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By kilax, June 30, 2013 9:01 pm

Highlight of the Week: Getting that one on one time with my dad during my weekend runs. It’s always a treat!

Monday | June 24, 2013: 6 m run + teaching strength class
Loc: Millennium Trail, Temp: 86°/86°, Time: 1:03:02, Pace: 10:30 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: surprisingly, not like ass
Strength: bars and boxing, Difficulty: easy (mostly supervised), Felt: excited about the new workout
Tuesday | June 25, 2013: 4 m run
Loc: Millennium Trail, Temp: 81°/81°, Time: 41:33, Pace: 10:23 avg, Difficulty: medium, Felt: harder than Monday
Wednesday | June 26, 2013: strength class
Strength: step + kettlebells, Difficulty: hard, Felt: those Skittles were a bad idea
Thursday | June 27, 2013: 5.1 m run (w/Emily) + 4 m run
Loc: Nippersink FP, Temp: 64°/64°, Time: 48:46, Pace: 9:34 avg, Difficulty: medium, Felt: queasy, then better
Loc: Millennium Trail, Temp: 79°/78°, Time: 43:51, Pace: 10:58 avg, Difficulty: medium, Felt: annoyed by all the bugs
Friday | June 28, 2013: rest
Saturday | June 29, 2013: 7 m run (w/Dad on his bike)
Loc: Guttenberg, Temp: 66°/68°, Time: 1:16:13, Pace: 10:53 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Sunday | June 30, 2013: 3.5 m run/walk (w/Dad) + 3 m run (w/Dad on his bike)
Loc: Guttenberg, Temp: 64°, Time: 53:26, Pace: 14:58 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Loc: Guttenberg, Temp: 64°, Time: 34:13, Pace: 11:24 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good

Notes:

• Wow! Sunday morning brought PERFECT temps for a run! Well, a summer run. And in Iowa (where I was this weekend), anyway. Mid 60s and low humidity with a breeze? Yes, please! Too bad I went to bed past 1:00 and couldn’t get out of bed to put many miles in! Did anyone else have nice, cool weather on their Sunday run?
• For the first part of my Sunday run I did a run/walk with my dad! Walk a mile, and run 2 minutes every half mile until we got to 3.5 miles. I wonder if he’ll stick with it so we can do that rescheduled 5K on July 27th together. We’ll see… (I hope so!)
• My pace was ALL over the place this week! I ran the hilly trail behind my house three times, and each time was kind of nasty hot and humid. That slowed me down. My weekend runs were after late nights filled with eating lots and LOTS of food. Ha ha. You know what that means. My fastest run was with Emily! Good thing I have another run scheduled with her this week!
• Anyone doing any Independence Day races? It actually looks like the weather here will be decent, and there are a lot of race opportunities… but I should stay home and study. Ha ha. Or! Clean my house.
• Despite recent running laziness I was hoping to somehow be to 1000 miles by the end of June (last year it was August 3rd), in hopes that I would somehow get close to 2000 for the year. Uh, yeah… no. 948.15! So close! I would just like to run more miles than last year (which was 1620), if my legs allow me. Do you set mileage goals for the year (run, bikes, swim, walk, whatever)?

Comments (25)

By kilax, June 27, 2013 6:23 am

• Whompitty whomp! I had a trail 5K scheduled in another state this weekend and it was moved out 4 weeks due to flooding at the race site! Maybe I can still make it work. It’s funny though – I signed up because I was going to be in town. Ha ha.  Now I am trying to convince my dad to train and run it with me. Four weeks is TOTALLY enough time. Trail 5ks are a cinch… muah ha ha. Have you ever signed up for a race and had it rescheduled?
• I met Heather for lunch on Friday. FINALLY! We live so close! What took so long? Hee hee. I was telling Heather about Fake Meats and realized… I don’t talk about it enough on here… since she didn’t even know about it! So I added a Fake Meats ad on the sidebar. Yep, the day after writing about using bloggers for marketing, I am doing it myself. But, hey – it’s OUR business!!! Buy Fake Meats, yo. 

