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By kilax, August 6, 2015 6:23 am

• When I was seeing Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation Sunday night, the screen went blank (and of course, at the start of the movie’s climax!). Right away, I figured it had something to do with the weather – it had been nasty windy and hot all day, and my weather app kept telling me storms were coming. But I checked the app in the theater and it wouldn’t load. Huh. Then everyone’s emergency warnings started going off on their phones for a tornado warning! Yikes! We finished the movie (I was a bit distracted) then went outside and saw some ominous clouds and a crazy lightening show. Turns out an EF-1 tornado did go by – and according to the path of travel map, it started about two and a half miles east of my house. Nuts! I know a ton of people who live in the path of travel and I’m happy no one was hurt! (And after that, very happy my car was okay outside during the movie – I had just picked it up from the shop for body work the day before.) I wonder if this is the closest I’ve been to a tornado now, or if that one in 2005 was closer.

• My summer flip flop wearing habits have caught up with me, and I have a bit of tenderness in my left heal upon waking up or after sitting down for awhile. Ahh, plantar fasciitis. I am not interested in dealing with that (I had it in opposite feet two summers in a row), so I’ve been wearing my boot at night and sneakers more often. Really, I should wear sneakers around the house, too. Maybe the ones I bought myself for my birthday? So preeeeeeeety.

• Steven got me a Therapik for my birthday.  You place it over a bug bite, and a bulb inside heats up and neutralizes the bug venom, and makes the bite itch and swell less. Sounds completely hokey but I have been using it since he got it for me and it’s really making the bites NOT itch. AMAZING!!! And really, the heat on your skin provides enough relief from the itching, I don’t care how it works, ha ha.

• Don’t worry, my sole gift wasn’t the bug bite zapper, ha ha! Steven also got me a fance new multisport watch that seems to do a million different things!

Ha ha, I only wore one watch that day.

• My mom got a smart phone this weekend. Yay! I’m super excited about this. Her dumb phone barely allowed her to receive texts, and the screen was so tiny she could barely see the photos we’d send her. Do your parents have smart phones? Are they on social media? I’ve heard a few people say that their parents shouldn’t have smart phones or be on social media, but I’ve always wanted mine to be – it’s easier to stay connected that way!
• Ha ha, I had ALL the posts last week, and hardly any this week. Seems I have turned in to a mostly “event” blog for now – I mostly write when I do an event (and my training posts). That’s okay. I keep hoping the inspiration to write about thoughts/ideas will come back, but it hasn’t.

Link to Random Thoughts Thursday 74

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By kilax, August 2, 2015 5:17 pm

Highlight of the Week: Racing in Madison with Rachel!

Monday | July 27, 2015: teaching strength class
Strength: Arms of Summer workout, Difficulty: medium, Felt: good
Tuesday | July 28, 2015: 10 m run
Loc: Millennium Trail / Nippersink FP, Temp: 81°/80°, Time: 1:41:11, Pace: 10:07 avg, Difficulty: easy/medium, Felt: good
Wednesday | July 29, 2015: 3 m run
Loc: Millennium Trail, Temp: 82°/82°, Time: 27:48, Pace: 9:15 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good but thirsty (didn’t bring water)
Thursday | July 30, 2015: 5 m run + Full Moon 5K (w/Rachel)
Loc: hood, Temp: 77°/82°, Time: 48:52, Pace: 9:46 avg, Difficulty: hard, Felt: too hot / weak (hungry?)
Loc: Madison, Temp: 80°/76°, Time: 29:22, Pace: 9:27 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good, but thirsty!
Friday | July 31, 2015: teaching strength class + 1000 meter swim + 4 m run (incl. 10×1:00)
Strength: Arms of Summer Workout, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good, got a second wind
Loc: Grayslake Pool, Time: 24:35, Pace: 2:28/100 m, Difficulty: easy, Felt: fluid, strong
Loc: hood, Temp: 84°/84°, Time: 9:42, Pace: 38:47 avg, Difficulty: medium, Felt: hot/pushed around by the wind
Saturday | August 1, 2015: rest!!!
Sunday | August 2, 2015: 16 m run (miles 2-7 virtual w/Kelly) + 10 m ride
Loc: around town, Temp: 75°, Time: 2:44:33, Pace: 10:17 avg, Difficulty: mostly easy, Felt: great, until last two miles (typical)
Loc: hood, Temp: 79°/82°, Time: 41:53, Pace: 14.3 mph avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good but SO ANNOYED by the wind

