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By kilax, March 31, 2018 12:49 pm

Who else is having a hard time processing that April begins tomorrow? And who is planning on playing an April Fool’s joke?! (not me!)

Here’s my list of what I am looking forward to in April!

• Cooking a fun (read: indulgent) meal with Steven on Easter
• Getting a pre-race massage
• Running the Fools 5K!
• Seeing my family!
• Taking Bobbi out for her birthday!
• ALL the April birthday celebrations (there’s a lot of them!)
• A trip to Texas to see Gina & fam, and maybe eating a vegan donut there?!
• Anne running the half marathon she’s been training for!
• My monthly run date with Rachel
• Finishing one last month of “focused” training (now, for the half marathon)
• Maybe riding my bike outside?
• Starting to see leaves, flowers, plants, and baby animals outside!

What’s on your list?

Comments (4)

By kilax, March 30, 2018 7:27 am

Ha, the title is mostly a joke!

When I started swimming consistently a couple of years ago, I used techniques I remembered from learning to swim as a child. I started with breaststroke, and worked my way to freestyle.

For a long time, I had to focus so much on what I was doing, especially with breathing, that I didn’t think of anything else while swimming. I was zoned in 100% on my stroke and not inhaling water. It was a lovely meditation, and break from my own thoughts.

Now, the motions have become ingrained. It feels natural. It feels easy. My mind wanders. It’s no longer my meditation.

I miss that! Damn it, for getting more comfortable in the water. Ha!

Really though, those swimming moments are the ONLY time I can think of where my mind completely shut off and focused on the task at hand. The ONLY time. All my other workouts? My mind is all over the place!

I wonder if I worked harder at learning bilateral breathing, if that would let me meditate in the pool again, until I got better. Or if I talked to an actual swim coach and got some pointers on what my body should be doing, if focusing on THAT would get me back to the meditation. Because I’d like to find my way back to that feeling!

Comments (16)

By kilax, March 29, 2018 6:25 am

• It came to my attention yesterday when chatting with some coworkers, that my experience of searching for a hidden Easter basket, left by the Easter Bunny, may be a bit of an anomaly. Most people I talked to said their basket was left out in plain sight! The Easter Bunny always hid ours. How about you (if you got one)? Poll below!

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Last year’s basket

• I finished Hanna Who Fell from the Sky. Man, the whole second half of the book, I was just dying to know whether or not she was going to leave that horrible town! It definitely kept my interest! There was an interesting story at the end, from the author, about writing the book. He got the idea for it back in 2004 and wrote out a draft. Many years later, he got a concussion and couldn’t speak or read for almost a year. When he finally could again, he would work on the book, for an hour or so each day, as much as his head could handle, until he finished it (it was published in late 2017). The author is fully recovered now. And he was so inspired by Hanna’s character, he named his daughter Hanna – well before the book was published!
• Now I’m reading The French Girl. Yep, definitely addicted to going to the library. I love having something to read. It feels like such an indulgent treat!

• Cape Horn Illustrations made us some note cards and envelope labels with our house illustration on them! I love stuff like this and can’t wait to use them!

• I feel like I’ve just been going through the motions at work for some time, and subsequently, that feeling is leaking over to the rest of life. Blah. My silly 5K training is giving me something to focus on and work toward outside of work, but I need more than that. I’m working on it!

Link to Random Thoughts Thursday 172

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By kilax, March 28, 2018 6:17 am

When we were at the movies last night, I thought about this time I was being über healthy and instead of having popcorn at the movies, I brought a bag of grapes to have. Like, wtf, Kim. Ha.

I always get popcorn now, YOLO

It was my junior year of college (fall of 2004). That previous summer, Steven and I put ourselves on “Operation Tub Tub” (OTT, for short). We ate between 1200-1500 calories a day, and both lost a lot of weight that summer (we needed to)! I wanted to see how long I could keep the weight off, hence the grapes. Hint: not long. School was hella stressful, and I ate my emotions then, something I still work on NOT doing now.

OTT wasn’t bad – we ate a variety of healthy foods, and felt good. (I didn’t exercise then, like I do now – that wouldn’t work on that low calorie count.) But it left little room for error, and no room for flexibility! It required counting calories and so much planning. And it definitely required (for me) the support of doing it with another person.

Gawd, what is the point of this long intro? To tell you that having food “rules”* (“eat this amount of calories or less a day!”) has NEVER worked for me, and never will. Not in the long run.

But these food rules are NEVER going to go away! Gah, I see these headlines/articles all the time now (that’s what inspired this post). “I’ve lost weight and kept it off because”:

• I limit myself to two full fat treats a week!
• I never have any added sugar!
• I don’t eat after 8:00 pm!
• I only eat between the hours of noon and 6:00 pm!
• I eat these exact macros!
• I don’t enjoy food! (ha)

Props if it works for someone to be that diligent and controlled, day after day. Really! I’m impressed. But I do NOT have it in me. I want to eat things I enjoy, in moderation. I want to have a bit of chocolate each day. I want to go out to eat a few times a month. I want to have popcorn at the movies!

