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By kilax, December 31, 2011 12:01 pm

It’s that time of year! Everyone is doing their year in running reviews and talking about their goals for 2012! Before I get in to my 2012 goals, did I even met my 2011 goals? They were:

1. To be injury-free so that I can (do the list below) MOSTLY ACCOMPLISHED – had slight IT Band issues in May
2. Run at least one race a month (for fun) ACCOMPLISHED – 22 total races, in 5 different states (IL, WI, IA, MO and NY)
3. Meet new friends in the Grayslake Running Club MOSTLY ACCOMPLISHED – was more in to this at the beginning of 2011
4. Run with my existing running friends! ACCOMPLISHED – I trained all summer with Erin, and ran a lot with Bobbi
5. And… PR in the half marathon (a long shot I had to throw in) ACCOMPLISHED – 1:54:06
6. Okay, and to run 1000 miles (another long shot) TOTALLY ACCOMPLISHED – way over that actually, at 1485

Goals for this 2012?

1. Stay as injury free as possible
2. PR in the 5K (and other distances if possible)
3. Run a new race distance
4. Run more than 1485 miles
5. Run a 200 mile month
6. Run a 60 mile week
7. Quit slouching when I run – engage my core
8. Get to a healthy weight and keep that weight off

The most difficult goal will be the last one. I will have to define that more as the year goes on. 

Dream Goal: get arms like Jillian’s:

I just bought that DVD and will be sorely disappointed if my arms don’t look like that in a month. 

Just kidding!

Happy New Year everyone!!!

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By kilax, December 30, 2011 6:21 am

What do you guys think of New Year’s Resolutions – pointless or useful?

Image from this hilarious auto resolution generator – check it out!!!

I am kind of in the pointless camp* – I think we should be striving to better ourselves year round, rather than thinking about it once a year. 

But! That doesn’t mean a few ideas have’t popped in to my head about things I really need to work on improving more. So maybe these are my pseudo resolutions? Am I changing camps? Hmm.

1. Take better care of my hair – get it cut every 6-8 weeks. 
2. Pay full attention to people when they are talking to me. Less distractions – quit doing what I am doing to listen. 
3. Work on my anger problem. Technology mishaps really make me angry these days – a deep anger I can feel in the pit of my stomach. This is ridiculous. 

Short and simple. 

Bonus Question!

What is something that was not a resolution of yours for 2011, but you think you did really well at?**

I did a really good job this year of making and sustaining friendships. I am a bit in the loner camp***, and am really independent. I’ve had a hard time staying close with people throughout life – I keep in touch with no one from high school, and hardly anyone from college. But this year some of my existing relationships really flourished, and I made some new ones. This makes me feel like I have been missing out on friendship until the last few years. Spending time with my close friends makes me feel so good. There is a special love and support between friends… I just feel lucky to have found that. 

Wow! CHEESY OVERLOAD!!!

*I didn’t make any last year, but I did make running goals (which I will go over tomorrow!).
**Sorry for the weird sentence structuring/ending in a preposition. 
***What is it with all the camp references? 

Comments (23)

By kilax, December 29, 2011 5:07 pm

It’s quiet in the blogosphere. And in real life. And me likey! I am all caught up on reading blogs… I should be all caught up on other things… but let me procrastinate a bit more. I am looking for some new blogs to read! Please leave a comment telling me who your favorite bloggers are!

All my fave blogs are over to the right on my blogroll. Check them out! And let me call special attention to Gina’s blog – MileWON. Gina is one of my best friends, and lives in New York City (which you probably know if you’ve ever read my blog before). We actually met through our blogs way back in winter of 2006. Gina recently started blogging again, to share her adventures in running (she is doing the Couch to 5K (C25K) program), her new son (8 months old two days ago!) and her crazy adventures in NYC. Help cheer her on as she gets in to running!

Gina and me

Jeez, this sounds like a frickin’ infomercial or something and that was not my intent! I am just being selfish and asking for some blog recommendations. But let’s talk about something else. What are you all doing for New Year’s Eve? Is New Year’s Eve a big deal to you?

New Year’s Eve is not a big deal for us at all. The challenge is staying entertained enough to stay up until midnight. It shouldn’t be too hard this year! Our friends Jen and Kent are coming over with their newborn, Ayla! I know we could probably just talk to them all night, and possibly longer… so we should have a fun, low key evening!

Comments (28)

By kilax, December 28, 2011 6:09 am

Steven and I are always trying to come up with new hobbies to do together, and one of our ideas was to learn a foreign language. There are actually a lot of languages we are interested in learning, but we selected Spanish because:

1. it’s so widely spoken where we live
2. it’s the main language of many countries we want to visit (even though there are many dialects)
3. I have a bit of a background in it (4 years in high school, one semester in college)
4. it seems like it might be an easier start than Arabic

I am excited to try to learn a foreign language with Steven! And Steven’s brother was nice enough to get us the Rosetta Stone set for Christmas (Latin America version).

