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By kilax, August 16, 2015 12:21 pm

Highlight of the Week: Seeing an amazing rainbow on Monday’s run!

Monday | August 10, 2015: 8 m run + teaching strength class
Loc: Millennium Trail to Nippersink FP, Temp: 71°/73°, Time: 1:20:15 Pace: 10:02 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: great
Strength: Body bars and boxing bags, Difficulty: medium, Felt: good
Tuesday | August 11, 2015: 7.2 m run + 2.9 m run
Loc: to Efit, Temp: 74°/73°, Time: 1:14:08, Pace: 10:18 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: tired
Loc: from Efit, Temp: 72°/72°, Time: 29:39, Pace: 10:13 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: better
Wednesday | August 12, 2015: rest
Thursday | August 13, 2015: 6 m run
Loc: Millennium Trail, Temp: 65°/64°, Time: 1:02:48, Pace: 10:28 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Friday | August 14, 2015: teaching strength class + 20 m run
Strength: Body bars and boxing bags, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Loc: Round Lake/Grant Woods FP, Temp: 71°/77°, Time: 3:50:45, Pace: 11:32, Difficulty: easy/hard, Felt: steady (first 13)/soaked (last 7)
Saturday | August 15, 2015: 11 m ride
Loc: Round Lake, Temp: 81°/81°, Time: 49:02, Pace: 13.5 mph avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: hot, but good
Sunday | August 16, 2015: 8 m run (virtual w/Kelly, incl. 2×800, 4×400, 1×800) + OWS
Loc: hood, Temp: 71°/71°, Time: 1:23:57, Pace: 10:29 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good!
Loc: Grays Lake, Temp (air): 75°/79°, Time: 22:00, Pace: 2:31 m/100 yd (est), Difficulty: easy, Felt: refreshing

Notes:

• My running pace typically gets much higher in the summer, and it hasn’t increased as much this year, but I’ve noticed I’m taking more pauses and walk breaks toward the ends of my runs than I normally do. Which means I am running too fast. So I slowed down this week, and ran much more consistently. I’d rather have that than a lower average pace (with a crazy huge time gap between elapsed and moving time)!
• We’ve had a streak of oppressive, muggy days here. It was so bad during my long run that all the sweat from my legs dripped in to my socks, so that I was running with slippery bath water toes… which really hurts my Morton’s toe. Wah wah wah, I know. Ha. I think I will start carrying another pair of socks in my pack to see if switching them out helps at all. Can’t wait to see how the pedicure technician reacts to my toes on Tuesday!
• The good thing about my long run is that I ran through some neighborhoods that I hadn’t before (to get to a forest preserve). I have a few long run routes I can take from my house that I really like, but I was just looking for something different, so that was a nice change.
• This week someone commented on how me eating a burrito wasn’t healthy. I said “I’m going to run 12 miles today, I think I’m fine” (full disclosure – I only ended up with 10 because I got a much appreciated ride back on my run commute, but whatever). Sigh. Yeah, I shouldn’t eat a burrito every day (I don’t). I should lose weight (eh). But… people should also keep their mouth shut about what I eat! How about that?! Ha. Don’t worry, it didn’t bother me. I mostly thought it was funny.

Link to Training Week 303

Comments (23)

By kilax, August 13, 2015 6:18 am

I was on the track team in junior high. Everyone who wanted to be on the track team… got to be on the track team – you didn’t have to compete for spots (read: I wasn’t very good, but was really in to all the sports in junior high, for some odd reason).

Only a few things stick out to me about junior high track: how scared I was of the hurdles (still true), how I was always in the middle/back of the pack (still true), disliking running on the track in the hot sun (still true), the track itself, the training route we’d run to the high school and back, and… one really weird thing.

The ponytail rule.

Seriously, this is so odd.

When we ran (in training, not at meets), our coach would shout to us from the sidelines, “I don’t want to see those ponytails going side to side! They should be going up and down!”

Um, what?!