Notes:

• Being on the go so much last week seemed to catch up with me this week! On Monday I slept in instead of running and took a nap after work before teaching! (Okay, that’s not too uncommon…)
• I did something CRAZY on my Tuesday run. I ran by a deer and DIDN’T stop to take a photo. I know. Ca-razy!!!. I have this idea to do a little more running and less photo taking… we’ll see how that goes! It’s crazy when I look at my overall time vs moving time on some of my runs, eek! Get moving, Kim!
• I am not signed up for any races past Labor Day! Woot woot, free schedule… for now!
• Ha, so last week, when I got so much sun on RAGBRAI, my weirdo inner elbow runner tan lines went away. And all it took was three runs for it to come back. Darn! The dermatologist actually told me I have psoriasis there, so maybe I should get that looked at – it’s really itchy in the winter.

• July recap time! I ran 178.3 miles, and cycled 187.7 – probably the first time ever I’ve cycled more than I’ve run in a month! I taught nine strength classes and swam laps three times! I hope I can keep swimming in August, but outdoor lap swim closes in early August at the local pool, so I will have to find a new place or do some open water swimming.

Link to Training Week 301

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By kilax, August 1, 2015 12:27 pm

Thursday marked my third year in a row running the Full Moon 5K with Rachel in Madison… and third year in a row wearing the same Grumpy Cat shirts*!

Heh, also, third year in a row not caring about pace at all, and just running it for fun.

The date of this race changes each year – I’m assuming to be closer to the actual full moon? In 2013, it was on Thursday, July 25. Last year, it was on Wednesday, August 6. This year, it was back to Thursday, on July 30. And was very close to the full moon – and a special full moon – a blue moon**!

My awesome almost full moon picture, ha ha.

This was the first year that, running the race on a Thursday, I had to teach the Friday 5:00 am fitness class the next morning (back in Grayslake!). I would have asked someone else to teach it if I hadn’t already had a sub the week before, and if two of the four trainers weren’t out of town. Eek! It was funny to spend the same amount of time driving to Madison and back, that we were actually there, and not be able to spend the night at Rachel’s this time, but I still really wanted to do the race. It’s a lot of fun! (And I knew I could take a nap after teaching class on Friday, luckily!).

The race uses a shelter at Ollin Park for packet pickup and finish, and you walk about half a mile from there to get to the race start on the south side of Monona Bay. Then you run along the bay and part of Monona Lake and back to Ollin Park. There is a guy dressed up as a werewolf, and if you beat him, you get something… but this race is pretty competitive, so I have never even looked up to see what that “something” is!

View of the capitol from Ollin Park

It was a GORGEOUS night in Madison – in the high 70s with about 50% humidity and so clear! There was a nice breeze for the first mile or two of the race… then it felt pretty stuffy at the end.

With Rachel’s pub run friend’s Allie and Carley before race start

We didn’t have any sort of time goal, but when we ran our first mile in 9:42, and our second in 9:34 (that was with a stop to drink water), I was thinking “well, we gotta go for negative splits, now!” Our last mile was 8:52 and the last tenth was at a 7:30 pace for a 29:22 finish time.

As soon as we finished, the sweat started pouring down. It’s so funny – you think it’s nice and cool out, and that you feel pretty good, then when you stop moving, your body is like “What was that?! Are we done now?!”

