Comments (22)

By kilax, March 31, 2015 7:22 am

Buah ha ha. You guys can totally tell what this pattern I knit is, right? RIGHT?!

Oh, maybe a close-up would help:

What, you still can’t tell?!

Any last guesses before I show you the pattern?

Ha. That monstrosity, is supposed to be this:

No, not a knitted scene of Data, Steven’s slipper, and an arrow pointing to a knitted pattern of three cats, ha ha. It supposed the pattern the arrow is pointing to.

Um, yeah.

Even Data knew it was crap. Look at that judgy face when I was getting started!

Seriously, mom? You’re such a loser.

I could kind of tell after the first few rows that the pattern was not going to turn out. But I decided to keep going for practice. And now… I get to practice un-doing the whole thing and hand winding a ball of yarn! Ha!

The good news is, I can read a pattern. The bad news is, I can’t tell which patterns are bad, simply by looking at them. Eh. I was kind of bored after knitting a washcloth with an “I” monogram and wanted to try something different. And now I did. Ha ha.

Steven and I are actually looking for a pattern for a knitted laptop sleeve (for me to make), but I can’t find one that we both really like that isn’t crocheted. The search continues!

Comments (23)

By kilax, March 30, 2015 12:49 pm

Does 60 miles seem too far?

Not to us, apparently!

Ha ha, keep in mind, I am searching for vegan donuts. Which, according to the power of Google (which I am not quite sure I trust) means heading to Chicago or Milwaukee. And I will almost always choose driving to Milwaukee. Same distance, less stressful drive*, easier parking, work hasn’t ruined it for me, etc.

So our Sunday morning included a jaunt to Milwaukee for donuts (both of us) and coffee (Steven).

Holey Moley is the lobby of an office building (in the Third Ward district) and doesn’t have seating for one (or two) to consume a box of donuts, so we took them over to the the public market.

Hmm, I feel like one visit to the public market seems to… suffice for awhile? We were there in October, and the shops seemed to be offering the same things as then (and just like during my October trip, I picked up some beer soap (this time for my Grandma with her wash cloths) and had some delicious Egyptian rice again). So we didn’t stay for long but decided we should do something in Milwaukee since we were “all the way up there.” Ha ha.

So! Let’s go on a brewery tour!

Never mind that neither of us hardly drink beer! Ha!

The Lakefront Brewery Tour had awesome reviews on TripAdvisor and costs $8 a person for a 45-minute tour (which included four 6 oz drinks per person, and a complimentary glass at the end). Sounds like a good deal to me!

I went on my first brewery tour last June, to Boulevard Brewing Co, in Kansas City. And yes, even though I rarely drink alcohol (and not typically beer), I thought it was really interesting to learn how beer is made. But… I pretty much forgot most of what I learned then, so this tour was a good refresher. A kind of off-color, dirty-joke filled, refresher (which I liked, ha!). These brewery tour guides seem to really love their jobs (surprise, surprise). Which I think is awesome!

Probably not so awesome… that Steven had to finish almost all of my beer for me. (Wait. Why would that not be awesome?)

Double fisting like a trooper!

Err, at least I tried it? And kind of liked it? What can I say, I am a slooooooow beer drinker.

We both thought Lakefront had decent beer, which, since we don’t drink beer that often, probably means it’s not good at all (but correct me if I’m wrong!).

After our tour we had to fill our bellies with more food so we headed over to the Palomino Bar, which happens to have a few vegan things on the menu. After having chicken fried steak, vegan “eggs,” and vegan fried pie, we called our gastronomic tour of Milwaukee a day… and headed home. Where we made our own version of Egyptian rice for dinner.

Carbs, carbs and more carbs. This is going to be my new pre-long run/race meal!

Would you believe me if I said we both went to bed with a belly ache? Ha ha, well worth it, though!

*minus the oddity of the slow left-lane cruisers on the tri-state in Wisconsin.

Comments (10)

By kilax, March 29, 2015 6:04 pm

Highlight of the Week: That it’s over. Ha! Just kidding. The classes I taught were a lot of fun this week!