Heather and Kim

• I am super surprised I made it to 100 miles run for the month, since I totally crapped out last month! Hee hee. I think having two halves on the schedule helped with that! Now… what is going to keep me going through July?! Chirp, chirp… 
• Did you see this article (pdf here) on the NY Times Well blog about how your pronation style doesn’t really affect your running? Super interesting. What is your pronation style? I severely supinate. Or, as the article calls it, severely underpronate. Or as the ACE manual sometimes calls it, inversion. 

• I’ve mentioned before that I feel like I never know what to say when people ask “What’s new?” But! I recently came up with something! I could talk about my sister’s upcoming 6/14/14 wedding! You guys aren’t getting sick of hearing about that, right? Good, because our latest racerback tan line talk cracked me up. Christina found a bridesmaid dress she likes, and I claimed that it would cover my crazy tan, and here is her response:

• This thought deserves a post of its own, but I have been thinking about the different personalities I have depending on who I am around. I mean, they are all mostly some version of goofy Kim, but I was thinking about this because Anne and I are SUPER sarcastic with one another.  And I am not really like that with anyone else, except maybe my brother-in-law. 

Other Random Thoughts Thursday Posts: 43, 42, 41, 40, 39, 38, XXXVII, XXXVI, XXXV, XXXIV, XXXIII, XXXII, XXXI, XXX, XXIX, XVIII, XXVII, XXVI, XXV, XXIV, XXIII, XXII, XXI, XX, XIX, XVIII, XVII, XVI, XV, XIV, XIII, XII, XI, X, IX, VIII, VII, VI, V, IV, III, II, I.

Comments (76)

By kilax, June 26, 2013 8:37 pm

When the FTC first issued their guidelines on blogger endorsements (i.e. “free stuff”) in 2009, saying “bloggers who make an endorsement must disclose the material connections they share with the seller of the product or service” I was all… “huh?”

I don’t know if I was super naive at the time, or if the FTC was way ahead of the times, but I didn’t understand the need for disclosures. Blogger reviews and promotions were not as big of thing back then (or where they?!). I barely saw it. I surely wasn’t getting offers (certainly not like I do now).

My. How times have changed.

It makes me sad that anytime I read a review now, I automatically assume the blogger is getting reimbursed in some way (paid or free products).

And it makes me even more sad that if I want to write a casual review of something that I like, and bought on my own, I have to say it.

I tried Clif Shot Gels for the first time at the race on Sunday and liked them so much I ordered (READ: PAID FOR MYSELF) a box to use. I was going to mention it tomorrow with a casual, “what have blogger reviews come to these days?” but I thought it deserved a whole post.

Seriously. I feel like I can’t trust most reviews I read from bloggers, since they are mostly sponsored. Yes, even when people point out the not so great stuff. It just doesn’t seem genuine anymore, when people are reviewing stuff all. the. time.

And the worst is when you start to read something and the blogger reveals at the very end that it was sponsored – like they were trying to trick you. I mean, you can usually tell, but come on.

Am I just a fuddy duddy lost in some early 2000s blogging era? Maybe.

But companies – this advertising doesn’t work on me. I just see it and assume bloggers wanted the free stuff. And kind of skim over it.

What does work – my friends and I discussing products in person, or, yes, organically on our blogs.

And yes, I am a hypocrite – I have another type of gel I still need to review!

Do you take blogger reviews very seriously? Do you notice if they paid for it themselves or got it for free?

Comments (36)

By kilax, June 26, 2013 5:42 am

It was crazy how much free time I had getting ready for work this morning, despite getting up five minutes after the alarm.

In fact, I thought it was kind of odd.

Oh.

I realized it on the way to the train station, as I rubbed my eyes without care – oh crap – no makeup! Ha ha.

Alright, how many “you look tired/sick” comments do you think I’ll get today?

I don’t wear makeup that often, and not much of it when I do – when I teach or go in to the office, and eyebrow gel, eyeliner and mascara. Basic stuff.

I remember, as a kid, my mom’s mom talking about “putting on her face,” and not knowing what that meant. Duh! Makeup! She still calls it that (and I think still doesn’t go out in public without it).

