Comments (8)

By kilax, July 8, 2018 6:04 pm

Highlight of the Week: The return of intervals! And lovely July running weather to go along with them!

Monday | July 2, 2018: 7 m run + 15 m bike + teaching strength class
Loc: Rev. VP Woods Loop, Temp: 66°/65°, Time: 1:10:25, Pace: 10:03 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: pretty good!
Indoor Ride Time: 54:59, Pace: 16.4 mph avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good, sore butt!
Strength: body bars and soft balls, Felt: good, challenged
Tuesday | July 3, 2018: 2.5 m walk
Wednesday | July 4, 2018: 12 m run + 17 m bike
Loc: DPRT/Kilbourne Loop, Temp: 68°/74°, Time: 2:02:39, Pace: 10:13 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: great
Loc: Kilbourne/Hunt Club Loop, Temp: 78°/82°, Time: 1:02:18, Pace: 16.4 mph avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Thursday | July 5, 2018: 4 m run
Loc: hood, Temp: 73°/73°, Time: 39:57, Pace: 9:59 avg, Difficulty: easy-ish, Felt: good, just sweaty!
Friday | July 6, 2018: teaching strength class + 1,008 yd swim + 5 m run
Strength: body bars and soft balls, Felt: good, challenged
Loc: FitNation, Time: 21:43, Pace: 2:09 min/100 yd, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Loc: VP Woods, Temp: 72°/71°, Time: 49:13, Pace: 9:50, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good, enjoyed the breeze
Saturday | July 7, 2018: 13 m run (incl. 6×4:00) + 10 m bike + teaching fitness boxing
Loc: Lake Andrea/Outlet Mall Loop, Temp: 56°/62°, Time: 2:08:32, Pace: 9:53 avg, Difficulty: mostly easy, Felt: great!
Indoor Ride Time: 38:48, Pace: 15.5 mph avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good, sweaty
Sunday | July 8, 2018: 3 m run + 42.2 m bike
Loc: hood, Temp: 57°, Time: 29:18, Pace: 9:45 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Loc: Hunt Club/MB/88th Loop, Temp: 64°/77°, Time: 2:39:53, Pace: 15.8 mph avg, Difficulty: mostly easy, Felt: good, but frustrated with the bumps

Notes:

• Last weekend, I stubbed my right foot against our weight station, and now my big toe is really tender to the touch. And a bit swollen. And red. If that doesn’t go down soon, I am going to see the doctor and ask them to remove the toenail or a drill a hole in to it or something. It’s not bugging me enough that I can’t work out, but the pressure on it during my swim was not pleasant! Edited: after I published this, I was able to drain it myself. YAY, sweet relief! And now, for the toenail to fall off…
• It’s been humid on my runs, and on the longer ones, I am coming back with wet socks and wrinkled toes, eww! Steven asked me a few times what smells in the garage – that would be the shoes from that run!
• Running has been feeling harder, probably because of the higher heat and humidity, and I’m out there feeling like I am going so much slower, but when I look at my watch when I am done, I really haven’t been – low 10:00s is great for me in the summer! I hope I can keep that up. And something I realized – it will be much easier to if I listen to music and not podcasts. I love podcasts but they make me run a bit slower.
• I haven’t run intervals since April! I’ve been doing tempos instead. I finally got back to some intervals this week and we had wonderful weather for them in July (56°)! Woot!
• My strength classes made me sore this week, yay! We used soft balls (filled with sand) this week and they really work your hands and lower arms. Then my students beat the crap out of me at boxing! I could really feel it Sunday morning when I woke up!
• Anne was in town this weekend and came to my boxing class! I miss having her as a student.
• Ha, I rode my bike more this week than I did last month. And the month of April. And almost the month of May. I’ve been putting more time in on the Saddle to get my butt ready for our 70 mile ride on Day 7 of RAGRABI!

Link to Training Week 454

Comments (8)

By kilax, July 6, 2018 6:57 am

These two trouble makers!

We visited them yesterday* and the vet said they’re probably going to get fixed on Monday. If everything goes well, we can bring them home late next week. Eek!

I’m excited but worried. And I am NOT a worrier, so this feels very strange. I know it’s pointless to worry, but I am concerned about the kittens’ safety in our home – with our house layout/possessions, and with Data and Khali (I don’t think we should have any issues, but you never know!).

