Running + Training

By kilax, June 24, 2018 4:36 pm

Highlight of the Week: Running with Rachel!

Monday | June 18, 2018: 2 m walk + teaching strength class
Strength: kettlebells and circuit, Felt: better!
Tuesday | June 19, 2018: rest
Wednesday | June 20, 2018: 40 min walk
Thursday | June 21, 2018: 3 m run
Loc: hood, Temp: 64°/65°, Time: 30:23, Pace: 10:07 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: stiff, but good!
Friday | June 22, 2018: teaching strength class + 4.55 m run
Strength: kettlebells, and cardio/core, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Loc: VP Woods, Temp: 65°/65°, Time: 46:16, Pace: 10:10, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good, happy to be running
Saturday | June 23, 2018: 3 m run
Loc: hood, Temp: 58°/60°, Time: 30:25, Pace: 10:08 avg, Difficulty: medium, Felt: a bit tired, bloated
Sunday | June 24, 2018: 6 m run (w/Rachel)
Loc: Farmington (??), Temp: 67°, Time: 59:50, Pace: 9:58 avg, Difficulty: mostly easy, Felt: okay, still felt a bit bloated (legs only)

Notes:

• I thought teaching strength class Monday night would make me feel like garbage after the marathon, but it actually helped. Yay for that!
• I skipped swimming this week because I didn’t want to mess up my scab, then spent a lot of Saturday in a lake, without it protected, because band-aids wouldn’t stay on. Eh. It should be fine by now.
• My legs felt stiff and heavy/bloated most of the week. Hopefully that’s just because it’s a recovery week, and because my diet’s been crap.
• I loved running with Rachel on Sunday, yay! I hope we can run together once in July, too.
• Working out so little this week while recovering made me absolutely f*cking bonkers so I plan to get back to my normal routine next week!

Link to Training Week 452

Books, Life, Running + Training, Work + Design

By kilax, June 21, 2018 6:27 am

• Happy First Day of Summer/Longest Day!
• Data seems to be doing better! We both think he looks bigger, and he’s been play fighting with Khali more (he hadn’t been for about a month). Yay!

• We visited the kittens again on Tuesday! The ones with orange collars are the ones we plan to adopt. And if that all brown one in the bottom picture doesn’t have a home, I bet it will end up at our house…

• I was deemed “ineligible” for the job I applied for at work. No interview for me. My boss offered to help the next time I apply though (and would have helped before if I had thought to ask). Hopefully it doesn’t take a year or more for positions to open again…
• Bobbi shared this photo with me that the Duluth News Tribune posted from the beginning of Grandma’s Marathon (that I am in – can you find me?). So yeah, just a little crowded at the start, but nothing unusual for a marathon. I obviously need to work on running around/next to people.

• I am still reading California but really want to start Let Your Mind Run, which Mica sent me as a surprise!!! Thanks, Mica!

• And with that, I am going to head out for my first post-marathon run. My quads feel good, and we’ll see how the knee feels!

Link to Random Thoughts Thursday 183

Running + Training

By kilax, June 20, 2018 5:41 am

NOTHING! I am taking the summer off!

Ha, kidding. You guys know me. I’m badly itching to get back to running. I’m just waiting for my quads to give me the okay, and for the scab on my knee to be in a good spot (whatever that means).

I’m over feeling upset with how Grandma’s went. I’m done thinking about the “what ifs” and questioning my mental game (could I have powered through?). There’s no point! Instead I’m thinking about what a fun weekend it was, and feeling VERY proud of my friends’ races!

That doesn’t mean a fall marathon isn’t in the back of my mind, though. If I have a healthy summer, and registration is still open for the Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon, I will consider registering for it. Consider.

Otherwise, the only thing I am registered for right now is the Gear Western Country Half Marathon in Long Lake, Minnesota on October 13th. We have a family wedding sort of nearby in Minnesota that day, and my mom suggested I do a race while I am there, so here we are… I’m all signed up in the “running/galloping hobby horse division” of the race!

