Comments (24)

By kilax, October 9, 2014 6:22 am

• If you missed the lunar eclipse and blood moon yesterday, and live in the right parts of the world, you’ll have two more opportunities to see it happen next year – on April 4, 2015 and September 28, 2015. Mark your calendars (ha ha, apparently, I was dorky enough to mark my calendar for yesterday’s)! According to this article, it’s rare to have so many of these happening in a row, as well as for them to be visible in all of the US. Here’s some of the awesome (ha, ha ha, not) pictures I got of yesterday’s:

• Gina asked me to help Luca out with something very special… learning about Star Wars! Ahhhhhh! I am so excited to teach him about my favorite movies (IV-VI, obvs) and talk with him about it! I wanted to send him a book so he could start getting familiar with the story line and it took me forever to find one that just told the stories of the movies and not some side story. But! There was success yesterday on my lunch break! Yay! I can’t wait to read this to him when I see him in December. I also must find some good Star Wars toys to send, too…

• I am feeling kind of bummed about Halloween this year. For the past four years we’ve gone to Iowa and celebrated with my family, but I am not sure if I can do that this year because of a work committment. I still have some hope that we will somehow be able to make it out there! We just have such a good time!
• Just for fun, here is an interesting article about how people have been wrongly depicting what running form looks like, for many, many years. 

And a few more random post marathon thoughts:

• The official photos came out, and my form was not as good as I thought it was at the finish (cause, derr, I was tired?). So, while I am getting better with form, I still really need to focus on it… maybe forever?
• I stopped running with music in December 2012, and am thinking about adding it back in to some workouts, maybe to help with speed. Do you listen to music when you workout? I play music when I teach strength class, for sure. But on the run, it’s either my thoughts, or conversation with a friend. 
• I used the Glympse app so Steven could see where I was at any moment while I was running. The app lasts four hours, so I reset it just after midway point. I really like that I can do that for a marathon and it doesn’t completely drain my battery. 
• We haven’t really had a post race celebration. My sleeping and eating have been really off since Sunday. But I finally slept through the night last night (instead of waking up at 2:00 am full of energy). Yay!

Link to Random Thoughts Thursday 65

Comments (21)

By kilax, October 8, 2014 6:44 am

You guys know I get a kick out of made-up words! Here is a new one, and it perfectly describes me – satisficer. A satisficer is someone who, when making a decision, “would rather be fast than thorough; they prefer to quickly choose the option that fills the minimum criteria (the word “satisfice” blends “satisfy” and “suffice”).”

I have long been interested in the process of how people make buying decisions, because I know many people who enjoy doing a lot of research, and spend muchos time analyzing options and coming to the “best” conclusion – and I’ve wondered why I am not like that! This article (pdf here) calls those people “maximizers.” “‘Maximizers’ like to take their time and weigh a wide range of options—sometimes every possible one—before choosing.”

Interestingly, I clicked on this article to read in my newsfeed because the title was “How You Make Decisions Says a Lot About How Happy You Are.” I wasn’t expecting the article to focus on this topic that I’ve always wondered about! Exciting discovery (… for me, ha ha)!

So, the takeaways:

• “Maximizers are people who want the very best. Satisficers are people who want good enough.”
• A small (aren’t they all?) study was done on college students graduating and getting jobs. The maximizers in the group got “better” jobs with higher salaries than the satisficers, but felt worse about their jobs. 
• “Maximizers make good decisions and end up feeling bad about them. Satisficers make good decisions and end up feeling good.”
• “Satisficers also have high standards, but they are happier than maximizers. Maximizers tend to be more depressed and to report a lower satisfaction with life, research found.”
• “The older you are, the less likely you are to be a maximizer—which helps explain why studies show people get happier as they get older.” Some people get happier as they get older, ha ha.
• “One of the things that life teaches you is that ‘good enough’ is almost always good enough. You learn that you can get satisfaction out of perfectly wonderful but not perfect outcomes.”

Geesh! They really make maximizers out to be miserable folk! There are definitely people out there who have too high of standards for most things, but I doubt everyone who enjoys doing research during the decision making process feel “bad” about the decisions they make! Or hates life. 

