Health + Fitness, Life

By kilax, May 18, 2013 9:34 am

A few times, Bobbi and I have discussed how we have such great groups of friends now, and aren’t sure if we have room for more friends. I’ve wanted to talk about this here, but wasn’t sure how to do it without making myself sound like a huge ass. I think I figured out a way.

Maybe?

Last night, I did trapeze with Erin. ZOMG!!! So fun! I can see why she loves it. But we’ll get to that below.

Huge thanks to Erin for getting me the photos!!!

We were redeeming a Living Social deal that included dinner after trapeze. Erin and I sat at the end of the table with the rest of the Living Social peeps*, and spent most of our time talking to a young couple. 

I was sitting there, talking to them, enjoying our conversation SO MUCH, thinking, “There are so many wonderful, interesting people in the world! I want to meet them all! I want to be friends with them all**.” WANT ALL THE FRIENDS!!!

No, Kim, no. You do not need to make friends with every interesting person you meet. You don’t need to chase down runners in your hood. You barely have time with your closest friends, say, take for instance, the one with you?!?! Gah, if anything, this awesome evening with Erin made me miss all the time we used to spend together when we were training for the Milwaukee Marathon. 

Sigh.

I just get this urge. When I meet someone and get a good feeling about them, I think “I want to spend more time with them!” I don’t think about the fact (right away) that I barely have time to spend with my close friends now. 

And that is why I sometimes think, “geesh, maybe I should not be trying to make more friends – maybe I have enough.”

So. If that makes any sense. 

Moving on…

The Living Social deal we purchased included introductory lessons with trapeze, silks and acroyoga at Trapeze School New York. There were maybe 20 of us, and we were split in to two groups – one did trapeze while the other tried silks and acroyoga, then we switched. 

My group tried trapeze first (Erin was in our group and just practiced advanced moves since she has been there quite a few times). Holy cow! I tried not to be afraid, but just getting up to the platform to jump off, my body was shaking. Oh, endocrine system. You so smart.

But it was a huge thrill, and I loved it. I am a bit of an adrenaline junkie!

I actually thought playing with the silks and trying the acroyoga was super cool too. 

I made sure to try it out with my dad (my parents are in town for a helicopter tour of Chicago) later last night. Ha ha.  

Since I was able to swing from my knees and extend my arms during my go at trapeze, they let me try a catch. Which… I totally messed up the hands part. Oops! But that was really cool! I got everything else right!

I had so. much. fun. And am so happy that Erin asked me to go. I am not sure I would have thought to try this on my own! I definitely want to go back and try it again… in August. After I take that test in July. DO ALL THE THINGS IN AUGUST! MAKE ALL THE FRIENDS IN AUGUST!

*I was thinking “Who would want to eat dinner with a bunch of strangers?” But if you like making conversation, it’s really fun. I bet that is what it’s like when you get paired to eat dinner with certain couples on cruises. 
**Slight exaggeration.

Health + Fitness

By kilax, May 17, 2013 6:41 am

FGF #1? Ha ha ha. Just kidding. I am not starting some annoying new series on my blog. 

Have you ever had someone see a quality in yourself that you weren’t really aware was there?

Gosh. Something I would love to write about, but just can’t wrap my head around, is how we perceive ourselves… as compared to how the outside world perceives us. And not that I am saying how you are perceived should be a huge concern – do what makes YOU happy, yo. But sometimes, when someone acts particularly odd, I think to myself  ”do they even realize how they are coming off right now?!” And then, “maybe if they did, they wouldn’t act this way? Or maybe they know and don’t care?!*”

I think it would be interesting to spend a day seeing yourself from other’s people’s eyes. Just to get an idea, of how the ingrained daily acts we follow actually appear to others. For example, I realize I am really obnoxious. And that I tease a lot, often, too much. I sometimes wonder how that comes off. Would you want to see how others perceive you? Anyway. THAT IS NOT WHAT THIS POST IS EVEN ABOUT! Oops!

Moving on…

This year is turning out really differently than I expected it to. Not that I had any idea how it would turn out… and I guess that is it. I didn’t plan for anything exciting to happen this year, so it’s cool that it is. 

And yes, yes, yes, I talk about it a lot, but the exciting thing is that I am teaching a strength class, doing one-on-one strength sessions, and taking the ACE Personal Trainer Certification exam in July. 

