Comments (46)

By kilax, January 21, 2011 3:11 pm

Do you have any travel planned for 2011? Where/when and why?

We love to travel. So much that we have an entire bookshelf dedicated to travel literature* and a large travel map where we put pins on the places we’ve been.

We haven’t been able to travel much outside of our normal routes lately (Cedar Falls, IA, Guttenberg, IA and Kansas City, MO) because of our limited budget, but I got enough money in my bonus this year to buy tickets to New York City! Yay! We are going in February to spend time with our friends Gina and Steve. I cannot wait to explore NYC with them.

And I would really love to do a destination marathon this year, but yeah. We’ll see!

*We haven’t been to all of the places I have books on… I just like to read about places I haven’t been to.

Comments (30)

By kilax, January 20, 2011 6:38 am

Warning: this is about toenails, and inherently gross, so you may not want to read it.

When I lost my first toenail, I thought I was kind of badass. And that toenail (second one on left foot) had been black since August so I was kind of expecting it.

But losing the second toenail? Kind of gross. And creepy.

Last night, half of my middle toenail on my left foot came off. I wasn’t even expecting it. I didn’t know anything was going on with that toenail. It’s kind of weirding me out.

I asked Steven “Why are the toenails on my left foot abandoning ship?!” He responded with, “Because that ship is about to sink.” I guess!

I’m kind of having nightmares like I’ll turn in to that guy in District 9 who became an alien and pulled all of his fingernails and teeth out. Ewww!

Have you ever lost a toenail? Did it weird you out?

And I know you don’t have to be a runner to lose toenails. I know someone who lost a few because their ski boots were too tight. Or too lose. Or something (I never get the story right).

Comments (37)

By kilax, January 19, 2011 1:15 pm

I’ve been trying to get in to the habit of having a cup of tea in the afternoon at work, rather than mindlessly snacking (which is what I used to do). Even though I add some soy milk and a bit of sugar, I think drinking tea is better than eating junk food. And tea makes me feel full and warms me up.

However, I have only found two kinds I like – ALDI brand Winter Spice and Stash Chai.

I’ve tried apple cinnamon and green tea (both without milk) and just didn’t take to them. The apple cinnamon had a weird bitter taste that gave me a headache, and the green tea was too “plant-y.”* I think maybe I only like the Chai and Winter Spice because I always add milk and sugar, and it doesn’t taste too much like tea?

Do you drink tea? Do you have any flavored teas to recommend to me?

I am happy sticking with these two, I just wonder if anyone has suggestions for something else I might like.

*Oh, the irony.

Comments (20)

By kilax, January 18, 2011 11:23 am

This is a follow-up from the post I wrote earlier today!

January has been a surprisingly happy month for me. And I don’t say that in that sense that I am normally unhappy, just that January can be dreary! But I came up with a list of the things that have been making me feel so happy:

• Being social – I joined the Grayslake Running Club and felt like I instantly fit in. Steven and I had a blast at Erin‘s birthday party on Saturday. I got to run with Bobbi on Saturday. And we’ve been making other dates with friends and family! Sure, I am busy and tired, but I feel happy. Steven and I just watched Into the Wild (SPOILER ALERT!) and at the end of the movie, the main character, who has abandoned his family to be alone, comes to the conclusion that “happiness is only real when shared.” Maybe.



Helping make bean burgers before the party – Erin found this recipe to use, but used red beans instead of black. The burgers were a hit with everyone!




The Birthday Girl!!!



• Doing fun things with Steven – even though we’ve been busy, Steven and I have still been spending time together doing the things we enjoy.
• Keeping busy/organizing – we’ve been staying busy at home, organizing (clothes, cards, and other things I haven’t mentioned), cleaning and building – Steven is making a workbench in the garage.



Bringing part of the MDF in to the garage for the new workbench

• Planning fun events – beside upcoming running events, Steven and I are taking a vacation in February, and going to Iowa in April for my younger brother’s wedding!
• Healthy eating and exercising
  
• Busy with new projects at work
• No more holiday stress

What is making you happy lately?

Comments (15)

By kilax, January 18, 2011 5:14 am

I recently read a Women’s Health article (read it here) with some very interesting insights on happiness. I am always interested in reading articles/books on happiness. That’s my biggest life goal – to be generally happy.

This post got really long, so I am going to do another post later today listing what has been making me happy lately!

Basically, the article said that psychologists categorize happiness in to two types, below (their direct words in quotes):

• Moment-to-moment happiness – which comes from the “small spurts of joy you get from everyday occurrences,” like getting a compliment or seeing a friend for lunch. According to the article, “quantity trumps quality when it comes to happiness,” and these small daily occurrences are what balance out life’s lows. “All you have to do is notice and appreciate them.”
• Reflective happiness – the deep satisfaction you get when you examine your life as a whole and are happy with the direction it’s going.