The race has submitted an application to Guinness World Records for the first and fastest half marathon while riding on a hobby horse. The unofficial record is 1:27:55! I won’t be competing for the record, but think it will be humorous to run the half with a hobby horse (you can run a 5K with the hobby horse too). A few rules:

• You must provide your own hobby horse, OR rent one. My mom is making mine!
• The pole of the hobby horse from its neck to the ground must be at least half as tall as the runner. The horse head must be larger than the runner’s head. The horse head must have the appearance of a horse.
• Hobby horse runners have to start in the hobby horse corral. (Will it be fenced in? Ha ha.)
• Hobby horse runners have to gallop the first and last 100 meters of the race, and in specially designated gallop zones.
• The hobby horse runner must have the horse between their legs for the entire race, either carrying them with their hands, or with a harness.

I already have my horse’s design and name figured out, but I don’t want to spoil the surprise! Here are some horses Mom designed for Gina and Steven to try to convince them to come, though. (That didn’t work, ha.)

So that’s it, for future race plans. Maybe some 5Ks will pop up, but I have nothing in mind!

Life

By kilax, June 19, 2018 6:23 am

Our family will be growing by two in July!

Squuuuuuuuuuueeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

On Thursday we visited the kittens at the vet and made the hard decision of which two would come home! We think the one in the top photo is a girl, and the one in the bottom photo is a boy. We haven’t decided on names yet, but are leaning toward Battlestar Gallactica inspired ones. (We’ll live with them a bit before we decide!)

I’m excited but nervous! We have a happy flow with the animals in our house now, and I don’t want to disturb that. Please share your tips on introducing kittens to older cats, and taking care of kittens, in general!

Life, Recipes + Food, Running + Training, Travel

By kilax, June 18, 2018 6:01 am

I had an amazingly fulfilling weekend abounding in enjoyable conversation, silly jokes, and encouragement. Typically, being around people all the time for a few days in a row emotionally drains me, but not when it’s the right people. It was a pleasure the entire weekend with great people – my great people!

FRIDAY!

Bobbi and Riyanti picked me up at 5:30 am on Friday, and Bobbi drove us to Duluth (thanks, Bobbi!!!). It’s been FOREVER since I’ve seen Riyanti, and Bobbi and I haven’t spent much time together recently either, so the trip flew by because we were gabbing the whole time. We only stopped twice and were in town by noon. Woo hoo! (And thanks for letting me crash your drive to Duluth, ladies!)

We met a college friend of mine, Jessica, at her office to pick up bleacher passes that she had for the race (for Bobbi, Riyanti, and their friends to use to spectate after they ran the half!). And we all went to Pizza Luce for lunch. Bobbi and I ate there when we road-tripped to Minneapolis a few years back and I thought she’d mentioned then that they were in Duluth, too. I was so happy they were. They have a ton of vegan options and my pizza was delicious!!!

I got “The Rustler” – “topped with mock duck, pineapple, banana peppers, red onion, cheddar and mozzarella on BBQ/red sauce.”

While we were getting ready to order, it started storming like crazy outside and the power flickered on and off a few times. Bobbi had warned me how nutso the weather is in Duluth (how rapidly it changes), but I had to experience it to understand it.

Me, Riyanti, Bobbi, and Jessica

It was nice to catch up with Jessica, and I appreciated that Bobbi and Riyanti were easy-going about the day’s schedule (when they didn’t have to be, and still had the expo to go to, and a 5K to run that night!).

We went to the expo and it was crazy-crowded like Bobbi warned me it would be. We ran in to the friends Bobbi and Riyanti were staying with, and chatted with them for a while. Then as we were walking to the expo, we walked by Kara Goucher and I impulsively said “Hey, Kara!” Gosh, what a dork. She said “hey” back. Face. Palm.

Bobbi, me, Rityani, Kelly, and Carly with “Grandma”!

I struggled with the crowds at the expo and felt my heart rate go up, and the blood drain out of my face. I just tried to stay out of people’s way!

Gina and her friends, Bob and Jessica (a different Jessica!), who I was staying with, were still around the expo, so when we were done, Bobbi and Riyanti dropped me off and I left with Gina and her crew to go back to the rental house.