I’m totally lacking the “must look pretty!”… what to even call it… feeling? Although, interestingly enough, I do do my hair and makeup when I teach class. Those silly study books keep telling me a personal trainer needs to practice what they preach, and look presentable. Oops.

Speaking of that, I had my first dream about the test last night. I suppose that’s appropriate, one month out. Ugh.

Don’t you hate the “you look tired” comments? Of course I’m tired! I have to get up at 4:30 to come down here! Ha ha.

Comments (28)

By kilax, June 25, 2013 6:09 am

Slight exaggeration…

The excitement around the Blackhawks Stanley Cup win last night reminded me of when I lived in Rome the year Italy won the FIFA World Cup (2006).

The bread at the bakery next morning spelled out “Campioni del Mondo”!

You guys. I was such a fuddy duddy when I lived in Rome. Sigh. It’s kind of embarrassing to talk about. 

I worked for an architect the summer of the World Cup. We were allowed to leave work to go watch the games. Can you believe that? I thought it was the most amazing thing ever! But every day and night, I did the same things – work, go home and eat, and volunteer at the cat shelter. Every. Damn. Night. 

So when Italy won and there was an explosion of celebration in the streets (see July 9 post in links)? What was I doing? Oh, probably cleaning up cat poop. Or giving a cat medicine. 

Because I am THAT cool.

Sigh. 

I don’t regret how I spent my time in Italy. I traveled a lot. I saw so much. I made an amazing friend. But geesh. Was I anti-social OR WHAT? I worked in an office of young people from around the globe and what did I do at night? Volunteer. I hung out with that group ONCE. ONCE! The entire summer I was there. 

Ugh. It kind of pains me to go back and read my old blog archives and just feel what a loser I was through my words. 

Anyway. 

In true blogger navel-gazing form, thinking about this now has made me realize how different I am. I am super social now. I have plans, most, if not all, days of the week. 

What changed that?!

The internets. It has made it so much easier for me to connect with people!

Sigh! If only the internets would have been more accessible to me when I lived in Rome. Maybe I would have made more connections?

Nah. It would have been the same. Ha ha.*

I think I needed to go through that experience. So I can look back now and realize how much progress I have made. Ha.

Has anything caused you to have a major personality shift over the years?

*Although, feeling more connected to people back home might have given me the good feelings I needed to make connections in person. 

Comments (40)

By kilax, June 24, 2013 3:19 pm

I think it’s a pretty big honor when a friend asks you to pace them for a race. It makes me think, “Wow! They think I really know what I am doing! Ha!” Or, at least, “Someone wants my company!” Hee hee.

Have you ever paced a friend in a race? Or asked for a pacer?

It felt even more special to me that Anne asked me to pace her for her FIRST EVER half marathon. I have really good memories of my first half, and I wanted Anne to, as well. 

So! First order of business: find that perfect first half. We discussed LOTS of options. We settled on the Chicago Women’s Half for many reasons, one of which being that Anne enjoyed the 5K so much last year. Of course, I was all “DANGER! DANGER! June can be a crapshoot for weather!” but, hey! What can you do? We decided to go for it!

Second order of business: train! Ha. We don’t exactly live so close to one another (50 miles apart) and our normal Monday running date was ruined when I started teaching a strength class that night. Boo. But we met up as much as we could. And I regularly sent nosy emails asking how training was going. 

Third (AND MOST IMPORTANT!) order of business: cute race outfits. Derp. You never know how race day will go… but you know that you will look cute. Ha ha.

Seriously. You would not believe how many comments we got on those flowers. Random Boystown sex shop stop = success. 

So. Anne’s recap is up. Go read that. Because my pacer recap will not give the full perspective! Seriously. This post is short (for me), yo. 

The pacer’s job is to keep the runner moving (preferably at their goal pace if one was discussed), check their form, make sure they are eating and drinking enough, make sure they are still smiling and haven’t jumped in to Lake Michigan*, and really, just to try to make the race fun. Be encouraging. Remind them that they can do it. Celebrate new PDRs. Make inappropriate jokes about the appearance of vanilla flavored GU. Ha. 

