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By kilax, October 16, 2016 3:22 pm

Highlight of the Week: Swimming all freestyle at the pool / winning a 5K.

Monday | October 10, 2016: teaching strength class
Strength: plates and BOSUs, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Tuesday | October 11, 2016: 10 m ride + 7 m run
Indoor Ride Time: 39:15, Pace: 15.3 mph avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Loc: up Kilbourne and back, Temp: 72°/72°, Time: 1:10:04, Pace: 10:00 avg, Difficulty: easy until the last mile, Felt: good, minor stomach ish
Wednesday | October 12, 2016: 4 m run
Loc: Lakefront Trail, Temp: 69°/68°, Time: 38:52, Pace: 9:42 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Thursday | October 13, 2016: rest
Friday | October 14, 2016: teaching strength class + 1,218 yd swim + Cory’s Full Moon Run 5K
Strength: plates and BOSUs, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good, playful
Loc: FitNation, Moving Time: 30:00, Pace: 2:28 min/100 yd, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Loc: Zion, Temp: 62°/59°, Time: 23:53, Pace: 7:42 avg, Difficulty: medium, Felt: controllable, racing the right pace
Saturday | October 15, 2016: 5.9 m run + 5 m run
Loc: hood, Temp: 56°/57°, Time: 1:03:52, Pace: 10:49 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good to do a shakeout!
Loc: Lake Andrea, Temp: 66°/66°, Time: 51:53, Pace: 10:22 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good!
Sunday | October 16, 2016: 6 m run + 2,079 yd swim
Loc: hood, Temp: 67°/70°, Time: 1:03:51, Pace: 10:38 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: SUPER PISSY
Loc: FitNation, Moving Time: 53:56, Pace: 2:36 min/100 yd avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: great, calmed

Notes:

• My busy week last week left me really tired for this week! Hopefully I’ll be back at it on Monday!
• I was able to do freestyle for my entire swim on Friday and Sunday, woot woot! I think swimming at least two times a week will allow me to continue improving.
• That 5K left my legs TRASHED! Ouch! I am going to email my massage therapist while I’m thinking of it.
• I was SO mad about how muggy it was during my Sunday run. It’s the freaking middle of October! I’m f*cking over it! And after I was so pissed at that, I saw that during the few minutes I was gone for my run, some a-hole dumped a television on the street by my house. Grr.
• But my swim after the run calmed me. Swimming really forces me to focus and relax on what I am doing, which is why I love to do it (even though I am not that good and have no plans to do a triathlon).

Link to Training Week 364

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By kilax, October 15, 2016 7:47 am

I was dreading this race all week and regretted signing up for it in advance. I’m not in 5K racing shape, and had a stressful work week – all I wanted to do Friday night was be lazy at home. But! This is a “local” race for me now (and the last of the ZB Run Squad series for the year), so that made me still want to participate, AND, Anne and Terry were coming over after for dinner, so I knew that part would at least be fun if the race sucked! Ha!

I’ve only ever run these ZB Run Squad races on Friday nights in November or December. The races are always at 6:00 pm, and I’ve always had to wear a headlamp because it’s completely dark! Sunset was at 6:10 last night, but I was lazy and ran without my headlamp (despite bringing it), hoping I’d be able to see my way to the finish!

And there was indeed a full moon!

This year the race benefited Cory’s Project, a charity with the mission of assisting children and their families residing in the Pediatric Cancer Unit at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. Cory lost his fight with blood cancer in July 2012 at the age of 16, and his mom was there last night, MCing the awards ceremony and running the race. She said his seven months of hospital bills were 2.5 million dollars (and she said thank heavens for insurance) and that they started the charity to help families with the financial burden of cancer. It was great to hear her speak and see her passion for the charity. Also, it seemed like A LOT of people were there specifically to support the charity, which was awesome! (Ha, random, but there was also a couple there from Pennsylvania running a 5K in every state – and this is the race they chose for Illinois! Neat!)

