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By kilax, May 7, 2012 6:32 am

The Wisconsin Half Marathon was this past Saturday! It was my fourth year running it – the first two years with Steven, last year with Erin, and this year, with my brother-in-law Andrew!

This race holds a special place in my heart, as it was the first half marathon I ever ran in 2009, and it held my 1:57:47 PR for almost two years! I was really excited Andrew wanted to run it as his first half. 

While carb-loading at Red Robin on Friday night, we discussed Andrew’s goals for his first half:

1. Don’t punch myself in the face or get punched in the face
2. Finish the race
3. Run the entire race
4. Finish the race running a 10:00mm pace (goal finish time 2:11:00)
5. Make Kim puke at the end

What can I say? Andrew’s goal list was a bit unique. He met all of the goals except one. Hopefully you can guess which one it was. 

Kenosha is close enough to our home that we can drive up there race morning, but it does mean waking up at 4:30! That’s okay for me – it’s when I normally get up for work, and I was so excited about running Andrew’s first half with him!

It rained on the way up to the race, but it stopped about 35 minutes prior to race start. It was nice and cool (53°) but humid! I wore a tank and felt sweat dripping down my arms right away.

We got in to the start line 15 minutes early and eventually ran in to Bobbi and Marcia! (Also, at packet pick-up, I randomly ran in to Megan - I actually recognized her baby before her!)

Then we were off! We saw Steven and his dad at mile 1:

And again at mile 4:

The first 4+ miles go through downtown and residential neighborhood. The buildings and homes block most of the wind and trees provide some shade (shade was not an issue). After the first few miles you head north and do an out and back for maybe 5 miles along Lake Michigan, up to Carthage College. It’s a beautiful part of the course, but completely open to wind, has no shade and is full of potholes. Oh! And puddles on Saturday. And let’s not forget the small hills. 

The wind was pushing at us from the north, but we kept our pace running in to it, knowing it would be at our backs on the way back out. It definitely felt cooler, but I honestly started to warm up about 6 miles in and I felt great. We actually picked up the pace right before mile 9, when we were heading back in to the downtown/residential area. Our second half was definitely a bit faster than our first! We pushed it for the last 4 miles, running progressively faster! A bit faster than Andrew’s goal pace, but he was doing so well!

We saw Steven and his dad right before the finish, the picked up the pace to run it in!

Our official time was 2:06:11, a 9:37 pace! Andrew did so well! He finished, without walking, and well under a 10:00 minute mile pace! And we were able to run faster at the end. I think he ran a very smart race! 

I was really pleased too – the past two years I’ve had less than stellar races on this course. This year it was a total breeze for me and I felt great at the end! I’m so happy I got to run Andrew’s first half with him. Maybe he will want to come back next year and do it again! I know I’ll be out there. I have been doing this race since the inaugural year and can’t stop now!

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By kilax, May 6, 2012 7:34 pm

Highlight of the Week: Running my brother-in-law’s first half marathon with him on Saturday!

Monday | April 30, 2012: rest
Tuesday | May 1, 2012: 10 m run (8 w/Sara, Bobbi & GRCer Carrie, 4 w/Katie and GRCer Chris)
Loc: Half Day FP, Temp: 62°, Time: 1:42:58, Pace: 10:18 avg, Difficulty: easy/humid
Wednesday | May 2, 2012: strength class
Strength: dumbbell circuit, Difficulty: medium
Thursday | May 3, 2012: rest
Friday | May 4, 2012: strength
Strength: bars – arms focus, Difficulty: hard
Saturday | May 5, 2012: 13.2 m run (Wisconsin Half Marathon with BiL Andrew)
Loc: Kenosha, WI, Temp: 53°/50°, Time: 2:06:16, Pace: 9:34 avg, Difficulty: easy
Sunday | May 6, 2012: rest

Lessons learned:

• Sleep > running (sometimes). I could not get up at 3:30 am to run on Wednesday or Thursday (surprise, surprise). I didn’t want to get up early (5:30) on Friday. Or Sunday (5:30). I would be lying if I said I was not disappointed my mileage was so low this week, but I really needed my sleep. And I was too busy the rest of those days to work out. Oh well!

