Comments (13)

By kilax, April 2, 2012 4:38 pm

My sister had a special retirement cake made for my dad.

I was scrolling through some pictures my aunt Sue gave me and saw these two of my dad and the cake next to its inspiration:

Aww, Dad, you are too cute! Look at the itty bitty car cake on the car. Aww…

When you go to an afternoon open house what kind of food are you most looking forward to consuming?

CAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKE (<--- that is my answer)

I could not eat the fancy car cake or the sheet cake (contained eggs and dairy), but since I am a brat, my mom’s mom made me a special vegan cake. My family loves me, they really do!

Kid, quit eyeing my cake! (Ha ha, I gave some to his mom and she fed it to him. He ate vegan cake! Ahh! SCARY!!!)

More photos from the party, me and the sibs (don’t say we look alike!) and Dad:

Note to self: white tights make you look 5. And chunky.

All the girlios (moi, my SiL Courtney, Christinkle wearing very high heels, Mombina, and SiL Amber):

General Party Excitement:

Steven was there too!

Comments (14)

By kilax, April 2, 2012 5:13 am

I know practically every study about goals says that setting really specific ones and a plan on how to get there leads to success, but that just does not work for me.  The more specific my goal is (and especially if it has a deadline*), the more time I tend to spend dreaming about life after reaching that goal, rather than focusing on the present and what it takes to get to that goal. 

With my 12-week then 4-week 5K training cycle I felt like I really focused on being in the present and enjoying the speedwork that would earn me a 5K PR. But the truth is I daydreamed a lot too, about reaching that PR and how accomplished I would feel.

I guess that is what makes not reaching it kind of a letdown – I had really been living in the future with that one. Lesson learned. 

Don’t think I take running super super seriously – I don’t. I enjoy it. And I am not upset about my failed 5K attempts.

But I like a challenge every now and then! I need to find a better way for me to challenge myself [in running]. 

I guess making all this goal talk about running does make me seem upset – I’m not. It just reminded me how I struggle with goals with everything in my life. Work, my health, my relationships, and so on. Every time I set a weightloss goal for myself, I seem to engage in self-sabotage. Rather than making huge goals at work, things kind of fall in to my lap (this probably has to do with my work ethic, but I am not actively seeking things). I actively think about bettering my relationships but I don’t have set plans, I kind of go with the flow. The more specific and announced my goals are, the more I mess them up. 

Eeks. I am going to stop here and hope that some of this makes sense to someone. 

Does setting really specific goals with date or event deadlines work for you? 

Thanks to my Fools 5K spectators (Aunt Sue, Dad and Steven)!

*Be to xxx weight by xx-xx-xx date, race xx:xx in xx race

The winner of the 13.1 Chicago [half] Marathon Giveaway is #15, Pam! Pam, please contact me at kilax@ilaxstudio.com and I will work on getting a registration code for you!

Comments (14)

By kilax, April 1, 2012 12:25 am

Monday | March 26, 2012: 6 m run (easy)

Slow slow slow. I am happy I talked to my coach (Britt) before this run. I was originally going to do speedwork Monday night but she recommended moving it to Tuesday since I biked so far on Sunday. That was a good idea. I felt sick and had a headache during this run, and that would not have been a good last speedwork session before the 5K on Saturday! 

Distance: 6.0 | Start Temp: 38° | End Temp: 37° | Time: 1:04:06 | Avg Pace: 10:41

Tuesday | March 27, 2012: 5 m run (4×2 minutes with 1:30 minute recovery)

What an ANNOYING run. When I was not running straight in to the 25-30 mph winds, I was too hot. I felt so angry. The wind has never bothered me as much as during this run. I am not sure what that was about.

Anyway, the goal was 7:35-7:40 pace for the 2:00 minute intervals. I had a hard time regulating my speed, as I turned corners in my neighborhood and ran straight in to the wind and felt like I was coming to a complete stop. I was surprised that my splits were not too crazy: 7:28, 7:38, 7:33, 7:31. But I did not end this run feeling confident. 

Distance: 5.0 | Start Temp: 68° | End Temp: 73° | Time: 49:19 | Avg Pace: 9:52

Wednesday | March 28, 2012: 6 m run (easy) + strength

I hadn’t done a stumble-out-of-bed-and-run run like this in awhile! The run was nice and easy (as all of mine have been lately – have I forgotten how to push myself?). I hadn’t run in the dark in awhile, and I remembered to pay close attention to my surroundings. It seems I always notice some car that is driving loops through the neighborhoods, in out and out the culdesacs. I cannot figure out why anyone would do that, especially in the morning. Isn’t everyone just leaving and finding the nearest exit?

Anyway, I saw some guy sitting in his car with the lights on at the park, then he drove through the part of the neighborhood I was running in for a few loops, then did some other loops then parked in his driveway. Um. Okay. Then I saw another car making loops and thought “WTF?!” but it turned out to be a cop. Ha ha. I don’t mind if they are driving through the ‘hood (but seriously. why so many cops in my neighborhood?).

Distance: 6.0 | Start Temp: 61° | End Temp: 58° | Time: 1:02:25 | Avg Pace: 10:24

I went to strength class in the evening. I hadn’t been since March 7th! Yikes! That is three weeks of no strength class. Brian really pushed up with plate stations (different moves at 8 stations) and boxing/kickboxing in between. I was a sweaty mess when I was done. I kind of tried to take it easy because of my 5K on Saturday. Brian kept telling me to lift heavier though. Ha ha!

Thursday | March 29, 2012: 3 m run (easy)

This was supposed to be 6 miles, but I got out there and felt so cranky, I cut it short. Running just hasn’t been very fulfilling for me lately! Womp womp womp.

Distance: 3.o | Start Temp: 43° | End Temp: 46° | Time: 28:55 | Avg Pace: 9:38

Friday | March 30, 2012: rest

Saturday | March 31, 2012: 1.5 m run (warm-up) + Fools 5K

I ran the Fools 5K in Waterloo, IA. I ran 24:03. I felt really strong during the race, but I still can’t seem to eek out a PR (despite awesome coaching and a deep desire to do so).   I’m going to put that on hold for awhile. 

Sunday | April 1, 2012: rest

Week Summary: 24.6 miles

I am going to take a month or so off from running and wing the Kenosha half marathon May 5th with my brother-in-law.

April Fools.

Womp womp womp. 

This is kind of a downer post but don’t read in to that too much. I think some of my general meh feelings about certain things are seeping in to other areas of my life, and I am working on that!