On to the race! We had decent weather – around 62°F and 9 mph winds. I lined up in the front since the course is not chip timed, and all the way to the left since I know the tangents well (I ran a perfect 3.10 distance!).

I planned to run on that left edge for quite a bit until it was time to cross for the first turn. Also, I told Steven I would be on the left side if he wanted to get any pictures.

So this guy in blue comes up behind me and decides he needs to be in the same spot as me – apparently he wanted to run the tangents too, and didn’t want to pass me on my right. I was thinking, “what the heck, dude?” And could tell he was annoyed with me. He ended up going on the grass to get around me.

I was annoyed that he just HAD to be between me and my photographer, ha!

My “WTF?” face

I didn’t know this until I finished, but when he passed Steven and Terry he goes “Seriously?!” and they weren’t sure if he was talking to them – being annoyed they were taking photos – or to me, for being in his way (probably that). It was all very strange – in the progression of photos Steven took you can see him being unnecessarily aggressive to get around me. Chill out, dude.

So because the guys were thrown off by his “seriously?!” comment, they almost missed Anne! But she called out to them!

My watch said I was running 7:45s at the start, and I felt decent, and was hoping for an 8:00 average, so I stuck with it. I had picked out who I thought would win for women (a lady in pink – I thought maybe she was the one who beat me at my last ZB Run Squad race) and was surprised to overcome her in the first mile. “Oh, here you go Kim,” I thought to myself, “passing now, just to be overcome later!” Then I looked ahead and saw a little girl was in the lead for women and WAY ahead of me, and forgot about being first overall.

My first mile clocked in at 7:35, and I felt decent, like the pace was manageable. My second mile was 7:30 and I was surprised it wasn’t slower, ha! I accidentally had my watch in pace per mile mode, rather than overall pace, but it actually worked well (and is super easy to switch out during a run, but I liked focusing on one mile at a time)!

Then mile 3. That’s when the pain started. I encouraged two guys running around me to keep it up, so we could carry each other to the finish. I pumped my arms and told myself “You can do hard things!” And… there was my 8:00 mile, ha!

I ran a 7:27 pace for my last tenth and finished right behind one of the guys I was encouraging! My finish time was 23:53 and I was excited to be second woman overall and first in my age group!

Steven and Terry and I talked with a friend, Garett, and cheered Anne on to her finish, then went in for the awards ceremony. And it turns out, that little girl in front was banditing the race (Garett said her dad was pacing her on a bike and encouraging her to keep up with him… odd that they didn’t register), so, I was actually first overall, and Garett was first male overall! I wasn’t expecting that! I ran a slow-ish time, but it’s all about who shows up to race (and who is registered).

I was surprised when Anne didn’t place in her age group. We checked out her time afterward and realized they had someone else’s time listed as hers (because they had the same last name), and had her in a different age group. So then we compared her actual time to her age group and she was second in her age group! Woo hoo! I’m so happy we checked, and excited for Anne!

So, something I was dreading turned out to be pretty awesome, yay! (But man, running 5Ks is SO hard – my stomach was wrecked for the night!)

Comments (18)

By kilax, October 14, 2016 6:52 am

So much for Vader (placeholder for a better name) “guarding” the house. He slept while this opossum ate his food!

Completely slept through it.

Of course, putting cat food out is (duh) attracting other critters as well – two huge raccoons keep visiting, and now, this guy. Guess we should put away what the cats don’t eat when it gets dark. Or, stop being crazy cat people and not feed the cats at all.

Comments (25)

By kilax, October 13, 2016 6:15 am

• In 2013, I was in Salt Lake City with my mom and we decided to visit the Salt Flats. We took a rental car there, and made a video of us driving on the flats to share with family and on the blog. Oh, and the rest of the internet, on YouTube. Buah ha ha, it was humorous to see someone took the time to write this comment on our video, just a few days ago! I apologize that me visiting the Salt Flats was so lame for you, random YouTube commenter! (What’s even funnier to me, is that my caption for the video was “Driving the crappy rental car on the Salt Flats on 4/21/13” – I didn’t imply I was breaking land-speed records, ha ha ha.)

