House, Life, Recipes + Food, Running + Training

By kilax, June 12, 2018 9:16 pm

My parents visited this weekend through this morning! The purpose of the trip was for Mom to go with me to NeoCon, but we also celebrated Mom’s birthday, and Steven and Dad got a lot of projects done (I’ll cover all those in another post!).

Oh yes. And I did all the carb loading. I am ready for Saturday’s race. And a few more marathons. Oops.

*unfortunately, you should carb load three to two days in advance… not a week to five days, ha! And yeah, I know it’s “carbo” loading. I don’t like adding the “o”!

FRIDAY!

I taught Fitness Boxing on Friday night for the first time. I usually teach it Saturday or Sunday but I don’t have any free weekends this month, so Friday night it is! I’m glad we had a decent turn out for the different class date.

Mom and Dad got in to town shortly after my class ended and they drove with Steven to meet me at El Famous Burrito. I ordered everyone’s food since I got there first and had some funny stares with the table all set up, waiting a few minutes for them to arrive. No, this is NOT all for me!!!

SATURDAY!

Saturday was Mom’s birthday!

I started the day off with a short run with Dad while he rode his bike. Then I took Mom to see Book Club.

Not the best movie I’ve seen, by a long shot, but we had fun!

While we were at the movie, the boys started the projects. Here is a preview pic!

We rented that boom lift – we don’t have one!

We brought home subs for lunch, and ate with the boys, then had trifles for Mom’s birthday.

These were supposed to be a cake, but it got hella effed up, so we salvaged it in to trifles. And it was amazingly delicious.

The boys got back to work after lunch and Mom and I screwed around for an hour laughing about a race where you run with a “hobby horse,” then eventually we signed me up because it’s so ridiculous (more details on that later!).

We ran errands and shopped that afternoon (while the boys kept working), then came home and made lasagna (and cornbread and broccoli!) for Mom’s birthday dinner! Seriously. ALL THE CARBS.

Vegan lasagna base, one side with vegan cheese, one side with regular cheese

And yes, we ate more cake after that!

SUNDAY! 

On Sunday Dad and I went on an even shorter run/bike (sigh, taper) than the day before. We wanted to both ride, but it was raining on and off all morning and not safe for me to ride my road bike in that, nor for either of us to be out in the fog and potential thunderstorms! Wah.

So we had a chill morning of chatting, which was nice! Mom and I made a return and got some groceries, then made sandwiches for lunch and hung out a bit before visiting the lake.

Mom and I hung out at the house after the lake visit, and when the boys were done working, we went out for dinner at The Shanty. We called it a night shortly thereafter since we were off early to NeoCon on Monday!

MONDAY!

Mom and I spent most of Monday in the city at NeoCon. I unfortunately started the day feeling beat and was completely exhausted by the end of it and not very much fun after we finished at NeoCon. Sigh. I’m not good at being social and around people for all of my waking hours, even when it’s people whose company I love and enjoy. I’m drained.

We made tacos for dinner, and had fun sharing stories from our days. Then Mom and I made vegan chocolate and caramel cups, which my snister surprised me with the materials and caramel to make! Yum!

TUESDAY!

Dad rode with me one last time Tuesday morning. I’ll miss his company – for the conversation and for making me feel like I can run faster (my legs felt so heavy today despite a “rest” day yesterday).

Steven picked up donuts and vegan muffins so we ate those then Mom and Dad hit the road late in the morning.

As always we had a fun visit and really appreciate their help with things when they’re here! Now, why do I feel exhausted even though I wasn’t the one working on projects all weekend? (Seriously though, I’ve been so tired the past few days I feel like I could fall asleep, or snap, at any moment – not good!)

Work + Design

By kilax, June 11, 2018 9:07 pm

Mom had so much fun attending NeoCon with me last year, she joined again this year, yay! We had another great year!

NeoCon is a huge furnishings and design trade show in the Merchandise Mart in Chicago every year. There are hundreds of vendors, tons of giveaways and parties, it’s free to attend (if you register in advance) and open to the public, and goes on from Monday to Wednesday each year. People attend from all over the globe. I am lucky it’s within walking distance from my office!

I had the same sentiment as last year – it’s fun to attend with someone who’s so positive, and has a fresh perspective on things (read: hasn’t been going for years and isn’t totally over it).

Gawd, am I WORN out though. WORN OUT, folks. I made so much vendor small talk today. Which makes me feel incredibly phony because I don’t know much about interior finishes, and our clients usually aren’t interested in the flashy stuff they show at NeoCon. But I’m there to learn, and the vendors are nice, so whatevs!