Yeah… he didn’t want any lateral ponytail sway. Only a slight up and down vertical bob.

I couldn’t figure it out then. I can’t figure it out, now. Did we have too much lateral movement? Is that what it was about? Were we not holding our heads straight, and looking ahead? Did he want us to be robots?

And isn’t ponytail sway all about how you tie your hair up, anyway?

Ha ha ha. This actually stuck with me so much, that when I started running consistently in 2006, I thought about which way my ponytail was going. Then realized how silly it was, and wore my hair in a bun.

Ahh, the funny things we remember from our youth.

(This story makes this guy sound crazy. He wasn’t. I just don’t think I was grasping whatever he was getting at with this.)

Comments (17)

By kilax, August 12, 2015 6:37 am

I wasn’t sure if I should sit on the quiet car this morning for my train ride because I wasn’t sure if I’d nap or knit. If I knitted, I didn’t want my plastic needles touching each other to annoy people.*

So I tried to knit quietly.

I went to the hobby store Saturday night to pick out yarn for a baby blanket for my younger brother and his wife and got completely distracted by the Red Heart Boutique Boulevard jumbo yarn. I probably never would have gotten started on the baby blanket if I hadn’t had to wait for Monday for the size 19 needles to arrive to use the jumbo yarn.

Gah, this stuff is so easy, quick and fun to knit with. I finished a project on Monday**, another on Tuesday, and started a third this morning on the train! Can I just use jumbo yarn for the rest of my projects?! Please?!

Or I could work on that slow-moving, 150 stitch per row baby blanket… Getting used to circulars was interesting (thanks to Mica for sending me a kit and to Gina for sending me a pair!), but I think I finally got the hang of it. The baby is due Sunday. It’s okay if I get the blanket done in October, right?!

*I felt less bad about this when I took my headphones off and realized the woman sitting behind me was blaring music so loudly on hers I would’ve heard it if I didn’t have mine on.
**I will share a photo after I give it away!

Comments (20)

By kilax, August 11, 2015 6:29 am

When Steven and I were running errands on Sunday, we saw something that made us laugh and Steven asked if I wanted him to drive by it so I could take a picture.

“Nah,” I told him. “That’s not something I’d regret not taking a picture of.”

“What is?”

I was quick to respond – “Mostly nature stuff.”*

Stuff like this:

Those are photos I’d regretted not taking. I still think about the time I drove past this park in the early am and there was a beautiful fog over the lake, and I didn’t stop to take a picture. I keep hoping it will happen again, but it hasn’t yet.

I ran across an interesting article* (pdf here) about how baby boomers (born between 1946-1964) are starting to clean out their homes, and that their millennial age (born between 1980-2000) children don’t want their hand-me-down furniture, family heirlooms, or memorabilia.

“Millennials are living a more transient life in cities. They are trying to find stable jobs and paying off loans. They are living their life digitally through Instagram and Facebook and YouTube, and that’s how they are capturing their moments. Their whole life is on a computer; they don’t need a shoebox full of greeting cards.”

Interesting, right? Getting a bit off topic here, but the article hypothesizes that baby boomers were collectors, who enjoyed the hunt, and that while millennials were raised in the “collect-’em-all culture” (like Beanie Babies and Happy Meal toys), they’ve mostly been able to find what they want on eBay, and don’t have the space for all that stuff in their small city homes, anyway. They’d rather collect memories, than items.

It’s a huge generalization, and I know many millennials who do NOT fit that description. I know millennial collectors. And I am a millennial and have no desire to live in the city. I do HIGHLY value my digital collections, but I still have a box full of, yes, greeting cards, that mean something to me.

But getting back on track, in the article, one of the people interviewed called himself a “digital hoarder,” saying, “If I can’t store my memories of something in a computer, I’m probably not going to keep them around.”

Now, that doesn’t 100% describe me, because, like I said, I still keep tangible memorabilia around, but I am definitely a digital hoarder. My digital photo library is crazy huge. And I access it daily. Yes, referencing the older photos, too.