• Callie is such a flirt!

• I am getting close to finishing Christina’s baby blanket! I think I’ll finish the knitting part this weekend and start blocking it (I actually started over with this blanket and saved the first one to practice blocking on, so I’ll do that first).

• I’m running a 5K tomorrow. When I signed up for it I was planning to run it for time, but I am not in shape for that, so it will be for fun. I hope to run around a 8:00 min average pace. We shall see!

Link to Random Thoughts Thursday 111

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By kilax, October 12, 2016 1:38 pm

There were hardly any runners on the Chicago Lakefront Trail today during lunch! It’s like they’re recovering from some big marathon or something, ha. (Or, didn’t want to run in the rain.)

Of the shockingly few runners I saw, I actually knew three of them from when I ran Ragnar in 2011! It’s fun to see people I know while running on the path and say hello – since otherwise, people tend not to acknowledge each other at all. It still feels so odd to me not to!

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By kilax, October 11, 2016 11:00 am

When Gina told me she got in to the lottery for the Chicago Marathon, after saying “Yay!!!” and “Congrats!” my next words were “If you want to get a hotel in the city for the night before the race, you should do it asap cause they’ll book up soon. We can watch Luca and bring him down in the morning!” (so bossy!)

My house is NOT near downtown Chicago. We’re a good fifty-five miles away. It’s an easy drive in (on a Sunday morning before sunrise) but that would have required a MUCH earlier wake-up call! So Gina and Steve got a hotel room. We dropped them off at the train station Saturday afternoon and then we had a date night with Luca!

I wanted Luca to be excited about our date night (and not sad that his parents were leaving him with us for the night) so I mentioned it a few times before his visit so he knew it was coming. That must have worked – Gina said Luca was telling a running friend of hers about his date night before they came, and when Gina and Steve left on the train, Luca wasn’t phased at all! Gina text me to ask if he was crying and I basically told her it didn’t even seem like he noticed they were gone. Ha!

I had A LOT of ideas for what to do on date night (I see all these kid activities out here and note them for when I see Luca) and sent them to Gina before they came to see what she thought. She recommended picking a few and asking Luca which he wanted to do. I presented my list and he picked going to the park AND gave his own suggestion of going bowling. Steven and I were game for that – we both have our own bowling balls and shoes and (obviously, ha) enjoy playing! And we hadn’t gone bowling near our new house yet.

So we dropped Gina and Steve off and went right to the park. Local people will recognize this park – I think it might be a bit legendary. It has really tall slides and a super high spider web to climb. And, seems completely dangerous to me. Ha! I stayed close to Luca and I bet the other parents there thought I was nuts!

Luca was worn out from the park and went down for a nap at home, during which Steven researched where to go bowling, and I worked on figuring out some spectating information. After an hour, I went to wake Luca up and ask if he wanted to go bowling, and he said yes and fell right back asleep. Ha ha. I told him to wake up on his own and come down when he was ready. Thirty minutes later, he got up, and we went!

Steven has bowled most of his life and knows a lot about it, and was in his element teaching Luca about it!

We bowled two games, then went home to make dinner. The boys “played Orchestra” while I made dinner.

We had dessert (fruit), got ready for bed, read a story, and he went right to sleep! And we went to bed at close to the same time too, since we had an early wake-up call to get to the race. I was wondering if Luca would have as hard of a time getting out of bed as he did getting up from his nap but he didn’t! He was excited for the day!

We helped him get ready, took a photo of our shirts (they were a surprise!) for Steve to show Gina, and took off to begin our spectating adventures!

Steven and I really enjoyed having Luca for the night and hope we get to do it again! There is a lot we didn’t get to do – go on the Jelly Belly tour, go to the local petting zoo, make cookies… I am sure my list of ideas will continue to grow!

Comments (23)

By kilax, October 10, 2016 7:44 am

Yesterday was the second time Steven and I’ve spectated the Chicago Marathon. Our first time in 2009 wasn’t successful – we saw none of our runners! We were such spectating n00bs. We didn’t realize how crowded the course is, and expected to be able to find our people. NOPE. They have to find you! We learned so much at that race! Which is good, because I wanted yesterday to go off without a hitch. And it did!