But yeah. Definitely needing quiet time. That’s a common theme on this here blog. Monday is the busiest day for NeoCon, and I handled it really well until mid afternoon (go, me!) then we decided to go to one of the quieter showrooms outside of the Merchandise Mart, then call it a day. I was (am) beat.

But like I said, we had a blast! Some highlights:

• Running in to a random person on an elevator ride that said to Mom “Are you Christina’s (my snister’s) mom?” Ha, that lady is friends with Christina and recognized Mom from Christina’s pictures of her! How random!
• Having a caricature drawn of us.

• Chatting with some lovely ladies while waiting in line to have our caricature drawn.
• Painting the Behr bear.

• Running in to a friend from Essential Fitness at the end of the day.
• The tattoo bar.

• All the instagrammable spaces.

• Having such pleasant weather – we wore our jackets all day! Last year we were sweating like crazy!
• Oh yeah, and all the cool new furniture, textiles, and finishes!

We’ll be back next year, I’m sure!

Running + Training

By kilax, June 10, 2018 4:34 pm

Highlight of the Week: Two workouts with Dad!

Monday | June 4, 2018: 5.3 m run + teaching strength class
Loc: Chicago Lakefront Trail, Temp: 58°/60°, Time: 46:48, Pace: 8:50 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good, ready for rest day!
Strength: resistance bands & cards, Felt: great
Tuesday | June 5, 2018: rest
Wednesday | June 6, 2018: 8 m run (incl. 6 tempo MP)
Loc: Water tower loop, Temp: 47°/48°, Time: 1:09:58, Pace: 8:45 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Thursday | June 7, 2018: 12 m run
Loc: long VP Woods loop, Temp: 54°/57°, Time: 1:56:51, Pace: 9:44 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: decent!
Friday | June 8, 2018: teaching strength class + 1,218 yd swim + 3 m run + teaching fitness boxing
Strength: resistance bands & cards, Felt: good
Loc: FitNation, Time: 26:01, Pace: 2:08 min/100 yd, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Loc: hood, Temp: 65°/65°, Time: 27:23, Pace: 9:07, Difficulty: easy, Felt: great, enjoyed the rain
Strength: whole body moves & boxing, Felt: great!
Saturday | June 9, 2018: 7.4 m run (w/Dad on bike)
Loc: Kilbourne/VP Woods Loop, Temp: 58°/60°, Time: 1:09:13, Pace: 9:21 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Sunday | June 10, 2018: 4.3 m run (w/Dad on bike)
Loc: hood, Temp: 59°/60°, Time: 39:33, Pace: 9:12 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good

Notes:

• On Monday night one of my students who’s been out for a while with her leg in a cast came in for a workout (even though she’s still in the cast!). I was glad she came in because she has such a fun personality, and I enjoyed modifying the workout for her.
• This was my first taper week – last week I ran sixty-seven miles, this week, I ran forty. It feels weird, but being busy getting the house ready for my parents to visit, then visiting with them helped. A bit. Six more days until the marathon! I am so excited!
• I planned to ride with my Dad this weekend but the weather wasn’t cooperating (rain) when we had the time to do it. Ugh. I wonder if we’ll have time Tuesday morning before they leave.

Link to Training Week 450

Books, Life, Music, Rants, Running + Training

By kilax, June 7, 2018 4:35 am

• I downloaded Bad Wolves’ cover of “Zombie” yesterday and ended up down a rabbit hole of googling about the Cranberries. I like the homage of their music video to the original.
• Does anyone else who uses iTunes to make playlists want to vent with me about how annoying it is, and how it doesn’t sync half the time (and overwrites your computer with old playlists from your phone)? Or am I the only one still using iTunes?!
• This article (pdf here) about the movie The Truman Show is interesting. It’s the twenty year anniversary of the show, and they’re reflecting on how when they made the show it blew their mind that people would be interested in watching what a total stranger is up to all day… fast forward twenty years, and that is a lot of the entertainment business, with reality shows and social media!
• There’s not enough pictures to break up all this text, so here’s one Steven sent me when he was picking up meds for Data at the vet’s office yesterday.

