Comments (10)

By kilax, May 19, 2013 8:31 pm

Highlight of the Week: Trying trapeze! Having my dad’s company on my Sunday run!

Monday | May 13, 2013: 5 m run + teaching strength class + 3 m run (w/Bobbi)
Loc: hood, Temp: 59°/61°, Time: 50:40, Pace: 10:08 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: like it was too hot
Strength: medicine ball circuit, Difficulty: easy (more watching than participation), Felt: awkward with the circuit style workout
Loc: Grayslake, Temp: 48°/48°, Time: 31:40, Pace: 10:42 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: like it was faster / hungry
Tuesday | May 14, 2013: 5 m run
Loc: Millennium Trail, Temp: 75°/79°, Time: 53:45, Pace: 10:45 avg, Difficulty: medium, Felt: hot
Wednesday | May 15, 2013: strength class
Strength: Liebert bars and free weights, Difficulty: hard, Felt: big
Thursday | May 16, 2013: 5.15 m run (w/Emily)
Loc: Nippersink FP, Temp: 53°/53°, Time: 49:22, Pace: 9:35 avg, Difficulty:easy, Felt: happy to have company
Friday | May 17, 2013: trapeze (w/Erin)
Saturday | May 18, 2013: rest
Sunday | May 19, 2013: 10 m run (w/Dad)
Loc: Millennium Trail to Nippersink FP, Temp: 65°/76°, Time: 1:48:43, Pace: 10:52 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: surprisingly good

Notes:

• I had a higher mileage goal in mind this week. Oops. Next week. I have a hard time getting up early to run when I stay up late with houseguests (excuses!!!). 
• And those mileage goals may not be met in the heat (more excuses!!!). My Sunday run felt good, but I just can’t go as far, or as fast, once the temp gets in to the 60s/70s. 
• I knew I was going to have some soreness from trying trapeze. It was just a matter of where and when. Sunday morning. Pecs, abs and latissimus dorsi. It was humorous when I took my parents to see the studio where I teach and my mom asked me to do a pullup. I could barely lift my arms up to reach the bar without feeling pain. And that moment was caught on camera. Awesome. Teaching should be interesting tomorrow!

Comments (31)

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…

Comments (15)

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.

Comments (72)

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.

Comments (21)

By kilax, April 28, 2013 6:46 pm

Highlight of the Week: Running with my new neighborhood friend! And all my other friends. No solo runs this week!

not pictured: Friday’s run

Monday | April 22, 2013: teaching strength class
Strength: body bars, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Tuesday | April 23, 2013: 8 m run (last 4 w/Alyssa)
Loc: Millennium Trail to Nippersink FP, Temp: 41°/40°, Time: 1:15:17, Pace: 9:24 avg, Difficulty: easy/medium, Felt: good
Wednesday | April 24, 2013: strength class + 5.2 m run (w/Bobbi and Chris)
Strength: body bars + boxing, Difficulty: medium, Felt: mostly good
Loc: Grayslake, Temp: 49°/46°, Time: 54:53, Pace: 10:34 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Thursday | April 25, 2013: 5 m run (w/Emily) + 6 m run (w/Valerie)
Loc: Grayslake, Temp: 39°/40°, Time: 45:03, Pace: 9:00 avg, Difficulty: medium, Felt: so tired/out of it
Loc: Rollins Savanna, Temp: 47°/47°, Time: 54:32, Pace: 9:05 avg, Difficulty: medium, Felt: still tried
Friday | April 26, 2013: 5.5 m run (middle 3 w/new neighborhood friend)
Loc: hood, Temp: 51°/56°, Time: 1:02:29x, Pace: 11:22, Difficulty: easy, Felt: tired
Saturday | April 27, 2013: rest
Sunday | April 28, 2013: rest

Notes:

• I am still having a super hard time catching up with sleep after my weekend in Salt Lake City. And my runs were not super fast after coming back from a higher altitude! Wah! (just kidding)
• I am just remembering this now, but I thought it was so odd how many people were not wearing hats at the Salt Lake City Half Marathon, since it rained the entire time. Wearing a hat when you run is so helpful for keeping water out of your eyes… so you can see. Do you wear a hat when you are working out in the rain?
• Another question… so, I wore brand new shoes to the Salt Lake City Half Marathon. I’ve done this before. But I know a lot of people are concerned about “breaking shoes in.” Do you make a point to break shoes in before a race? Maybe this is more important for racing flats and shoes that fit to your foot more?
• My strength workout on Wednesday left me so sore for a few days. Stupid DOMS. That hadn’t happened in awhile. I hated feeling so sore and stiff for my following workouts and just around the house. Bleh.