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By kilax, May 4, 2012 10:40 pm

This week’s theme: What is your favorite running “thing”? Something that you either HAVE to have for every run or race, or something you don’t always have or use, but look forward to eating/using/wearing before, during or after a run. Maybe it completely changed your running, or is something you just really like. It can be something you wear, something you eat, something you use (in reality or digitally), etc, but it has to be a thing. 

My favorite running thing is visors. I have been running for a several years, but didn’t get a visor until the 2010 Chicago Marathon expo… then I wore it the next day! I love that it keeps the sun out of my eyes/off my face, my hair out of my face, and most importantly, the rain out of my eyes. I didn’t realize what an essential tool the visor is in running in the rain until Erin told me about it. It helps so much in keeping your face dry when it’s raining, so you are not constantly wiping your face off and struggling to see where you are going. It makes running in the rain so much easier!

I wear a visor for most runs, except recent 5Ks, because I didn’t want any extra drag. HA HA HA.  

Do you wear a visor or hat when you workout outside?

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By kilax, May 4, 2012 7:15 am

The winner of the Starry Pendant Giveaway is Amy! Amy, please email me your mailing address (kilax@ilaxstudio.com) and I will send it your way!

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By kilax, May 1, 2012 6:11 am

When my mom and sister came out here to go shopping for new work clothes, I took them to the outlet mall in Wisconsin so we would have a huge variety of stores to look at for both of them. Okay, and because we were looking for deals.

Anyway, my sister and I went in to Christopher & Banks and grabbed a ton of stuff for my mom to try on. We probably spent 20 minutes browsing then another 25 minutes with my mom trying on clothes.

We were about to check out and leave when my mom and sister noticed a rack with a bunch of cute things in Christina’s size. So she tried on clothes. Then I tried on some stuff. Then we checked out. Then we noticed more stuff. So we tried on more stuff. And checked out again.

Ha ha. I have no idea how long we were there, but thankfully, we were the only customers and the lady at the register did not mind our multiple transactions!

My sister and I were both really surprised that Christopher & Banks had clothes we liked. It was supposed to be our little secret that we got stuff there. Sorry, Christina! I ended up with jeggings and a red sweater (22 and 24 here). I could go on about how owning jeggings makes me feel very weird, but whatever.

ANYWAY!

My sister pointed out this really cute Starry Pendant to me, so I picked up one to giveaway!

Starry Pendant Giveaway Rules

1. One reader will receive a Starry Pendant necklace, seen in the photo above. 
2. Required to enter the giveaway: tell me if you were ever surprised to find things you liked in a certain store OR if there are certain stores you avoid when shopping for clothes (because they do not fit your style).
3. This giveaway is open until 5:00 PM CST on Thursday May 3.  I will announce the winner on Friday May 4. 
4. This giveaway is open to all readers. 

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By kilax, April 30, 2012 6:12 am

When I originally got the idea in my head to do the April Fashion Challenge, I thought the challenge would be not wearing the same outfit twice. But I have a lot of clothes. So that was not a challenge.

The real challenge ended up being to try to dress nice each day and not wear the same outfits twice. So that was hard. Because I am at home A LOT. I actually find it easier to dress nicely when I go in the office.  But if you look at the photos below, only the photos taken indoors represent days I was in the office. So for the month of April, that is 11 days (there were 21 business days in April). The photos taken outside represent days that I worked from home, had the day off, or was a weekend.

So. Most of the struggle was looking decent at home, while not repeating outfits (and I tried not to repeat outfits I have already put on the blog from other months, but some bits and pieces were borrowed). Let’s take a look at the outfits, and I will share my lessons learned (you can click on the photos to see them larger)!