Gina found a gorgeous house to rent in the woods, northeast of downtown (thank you, Gina, for coordinating all that!). It was calm and relaxing, and perfect for this weekend – we could “cook” (aka, heat up food), wash our stinky clothes, relax without hotel noise, and spread out. The house had a huge workshop outside and seemed to be on a few acres. Steven would have loved it!

I got to share a room with Gina! And Fred, the fish.

We spent the evening catching up and discussing race strategy. Then it was lights out for an early wake-up call!

SATURDAY!

On Saturday, the four of us ran the marathon! And they all had great races, yay!

Bobbi and her friends used the bleacher passes and were waiting for me to cross the finish, which I greatly appreciate, because they were cold, and I took longer than I thought I would. My tracker actually showed I stopped so Bobbi texted me during the race to make sure I was okay. I felt bad making her worry, but also appreciated her concern. (Yeah, lots of use of the word “appreciate” in this post – I think that was my word for the weekend!)

Bobbi and Riyanti also had stomach issues during their races, so I asked if they thought it was something we all ate on Friday – maybe Pizza Luce? They theorized it was the fiber in the Triscuits we had on the car ride up. That very well could be. Oops. Sigh. Triscuits are now known as “Trouble-Maker Triscuits” to us three.

Gina, Bob, Jessica and I made the long walk to the car after the race, and went straight back to our rental house to clean up and chill out. I loved hearing about everyone’s races, and appreciated how encouraging they were to me about mine. People had been telling me what I did was “badass,” which was nice, but it helped to share the disappointment with people who had run the same distance at the same race as me, and could understand exactly what I was saying about the race, and commiserate about their past marathon struggles. The marathon is a long distance and you never know what will happen on race day!

A side note: someone asked me if I thought about stopping earlier to get my knee looked at, instead of at mile 23 (when the fall happened at mile .25). I did. But every sign I passed for a medic said “Drop off or medical help” and I was worried I would drop out. Also, the stops were a bit off course and I didn’t want to add that much extra to my overall mileage. Ha. When I did finally stop, it wasn’t an official medic, it was the Navy volunteers. They, and the medics at the end, both told me they had way less people visiting than usual because the weather was so good. Yay! I’m glad it was and so many people had great races!!!

After we all cleaned up, we went out for an early dinner. Gina found a place in town that had some vegan options (fried avocado yasssss!!!)! Gina always takes care of me, and I appreciate it (there’s that word again!).

When we got back, we watched some of the Chris Mocko Show on YouTube, enjoyed ice cream we picked up after dinner, and later watched the Breaking Two documentary (so good!). We spent the evening chatting about the race and life, and I felt very in the moment and lucky to be spending time with caring, thoughtful people.

Me, Jessica, Bob, and Gina

During they evening, they all worked together to bandage up my knee (Jessica is a nurse, woot!) and all “signed” it. Ha!

SUNDAY!

I thought my body would let me sleep in on Sunday! Not so much – I was up shortly after 5:00. But that’s okay, because it meant I had more time to chat with Gina, Bob, and Jessica before we left.

Bobbi and Riyanti picked me up at 8:30 am, the same time Gina, Bob, and Jessica had to drive back to Minneapolis to catch their flight.

Bobbi, Riyanti and I had breakfast, then headed out at 10:00 am. And had a HELLA hard time getting out of Superior, Wisconsin. Sigh. The north section of the highway we needed to take through most of Wisconsin was being shut down for flash flooding (see article here) with no detour set up. We tried simple/close detours on our own, but the back roads were already flooded!

We came up with a longer detour route, and had to drive through two instances of low moving water to even do that. Eek. The detour we took ended up adding about an hour and a half on to our already long drive, and we weren’t thrilled, but made the best of it, and were happy to be together for it! Although, I would say I definitely got a bit slap happy. It was hot out (mid 90s) and every time we got out of the car, I felt sicker (with a headache). But I didn’t get sick (throw up) in the car, so that’s a win!