Capturing photos of moments I want to remember is incredibly important to me. Writing down those memories on this blog is important too. Sharing them on social media (I use Facebook), isn’t highly important to me, but I still do it from time to time (more on my blog page, than personal page).

I was listening to a podcast where the host and his interviewee talked about how people need to stop taking so many dang photos and just enjoy the moment. I see what they are saying. You go to National Monuments, or a sporting event, or a concert, or whatever, and people are taking photos the whole time (and you always presume it’s so they can immediately post it on social media to proclaim how interesting they are for doing what they are doing, AT THAT VERY MOMENT). You do wonder if they are experiencing ANYTHING.

But I don’t think we should go so far in the other direction to not take ANY photos (which is what they were saying on this podcast). Like I said, I’d regret not capturing those. And yes, part of the reason I did take these rainbow photos was to share it with people – I wanted to share my joy in seeing it. But I also wanted the photo for me. And I ran with a huge smile on my face after I saw it, while I could see it during my run, and for the rest of my run.

*And family/group photos too. Yeah, they are staged, but I like them. I like to see them, and remember why we were together.

Comments (27)

By kilax, August 10, 2015 6:07 am

Sunday was my fourth year participating in the Iron Girl* sprint distance triathlon relay, my third time doing it as an Efit team, and my second time being on a team with Judy.

The two Efit teams – Efit Sophisticates and Efit Exquisites

Me and Judy

It was my first time being on a two-person relay time, and my first time time trying the swim portion of the event! Actually, it was my first time ever swimming in a “competitive” event (since middle school, anyway – ha!).

Sigh. When I told people I was doing a triathlon relay, and that I was swimming and running, so many people immediately asked why I wasn’t doing the whole thing. Told me they thought I should do the whole thing. Told me that I would regret not doing the whole thing. Told me they’d been thinking about it, and decided I should do a triathlon, on my own. (Then there was the very unique reaction my worrywart mother had, where she thought I would get a leg cramp and drown…)

Sigh again. I like doing these as a RELAY team. I do not have the interest now, in the logistics of doing a triathlon on my own. I just don’t. Could I do one? Yes, I could. Would I enjoy it? Probably not. That is what I determined during my swim Sunday morning.

So back to the race. It was a foggy day, with temps in the mid/high 60s but with high humidity. The water was at 79.5° and not wetsuit legal (although, Iron Girl did allow a wetsuit wave, so you could use it, you just couldn’t qualify for age group placements).

The water felt great to be in, and was smooth. It made me want to spend the day playing around in it, ha ha.

The race started at 7:00, and the relayers were in the 7:45 wave, with the 20-29 year olds. I felt excited to try the swim, and did not want to go out too fast and get out of breath, like I tend to in the pool.

I followed my friends’ advice to not be in the middle of the pack, and to stay to the side. I followed the announcer’s advice, for the less experienced swimmers to stay to the right (that is where the help was on the swim course – the bouys were to the left).

I felt good when I went out. I planned to do freestyle stroke for as long as possible, and use breaststroke to catch my breath, as I had practiced. But as soon as I did my first breaststroke break, I stayed in that “rest” mode way longer than I intended, and ended up doing mostly breaststroke, which I enjoy, but come on, we know freestyle is way faster! Ha ha.

I had a lot of oddly negative self talk during the swim, which is not like me, AT ALL. Just stuff like “you’re not so good at this,” and so on. Which, duh, yeah, why would I be a very “good” swimmer? It’s not really something I want to be – I want to swim for leisure and cross training. Why I’d like to have better form, I don’t really have a desire to be good at swimming.

On person bumped in to me during the swim, but apologized (I thought that was nice). Other than that, there wasn’t a ton of contact. When I saw two swimmers were about to collide, I would get out of their way. I kind of enjoyed the swim, but, I just didn’t DIG it. I didn’t immensely enjoy it, like I do with biking and running. And I know most people say that the swim is the least enjoyable part of the triathlon, but here’s the thing – if I am going to be mediocre at the athletic events I do, I want to ENJOY them. I do not see the point of doing a triathlon “because I can” when I don’t enjoy the first event. I can just do a duathlon. Or not. (<— probably not)

So, yeah. My goal was to finish the half mile swim in between 15 and 20 minutes, and my official time was 17:58.

