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By kilax, January 18, 2015 3:51 pm

Highlight of the Week: Receiving rave reviews after my second Efit fitness boxing class! It’s so rewarding to hear the students love it as much as I do! And 5, out of nowhere, speedy for me,  miles on Monday!

Monday | January 12, 2015: 5 m run + teaching strength class
Loc: hood, Temp: 16°/12°, Time: 42:12, Pace: 8:26 avg, Difficulty: mostly easy, Felt: happy that the main streets were clear!
Strength: sandbags and kettlebells, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Tuesday | January 13, 2015: 7 m run incl. 4x”400″ & 2x”800″ (first 5 w/Kelly) + 10 min strength
Loc: LSC (indoor track), Time: 1:09:48, Pace: 10:00 avg, Difficulty: mostly easy, Felt: good, capable
Wednesday | January 14, 2015: rest
Thursday | January 15, 2015: 7 m run (first 5 w/Kelly)
Loc: LSC, Time: 1:12:59, Pace: 10:21 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: tired (sleepy)
Friday | January 16, 2015: teaching strength class + 10 m run (2.5 w/Dawn) + 15 m bike
Strength: sandbags, Difficulty: easy/medium, Felt: happy with switching up the workout
Loc: LSC, Time: 1:41:30, Pace: 10:10, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Bike Time: 1:00:02, Pace: 15.01 mph avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Saturday | January 17, 2015: teaching fitness boxing + 3.1 m run (w/Janet)
Strength: boxing and body weight workout, Difficulty: medium, Felt: pumped
Loc: Grayslake, Temp: 39°, Time: 27:13, Pace: 8:49 avg, Difficulty: medium/hard, Felt: gassed
Sunday | January 18, 2015: 8 m run
Loc: hood, Temp: 33°/35°, Time: 1:18:33, Pace: 9:49 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good

Notes:

• I don’t think my body is digging indoor running. At least, so much indoor running. The knee that’s on the inside when I turn is feeling a bit stiff, and my legs feel sore, in general (they rarely feel that way, typically). I should really save running indoors for speed days only (even though this is super counter-intuitive since we don’t know how far we are running on the “track,” ha ha!). I ran inside so much last week because the roads were nasty, but this week was a bit better. Maybe next week will be too!
• My friend and I had plans to snowshoe this afternoon but it got so warm that a lot of the snow melted! Oops! I wonder if my snowshoe race next Sunday will turn in to a trail race! Either way, it’ll be fun!
• I’ve gotten a headache the last two Saturdays and I wonder if I am not fueling/drinking enough after teaching the fitness boxing class. I have a warped perception of my effort because I do most, but not all, of the class with the students, making me feel like I didn’t work as hard and don’t need to fuel as carefully. Dumb. I had a protein shake after each class, but maybe I need something else! We’ll see if I get another headache this Saturday – I am not teaching, so maybe something entirely different is causing it.
• Because said headache made last Sunday’s long run not so pleasant, I decided to move this week’s to tomorrow. I know it seems like I am running stupid high miles to be training for a 5K in March, but, I am actually making sure I am running enough miles to be prepared for the ultra in April. I wrote myself a training plan with a slow progression from 40 miles a week to 60 (peak week only). My goal half is four weeks after the ultra. Then… the summer of rest! (Or if I stay in good shape, I could throw in a late spring marathon. Maybe.)

Link to Training Week 273

Comments (28)

By kilax, January 16, 2015 10:15 am

Thank you so much for your well wishes for Data! He ate again yesterday, and this morning, and seems more playful and energetic! Fingers crossed!

So now that I have tried it myself, I have much more admiration for my friends and family who can knit (and crochet)!

For a long time, I was telling Mica that I wanted to learn how to knit. She often tells me about her knitting projects, which I think are really cool, and, yes, have inspired me to want to learn the craft!

Mica sent me some needles and yarn (what a sweetie!), and some really helpful links to try it out on my own, which I did! I was able to get a cast on and start my first (well, second) row, but I always screwed something up and didn’t know what I was doing wrong. So I thought it would be good if I took a class, which… is what I did last night. And realized I am NOT a natural at knitting!

Ha ha, I don’t suppose anyone is. I suppose most everyone made huge mistakes like I did the first time, and had to learn muscle memory over time, but holy cow, is it frustrating! I can’t tell you how many times I asked the instructor to come fix what I’d messed up.