We hung out for a bit, chatting with Rachel’s pub run friends and Linda, then headed out to meet our husbands at Ian’s Pizza! Ha, on the drive up, I told Steven I was going to order the largest pizza possible, so we could have leftovers at home, and whoa, he did get a HUGE pizza! One slice was the size of my head!

Yes, that pizza has tater tots AND sliced potatoes on it

So, last year, we were a little bummed that the place we picked to hang out after had live music and we couldn’t hear each other talking (the music was good, but we wanted to chat). So this year, Rachel made sure that place didn’t have music if we wanted to go back, but also suggested Ian’s, which she knew I would jump at, because I love their pizza (and all their vegan options).

Then right when we got there, this HORRIBLE stand-up comedy was starting. Gawd, it was painful. And we could barely hear each other again. We were laughing about it though. Hey, it got us out of their quicker – we all had to work (in some capacity) the next day!

But it was WAY too short of a trip. We got to the race a bit early and Rachel and I got to rapid-fire try to catch up on each other’s lives, but it felt too rushed (just by the nature of the schedule, not anyone’s actions). And of course, after the race, we were like “A 5K just isn’t that much time to chat!” Ha. Luckily, Rachel and I (and our husbands!) have a two-day camping trip planned in August, so I know we’ll get to catch up at a relaxed pace, then!

*I wasn’t sure if Grumpy Cat was still relevant, but we did get a few compliments on the shirts this year!
**Which I had to look up exactly what it means, but it’s when you have two full moons in one month. It happens about every three years, hence the saying “once in a blue moon.”

Comments (13)

By kilax, July 29, 2015 5:07 am

My dad never intended to ride RAGBRAI with me in 2014. I actually signed up to ride it with my snister’s husband, Will, but after we signed up, he found out he was going to be in a wedding that same day. We contemplated him trying to make both work for awhile (ha ha) then finally succumbed to reality – that no make sense. Luckily though, you can transfer your registration, so Dad took Will’s spot (and then Dad was hooked on RAGBRAI, HOOKED!!! <— slight sarcasm).

So this year, Will was really hoping he could ride, and was just as excited as me to see the course went through Cedar Falls (the town he went to college in, and where he and my sister lived for awhile). He decided to do Day 5, from Cedar Falls to Hiawatha. Later, when his sister, Julie, found out he was riding a day of RAGBRAI, she decided to sign up too. Schweet! The more, the merrier! (Plus, Will’s siblings are a lot of fun and I was looking forward to spending more time with Julie!)

We started at my dad’s mom’s house in Cedar Falls just before 8:00 am and cycled a few miles and joined up with the rest of the riders. It was 60°F with no cloud coverage when we started.

It seems like the starting points of the ride tend to be somewhat crowded, which is fine, because everyone communicates about what they are doing. I gave Will and Julie a little bit of a heads up about the different ways that riders signal what they are doing, and the warnings they give one another, but I mostly knew they’d figure it out from hearing/seeing it!

Rider signaling to her left that she is going to move to that spot

Dad and I noticed though, that Thursday’s ride seemed to be much more crowded, in general, than Wednesday’s. Not in a bad way, just many more riders out. Or maybe, we started at the same time as more people? Either way, there was always someone else on the road, near us!

We had seven pass-through towns on Thursday.

Image from here

I was excited to go through the first one, Hudson, because my uncle owns a bar there, and I thought maybe we’d see him! My dad actually saw my aunt there, and went over to say hi. Which apparently, I got a photo of, ha ha:

Many of the pass-through towns seem to have themes. On Wednesday, one town’s theme was about beavers, because they are along beaver highway (or something) and along a river with beaver in the name. Hence the beaver picture from Wednesday.

Hudson had a pirate theme – pirates are their high school’s logo. Right away when we got in to town, there was a place you could make a $1 donation and get a temporary pirate tattoo. Why not, right?