My plan after the swim was to sprint like hell to Judy so she could get on her bike as fast as possible.

Success! Transition 1 was 00:46 seconds!

Gah, I was so incredibly out of breath from the rush of sprinting in. It took me awhile to calm down… and I am not sure I ever really did. I dried off as well as I could and changed in to my running clothes as quickly as possible. Judy was expecting the 12 mile ride to take her 35 minutes.

The 35 minutes went fast and I was getting pumped up, watching for Judy!

She came in at 39:25 (she later told me she felt great for the first half but low on energy for the second half),

and we had another awesome transition – transition 2 in 00:44.

I took off fast! I was hoping to get a 5K time between 24 and 25 minutes.

Right away, I did NOT like the feeling of water coming down from my wet hair. Or… was that the nasty humidity, affecting me THAT soon?! Either way, yuck. I know now I don’t like running with wet hair.

I could tell my timing chip was a bit loose and planned to adjust it later. Oops – guess I could have used more time in T2, for precision.

I focused on running the tangents as well as possible with passing so many people (because so many had started before me and were doing the full triathlon and had less energy than I did after resting after the swim). But I really messed up the tangents (and started my watch too early) and ended up running 3.3 miles, which screwed with my time.

Although… I would not be surprised if the course was not accurate. The bike course seems to be short. And Iron Girl has a poor 5K course design. I didn’t run the 5K portion in 2014, but people were telling me how part of it was an out and back on gravel and loose rocks (when I ran it in 2013 and previously, it was all paved). When I was talking to Dawn (an Efit friend on another team) about it on Saturday, she said she looked at the map and they took the gravel part out. Well, the map said that, but they seemed to use the 2014 map on race day, which are both linked to on their website… on the same page (the 2015 one under “participant guide” and the 2014 one under “triathlon course map”). They also added a 5K event this year, and that was supposed to stay off the gravel – I hope they at least got to, because an out and back on a narrow loose gravel path during a 5K is DANGEROUS. It slowed me WAY down and made me hella frustrated.  GRRRRRRRRR. I sent an inquiry to Iron Girl about this, because I don’t want to continue doing this race if it’s like that. It’s dumb. I can find other relays to do that don’t have part of the 5K course on BS gravel. I train on crushed limestone so I can go faster on PAVED 5K courses. This isn’t a “trail” race. /rant over

Back to the run. I had to pull over on the gravel part to re-adjust the timing chip (derr, Kim, pay attention next time!) and I stopped on the way out of that section to get a drink of water. I dislike an out and back course on a 5K, but was nice on Sunday because I saw my friend Julie (whom I didn’t know was doing the race) and got to give Dawn a high-five! (Kelly was also there too, and we got to chat a bit!)

I tried to keep my pace consistent to the end, and felt good enough, but I finished way over my goal in 26:28! Eek!

Judy ran me in for the finish and really pushed me!!!

Janky supination pic for ya

Our final time was 1:25:18, which was first in the two-person relay division! Woot woot!

The other Efit team finished shortly after us, in 1:35:ish! Everyone on the team did really well!

Last year when we did this, we had four teams and at least one person from our studio doing it solo… it was much quieter this year with two teams, which was nice. It was easier to stay together, and cheer each other on! (Not that more teams are BAD, this was just logistically easier.)

After we all finished, we got some of the post race food (bagels, fruit, burritos, coffee, chocolate milk). In past years I always thought you had to pay for the post-race food, but you didn’t this year. I wonder if I have been wrong all this time (probably)! It was nice to get some food right after. I wasn’t sure how to fuel for the two events, and did a decent job, but was hungry when we finished.

After that (well, and unsuccessfully trying to find our relay team placings anywhere onsite), we got the bikes out of transitions and headed out.