Now, the good part is I actually realized I messed it up – I could see my stitches were twisted, or that for some reason I had switched from perling to knitting and I wasn’t supposed to. Anyway. What I have learned about this, is that like with most other things, it requires way more concentration and focus than comes naturally to me. For example I would be knitting a row then all of a sudden start using the needle from the wrong side, because I stopped paying attention and started talking to someone else. So I guess this won’t really be a hobby I can do while I am watching a movie, or having a conversation, or… anything else.*

But hopefully! I will stick with it, and get better at it! Because when I do get in to a groove with it, it’s fun. And it’s a little addictive – I was thinking about it most of the morning until I could work on it again.

I was laughing though, because last night, the instructor saw me fixing something, and moving it around on my needle and wanting things to be lined up just right and she goes “Oh, you must be a perfectionist, like me!”

And I am thinking, “I am NOT a perfectionist.” This thing we’re making? This washcloth? I know the first half of it is going to look like total crap and hopefully the last few rows I get right. And that’s okay. You’ll be able to see my progress in the work and I am okay with that. I don’t plan on using it. Maybe I will make twenty of them before I start a real project I care about.

But I suppose if I ever plan on making something to wear or even give to someone else, it probably should be a little closer to perfect than I ever aim for. Ha ha.

I actually recorded this post then transcribed it with minor editing, so if it reads different than my typical post, that’s because it’s mostly my speaking style!

*I already know I am a horrible multitasker, so a hobby like this for me, is a good thing.

Comments (48)

By kilax, January 15, 2015 6:31 am

Typically, I am not very appreciate of Data’s early morning, before the alarm clock, “feed me right meow!” wake-up calls. I can get up just fine on my own! And you can wait to eat, Data!

But this morning? I was more than appreciative that Data was waking me up thirty minutes before my alarm, at 4:00 am. I was excited to offer him some food when I got up. I was excited to see he ate a bit!

And I was pumped when I got home from my run and he was crawling all over my desk, asking for more food. And again, when he ate it, along with part of his breakfast.

Phew. I hope he is on the mend.

On Saturday am, he threw up an abnormal amount, in a short amount of time (he rarely throws up). We took him to the vet, and they did blood work, and gave him some anti-nausea meds and fluids, and had us fast him for 24 hours. I was expecting him to be BEGGING for food during those 24 hours. Nope. More throw up (thankfully, not as much) during that time, and when the 24 hours was over on Sunday, he didn’t have any interest in food. On Monday the vet called and said he has pancreatitis, and to monitor his symptoms at home, but that if he starts drinking and eating, he should get better on his own.

Sigh. So I continued food journaling for Data. He took a single bit of food Monday and Tuesday. That was it. He was acting cuddly and sweet, and I was trying not to worry… but I could feel fear building up inside me. Fear of losing him.

Needless to say, I was in a deep funk at the beginning of the week. And felt guilty any time I left the house (and left him).

But thankfully, he ate a bit more last night (and we put some water in his wet food to get him to drink), and as I mentioned, again, this morning. I really hope he is back on the mend! I want my “whining for food all the time” cat back!

Comments (37)

By kilax, January 12, 2015 6:25 am

It became more apparent to me, how much magazines are struggling, when I saw this blurb in the January/February issue of Runner’s World:

I was actually confused when I got the issue – confused that it was a two-month issue. I had recalled them printing every month. So that explained it.

That blurb made me feel disappointed (and it made me laugh – I always feel like an impostor reading Running Times since I am not “competitive” or a “front-of-the-pack” runner) – first, that they were shifting their focus more toward online content (which I struggle to read), and second, that they are really cutting back even more on my favorite running magazine, Running Times.

I realize it’s odd that I have an aversion to reading articles from a magazine online, since I read so many blogs and other news stories also, online. But, the ones I can pay attention to, all the way through, are on the shorter side. There’s just something about magazine articles (and books) that makes me lose focus.

I’m currently reading Michael Harris’s The End of Absence: Reclaiming What We’ve Lost in a World of Constant Connection, and highlighting the hell out of it. Right away, two blurbs in the beginning of the book gave me some insight as to why I struggle with longer online content:

(apologies for these being out of context)

To Manguel’s point – yes, I do feel like I “speed” through digital text with urgency. There is so much of it – and for that I am grateful – but I also have that “NEED TO READ ALL THE THINGZ!!!” feeling, which, yes, makes me want to rush, from one thing, to the next. What am I missing out on while I am reading this right now?! Hurry and go find out!