And yes, I want to eat a mostly healthy diet, but the minute I start giving myself food rules, is the minute it becomes unsustainable for me.

View this post on Instagram

Sneak peek of the newest meal plan on the #JillianMichaelsApp 😂 go.jillianmichaels.com/app

A post shared by Jillian Michaels (@jillianmichaels) on Jul 7, 2017 at 7:52am PDT

I highly recommend following Jillian Michaels on Instagram!

*Yeah, I don’t count my vegan lifestyle as food rules. That’s just my lifestyle. 

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By kilax, March 27, 2018 6:27 am

Ughhhhhh, I was up at 3:00 am today with a bad headache. Again. This happened to me Friday night, and a few other times in the past month.

My first thought was, “NO! I have tickets to Pacific Rim Uprising tonight! This headache HAS to go away!” Ha. Priorities.

I took medicine and laid in bed with my ice pack, and it got worse. I did some soothing self talk to get through the pain (I know, I’m being so dramatic!): “you feel fine, Kim,” “it’s going to go away,” “you’ll get to workout today, and go to the movies!” Ha. Ha ha.

I finally fell asleep and woke up feeling better. But today is definitely going to be a day of avoiding headache irritants: scents (hence the title*), bright lights, noise (uh, minus the movie?), sugar, and too much screen time (not sure how that one works with working…).

When I was talking to Steven about it this morning, he said he bet my headache was from a pressure change, and that he had one too, before going to bed. He pulled up a pressure map from our weather station and asked what dates I had headaches on, to see if they corresponded to pressure changes.

Headaches on February 26, March 6, March 23, and March 27

Gosh, it sure looks like they do to me! The headache on February 26th was after a pressure increase (and a drink the night before), the one on March 6th was after a pressure drop (and hormonal), and then today’s was after a drop. The March 23rd one seems more random.

I don’t know why it feels so satisfactory to have this confirmed on a chart, when I’ve been aware of this pressure/headache correlation for some time. But maybe now that it is, I will GET BETTER about paying attention to upcoming weather changes and make sure to hydrate super well the day before and take medicine when I go to bed that evening. I knew it was going to be warmer and rainy today – I should have thought about this! Duh!

(However better I get about the weather portion of this, I am going to keep tracking my headaches, to watch their patterns and figure out other ways to avoid them.)

*I have a candle going 99% of the time when I work from home! I’ll burn one scent for a few hours, then blow that one out and burn another, then go back and forth like that all day!

Comments (22)

By kilax, March 26, 2018 6:16 am

Well, my weekend started out AMAZING, because SEE TITLE ^^^

I was already stoked Anne was in town (for a Sunday race in the city) and we’d get to hang out Friday night, but then she shows up at our house with these beauties?!?!

OMG YASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

They’re vegan donuts from Holey Toledough, in Toledo, OH. Anne stopped on her drive in to get them for me! Isn’t that sweet? (pun not intended, ha)

The flavors were cinnamon roll and blackberry hibiscus. Hands down, these are best donuts I’ve had this year. They’re yeast donuts (my preference over cake), and they got everything right – they were light and airy/fluffy, with great flavor, and the perfect amount of icing. I’ll be thinking about these donuts for some time to come. Yum.

State	Date	Name	Flavor	Rating (0-4)	Photo
Kansas	1/15/18	Mud Pie	Cake Chocolate Frosted
Illinois	2/7/18	Do-Rite	Chai Maple
Illinois	2/17/18	Holcomb Hollow	Lemon Vanilla
Ohio	3/23/18	Holey Toledough	Blackberry Hibiscus & Cinnamon Roll

And that was my entire weekend! Ha ha ha, I kid.

Before we indulged in donuts, Anne and I did her weekly long run together, yay! I stupidly dressed too cold, and the wind made me feel even worse. I don’t know what I was thinking. But I loved having all of that time to chat!!! <— duh, broken record, any time I get to run with a friend.

After our run (and donuts!), we made enchiladas for dinner,

then tried to watch Downsized. We almost made it to the end! What a neat idea for a movie. Too bad it never went anywhere.

Anne is one of Data’s favorite people to sit on

The weekend could only go downhill after that awesome Friday, right?

Ha, it kind of did. I woke up a little before 3:00 on Saturday with a headache, and could NOT fall back asleep. So I got up.

I worked on blog posts, rode my bike, read a little, tried to nap… then hung out with Anne when she got up, and left to teach fitness boxing (and go to Aldi) shortly thereafter.

When I returned home, I had to take a nap since I got less than four hours of sleep. I LOVE naps but I wanted to work on something for Steven and was not happy I was too exhausted to do so. Sigh.

