Comments (26)

By kilax, August 21, 2012 6:47 am

WARNING: the post is about snot. And contains pictures of my hair. You may not want to read this post before eating your breakfast. Especially not while eating.

Beth tagged me for the Liebster Award. Thanks, Beth! The Liebster Award is that fun meme where you tell 11 random things about yourself, answer 11 questions from the tagger, post 11 questions and tag 11 people to answer them.

Fortunately for you guys, I cannot think of 11 random things. So here’s one:

It took me an embarrassingly long time to learn how to blow my nose.

I was that kid who used their sleeves (or arm! ha!) to wipe their nose and their pants (or legs! ha!) to wipe off their hands. Sigh. I am that adult who will wipe their nose in to their running shirt when running (eww).

Anyway, I remember running around my dad’s parents house, congested or whatever, and my grandpa trying to get me to blow my nose. He always had a handkerchief (hankie) on him. He would hand it to me and…

… instead of blowing out, I would do the reverse – suck everything back in. Sigh. He tried with me for a long time. I am not sure when I ever learned. Maybe college?

Just kidding. I hope it was before then.

Please tell me I am the only one who struggled with blowing their nose as a kid.

I think it’s interesting that my grandpa always had a hankie on him. Do people still carry those to use to wipe off/blow their nose?

I have hankies (I call them bandannas), but they are more of a fashion accessory.

THE ORIGINAL KIMBOT!!!

HA HA HA. That is me in high school. So fashionable. Sigh.

Please tell me I am the only one who wore bandannas as a fashion accessory.

Really, they are just used to hide my hair. And I could use one to today. My hair’s looking a bit cray cray. I suppose brushing it from time to time would help. Meh. Too much work.

For fun, here are Beth’s 11 Questions! Feel free to copy and paste them in the comments and answer them yourself, if you’d like!

1. What’s your favorite fruit? strawberries
2. What’s the one thing you easily justify splurging on? nail polish
3. What’s your favorite season for running? winter
4. What’s your dream vacation destination? Niagara Falls
5. Who is your hero? Batman
6. If you could go on a run with any famous runner, living or dead, who would it be? Shalane
7. What’s your favorite breakfast food? Bagels w/vegan cream cheese
8. If you could fluently speak another language other than your native language, what would it be? Dirkastanese Español
9. Do you have any siblings? yes (three)
10. Chocolate or vanilla? vanilla
11. What piece of trendy clothing will you not be caught dead wearing? printed pants

Comments (23)

By kilax, August 20, 2012 4:59 am

Sad news. The schweet blue bike tires that Steven bought me for my birthday are not available yet anywhere in the US.

From biketiresdirect.com

The person at the bike shop asked me if I wanted them to put black tires on instead.

Ha ha ha. 

NO.

Now that I know there are blue tires out there, I will wait for blue. Steven said “When I saw the blue ones, I knew those were the ones I had to get you.” He knows me too well. Unusual bright color?! Yes, please!

So I wait. I wait for my schweet road tires that will make me exponentially faster on my bike. In the meantime, I am trying to make my bike more efficient in other ways.

Steven took my bike in for the tune-up he got me for my birthday. I picked it up last Friday and I could tell my bike was riding smoother just by pushing it out of the shop. Exciting! We went on a bike ride Saturday and it shifted and rode so nicely. Hells yeah!

I also had the shop add pedal straps to my bike. Because I haven’t fallen off yet and this is sure to do it. 

All joking aside, I am hoping the pedals will make my pedaling a bit more efficient… and allow me to pull, maybe a little. Because dammit! The faster I ride my bike to get to my french fries, the better!!!

I think 50% of my bike rides this summer have involved a mid-ride snack of french fries. While it’s not quite 100%, it’s a start. 

Only one bike ride has involved a mid-ride rope walk. Definitely less important than the french fries. Fun, but less important. Was it odd that I was the only adult waiting in a line of kids to do this, hmm?*

Was it odd that I wore my schweet new bike jersey for a 7-mile round trip ride? One of the people in this photo below thought so…

I think that person was just jealous that the bike jersey had THREE pockets in the back that could hold money, a phone, keys, napkins, candy, a piece of pizza… VIRTUALLY ANYTHING. 

Okay. Enough silliness. 

Do your bike pedals have straps/cages or are clip in?

Do all of the things you eat on your bike ride negate any calories burned, like they do for me?

No wonder I love biking so much!

*Ha! I meant for this to be a period, then “Hmm” as a sentence on its own, but as I proof-read it, this sounded more Yoda-ish. So me gusta. 