Carr’s paragraph is really out of context, but in that section of the book, Harris is discussing how our minds are constantly adapting, changing, and molding to the world/stimuli around us. So, our brains have been taught to absorb online content differently than a “real” book or magazine. As Carr says, we absorb information less effectively, skip to the bottom of paragraphs, and are constantly shifting focus. Yeah… that definitely describes my online reading habits, from time to time!

I honestly did wonder why I lose focus on longer online articles and books so much before, and reading those two blurbs helped me understand it. I am not sure if it’s something I want to “fix” though! I just tend to get more out of something I can physically hold, dog ear, highlight, make notes on, put down and come back to… The content sticks with me longer when I read something that way. It’s completely fantastic to have some much information online for reference, but it just doesn’t “stick” as well as when I read it in hard print.

And I am not even getting in to the “feel” of reading something. A magazine or book feels warmer to me that reading something online. And look at online articles – if you are reading on the website and not in some rss aggregator that filters out all the ads and links to other articles, it feels so busy, and spammy! Of course, the rss aggregator feels cold and sterile (but that helps me focus, more).

So… I will continue to read magazine and books, even though they seem to be dying out, and even though all of that content is eventually online (and usually, for free!).

Do you still subscribe to magazines? Do you feel like you rush through online articles, or skip around the content while you are reading them, and lose focus?

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By kilax, January 11, 2015 6:22 pm

Highlight of the Week: Teaching a fun new boxing class at Efit!

Monday | January 5, 2015: 5 m run + teaching strength class
Loc: hood, Temp: 7°/6°, Time: 52:59, Pace: 10:36 avg, Difficulty: medium (footing), Felt: good, but so slick out!
Strength: sand bags, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good!
Tuesday | January 6, 2015: rest
Wednesday | January 7, 2015: 10.5 m run (first 4.75 w/Kelly)/10 min strength + Body Beast Cardio* (w/Steven)
*counting as a strength workout
Loc: Libertyville Sports Complex, Time: 1:40:01, Pace: 9:31 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Thursday | January 8, 2015: 4.2 m run incl. 4x”400″ (w/Kelly) + 12 m bike
Loc: Libertyville Sports Complex, Time: 40:56, Pace: 9:41 avg, Difficulty: easy/medium, Felt: good (sore from Monday)
Bike Time: 46:39, Pace: 15.4 mph avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good (helped with sore legs)
Friday | January 9, 2015: teaching strength class + 8 m run (first 4 w/Dawn)
Strength: sand bags, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Loc: Libertyville Sports Complex, Time: 1:22:43, Pace: 10:21, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Saturday | January 10, 2015: teaching fitness boxing + 3.2 m run
Strength: boxing and body weight workout, Difficulty: easy, Felt: hyped up – lost my voice! Ha ha
Loc: hood, Temp: 17°/17°, Time: 32:40, Pace: 10:13 avg, Difficulty: easy/medium, Felt: good, still slick out
Sunday | January 11, 2015: 12 m run
Loc: hood, Temp: 25°/32°, Time: 2:09:56, Pace: 10:50 avg, Difficulty: medium (headache), Felt: good, warm

Notes:

• Ahh, winter running! I had my first real taste of it this Monday – slipping and sliding all over snow covered ice! I gotta work the snow running muscles back up! That, paired with the strength workout I taught Monday night (lots of side lunges) left my hip adductors and glutes quite sore for a few days. Who else was slipping and sliding all over outside this week?

• With our streets being a dangerous mess most of the week, and my desire to run longer than 5 miles (about what I am ready for in the snow right now) and do some speedwork, I did a few indoor track runs. And actually enjoyed it! Weird! I’ll keep doing the speed workouts indoors when the roads are crummy.
• As of Thursday am, the 8th, I had already run more miles in this January, than January of last year. I know I’ve mentioned in a few times, but I am just so grateful not to be starting this year off sick, like I did last year! Okay. I better stop talking about it now so I don’t jinx it!
• I kind of lied about not bombarding you guys with 2015 stats that only I care about… and did add a yearly cumulative stats bar at the bottom of my collage for fun. Fun for me. Feel free to scroll on by it! Ha ha.
• I intended to get out on my snowshoes on Sunday but didn’t plan my day out well enough to do it in the daylight. Darn. I hope I can early next week… I have a snow shoe race two weeks from today!