While Anne was here, she told me about the Walmart Grocery app and I decided to give it a try for Sunday pickup, when I’d be near a Walmart. Imagine my surprise when I got a text during my run that my order was ready. On Saturday. Doh, I had requested the wrong date! I sped up and hurried home so I could go get the order during the window I asked for. I’m not sure if that matters or not, but I didn’t want to find out the hard way!

Pickup was hella easy, and I was impressed by the service (it’s free!). I will definitely use it again. I don’t like to shop, and really don’t like wandering around in (ANY) big box stores.

And they gave me a goodie bag with samples! Thanks to my lovely assistant for modeling it on the dining room table. Eyeroll. (He’s not supposed to be on the table, or counters, for that matter.)

Steven asked me why I hadn’t used it before – if I didn’t know about it. I did! I saw someone talking about it online, but all that person does is promote stuff, which makes me not see them as a valid source for reviews (seems insincere when every post is “this product/service is THE BEST EVER!”). I had to hear it from Anne. Sorry, internet marketing – I still use legit word of mouth.

Saturday night was chill! We watched a show and a movie and made dinner (pasta with sauce and meat-a-balls-a! <— have to say it that way).

I took NyQuil so that I would be able to fall back asleep whenever I woke up during the night, Saturday, and it worked! Hurrah!!!!

On Sunday I did my long run and was able to work on the thing I wanted to help Steven with. Yay!

I also got my manicure. Thank you to everyone who voted on the color. I did stick with blue, since it matches my singlet, but went a bit lighter, with “Gelato On My Mind.”

We felt like going out Sunday night (who are we?!) so we met Jen, Troy, and the kids for bowling. I was surprised at how busy the lanes were for a Sunday night. It was hectic! I felt like I couldn’t focus and my bowling was all over the place, but I still had fun.

Picture in which it does not look busy at all, ha

And we were still home and in bed by 9:20 pm! Win win! Ha.

I’ve been reading at night to help me fall asleep, and right now, I am reading Hanna Who Fell from the Sky, a novel about a young woman who lives in a polygamous town that she’s never left, and is about to turn eighteen and be married (to a man who has several wives and many children). Before her wedding, she meets a stranger who makes her think more seriously about things she’s been subconsciously questioning about the way of life in her community. I am curious to see how it ends! And I have just over a week before it’s due back at the library to do so! Ha.

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By kilax, March 25, 2018 11:40 am

Highlight of the Week: Running with Anne!

Monday | March 19, 2018: 7 m run + teaching strength class
Loc: VP Woods Loop, Temp: 39°/40°, Time: 1:04:29, Pace: 9:12 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: great!
Strength: body bars and resistance bands, Felt: great; loved that the students were having fun!
Tuesday | March 20, 2018: 11.2 m run (incl. 10 hill repeats)
Loc: Walmart Loop, Temp: 33°/32°, Time: 1:45:48, Pace: 9:27 avg, Difficulty: medium, Felt: good until the end (wind got to me)
Wednesday | March 21, 2018: rest
Thursday | March 22, 2018: 15 m ride + 11 m run (incl. 2×2 tempo)
Indoor Ride Time: 58:28, Pace: 15.4 mph avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: great
Loc: VP Woods reverse loop, Temp: 40°/38°, Time: 1:40:46, Pace: 9:09 avg, Difficulty: mostly easy, Felt: really good!
Friday | March 23, 2018: teaching strength class + 1,218 yd swim + 7 m run (w/Anne)
Strength: body bars and resistance bands, Felt: good
Loc: FitNation, Time: 25:59, Pace: 2:08 min/100 yd, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Loc: VP Woods, Temp: 36°/33, Time: 1:28:38, Pace: 12:39, Difficulty: easy, Felt: too cold
Saturday | March 24, 2018: 16 m ride + teaching fitness boxing + 3 m run
Indoor Ride Time: 1:02:15, Pace: 15.4 mph avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Strength: ankle/hand resistance bands & gloves, Felt: good
Loc: hood, Temp: 37°/38°, Time: 25:33, Pace: 8:30 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Sunday | March 25, 2018: 12 m run
Loc: DPRT/Kilbourne Loop, Temp: 29°/31°, Time: 2:01:04, Pace: 10:05 avg, Difficulty: easy enough, Felt: fine

Notes:

• The theme of this week was WIND! All of my runs were windy. The wind irritated me during all of them. I know this is typical weather here, I’m just sick of hearing the wind in my ears, and feeling it pushing me around. Maybe I’ll get a break soon.
• Now that I have a new phone, I can start using Glympse again with Steven so he knows where the hell I am when I’m running (we don’t use find my friends or whatever that creepy app is called). I wasn’t using it before because it would drain my phone too much, but that is no longer an issue. Yay, safety!
• I got to run with Anne on Friday, yay! I/m so glad she came in early for her race and we got to hang out. And have a cold and windy run together, aww.
• I skipped intervals this week. See here and bullet #1 above. Ha.

