Comments (46)

By kilax, December 10, 2013 12:06 pm

Do you keep track of how much money you spend on race entry fees throughout the year?

I didn’t set a budget for the year, but I tracked race costs on a spreadsheet so it would be easy to add up when I did my end of the year race infographic. However, I didn’t actually do a sum command on the numbers until today.

Whoa! I was surprised. The total was higher than last year’s total. Even with several free entries, and not paying for as many entries for friends/family (that kind of made me sad), I did six more races, including an expensive half Ironman, so the cost went up.  Interestingly, the average cost per race was only a bit higher. 

Total cost and race amount subject to change by end of 2013

Anyway. I think it’s fun to look at the numbers (especially to compare between years!), and wondered if you track them too.  I would love to hear your total (and amount of races) if you have it handy! I remember when I posted the infographic last year, a lot of people were afraid to see their total amount spent on race entries!

$880.43 may seem like a lot of money, but running is one of my favorite hobbies, and I like spending money on experiences (which turn in to memories). Plus… I have a part time job which lets me justify (to myself) spending even more in 2014. Speaking of that, I already have spent $155 for 2014 races! Let the fun continue! 

Hmm,  now that I am looking at this, I may have to add some more to the infographic, like cost per mile raced. That would be fun! And excuse me, while I completely geek out over pointless personal data. Ha ha. 

Comments (6)

By kilax, December 10, 2013 6:25 am

Do you visit the website, Just Little Things?

The author posts a simple line of text each day, listing a “little thing” that she appreciates and makes her happy. Such a simple concept, and such a fun exercise! And of course, there is even a book now!

Anyway, I had a few “just little things” moments in the middle of the night that I wanted to share. Ha ha, don’t worry, they are G-rated.

What are some of your recent “just little things” moments?

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By kilax, December 9, 2013 1:27 pm

Who else is doing the majority of their holiday gift shopping online and loving it?

I do more and more of my holiday gift shopping online each year… and prefer it that way. It’s so much less stressful than going to the stores, and easier to price compare (ha ha ha, just kidding, I don’t do that). 

Despite my love for it though, there are a few dilemmas:

1. Ordering the wrong thing – it seems the two hours I spend on the Under Armour website did not pay off. I thought I was ordering cold weather running tights for my dad. Turned out I ordered him a really nice pair of long running underwear. He seems to like them, but I maybe should have gone to the store for that one!
2. Receiving the wrong thing/damaged item – I usually don’t open a package as soon as I receive it – do you? I have started doing it though! Last week I received a huge box from Gone for a Run and realized right away one of the items was wrong. I checked my order and I had ordered the correct thing. Customer service was amazingly helpful, but now I have to wait for the new item to ship and it might not get here in time because…
3. Things taking forever to arrive – I started online shopping in late November, figuring I was giving myself plenty of time. Maybe not! Some items arrive 10+ days after you order them. What the heck?! Hee hee. I am used to two-day shipping at Amazon Prime, and working at FakeMeats.com where we try to ship most orders same day. 
4. Not remembering all the packages you have coming to the house – I am trying to order the majority of things from Amazon.com, so I have all my order history and tracking numbers in one easily accessible place, but I am still ordering from many other sites and not keeping very good track of it. I am surprised I haven’t created a spreadsheet. I usually love that sort of thing. 
5. Accidentally opening a gift for yourself – ha ha ha. It hasn’t happened yet this year, but it has in the past. I told my husband’s family to address any packages they sent to our house with their names so I won’t accidentally open them. Again, #4 – so much stuff coming in that I am not keeping track of it. And somewhat related to this – accidentally seeing a gift your spouse ordered you from your shared Amazon account. Trying not to let that happen!
6. Confusing sizing – some clothing items are only sold online (no store front) and trying to figure out someone’s sizing for a fit can be difficult! I am already uncertain about one thing I ordered that might be just a tad too big. Hopefully the store has a good exchange policy!
7. Creating all those different store accounts – I don’t know why it makes me nuts. I just want to pay as a guest. Please don’t make me create a user name and log-in. Wah. Ha ha.
8. Stolen packages – Luckily this hasn’t happened since October 2012… but I don’t think I would send as much to the house if Steven and I weren’t able to work from home so much! 
9. SO MUCH RECYCLING! Ha ha ha. Our recycling bin is full to the max each week with all these boxes!
10. Feeling lazy for doing so much shopping online. Just kidding. I feel awesome. 