Outfits I loved: 2, 7, 13, 15, 17
Oufits I don’t think did me any favors: 3, 6, 8, 12, 24, 26
Outifts that made me look like a librarian: 11
Outfits that made me look like a sexy librarian: 2
Outfits inspired by the 90s: 10, 14
Outfits I immediately changed out of after seeing how awful they looked on camera: 26 
Outfits that made me want to drive a motorcycle: 27 
Outfits that are not to be confused with me giving up, but are aiding in long run recovery: 29 

For fun: nail polishes rocked out during this time (all OPI):

Lessons Learned:

• I had fun thinking of different outfits to wear, and do like wearing things that are a bit on the crazy side. 
• Some days were just a pain to think of an outfit that wasn’t just jeans and a t-shirt (see: 27, 29) though.
• Getting dressed sure does take a lot longer when you care about what you are wearing.
• I have a lot of shoes, but none that I really like. And I don’t really care for shoes. As you can see, there was not much of a shoe variety.
• Steven confirmed his awesomeness by taking these photos each day.
• I definitely have a self-imposed wardrobe – skirt or dress, jacket or cardigan, belt. 
• I have no idea how to style my hair and hardly wear makeup (this is more of a reminder than lesson learned).
• Trying to dress cute on the weekends made me feel better about myself.
• Putting on something to “nice” wear after a long run is not… natural. 
• There are tons of outfits in my closet waiting to be discovered.
• A lot of my older clothes can still be accessorized to look current (in my mind?).
• Trying to dress nice each day made me notice other people’s outfits more.
• It also made me want to shop more. A few of these things were purchased during the month of April: yellow cardigan (7, 16, 25), waist belt (7, 25), white cardigan (9), blue blazer (10, 21), pink Star Wars top (10), waist belt (11), orange pleather jacket (14, 27), blue top (15), white belt (15, 16), blue top II (17), jean skirt (15, 18), purple cardigan (20), pink belt (21), red sweater – gift (22), gray jeggings (22, 28), black jeggings (24), We Run Chicago top (29). Ugh. That is a lot. Uhh… but at least I am mixing with things I already have?
• I still have a lot of stuff in my closet I did not wear (any of these dresses…). 
• Dressing nicer got me lots of compliments.

Hmm, I think that is enough lessons learned for now.

So what do you guys think? Should I do it again? I think I would like to do it now without buying anything new. Maybe only accepting gifts. Ha ha ha. 

Which outfits are your favorites and least favorites? (keep in mind the photo quality is not perfect on some, as all pictures were taken with my iPhone and I did not do any editing to any of them).

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By kilax, April 29, 2012 12:15 pm

Highlight of the Week: I felt really good this week, so I went for one of my 2012 running goals, and accomplished it – a new weekly personal distance record (PDR) of 61.1 (my goal was to run 60). Now, if I ran 9.5 miles tomorrow, I could meet one of my other goals – a 200 mile month. What do you think? Should I go for it? Ha ha. Either way, I am at a new monthly PDR of 190.5.

Monday | April 23, 2012: 12 m run (miles 2.5-12 with Sara, Katie joined us for last 4 miles)
Loc: Half Day FP, Temp: 55°/49°, Time: 1:53:35, Pace: 9:28 avg, Difficulty: easy/medium 
Tuesday | April 24, 2012: 7.1 m run (with Amy, Maggie and GRC friend Carrie)
Loc: North Branch Trail, Temp: 64°, Time: 1:11:52, Pace: 10:07 avg, Difficulty: easy
Wednesday | April 25, 2012: strength class
Strength: kettlebells, Difficulty: easy
Thursday | April 26, 2012: rest
Friday | April 27, 2012: 11 m run (with Bobbi)
Loc: Rollins Savanna FP, Temp: 49°/44°, Time: 1:47:03, Pace: 9:41, Difficulty: easy
Saturday | April 28, 2012: 11 m run
Loc: Around Round Lake, Temp: 43°/43°, Time: 1:53:26, Pace: 10:19 avg, Difficulty: easy
Sunday | April 29, 2012: 20 m run (GRC group run, with Bobbi, Carrie and Marlene)
Loc: Des Plaines River Trail, Temp: 40°/49°, Time: 3:35:38, Pace: 10:47 avg, Difficulty: easy/medium

Lessons learned:

• I have no desire to run a marathon right now. As much as I love to run long, I am no where near mentally or physically ready. Nope nope nope.
• Naps before a run are not as good of an idea as they seem. The naps feel so great you don’t want to leave for your run. 
• Being a competitive ass in Wednesday’s strength class made my form suffer (we were seeing who could do a certain amount of kettlebell moves the fastest) and I paid for it when my back was sore all day Thursday and Friday. 

Reminders for next week:

• Be more careful walking down the stairs – falling down the stairs this week did not make me feel very awesome.