I know I complained a lot in this post, but I DO enjoy doing these sorts of events as a team, and was very happy to have Judy as a teammate. Iron Girl is logistically easy for me (location, familiarity, etc.). The atmosphere is great, and they are working at figuring some things out (like parking), and we really enjoyed the expo.

But I think I am getting close to being over doing this race each year. The bike and run course are meh, and, dang, it’s SO expensive. At least I really like the shirt this year!

So, we’ll see what I end up doing next year. I’d really like to do a half iron man relay again, with my brother-in-laws, and being on an Efit team for a smaller event would be cool, too!

(Thanks to Steven for all of the pictures and to Judy’s husband, Mike, for spectating! So nice to have our guys there!)

*The first time I participated, it was actually Danskin, still, but, eh, details.

Comments (9)

By kilax, August 9, 2015 9:26 pm

Highlight of the Week: Competing in the Iron Girl relay triathlon with my Efit friends!

Monday | August 3, 2015: 5 m run + teaching strength class
Loc: Millennium Trail, Temp: 75°/76°, Time: 49:38, Pace: 9:55 avg, Difficulty: medium, Felt: too hot
Strength: Body bars and boxing bags, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Tuesday | August 4, 2015: 4 m run
Loc: Chicago Lakefront Trail, Temp: 80°/82°, Time: 36:40, Pace: 9:10 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good, thirsty
Wednesday | August 5, 2015: 12 m run
Loc: Millennium Trail, Temp: 74°/70°, Time: 2:05:11, Pace: 10:26 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Thursday | August 6, 2015: 8 m run + teaching strength class
Loc: Millennium Trail, Temp: 74°/74°, Time: 1:20:57, Pace: 10:07 avg, Difficulty: medium, Felt: meh, pissy about work
Strength: Kettlbells & bench, Difficulty: easy, Felt: tired
Friday | August 7, 2015: teaching strength class + 10 m ride + open water swim (w/Jen & Michele)
Strength: Body bars and boxing bags, Difficulty: easy, Felt: tired
Loc: hood, Temp: 73°/76°, Time: 42:52, Pace: 14.0 mph, Difficulty: easy, Felt: annoyed by the wind (what’s new? ha ha)
Loc: Grays Lake, Difficulty: medium, Felt: like I couldn’t breathe well
Saturday | August 8, 2015: 8 m run (first 5 virtual w/ Kelly)
Loc: Millennium Trail to Nippersink FP, Temp: 66°/69°, Time: 1:25:45, Pace: 10:43 avg, Difficulty: medium, Felt: wrecked, better at the end
Sunday | August 9, 2015: Swim Leg Iron Girl (1/2 mile) + Run Leg Iron Girl (5K)
Loc: Lake Andrea, Temp (water): 79.5°, Time: 17:58, Pace: 1:58/100 yd avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Loc: RecPlex, Temp: 65°/67°, Time: 26:28, Pace: 8:05 avg, Difficulty: medium, Felt: good, but somewhat frustrated

Notes:

• Last Sunday, a tornado went through the outdoor pool where I swim laps! I was worried that meant the pool would be closed for some time, but they announced its reopening on Wednesday, and that they are extending lap swim (previously closing August 11) until August 28! Yay!
• I messed up my schedule this week and didn’t get a full rest day. BAD IDEA! I will not be doing that on purpose any time soon. I was especially tired by the end of the week. Teaching an extra strength class probably didn’t help. Derrr.
• Wearing shoes around the house for a day helped my PF! Yay! I am going to keep doing that – even though it feels odd to wear sneakers indoors.
• My neighbor, Jen, let me try out her wet suit on Friday to see if I’d like to use it for Sunday’s race. While I LOVED how buoyant it made me feel, I couldn’t handle how tight it was on my chest. I am not sure if that’s something I would have gotten used to with more practice, or if it was a bit too short. But it didn’t feel good. I didn’t think the race would be wetsuit legal anyway (it wasn’t), but it was nice to try a wetsuit out!
• I’ve been lazy, running later in the day, when the temps are higher but the humidity is lower. On Saturday, I ran earlier, when the humidity was almost 100%, and it definitely felt harder! Ha ha, I was surprised – I figured the cooler temps would have helped somewhat, but nope! The humidity seems to get to me more than the heat this summer (of course, the hottest I tend to run outside is in the mid 80s).
• Kelly and I have been running “virtual” miles together (on the phone while we run) and it really feels like I am running with her – even the part where I tend to keep the pace up because I am running with someone. I’m really happy we’re able to do that. I really miss her.
• I participated in the Iron Girl Pleasant Prairie relay today! More on that later this week!