Any online shopping dilemmas for you?

Ha ha. These “dilemmas” don’t bother me too much. Definitely consider this a “First World Problems” type list. I still prefer shopping online above going to the stores! Like I said, it really helps keep my holiday stress levels down!

And I didn’t put “paying for shipping” on the list because that doesn’t bother me. I think because we own a small business, I get it – it costs money to ship things and some companies just can’t do it for free. You are paying for a huge convenience of not even leaving your house! I do always appreciate lowered or free shipping though!

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By kilax, December 9, 2013 6:28 am

My dad is on a roll! The Rotary Santa Run was his third 5K this year… and his fastest!

After everyone commented on Dad’s “Santa” beard at the Run Walk and Roll 5K I was really hoping he’d do this race with me – I mean, he already looked the part*! I’ve done this race a few times before and love it! The race atmosphere is so festive and goofy in all the right ways! Luckily, my mom and grandma wanted to come this past weekend for a jewelry show, so why not have a super busy day** and do the 5K, too?!?!?

I didn’t think a new race would take this title after the Lincolnwood Turkey Trot, but this is now the coldest race I’ve done – starting temp of 9°F. Didn’t bother us! I love running year round and dressed appropriately.

Plus it was sunny and not very windy – no big deal. And I gave Dad his holiday gift early so he could use it – some Under Armour Cold Gear. We both stayed nice and warm. Especially with our beards, 

and hanging out in the heated tent before the start. 

We definitely didn’t go out until they called for runners to the start line!

When we were lining up to start it dawned on me that dad has never done a race of this size. The race is not humongous (compared to some 5Ks!) with just over 1030 documented finishers  edited 1600 participants (according to this article (pdf here)), but the races my dad and I have done have had less than 100 finishers! I gave my dad some tips on not weaving around people at the start, to conserve energy. The only issue is that we had no idea where the race starting line was, because we couldn’t see it in the crowd. We didn’t know when to start our watches, so they were a tiny bit off, but no big deal (except Dad is annoyed Garmin Connect won’t find his new 5K PR! Ha ha.)

The first mile was a bit crowded (and somewhat “uphill”), but I think that was in our favor, keeping us at a slower pace – 9:55. Funny thing – a friend of ours, Eric, was also racing, but we didn’t meet up before. Well, in the first mile a spectator*** said  “Merry Christmas” to us and I responded “Merry Christmas” back and Eric heard my voice and turned and said hello! He was right next to us!**** He ran with us for a bit but had a wardrobe malfunction and had to stop.

Ha ha ha. Those costumes. They give everyone these Santa suits to wear… which is awesome, but they don’t stay on so well! Hee hee. Since I’d done the race in the past I knew the costume would mostly be held together with safety pins, and brought a few for backup. We saw SO MANY random Santa costume pieces on the course! It made us laugh.

But laughing at the Santa suit debris was about the most “talking” we did! I had remembered Dad said he thought he could maybe run another sub-30:00 5K, and I wanted to see if I could pace us for it, so he was pushing it! When our second mile clocked in at 9:16 and I saw we had just under 11 minutes to run that last 1.1 miles, I knew he could do it! We pushed the last mile out in 9:04 and finished in 29:11 – a new PR for my dad by 2 seconds (and on a more accurate 5K course than his last race) and negative splits! Woo hoo! Dad is rocking it!

We got some post race goodies, waited a few minutes for Eric to finish, then headed to Panera for some warm drinks! I am really happy I got to run this with my dad. I can’t put in words how happy I am that he has gotten in to running (and that my mom has been working out, too!).  This will probably be Dad’s last race for 2013, but he told me he enjoyed it, and even liked how you feel pushed to run a faster pace with a bigger crowd! I know he will be back for more in 2014. Maybe a 5 miler or a 10K?!

And I must confess, that I wore this blue hat to run this, so my family could easily spot me in the crowd of Santas. 

Yoda does not approve. 