Monday | March 23, 2015: 7 m run + teaching strength class
Loc: hood, Temp: 29°/29°, Time: 1:08:30, Pace: 9:47 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Strength: plate circuit + plyo/core, Difficulty: medium, Felt: good
Tuesday | March 24, 2015: 10 m run (w/Kelly) + teaching strength class
Loc: Grayslake, Temp: 15°/13°, Time: 1:40:44, Pace: 10:04 avg, Difficulty: medium, Felt: tired w/heavy legs, BUT! No wind!!!
Strength: bench & kettlebells, + plyo, Difficulty: medium, Felt: good
Wednesday | March 25, 2015:  rest
Thursday | March 26, 2015: 6.5 m run (w/Kelly, incl. 2×2)
Loc: Grayslake, Temp: 33°/33°, Time: 1:02:20, Pace: 9:35 avg, Difficulty: mostly easy, Felt: good, but need to figure out pacing
Friday | March 27, 2015:  teaching strength class + 12 m run
Strength: plates + plyo/core, Difficulty: medium, Felt: okay but disoriented
Loc: Round Lake to Grayslake, Temp: 24°/28°, Time: 2:08:27, Pace: 10:42, Difficulty: easy, Felt: physically good, mentally miserable
Saturday | March 28, 2015: teaching cycling class (21.6 m) + teaching fitness boxing + 3 m run (w/Dawn)
Loc: Efit, Bike Time: 1:06:25, Pace: 19.5 mph avg, Difficulty: mostly easy, Felt: mostly good (sore from massage)
Strength: boxing and body weight workout (step), Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Loc: Grayslake, Temp: 28°/30°, Time: 29:38, Pace: 9:52 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Sunday | March 29, 2015: rest

Notes:

• I start these weekly training posts drafts the Sunday before the week starts, and usually type as I go. This week, my first bullet point in the draft was that I’m at that point in training where stupid little things are making me super irritated (like the wind, and the fact that I don’t seem to get in to a groove until 6-8 miles in to a run), and how I thought that meant it was the perfect time to start my taper. Ha! I didn’t know how right that would turn out to be! I actually QUIT my Friday long run because I was just SO over the cold wind. I wanted to do my last 20+ mile long run for the ultra, and headed out in the wind, knowing it will be at my back on the way back. And seven miles in, I mentally gave up. It wasn’t worth fighting it anymore. I’ve done the training, and have dealt with nasty freaking weather all winter and don’t need to go out there and make myself mentally miserable over it. So I ran to Steven’s work and rode home with him. Ha! And felt much happier at home, getting some things prepped for my Saturday classes, than outside feeling pissed about the wind.
• And… now that I’ve got that negativity out, my week was pretty good! I taught some extra classes at the studio, got to run twice with Kelly (and it was hardly windy for both runs!), got a massage in prep for my two upcoming races, and ended the week with a really good run with Dawn!
• The speedwork Kelly and I are doing has switched over to being half marathon focused (I had it 5K focused until mid March, which is when I thought I would race a 5K… oops) and I really need to work on my pacing for half marathon pace. On Thursday, we ran two sets of two miles at just over half pace, and we ran the second mile 20 seconds faster than we were supposed to on each set. I’d like to be more even!

Link to Training Week 283

Comments (25)

By kilax, March 25, 2015 5:36 am

In late January I told my snister I got her something for Valentine’s Day – “I sent you a Valentine’s Day gift! So if something arrives that doesn’t have a ‘from’ on it, but you’re pretty sure that it’s from me, it is.”

That same day, she told me that she also sent me something for Valentine’s Day. Aww! 

Her gift for me arrived first. When I saw it was in a styrofoam case and had instructions to open it carefully, I had a feeling… a feeling we got each other the same thing. 

Yep! We both sent each other custom mugs!

Ha ha, great minds think alike, and all that! (Her mug arrived two days later and we totally giggled about getting each other something so similar! TWINZ!!!)

I kind of love mugs. I’ve written about it before, and since then, um, my collection has expanded a bit. I swear though, I’ve only purchased a few mugs since writing that. Almost all of them are gifts! And I did recently donate all of our matching ones to Goodwill. We never used them – they were too boring (and small)! 

I know that a lot of you are a little mug obsessed, too, which makes me feel better for not being alone in my craziness! 

I can’t take credit for the awesome mug I got my snister, though! My running partner, Kelly, actually told me about finding those mugs on an etsy site, and wanting to get one for her bestie*. I looked at them and thought they were so cute I got one for my snister and one for my bestie in Texas. 

*This post is coming a bit after Valentine’s Day because I waited to post this after Kelly got the mug and gave it to her bestie, who reads my blog. Would’ve hated to spoil the surprised for her!

Comments (31)

By kilax, March 24, 2015 6:23 am

The scarf Data was modeling last week wasn’t actually Waldo inspired… but Wisconsin Badgers inspired!