Link to Training Week 302

Comments (13)

By kilax, August 8, 2015 9:33 am

Warning: grossness ahead in this post about picking at bug bites. Skip if you’d like!

All my life I have been a bug bite picker. A “scratch it until it bleeds, then continue until it forms a scab, then pick that scab off an many times as possible until it scars” sort of person. Wonderful, I know. I remember being a little girl and my mom trying to get me to stop, saying funny things like, “You’ll never be a leg model if you keep picking at those bites!” Ha ha, oh Mom.

But she was right. The scabs on my legs DO look horrible. It’s actually something I try to photoshop off of pictures before sharing them, since they look so gross. (Full disclosure – I also take the time to photoshop freaky (okay, and all) zits off my face.)

So, since getting my first tattoo last year, I have tried to be UBER mindful about not scratching at bites on my right shoulder, where the tattoo is. The last thing I want is noticeable scars around my beautiful tattoo. (And the Therapik helps!)

The problem is, bugs are only biting me on my right shoulder. Seriously. Look at the comparison from this morning’s run:

Ugh, it’s so aggravating! It seems like the bugs are going out of their way to bite me in the one spot I’d prefer they don’t! (Although they are still going for my big rump, too, ha ha.)

I felt really annoyed about it this morning, then it all came to me awhile after my run. I always run on the right side of the path/trail, and that is usually next to the prairie or woods, so, uh, duh, Kim, maybe these bugs are coming from those areas, and just want to bite what is closest to them – your right shoulder?

I mean, it does seem like I have more bites on my right side, overall.

It’s either that, or the bugs are evil and want to bite me where I don’t want to be bitten, or, they are somehow attracted to ink. Ugh. Whatever it is, I will continue to use the Therapik and not scratch.

And maybe I’ll start to be the weirdo running down the left side of the path.

Comments (34)

By kilax, August 6, 2015 6:23 am

• When I was seeing Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation Sunday night, the screen went blank (and of course, at the start of the movie’s climax!). Right away, I figured it had something to do with the weather – it had been nasty windy and hot all day, and my weather app kept telling me storms were coming. But I checked the app in the theater and it wouldn’t load. Huh. Then everyone’s emergency warnings started going off on their phones for a tornado warning! Yikes! We finished the movie (I was a bit distracted) then went outside and saw some ominous clouds and a crazy lightening show. Turns out an EF-1 tornado did go by – and according to the path of travel map, it started about two and a half miles east of my house. Nuts! I know a ton of people who live in the path of travel and I’m happy no one was hurt! (And after that, very happy my car was okay outside during the movie – I had just picked it up from the shop for body work the day before.) I wonder if this is the closest I’ve been to a tornado now, or if that one in 2005 was closer.

• My summer flip flop wearing habits have caught up with me, and I have a bit of tenderness in my left heal upon waking up or after sitting down for awhile. Ahh, plantar fasciitis. I am not interested in dealing with that (I had it in opposite feet two summers in a row), so I’ve been wearing my boot at night and sneakers more often. Really, I should wear sneakers around the house, too. Maybe the ones I bought myself for my birthday? So preeeeeeeety.