I am not going to say “never in my wildest dreams” did I think I would become a personal trainer, because, yeah, I had thought about it. But in that wildest dream sense. In that “yeah, it’s my passion, but how would that even work?!” sense. So I never even let the logical part of my brain try to figure it out. 

But then, my trainer pointed out to me all the qualities that I had that were material for a good trainer. And then I started to see myself from his perspective. And with his encouragement and a HUGE amount of support, I decided to go for it.

And that is making this year really exciting for me.

So, anyway. It makes me feel good that someone else saw an opportunity for me, pointed it out, and is supporting me on getting there. I hope other readers can share similar experiences!

68 days and 23 hours until the exam**. Ha ha.   

NOTE: my blog is doing some funny commenting stuff in Chrome. Comments still seem to be going through, but going to a weird error page. Please let me know if you see this error. 

*And acting that way is what makes them happy?! Ha ha.
**As I am reading the study material, it seems like it would be so crucial to have some experience before going in to take the exam… but I realize a lot of people need to certification to get the experience. I am lucky that was not the case for me.  

Life

By kilax, May 16, 2013 6:22 am

• Just in case you don’t know what a microwave is supposed to do… ha ha ha.

• Speaking of microwaves, we don’t have one. Never have, in our house. People think that is odd. How often do you use a microwave? I think it’s funny when I am at someone else’s home and don’t think to use it. I am so used to using the stove! I do use the microwave at work though. When it’s not broken.
• Obligatory first racerback burn of the year pic! This tan happens to me each year, and it just makes me laugh. However, I better watch it next year. Depending on what kind of dress my sister has me wear for her June wedding… that could look really bad!

• Steven is back! He was gone Saturday afternoon – Wednesday afternoon visiting his family in Kansas City. I had an entire post listing funny things I do when he’s not home… but it wasn’t so funny. So I didn’t post it. Ha ha.

Left a little note for him in the car.

• I FINALLY registered for my ACE exam on July 25th! Yay! I had another long post about that, and how I realized I am a planner who doesn’t like to set goals, but need to feel like I am accomplishing things each day to feel happy… blah blah blah. It was long and boring-o. Basically, I need to study each day to not feel panicked about the test. Even though I hate goals and plans to achieve them… I gotta stick with this one. 

• I wanted to follow up with the “Oh, Brother” post and let you know that Matt was the first to correctly guess that a “leg tube” is a foam roller. Matt got his new foam roller last weekend!

Other Random Thoughts Thursday Posts: 39, 38, XXXVII, XXXVI, XXXV, XXXIV, XXXIII, XXXII, XXXI, XXX, XXIX, XVIII, XXVII, XXVI, XXV, XXIV, XXIII, XXII, XXI, XX, XIX, XVIII, XVII, XVI, XV, XIV, XIII, XII, XI, X, IX, VIII, VII, VI, V, IV, III, II, I.

Life

By kilax, May 15, 2013 5:50 am

Do you consider yourself a homebody? Or the opposite of a homebody?

For awhile, I was worried I was turning in to a homebody. I enjoyed working from home so much, and NOT commuting three hours every weekday, that it made me not want to travel in to the city that often.

And that made me feel bad.

For a second.

Duh. Why would I want to travel 50 miles one way often, for work or entertainment? That’s ridiculous! Not wanting to do that all the time doesn’t make me a homebody. It just means I want to live a life outside of commuting.

Steven and I have met people who assume there is NOTHING to do in the suburbs, and think we MUST go in to the city each weekend so we don’t die of boredom. No. No, no, no.

Anyway. I do enjoy time at home. I don’t need to go out every night. But more often than not, I find myself leaving the house a few times a day for activities. And that, with a balance of being at home some nights, makes me feel the best.

I was thinking about this this morning because I know people who I would consider to be more of a homebody than myself. They leave the home to work, run errands, see people, etc. … but they don’t like it. They’re uncomfortable. They are unwilling to try activities outside of their norm. They prefer to stay in their home every night, and rarely travel. They want to stick to what they know.

And I think that is why homebody has a negative connotation. And why google came up with this when I searched for the definition:

“Perceived as unadventurous.” Yeah. That’s honestly how I view those people.