The article had four recommendations for boosting happiness:

1. Have an attitude of gratitude
2. Banish the comparisons
3. Find meaning in your work
4. Hang with happy people

Reading this article, two parts stuck out to me the most. The first is that “scientists say each of us is born with our own happiness set point.” I definitely believe that! And the second is that “happy people take pleasure in the successes of other people rather than using those successes as a yardstick to measure their own lives.” Then it went on to say you should not compare yourself to others, but also not abandon your goals – just run at your own pace.

I cannot agree with this last part more. Seeing my friends happy makes me happy. Their accomplishments make me feel proud. At the same time, I feel their struggles, sadness and frustration.

Holly recently posted about something similar – a Facebook friend who posted her workouts, until she took them down because people were calling her exercise obsessed and saying they felt like she was bragging. Seeing/reading the friend’s workouts would make me feel motivated (and hopefully if I knew her well enough I would say something if I thought she did have an exercise issue) and I would feel happy for her. But other people apparently didn’t. It is a little bit different of a situation, but I think it’s worth mentioning.

What do you think about the points from the article? Do you think people have different happiness set points? Are you able to take pleasure in other people’s successes, or do you struggle with self comparison?

(the quote is a joke guys (family), don’t freak out!)

Comments (11)

By kilax, January 17, 2011 4:30 pm

Have you ever had to take one of those personality tests which asks you to choose two words in a set of four – the one that describes you most, and the one that describes you least?

I had to complete one for work last week. Those test always make me laugh. The sets they put together seem to just be mostly synonyms, or a set of “bad” characteristics or a set of “good” characteristics.

In each of the two sets below, pick which word (1-4) describes you the most, and which word (1-4) describes you the least.

I made up this example.

I get that the idea is for you to pinpoint which adjective you most identify with, and which you least identify with. Sometimes it’s just hard to choose! But I think the tests are fun to fill out. They always seem to pinpoint me. I had to take one for the first job that I got after college and it had my personality down pat. It was kind of scary.

If you’ve had to take a personality test, did you find the results to be accurate or inaccurate?

Comments (13)

By kilax, January 16, 2011 1:17 pm

My next race is the Frozen Zucchini Snowshoe Adventure(5K) on January 30th.

Day 449 | January 10, 2011: strength + stretch

During lunch I tried a SELF magazine workout that Erin recommend to me. It’s called “5 Moves to borrow from the boys” (click to see workout). The workout (1-5 below, using their cheesy names) requires using a barbell. I found out I liked that much better than using the machines. Yay! I did some crunches and stretching after, and was all nice and shaky.

Day 450 | January 11, 2011: cross

Highlight of this workout – using my new headphones! They are wireless and use bluetooth – I am now CORD FREE! Hurrah!

I still have to use a little blue tooth adapter (photo below), since my MP3 player doesn’t have bluetooth, but that is fine with me.

You can’t really tell, but the headphones wrap around each ear and connect at your neck. I guess it’s good you can’t tell!

I listened to the TRON: Legacy soundtrack while riding the bike and it got me pumped up!

Recumbent Bike Time: 40:00 | Distance: 7.26 | Set on “Forest Ride”

Day 451 | January 12, 2011: cross + 2 m run

During lunch Erin and I went ice skating!

What a fun thing to do in the middle of the work day!

In the evening, I ran. The run was supposed to be 6×800, but I ran 2×800 and… had enough. I was running on our treadmill (at 1.0 incline) and I just felt too hot. And that it was too hard. Wah wah wah. Maybe I am just not ready for speedwork?

Anyway, I did the 2×800 at 9:06 pace and the other mile (in between) at 10:00 pace.

And I wore my new shoes! So pretty!

Day 452 | January 13, 2011:strength

Day 453 | January 14, 2011: yoga + 5.8 m run

During my lunch break I did the YogaWorks Beginners DVD.

Finally! An awesome run. I felt great.

Okay, one thing though. I didn’t mention this before, but I had to return the first set of wireless headphones I received, because they worked once and stopped. The ones I have been using all week are the second set. This was my first run with them, and they worked for 1.5 miles, then kept stopping. The bluetooth transmitter kept turning off, or stopping or something. They were charged, but I charged them again just in case that was it (and had to go back inside to get wired headphones – there was a bit of stop and go with all the technical difficulties!).

We have snow again. But this run felt nice and warm!