• Steven got me a Therapik for my birthday.  You place it over a bug bite, and a bulb inside heats up and neutralizes the bug venom, and makes the bite itch and swell less. Sounds completely hokey but I have been using it since he got it for me and it’s really making the bites NOT itch. AMAZING!!! And really, the heat on your skin provides enough relief from the itching, I don’t care how it works, ha ha.

• Don’t worry, my sole gift wasn’t the bug bite zapper, ha ha! Steven also got me a fance new multisport watch that seems to do a million different things!

Ha ha, I only wore one watch that day.

• My mom got a smart phone this weekend. Yay! I’m super excited about this. Her dumb phone barely allowed her to receive texts, and the screen was so tiny she could barely see the photos we’d send her. Do your parents have smart phones? Are they on social media? I’ve heard a few people say that their parents shouldn’t have smart phones or be on social media, but I’ve always wanted mine to be – it’s easier to stay connected that way!
• Ha ha, I had ALL the posts last week, and hardly any this week. Seems I have turned in to a mostly “event” blog for now – I mostly write when I do an event (and my training posts). That’s okay. I keep hoping the inspiration to write about thoughts/ideas will come back, but it hasn’t.

Link to Random Thoughts Thursday 74

Comments (12)

By kilax, August 2, 2015 5:17 pm

Highlight of the Week: Racing in Madison with Rachel!

Monday | July 27, 2015: teaching strength class
Strength: Arms of Summer workout, Difficulty: medium, Felt: good
Tuesday | July 28, 2015: 10 m run
Loc: Millennium Trail / Nippersink FP, Temp: 81°/80°, Time: 1:41:11, Pace: 10:07 avg, Difficulty: easy/medium, Felt: good
Wednesday | July 29, 2015: 3 m run
Loc: Millennium Trail, Temp: 82°/82°, Time: 27:48, Pace: 9:15 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good but thirsty (didn’t bring water)
Thursday | July 30, 2015: 5 m run + Full Moon 5K (w/Rachel)
Loc: hood, Temp: 77°/82°, Time: 48:52, Pace: 9:46 avg, Difficulty: hard, Felt: too hot / weak (hungry?)
Loc: Madison, Temp: 80°/76°, Time: 29:22, Pace: 9:27 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good, but thirsty!
Friday | July 31, 2015: teaching strength class + 1000 meter swim + 4 m run (incl. 10×1:00)
Strength: Arms of Summer Workout, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good, got a second wind
Loc: Grayslake Pool, Time: 24:35, Pace: 2:28/100 m, Difficulty: easy, Felt: fluid, strong
Loc: hood, Temp: 84°/84°, Time: 9:42, Pace: 38:47 avg, Difficulty: medium, Felt: hot/pushed around by the wind
Saturday | August 1, 2015: rest!!!
Sunday | August 2, 2015: 16 m run (miles 2-7 virtual w/Kelly) + 10 m ride
Loc: around town, Temp: 75°, Time: 2:44:33, Pace: 10:17 avg, Difficulty: mostly easy, Felt: great, until last two miles (typical)
Loc: hood, Temp: 79°/82°, Time: 41:53, Pace: 14.3 mph avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good but SO ANNOYED by the wind

Notes:

• Being on the go so much last week seemed to catch up with me this week! On Monday I slept in instead of running and took a nap after work before teaching! (Okay, that’s not too uncommon…)
• I did something CRAZY on my Tuesday run. I ran by a deer and DIDN’T stop to take a photo. I know. Ca-razy!!!. I have this idea to do a little more running and less photo taking… we’ll see how that goes! It’s crazy when I look at my overall time vs moving time on some of my runs, eek! Get moving, Kim!
• I am not signed up for any races past Labor Day! Woot woot, free schedule… for now!
• Ha, so last week, when I got so much sun on RAGBRAI, my weirdo inner elbow runner tan lines went away. And all it took was three runs for it to come back. Darn! The dermatologist actually told me I have psoriasis there, so maybe I should get that looked at – it’s really itchy in the winter.