And that is why I said “I was worried I was turning in to a homebody.” I was thinking that enjoying time at home and not commuting all the time and wanting to go in to the city often made me unadventurous. It doesn’t. Ha. But I can definitely see how it would make other people view me that way!

But the real question is… why do I see “adventurous” as an important quality for people to have?! Why can’t they just be happy with what they know?

When I lived in Rome in college, a classmate of mine said she’d probably never leave the states again after she got back. And she probably won’t. She moved back to her hometown right after graduation and is still there.

And there is NOTHING wrong with living in your hometown! But why say, “I’ll never travel outside of the states again?!” Gah! I get such a rush off of seeing/discovering new places (domestic and abroad) and trying new things… why limit yourself?

Because we’re all different and not everyone enjoys that. I know, I know.

But adventure is important to me.

It’s funny. I know quite a few people who spend a lot of money to vacation at the same places each year (hey – not much different than us always traveling to where friends/family are)… and I want to be like “try something new!” I mean, I know if you love something, you want to go there over and over ( like us with restaurants), but come on! When we went to Aruba, one of the people on our flight was on their 20th trip there. I guess I’d just want to see more.

Ha. What do I know? And what does that have to do with being a homebody? Not much. That’s just me wishing we had time/money to see all the places we want to see!

And I’m aware of all the contradictions / hypocritical statements in this post – 1. me saying I don’t like the commute but questioning people who don’t like to travel, 2. saying it’s lame to go to the same places year after year, when I do that, 3. implying that homebodies cannot be adventurous without leaving the house (not true at all – for all I know, they try a new recipe each night, etc.), 4. implying there’s no adventure in exploring US soil (ha – we all know how much I loved SLC), 5. The biggest one of all – knowing I do need time at home to recharge or I get really worn out from doing too much!

Fashion + Beauty, Life

By kilax, May 14, 2013 6:21 am

Notice something a little amiss with this jacket in my closet?

Actually, notice a few things?!

1. Holy crapola, my closet is packed.
2. Um… why does that jacket have tags on it? Why am I buying a new jacket? I don’t need one, and the high today is 82°! When am I even going to use it*?! But it’s sooooo cute!
3. But mainly… UGH THEY LEFT THAT STUPID SECURITY TAG ON IT!!! GAH!!!

Sigh. I had a bit of an absent minded cashier at the store the other day. The cashier forgot my gift receipts, didn’t give me back the “all day” 20% coupon, didn’t give me back an article of clothing I wanted to check at the store kiosk to see if they had it in other stores***, and left this security tag on. I was kind of annoyed with the first three things, but thought “whatever!” until I got home and saw the security tag was still on the coat. Dang it! Would you have tried to remove it yourself?

I guess that is a good marketing strategy – they got me back in the store (a different location) the next day, and I found the things I was going to check at the kiosk the day before… so I spent more money, and got the security tag removed. By a not so absent minded cashier.

Did/do any of you work retail?

My high school working experience was in food service (McDonald’s – don’t you ever wonder why I went vegetarian, then vegan?!) but I always wonder what it would be like to work retail. I don’t think I would do well at the places that require you to ask people to sign up for points cards and credit cards. I’m just not that pushy! 

*Note, it was actually chilly enough to wear it last night. Because 30+ degree** temperature swings is how we roll in the midwest. 
**That’s not even that big of a swing, either!
***They said they couldn’t check this at the register, no biggie.

Running + Training

By kilax, May 13, 2013 6:15 am

Things I will be doing again:

Running races with Xaarlin

Things I will NOT be doing again:

Suggesting races to ANYONE in Barrington, Illinois. Okay. Maybe to people I don’t like. Ha!

Xaarlin and I wanted to do a race together. Sunday was the only day I had free for a few months so I suggested the Mother’s Day 5K Run/Walk in Barrington. We noticed the age group times from previous years were a bit on the higher side. We thought maybe we could place.

No.

There is a reason the times are on the slower side. Holy hills:

Click to see larger

Sigh. I even mapped this course out in gmap-pedometer to check the elevation, as I know people from my running club go to Barrington purposefully to run hills. Derp. Gmap-pedometer wouldn’t load the elevation, and I figured it would be flat since it was a downtown area. Nope. Derp.  

So. I now know a more miserable 5K than the Frosty 5K course. Success! I found it!