With Rachel (who’s a Badgers fan) visiting last weekend, and March Madness going on, I thought it would be humorous to knit these for her cats, Leo (above) and Sox (below).

I expected them to be annoyed by the scarves, but Rachel said they didn’t mind and ended up sleeping with them! Aww!

I was eager to move on to another project, after I finished the cat scarves. But what? When I finished the infinity scarf for my snister in February, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to work on, so I started another scarf with the same pattern. I enjoyed working on it for a good month (it’s almost done now), but I got a bit bored with it. It was just the same pattern, row after row after row after row. This time, I wanted to try something that had a bit more variety, and would be done quicker (ha – that scarf has hundreds of rows, and I picked a new project with 61 rows!).

So I looked around on Ravelry and found this pattern for monogrammed dishcloths. I’ll be seeing my maternal grandmother in April and knew she would get a kick out of them! I often buy her handmade soap, so why not some handmade cloths to go with?

I started on Thursday night and finished on Sunday night. I did the pink one first, and really liked it, then moved on the to multi-colored one. It was my first time working with a skein like that and I had NO idea what it would turn out like. And… I don’t really like it, ha ha! I like the green one the best, because of the color, and because I was holding the yarn tighter, and I prefer the way that made the spacing turn out. Of course, I’m sure my grandma will think all three are great!

I ended up buying the entire alphabet pattern for these dishcloths, because I liked the font style, so it’ll be fun to knit other letters. It’s pretty cool that just by varying whether you are knitting or purling a stitch, you end up with a design!

Comments (25)

By kilax, March 23, 2015 6:26 am

Ha! I am not talking about fun sailor-speak. I am actually specifically thinking of two words: only, and just.

If only it were as simple as the “no more and no less” definition. But I think these words lean toward the “merely” definition, a lot of the time. And “merely” has its own connotation…

Huh?

I’ll explain. Like with most examples in my life, this stems from the exercise world. But it could be applied to any hobby or skill that you start out with basics and build on them and keep learning and expanding your skillset. Hmm, to which hobbies or skills does that generalization not apply? Anyway…

A common (but obviously not the only <– legit use of the word) path in beginning to run is to train for a 5K distance race. Then after the race, you have a lot of choices – do more of them, train for something longer, train to run it faster, stop running completely… you get the idea. Many people choose to train for something longer. Then something amazing happens – this distance you used to be training to run as your end goal, now becomes a distance that you can run many times a week, to train for something longer. Like I said, it’s similar to many hobbies, like me learning to knit. Now that I’ve gotten the basics down, I am trying different patterns (I’ll show you my new project soon!), but there is still a lot for me to learn – like circular needles, and projects that aren’t rectilinear and require adding or subtracting stitches (and much, much more).

So what the heck am I getting at? That as we build our skill set, things that used to be hard, are now easy. Duh. Ha ha. And that is great – that is progress! But, what I want to talk about, is, well, how we talk about it.

“You ran before teaching class, Kim?”

“Yeah! Just 3 miles.”

Dammit! Why did I say “just” 3? There is nothing “just” about running that distance! It’s a good workout!

“The running route from my house to Red Robin is only 13 miles.”

Crap! Why did I qualify that with “only”? I could have just said, “it’s 13, so we’ll have to add on to get in higher mileage.”

As you can see, I’ve become über conscious of my use of “only,” and “just” as of late. For three reasons:

• I work with a varied clientele at the studio, and they don’t need to hear me say those words then infer that something that might be difficult for them, is easy for me. Or worse, that I consider it a “lesser” workout. It could be discouraging.* (And really, same thing on blogs – it’s not very fun to read people downplaying what they can do – in that annoying humble bragging sort of way.)
• Saying those words downplays my accomplishments.*
• Saying those words makes me sound like a pompous ass.

I often think of my winter training season in 2012 when I was training specifically to get a personal record at a 5K, and so many of my running acquaintances gave me crap about it. “Only a 5K?” “Why not a marathon?” So much confusion from people.

Here is the thing – I was training my butt off for that 5K – running about 30 miles a week, including double digit runs and speedwork. It was offensive that people implied I was slacking off by “only” training for a 5K.

And… what if I never want to run a marathon again? Increasing distance is just ONE path you can choose in running… there are so many other things to do. Open up your eyes, peeps!

Anyway. I am not saying this all to be preachy about what words you choose to use, just as a reminder to myself to think before I use these two, when quantifying something. And PLEASE, call me out if I do!

*But I am not implying not to talk about what I can do, just not to use these words, when I do.