I tried to do all that. But! It was a tough race, being a bit on the warmer side. 67° with 90% humidity when we started and 77° with 60% humidity when we ended. Full on sun. Hardly any shade. I told Anne I could smell my skin cooking at one point. Ha ha… ha? So with all that, I felt like I was not the peppy pacer I should be… at times. 

Let’s just say – it is awesome that Fleet Feet starts this race so dang early – at 6:30 am. And really – it should be noted – they put on an awesome race. I think the early start helped Anne stay strong for the entire race. I am super proud of how well she did… and at the same time,  totally get why she is saying she wants to run a cooler half in the fall! The question is… will she want ME to pace her again? Hee hee hee. I hope so! I had a lot of fun! 

*only applicable for certain races

Comments (26)

By kilax, June 23, 2013 5:39 pm

Highlight of the Week: Everyone telling me and Anne how damn cute we were in our matching tops and flowers at the Chicago Women’s Half Marathon. Running Anne’s first half marathon with her! What an honor that she asked me and wanted to put up with my stinky self for an entire half!

Monday | June 17, 2013: teaching strength class + 4 m run (w/EFITers and Alyssa)
Strength: dumbbells and resistance bands, Difficulty: easy, Felt: peppy
Loc: Grayslake, Temp: 73°, Time: 39:55, Pace: 9:58 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: great
Tuesday | June 18, 2013: rest
Wednesday | June 19, 2013: strength class + 2.5 m run (w/Chris)
Strength: step and kettlebells, Difficulty: hard, Felt: beaten down
Loc: Grayslake, Temp: 68°/67°, Time: 25:27, Pace: 10:10 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: sluggish
Thursday | June 20, 2013: 2.6 m walk (w/Steven)
Friday | June 21, 2013: 5.15 m run (w/Emily)
Loc: Grayslake, Temp: 77°/78°, Time: 55:15, Pace: 10:44, Difficulty: medium, Felt: like I was melting
Saturday | June 22, 2013: 6.3 m run (middle 4 w/Jen)
Loc: hood, Temp: 70°/72°, Time: 1:12:46, Pace: 11:33 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good… but SCHWEATY!
Sunday | June 23, 2013: Chicago Women’s Half Marathon (w/Anne)
Loc: Chicago, Temp: 67°/77°, Time: 3:17:38, Pace: 15:06 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: great

Notes:

• Alyssa came to my strength class Monday night! I love it when my friends come! It really means a lot to me. Especially since the studio isn’t close to a lot of my friends. 
• I am looking for ideas for a “dance” based playlist for my strength class – thinking tunes like “Beat It,” “Footloose,” “Maniac,” “Freeze Frame,” and maybe some tunes from Grease or Saturday Night Fever. Any suggestions for some fun “dance” tunes for my playlist?
• My Wednesday night strength class took it out of me like WHOA. Gah! Steps and kettlebells are a killer workout! I was planning on teaching that tomorrow night. Um… no. I came up with something else. Ha ha ha. 
• ALL of my runs were with friends this week. It’s such a treat in the summer when it’s nasty humid out to have fun conversations as a distraction!
• Anne did such a great job on her FIRST EVER half marathon today! And Fleet Feet puts on an AMAZING race. I usually don’t do city races, but I would go to Chicago to do that one again! And! Check out that schweet medal!

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By kilax, June 22, 2013 5:05 pm

In case you don’t know. I do. Ha ha.

I am ALL DONE reading these two American Council on Exercise (ACE) books! I am ready to take my test!

Hee hee hee. NOT!!! I WISH!

Not close, but getting closer. With 950 pages of reading behind me, I feel a lot more prepared for the ACE Personal Trainer exam, but I still have a lot of studying and memorization to do. It’s flash card time, baby! Expect to see pictures of study cat replaced with flash cards. Or maybe study cat will read me the flash cards?

While I have been teaching strength class since the beginning of March, and doing some one-on-one training since May, I am not a certified personal trainer yet. My trainer, Brian, oversees all that I do (and will continue to after I am certified).