Has anyone else tried using the Rosetta Stone to learn a foreign language? What did you think of it?

Which language did you study in school? Did you retain any of it?

Since I posted a picture of Data, I must post another from last night:

Data was going crazy trying to get in this hole in the wall that Steven cut in our bedroom. Data jumped up on to the edge of the drywall and was going to jump down in to the wall. How the hell would I have gotten him out of there if he did that? Luckily, I grabbed him before he jumped in to the wall, and held him to let him peer in to the hole. But jeez, he would not stop trying to get in to the wall. Data is… persistent, to say the least.

It’s only three days after Christmas and Data is already back on the Naughty List. Data, don’t think that Santa doesn’t keep track year round!

Comments (28)

By kilax, December 27, 2011 6:29 am

Does anyone else get the after Christmas blues? You know, that general feeling of sadness after all the planning, excitement and fun of the holidays is over? It’s time to return to normalcy, put away the holiday decorations (shudder) and go back to work (double shudder).

The holidays provide such an overload of excitement… it’s hard to get back in to the “same old, same old” groove. At least for me it is. I am very much a person who needs to have things to look forward to. And I do right now! I really do – a trip to Iowa next month to see my family for the holidays, and a trip to NYC in February.

But for some reason this year, I was starting to miss the excitement of the holidays on Christmas Day. That’s too early! I was dreading going back to work, taking down the decorations… dealing with other normal day to day things. I guess I just wish I had more relaxing, carefree days, like Christmas Day was. Maybe I should focus on getting more days like that in my life.

Anyway… at least this all means I had a good Christmas, right?! Here are some pictures for you!

Family photo – even Data participated:

And yes – Data got back on Santa’s good list this year, and got his stocking. Phew.

The spread:

I was good this year (?):

New running shoes!!!

A necklace from Steven:

Grasshoppers:

Hmm…

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By kilax, December 25, 2011 5:04 am

Merry Christmas Everyone!

We’re starting off our morning with homemade vegan cinnamon rolls. And stockings! I filled stockings for everyone and had so much fun doing it. I can’t wait to see what everyone thinks of them!

And I bought a fun present for myself. Hee hee:

I found these tights from a company called Relax Reflect. Their clothes illuminate when exposed to light. I can’t wait to wear them in the dark! Here is a photo of me and my father-in-law with the flash on. Fun!

Expect a giveaway in the new year…

And on to the training recap…

Day 792 | December 19, 2011: 4 m run (easy)

Another run in shorts, a tee and arm warmers. In December. Crazy.

This run felt effortless, which surprised me, considering my legs were incredibly sore Sunday night and my right calf felt tight all day. Oh well. I’ll take it!

I was surprised that two unleashed, unsupervised dogs ran after me during this run. And one with supervision approached me. It kind of made me nervous, being chased in the dark by barking dogs!

Britt put a special note in my training plan to foam roll after this run, so I did. I need to make that a habit. Do you regularly foam roll?

Distance: 4.0 | Start Temp: 40° | End Temp: 38° | Time: 38:30 | Avg Pace: 9:37

Day 793 | December 20, 2011: cross

Erin and I tackled Kickboxing for the second time. I feel like I really got the moves a lot better this time, and it felt easier. 

Day 794 | December 21, 2011: 5 m run (easy) + strength class

I fit this 5 miler in before work. And I actually gave myself some time in the morning to have a bowl of cereal, and sit down a few minutes before leaving for my run! I think that helped with letting my left foot (which has been feeling much better, by the way) wake up. The run felt pretty good. It was warm, so I started out in a tee and arm warmers, but quickly rolled the arm warmers down! Crazy how warm it’s been. 

The run was still a bit on the slower side, which is typical for me in the early morning. And besides, Britt told me not to really worry about pace right now (or too much, ever). Honestly, I was so worried about a DOMS onset from kickboxing the night before, I wanted to fit this run in before I felt too sore! 

Distance: 5.0 | Start Temp: 38° | End Temp: 38° | Time: 49:30 | Avg Pace: 9:53

I went to my strength class in the evening. We moved between doing the same moves with medicine balls and dumbbells, then side planks, planks, sit ups, pushups and walking planks. Can you say, “Oww my abs?” I actually think I should have given it more in class. 

One my my running friends and classmates gave me this cute top after class!

Day 795 | December 22, 2011: 4 m run (easy) + strength

Ugh… I did not want to get out of bed! I felt okay for this run, but never like I was truly awake. I remembered to foam roll when I got back though, and that felt really good!