Luckily, we work from home, so we can watch and see what they get in to (everything) and what we need to put away (everything?). And if they need to be put in a separate room for a while, we can do that.

Eeeeek!!!! Soooooooooooooooooooooon! I need to research kitten food!

*Every time we see them, they are more and more active/playful! It’s so fun!

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By kilax, July 5, 2018 6:03 am

• We had such a relaxing Fourth! I worked out in the morning while Steven worked, then we grilled and chilled, including a NAP!!! We made tacos for dinner and watched Red Sparrow. It was a much welcomed relaxing day after not having any downtime last weekend.
• Data did not appreciate the fireworks we could hear from our house last night though. Poor little dude.

Data hiding in the closet

• I was gone three of the weekends in June, and had house guests for the other, so last weekend was the first weekend we were both home in a while. And we were BUSY – doing a bit of yard work, errands, and starting a backup sump pump project in the basement (we have two separate sump pumps and we’re installing back-ups to both). I was exhausted Sunday night, and grateful to have a day off in the middle of the week to chill.
• Khali has been my alarm clock lately! I like to wake up at 5:00 am, and every morning, she is on my chest at 5:00 am, purring and gently waking me up. (Except yesterday, when she thought I wanted to get up at 3:30 am…)

Link to Random Thoughts Thursday 185

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By kilax, July 4, 2018 10:39 am

Well, that’s obvious. We all know running is the sport I prefer to participate in the most, but what I mean is running is my sport to follow. To watch. To be enthusiastic about. To be inspired by.

This is a relatively new hobby to me! I didn’t grow up in a family with a tradition of following sports, and I was never as in to it before, as I am now. Instagram and podcasts have made me a much more engaged follower. I’m not able to watch events live (no cable!), but I read and hear about the athletes getting ready for them (on their own accounts and in interviews), and read and listen about it (and sometimes watch it!) later.

I realized I was super in to it when my parents were visiting and I spent the end of a run telling my Dad about this year’s Boston Marathon and what went down on the elite side and the theories about why (thanks for listening, Dad!). Afterward, I thought “why am I able to retain that random information? Well duh, cause I am passionate AF about it. And it inspires me.

So yeah, I’ll just be over here, listening to a zillion different podcasts and following all the runners on instagram! And geeking out about what I am reading/listening to with my friends.

No related photo, but here’s when I met Meb the first time!

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By kilax, July 3, 2018 10:39 am

Last week Mica told me about an icebreaker she participated in where you had to say what you’d want your superpower to be. She asked me what mine would be, and I said never getting sick or injured (so basically, amazing immunity and invulnerability).

But even when I said that, I knew I’d think about it more, and come up with a superpower that was communication based. I don’t want to be able to read people’s minds (um, NO THANKS) but wouldn’t it be amazing if there was a way to share information and ideas, instantly, without words, so that the other person understood them, even if they didn’t agree with them? And you could do the same with their information/ideas?

So much gets lost in communication, because of human error, laziness, and greed (hoarding information). And I’m guilty of being lazy with communication from time to time. I get so tired of constantly communicating. SO, SO, SO tired of it. The deciphering. The begging for information. Sharing the same thing over and over. Trying to find a way to explain something to someone. Trying to find the person WITH information. (Mostly talking about work here, ha.) So. Much. Adulting.

So I can see many instances in my professional and personal life where this “superpower” would come in handy. Of course, I’d want to be able to turn it off and on!

Comments (16)

By kilax, July 2, 2018 7:11 am

Two weeks after running Grandma’s Marathon, I had a really obvious DUH! realization about why I felt down in the dumps after the race.

Like, REALLY obvious.

A photo from this morning’s run

The race made me doubt myself. Not the “can I do this?” self doubt I’ve talked about before, but “should I be doing this?” and “am I meant to do this?” self doubt. Should I be out there running marathons if I have such a weak mental game? Why couldn’t I keep up my goal pace for more than 15 miles? Why’d I let falling get in my head so much? And so on.

I had some icky feelings post race but hadn’t identified them as self doubt. The feelings were lingering without me realizing what they were.

But once I identified the feelings, I instantly felt better (okay, and the endorphins of being two weeks post race and working out more helped too), because I understood why I was feeling crummy, and could counter those feelings with logic*.