I enjoyed hearing about their races. They did the 5K/half marathon challenge and enjoyed it (minus the re-route at the end of the course due to construction), and had a good time staying with their friends! Bobbi and Riyanti were super sweet about my crap race and told me they were crying when they saw me run in holding hands with Bob, because they were so happy I was finishing with a good friend and not out there alone. I was extremely grateful for that, too.

Bobbi dropped me off at 6:45 pm! What a long day. And again, thanks to her for doing all the driving.

Steven had dinner ready to go and we ate and watched a bit of Mad Men then did our Sunday evening chores and went to bed. I tried to minimize the amount of times I had to go up and down the stairs, because that isn’t going so well (normal post-marathon quad soreness).

I was telling my college friend Jessica about my race on Saturday, and she said she understood why I enjoy running when I have such a good support group, and how cool that is. It really IS cool. And makes my heart happy. Despite the race not going so great, I still had an amazing weekend and am grateful I got to have all of those meaningful (and silly!) conversations!!!

Running + Training

By kilax, June 17, 2018 9:30 pm

Highlight of the Week: Finishing Grandma’s Marathon with Bob!

Monday | June 11, 2018: rest (walked all over NeoCon!)
Tuesday | June 12, 2018: 5.2 m run (last 3.4 w/Dad on bike)
Loc: hood, Temp: 61°/61°, Time: 49:06, Pace: 9:27 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: heavy legs, but okay!
Wednesday | June 13, 2018: 3.3 m run
Loc: Chicago Lakefront Trail, Temp: 76°/76°, Time: 28:45, Pace: 8:43 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good, hot!
Thursday | June 14, 2018: 3.3 m run + 8 m ride
Loc: VP Woods, Temp: 63°/66°, Time: 31:39, Pace: 9:35 avg, Difficulty: medium, Felt: a bit sluggish at first, hot!
Indoor Ride Time: 30:17, Pace: 15.8 mph avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Friday | June 15, 2018: rest
Saturday | June 16, 2018: Grandma’s Marathon
Loc: Two Harbors to Duluth, Temp: 61°/49°, Time: 4:36:36, Pace: 10:34 avg, Difficulty: easy then hard, Felt: good then crummy
Sunday | June 17, 2018: rest

Notes:

• My legs felt SO heavy on my Tuesday run. I haven’t felt like that in forever! I walked a ton the day before, but wtf, legs! Dumb taper.
• It felt really odd to work out so little this week, but again, taper (and wasn’t free to teach or swim when I normally do).
• I talked to Bobbi and Riyanti today about how strange it was to me that I felt so hungry at the end of the race, despite sticking to my planned fueling every four miles. Then Riyanti pointed out that I slowed down a lot, and my four miles was more spread out. DUH, Kim. I fuel every thirty-five minutes and had picked four miles because that was easy to remember – when going race pace, four miles = thirty-five minutes. But that math doesn’t work when you get off pace! DUUUUUH.
• I’m really hoping I can do some cardio this week, but I have to see how my knee heals from my fall at the race! It’s swollen, bruised, and not scabbed over yet. You might see a lot of walking in next week’s training recap!

Link to Training Week 451

Running + Training

By kilax, June 16, 2018 3:12 pm

Wow – we had somewhat great race weather in Duluth for Grandma’s Marathon today and I DIDN’T PR! Ha, let me tell you why…

First, though, logistics. I stayed at a (beautiful!!!) rental house with Gina, Bob, and Jessica. They planned this trip a while ago and Gina invited me to join them in April! We left the house at 4:30 am and drove to the DECC (Duluth Entertainment Convention Center) to park. Grandma’s Marathon is point-to-point and we parked at the finish and took the train to the start (you can take the train or bus to the start, but you can’t park there).

I laughed when I got on the train and saw it was basically a Metra car! Then I was worried it would eff up my piriformis like my rides on Metra to the city do, but it didn’t. Phew.

It was an hour and twenty minute ride! Then we got off and immediately got in hella long porta pottie lines.