Comments (6)

By kilax, March 22, 2015 3:58 pm

Highlight of the Week: Feeling fantastic on my long run!

Monday | March 16, 2015: 6 m run + teaching strength class
Loc: Millennium Trail, Temp: 56°/60°, Time: 54:53, Pace: 9:08 avg, Difficulty: medium, Felt: the hills and heat
Strength: Kettlebells & Bench, Difficulty: easy, Felt: meh
Tuesday | March 17, 2015: 13 m run (w/Kelly) + 13 m bike
Loc: Grayslake, Temp: 43°/36°, Time: 2:11:44, Pace: 10:08 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: challenged by the wind
Bike Time: 44:34, Pace: 17.5 mph avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Wednesday | March 18, 2015:  rest
Thursday | March 19, 2015: 5 m run (incl. 5×800)
Loc: hood, Temp: 38°/37°, Time: 42:55, Pace: 8:35 avg, Difficulty: medium, Felt: harder than it should have
Friday | March 20, 2015: teaching strength class + 3 m run
Strength: Kettlebells & Bench, Difficulty: medium, Felt: so so (getting a cold)
Loc: Millennium Trail, Temp: 51°/51°, Time: 28:57, Pace: 9:39, Difficulty: easy, Felt: super annoyed by the wind
Saturday | March 21, 2015: 19 m run (w/Rachel)
Loc: Home to Red Robin, Temp: 42°/45°, Time: 3:11:28, Pace: 10:05 avg, Difficulty: mostly easy, Felt: mostly good!
Sunday | March 22, 2015: teaching fitness boxing + 4 m run
Strength: boxing and body weight workout (step), Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Loc: hood, Temp: 34°/34°, Time: 34:49, Pace: 8:42 avg, Difficulty: mostly easy, Felt: amazing

Notes:

• The wind was such a bear this week… yay, start of spring! It was actually windy enough on my long run Saturday that I stopped at mile 7 to put my arm warmers on. That doesn’t seem odd for a normal person, but it’s odd for me to be wearing arm warmers with a tank when it’s in the mid 40s! Eh, it will be like this for the next month or longer. I’ll deal.
• My long run was awesome though – Rachel was in town for the concert so I had company! We ran from my house to Red Robin, and Steven met us there and we had lunch. And even better, Rachel and I had pretty even splits and felt good the whole time! We’re just under three weeks until our ultra, woot woot!
• I made sure not to do speedwork the day before my long run this week, and that made me feel MUCH better! The hills didn’t feel as challenging as last week, either. I miss the snow, but one nice thing about it being gone is that I can run my hilly routes!
• Even though I haven’t done any of my goal races yet this year (5K or half marathon), I’ve kind of been thinking about what I want to do after them, in the late spring. I keep thinking, “hmm, maybe if the Wisconsin Half goes really well, I will keep training and do a marathon a few weeks later.” But, yeah. I typically ramp down after the Wisconsin Half, and, who knows what the weather will be like in late May! We shall see!

Link to Training Week 282

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By kilax, March 21, 2015 4:07 pm

Foreigner and Styx were touring together last year and I thought about getting tickets, and didn’t. I don’t regret many decisions I make in life, but I DEFINITELY regretted that one. I really like Foreigner and wondered if I’d ever have a chance to see them again…

Then I ran across an article last November saying Foreigner was coming to Waukegan, Illinois, in March! YESSSSSSS!!! Here was my chance to see them!

I sent the article to the person I know loves 80s (and late 70s?) music like I do, Rachel, and she did not hesitate in saying “count me in!”

I don’t think we could have been any more pumped for the concert! Every time I heard (or played) a Foreigner song, I got so excited! We decided to do some 80s inspired glamming up for the show, and figured other people would too…

Nope. Just us. Ha! And I think we may have been the youngest people there! I was surprised! Where were all the other young 30s Foreigner fans? Ha ha.

The concert was last night at the Genesee theater. Not everyone I told about the concert thought it sounded like an idea of fun (one person even asked if I was getting paid to go, jokingly!), but everyone told me the Genesee is beautiful, and it is!

I thought it might feel funny to be watching a rock concert in a place that feels like it’s set up for an opera or orchestral concert, but once the show started, I completely forgot about it! The space had great acoustics and Foreigner sounded AMAZING. Gah, it was so fun to hear all their popular songs being sung, live (here’s the set list)!!! I really can’t decide which song was my favorite, but I particularly enjoyed “Dirty White Boy,” “Say You Will,” “Feels Like the First Time,” “Urgent,” and “Juke Box Hero.” Ha. I just listed half the set – I might as well list them all!