• I finished reading Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance, and didn’t care for it. It’s well written/researched, and has a plethora of studies referenced, but didn’t do it for me. There was one MAJOR happy outcome of reading it though! The book mentions the swirl and spit sports drink study that Runner’s World has been touting for years, usually as advice to lose weight (grrrr, so messed up). The study was done to find out why we get benefits immediately from a carbohydrate sports drinks, before they enter the bloodstream – not to come up with silly ways to cut on calories. It’s because as soon as you have the drink in your mouth, parts of your brain react to it, and immediately act as if you’d taken in the carbohydrates, whether you ingest it or not. This is the data Runner’s World was using to give their stupid advice, but I hadn’t seen it in this unadulterated form.  I’m glad the study was done for legitimate scientific reasons, and it’s just Runner’s World spinning it strangely.
• I started reading Bart Yasso’s Run Forever… but when I got it from the library I could tell I wouldn’t care for it. It’s an advice book, on how to, you guessed it, RUN FOREVER! There was nothing new in there for me. I mostly skimmed it, and returned it. I’m not really in to advice books right now.
• So now I am reading the hard copy of Artemis (I had the digital version on my phone but prefer hard copy). Steven finished the audio copy yesterday. I am behind in Book Club for Two!
• The last time I shared this chart, it had a slight incline at the end. Ideally, it would still be gently sloping down, but if I can maintain my weight during this very busy month, I will be glad!

• We had our yard and house sprayed for bugs last Saturday, and the spray left the windows SUPER streaky. Ick! Luckily, I have tons of anxious taper energy and could spend a few hours cleaning them yesterday after work. Ha! I’m actually glad I’m so busy this weekend and the weekdays leading to the marathon so I don’t think as much about how little I am running.

Link to Random Thoughts Thursday 181

Travel

By kilax, June 6, 2018 12:38 pm

A friend of mine is on an amazing anniversary trip in Spain right now and it’s making me think of how I’d LOVE to go back there, especially with Steven (who’s never been). So I pulled up my pictures from my first trip there and HOLY SHEET how has it been sixteen* years (to the date)?! HOW.

In Toledo, España with Dad

Once a crazy cat lady, always a crazy cat lady

Time flies… with too little travel!!! We’re in a spot right now (and have been for years) where the majority of our travel is small trips to see friends and family (because time and $$$). And that’s totally cool! But we’d love to see more of the world… someday.

*Ha, I originally erroneously wrote twelve years. No. MOAR years.

Life

By kilax, June 5, 2018 5:43 am

Yeah, that’s not a typo. That’s me combining “Data” and “updates.”

When I talked to the veterinarian last week, he told me Data’s cobalamin (B12*) test came back really low, showing he’s not absorbing it. And most of the time, that is a sign of inflammatory bowel disease or GI lymphoma.

Ugh. Huge sad face.

Our choices were to do an ultrasound to see if Data has lymphoma, or start treating his symptoms. You can’t start the treatment, then do an ultrasound, because it changes the cell structure (or something like that – going off of my notes from the veterinarian, here!).

We decided to treat Data, and the vet wanted to see him right away, so on Friday he had his first treatment of cobalamin and prednisolone (steroids) at the vet. Once we get these meds at home, we will be giving him the cobalamin via injection (!!!), and the prednisolone orally. The cobalamin is for his vitamin deficiency, and the prednisolone is for his inflammation.

So far, he’s acting the same, and his poo has gone from straight up liquid, to more of a soft serve. We’re hopeful he will get better, and put on some of the weight he’s lost. Fingers crossed!

*Funny thing – that is what vegans are usually low in too – B12.

While I was at the vet Friday, they asked me if I wanted to see the kittens (!!!!!!) and told me we get first pick! Ha. With how much I call them to ask questions about our cats, I think they know a kitten(s??) would be going to a loving home. Of course, we would not adopt if the timing was not right with Data’s health.

View this post on Instagram

Mama and kittens got their dewormer today ❤️3 weeks old and have their own exam room to roam around in today with mom ❤️

A post shared by Animal Hospital of Lake Villa (@a_h_l_v) on May 31, 2018 at 11:15am PDT

On Friday night Steven and I started brainstorming kitten names. We’d have to learn their personalities a bit before picking their permanent names, but my top choices are all Battlestar Gallactica themed, and Steven’s are all Star Trek themed (of course).

And what about Khaleesi?! She did VERY well with Bobbi checking in on her this weekend! She observed Bobbi from the bedroom entrance instead of hiding under the bed, and even came out to eat around Bobbi. Yay! She’s slowly becoming less of a scaredy cat!

Still much judgement though.

Life, Travel

By kilax, June 4, 2018 6:07 am

This was our weekend of seeing ALL THE FAMILY! We had a great time, but boy, was I exhausted getting up today!

FRIDAY!