Jessica, Bob, Gina, me

We walked to the start a few minutes before race start (7:45 am). Luckily we could line up by our estimated pace time, even though we got in so late.

There’s no corrals and we all took off as one big group. It was crowded and I tripped and landed on my hands and knees a quarter mile in to the race. I felt shook up, and looked for Gina (for emotional support) but didn’t see her and kept running. (She later told me she saw someone hand me something, but didn’t see me fall.)

I texted my dad and snis to tell them what happened and ask for encouragement (no, I was NOT using my phone when I fell). They sent me some and I tried to get out of my head about the fall, but I did think about it for a few miles.

Then I decided to ignore it and stick to my goal 8:46 per mile pace plan. I took gels every four miles and was having stomach issues (needing to poo, and having cramps). I went to the bathroom at mile 9 and got back on pace until mile 14, then it went downhill (not literally, it was up and down for most of the race). My stomach felt jacked up, and my knee was starting to hurt. Sigh.

I went in to survival mode and put a smile on my face and did what I could for running and walked when I needed to. I was trying not to be frustrated and to still have a good time. I had been using all my mantras hoping I could get my pace back but it just wasn’t happening. I was frustrated that I couldn’t even hold long run pace for very long!

Gina passed me around mile 16 looking awesome (she got a PR!!!) and she made sure I was gonna be okay. I planned to do whatever I needed to get my medal and finisher shirt!

Spoiler alert, I got it

It had been foggy all morning and started to rain a bit at 17, but only for a few miles. The temperature actually dropped during the race and the breeze felt great (it was 61° and 82% humidity when we started and 49°F and 96% humidity and cool when we finished). My face felt too hot when I started, and for a few miles, but it really wasn’t bad.

I was doing a run/walk and getting lots of comments on my knee (which I was trying to ignore – my knee, not the people!). I went to the bathroom again at 19 (ugh) then kept going. During mile 22 a course marshal approached me and asked if he could help with my knee and I started crying. Sigh. So emotional. My knee was bugging me more and more as it began to scab over. Some Navy people cleaned it a bit and bandaged it up and sent me on my way and it felt stiff, but better.

I kept going and Bob approached me around mile 24 which was a lifesaver. I picked it up a small bit with him (as much as I could!) and we finished together, in 4:36:36. Quite a bit off from 3:50!

I was so hungry when I finished (which is odd since I was having gels every four miles despite my stomach feeling messed up). And cold. We found Gina and Jessica (she PR’d and BQ’d!!!) and went to the medic tent to get me cleaned up (and get some asphalt out of my knee).

So that was my race!

Steven asked if I wanted to do another marathon right away. Nah. I think I’d rather just train long and not race!

A few notes:

• I saw a lot of funny signs including “if MPR raccoon can do it, you can too!”
• I appreciated the texts from family, and Bobbi to see how I was doing. I appreciate Bobbi waiting WAY after her half finished to see me come in. I appreciate xaarlin writing just what I needed to hear when I told her I was struggling.
• This race is well done! I think I’d like the course better if I wasn’t all effed up, though. Ha ha.
• We all loved the tall balloon mile markers – we could see them coming up, even with the fog.
• Sometimes you can see the finish way off, on clear days. I was happy it was foggy and I couldn’t!
• The rolling hills did seem to get to me, which was disappointing – I hill train and run inclines on my long runs. A lot of times I’d be like, “this effort feels hard, am I on an incline?” Ha. A LOT OF THAT.
• I’m so excited for Gina and Jessica and so appreciative of Bob!!!
• Ha. So when I did check the weather when I was packing, I didn’t even think to check the START town. I checked the finish town! Lesson learned for point-to-point race weather checking!

House

By kilax, June 15, 2018 4:29 am

Hooray! This weekend, Steven and Dad completed some projects that Steven’s wanted to get done for a long time. We had been waiting for the right weather (we kind of had it…) and time to do it!

Renting a boom lift was crucial to the work – installing gutter guards, new plumbing vent caps, and tree removal/trimming. You don’t do those things (safely) on a ladder!