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By kilax, April 28, 2012 7:18 am

I finally got it right!

I finally got Steven a decent Christmas gift!

Yes, Christmas was *cough* four months ago, but in classic Kim-style, I got Steven something he had to wait to use – an introductory flight lesson and ground school at Chicago Executive Airport. 

Steven’s been interested in getting his pilot’s license for a very long time*. We cannot exactly afford going all out getting his license, BUT! this awesome Groupon showed up for an introductory lesson… just in time for Christmas! Score!

So we redeemed it yesterday. Wow! We had perfect weather! Clear skies, not too windy… our instructor (who was younger than both of us but very knowledgeable) showed us how to check the weather, do a ground check,

and in less than 30 minutes we were off! Steven handled the lift or something while the instructor took care of the rudders, 

then Steven did all the flying! We were in the air for an hour. We went east to the lake, south down to the city, did a 180° back north, then headed west back toward the airport. I should mention, I was in the backseat, and we paid a small fee for me to ride along. 

We had to stay 2000 feet away from the buildings, but the view was still breathtaking (click to see larger)!

It was a surprisingly smooth ride (and I mean because of turbulence, not Steven’s flying, which I was not worried about) until we headed south back toward the airport, then it got a bit bumpy. 

The instructor handled the landing, we got out and set up the wheel chocks, took the obligatory picture,

and after a quick debriefing (and short spiel on getting a pilot’s license) we were done. We spent an hour in the air, and what seemed like less than an hour on the ground. It was really fun for me, and I was only riding along! I think Steven liked it, because he thanked me for his “awesome gift.” I excel at getting him dud gifts (no, really, I do) so I am happy he enjoyed it so much!

We did not sign up for additional lessons for Steven (yet?), but would like to someday! It would be awesome to fly to Guttenberg, IA, in the summers, to see my family!

Do you have any interest in getting your pilot’s license? Have you ever flown in a small plane like this before?

*It highly interests me too, but it only makes financial sense to have one family member be interested in it!

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By kilax, April 27, 2012 3:42 pm

This week’s theme: Why do you run? What is the main reason? We all have multiple reasons why we run (physical and mental health, friends, competition, etc), but what is The One main reason you keep lacing up and getting out there? This is a little open-ended, so have fun with it! Be creative.

I thought this theme would be hard to answer, but it actually came to me quite quickly! It’s just hard to explain…

Besides all the obvious reasons for running, the main reason I run is to satisfy my innate need for adventure and exploration. I feel like I have to get out there and explore the world around me – I need to know what is out there! And there is something about exploring a new-to-me (or old-to-me) place on foot that really gets me excited. When I had to go to Louisville a few times last summer I ran all over town. I actually (surprisingly?) learned a lot about the city that way and loved every minute of it. 

Whenever I travel, I look for trails and places to run. I feel embarrassed that there are so many trails in my home state (Iowa) that I did not know about. I am now in the process of checking them out! And I am really excited to visit my sister and her fiancé in Kansas this summer, because the town they are moving to has a lot of trails. 

I also like to try new paths to get to places I already know. And try different kinds of runs too (trails, snow, hills… the only thing I am not sure about is those Mud Runs/Obstacle Course Runs).

It’s really hard to describe the need I feel to get out there and explore new (and re-explore old!) areas, but running fulfills it for me! (okay, and travel too!!!)

Do you feel the need to explore?

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By kilax, April 27, 2012 8:13 am

Do you (did you) feed your pet table scraps? What kind of “human” foods do (did) they like to eat, if any?

Don’t worry, I think about things other than Data! It’s just that my sister made this video last weekend and I wanted to share it!

Data does not care for much human food except fish and popcorn (and not together). But the popcorn has to be just the way he likes it – perfectly oiled and salted. No dry popcorn for him! And he only likes the fluffy/poufy part of the popcorn. So we baby him and bite off that part for him to eat. 

It’s funny to me that Data does not want milk or cheese or anything like that (we even tried to give him turkey once, when someone brought it to our house for Thanksgiving). Growing up, our cats went cray cray for string cheese. Data just seems to be happy eating the same thing every day, until he hears Steven get the pan out to make popcorn, then he goes cray cray!