Comments (16)

By kilax, August 19, 2012 2:40 pm

Highlight of the Week: Having a very strong long run on Saturday despite being sick all week. Phew. I was starting to get worried I would never run again! And even better… I ran it with a bunch of fun ladies!!!

Monday | August 13, 2012: rest/sick
Tuesday | August 14, 2012: rest/sick
Wednesday | August 15, 2012: strength class + 3 m run (w/Bobbi and Chris)
Strength: circuit and kettlebells, Difficulty: easy, Felt: like I was overdoing it with my cold
Loc: Grayslake, Temp: 77°/75°, Time: 32:23, Pace: 10:47 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: okay 
Thursday | August 16, 2012: 5.5 m run (trailing GRCers)
Loc: Grayslake, Temp: 70°/70°, Time: 59:55, Pace: 10:53 avg, Difficulty: medium, Felt: sick
Friday | August1 7, 2012: rest/still sick
Saturday | August 18, 2012: 14 m ZOOMA run (w/Bobbi, Sara, Kelly J, Laima, and Kelly S) + 7 m bike (w/Steven)
Loc: Busse Woods, Temp: 55°/66°, Time: 2:24:34, Pace: 10:19 avg, Difficulty: easy/medium, Felt: SO MUCH BETTER!
Loc: To Home Town Fest and back, Temp: 71°, Time: 49:49, Pace: 8.6 avg
Sunday | August 19, 2012: 7 m trail run
Loc: Volo Bog, Temp: 74°/74°, Time: 1:27:30, Pace: 12:30 avg, Difficulty: medium, Felt: sluggish

Lessons learned:

• Don’t get a cold. Ha ha. If only it were that easy. 
• Bring more than three tissues for a long run if you have a cold. 
• Getting dropped from the group is still better than not running at all. 

Comments (28)

By kilax, August 15, 2012 6:59 am

The truth about this race is that I ran it in 2009 with Erin* and vowed to never run it again. It’s not exactly set up for success for the heat-adverse (me), being in August, with a 9:00 am start**. There is no shade on the course and it was in the high 80s that year. Oh yeah, and when I ran it, I had an (undiagnosed at the time) stress fracture in my shin.

So, wah wah wah. Why would I run it again?

Well, when I joined the running club in the end of 2010 I found out that the race directors are two members of the club who both have autistic children. I wanted to support them. I planned to run it in 2011 but ended up being out of town. I was not sure if I would be around this year, but it obviously worked out that I was here… and that Gina, Steve and Luca were visiting as well! So I signed us all up!

The four of us planned to stick together for the entire race, so I knew it would be fun even if we had evil summer heat. But guess what…? WE DIDN’T! It was in the low 60s! IN AUGUST! RACE REDEEMED! I brought a jacket in case I was cold after the race (I wasn’t).

I was really excited to take Gina and Steve to Independence Grove, the park where the race was held. It’s the showcase forest preserve in Lake County, and it’s beautiful. And I was also really excited that so many of my running club members were going to be there, and they could meet Gina and Steve… okay, really, I mostly mean Luca. Ha ha. I talk about him all the time, and my friends ask about him a lot, so it was probably nice for them to see him in real life, rather than me shoving pictures of him in their face.

And the other thing I was really excited about… racing with a stroller. Muah ha ha. I borrowed a running stroller from a club friend and pushed Luca in it for the entire race. It was definitely an upper arm workout! I had a lot of fun doing it. I just feel bad for anyone behind me that I accidentally cut off. I was so busy trying not to hit people in front of me, that I think I was not watching behind as much as I should.

So, anyway. The race itself was really nice. We all stuck together as planned. We finished holding hands (aww). We had a good time (34:28). There were a lot of fun volunteers (a few who I knew) on the course and two water stops. There was a lot of raffles, bounce houses for the kids, and yummy post race food. The race is well organized and had a great turnout this year. I’m really excited that my running club friends put on such a successful race!

I am having a lot of fun doing 5Ks with Gina and Steve. I think we need to make it a tradition for every visit. And maybe one day we can get this guy in the Astoria shirt to do one with us.

*Our first ever race together!
**Since I know the director I asked why it starts so late – it’s because you can not use a loud speaker before 9:00 am in the park.

Comments (12)

By kilax, August 12, 2012 8:36 am

Highlight of the Week: Running a solid 22-miler on Thursday and a fun 5K with friends on Saturday!