The boom lift arrived on Friday and we had it until Monday (technically, for eight hours of timed use). Steven wasn’t home when it was dropped off, so the delivery guy told me how to use it. I remembered MOST of what he said and Steven read parts of the manual to figure out the rest!

(Funny story: when Steven was calling to rent it, they asked what company he worked for, and he said it was for personal use. So they asked if he had a license to operate and he said no. The guy on the phone was like “hold on a minute,” then talked to someone in the background and came back and said “Okay, what’s your credit card number?!” Ha.)

GUTTER GUARDS

We originally didn’t have gutter guards on ANY of our gutters (ha, our house didn’t even HAVE gutters when we bought it). After the first few big storms at our house, we realized we needed them – the gutters fill up so fast with the leaves getting blown around during the storm. And we want the water to go through the gutters and down the drain pipes – NOT to spill over and against the house.

So we had a company install gutter guards on one side of the house, and Steven installed them on the rest of the lower level that he could reach with a ladder. And that left the gutter guards on the second floor to be installed!

Getting set up

The gutter guards were a pain to put on because our gutters are installed too high (the guys who installed our gutters were idiots). You can see in the photos below that the tiles of our roof hang right over the gutters – the gutters should be a bit lower. Because of that, it was frustrating to get a drill back there to secure the gutter guards. But Steven got it done and they look marvelous!

Beautiful new gutter guards!

Not sponsored: The gutter guards are made here in Chicagoland and the owner is really nice!

It was overcast in the morning when they were working on the gutter guards, then the sun came out in the afternoon and Steven got a bit of sunburn while up on the lift. Oops!

PLUMBING VENT CAPS

We’ve noticed some back drafting of scents in to the bathroom that the vents are supposed to be pushing out, so we figured they might be clogged, and that we needed new plumbing vent caps. The gutter guards were the top priority project with the boom lift, and this was the second one.

This ended up being a huge pain in the arse because the vent caps Steven ordered had to be modified (cut and shaped) quite a bit to fit on the exhaust and against the roof tile. That’s one thing to do when you can walk to your tools and use them and test the shape. It’s another thing when the tools are in the garage and you’re two stories up in the air and having to test the shape!

But they finally got them to fit, yay!

Also, these are “critter quitter” vent caps, which are meant to deter animals from getting inside them and chewing on them. The old vent caps were lead, and apparently, lead takes salty and amazing to animals. The new ones are plastic. Stay away, animals! Stop chewing on our house!

TREE REMOVAL/TRIMMING

Steven and Dad got the gutter guards and plumbing vent caps installed Saturday which meant they had time Sunday for bonus projects on the boom lift (Steven checked the timer and saw they were still under the eight hours allotted).

After the morning rain stopped, they removed a tree from the backyard. It was the only tree in our backyard, and it was rotted and hollow inside.

Then they went all over the yard removing dead limbs. Sigh. We have A LOT of unhealthy trees in our yard. We don’t feel bad cutting them down since we have so many damn trees, but we are concerned about that so many trees are unhealthy! We might have a tree doctor come look at a few.

Inspector Data

It looks like a storm came through our yard, but that’s just all the limbs we still need to clean up.

Steven and Dad spent all of Sunday afternoon removing limbs. They got almost all of them done except one (the boom lift died and that ended their fun). So if you visit, I’ll tell you where NOT to park your car, in case it falls. Hee hee.

BONUS PROJECTS!

Don’t worry, Steven had back-up projects for after the boom lift got picked up and when Mom and I were at NeoCon on Monday.

HITCH INSTALL

They installed a hitch on my new car, yay! Now it’s ready to hold my bike rack! You know, if I actually rode my bike… (I totally will after this race!).

GUTTER DRAIN PIPE

The gutter drain pipe they installed in September has been spewing water out when the sump pump runs, so they installed some (custom-made) tighter fittings to stop that from happening.

In conclusion…

Damn, they got A LOT done! Steven was really hoping to get the gutter guards on and maybe the plumbing vent caps, so he was happy to get so many dead tree limbs down too. There was only a few small “fill in free time” projects they didn’t do, and really, those are things Steven and I can do (really, Steven, ha).

