed to meet Erin in the evening for a Cardio Kickboxing class but the headache that prevented me from working out Monday night returned with a vengeance. Wah. 

Distance: 4.0 | Start Temp: 58° | End Temp: 60° | Time: 38:46 | Avg Pace: 9:41

Day 759 | November 16, 2011: cross + strength

I rode the recumbent bike during lunch.

Bike Time: 30:00 | Distance: 4.81 | Resistance Level: 5.0

I was really excited for my strength class since I hadn’t gone in two weeks and missed my Monday make-up session! The class started out easy, with resistance bands and kettlebells. Then I quickly popped something in my left shoulder using the resistance band, and as class went on, decided our instructor had turned in to a sadist while I was gone. Imagine this – doing a pushup with one hand on a kettlebell and one on the floor, and lifting the kettlebell up to your side between each pushup. Do about six of those, then a plank, then the other side, then another plank. Fun times. Okay, I am kidding about the sadist part, I love Brian. But geez, that move was tough!

Day 760 | November 17, 2011: 5 m run

Yay cold weather! I ran after work, in the dark. The run felt easy in beginning then my breathing was labored by the end. My headphones were being dumb – I forgot they don’t work in the cold. Wah wah wah <– theme of the week. 

Distance: 5.0 | Start Temp: 28° | End Temp: 26° | Time: 48:24 | Avg Pace: 9:40 | Wore shorts, knee highs, UA ColdGear, headband and gloves – knees and butt cold

Day 761 | November 18, 2011: strength

Brian came over and we did a workout with dumbbells, the pilates circle, and a ball that looked like one you would use for dodgeball. The workout definitely wore me out – in a good way. Brian incorporates cardio with a lot of the strength moves, so I am usually pretty spent when we are done!

Day 762 | November 19, 2011: 12 m run

Erin and I met at Busse Woods to get 10+ miles in. Busse Woods is the perfect meeting spot for the two of us because it’s right between our homes (and I think takes us each about 45 minutes to get there?). I’m still not very familiar with the park though, and when I run on the 7-mile loop there, it tends to feel a bit endless. The only landmarks I seem to remember are the bridge and the elk!

I felt really strong for our first 6ish miles of this run. It was in the upper 40s and I felt good wearing a short sleeved shirt and arm warmers. When we turned around between 6-7 though, and were running right in to the wind, I started to fade. I asked Erin if the wind sucked or if I was being a wimp, and she confirmed that the wind did indeed, suck (I was probably being a wimp too). 

I started to get some stomach cramps in the last few miles and I am not sure why. I ordered a new GU sample pack to try a few new things and was eating the Watermelon GU chomps. Maybe that was it? Or it could just be the onset of monthly cramps. Or me eating too little?

Anyway, the last 5ish miles felt tougher, my breathing was labored, I felt out of shape, and I got too hot (wah wah wah). But we finished 12 miles in under two hours, which means a lot for me lately (took walk breaks every 3 miles, stopped around 4 at a bathroom, stopped at 11.5 to grab my camera). 

And of course I still had a lot of fun because we just chat and chat and chat the whole time. Then we go eat and chat some more. I feel lucky that I get to spend so much time with Erin doing these long runs. They’re really a lot of fun and I feel spoiled to get so much one-on-one time with my best friend!

Distance: 12.0 | Start Temp: 45ish | End Temp: 55ish | Time: 1:58:52 | Avg Pace: 9:54

Day 763 | November 20, 2011: 6 m run

Talk about spoiled! Two runs with good friends two days in a row! I met Bobbi at McDonald Woods. I wasn’t sure if I was remembering the trail correctly when I suggested it as a meeting place, but I was – it’s hilly and some parts are wooded. Really pretty, but… hilly! Ha ha. It was a good run, not too terribly windy like the day before, but still challenging with the hills. 

Bobbi and I were both happy to catch up, but also that we had made a committement to each other to meet to run. We both agreed we wouldn’t be running if we hadn’t. We’d still be in bed. Especially since we both seem to have the onset of a cold. During my runs Saturday and Sunday I felt like I needed to cough something up, but couldn’t. At least that’s the worst of it for now. 