However, I do see the point made that satisficers are generally happier because they aren’t torturing themselves, wondering if they made the right decision, or getting so stressed during the decision making process. 

A lot of the end of the article focused on being in a relationship where one person is a maximizer and the other is a satisficer. The article recommended letting the person who the outcome was most important to make the decision. 

That is the kind of relationship we have – Steven loves to research options before making a decision, and I just dive right in! I’ve gotten better over the years though – now I read the Amazon reviews before purchasing something. Ha ha. 

Are you a maximizer or a satisficer?

The article included this quiz to help you figure it out, in case you don’t know off the top of your head!

Ha ha. Um, the only ones I don’t disagree with are #2 and #12. And #12… who doesn’t fantasize from time to time?

Comments (49)

By kilax, October 7, 2014 6:27 am

Wow! This is the first marathon course I have done more than once! In 2011 and last Sunday! Are you a specific marathon repeat offender?

I started out 2014 like every other year – telling myself I wasn’t going to do any marathons. In fact, Milwaukee 2011 was supposed to be my last marathon for awhile! I love love love the training, but always bonk the race HARD. But then, so many friends were signed up for this race, a good friend was an official pacer of a goal time I had last year (4:10), and yeah, I love this course. So just like every other year since 2011 when I said that was my last marathon… I signed up for it. 

Here is your TL; DR, cause as little as I thought I had to say right after the race, the thoughts all came flooding back in (I suppose, once the brain started working again post-race): I did not join my friend’s pace team. I didn’t train for that. I didn’t PR this race. It was my fourth fastest (out of seven marathons, which makes it right in the middle, finish time wise). BUT! This was my best race, strategy-wise. I typically physically and mentally bonk at mile 16 of the marathon. That didn’t happen here. I hit 16, and kept going strong. Only the last 5 miles were a struggle. My goal was to average an 11:00 minute mile pace. I averaged 10:53s, and as I mentioned, my half splits were only 25 seconds apart. I am very proud of my 4:44:59 finish time, and encouraged to see how much more I can improve before the Dallas Marathon on December 14th!

Okay, now you’re in for the long haul…

Quite a few Efiters (from my strength studio – Essential Fitness) were doing this race! Yvonne was going for a PR. Ed was the 4:10 pacer I mentioned. Bobbi and I were going to stick together, and Dawn was running her first (!!!) full. Dawn wanted to hang with us, and Kelly jumped in for the last half to pace her. 

It was so great to be around my close friends the morning of the race. I road the free shuttle to race start (it’s a point to point – my preferred course type) with Yvonne and Ed, and found Bobbi and Dawn right before race start. I think I was the least nervous of all of us. I felt confident and excited, and ready to work hard. And I was really happy with the weather – started at 36° (“feels like” 29°). Those are my temps! Even with the silly wind. 

Yvonne, Bobbi and me

Bobbi, me and Dawn

The race started at 7:30 am, just after the sun came up. I ate a Clif shot energy gel right before we took off. My goal was to eat A LOT and often to keep my energy up. Right away, I remember why I love this course so much – it’s just so darn beautiful. You are running through the country and past nice neighborhoods (it’s right by Lake Michigan) until you hit the lakefront bike path in Milwaukee. The old, tall trees are beautiful, and the lake was stunning that morning:

There are a good amount of spectators too, for so much of it being country/residential. People playing instruments or recorded music, a kid ringing a huge bell… this course has just the right amount of spectators! You’re not always on show, but someone is almost always nearby. 

So I felt jazzed from the start. I was talking A LOT to Bobbi and Dawn. Just blabbing away (probably annoyingly). I tried to keep us in check to stay close to our 11:00 minute mile goal. I did not want to go out too hard. But man, this course has a few short rolling hills, and we kept speeding up on the downs! Oops!