Distance: 5.8 | Start Temp: 25° | End Temp: 24° | Time: 57:42 | Avg Pace: 9:56 | 1: 10:16 | 2: 9:53 | 3: 9:43 | 4: 10:01 | 5: 9:53 | 6: 7:53

Day 454 | January 15, 2011: strength + 3 m run

I did Level 1 of The 30 Day Shred right when I woke up. Nothing like a little Jillian Michaels to get you going in the morning!

Later on, I met the Grayslake Running Club for a Hot Chocolate Fun Run – we ran for 3 miles, then got hot chocolate (chai latte for me – and actually, one group started early and ran 6 miles before meeting us for our 3).

Bobbi joined us to check out the club! We had a fun relaxing run, then had drinks with a few members of the club (I think there were about 20 people there). It was a fun catching up! And it was fun meeting more members of the running club.

This photo of me chatting at the coffee shop makes me laugh:

Blah blah blah.

Distance: 3.0 | Start Temp: 21° | End Temp: 22° | Time: 33:56 | Avg Pace: 11:18 | 1: 10:57 | 2: 11:27 | 3: 11:28

Day 455 | January 16, 2011: 10 m run

Another good run! I did two 5-mile loops on the streets of our neighborhood.

I did have more headphone difficulties. I made sure they were fully charged, but the bluetooth transmitter stopped working at 8.3 miles (they are supposed to last 7 hours – I run slow, but not that slow!). I wonder if the temperature is causing it. The manual says the operating temperatures are from 32°F to 104°F – and it was about 16°. I kept the MP3 player and transmitter close to my core, in a pouch (on a belt) and I think that is what made it last so long.

Has anyone else ever had issues with bluetooth headsets working in the cold? For the record, mine are the Plantronics BackBeat 906.

Run stats: I wore the Asics Cumulus 12s. I drank 4 ounces of water and ate a Chocolate Outrage GU at mile 4.9. I had on wool socks, tights, pants, Under Armour ColdGear, my purple Tek Gear jacket, Under Armour Hood, Tek Gear beanie, and gloves.

Distance: 10.0 | Start Temp: 14° | End Temp: 16° | Time: 1:46:24 | Avg Pace: 10:38 | 1: 10:43 | 2: 10:31 | 3: 10:27 | 4: 10:39 | 5: 10:38 | 6: 10:46 | 7: 10:42 | 8: 10:48 | 9: 10:31 | 10:10:33

Week Summary: 20.8 miles

Despite my whiny run on Wednesday, this was a really good week! And I even did strength training three times. I wonder if that’s a record for me!

I did realize I am not quite ready for speed work and tempos yet. Maybe in a few weeks! I don’t want to rush in to anything.

Comments (16)

By kilax, January 14, 2011 3:36 pm

Steven brought home a surprise for me today!

Violin Strings!

He even tuned my violin for me! And he has never done that before – he played the cello. He said tuning the violin was a bit more difficult because it’s smaller, but he did it perfectly!

I rewarded him by playing a little tune:

Based on my outfit, did you guess that I am working from home today?

Hmm, maybe you can’t call that a reward? Ha!

I looked for violin sheet music at home, but all we have is cello. Guess I will be asking my dad to search in my old bedroom for my music! Thanks Dad!

Did/do you play a musical instrument? Which one? Do you still play?

I played the violin from fourth to twelfth grade – 9 years, and haven’t played since. I would like to start again. Maybe Steven and I can do a cello/violin duet!

That’s me, looking like the devil, back in 1999!

Comments (23)

By kilax, January 14, 2011 6:32 am

If you could choose any one superpower to have, what would it be?

I would want to be able to read minds. Because I am nosy. And seriously, I often wonder “what the hell were you thinking?” (then I wouldn’t wonder that).

image from here

I am sure eventually I would get sick of it, because some people probably have some disturbing thoughts. So I guess I would have to be able to turn the super power on and off.

I realize that is a selfish power to pick, as in, it doesn’t do much to help the general population. I could have said, “the power to cure sickness” or something. Maybe you guys are less selfish than me?

Comments (33)

By kilax, January 13, 2011 5:29 pm

A lot of you have shared your planned races for 2011 and I love seeing what everyone has on their calendar! So, here is what I have planned, along with my goal for the race:

I am missing a March race. The March half I was thinking about got canceled. Any ideas? Edited on January 28 – I found a 5K in March near where I live and added it above!

I am also thinking about Grand Rapids in October for a full marathon. Other than that, my schedule is open. I like to keep it open in the summer for impromptu* trips to Guttenberg, IA to hang out on the Mississippi.

Do you have your 2011 race calendar planned out? What’s on schedule?

Is anyone running any of the races above? Let me know and I’ll add you to my table.

Any suggestions for me on future races? I still haven’t run a race in Indiana

*We only went there twice last summer and I am pretty bummed about that. Although, each trip was pretty awesome!