Distance: 4.0 | Start Temp: 34° | End Temp: 33° | Time: 38:56 | Avg Pace: 9:44

Brian came over in the late afternoon and we did a dumbbell and hurdle bar workout. I tried inverse pullups… damn, pullups are so hard. Someday I will be able to do them… someday!!!

Day 796 | December 23, 2011: 6 m run (easy)

Bobbi and I ran 6 miles in the Rollins Savanna. It was a perfect sunny day for a run! We chatted the whole time and the run went by really quickly. But brr… there is no standing around the car and chatting like in the summer! You get cold too quickly! I took a hot bath when I got home (not recommended, but feels so good).

I am happy Bobbi and I could get a run in together. It had been far too long!

Distance: 6.05 | Start Temp: 19° | End Temp: 22° | Time: 1:01:41 | Avg Pace: 10:12

Day 797 | December 24, 2011: 10 m run (easy)

The purpose of this 10 mile run was to run easy and really focus on how my body was feeling. And to ignore the garmin. So I ran a fun 5 with Andrew, making sure I felt good and wasn’t pushing it too much, then did another 5 on my own. My jacket was covering the garmin so I only looked at it to see my mile splits. I felt really good and probably could have kept going… but was happy to come inside and hang out with Steven’s family!

Distance: 10.0 | Start Temp: 18° | End Temp: 27° | Time: 1:41:49 | Avg Pace: 10:11

Day 798 | December 25, 2011: rest

Week Summary: 29.0 miles

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By kilax, December 24, 2011 10:00 am

It’s not like me to keep things I don’t need, but I’m happy I held on to some of my extra Santa 5K outfits – it meant both my brother-in-law (Andrew) and I could be running Santas this morning. That got a few fun responses as we ran through my neighborhood!

Happy Holidays Everyone!!!

The winner of the Season of Giving Giveaway #5: Photography is #8, Etta. Etta, please send me your mailing address at kilax@ilaxstudio.com and I will send the items your way!

Thank you to everyone who participated in my giveaway and reads my blog!

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By kilax, December 23, 2011 5:41 am

Do you put up any exterior holiday decorations (lights, wreath, etc.)? Did your family put any up when you were growing up?

Our “exterior” holiday decorations are only actually visible from the exterior – an electronic candle in each window and a wreath. The decorations are actually inside the house. 

We never had lights or anything on our house growing up. Probably because we lived back in the woods and no one would see them!

I love running through my neighborhood in the dark and seeing everyone’s holiday lights, and those funny blow-up things that people put in their lawns. Some people really go all out!

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By kilax, December 22, 2011 6:13 am

Before I get to my post… Happy 31st Birthday Steven! 

I’ve been telling my favorite coworker that I would like to try loose leaf tea and she got me this neat IngenuiTEA Teapot and some loose leaf tea for Christmas!

This teapot is so cool. Have you ever seen anything like it? I hadn’t! You put the loose leaf tea in, then add the hot water, let it steep, then put it on a cup and it pours in to the cup! I made a video for you. Ha ha. 

I am really digging this rooibos tea she gave me called “eggnog.” It’s funny though – I love it, but the smell reminds Steven of the smell of pipe tobacco before you smoke it! We have really different tastes in tea!

Do you like loose leaf tea? What kind?

I am excited to go to the store and get some new stuff to try. I did ask my coworker to bring me some more of this eggnog tea (she got it in her hometown, where she is now for the holiday).

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By kilax, December 21, 2011 5:42 am

Not related to this post, but I am curious and have to ask this question. Yesterday I wrote about having uncertain news. When you have uncertain news, with whom do you share it? Or do you keep it to yourself? I am an oversharer but feel jaded from my experience with the canceled work detail. So when I had uncertain work news, I shared it with Steven, my best friends, and my sister. That was it. I still had to tell someone! But not everyone!

I can’t wait to tell my trainer – I found another use for my shaker bottle. Not only can it be used to make protein shakes, but… mixed drinks as well!!! Boo yah!

Ignore the mess behind me

We decided to practice making Grasshoppers this weekend. Grasshoppers were Steven’s mom’s favorite holiday drink, and we want to make them when Steven’s dad and brother are visiting for the holiday.

We rarely drink, and you can tell. We had to buy all of the booze. We don’t have a shaker, and these are our only alcohol glasses:

We don’t even have a shot glass! It was kind of funny, realizing all of this on Sunday… but the truth is, I never get home and think “a glass of wine would go nice with dinner!” I don’t really care for alcohol too much.

Do you have a favorite holiday drink (including alcohol or not!)?

Do you have a decent collection of glasses and alcohol?