Running + Training

By kilax, November 10, 2016 6:40 am

• Today is my ten year anniversary of the date I started running. Woot woot!
• Our friend (and old neighbor) Jen alerted me to a deal for some outdoor heated cat houses and VERY generously bought one for us! We bought another so each cat could have their own. Of course, they sleep on top of each other, in one of them! The house has a heated pad underneath the white top you can see in the photo, and plastic flaps at both entrances (there is one on each side so they can escape out the back if a predator shows up) to keep the heat in.

• We typically do one side of the family’s holiday celebration in December and the other side in January, but this year we are doing both in December, and one of the celebrations will be here! This means we get to Christmas the hell out of the house! Woo hoo!

Steven brought home ALL the holiday decorations yesterday.

• Denali (the dog) showed up yesterday. We haven’t seen Denali since mid May! Hope he/she leaves the cats alone… they didn’t welcome the visit.

Link to Random Thoughts Thursday 115

Knitting

By kilax, November 9, 2016 4:34 pm

Baby William’s blanket is done – and before my snister’s shower this weekend! Yay!

Um… those bunnies though? They’re still a work in progress. The baby isn’t due until the end of January. I have time!

I used this pattern from espacetricot.com for the blanket. I couldn’t make gauge with the spacing I wanted, so I ended up adding an extra twenty-four stitches to make it the width I wanted.

I started knitting this blanket on September 17 and finished it around October 26. The pattern is simple and easy to memorize – I used the pattern for the first few rows then never looked at it again.

However, I did end up restarting this blanket! I just couldn’t deal with it NOT being perfect. I was about forty rows (the final is one hundred eighty rows) in to the first iteration and cast off to start a new one.

But that was fine, because I used that smaller blanket to test out how it would handle being washed in the washing machine. I was REALLY nervous about washing this. I was sure it was going to fall apart, and get weird when it dried. Thankfully, it didn’t do either!!! And luckily, I didn’t make any mistakes in the second iteration, woot woot!

I know it seems odd that I am posting this before the shower, but this blanket isn’t a surprise for my snis. I showed her the pattern, she helped me pick out the yarn, and I’ve been sending her pictures of my progress. I want it to fit in in her beautiful nursery, and I think it will!

Thank you to Mica and Shelley for their knitting help, and to Steven for taking these photos!

House

By kilax, November 8, 2016 7:46 pm

This orange guy showed up tonight. I think we’ve seen him walking on our driveway once, and that our neighbor has mentioned him too. He seems older, Steven said (I was out running errands when he stopped by and didn’t see him). Apparently Snow wasn’t too happy he stopped by. Sigh, can’t they all just get along?!

Running + Training

By kilax, November 6, 2016 4:31 pm

Highlight of the Week: Feeling strong on my Saturday swim!

Monday | October 31, 2016: teaching strength class
Strength: kettlebells & circuit, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Tuesday | November 1, 2016: 8 m run
Loc: Lakefront Trail, Temp: 68°/69°, Time: 1:17:13, Pace: 9:39 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Wednesday | November 2, 2016: 5 m run
Loc: hood, Temp: 57°/56°, Time: 49:53, Pace: 9:58 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: angry, but good
Thursday | November 3, 2016: 1,218 yd swim + 5 m run
Loc: FitNation, Time: 30:30, Pace: 2:16 min/100 yd avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: tired shoulders, but good breathing
Loc: Gurnee, Temp: 63°/61°, Time: 49:34, Pace: 9:55, Difficulty: medium, Felt: legs tired AF, TOO WARM
Friday | November 4, 2016: teaching strength class + 2 m run + 10 m bike
Strength: medicine balls, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Loc: hood, Temp: 55°/55°, Time: 20:18, Pace: 10:08, Difficulty: medium, Felt: more tired than I should
Indoor Bike Time: 38:46, Pace: 15.5 mph avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: great
Saturday | November 5, 2016: teaching fitness boxing + 7 m run (incl. 1/2/3/4/5/6 intervals) + 1,218 yd swim
Strength: whole body dumbbell moves & boxing, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Loc: Grayslake, Temp: 58°/62°, Time: 1:08:38, Pace: 9:48 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: great! much better than last two days!
Loc: FitNation, Time: 29:33, Pace: 2:10 min/100 yd avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: great
Sunday | November 6, 2016: rest (just kidding – yard work!)