You can’t quite make it out in the photo, but it says in small print on the sign that the money is for the AMVETS. It was nice to be supporting a local group. You hear a lot about the money that RAGBRAI brings to these small towns, but even riding on the Wednesday, I could see signs for vendors that I saw last year (and since it’s new towns each year, you wouldn’t think there’d be repeat vendors). And on Thursday, we saw many of the same vendors that we did on Wednesday. Obviously, people want to come in and make money off of this event. And it’s nice to have lots of options in these towns (for example, a group called “Carbo Hut” is usually in the midway pass-through town and is the only vendor I’ve seen with fake meats options – I got something from them both days), but… I hope these bigger companies that come in for the event don’t completely overshadow the local ones.

Hudson selfie

So, before the ride, I didn’t pay attention to the distance between stops. When we were leaving Hudson though, I heard someone say it was 20 miles to the next stop. Um… what?! I confirmed this with someone who was riding with the course map visible on his bike – “Yep! 19.9 miles!” Eek, that was a bit long for me. Even with stops in between, ha ha.

On Wednesday, I passed by a free post card booth too quickly to stop and send one. When I saw signs for it the next day, after the Hudson stop, I pulled over to send a postcard to Luca. And he actually already received it!

The postcard station was also next to a water and banana station. It’s so great that people set these stops up to support the riders!

And actually, all the pass-through towns have water stations set up so you can get free water (usually by the fire station). You can also buy bottled, too. I did a mix of both.

The cell network was overloaded and I could no longer receive or send texts. Which was a bummer because I had enjoyed sending updates to a few people (especially Steven, since he couldn’t come) the day before as dad and I rode. I was luckily able to see an old message that Christina and Mom were near LaPorte City, so I called her to let her know we’d be there awhile.

Yay, they found us!

By the time we got to LaPorte City, it was near midday and I was SUPER hungry. I was still eating and drinking on the ride, but man, was my body oh so confused when I was in Iowa last week – the entire five days. I’d have moments each day where I felt like I was starving. So odd. (Or not really – my schedule was all off and I was burning a ton of calories.)

I got a sandwich called a buca – which was a hollowed out end of a long bread bun stuffed with whatever you wanted – I got peanut butter and a banana. Not truly what I was craving, but I needed the calories! And I liked how easy it was to hold.

Dad and Will got breakfast pizza and Julie got a sandwich, fruit and cookies (a package lunch from a local church).

This is how we’d stack our bikes when we stopped – Dad had a kickstand, which he’d put down, then we’d lean all our bikes on his. Thanks, Dad!

We hung out with Mom and Christina for a bit then faced the reality that we better get back on our bikes!

We decided we’d see them again in Vinton – two stops away. And this is where I have to consult the GoPro pics to see what we did between LaPorte City and Vinton (beyond stop in Mt Auburn). I kind of forgot how people assume you are making a video when you wear a GoPro. Someone rode by me and said “Hi! Am I in your video?!” and waved. Ha. Nah, you aren’t. And it didn’t get a photo of you either.

I had it set to take a photo every minute. Which is A LOT of photos to go through, but I may set it for every 30 seconds next time. There are a few things I am wishing it would have taken photos of, like the time a plane flew really low over all the cyclists, or the funny fake crocodile and bike that someone put in a marshy area we passed.

Anyway, what did the GoPro say I did? Got my pickle!

And rode a bit with everyone:

We’d tend to ride in pairs throughout the day, me usually with Dad, and Will and Julie together, but sometimes, we’d end up switching it around. And we’d almost always get separated a bit, and simply pull off for awhile to wait for the rest of the crew.

Dad and I were both feeling a bit meh going in to Mt Auburn. I started to take my feet out of my shoes and ride with my feet (my left, more than my right) on top of my shoes, which actually really helped. And I’d put my hands on the top of the handlebar, closest to me, rather than further away, which helped with shoulder soreness.

But I have to say, I was really looking forward to getting to Vinton and having a bit longer of a stop!