On Friday we drove to Guttenberg, Iowa in the late afternoon. We stopped for dinner and split “fajitas for two” at Los Aztecas, which was really sides for two and fajitas for four. Or six. We had A LOT leftover!

SATURDAY!

On Saturday I woke up to an amazing sunrise over the Mississippi River.

I ran, then we checked out the farmers market, and visited my mom’s mom!

After our visit, we changed in to our wedding clothes and headed to the wedding. We stopped for lunch in Decorah, Iowa, and after lunch, I had an amazing house blend chai at Magpie Coffeehouse. If you ever find yourself there, try it!

The wedding was at a barn in Chatfield, Minnesota. We drove in to Chatfield and were surprised Google Maps was telling us the wedding was still twenty minutes away. Ha, that was because we had some zig-zagging to do on paved country roads, then had to drive on dirt roads for about five minutes to get to the barn back in the woods!

It was a gorgeous location out in the country! This barn exists because the owner’s daughter wanted to have a barn wedding and renting one seemed more expensive to him than building one, so he just built it! And now they rent it out a few times a year. The bride and groom found out about it through the groom’s sister attending an event there.

The wedding was for my dad’s cousin’s daughter, so… my second cousin’s daughter. We’re close with this particular second cousin because he lives near us, but also because he’s awesome. We love spending time with him and his two siblings and their spouses for the same reason, so we were excited to catch up with everyone!

Gene (Grandma’s brother), Grandma, Larry (second cousin Denise’s husband), Denise, Doug (second cousin), Jill (Doug’s wife), Steven, me, Ian (second cousin Drew’s son), Drew (father of the bride), and Diana (mother of the bride)

And I got to see my mom because she was my grandma’s plus one! Yay!

They had planned to have the wedding outdoors but set up inside in case it rained – good thing they did – there were two downpours during the wedding! That’s good luck, right?

It was a pleasant evening to be outside, and a neat venue! We had fun chatting with everyone, and lasted until almost ten o’clock! Woot!

We got to our hotel and it was pretty noisy and I was worried I wasn’t going to sleep. Um, nope. I was exhausted and got just over eight hours! Woo hoo!

SUNDAY!

On Sunday I went for a short run in Rochester, Minnesota. Props to Rochester for having their trail system so well marked out!

We met Steven’s cousin Jana and her family for lunch at Forager (a brewery and restaurant), then visited their house. They bought their home about four years ago and had to completely gut it, so of course, a lot of lunch talk was home construction stories, which we always enjoy!

We can’t even remember the last time we saw Jana and her family, so it was great to catch up and see how they are doing, and to see their beautiful home!

After visiting them, we briefly stopped by my college friend Allison’s house to say hello before heading out of town. She saw I was in town on social media, and commented on how she lived nearby. I had completely forgotten she lived there and was glad she said something so we could say hello! I haven’t seen her since a classmate’s wedding several years ago. Cliché, but time sure does fly!

We headed straight home, and didn’t stop once during the four and a half hour drive. The drive is mostly through Wisconsin, and, ugh. It’s a pretty drive, that’s for sure, but it’s four lane highway (two lanes each side) and drivers just don’t seem to know that the left lane is for passing. It was a stressful, unnecessarily congested drive. I felt stressed out when I got home, and I didn’t even drive!

We spent our few hours before bed doing some chores, and I tried to get ready for the week – I have some extra office days this week that required, well, extra prep. And yeah. Exhausted today! But grateful we got to see so many loved ones this weekend. Although I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t feeling a bit quiet now!

Running + Training

By kilax, June 3, 2018 8:11 pm

Highlight of the Week: Having a good tempo workout / cool running weather Friday – Sunday / getting to run in Iowa and Minnesota!

Monday | May 28, 2018: 16 m run (incl. 12 tempo MP)
Loc: Lake Andrea/Outlet Mall Loop, Temp: 67°/74°, Time: 2:22:39, Pace: 8:55 avg, Difficulty: mostly easy, Felt: fantastic
Tuesday | May 29, 2018: 12 m run + 20 mins strength + 10 m ride
Loc: Kilbourne/DPRT Loop, Temp: 66°/63°, Time: 1:58:34, Pace: 9:53 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good, legs tired to start!
Indoor Ride Time: 38:27, Pace: 15.6 mph avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good, arms shaky from strength workout!
Wednesday | May 30, 2018: 40 min walk
Thursday | May 31, 2018: 22 m run
Loc: DPRT/Delaney&Kilbourne, Temp: 69°/74°, Time: 3:39:12, Pace: 9:58 avg, Difficulty: medium/hard, Felt: good, but a bit out of it
Friday | June 1, 2018: teaching strength class + 1,008 yd swim + 3 m run
Strength: resistance bands & cards, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Loc: FitNation, Time: 20:51, Pace: 2:04 min/100 yd, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Loc: hood, Temp: 59°/59°, Time: 26:50, Pace: 8:55, Difficulty: easy, Felt: so good!
Saturday | June 2, 2018: 10 m run
Loc: Guttenberg, Temp: 57°/55°, Time: 1:31:59, Pace: 9:12 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: great, a bit tired (legs) at times
Sunday | June 3, 2018: 4 m run
Loc: Bear Creek Trail, Temp: 58°/58°, Time: 35:47, Pace: 8:56 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: great