I started planning for spectating very early – over a month ago! I was excited about it, and would think about it a lot during my runs!

First things first – get cool shirts to wear to support Gina and her charity! (Thank you to my coworker for making these for me – they would have looked horrible if I made them, but they were perfect!)

Check out Project Purple – they raise awareness and funds towards a cure for pancreatic cancer, and have a great support system for people who have it. Gina has lost a few family members to pancreatic cancer, and since she’s been running for them (since the NYC Marathon last November) I have unfortunately encountered many more people who have it.

Second thing, plan out the spectating spots where you can realistically get to (4, 11, 17 and 25), and let your runner know what side of the road you’ll be on (left)! Make sure that if you have to cross the course (eek!) it’s later in the race when it’s more spread out (ideally, don’t cross the course AT ALL).

Third thing, which was unplanned, practice your race day morning transportation. Ha, I thought I had a great idea to park at a friend’s house outside of the city and take public transportation in for the race. We did this to get to the expo on Friday and found out that the subway (“L”) takes f-o-r-e-v-e-r and a day. It took so long I didn’t think we’d actually make it to the first spectating spot on time (and be able to cross the route to get to our spot before all the runners were there). So, new plan – get a Spot Hero parking spot just outside of the course and take the L in from there. That worked out much better!

Fourth thing, get a balloon for your runner to find you on the course! I swear by this idea, and always give it as a tip to marathon spectators (at crowded races, anyway). The spectators can be rows deep in Chicago. If you have a balloon above you, it’s so much easier for your runner to find you in that crowd! We got a “G” for Gina.

But make sure you only fly your balloon when you expect your runner to be coming by – you don’t want to block people’s view around you! And that brings me to something I was very impressed by – how hard the marathon worked to make the race experience easy for spectators. We had a lot of help in knowing when Gina was going to come by because the Chicago Marathon app and tracking worked so well. I’ve doubted race apps before because so many people use them it seems to bog down the network and then nothing works – but it worked fantastically yesterday! I had planned to anticipate Gina’s arrival based on pace and time of day but we didn’t even have to do much of that – we just looked at the map on the app! Awesome!

The Chicago Marathon also handed out pocket spectating guides with a course map, train map and lots of info at the expo and around public transportation. It was SUPER handy! I had planned on bringing my own Chicago map, but mine doesn’t have the course on it, ha, so this was much better! There were also volunteers out at public transportation spots, ready to help people figure out where to go. Bravo, Chicago Marathon, for making it easier for us spectators!

And the last thing is… execute your plan!!! Gina and Steve stayed in Chicago the night before the race, and after Steve dropped Gina off at her corral, he met me, Steven and Luca (we drove down that morning) at an L stop so we could get to our first spectating spot together. Everything worked out fantastically (I was a bit worried we’d miss Gina at 17 because one train was taking forever, but it was all good, phew)! We saw Gina at all four spots, were able to give her water bottles with Tailwind twice, get some photos of her, and meet her at the runner reunite area after! And bonus, we got to see xaarlin at our last spectating spot!

Gina ran a five minute personal record and I am so proud of her! To me, it didn’t look like an ideal day for a marathon – full sun and no clouds? No thanks! The temperature was decent, but I was really hoping for an overcast day for her. That she ran so well in that is awesome! She was struggling with some hip pain but stayed strong for the entire race. And she said she liked the course and could see herself running it again! But also said she got bored of being in her head – it was her first marathon running without someone (it was her third marathon, her first was with me and her second was with her friend Bob). So maybe I’ll have to run it with her next time?!