*Except all the running probably has the opposite effect on having a “Santa belly.”
**Also including a trip to Urgent Care and a holiday party!
***I loved that there were spectators out there cheering us on. Some were dressed up in holiday costumes and one lady was even blasting holiday music out of her car! The middle school near the finish had the band outside playing holiday music!
****We also randomly ran in to Katie and Kelly in the start corral, which was awesome! I was hoping I would bump in to them but never thought I would!

Comments (6)

By kilax, December 8, 2013 5:29 pm

Highlight of the Week: Ugh! It’s so hard to decide! But I gotta go with running this morning with my Dad at a local forest preserve and just having that time to chat (we didn’t chat much during our race yesterday – ha ha!). 

Monday | December 2, 2013: 3 m run + teaching strength class
Loc: hood, Temp: 41°/41°, Time: 10:11, Pace: 30:33 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: okay
Strength: Sandbags and Kettlebells Mixed Mode, Difficulty: easy/medium, Felt: excited to try a new mode
Tuesday | December 3, 2013: rest
Wednesday | December 4, 2013: Reindeer Run 5K
Loc: Zion, Temp: 48°/52°, Time: 25:28, Pace: 8:10 avg, Difficulty: medium/hard, Felt: decent
Thursday | December 5, 2013: 5.5 m run (middle 4ish w/Xaarlin)
Loc: Loop and Lakefront Trail, Temp: 30°/31°, Time: 1:00:33, Pace: 11:04 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: sore from the race, but the run helped
Friday | December 6, 2013: teaching strength class
Strength: Sandbags and Kettlebells Mixed Mode, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Saturday | December 7, 2013: Rotary Santa Run 5K (w/Dad)
Loc: Arlington Heights, Temp: 9x°, Time: 29:11, Pace: 9:24 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Sunday | December 8, 2013: 3.2 m run (w/Dad)
Loc: Ray Lake FP, Temp: 16°/17°, Time: 32:56, Pace: 10:17 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: great

Notes:

• Just like the day after the 10K last Saturday, I felt soreness in my left lateral quad the day after the 5K this Wednesday. Luckily, a slower paced run with Xaarlin Thursday morning totally made me feel better, and I have felt fine since. I am hopefully done running fast for the year. Unless Gina wants to at Sunday’s race. In that case… I’ll do it all over again!
• Okay, speaking of Sunday’s race with Gina. GAH! I am so excited to see her! And run together in the ridiculous outfits we got! YAYSIES!!!
• I had a very ambitious yearly mileage goal in mind, but I don’t really see myself getting there with weeks like this one. Oops… ha ha. That mileage goal is only attainable because of the mileage I was able to put in on furlough. Funny thing (and writing furlough made me think of it), today I was telling my mom how I am not really in to decorating. Not really telling the full story here, but she asked if I would like it more if I was retired. I told her I would probably still rather run than decorate (clean, bake, whatever) if I was retired.  What do you prioritize exercise over?
• I switch up the strength mode (dumbbells, body bars, kettlebells, etc.) every three weeks in the class I teach, and this week I started a mixed mode workout with kettlebells and sandbags. Everyone does the same exercises (more or less) but the front row is using one mode and the back row, the other. It was fun to play around with the sandbags! Have you exercised with sandbags before?

Sandbags @ Spartan

• We had our Efit Multisport Club holiday party last night! I brought the whole crew – Steven, Data, Mom, Dad and Grandma. I still can’t believe what an amazing year it has been, with me becoming a personal trainer and getting to work with so many wonderful people!

Link to Training Week 215

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By kilax, December 6, 2013 4:36 pm

Let’s just pretend it hasn’t been over two months since the last Friday Question… sheesh!

Do you get a Christmas stocking or prepare one for anyone in your family?

“Santa” still gives me one (sometimes I get it early or late though) and when Steven’s family visits, I put together stockings for them. 

I don’t know what it is about the dang stocking, but I just get such a kick out of putting them together for the boys. I think it’s because I have such great memories of going through my stocking when I was a kid. We got to look through them as soon as we woke up, and Santa always put the best things in there! I hope my stocking recepients feel the same way… 

Comments (13)

By kilax, December 5, 2013 7:33 am

There’s this neat-o race series in Zion, Illinois put on by the Zee Bee Run Squad. They host six 5Ks a year, all on the same road (or cross country) course, but each benefiting a different community program. Bobbi has run a few of these races and told me how great they are – low key, organized, small field, super friendly people – all the things we LOVE about small town races. 