Link to Training Week 272

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By kilax, January 9, 2015 8:27 am

One day in February last year, I woke up with a dark spot on the back of my tongue, and when I brushed my teeth, I was spitting up something dark, too!

I actually took a photo of my tongue, because I was worried something was wrong with it (ha, I won’t force you to look at that photo). But then I noticed the more and more I brushed my tongue. The more the spot went away.

Then I remembered I ate about a zillion of these the night before:

Ha ha. So. Apparently, if you eat a bunch of truffles and don’t brush your tongue very well, you will think you have some crazy disease when you wake up in the morning.

YOU’VE BEEN WARNED!

I was thinking about that incident yesterday as I cleaned out our “junk” shelf in our pantry (some stuff went to the trash, some will go toward the “office dump,” some was kept), because I didn’t realize how much chocolate I had. I keep it all in a box and forget about it. There were four dark chocolate candy bars, a new box of truffles, half a box from before, and all of Steven’s milk chocolate. Geesh! No one needs that much chocolate in their house! If I were to eat it, I would definitely think I had some tongue disease again, ha ha.

Did you see the “report” (pdf here) this week that people start to amp up their purchasing of junk food toward the holidays, and continue to a bit in the new year? And that, yeah, that would make it harder to lose weight if that was a “resolution” of yours, because you are still in some sort of junk food purchasing auto-pilot.

We actually did fairly well not buying a lot of junk for the holidays this year, but mostly because we were traveling. If we were hosting, I would have had a few candy items around the house, and baked something. The only items I purchased were for Steven’s family’s stockings (And I forgot to get my snister her favorite treat! Sorry, snis!), and of course, I received a few things. Apparently enough to make me do a purge of the “junk” shelf!

Mostly… I am happy to have the holidays behind me and get back to my typical eating plan! It’s fun to eat treats around the holidays, but my body can only tolerate a little bit, ha ha!

Are you back to your normal eating plan after the holidays? Or do you feel like you are still buying some “junky” items, like that article suggests?

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By kilax, January 8, 2015 6:07 am

For Christmas I asked my parents for The Fast and the Furious Collection*, and they delivered!

I’d actually forgotten I asked, and was surprised and excited to receive them**… and eager to start watching! So Steven and I started the movie “marathon” on December 29th. Our New Year’s Eve travels set our “marathon” back a bit (as well as wanting to watch out Netflix disks), but we’re currently on Furious 6 and nearing the end of the series***, which I am actually a little sad about****.

I keep joking with Steven about the “importance of this ‘marathon”” as it may be the only one I do this year. Ha ha. After saying it for about the zillionth time last night, he asked “But aren’t you doing one of those ultra things with Rachel this year?”

That is true. Rachel and I are targeting an April ultra that is 33.5 miles long. But… here is the thing – in my mind, ultras fit in to the “race for fun” category. Actually, to me, every distance BUT 26.2 does, meaning, I would run any of those race distances just for the “fun” of it, and not care what my finish time was, or if I had trained specifically for it (trained enough miles, for sure, just not in a specific way).

I’d also run any of those distances for a goal time, it’s just that the marathon doesn’t fit in both categories. It’s… a purposeful race for me. It’s not something I want to BS my way through. It’s potentially too long and painful for that. If I am signed up for one, I want to have specifically prepared for it, and actually have a goal finish time in mind.

So, I am a bit hesitant to have one on my calendar. Because, at any moment I can choose to run my other “goal” race distances just for fun (yes, I build in contingency for myself to stop caring about goal finish times I’ve had in mind – cause it’s definitely happened), but I don’t want to be “stuck” signed up for a marathon that I no longer feel like doing.

Ha! All of this sounds very negative to write, especially since my last two marathons went so fabulously! But, that is just how my brain works – it’s still hyper sensitive about keeping the marathon “sacred.” Respecting the distance, really. So apparently, it’s the only distance I respect, since I am willing to run most others willy-nilly!

Do you have any race distances that you won’t run “just for the fun of it”? Or are they all that way for you? (Yeah, I am not a very “serious” racer!)