The awesome thing is that teaching class along with reading this book has made me super comfortable in designing group and specific workouts. I kind of can’t imagine going in to take the test without a little bit of experience in the field. 

So! My test* is July 25th at 9:00 am. I will continue to be somewhat absent until then. Sigh. Silly studying!

Luckily, I have Trex to keep me company while I study. Thank you, Kelly!

Anyone else think studying outside of school is miserable?

I kid! I kid! This is actually super interesting. I enjoy the studying, just wish I had more time to do it. Silly job. Silly sleep. Silly exercise. 

*If you are interested, the test is 150 multiple choice questions. 25 of the questions are experimental and not included in your score. I can’t remember how much time I have to take the computer based test… or how many I have to get right. 100% or bust, yo!

Comments (22)

By kilax, June 20, 2013 6:16 am

Maybe for me it’s the the more daylight you have in the day, the less you get done. Hmm, let’s see if I can make this one make sense. 

So I was driving home last night in the the blinding sun close to 8:30 pm and I had an epiphany. Maybe. 

I was thinking, “Geesh! It’s nearly 9:00 o’clock and the sun hasn’t even hit the horizon yet! The days are getting so long!*”

Then I was like, “O. M. G. Is that why I seem to flounder my way through spring and summer? I have too much daylight? Too much time to get stuff done… and I end up wasting time?!”

Yeah. I told you this one would be hard to explain.

But I have been trying to figure out why I fail so hard at life in the spring/summer months. In the winter, I am getting up early to work out, eating healthy, making sure my day is planned out with everything I want to do…

And in the spring/summer, I am staying up too late, sleeping in, taking naps all the time, wasting the day away, thinking “I will do it later”…

I am totally blaming this ALL on the sun! ALL OF IT!

I remember in college that one of the counselors** told me once how students who work while they are in school are usually better at getting things done and not procrastinating, because they have less time to do it. So they have make it work. Or something like that. 

That was true for me. I usually worked about 20 hours a week and always had a ton of stupid architectural school crap to do – drawings, models, blah blah blah. I got it all done. I was miserable, and hardly ever slept. But I got it done. 

So I wonder if the winter darkness makes me feel like I need to get more things done, because I have less time to do it – less daylight hours***. I kind of like having my workout done first thing in the am, so I can chill out inside when it gets so dark out at night. 

But when it start to get lighter, later, I start pushing things back. I stay up later, because it’s lighter out. I somehow turn in to a procrastinator. I think I have all this time in the world, but it’s really the same as before****.

Meh. I don’t know. I thought I was going somewhere with this. Maybe not. 

But if anything was gleaned from this post,  I think maybe a human sciences degree would have been better for me than architecture – since I am always thinking about weirdo stuff like this. 

How does your summer schedule change from your winter schedule? Up later? Getting less done (like me) or more done, or… the same?

*Until tomorrow, anyway
**Or whatever they were called
***Even though I really like running in the dark
****Except operating on much less sleep, since I am staying up later due to it being lighter out. 

Comments (23)

By kilax, June 19, 2013 5:38 pm

Quite a few people have asked me if I’ve gone blonde after seeing this picture:

Ha! No! It’s just the lighting. My response to all the askers has been “I learned to not dye my hair in high school.”

Okay, really – freshman year of college. Gah. It took an entire year for my natural hair color to grow out. My aunt didn’t believe it was my real hair color at Christmas 2003.

Would you guys believe that I had some rebellious high school years*?! Yeah, sorry, Dad**. One particular shenanigan involved bleaching my hair to dye it orange… only the store didn’t have orange, so we went with yellow. Only… we didn’t have enough bleach so only part of my hair was dyed. And I think I did it the day before Easter or something stupid.

Hey! Good thing I worked out my rebellious side then…

Back to the point.

No dyed hair here! Just my natural brown!

Do you dye your hair?

Do you want to hear my crazy rebellious stories?!

Yeah. That ain’t happening!

*But was still a class valedictorian! Ha.
**I’d apologize to Mom but she doesn’t read this. Plus, her Mother’s Day card specifically apologized for all past (and I added “future”) bad behavior.