Notes:

• My legs felt dead A LOT of the week so I cut Thursday and Friday’s run short. I was surprised I felt so good for my speedwork on Saturday, after the two previous days! I woke up too late Sunday to do a long run before doing yard chores so I skipped the run – my legs obviously need the rest.
• We had a lot of fun at Fitness Boxing Saturday and I added a few classes to the calendar for December. I don’t feel like next month is December. And it doesn’t feel like November, now! I hope we get some colder weather soon.
• October recap! I ran 176 miles, cycled 42 miles (5 indoor rides) and swam laps 6 times (7,938 total yards). My coldest outdoor run was 40°F and my warmest was 81°F. I taught 9 strength classes, and did zero (again!) strength sessions at home. I taught 2 fitness boxing classes.

Link to Training Week 367

Life

By kilax, November 5, 2016 1:17 pm

Steven sent me this text after I told him I was on the way home from picking up burritos for dinner on Thursday. Ha! It’s still making me laugh. We do love our burritos.

Knitting

By kilax, November 4, 2016 9:30 pm

Just spending Friday night knitting a toy for Data!

Just kidding. I’m making these for my snister. Well, will make more when I get thinner yarn – this one’s too big!

So maybe Data can have it?!

House, Life, Travel

By kilax, November 3, 2016 6:23 am

• It’s awesome the Cubs won the World Series! They’re not the team I follow, but them winning has made so many people happy, and that makes me happy! All that being said, I’m making sure I’m NOT working downtown the day of the celebration parade (if there is one), ha ha.
• It’s totally fine not to be interested in following mainstream stuff like the World Series, and to say it’s not your thing. There are plenty of things lots of people like and get jazzed about that I have no interest in! But what’s not cool is being a complete sourpuss about it. Newsflash – you aren’t special if you are moody about a thing that a lot of people like when they are all excited about it. It just makes you, well, moody. And makes it seem like you can’t enjoy other people’s happiness and feel left out. Grow up!
• We don’t have antenna (or cable) and couldn’t watch any games at home but got to see Game 4 because we were at a hotel, and part of Game 7 at Red Robin (and we listened on the radio at home after that). What a series! The last game was a real nail bitter!
• We were at a hotel last Saturday because Steven surprised me with a night away on Lake Delavan in Wisconsin! It was so sweet he planned all that and surprised me, and recognized that we both needed a break. We had a great time!

• Thanks for voting for Data in our veterinarian’s Halloween costume contest! He got second place, and will receive a $20 gift card to PetSmart! Should I use it to get him something fun, or more food for all the cats?

• The election is making me feel so anxious I decided to vote by mail this year, because just thinking about making it to my voting office on Tuesday was stressing me out.
• The last time I posted about the pond level, it was almost gone. It actually did completely go away in August/September. But we’ve had so much rain in October and November (5.50 inches in the last 30 days), it’s back, and in a big way!

Link to Random Thoughts Thursday 114

Life

By kilax, November 2, 2016 12:39 pm

It only took me a second to figure out why some of the flowers were “falling” out of the bouquet my snis sent me…

… Data has been re-arranging it for me.

Every.

Single.

Day.

It seems we have a budding florist on our hands!

Ba dum ching!

(And this would also explain why he hasn’t been feeling well, since he is also EATING the flowers.)

Running + Training

By kilax, November 1, 2016 1:20 pm

I love starting the first day of the month off with some running miles. Today I treated myself by taking an hour leave so I could do a longer run during my lunch break.

And… hopefully that will be the hottest run of the month! Eek!

I NEVER see anyone I know in the locker room at work, and today I saw our director when I was getting ready to run, and our receptionist when I returned. And I saw someone from my team when I was returning to the building. Also, eek!

Although, I am not modest and don’t actually care. How could I, when I post pictures like this?

Yeah, my run today resurrected my tan lines! Eek!!!!

Life

By kilax, November 1, 2016 5:35 am

1. All things holiday-related – the music, the Starbucks red cups, getting a real tree, shopping for (and making?!) presents…
2. Dark evenings after Daylight Saving Time ends!
3. The election being over!
4. Christina’s baby shower!
5. A Thanksgiving 5K! Our friends that we typically spend Thanksgiving with (and are this year, too, yay!) asked if we wanted to do a 5K and I was surprised when Steven said yes! He’s been training for a couple of weeks now (Steven and I used to run together, back in the day, so he’s not new to running).
6. Cold weather! Maybe some snow?!?! Although, it would be nice if our first snow storm is NOT seventeen inches, like last year.
7. Building an outdoor shelter for Khaleesi and Snow. And taking them to the vet (I know that is gonna suck, but I’ll feel better when it’s done).
8. Wearing my “winter” work uniform – knee high boots, slim fit pants and … whatever top. Ha.
9. More chili and stews and cold-weather food.
10. Getting in 5K-training shape for my end of February race! I’ll likely use this plan again, and start training at the end of the year.