Also – I’m not sure if I am dressing warmly enough. I wore shorts, a t-shirt and arm warmers. I felt good when I was running  but freezing when I was done, because of the wet shirt. Brr…

Distance: 6.0 | Start Temp: 37° | End Temp: 39° | Time: 1:01:49 | Avg Pace: 10:18

Week Summary: 27.0 miles

I am disappointed in how tough my runs felt this week. I think taking a week off from running did more damage than good! Ha ha. Sort of kidding – I think the break helped, especially with my plantar fasciitis. I just hope next week feels easier!

The winner of the Races2Remember giveaway is Erin! Erin, please shoot me your email and I will send you the giveaway code. 

Comments (13)

By kilax, November 19, 2011 6:21 am

Don’t forget to enter my Races2Remember giveaway today! I know it’s near the end of racing season, but there are a lot of good things to order – maybe a MyNames bib for your next race or a Back Bib!

Our big exciting purchase this fall has been a new storm door. We’ve talked about getting one f-o-r-e-v-e-r. In the winter, you can actually feel the breeze come in under the front door. We figured that might not be so great for our heating bill. 

Does your home have a storm door? Did you put it in, or did it come with the house?

So the new storm door was installed the day before we left for NYC. It’s kind of funny, when we got back home, and went through the front door to get the mail, we almost walked right in to the storm door – we had forgotten it was installed!

I was really excited to see how Data would like the storm door. And… he loves it! It was really windy yesterday so we opened the front door and let him watch the leaves. He even tried to attack them through the glass.

And tried to escape. Silly Data!

Completely unrelated, look at this box that came in the mail. What do you think was in it?

A t-shirt. A freaking t-shirt. Why the large box?!

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By kilax, November 18, 2011 12:26 pm

I wasn’t sure if I wanted to order all of the digital prints for the NYC Marathon… but I couldn’t see them very well on the preview page so I ended up ordering them all, and apparently a bunch of videos. I ended up with 61 pictures and 7 videos! I actually really like the pictures. Now I can show you Olivier, the French man who helped me finish the race. 

(click all images to see larger)

Olivier has the white and green shirt on

Check out our hug in the video below.

I’ve tried to friend Olivier on Facebook, but he hasn’t responded. Probably because he has no idea who I am. I may have my French friend write something for me to send to him. I just wanted to say thanks. His help at the end of the race means so much to me. 

There were also some really cool pictures of the overall race included in the package. I love the ones that show how crazy the start is over the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. The first and third pictures below show how the three color groups start off in different corrals on the bridge, then go on different paths when they get off the bridge (they all converge at mile 8). 

The images they gave us are so large, we may have some printed and framed. That would be pretty cool! Maybe this one:

 Or maybe this one:

Just kidding on the last one.

I must say I am happy with the photos! I didn’t expect to be in many, because I always felt like people were in front of me when I saw photographers, but surprisingly, I got a lot of photos. I would like to use some photos to make another shadow box for this race, like the shadow box Erin gave me for the Chicago marathon. 

I am probably getting closer to being done talking about the NYC Marathon at this point. Maybe. 

Comments (13)

By kilax, November 18, 2011 5:09 am

Have you ever made an elongated coin? Do you collect them?

Steven has been casually collecting them for awhile, so I bought this Penny Passport for him while we were in NYC*.

I didn’t realize this until I went to write this post, but apparently, elongated coins have been around since the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893! That’s pretty cool. 

I know I made a few as a kid, but have no idea where they are. It would be fun to find them and see where I made them. 

It’ll be fun to fill up Steven’s Penny Passport! Now we just need to go somewhere besides NYC…

*It will probably take me another week until I stop mentioning tidbits from our trip.

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By kilax, November 17, 2011 12:51 pm

Remember when I mentioned Races2Remember sent me some pace bands to use for NYC?

I worked with Races2Remember to create custom bands for the NYC course – including a warm-up in the first two miles, and walk breaks every two miles. And their bands were already NYC specific (accounting for hills, etc). It was really easy to work with them, and they already had specific pacing strategies available on their site, and tons of races to choose from!

I couldn’t decide which band to use on race day so I wore all three.

I stuck with the fastest pace band for the first 14 miles, using the overall time to make sure I was on track. Then when I started to fade I used the other pace bands to see how far off I was getting.

I didn’t meet ANY of my goals (off by about 6 minutes), but the pace bands aided me in letting me know how far off I was! Ha! I’ve actually been successful with my own pace bands before – that is how I PR’d in the half marathon, and helped Erin reach her first sub 2:00 half marathon. I’d like to use these custom pace bands again, when I have the mental struggle of the marathon more under control (whenever THAT is).