And now I will shut up about the hills, since these aren’t real hills when you compare them to anything outside of the midwest. 

Okay, except to say, we ran our warm-up mile on the first .5 miles of the course, and I told myself “that must be the worst of it”… ha ha. No. Guess. I am an optimist after all, though?!

So. How did I get lucky enough to have an awesome friend that will get up at the crack of buttlight* to drive out to a kind of middle of nowhere town to run a short race distance with me on a somewhat cold and windy May day?

Who knows. Let’s not question that too much. I am just lucky. 

Despite ALL my whining about the hills (and hey! I didn’t even whine about how my cold made me feel like I could not breathe) I had a great time running with Xaarlin. Although, we both agreed a 5K is too short of a distance to run together – we need a longer race, where we can talk more. Uh, and actually talk, since I was just huffing and puffing.  Although, I guess we made up for that by talking for a few hours after the race, ha ha ha… hmm, why even do the running part? Just kidding…

And despite the general tone of this report***, I think our finish time of 21:00 JUST KIDDING HA HA HA 24:36 is actually really good****! But really. Where is that flat 5K?! Even my most recent PR course had “hills” in it. 

Damn. Started talking about the hills again. 

The good news is… 5K season is OVER (for me) until next winter! Now I just run races for fun the rest of the year. Apparently this excites me enough that I mentioned it yesterday as well. Does anyone else target their “goal” races in winter/early spring and take the summer off from “racing” races?

Hmm. Maybe I will have to rethink that strategy… Xaarlin and I make a pretty good team. I bet she always wanted a shadow breathing heavily behind her… her own personal Darth Vader! Just kidding, we ran side by side most of the time. We tried pretty hard to get some Emily body spasm pics. One of the race photogs said he got it… gosh. Cannot wait to see how that turned out, after seeing these gems that Xaarlin’s man***** took! I seemed to miss him each time! Ha ha! At least Xaarlin looks good!

*As my mom likes to say**
**Okay, said once by accident and now we say to tease her
***And my blog lately, ugh. 
****Especially when I compare it to my futile 2012 5K PR attempts… I couldn’t break 24:00 at all last year, and that was on mostly flat courses. So to run in the 24:00s on a hilly course is a good sign of progress. 
*****Huge, huge thanks to L for coming and braving the cold… then listening to us blabber for a couple of hours after…

Running + Training

By kilax, May 12, 2013 4:40 pm

Highlight of the Week: Ugh. Just the fact that I got this training recap published, and had some runs with my girlies at the end of the week. My cold made (is making, really) me feel like sh*t!

Sunday photo taken by L, who braved the cold for our race!

Monday | May 6, 2013: 3 m run + teaching strength class
Loc: hood, Temp: 70°/69°, Time: 29:29, Pace: 9:49 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: surprisingly tired
Strength: medicine ball circuit, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Tuesday | May 7, 2013: 10 m bike
Loc: xx, Temp: xx°/xx°, Time: 55:39, Pace: 10.8 avg, Difficulty: x, Felt: x
Wednesday | May 8, 2013: strength class + 3 m run (w/EFITers incl. Bobbi)
Strength: circuit + resistance bands, Difficulty: easy, Felt: okay/too hot at times
Loc: Grayslake, Temp: 68°/64°, Time: 33:10, Pace: 11:03 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: surprisingly good
Thursday | May 9, 2013: rest
Friday | May 10, 2013: rest
Saturday | May 11, 2013: 8 m run (w/Anne)
Loc: Chicago, Temp: 54°/49°, Time: 1:44:10, Pace: 13:01 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Sunday | May 12, 2013: WU + 5K (w/Xaarlin)
Loc: Barrington, Temp: 41°/40°, Time: 24:39, Pace: 7:59 avg, Difficulty: hard, Felt: out of place on the hills

Notes:

• I missed a few weeks of training posts! They never left my draft folder. Hopefully this is the end of that!
• I was looking at an older post where I mentioned something feeling “crunchy on the inside of my knee.” Well, I am happy to report that is completely gone! I am not happy to report that I have been too tired (from not getting enough sleep) to get runs in in the am, and that is affecting my mood, big time (and being sick this week didn’t really help that either…).
• I hadn’t biked in two months before this Tuesday! I could feel it. But I loved trying out the new wheels and tires Steven put on my bike!
• Exactly four weeks until our half Ironman relay. I hope my team is training! Ha ha.
• I am so far behind on my ACE studying. And the thing is, I really enjoy studying the ACE books. So. I am going to continue to be a party pooper and say no to invites and not blog much*… until I take the test. 
• Speaking of saying no (and this doesn’t really belong here, but whatevs), I feel like SUCH AN ASS for how complicated I make everything when someone wants to hang out with me… and how often I have to say no to fun stuff. Ugh. 
• But on that note! I feel very lucky to have friends who still do want to put up with me and see me. And very happy I got to see a few of them this week. Ha ha. I didn’t mention it, but the Wednesday night run included a stop at an ice cream shoppe! Ha ha. 
• And a note on that – Wednesday was the day I got sick, but running has actually made me feel better. There we go. I need to run more. My mileage is too low (even though I am DONE training for the year**! WOO HOO!!!!).
• Yes. This makes no sense. Roll with it. 

* Usually, when I write something like that, it makes me blog more.
**A few more half marathons and 5Ks, but I don’t need to train for those.

Life

By kilax, May 8, 2013 9:21 am

Let’s play a game. 

What item do you think my brother is talking about me sending him in the text below?

If you are the first person to guess correctly, and you need one, I will send it to you! Guess away!

Speaking of brothers, remember me mentioning my brother-in-law, Andrew, had a cold while he was visiting this weekend? Yeah, guess who has a cold now and was too sick to go in to the office today? Ugh, thanks, Andrew. Not. IKY. 

And speaking of siblings… let’s talk about sibling ranking. Ha! That sounds bad. That is probably not what it is called. But let’s talk about where you are - are you an only, eldest, middle or youngest child (or maybe a twin)? Do you think that your birth order has any effect on your personality/where you ended up in life?

I was talking to my friend Emily on Monday about sibling rank. She’s a middle child. I am too. We talked about the stereotype of the middle child being the “outsider.” I won’t get in to it much (that is left up to YOU!), but I do think it is interesting how siblings can turn out with such different personalities/lifestyles, even though they were raised (presumably) the same way. 

Running + Training

By kilax, May 7, 2013 6:04 am

Fifth year in a row running the Wisconsin Half Marathon!

And five very different races. In 2009…

Ha ha ha. Just kidding. I won’t talk about the 2009-2012 races. That would be a snoozefest. We’ll get right to the point.

You all knew that I came really close to a PR at the SLC half marathon, and decided I would go for a PR at Wisconsin. I prepared by asking my friend Ed to be my pacer… then spending the two weeks in between races eating all the foods and barely running.

Surprisingly, after that awesome two-week prep, and eating oreos, pancakes and a dinner of burger and fries the day before, the race was not as easy as I hoped. WHAT?! Ha ha ha.

Ed is an awesome pacer. We were on pace for maybe the first 7-8 miles? Then I started to slow down. He really pushed and encouraged me, and tried to keep the pace up, but… I was not going as fast as I felt like I was. It’s kind of funny. I knew I wasn’t on pace for the last two miles but I thought I was going a bit faster than I was. I was surprised when I saw how much I slowed down on my watch! Ha!

But! That is the nice part about having a pacer – I don’t have to look at my watch. Ever (except over and over in the end when you just want the damn race to end).

So, how did I do? 1:51:15 – a two minute 51 second PR. Decent! I know I wouldn’t have run that pace without Ed, so I am very thankful he paced me!

But damn. I do not prefer running for pace in races, unless the pace is super easy because I am not overweight and have actually trained for it properly. Which would have been me if I ran this race two months ago. Moving on…

HOLY CRAP a lot of people I know ran this race. My brother-in-law came from Kansas City to run it. Originally, we were going to run together, as we did in 2012. But after I was so close to a PR at SLC I told him he was running on his own. Ha ha ha. Guys. I am not that mean. We had talked about it a lot. He didn’t feel like he training was up to par and he ended up being sick for the race! But he still did it and kicked butt!

Who else was there?

My bestie, Erin, who was a two-day race volunteer, and came to see me at the finish!

Chicagoland bloggers – Bobbi, Erin, Lauren, Kayla (and not pictured: Emily):

I was so busy that I missed the meetup with the Chicagoland bloggers that I set up for that morning. Nice. I also missed seeing a few Chicagoland bloggers (not listed above).