And from the beginning, I stuck to my annoying race strategy of eating something (gels, soft pretzels or fig newtons) every 30 minutes, as well as taking an electrolyte pills. Why annoying? It was hard to carry all of that food without my backpack. I am lucky Bobbi and Dawn would hold things for me while I fished my pills out of my HipS-sister. And that Steven (and Bobbi’s family) was (were) on the course at mile 7.5 and mile 20 to give me Vitamin water and “real” food. I tend to get sick of eating (I know, ME?! Makes no sense) at the end of races, but I still forced myself to eat something every 30 minutes until the end. I think that helped me not bonk so early. And I filled up my water bottle at every single stop. I drink a lot when I run. 

The miles were ticking by and when we got to 9 or 10 and couldn’t believe how quickly the race was going! We were getting a lot of fun comments on our matching Efit shirts! A lot of instructions to “stay together.”

Which is exactly what I did not do. Sigh. 

A little bit before mile 13, we saw Kelly! I was so excited for her to join our crew! She said she had been saving up things to talk about all week! Hee hee! I said hi… then ran past her, and looked back and Bobbi and Dawn were behind me. I kept running as I had earlier when they took walk breaks (I’d slow down, they’d catch up). I kept looking back and eventually I couldn’t see them anymore. 

I felt really bad. I didn’t want to be that friend that takes off. Bobbi had the same goal as me. I texted her and asked if she wanted me to stop and wait (I would have!) and she had a “no, go ahead silly, but I love you for asking!” response. And that was the last I saw them. Bobbi and I texted throughout the race, but I was on my own then. Just me, and songs from Grease stuck in my head (do NOT watch a musical right before running a race!!!!). 

So I kept my sub 11:00 pace, focused on my form (gosh, I tried so hard with it) and attempted not to bonk at 16 like I typically do. 16 came and went and what… I still felt good! No way! I was ecstatic! The only issue was that I felt like I needed to go to the bathroom, and told myself once I saw a porta pottie without any line, I would go. 

That was at mile 18. I hadn’t walked or stopped yet in the race and was a bit bummed to stop, but you gotta do what you gotta do. Well, TMI ALERT, I was in such a hurry that I wanted to make things go as quickly as possible so I pushed really hard and strained my abdomen. It felt… weird. I felt stupid, for hurting myself going poo. (<—– NURSE KELLY, this is the part I wanted you to read!)

But of course, after, a load was lifted (ha ha ha) and I was feeling good. 

A bit lonely though. I talked to as many people as possible. I kept trying to find someone to pace with, but I was passing everyone. So many were walking or struggling, and I felt like an ass, passing by and asking if they were okay. A lot of people were running this as their first marathon, which was fun! I met a guy from Dallas. I met a guy (Brian) from a local suburb who is also running Chicago this Sunday. Brian and I ran together for quite a bit, and I cheered him in at the finish!

Brian and Kim and RBF

I saw Steven again at mile 20. I was started to feel it, and was looking forward to my Vitamin water (which of course, I had to force myself to drink). Then I saw quite a few running club friends a bit after that and was starting to get out of it and have death face!!! NOOOOO!!!

But I made it to 21 before it felt like a super struggle. And I just kept with the plan. I really, really wanted that sub 11:00 average, and not many miles over 11:00! Mile 23 was, as it was the only time I stopped to walk – the last time I filled up my bottle. 

Mile “27” was 10:21 pace

I kept thinking, “where is the damn downhill?” There is a quad-killer downhill just before mile 23ish. I talked it up to people on the course who seemed to be struggling – cause when you are hating your run, you can always look forward to a downhill. Unless like me, you’ve run this race before it know it’s gonna hurt. And apparently, I forgot how much this course kills my IT band and hips with the rolling hills and camber of the road (for much of the end, you are on streets still open to a lane of traffic). I started fantasizing about getting a post race massage, even though I knew I wouldn’t want to make Steven wait around!

The last three miles took forever, as they do. My watch was off by .1 mile the whole time, and every time I hit a mile marker early on my watch, it messed with me. I kept telling myself things like “3 miles! You ran that yesterday to prep!’ “Two miles! That’s four laps at the park” and so on. It doesn’t work, ha ha. The downhill helped my pace, but then running along the open lake did not for the last two miles. It’s flat, yes, but with a 13mph wind pushing in to my face, I just couldn’t keep the pace down (and it warmed up to 50°, “feels like” 45° – and was sunny, gah). I tried so hard. 