• July recap time! I ran 178.3 miles, and cycled 187.7 – probably the first time ever I’ve cycled more than I’ve run in a month! I taught nine strength classes and swam laps three times! I hope I can keep swimming in August, but outdoor lap swim closes in early August at the local pool, so I will have to find a new place or do some open water swimming.

Link to Training Week 301

Comments (10)

By kilax, August 1, 2015 12:27 pm

Thursday marked my third year in a row running the Full Moon 5K with Rachel in Madison… and third year in a row wearing the same Grumpy Cat shirts*!

Heh, also, third year in a row not caring about pace at all, and just running it for fun.

The date of this race changes each year – I’m assuming to be closer to the actual full moon? In 2013, it was on Thursday, July 25. Last year, it was on Wednesday, August 6. This year, it was back to Thursday, on July 30. And was very close to the full moon – and a special full moon – a blue moon**!

My awesome almost full moon picture, ha ha.

This was the first year that, running the race on a Thursday, I had to teach the Friday 5:00 am fitness class the next morning (back in Grayslake!). I would have asked someone else to teach it if I hadn’t already had a sub the week before, and if two of the four trainers weren’t out of town. Eek! It was funny to spend the same amount of time driving to Madison and back, that we were actually there, and not be able to spend the night at Rachel’s this time, but I still really wanted to do the race. It’s a lot of fun! (And I knew I could take a nap after teaching class on Friday, luckily!).

The race uses a shelter at Ollin Park for packet pickup and finish, and you walk about half a mile from there to get to the race start on the south side of Monona Bay. Then you run along the bay and part of Monona Lake and back to Ollin Park. There is a guy dressed up as a werewolf, and if you beat him, you get something… but this race is pretty competitive, so I have never even looked up to see what that “something” is!

View of the capitol from Ollin Park

It was a GORGEOUS night in Madison – in the high 70s with about 50% humidity and so clear! There was a nice breeze for the first mile or two of the race… then it felt pretty stuffy at the end.

With Rachel’s pub run friend’s Allie and Carley before race start

We didn’t have any sort of time goal, but when we ran our first mile in 9:42, and our second in 9:34 (that was with a stop to drink water), I was thinking “well, we gotta go for negative splits, now!” Our last mile was 8:52 and the last tenth was at a 7:30 pace for a 29:22 finish time.

As soon as we finished, the sweat started pouring down. It’s so funny – you think it’s nice and cool out, and that you feel pretty good, then when you stop moving, your body is like “What was that?! Are we done now?!”

We hung out for a bit, chatting with Rachel’s pub run friends and Linda, then headed out to meet our husbands at Ian’s Pizza! Ha, on the drive up, I told Steven I was going to order the largest pizza possible, so we could have leftovers at home, and whoa, he did get a HUGE pizza! One slice was the size of my head!

Yes, that pizza has tater tots AND sliced potatoes on it

So, last year, we were a little bummed that the place we picked to hang out after had live music and we couldn’t hear each other talking (the music was good, but we wanted to chat). So this year, Rachel made sure that place didn’t have music if we wanted to go back, but also suggested Ian’s, which she knew I would jump at, because I love their pizza (and all their vegan options).

Then right when we got there, this HORRIBLE stand-up comedy was starting. Gawd, it was painful. And we could barely hear each other again. We were laughing about it though. Hey, it got us out of their quicker – we all had to work (in some capacity) the next day!

But it was WAY too short of a trip. We got to the race a bit early and Rachel and I got to rapid-fire try to catch up on each other’s lives, but it felt too rushed (just by the nature of the schedule, not anyone’s actions). And of course, after the race, we were like “A 5K just isn’t that much time to chat!” Ha. Luckily, Rachel and I (and our husbands!) have a two-day camping trip planned in August, so I know we’ll get to catch up at a relaxed pace, then!

*I wasn’t sure if Grumpy Cat was still relevant, but we did get a few compliments on the shirts this year!
**Which I had to look up exactly what it means, but it’s when you have two full moons in one month. It happens about every three years, hence the saying “once in a blue moon.”