The winner of the Gypsy Runner Arm Sleeves Giveaway is Abbi! Abbi, please email me (kilax@ilaxstudio.com) your mailing address and I will share it with Gypsy Runner!

Comments (42)

By kilax, April 24, 2013 5:01 am

***I interrupt this regularly scheduled Utah trip recap week to post a giveaway***

Ha ha ha. Actually, the giveaway is Utah trip inspired. I came across the Gypsy Runner booth at the Salt Lake City Marathon expo on Thursday and went bananas going through all their super cool arm sleeve designs. 

Photo from little-runner-girl.com at a different expo last year.

Gypsy Runner is based out of Phoenix but they travel all over for expos. They will be at Chicago Rock ‘n’ ‘Roll on July 19 and 20, and at Quad Cities and Akron Marathon expos in September. Check them out!

Anyway, I was very well behaved at the expo. I only bought TWO pairs of arm sleeves. Let me pause and give myself a pat on the back. 

Ha ha. Now that that is over…

I talked to the Gypsy Runner owner, Amy, for quite some time on Thursday. She was telling me about the inspiration for their shirts, skirts, leggings, arm sleeves, etc. Sigh. What a fun business to have. Choosing designs for running clothes?! Traveling all over to sell your products and getting to see different parts of the country? Talking to all sorts of interesting people like me?* Okay, I am sure I am glamorizing it. And maybe I was on an arm sleeve high. But I left feeling pretty jazzed and excited about my new sleeves. 

So jazzed, that I didn’t realize until getting back to my hotel that I grabbed a size small instead of a medium! Oops! I went back the next day to exchange them, and Amy was totally cool about letting me do a swap. And luckily, they had a bigger size. Phew!

Another break to pat myself on the back for not buying more arm sleeves during the second trip to the expo! Ha ha. 

Anyway, I contacted Amy after the expo to tell her how much I love the sleeves (yes, I have already used them) and to ask if Gypsy Runner would sponsor an arm sleeve giveaway. Obviously… she said yes. Ha ha. Thank you, Amy!

Gypsy Runner Arm Sleeves Giveaway Rules

1. One reader will receive a pair of arm sleeves – design selected by Gypsy Runners.
2. REQUIRED to enter the giveaway: go to the Gypsy Runner site and determine what size of arm sleeves you would be, and tell me that size in the comments. This requires scrolling down on the link I provided. For reference, I am wearing a M in the pictures, and my bicep is 13ish” in diameter. If you want, while you are there, check out the fun designs and tell me which style you like. Gypsy Runner will select the style for the giveaway, but this information comes in handy for me later.**
   
3. For a bonus entry: like the Gypsy Runner Facebook page and let me know you have. 
4. For a bonus entry: post this contest on Facebook, and let me know in a comment that you did. 
5. You can leave all entry comments in ONE comment if you’d like.
6. This giveaway is open until 12:00 PM CST on Friday April 26. I will announce the winner on Saturday April 27.
7. This giveaway is open to all US readers.

*I kid, I kid. 
**Gift ideas for friends, ha!

Comments (58)

By kilax, April 23, 2013 11:48 am

Racing while traveling is tricky, right? You are sleeping in a different bed*, eating different foods, maybe sight-seeing… you might be in a different time zone, at a higher altitude… you’re out of your comfort zone! Ha ha ha. All of these things describe the setup for running the Salt Lake City (SLC) Half Marathon last Saturday.

But! I love to race when I visit a new place. What an awesome way to see the city, and wonderful opportunity to meet and chat up with local folks! So. It’s totally worth it to me to run the race, even if I know “conditions” aren’t ideal.**

I’ve had a great training season this year. I thrive running in the cold and dark, and I got a lot of miles in. I was hoping for a PR at the SLC half. I only had two concerns: the altitude and lack of course elevation map. Okay, let’s add two more – eating strange foods and not getting much sleep. Okay, one more (ha!) – hiking the day before.

What?! I was not supposed to hike up a steep 350′ incline the night before the race to get views of the city?