I really wanted to look good when I came in to the finish line. I thought about my Slouchy McSloucherson issue and didn’t want to see pictures like that. I wanted Steven to see me with good form. Ha ha, that is why I started talking to Brian at mile 20. I asked Steven how my form was and he said “sloppy” and I said to that guy “he was supposed to lie and say ‘good’!” Hee hee. Brian said “you look great!” which did encourage me. (And Steve was being honest!)

He wasn’t lying. Ha ha.

So I pushed as hard as I could, really focusing on my form, scanning all over for Steven… I finished without seeing him. I immediately starting crying. I knew I had made my goal (I had no idea until later in the day how even my half splits were) and was just spent. I really gave it everything. 

A medic was worried about me and followed me for a bit, which was really sweet. Then I got my bag and hobbled around, looking for Steven and Bobbi’s family. I got a text from Steven that he got there one minute after I finished. I didn’t know where Bobbi, Dawn and Kelly were. I actually kept asking Dawn’s boyfriend how Dawn was doing (he was riding by the course on his bike) and he kept saying they were right behind me. They weren’t though. So Steven stayed back to get their pics at mile 20 and just missed me at the finish. Which is totally fine, but I was overly emotional about it when I finished. When I finally saw Steven he asked what was wrong and I cried and said “I tried to finish really strong for you so you’d be proud of me!” And of course, he told me he was proud of me. Gosh, I am still emotional just typing about it! Lameness alert!

All that being said, I am so happy I got see Dawn finish her FIRST MARATHON ever! I kept thinking about her buddy, Zach, during the race, and how proud he was of her and the special relationship they have. That really kept me going.

And I loved seeing Bobbi finish, and getting to watch her husband and three of her kids watch! They were so excited for her!!!

Speaking of her kids, I was hanging with her youngest daughter, and a random spectator asked if she was my daughter. I said no, but the spectator was so sweet, she said to Bobbi’s daughter “Your friend did an amazing thing today! You should be inspired by her!” What a way to end the race. There were so many supportive random strangers! I love that! 

I ran in to quite a few friends before I left and was so happy I did!

Everyone was beaming at the finish, whether they had the race they wanted, or not. We wore our schweet medals proudly! (I love the shirt (definitely a keeper!) and medal this year!):

I love the medals we got this year. And the race organization was top notch! I am not sure if they had this before, but it was the first time I have used it post race – the changing tent! How nice to get in to something clean after the race. And realize that the throwaway gloves I stuffed in my bra chafed the hell out of me. Kim. Just. Throw. Them. Away. Derrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

After saying goodbye to everyone and changing, I remembered to ask a stranger to take a picture of me and Steven. 

That brown bag he is holding was the bag they gave us at the finish – it had two pieces of fruit, chocolate milk, crackers, nuts and a Fiber One bar in it.

He does so much to support me at races, and really, in my weekly training, and not very often do I get a photo token of that. I am very happy I did!

We hobbled back to the car. Wait, I hobbled, ha ha, not him. Then we stopped in Kenosha for some groceries. It was too odd of an hour to eat a sit down meal so we ate our leftover pizza in the car! My appetite did not kick in until 2:00 am – when I woke up early Monday morning, to a grumbly stomach. 

Post race, I feel good! My quads are sore, my face is wind burned (forgot to put vaseline on my nose, but kept applying chapstick to my lips) and I only chafed in that one spot, and it healed pretty quick. Win win! Now it’s time to keep training for the Dallas Marathon! I feel very encouraged by this race. My strategy seemed to mostly work, and I think it helped that I ate healthy for the three weeks leading up and lost a bit of weight. We will see what December brings!