Ha, people were shocked I was NOT running Chicago with Gina. They asked if something was wrong. If I would be upset at the race, that I wasn’t running. If I was burnt out on racing. No, no, no. Nothing was wrong, I wasn’t upset (I LOVED spectating) and I am not burnt out. None of those things! After running Chicago in 2010, I said I don’t want to run it again until I am an experienced marathoner and get better at handling any heat the day may bring (it was in the high 80s and sunny when I ran it). I’ve stood by that statement. It’s a great race, but not one I’ve thought about signing up for (and now, entering the lottery for) since I first ran it. I am not there, as a runner. I am in a spot where I like to train for marathons that won’t sell out, and register more “last minute” when I can gauge (even though you never know) how the weather will be, and what shape I will be in.

Spectating a marathon IS amazingly inspiring though! It doesn’t make me want to run one (come on, the people are in so much pain and you can tell!!!) but it does make me want to get healthier again!

And one random last thing – this guy dressed up as Santa and handed out presents to kids he saw spectating! How kind is that? Luca was excited about it!

Comments Off on Training Week 364

By kilax, October 9, 2016 6:10 pm

Highlight of the Week: Running in a different state! / Running with Steve! / Spectating Gina’s PR at the Chicago Marathon!

Monday | October 3, 2016: 6 m run + 5 m run + teaching strength class
Loc: hood, Temp: 66°/66°, Time: 59:54, Pace: 9:59 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Loc: hood, Temp: 66°/64°, Time: 50:23, Pace: 10:04 avg, Difficulty: easy/medium, Felt: decent/tired
Strength: body bars and soft balls, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good, energetic
Tuesday | October 4, 2016: 10 m run
Loc: DPRT/Kilbourne Loop, Temp: 69°/67°, Time:1:45:56, Pace: 10:35 avg, Difficulty: easy/medium, Felt: physically fine, but sick to my stomach
Wednesday | October 5, 2016: rest
Thursday | October 6, 2016: 4 m run (incl. 6×400)
Loc: Holland, MI, Temp: 56°/56°, Time: 39:04, Pace: 9:45 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good, but couldn’t see
Friday | October 7, 2016: teaching strength class + 1,281 yd swim + 10 m ride
Strength: plates and BOSU, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good, but tired from travel
Loc: FitNation, Moving Time: 38:27, Pace: 2:43 min/100 yd, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good, had missed swimming
Indoor Ride time: 38:14, Pace: 15.7 mph avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good, but weird chlorine-y sweat
Saturday | October 8, 2016: 10 m run (w/Steve)
Loc: Into WI loop, Temp: 40°/44°, Time: 1:39:35, Pace: 9:57 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: great
Sunday | October 9, 2016: rest (spectating the Chicago Marathon!)

Notes:

• I always get stupid excited when I see another runner where I live, because it’s so rare. On Monday I ran through a tiny little neighborhood for the first time, and saw another runner back there! Cool!
• My schedule was a bit nuts this week – I had two days of work travel right before my Chicago Marathon guests arrived! I tried to cram in as many workouts as I could, ha. I am happy I got in what I did!
• My speedwork was challenging this week because I did it in the early am in the pitch dark in a new to me area while on travel… with a very dim headlamp. I couldn’t see for sh*t! Time to change those headlamp batteries!
• It was so nice and cool for my long run with Steve. 40s?! I have not seen those temps since May! Woo hoo!
• We had a blast spectating the Chicago Marathon. It was inspiring to see so many people out there working hard, and SUPER exciting to see Gina run a new PR!!!! It’s time to celebrate!

Link to Training Week 363

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By kilax, October 8, 2016 4:45 pm

“First they start feeding and loving these other cats, and now… this?!” – Data

That’s Lola, my fave coworker’s dog. My coworker stopped by and I was excited to get to meet Lola (and Data actually didn’t seem to care, despite that look on his face, until they were about to leave (which is when I took this picture)).

Poor Data, he can’t go anywhere now without another animal being RIGHT there.

Comments (4)

By kilax, October 7, 2016 10:17 pm

Steven fixed up the fire place last weekend so we could use it with our guests this weekend… and it’s cool enough out to use it! Exciting – it’s our first time using it (and first time owning a house with a fireplace).

I also happen to be wearing Santa pajama bottoms. Too soon? Ha.