Or eat delicious vegan baked goods (I only had (parts of) two!!!)?

Or eat dinner at 10:30? Go to bed past 12:00 and get up at 5:00?

Pssssh. I didn’t want to miss a thing in SLC. Ha! I thoroughly enjoyed my pre-race day.

I am really good at dragging this out, aren’t I? Ha ha ha. You guys know I will keep the actual race part short and sweet. But first.

I went on a short run Thursday night with Marty*** to test out how I felt running “at altitude.” Er… my lungs felt like they had a little furnace in them right away. No bueno. Obviously, this picture of Marty and me is taken pre-furnace.

So Saturday morning, I didn’t know what to expect. I decided to start out at a PR pace, and back off if I needed to.

I was NOT expecting to feel so emotional before the race. I rode TRAX from my hotel in downtown SLC, to get to the start line at U of U. Two stops before the final destination, bomb-sniffing dogs came on. The bomb squad was at the start. Police were everywhere. A helicopter flew overhead before the race and for the entire event. Everyone had Boston gear on. They were handing out these bracelets. I had my Boston ribbons on.

(last picture is post race)

I was choked up.

But spending time before the race chatting with other runners calmed me. Long conversations, just getting to know people. I ran in to a guy I met at the expo, remembered his name, and we chatted some more. I talked to people in my pace group. Introduced myself. Learned a lot of tidbits about people.

It was a great feeling. I really do love talking to other runners and connecting with people. And the thing is… the community is always like this. Not just post tragic-event. But that has put it in to perspective.

An interesting tidbit – “Sweet Caroline” was played at the start. I didn’t understand the significance until I read the paper the next day. Now, I can’t get it out of my head!

Alright. Let’s get going.

Did I mention it started raining about an hour before the race? And never stopped the whole damn time? Hee hee. I do love running in the rain. It felt awesome. The only sad part is that it was super foggy and the mountain views were not as clear as I was hoping. Darn.

I started with the 1:50 pacer. Following my plan to stick with pace and drop back if the altitude got to me.

That worked for five miles. Yep! That’s it! This (newly designed) course is a net downhill of 600′ (elevation line in green below – click to see larger)! Wheeeee! But! There are a few uphills in there too. And my heart rate was super high on those. I kept losing the pacer on the uphills, then trying to catch up. Oops. I’ve become a lot stronger on uphills, but that is where the lack of O2 got to me. I had to back it off to play it safe. So I slowed down and just enjoyed the race – and more downhills!

I smiled. I thanked the tons of police officers. I thought about how grateful I was to be able to run. I thought about how I run because I love to – not always for PRs. I talked to other runners. Someone who was in my pace group (Cami) caught me and passed me… but then we ran the last final miles together. She kept thanking me for being so strong and pulling her in. I felt fabulous! Just had to be careful on those few uphills.

And Marty was there. Waiting in the rain for a long time, to see me run. What an awesome friend (and we had met for the first time two days prior)! I definitely got a second wind after seeing him!

In case you want to see what supination looks like.

It was such an enjoyable race. I feel so lucky that it was going on the weekend I was there. And I also feel lucky that Marty was there and came to the finish (and later gave me a ride to my hotel), because DAMN! I was freezing after I finished! Ha ha! I had a bag with a long sleeved shirt and a light jacket in gear check. The bag was sitting out in the rain. My hands were so cold I couldn’t tell if the jacket in my bag was wet or dry. I had to have someone check for me. Ha ha ha.

Oh! My finish time! 1:54:54. 40 seconds off my PR! Ha! And I added a bit of extra mileage with my weaving. Round of applause to Kim…

Edited to add: 50 seconds off my PR. Derp. Math bad Kim no smart. My PR is 1:54:06. So. No PR for Kim.

I would love to run this race again. I kind of fell in love with Utah. And imagine I would more, if I saw the rest of the state.

So, what’s next? Derp. Find a 5K to run this week. I am coming from a higher altitude! Let’s see if those legs have some speed in them!

Just kidding. My favorite half – the Wisconsin Half Marathon – is coming up on May 4th**** I already told my BIL I am ditching him and going for the gold. I have a pacer lined up and everything. Boo yah. Unless I decide I don’t feel like running fast that day.

And if you made it this far in this post, applause to you! I reward***** you with this funny picture of my sudsy knees during the race! I would like to hear if anyone else has ever had sudsy clothes during a race or run? Ha ha.