A few other random thoughts (I know, this is so hella long – I warned you, right?!):

• I am so happy I am missing the toenails on my Morton’s toes. That has helped so much with training and with this race. No blisters on those toes (or any others).
• I wore shoes that had about 80+ miles on them. Not really ideal – I like brand new or barely worn, but it worked well. They only felt “unsupportive” (flat under the ball of my foot) a few times in the middle and never bothered me again.
• I did see someone wearing a backpack even though they weren’t allowed. I saw it in the last two miles when I was in a bad mental state and it really bugged me. Ha ha.
• The same spectator who told me and the Efit gals to stay together asked me where they all were when he saw me solo. 
• I tried to read spectator signs for distraction. I really liked an ermagherd one.
• Before this race, I remembered signing up for Athena division for a race, but couldn’t remember which race it was! It was this one, ha ha. I placed 13 out of 44 in that division. 
• I made sure to buy new shorts for the race, so Bobbi wouldn’t have to smell my old ones. I should have done this for my bra, too (duh).
• I saw someone doing the race in a RAGBRAI jersey. Meant to talk to him and never did. Darn!
• I thought about bringing the GoPro and decided not to. 
• I like that they put our names on our bibs so people can cheer us on by name! It means a lot when you are struggling. 
• I bought a pin at the expo. I like to put them on my water vest. You know, the one I wasn’t allowed to use. Ha ha. 

Comments (27)

By kilax, October 6, 2014 6:20 am

Gosh, for how close Milwaukee is to my home, I really haven’t explored it much. My experiences there are limited to the airport (LOVE using that airport), a Spartan race at Miller Park (but still haven’t seen the Brewers play there in person), lunch in the Third Ward, and various times running the South Shore Half (then eating at the Palomino Bar after). Oh… and driving through it. Yeah. 

So Steven and I decided to stay over in Milwaukee the night before the marathon, and do a teeny bit of exploring. The marathon expo was in the Third Ward, so we started there. 

/ HUGE TANGENT ALERT /

I do have to share something nutso that happened to me at the expo! I ran in to someone I know from my hometown in Iowa, that I haven’t seen since middle school! That’s about… sixteen years ago, folks! Due to the Facebook stalker side bar (you know, the mini feed in the desktop version), I had seen that this friend posted something about a run from Fleet Feet in Milwaukee earlier this week, but last I knew, she lived in Ohio. It turns out that she and her husband took over the Fleet Feet in Milwaukee and moved there four months ago! 

Even more odd, a couple of years ago, when I was doing Fake Meats orders, I noticed someone with this friend’s name ordered some items, so I contacted her to ask if it was her. It was! So when I said hi at the expo, her husband was like “Oh! The Fake Meats people!” Hee hee! We didn’t get too much of a chance to catch up (the Fleet Feet booth was hoppin’!), but I’d really like to go back to visit, because, spoiler-alert, we really enjoyed what little exploring we did in Milwaukee!

And since we are talking about the expo, I will mention that I bought this hoodie (and a few other things), which I plan to wear every work from home day this week. Ha ha. 

/ HUGE TANGET OVER /

We picked up a map of the Third Ward at the expo, and got a recommendation to check out the Milwaukee Public Market, which is an indoor food and gift market. 

It was hard to walk by so many yummy food vendors and NOT get a million things to try. Normally I would, but I knew I shouldn’t get too crazy the night before a marathon (you’ll question that when you see what I had for dinner). We settled on falafel, an amazing rice/lentil/noodle/onion dish (ALL THE CARBS!!!) and a somosa. I also picked up a few gifts. 

This WILL be recreated at home – all we need to do is add noodles to the lentils & rice dish Steven already makes

The market has seating around some of the vendors, and upstairs dining, too! It was neat to look out over the shops!

What is funny about this concept (dining above the shops) is that I had a project when I was in architectural school that was like this, and my professor told me “that would never work.” Ha ha. 

After leaving the market we walked around the Third Ward, and did some window shopping (a lot of the shops were already closed for the night). We also must have seen at least four wedding parties! The area has a lot of neat opportunities for photos, even on a dreary, windy day!

I chose what I thought looked like a fun place to try out for our hotel – Aloft in the downtown area. I was intrigued by how hip and modern it looked. Unfortunately, our stay was not so great. The room was fine, and comfortable. But we had lots of noise issues with surrounding guests. It felt just like being at home* – where we can’t sleep because our neighbors are so loud and disrespectful (and cheap construction). Sigh. 

The location ended up being just right, though**! Steven looked on HappyCow for restaurants with vegan options for dinner and found a ton of stuff. We decided to go to Ian’s pizza which was only two blocks from our hotel and had a ton of vegan pizza toppings!