Monday | August 6, 2012: 6 m run (w/GRCer Julie)
Loc: Rollins Savanna FP, Temp: 57°, Time: 59:18, Pace: 9:53 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: great
Tuesday | August 7, 2012: strength + 3 m run
Strength: plyo + dumbbells, Difficulty: hard, Felt: muchos challenged
Loc: neighborhood, Temp: 92°/92°, Time: 31:18, Pace: 10:26 avg, Difficulty: medium, Felt: annoyed
Wednesday | August 8, 2012: strength class
Strength: resistance bands and dumbbells, Difficulty: medium/hard, Felt: somewhat sore
Thursday | August 9, 2012: 22 m run (13 w/Bobbi and 4 w/GRCer Kate)
Loc: Around town, Temp: 69°/73°, Time: 4:01:17, Pace: 10:46 avg, Difficulty: medium, Felt: decent
Friday | August 10, 2012: rest
Saturday | August 11, 2012: Rally for Autism 5K (w/Gina and Steve)
Loc: Independence Grove FP, Temp: 62°/66°, Time: 34:34, Pace: 11:13 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Sunday | August 12, 2012: rest

Comments (26)

By kilax, August 9, 2012 9:39 am

I’ve been really excited about trying the Nathan Vest that Steven’s dad gave me for my birthday! I thought about bringing it on my 12-miler last Friday but that seemed like too short of a distance. FAIL. I should have brought it. It was super sunny and I ran out of water.

So I definitely brought it on my 22-miler this morning. And I even took time last night to figure out how to use it.

Good thing.

Because it’s smarter than me.

The water bladder is just an open pouch that you fill up, then fold over the top, and slide a clip across to close. Seems simple, right?

Unless you are a Derpina and fold it the wrong way. See that track on the bladder in the photo above? Yeah, if you fold it the wrong way, then try to slide the clip across, it won’t go across. GENIUS!

I was worried I was going to break the thing, and had no idea why it wouldn’t work, so Steven figured it out for me. I can always count on him for that.

The run with it went smoothly this morning! There will be new chafing spots I have to find to glide, it will take time to get used to sipping more consistently on the water (rather than gulping from my bottle), and my back was a bit hotter… but I loved it. It feels comfortable. It has a million and one* pockets. One pocket even holds a water bottle. It holds about 2 liters of water. And… it makes me look really serious. Right… right?

Does anyone else run with a water vest?

*Slight exaggeration

The Cookie Classic 5K Giveaway winner is Anne! Anne, please let me know which email address I should give them to contact you!

Thanks to everyone who entered! If you can’t run it, it sounds like the fair will be really cool to check out too!

Comments (14)

By kilax, August 8, 2012 8:06 am

I always thought I liked surprises. Now I am just realizing I only like good surprises. Surprises that I want. Surprises that don’t make me feel unhappy, misunderstood, irritated and panicked.

Duh, right?

We had a fun surprise Sunday night. Our kitchen faucet finally broke (it had been dripping for weeks). It’s not a big deal at all in the long run, but we had to spend our evening cleaning up the mess and buying a new faucet. Then finding a plumber the next day to fix it. It just wasn’t what I wanted to deal with after being gone all weekend. But I think we handled it well.

And the exciting news is that our facuet now has a sprayer and we can have water fights in the kitchen:

Things I have not been handling well lately? That would be surprises at work. I am a bit of a planner when it comes to work (and sometimes life) and when something gets thrown at me that I am not expecting, I really do not handle it well. I feel unprepared, and panicked and anxious about the unknown. I am trying to just “go with the flow,” but I am struggling. I am in a constant state of anxiety lately. Ugh.

What’s on your list for good surprises and bad surprises?

I had a bad surprise when I hit publish on this and my website crashed. Ugh.

Comments (19)

By kilax, August 7, 2012 5:36 pm

A few weeks ago I told my coworker (in a text): “Running in this heat is crushing my soul.”

To which she replied, “What soul?”

Well played, favorite coworker. Ha ha. It’s crushing something. My spirit?

I’ve been trying not to complain about it all summer. The heat is what it is. I don’t sign up for summer races to “race” them. I don’t expect to be fast. I try to deal with it. But wah. 

Instead of getting up for a run this am, I stayed in bed, trying to get rid of a headache I got yesterday afternoon. When I left the house at 4:30 pm to run I was pissed when I saw it was 92°.

It seems stupid to say all of this now, since we are supposed to have cool weather this weekend. And I should mention, my run yesterday morning was only in the high 50s!

But like I said, wah. 