This isn’t a cry for validation, at all! It’s a celebration of acknowledging a feeling, and the action of doing that helping get through it. I tend to be someone who runs (ha ha) from certain feelings (read: eats their emotions) so this is good for me!!!

*Logic as in, “yes, keep running,” and “you had bad luck that day, it happens,” and “keep working on your mental game, girl!”

Comments Off on Training Week 454

By kilax, July 1, 2018 8:41 pm

Highlight of the Week: Working out more! Doing well in the heat! Going on a longer ride!

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Monday | June 25, 2018: 7.5 m run + teaching strength class
Loc: VP Woods Loop, Temp: 59°/59°, Time: 1:15:10, Pace: 10:01 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good, annoyed with traffic noise
Strength: body bars and soft balls, Felt: good
Tuesday | June 26, 2018: 3 m run
Loc: hood, Temp: 62°/64°, Time: 31:08, Pace: 10:22 avg, Difficulty: medium, Felt: dead legs
Wednesday | June 27, 2018: rest
Thursday | June 28, 2018: 10 m run
Loc: VP Woods Loop, Temp: 61°/70°, Time: 1:41:10, Pace: 10:07 avg, Difficulty: mostly easy, Felt: good
Friday | June 29, 2018: teaching strength class + 1,218 yd swim + 5 m run + 15 m bike
Strength: body bars and soft balls, Felt: good
Loc: FitNation, Time: 25:51, Pace: 2:07 min/100 yd, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Loc: VP Woods, Temp: 92°/93°, Time: 51:44, Pace: 10:20, Difficulty: easy, Felt: surprisingly good in the heat
Indoor Ride Time: 1:01:05, Pace: 14.7 mph avg., Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Saturday | June 30, 2018: 35.5 m bike + 3.5 m run
Loc: MB/88th Loop, Temp: 79°/82°, Time: 2:16:32, Pace: 15.6 mph avg, Difficulty: easy-ish, Felt: good, just a bit beat down with the bumps, then wind in the end
Loc: VP Woods, Temp: 93°/93°, Time: 34:41, Pace: 9:55 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: fine except bugs on my face and sunscreen in my eyes!
Sunday | July 1, 2018: 12.5 m run
Loc: ML/VP Woods Loop, Temp: 78°/80°, Time: 2:15:02, Pace: 10:48 avg, Difficulty: medium, Felt: decent for the humidity/dew point!

Notes:

• I think my Monday night class liked the workout! During class, someone even said, “Who hates Kim?!” Ha ha ha, love it.
• My legs were DEAD Tuesday morning. Wednesday is typically the only day I take off from running, which makes Tuesday the sixth day in a row of running, and yeah, I was feeling it. I thought I’d do speedwork on Tuesday because it was going to be the last cool morning of the week, but I passed on that bad idea. I’ll need to find a new speedwork day if I keep Thursdays as a long run day.
• All the big “fly around your head in circles while you run” bugs are out. Yay… not.
• It felt good to get back in the pool! I hadn’t gone in three weeks!
• Into the wind during the end of my Saturday ride, a fellow cyclist passed me and asked if I wanted to draft off of him for a while. How nice! I lasted maybe half a mile at his 19mph pace!
• I’ve been running with my shirt off when it’s so hot, and I didn’t think ahead about the fact that that would mean I have no where to wipe my sweaty face! I had a painful experience Saturday when I was sweating so much that my sunscreen was running in my eyes and I couldn’t relieve it (I tired pouring water in my eyes and that didn’t help). I’ll have to use the less runny sunscreen next time, and bring TP.
• With the hot temps at the end of the week, I tried hard to stay on my mental game, repeating mantras like “I love running, I am a strong runner,” and “your legs aren’t tired, you’re just hot.” It’s cheesy, but it works for me, so I am going to keep at it.
• Monthly recap time. In June I ran 140.7 miles (22 runs), cycled 58.5 miles (2 indoor rides, 1 outdoor rides) and swam 3,444 yards (3 swims) (these are my lowest numbers in all three disciplines, all year! Ha! That is what taper and race recovery will do to ya). My coldest run was 47°F and my warmest was 93°F. I did 2 tempo workouts. I taught 7 strength classes and 1 fitness boxing class. I ran one race, Grandma’s Marathon.

Link to Training Week 453