You guys. I ordered the most ridic vegan pizza and it was DELICIOUS! Vegan cream sauce, vegan chicken, broccoli, TATER TOTS, and vegan ranch on top. D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S. We will be eating there again!

And that was the extent of Saturday’s exploration! We did as much as we could, while still trying to be responsible with the race the next day!

During Steven’s HappyCow research, he did find a vegan donut shop (Holey Moley Doughnuts) and made his way there while I was running (he planned to see me at mile 7.5 and 20, so he went between then). Steven loved their coffee and I REALLY loved having a vegan donut to eat with dinner last night! And probably dinner tonight too, ha ha. 

It was a mini stay and we didn’t have a TON of time, but we made the most of it and are both excited to go back soon!

*Steven actually did a sound-proofing project in our bedroom this summer to try to help with the noise levels. It’s pretty bad.
**And it was only four blocks from a hotel where I picked up a shuttle to race start! 

Comments (19)

By kilax, October 5, 2014 6:44 pm

Highlight of the Week: Running a pretty great marathon, and feeling so proud of my friends who participated too!

Monday | September 29, 2014: 4 m run (w/Kelly) + teaching strength class
Loc: Grayslake, Temp: 55°/55°, Time: 38:33, Pace: 9:38 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: great
Strength: Kettlebells and Step, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good!
Tuesday | September 30, 2014: 5 m run (w/Kelly) + walk (w/Steven)
Loc: Grayslake, Temp: 47°/46°, Time: 49:08, Pace: 9:50 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Wednesday | October 1, 2014: rest
Thursday | October 2, 2014: 3.5 m run (w/Kelly)
Loc: Grayslake, Temp: 60°/60°, Time: 33:49, Pace: 9:40 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Friday | October 3, 2014: teaching strength class
Strength: Kettlebells and Step, Difficulty: medium, Felt: good
Saturday | October 4, 2014: 3 m run
Loc: hood, Temp: 39°/38°, Time: 28:55, Pace: 9:38 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Sunday | October 5, 2014: Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon (first almost 13 w/Bobbi and Dawn)
Loc: Grafton, WI to Milwaukee, WI, Temp: 36°/50°, Time: 4:44:59, Pace: 10:53 avg, Difficulty: easy/hard, Felt: mostly great

Notes:

• On Tuesday’s run, Kelly and I had to re-route TWICE because we ran in to live skunks. What. The. Heck!
• Man, the taper makes me NUTS. Not in the “I am worried I am losing fitness” or “I think I am injured!” sense. But in the, “I want to run what I want to run and I know I shouldn’t” sense. 
• The marathon went really well! Not my best by speed, but my best by strategy! I feel really encouraged by it! I just wanted to maintain sub 11:00s. My average pace was 10:53, and I ran the first half in 2:22:17, and the second in 2:22:42. Those have GOT to be my most even splits ever.  More to come later this week!

Link to Training Week 258

Comments (37)

By kilax, October 3, 2014 12:07 pm

Originally, I wasn’t supposed to have today off from work – I get every other Friday off, but my scheduled Friday was last week. However, I was working in DC, so I had to move my off day to today. Which ended up being an awesome blessing in disguise, because today has become Marathon Prep Day for Sunday’s race!

Ha ha. I have been looking to Marathon Prep Day for a few weeks. On the agenda:

• teach strength class (since it’s Friday – this wouldn’t be on a normal Marathon Prep Day agenda) – DONE
• take a long nap – DONE
• get a massage (and hope that it helps prevent a bit of DOMS from am workout)
• paint nails to match race outfit 
• carb load, probably something that looks like this:

Not on the list:

• pack race items (outfit is picked out, I can do that tomorrow)
• pick up bib (again, tomorrow)
• run (GAH! Why do I want to run so much during taper? That is another for tomorrow.)

What is your race day prep routine?

I actually do have three things I try to do before a race – take a nap (and distance), eat a burger and fries (if it’s a half or longer), and get a 3 mile run in (the day before). The massage thing is kind of new to me, but I got one before my last marathon and felt like it helped, so why not?!