Races2Remember is offering a giveaway to one of my readers! You can actually select any one item from their site, excluding the cheering signs.

You can choose from (see all items here):

• Back bibs (personalize a bib to wear on your back while you run)
• Pace Bands
• MyNames Race Day Bibs (wear a bib with your name on it)
• Grace bands (instead of splits, have inspirational messages for each mile)
• Tattoos (create a temporary tattoo to wear on race day)

I would have liked a MyNames bib! I didn’t have my name on during NYC and kind of wished I did. Just kind of.

Races2Remember Giveaway Rules

1. Races2Remember will give away one (1) item of your choice, excluding the CheeringSigns.
2. To enter the giveaway, like Races2Remember on Facebook (here) leave a comment telling me you did, and which product you would like.
3. This giveaway is open until 5:00 PM CST on Saturday November 19. I will use random.org to select the winner. I will announce the winner on Sunday November 20. 
4. This giveaway is open to all readers.

Comments (15)

By kilax, November 17, 2011 6:54 am

• My biggest accomplishment this week has been not getting a headache on Wednesday, so I could go to my strength class. I got bad headaches on Monday and Tuesday and had to cancel exercise classes for both nights. So much for my big comeback in exercising. Does anyone else get regular headaches?
• I am at a new workstation in my office, with a different monitor, and I think the monitor may be causing the headaches. Or just the fact that I am back at work spending so much time looking at a monitor, after a week off from it. I was computer free most of the time we were in NYC. And loved it. Do you love taking a break from your computer from time to time?
• I am kind of upset about my work situation right now but don’t want to go in to it until I have more details. The good news is that on my new floor, I sit by the head of my organization and she asked me out for a lunch date! Now, I don’t think this is because of anything awesome I have done, but because she is from Iowa, and so am I, but hey, I am excited for the opportunity to chat with her one on one.
• I didn’t buy too many souvenirs for myself in NYC – just a few marathon related things (two tees, gloves and arm warmers), an Astoria shirt, and some scarves. I mean, come on, when the scarves are 5 for $20, I have to get some, right? The new scarves required setting up a scarf drawer when I got home though – I was hanging them up before, and now my closet is full! Fortunately I had an empty dresser. Which clothing items do you hang up, and which do you fold (and put in drawers on or shelves)?

From the top, the “York New” (ha ha), white, gray, purple (looks more blue in this picture), blue and red ones are new. The others I’ve bought this year, and the silk ones were all given to me.

• I was able to buy a few holiday gifts while we were in NYC too. I really loved shopping in Bryant Park, with all the unique little giftshops. I suppose the same people come back year after year in the shops, but I felt like I was finding a lot of little gems.
• I need more red shirts. Erin got me this really cool necklace for my birthday, and I only have one red summer shirt and one red winter sweater. Could I wear the necklace with a black top?

• What is everyone doing for Thanksgiving? We’re staying here, and having a meal with our friends. I will miss my family, but am happy we don’t have to travel.

Comments (21)

By kilax, November 15, 2011 6:07 am

Apparently, Data turned in to an interior designer while we were in NYC.

Wow Data. Thanks for rearranging the dining room table set up for us. I really like it! Very modern. 

Data seems to be really happy to have us home (I wonder how long that will last). We were in NYC for a long time – we arrived on Friday the 4th and got back Saturday the 12th! The funny thing is, in the beginning, it felt like we had all the time in the world, like it was the longest vacation ever. Then by the end, it felt like the days were just speeding by!

We were able to see and do (and eat!) everything we wanted to, but there is always so much more to do there. I’m already excited about our next (unplanned) trip. I just love visiting NYC. I love wandering around, just stumbling along things to see and do (and eat!*). I feel like there’s something for everyone there!

And what made it even better is that we were staying with our friends Gina and Steve in Astoria (Queens). So after our long days in Manhattan on our feet, we were able to go back to their house and chill.

I love the area of Queens they live in. It totally reminds me of when I lived in Rome – (somewhat) quiet streets with housing, right next to little shops**, selling all sorts of things and services. Lots of people out and about. Tiny little speciality grocery shops. People selling stuff on the streets. It’s a fun place!