I was finally able to run one of these races last night – the Reindeer Run! I had actually forgotten about it this year – since it’s on a Wednesday, and I used to always take strength class on Wednesdays, I wasn’t even thinking about it. When Bobbi mentioned it this year, I was stoked I was free and could check it out! Even though I prefer to run in the am, night races are a fun adventure!

So, let’s talk about this picture. First of all, SANTA WAS THERE!!! That was fun. Secondly – see the fog in the background? It was rainy and HUMID. In December. And note… I am wearing a tank. Again, in DECEMBER. A tank and shorts. It was in the low 50s with super high humidity and I got TOO hot during the race. What the effity. Silly weather. Moving on…

Bobbi told me to bring a headlamp to run this race. Thanks heavens she gave me the heads up! Holy cow! It was all on city streets, but there were hardly any street lights, and quite a few pot holes. Having a headlamp helped out big time! 

And… the race. As I mentioned Saturday, I don’t do speedwork. So when a lady asked me my goal pace before the race, I told her an average of 8:00 minute miles would be fantastic, but I bet it would be closer to 8:30s (since I never practice running fast, and you really need to, to race fast…. derp). 

The nice thing about running in the dark is that you can’t really see your watch (unless you turn on the watch light, which I didn’t) so I really ran based on feel then would look at pace from time to time. Mile 1 was 8:05, and I passed a few people. Mile 2 was 8:03, and I passed a few more. I was feeling mostly okay. Then mile 3. Sigh. I kept pumping my arms and trying to pick up my legs, but I got the stomach pain from pushing a fast pace and slowed down – 8:23 (and got passed by someone). The final kick was 7:55 pace. Not bad. Official finish time of 25:27.

We hung around for the awards ceremony. Super cool thing – EVERYONE who participates got a raffle prize! They started by calling raffle ticket numbers, and those people got to choose their prize. Then people who medaled got to pick, then everyone else got to pick from what was left over. What a neat race perk!

All the medals/prizes

Bobbi and I both placed in our separate age groups! I was second, and she was third. When the names were called, I realized third place was one of the people I passed in the second mile. The first place girl was WAY ahead of me. And I noticed on the results… there were only three people in my age group (Bobbi at least had 10 in her age group). Ha ha ha. Love small races. 

Posing with our raffle prizes – solar powered snowman lawn decorations. 

I really enjoyed this race! The course was nice – kind of a loop, and flat! It was fun to see all the holiday lights, when I actually remembered to look at them instead of über focusing on running the tangents and looking to the race course. I would like to go back and run one of these races on this course, in the daylight. I usually have a good sense of location after I visit a place once, but didn’t feel that way after this race, due to the darkness. In fact, during much of the race, I wondered if I was still on course! I just kept following the people in front of me, hoping whoever they were following was still on course. Ha ha. 

I really like the race shirts, too, even though the logo seems really familiar…

After the race, our husbands joined us for a celebratory El Famous Burrito dinner. Nom nom nom. What a wonderful way to spend a weeknight!

Comments (9)

By kilax, December 4, 2013 6:51 am

One of the cool things about personal training is the measurable progress/improvement/growth that you see in your clients. It’s so fun to watch, and to guide them through it!

And there are so many ways to measure it – form, weight lifted, balance, exercise progressions, and so on. It’s really countless. And there is always something to improve on! It’s exciting!!!

In life, it’s important to me to build up my loved ones. To be encouraging and supportive. 

But it’s also very important, to me, to be sincere. I am not going to bs anyone/say something just to boost their ego. 

I carry this over in to personal training – I try to be peppy, encouraging, approachable, friendly supportive, knowledgeable… all that. But like in my personal life, I am not going to bs you.  I am going to be honest. As a personal trainer, it’s important that I tell you what you are doing right, and have the opportunity to progress/improve/grow. 

So, why all this blah blahing? I was just thinking about this. And how I would never compliment someone, “just to say it.” If I compliment you on your progress, I mean it! The progress is measurable. I can prove that you are improving!