*We won’t mention the part about sleeping next to a loud snorer.
**How do the elites do it? I suppose they get to the location early to acclimate.
***More about my awesome time with Marty later this week!
****May the fourth be with you!
*****Not much of a reward since I already posted it on my blog FB page.

Comments (29)

By kilax, April 14, 2013 7:03 pm

Highlight of the Week: Duh. Running through the water and mud with friends at the Double Down!

Monday | April 8, 2013: 6 m run + teaching strength class + 6 m run (w/Erin)
Loc: hood, Temp: 40°/41°, Time: 58:14, Pace: 9:42 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: fine
Strength: kettlebells + step, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Loc: Grayslake, Temp: 47°/43°, Time: 53:37, Pace: 8:56 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: great/energetic
Tuesday | April 9, 2013: rest
Wednesday | April 10, 2013: strength class
Strength: cones and dumbbells, Difficulty: easy, Felt: not so great – my knee doesn’t like that workout
Thursday | April 11, 2013: up/down ladder (w/WU + CD)
Loc: hood, Temp: 40°/40°, Time: 53:22, Pace: 8:54 avg, Difficulty: hard (for me), Felt: in over my head
Friday | April 12, 2013: 9.5 m run (w/Kristi & Chris)
Loc: Grayslake to Savanna and back, Temp:  37°/37°, Time: 1:29:43, Pace: 9:27, Difficulty: easy, Felt: okay
Saturday | April 13, 2013: Muddy Monk Double Down (w/Bobbi and Rachel)
Loc: Dam No. 1 Woods, Temp: 35°/37°, Time: 2:19:41, Pace: 12:01 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: great
Sunday | April 14, 2013: 22.05 m run (w/Emily, Rael and Stacy)
Loc: Round Lake to Grayslake and back, Temp: 47°/48°, Time: 3:44:30, Pace: 10:11 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: pretty good

Notes:

• Erin came to my class on Monday night! It really means a lot to me to have my friends trek out to Grayslake to try out my class (and to give me feedback)! I am thinking about offering a one-time Saturday class sometime so other Chicagoland people can come… let me know if you would be interested. 
• Speedwork was such a biznatch this week. I really need to do it more than twice a month if I don’t want it to feel so hard every time. Ha ha ha. Riiiiight.
• My long run on Sunday was supposed to be at a 10:00mm pace and I started too fast. I was pissed off at the 25mph winds and was running fast to feel like I was actually moving. Anyway, starting too fast really screwed my buddy Emily over. Sigh. She wasn’t upset with me, but I felt bad anyway. I told her it was a good reminder not to start out too fast at her marathon in three weeks… ha ha… right? Uh… 
• After my last 22-miler on March 29 I felt something… crunchy on the inside of my left knee. It doesn’t hurt. I just feel it when I twist it to the side. So Wednesday’s strength class with a heavy focus on lateral movement didn’t feel that great during, but felt good after. 
• And since I am mentioning aches and pains, my left calf felt tight during my long run on Sunday. My hands were all puffed up and swollen, so I think it’s a salt/electrolyte thing. We’ll see. I hope I don’t get a tight calf again. That happened to me in late spring 2010 and took forever to get rid of. 
• For the record… I am not worried about my knee or my calf. Just recording it here!
• This is my second 60+ mile week this year (61.2)! My first was exactly 60. I wonder how many more times that will happen. It’s getting hotter and I am not wanting to run as much. 

Comments (41)

By kilax, April 13, 2013 5:08 pm

I have to admit, when I saw this post on Facebook yesterday, I thought, “hmm.”

Not a “hmm” that scared me away from running the Muddy Monk 10k/20K Double Down today, but a “hmm” that made me think, “Guess I will have to do a bit more planning for this race!” As in, actually bringing extra socks and shoes, and clothes to change in to after. As it is, I had to borrow a long sleeved shirt from my friend Ed, to wear during the race. And my pre-race evening consisted of a huge plate of fajitas, with chips and salsa and french fries… then the equivalent of three glasses of wine… followed by less than six hours of sleep. 

Oops?

So. I think we’ve established that the premise of this race was to have fun! And we sure did!