And don’t worry, friends! Steven and I still have A LOT to do on the house. Like:

• install attic baffles/insulate our strange little attic above the dining room
• install new sump pump covers
• install a plastic bag holder, battery holder, and paper towel holder in the closet upstairs (I like easy projects like this, ha!)
• seal the basement floor
• design and build a drainage system for the front yard
• build a second garage

Life, Rants, Running + Training, Work + Design

By kilax, June 14, 2018 6:23 am

• BIG NEWS! Today we are going to the veterinarian to fill out an adoption application and put down a deposit for KITTENZ!
• UM, THIS IS A PROBLEM. I was trying out the new Gmail and IT DOESN’T HAVE LABS. WTF NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. I switched back to the old version. I use the “Undo Send” lab A LOT. A LOT A LOT.
• I tried to apply for a different position at work yesterday and it almost didn’t happen because the system is such a total pita/pos. But I finally got it in! I doubt I will get an interview, but, eh, worth a shot.
• Until yesterday, all of my June runs were between 47-61°F. That seems cool for June (I am NOT complaining). Yesterday’s run was 76°F. That felt more like June!

• And your weekly reading update: I finished Artemis and started California. It was nice to go from Endure, which was hard for me to read, to an easy-read like Artemis!

• When Mom and I saw Book Club last Saturday, the theater only had a few people in it, and a person seeing the movie alone came and sat right next to me. You can pick an assigned seat at this theater, and maybe they picked that one and didn’t feel like they should move to another, but I have to admit, I was a bit annoyed. Especially since they talked to themselves through a lot of the movie.

Link to Random Thoughts Thursday 182

Music, Running + Training

By kilax, June 13, 2018 6:44 am

It’s race week! My race week prep includes:

• running / working out less (same intensity, less volume)
• getting a massage
• carb loading (ha)
• staying hydrated
• packing
• prepping food to bring
• finalizing my playlist
• getting enough rest… (not doing so well there)
• continuing race course visualization and repeating my mantras

My race week prep does NOT include:

• obsessively checking the weather

A few people have kindly asked me what race weather will be like. I don’t know. I haven’t been checking. I will check when I pack tomorrow. There’s nothing useful the weather is going to tell me now, since the forecasts change ALL. THE. TIME. I don’t need to buy special items for certain kinds of weather (I have everything), so I don’t need to check in advance to prep. I just need to pack some options.

I’ve seen the weather really eff up people’s mental game lately – spending time fretting about it days before the race, and letting negative thoughts about it bring them down on race day. It’s smart to be safe, in bad weather. It’s smart to go easier at a race, if it’s not your ideal weather. And it’s smart to be prepared!

But dwelling on it, and obsessively checking it is a total mind f*ck. Don’t do that! Try not to freak out! Weather just IS. Everyone is racing in the same conditions. It stinks that we sometimes put LOTS of time and work in for an event that ends up having crap weather, but that’s the risk you take (unfortunately)!

I allow myself one “this sucks!” thought on race day, then adjust, and fill my thoughts with positive weather mantras. And I adjust my goals if need be. I’ve even asked people I am with to stop venting about the weather (to me). That’s all really cheesy, but it keeps me in a positive mindset as possible, which I need when I am racing.

I listened to a podcast interview recently where Deena Kastor was giving some tips and talking about her new book (I want to read it so badly!) and she said “the mind steers the ship.” So if you’re in a negative mindset about the weather (or whatever, really) at a race, it’s going to affect your body! It just is!

So rah rah rah! Don’t worry, be happy!

Seriously though. Don’t stalk the weather forecast. It’s usually not even accurate the morning of!

Oh! And I have to ask, does anyone else make the same mistake as me when you DO check the weather – where you assume the low is the morning temperature and the high is midday or afternoon? I do that EVERY time I look for some reason, even though that is NOT what the predicted lows and highs mean! The low can be that night and the high can be in the morning. Duh, Kim.

And also: yes, please b*tch away about the weather after your race!