Have you ever felt like someone was complimenting you “just to say it” – that they weren’t sincere? What made you feel that way?

Comments (15)

By kilax, December 3, 2013 12:23 pm

As opposed to Good Vibrations, ha ha. 

This is silly, but I have to write about a small change I made a month or so ago, that has been making a huge difference in my life – I turned off text vibrations when my phone is on silent. 

Huh? What does that even mean?

Well, I usually have my phone on silent, but it used to be set to vibrate when I got a text. So even though, in theory, my phone was “silent,” I could hear or feel the vibration. Especially with this new plastic phone cover I got. Whoa, is it loud, when the phone vibrated on a hard, flat surface!

I was SUPER distracted by the vibration, especially with the new case. I don’t know about you, but when my phone vibrates or makes the text sound, I get that feeling that I have to look at it IMMEDIATELY. And respond ASAP! So having it on silent was kind of defeating the purpose, if I was still going to be looking at it all the dang time. 

So I turned off the vibration in silent mode. And I feel so much less distracted now! It’s amazing! I keep my phone on “silent” most of the time, and just look at it every now in then to see if I have any texts. It’s silly, but now I feel much more in control than the thing vibrating at me all the time. 

And that is not to say I don’t like texts. I very much enjoy them! Especially the fun emoji on the iPhone, ha ha. There have just been times when I should have waited to respond to a text, but felt compelled to look at it immediately, since I felt/heard the vibration of it. 

I have been thinking a lot about mobile devices lately. Again, I love mine, and I love to overshare, but it makes me feel sad to go to restaurants and see everyone at a table looking at their phone. Or to see play by plays of people’s lives on social media. I keep seeing this commercial of people playing games, in person, with each other, but on their tablets. Must we replace everything? I still think there is a place for real games and real books. Maybe I am just old fashioned. 

Do you get distracted by texting and feel you must respond immediately? Or are you good at ignoring your phone?

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By kilax, December 2, 2013 12:53 pm

I meant to post this yesterday on my training recap, but forgot. Oopsie. And heaven forbid I wait for tomorrow… so hurrah, double post. 

FIRST THOUGH – things I do not want my neighbor to say to me – “All of that exercise is really starting to pay off!” Sigh. Said today, on the way back in to my house from a lunch run. This is the same person who asked me how much weight I was trying to lose, and yesterday, told Steven that he wished his wife would work out. I know he thinks he is being nice, but, ugh. It creeps me out. Stop paying attention to me, dude. I don’t exercise for the main purpose of maintaining my weight or looking good. I do it because I like it. 

And hey! That is actually a good segue in to what I wanted to talk about. Or, at least, it’s related. Ha ha. 

So I saw this text on one of those inspirational running pages on Facebook the other day, and thought, “NOPE! Don’t agree! But, I bet at lot of others do…”

The race always hurts, luv. Expect it to hurt. You don’t train so that it doesn’t hurt. You train so that you can tolerate it. 

(And I don’t have any idea about that quote in the bottom or how that relates… I just left it in there since it was part of the original picture). 

Nope. That is not “why” I train. Or, exercise, or whatever. I run mostly because I really enjoy it (as mentioned above, there, it’s connected). I also run for companionship, as a lot of my friends are runners, and yes, I hope it keeps me somewhat healthy. 

But when I train for races, if I train to run a certain pace (this rarely happens), I am training so that that pace will feel more comfortable on the race day effort. Not so that I learn to tolerate the pain of running a fast pace*. I’m all about comfort, and fun, at races. I might push though pain at a 5K, but not even that often. I was SUPER pleased that my 5K PR from this year felt so easy. And I didn’t think, afterward, “I should have pushed harder!” I was proud I could run that pace and not feel like complete caca. 

So. Yeah. I think my mindset behind this is a bit different from most people’s. But, I am not a goal setter and am just kind of out there to enjoy things… so that may have to do with it. Races are rarely about pace, for me. It’s usually about FUN!

Do you train for comfort or so you can “tolerate” a pace?

*I understand this is what elite runners do – learn to tolerate their crazy fast paces. But yeah. I’m not elite. Ha ha.