Let me back track just a bit, and tell you about the Double Down. Art (the race director) offered me a free entry for a Muddy Monk race this year, and after reading the description on their website, of course, I had to pick this one:

The Double Down 10k & 20k Trail Race is a unique trail race in that you don’t sign up for a particular distance and you don’t need to decide which distance you run until you finish the first 10k. If you feel fresh and want to tackle the course again to make it a 20k, then go for it! If you get finished with the first 10k and want to call it day, then no worries! It’s completely up to you whether or not you want to “double down”!

How neat that you got to choose whether to run the 10K or the 20K on course?! I had never heard of a race where you got to choose the distance during the race before. Of course, as I signed up, I thought for sure I would “double down” and go for the full 20K! But as it rained all week and I imagined all the mud on course, I told my friends that I would choose to do the second loop if I wasn’t miserable. Well, duh. Why would running in this make me miserable?

Of course I did the second loop! It looks like I was in the minority though – 235 people did the 10K and 89 did the 20K. I am surprised by how many people did not ”double down”! Do you think you would have “doubled down” on this course?

Aside from a mile+ of running in the mud, and some larger puddles, this course was pretty easy and non-technical – just crushed stone and grass. The water and mud was what made it interesting! Oh! And of course, running the entire race with Bobbi and Rachel.

I am telling you, running races like this with friends makes it so much more fun.  It’s just such a great adventure to share with someone. And sometimes, you actually need an extra hand – to pull you out of the mud or over a water crossing. Ha ha. 

Interestingly, I do think that if you were trying to competitively run something like this, you might get a bit frustrated. Sliding around in the mud? Jumping over logs? Wading through cold water? It’s all fun, but someone über concerned about time might get annoyed with that (and why they would be at this type of run… I do not know). Not us! We had a blast! I obnoxiously splashed in the puddles and tried to get as much mud on me as possible. We finished around 2:19:46. 

A few people from our Multisport club were there and even waited for us to finish. I always appreciate when people wait around for me!

Post race consisted of hot dogs* and beer (none for me, ha ha), and comparisons of muddy shoes. 

Yep, I will be cleaning the dirt out of my toenails for a long time. Ha ha. But I can’t wait to do my next Muddy Monk event! Art puts on such fun races, at great value, and with great goodies! I love the shirt and medal we got today!

ORANGE!!!

And I love that this race reminded me how much fun I love to run in the mud and get dirty! Do you love to run in the mud?

*No dog for me – out of vegan dogs, I was cool just eating the condiments on the bun. 

Comments (36)

By kilax, April 11, 2013 6:17 am

• Uh oh. Seems like I missed the timing mats at my half marathon on Sunday! Rachel pointed out to me that her time was 2:03:08 which exactly matched my Garmin time, and my time was 2:04:43. Oopsie. What is interesting is that the first year I ran this race, I didn’t realize there was chip timing! So I thought my time was 1:54:40, but it was really 1:54:06. So, which time should I take for this year? Well, obviously, I am going to go with the faster time. Muah ha ha!
• My team is training for our half Ironman relay on June 9 in Kansas! It’s only 58 days away! My sister’s fiancé ordered a freaking SCHWEET new road bike. But it’s taking f-o-r-e-v-e-r for it to arrive, so he’s using a loaner bike to train. Here’s the bike he ordered:
  

• In case you missed my finished paperweight on Facebook last week, here is mine (in orange, obvs), and Erin’s:

• Have you seen the Happier app? My friend Emily told me about it last Friday. The app prompts you to record three happy moments from your day. You can categorize them, add a photo and even share them with “friends” (yes, it’s another social media tool) who can “smile” at your happy moments and comment on them. Basically, it’s a gratitude journal, and writing this stuff down is supposed to make you feel good. I like it so far! Although, like any other app… we’ll see how long I stick with it. Ha ha. 

• I’m sure you don’t want to hear (or see photo evidence) about how I got a bloody nose at work yesterday and got it on my new top. Let’s just say… it’s a good thing I had filled out my three happy moments before that happened. Ha ha ha. If you get a stain on your clothes is it all you can think about it until you get it out?! It sure is for me. The blood seemed to come out just by soaking it in cold water. Phew. 
• And to end with some exciting news… Bobbi and I are getting massages tomorrow to celebrate her birthday! And! Data gets to go to the vet tomorrow too! Muah ha ha. Fun day all around. 

Other Random Thoughts Thursday Posts: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.