A crap ton of people from my multisport club

and running club, but yeah… not in that picture. Although! I did see my girl, Emily finish a really tough marathon!

(picture not from the marathon, but I like this picture of us)

Rachel was there!!! And may or may have not kicked some serious arse…

And….

and…

the Kims!!!

Kim and Kimberly! They roadtripped it out to Wisconsin and stayed at Bobbi’s Friday and Saturday night. I was bummed I couldn’t stay there too (guess that would have been kind of rude with my in-laws visiting?). But we did all hang out after the race to see our marathoning friends finish, then we hit up Red Robin (two days in a row for me) and hung out at Bobbi’s for a bit! It was so nice just to be hanging out with friends after the race, not worrying about posting my finishing time on Facebook (or congratulating everyone on theirs) immediately… just being in the moment.  That is mostly what inspired yesterday’s post.

Anyways. Another Wisconsin Half Marathon in the books. Despite the “hills” getting larger on the years I am trying to run fast, I will be back next year! I really love this half marathon!

Other random thoughts:

• I was dissapointed in the lack of Star Wars signs/costumes. I saw two Boba Fett signs. TWO!
• I thought about pinning by bib to my shorts and wish I would have. I was too hot at mile 1 and wanted to run shirtless. Also, I should have worn a visor – the top of my head was too hot with a hat on.
• I was disappointed it was not overcast and raining (as it had been forecasted). Sunny and low 50s is too hot for me.  
• Ed wanted to start in the cheese corral (the very front of the race), where you wear something “cheesy” to get in, so I wore a cheesestick around my neck. I took it off when we started and carried it for 11 miles. It was a nice distraction. I should have held on to it until the end!
• Speaking of starting up front, it was actually nice to be getting passed and not passing people. We were able to stay to the side and run the tangents. I think the cheese corral is not that great of an idea for such a small race, but it really helped me save energy not to weave so much in the beginning. 
• There are so many funny things Ed said to me that I won’t type out here… but I will be laughing about them in my head for a long time. He really is a great pacer!
• I love seeing people in the out and backs at this race. It was such a good distraction to scan for familiar faces, even if I couldn’t remember their names until after they passed (due to running brain).
• I usually try to smile during races but I was running so hard (for me) at this one that I didn’t much. I am curious to see what the official pics look like!
• A huge thanks to Steven for spectating and taking such great photos!

You can tell how much fun Steven and his dad had by the looks on their faces.

Blogging, Life

By kilax, May 6, 2013 6:19 am

I’ve had such busy weekends lately* that I have been purposefully avoiding spending a ton of time online** (Facebook, email, blog reading).

It’s been so refreshing.

But I feel sorta guilty. Just sorta.

Sorta guilty that I am not keeping up with people*** as well as I should.

Sorta guilty that I am shutting down and keeping to myself.

But it’s so nice to just enjoy my time and not constantly check in to social media platforms. And it’s so nice to not feel like I always**** have to rush to share something I just did, or am doing. Honestly, it all gets so overwhelming for me! I feel like I can’t keep up and that turns something that is supposed to be fun in to something stressful.

A ton of people I know ran a half marathon on Saturday and I didn’t look at Facebook until after midnight… so really, the next day. It took me about 30 minutes to scroll through all the posts about the race – there were just so many. I really enjoyed looking at it all, and did feel somewhat bad that I was commenting and “liking” so late, but honestly, I know it’s better for me if I just log in and look at everything once, than try to constantly check in on social media stuff on my phone.

And that is a huge part of the stress. I feel like I am always connected, through my phone, and like I should be checking in on things all the time. Nope. Don’t need to!

Anyways. I am not complaining. I think social media is a lot of fun. I am just recognizing  that I do need to disconnect from time to time. And that I probably don’t need to feel guilty about it.

Has anyone else felt guilty (or sorta guilty) for not being online much?

And since no post is complete with out a picture, please tell me you “get” my shirt for the MAY FOURTH race I did?!

*There is also a lot of this going on.
**On the weekends.
***I actually correspond a lot with my close friends throughout the week. So this is more about keeping up with the people that I don’t email back and forth with, text with daily, etc.
****Not never, because I am still sharing things.