Link to Training Week 439

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By kilax, March 24, 2018 3:35 am

Gawd, I’ve been training for this 5K f-o-r-e-v-e-r (and you’ve been hearing about it F-O-R-E-V-E-R). “Focused”* training started in the middle of December.

The race is two weeks from today, and I’m at the point where I just want to be running the damn thing. I usually don’t focus on a race for this long, and don’t have the mental energy for it anymore. I’m fresh out of f*cks to give about training.

In this “focused” training cycle (since December 18th) I have:

• Run 581.7 miles, including:
  • 13 speed workouts
  • 13 hill workouts
  • 6 tempo workouts (including one race)
• Done strength: 36 times
• Cycled: 28 times
• Swam: 14 times
• Gotten a massage: 4 times

And how close I am to my previous 5K PR weight? A few pounds over! Do I think I will get there before my race in two weeks? Not really. Ha. But I have lost 20% of my weight since November, so that’s cool. I need to keep going in that direction, and stay there (I am a chronic yo-yoer).

I know some people are anti-scale, but daily weigh-ins keep me on track!

I’m not going to get any faster in these next two weeks. I’m tempted to stop with the focused work now, and run junk miles until the race. I probably won’t. Winky face.

What I do need to make sure I do though, is focus on my eating, and getting enough sleep!

Two more weeks, I can do this!!!

*Focused as in, specific 5K speedwork. I had been doing speedwork once a week for a few years, and hills once a week for about a month+. And I do strength, cycling, and swimming every week anyway.

A bad thing that happened this week. I have this janky 6-port USB charging tower on my desktop, and on Thursday afternoon, I had three things plugged in to it (phone, watch, headphones), and I said to Steven, “I have three things plugged in, let’s see what happens!”

Um, foreshadowing…

Not five minutes later, I look over and my headphones are SMOKING. Smoke is coming out of where the charging cord connects to the headphones.

Oops.

The connection in the headphones and the end of the charging cord both fried.

The good news is, the headphones were over two years old, and they were on their way out anyway. And they were on sale on Amazon Thursday, so I ordered a new pair. And put that charging tower in the garbage.

But gah – that could have been BAD!!!

Comments (14)

By kilax, March 23, 2018 3:44 am

I found MC Fioti’s “Bum Bum Tam Tam” watching a dance video on Instagram. I find quite a bit of my music that way – I like the music (hip hop) dancers use!

And “Bum Bum Tam Tam” was one I was instantly listening to on repeat, day after day..

Let me know what you think, and what you’re listening to right now!

VERY IMPORTANT QUESTION – I am getting a manicure on Sunday, and whatever color I get will be the one I have on when I do my 5K on April 7th.

So… should I stick with this blue, since it matches my singlet so well?!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this blue.

Or… should I get something else from the gorgeous OPI Lisbon Collection?! I like all of these colors (and have worn #4 before!):

Vote on what color I should get (if you want)! I will let you know what I end up with on Monday!

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By kilax, March 22, 2018 6:28 am

• I hate talking about material things (ick), but I have to mention, I got a new phone this week and it’s made a world of difference. Mine was three years old, slooooooooooooow AF, and not reliable as a phone anymore. So, yay for the upgrade, and no longer wondering if my phone is going to work (at all), or randomly die.

• This is the tenth year of the Wisconsin Marathon and Half Marathon, and will be my tenth year running the half! The race is commemorating ten year runners by giving them “a special, Wisconsin Marathon blanket” (in quotes because I pulled that from an email they sent last week, ha). Neat!
• I don’t know what my goal (if any) will be for the Wisconsin Half Marathon. It’s four weeks after my 5K, so I’ll see how I feel post 5K and decide.
• Did anyone read the Outside Magazine article Why Caffeine Might Not Make You Faster (pdf here)? Apparently what version (AA, AC, or CC) you have of the gene CYP1A2 affects how your body metabolizes caffeine. Generally, if you metabolize it faster (AA), you go faster. If you metabolize it slower (CC), you go slower. Interesting stuff! I get my caffeine from tea and chocolate, and wonder what a cup of coffee would do for me!
• Also from Outside Magazine, did anyone read the article about elite marathoner Jordan Hasay (pdf here)? I love getting a glimpse of how elites train, and I have to say, her typical day (circled in red below, with yellow highlights of the things that sound extra fantastic) sounds awesome to me!

• This post needs more cat pictures!

Ha, I brought my laptop in to the kitchen to work standing for a while and Khali wasn’t sure about me disturbing her slumber! Such RBF. So cute. Very sleep.

Link to Random Thoughts Thursday 171