Every time I visit NYC I wonder if I would like living there. My company has an office in Manhattan, so it’s a possibility to transfer. Manhattan seems really crowded though. And that is why I like living in the suburbs of Chicago (rather than the city) – because there are not many people, it’s usually quiet, and it’s really green. I don’t mind the crowds when I am in NYC on vacation, but I wonder if it would get to me if I lived there. Probably! Sometimes I am annoyed in Chicago and all I do is work there!

Have you visited any place on vacation and thought “I might like living here?” Where was it?

*We saw so many random vegan and vegetarian restaurants!
**They also have more mainstream stuff, like Starbucks and CVS.

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By kilax, November 14, 2011 5:41 am

Two fun things that were in our NYC Marathon Schwag Bags:

This Timex Magnet

Just peel off your finish time, no matter how pathetic far off your goal! Apply to most visible magnetic surface.

I should have peeled off a fake finish time! Ha ha. Just kidding. 

This Grana Padano Thing

What is this thing? Apparently Grana Padano is cheese. Does this thing have something to do with cheese? I saw a lot of people wearing it different ways on marathon day. Some ideas we all came up with:

What’s the coolest thing you’ve found in a race schwag bag?

I still think my favorite is the ice pack from the Milwaukee Marathon! That thing comes in handy!

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By kilax, November 14, 2011 5:01 am

I’ve been having lots of issues with “Database Errors” on my blog lately. Unfortunately, when I contact my host, they tell me it’s not their problem and to just wait an hour until my MySQL query resets. Sometimes it resets, sometimes it doesn’t. Right now, I’ve been having issues since last night. 

This makes no sense to me. 

I don’t know how to fix this. 

So if you see less of me, you’ll know why! Sometimes I can get on, sometimes I can’t. It’s probably the same for you. 

If you have any ideas, let me know (kilax@ilaxstudio.com). Otherwise, thanks for reading.

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By kilax, November 13, 2011 4:52 pm

This is the week of the NYC Marathon on November 6th (and the week after!).

Day 743 | October 31, 2011: 4 m run

Just a quick little 4 miler through my neighborhood.

Distance: 4.0 | Start Temp: 49° | End Temp: 49° | Time: 37:17 | Avg Pace: 9:19

Day 744 | November 1, 2011: 3 m run

Ditto – quick 3 miler. Runs always feel so short the week of a marathon!

Distance: 3.0 | Start Temp: 61° | End Temp: 57° | Time: 27:35 | Avg Pace: 9:11.5

Day 745 | November 2, 2011: strength class

Our strength class was all about kettlebells. I really like working with them and had a lot of fun. I thought the class was pretty easy, which is actually good, since I didn’t want to overdo it before the races on Saturday and Sunday!

Day 746 | November 3, 2011: rest 

Day 747 | November 4, 2011: 3 m run

Yay! After complaining about the hot weather on Tuesday (60) it was nice and cool for this run (36).

Distance: 3.0 | Time: 30:36 | Avg Pace: 10:11

Day 748 | November 5, 2011: Dash to the Finish Line 5K

I ran the Dash to the Finish Line 5K with Gina! 

Day 749 | November 6, 2011: NYC Marathon

I ran my fourth marathon and second fastest in 4:41:04.

Day 750-755 | November 7-12, 2011: rest

Unless you count walking countless miles each day in NYC!

Day 756 | November 13, 2011: 20 m bike

I met Erin to accompany her on her last 20 miler before the Las Vegas Marathon. We hadn’t seen each other in over a week, but it felt like ages. Of course, we talked the entire time. We ran on my (our?) favorite trail – the Des Plaines River Trail. It was in the 50s/60s, but windy (the entire 10 miles back to the start!).  Erin did awesome on her 20 miler, even after we discovered all the water fountains were turned off. I am so excited to see how well she does in the Las Vegas Marathon without my slow a$$ slowing her down!

I hope we get to run together more before her marathon on December 4th!

I was bummed that almost all of the leaves had fallen along the trail. What happened to fall? I hear it actually snowed in Chicagoland when I was in NYC – craziness!!! I welcome the cooler weather, but not the drab winter landscape!

Two Week Summary: 39.6 miles

I would be lying if I told you I don’t feel like a lazy smack for taking 7 days off from running, but I think it’s good for me. I haven’t had more than a few days off of running since last December. A break was in order! Now, back to the grind. I want to keep up my long runs, but less for training and more for weight loss. Yee haw!