Notes:

• I was anxious about doing Monday’s tempo run with our hot weather, but I was able to hold all the miles (and get it done WELL before we hit the day’s high of 90°!). Woot!
• Thursday’s long run was also in warmer (than I’d like, ha!) weather, but I survived! I ran out of water and was so glad I had brought cash and could stop at a gas station and buy more fluids. Good to know if I ever do that route again (miles 14-17 were new route to me).
• And let’s continue on this weather discussion roll – the temps dropped to the glorious 50s on Friday and I very much enjoyed how easy my Friday, Saturday, and Sunday runs felt with those cool temps! On Sunday I got to run on a new-to-me trail in Rochester, Minnesota. Yay!
• Monthly recap time. In May I ran 243.2 miles (25 runs), cycled 87 miles (5 indoor rides, 1 outdoor rides) and swam 4,284 yards (4 swims). My coldest run was 42°F and my warmest was 85°F. I did 2 hill workouts, and 4 tempo workouts. I taught 7 strength classes and 2 fitness boxing classes. I did 1 strength workout at home. I ran two races, the Wisconsin Half Marathon, and the Chocoholic 5K.

Link to Training Week 449

Running + Training

By kilax, June 2, 2018 7:00 am

I passed 1,000 miles run for the year (with 1,008.2) during my Thursday, May 31st long run! Yay!

That’s the earliest I’ve ever hit that arbitrary number, by about fourteen days. I wasn’t planning on passing it in May, but I signed up to run Grandma’s Marathon in two weeks, so I’ve been running a freaking lot. My 6 weeks to a Marathon plan* has looked like:

Inception: Gina suggests I run Grandma’s Marathon when I see her in April. Hmm, that could be fun.
Week 0: Run Half Marathon, and PR. Get excited about maybe running full.
Week 1: Test out legs on 18 miler. Feeling good, should I do it?
Week 2: Eh, better try a marathon pace tempo. That felt great! So did a 20-miler! I’m signing up!
Week 3: 10 mile marathon pace tempo, yasssssssss. And a 19 mile long run too!
Week 4: 12 mile marathon pace tempo and I didn’t want to die, winning! 22-miler in the books!
Week 5: Week one of taper, wah. 12 mile long run, separate short marathon pace tempo.
Week 6: Race week! Just have to get through taper boredom!

I don’t foresee maintaining this running load. I am registered for a 70-mile bike ride at the end of July that I need to train for! Expect to see a huge increase in cycling, at least in the end of June and in July.

But I will miss running all these miles… until the horribly hot humid days are here to stay. Ha!

*Note, I was trained up to 16 mile long runs and had been running 50 mile weeks already.

Life

By kilax, June 1, 2018 4:18 am

June is NUTSO this year, but it’s going to be a lot of fun! Here is what I am excited about!

• Seeing all the family! In one weekend!
  • Grandma Pete* (Mom’s mom)
  • Grandma Tiger* (Dad’s mom) and her side of the family at a wedding in Minnesota
  • Steven’s cousin
• Mom and Dad visiting
  • Celebrating Mom’s Birthday
  • The boys doing some projects (oh boy)
  • Working out with Dad
  • Going to NeoCon with Mom
• Grandma’s Marathon!
  • Getting a pre-race massage
  • Roadtrippin’ with Bobbi and Riyanti
  • Seeing Gina and her friends (who are my friends by association, ha!)
  • Seeing a friend from college in Duluth
  • Going for a marathon PR!
• Visiting Rachel and Kevin at the cottage they go to in central Wisconsin
• A dentist appointment (I love having my teeth cleaned)
• Seeing the Royals play the Brewers with Bobbi and John
• Bowling
• Collapsing at the end of the month

What’s on your list?!

*These are the pet names we’ve had for our grandparents since childhood, and we still call them that.