The highlight of my run was wearing the new top Erin gave me for my birthday. It’s a Skirt Sports top and has a built in pocket! 

Hells to the yeah! Is that not awesome? You all know I usually put my phone in my bra. In this top, I put it in the pocket and it does not get as sweaty. It does fall out when I bend over, so I am watching for that. 

Do you guys have any Skirt Sports apparel?

Damn, their stuff is cute! Look at this top! 

ZOOMA Women’s Race Series is running a Skirt Sports giveaway that ends today. Check it out here before it’s too late!

And remember – if you are thinking about running ZOOMA Great Lakes on Oct 20 use code GLAMB8 for $10 off the half and $5 off the full!

Comments (6)

By kilax, August 6, 2012 6:40 am

Remember when I mentioned the Cookie Classic 5K? The new race put on by the Girl Scouts in Chicago on Saturday September 8th? Yum… cookies.

I have one entry to giveaway for the 5K Run/Walk!

This event sounds really cool – the perfect way to celebrate the Girl Scouts’ 100th birthday! It starts off with a 5K Run/Walk at 9 am in Grant Park, Chicago, and is followed by a day of festivities and celebration (until 5 pm!), including different vendors, crafters and sponsors. 

Here’s the description from their website:

Girl Scouts turns 100 and we want you to help us celebrate!  Please join in the fun and participate in our Inaugural Cookie Classic 5K Run, Walk & Celebration.  Held in Grant Park, the biggest and most beautiful park in Downtown Chicago, it provides a scenic oasis of green between the iconic Chicago skyline and Lake Michigan.

2012 has been declared “The Year of the Girl” – but everyone is welcome to attend!  So lace up your running shoes and enjoy running or walking a 5K USATF certified course on a beautiful September morning in Chicago. 

After the race, stay for the biggest Girl Scout party in the Midwest!  Your paid registration to the race or walk includes admission to all festivities. Enjoy entertainment throughout the day!  Featuring numerous vendors, crafters and sponsors, the Celebration event offers something for everyone!  A special Girl Scout pavilion will showcase all the ways Girl Scouts are celebrating 100 years of service.

Don’t want to run or walk?  Sign up for the Celebration event only!  All paid admissions include an Inaugural Cookie Classic T-shirt.  Children under 4 are free. 

Fun!  Food!  Entertainment!  Games!  Music!  Hands-on Activities!  Sing-a-long! If you are a Girl Scout, ever were a Girl Scout, know a Girl Scout, like the Girl Scouts, or are the parent of a Girl Scout – this event is for you!

Cookie Classic 5K Giveaway Rules

1. One reader will receive one free entry to the Cookie Classic 5K Run/Walk. 
2. Required to enter the giveaway: tell me if you were a Girl Scout or Boy Scout. 
3. For a bonus extra entry: “like” GS Cookie Classic on Facebook and let me know that you did. 
4. This giveaway is open until 5:00 PM CST on Wednesday August 8.  I will announce the winner on Thursday August 9. 
5. This giveaway is open to anyone who can make it to the race on Saturday September 8th in Chicago.  

Comments (8)

By kilax, August 5, 2012 6:58 pm

Highlight of the Week: Running a faster pace with friends. I’ve been so slow on my own this summer, it’s nice to run with friends at a faster pace and be distracted by conversation. 

Monday | July 30, 2012: rest
Tuesday | July 31, 2012: 8 m run (w/GRCers Julie and Terry) + 65 m ride (w/Erin)
Loc: Rollins Savanna FP, Temp: 70°/69°, Time: 1:17:59, Pace: 9:45 avg, Difficulty: Easy/Medium, Felt: Awesome
Loc: Des Plaines River Trail, Temp: 79°/75°, Time: 6:14:42, Pace: 10.6+/- avg, Difficulty: medium, Felt: Tired at the end
Wednesday | August 1, 2012: strength class
Strength: resistance bands and dumbbells, Difficulty: medium, Felt: challenged/like Brian has lost his mind
Thursday | August 2, 2012: rest
Friday | August 3, 2012: 12 m run
Loc: Libertyville + Trails, Temp: 76°/86°, Time: 2:16:47, Pace: 11:24, Difficulty: easy/medium, Felt: hot
Saturday | August 4, 2012: 8 m run
Loc: Guttenberg, IA, Temp: 71°/76°, Time: 1:20:27, Pace: 10:03 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good 
Sunday | August 5,  2012: rest

Lessons learned:

• I need to get my sh*t together. The end.