Oops, I thought this post was going to be about movie watching marathons. To which I must say, as much as I love this one, Star Wars will always be number 1!

*Minus the first one, which we already owned.
**Although you’d never be able to tell from this picture! I was still getting over being sick and you could totally see it in my face!
***We’re watching them in story chronological order, not chronological release order, so we still have to get through Tokyo Drift.
****These movies are ridiculous but I find them to be enjoyable and entertaining to watch! Now I’ll have to wait until April for Furious 7!

Comments (32)

By kilax, January 7, 2015 7:23 am

… which would you choose?

Today was my sixth run of the year, first one indoors… and first one with Kelly*!

Gah! We had not seen each other (to run or at all!) since December 18th and I felt SO off. Off because that meant I was doing a solo workout later in the day, and not starting my day feeling energized from a wake-up-and-go run. And also, SUPER off because Kelly is the friend I chat with most in person on a weekly basis, and not doing that (among several other things) was making me feel grumpy, and anti-social. Which made me not want to talk to anyone. When really, that is what would help my mood. Ahh, it’s a vicious cycle. Ha ha. 

Anyway! We met for some miles at a local, inexpensive indoor (around .25 miles) track this am. And I was just thinking about what a nice option it is, for when running is so dangerous outside (I am more concerned about the sheet of ice covering the street in my neighborhood than the high of -1°F with a “feel” of -14°F or whatever today… but I do have to say, I was able to go farther indoors that I would have been, outdoors). I think I will be using it more this winter, since I actually have 17 weeks of speedwork planned out to get me ready for a goal 5K and half marathon, and I don’t want to slip on my behind while running repeats!

How about you? When it’s your definition of too dangerous to run outside, are you on the treadmill, hitting up an indoor track, taking a rest day or cross training?

We have a treadmill, but I don’t have the mental capacity to use it. Although I should! I could use the mental training. 

*Don’t worry, I won’t annoy you with these stats all year-round! I hope not, anyway. Err…

Comments (19)

By kilax, January 4, 2015 9:33 pm

Highlight of the Week: Starting the new year with a workout with my dad! And actually being able to workout, right away in the new year. 

Monday | December 29, 2014: 5.6 m run + teaching strength class
Loc: Millennium Trail, Temp: 27°/28°, Time: 53:32, Pace: 9:34 avg, Difficulty: easy/medium, Felt: good/hungry
Strength: Sand bags, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good, in shape
Tuesday | December 30, 2014: rest
Wednesday | December 31, 2014: 4.4 m run + 10 m bike/10 min core
Loc: Millennium Tail, Temp: -2°/-1°, Time: 42:07, Pace: 9:35 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Bike Time: 40:47, Pace: 14.7 mph avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: fine
Thursday | January 1, 2015: 10.3 m run (w/Dad on bike)/10 min strength
Loc: Indian Creek Trail/Overland Park, Temp: 30°/34°, Time: 1:41:28, Pace: 9:51 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: fantastic
Friday | January 2, 2015: 6 m run (w/Dad on bike)
Loc: Overland Park, Temp: 37°/37°, Time: 58:41, Pace: 9:46, Difficulty: decent, Felt: so full from lunch, ha ha
Saturday | January 3, 2015: 8 m run
Loc: Line Creek Trail (KCMO), Temp: 33°/35°, Time: 1:20:45, Pace: 10:05 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Sunday | January 4, 2015: 4 m run
Loc: Line Creek Trail (KCMO), Temp: 6°/8°, Time: 42:56, Pace: 10:44 avg, Difficulty: medium, Felt: okay

Notes:

• I had the flu/some lung issues at the end of 2013 and in to 2014, so my January last year was… less than stellar. I am so grateful to be healthy and working out right away in 2015! 
• And my first three runs of the year were in such nice weather! 30s and hardly any wind! Sunday was a dose of reality again – 6°F out and feels like -13°F because of 19 mph winds with gusts in the mid 20s. Ha ha, winter is here!
• I also started 2015 out with my normal tracking spreadsheets, and some new ones. I just love tracking pointless data (like who my runs were with, in which state, etc.) even though I could very likely run a report on Garmin to tell me all that info. Eh, it makes it fun for me! So far, 50% of my runs this year were with my dad on his bike, and 50% of them were in Kansas, and the other 50% were in Missouri. Those stats will change very soon!

Link to Training Week 271