The entire band was fun to watch, but the current lead singer (Kelly Hansen) was especially amusing – just dancing all over, going in to the crowd, touching people’s hands in the crowd, calling them old (ha), making fun of them for sitting, shaking his booty during “Dirty White Boy,” and so on. So high energy! I was smiling the whole time!

And I thought this was really cool – a local high school choir got to come on stage and sing the refrain with the band during “I Want to Know What Love Is.” What a neat opportunity!

I’m so grateful I got a chance to go, and that Rachel came with me! I wonder what awesome 80s band we will see next?! Ha!

Tell me your favorite Foreigner song!

Comments (24)

By kilax, March 16, 2015 6:13 am

And lost my dignity in the meantime.

Just kidding! I bet my coworkers thought it was totally normal when they asked me what I was knitting in the break room and I answered, “A scarf. For a cat.”

Totally normal.

Comments (13)

By kilax, March 15, 2015 3:48 pm

Highlight of the Week: That I actually cross-trained twice and did strength twice on my own!

Monday | March 9, 2015: 5 m run (w/Kelly) + teaching strength class
Loc: Grayslake, Temp: 22°/22°, Time: 47:58, Pace: 9:36 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Strength: Kettlebells & Bench, + boxing, Difficulty: easy (mostly observing), Felt: good
Tuesday | March 10, 2015: 12 m run (w/Kelly) + 10 m bike + 10 min strength
Loc: Grayslake, Temp: 34°/34°, Time: 1:56:49, Pace: 9:44 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good, tired at the end
Bike Time: 28:57, Pace: 20.7 mph avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good, not as bored as usual! ha ha
Wednesday | March 11, 2015: rest
Thursday | March 12, 2015: 6.5 m run (w/Kelly, incl. 2×2)
Loc: Grayslake, Temp: 22°/22°, Time: 1:00:27, Pace: 9:18 avg, Difficulty: easy/medium, Felt: surprisingly good
Friday | March 13, 2015: teaching strength class + 21 m run
Strength: Kettlebells & Bench, + boxing, Difficulty: medium, Felt: okay
Loc: Around town, Temp: 45°/61°, Time: 3:35:15, Pace: 10:15, Difficulty: medium, Felt: okay, just tired legs
Saturday | March 14, 2015: 15 m bike + 10 min strength/core
Bike Time: 54:17, Pace: 16.6 mph avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good to move the legs
Sunday | March 15, 2015: 3 m run + teaching fitness boxing + 4 m run (w/Bobbi, Dawn & Judy)
Loc: Millennium Trail, Temp: 29°/31°, Time: 28:48, Pace: 9:36 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good to wake up the legs
Strength: boxing and body weight workout (step), Difficulty: mostly easy, Felt: good
Loc: Grayslake, Temp: 42°/47°, Time: 44:59, Pace: 11:14 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good

Notes:

• Quite the difference between this week’s and last week’s long runs! Last week’s was 2° when I started and 18° when I finished. It was windy and I wore MANY layers. This week’s was 45° when I started and 61° when I ended. It was windy, but it felt good, and I wore a tank and shorts and my water vest. And got a lot of sun. I expected the sun and heat (and the hills that I haven’t been running since they were previously covered in snow) to drain me on this week’s long run, but I actually felt pretty good – just had tired legs.
• Oh yeah. That. Tired legs. I need to NOT do speedwork the day before a long run (really, those two should not be back-to-back, any week!). And doing a somewhat leg-focused strength workout the morning of a long run probably isn’t a good idea, either. Ha ha. A short ride on Saturday made my legs feel back to normal though!
• I did my long run the day after speedwork on purpose though, because I wanted to sleep in on Saturday, instead of get up to run. It was worth having tired legs during the run on Friday, so I had a free Saturday morning. That doesn’t happen very often (the free Saturday morning, not the tired legs, ha!).
• How did everyone do with losing an hour of sleep last Sunday? I thought that the nap I took last Sunday (due to a headache) helped me out at the beginning of the week, but by midweek, I was dragging. I hope sleeping in Saturday (and a nap today, ha!) helps!
• I did two quick strength sessions at home this week (and taught three not-quick ones, ha ha, at Efit). I was better about these at-home sessions at the end of last year and in early January. I’d like to keep them up. I like the ration of runs to strength where it is right now (in the image above) – 62 runs and 31 strength sessions for the year. That 2 to 1 ratio would be awesome to keep up throughout the year. Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.

Link to Training Week 281