Right away we stacked our bikes and split up to look for food. I got in line at the Carbo Hut for a bowl of rice, veggies and tofu. Christina found me waiting in line and gave me a Vitamin Water XXX! AHH! That was EXACTLY what I was craving! Love my snis.

I had just eaten that PB&B buca and pickle, but again, my stomach was asking me for real food. The dish was too hot (temperature not spiciness level), but hit the spot!

We hung out in the shade a bit, and watched people go over by our stack of bikes, to admire Will’s. Hee hee, he does have a really schweet bike!

A friend of Mom’s lives in Vinton and very kindly offered for us to come over and sit in her AC and use a real toilet, but I knew if I did that, I would never want to leave! We tried not to stand around too much (although I must have waited 15 minutes in the hot sun to get my food), but I bet we were there for 30-45 minutes.

After Vinton we had two more pass-through towns. I was starting to rally back and feel really energetic and chatty. But I definitely did say, in Shellsburg, that I would rather ride my bike through than get off and walk! Luckily, we were able to do just that, in Palo, our last pass-through town!

And after that, we were on our way to Hiawatha, which I had never been to before. I kind of enjoyed the ride more on Wednesday, and last year, knowing the town I was going to – that made it exciting, to watch out for when I would see familiar streets. But it was definitely still fun to FINALLY BE DONE! Even thought I felt really good at the end, I was spent!

But we still had to find Mom and Christina. And figure out where the thing actually ended. Ha ha, after we passed under the “Welcome to Hiawatha” banner, we still rode a mile or two to get to all the finish booths (where I wanted to buy an official RAGBRAI pin). And somehow we lost Dad. Oops. But we found him!

Finished!

We called Mom and Christina to ask them to please try to get a little closer to the finish to pick us up. We finished with over 70 miles ridden (76 miles in 6:25, much longer elapsed time but don’t have the data) and riding a few more to get to the car seemed ludicrous. Ha ha!

It was 80°F when we finished around 4:00 pm and like I said, I was spent! We all rode back in my dad’s truck, and I was half out of it/half goofy.

When we got back to Cedar Falls, we made sure to take photos of our ombre tan lines:

And to compare skin shades, ha ha:

We all decided we had fun and would like to do it again, but that we were definitely worn out. It was a lot hotter on Thursday, than Wednesday. Most headwind on the bike was actually appreciated, to keep us cooler.

I did tell Dad I think we should do the final day again next year! He said he’ll train more this time. To prepare for this, I rode my bike every week this year (sometimes twice) to get my butt used to sitting on the seat. What got to me during the ride was my left toes going numb and my shoulders getting tight. Maybe I should try some aero bars? Hmm… we shall see!

A few random comments:

• I was so frustrated when my watch died a few miles from the finish. And when my phone wouldn’t work. And I felt stupid for letting technology frustrate me. Sigh. I am not out there to be connected to people I am not with… but it does help when my phone works (I couldn’t even make calls, at points).
• We didn’t see anyone wearing a pie on their helmet like last year! Nor, did any of us stop for pie.
• We saw a jersey similar to the one we wore last year.
• We saw a few interesting bike set-ups – one guy on a unicycle Wednesday, many recumbents and tandems. And we saw quite a few kids cycling as well, some on tandems and some on their own bikes!

• Christina and I liked this photo because Will’s shadow looks like a turtle and Julie’s looks like a squirrel. Ha ha.

• I actually burned my lip so bad that I woke up Friday am with painful Kylie Jenner lips. They finally stopped being sensitive yesterday. Ouch!

Comments (9)

By kilax, July 28, 2015 6:27 am

Ahh, nothing better than a little peace and quiet in the Iowa countryside… with 10,000 of your closest cycling friends!

RAGBRAI (The Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa) is a week-long cycling trip from the west to east border of Iowa. The route changes every year, and you can register to ride the entire seven days, or register for certain days of your choosing. This event is in its 43rd year (it’s been going on since 1973)!

Last year, Dad and I registered for the final day (Day 7) because it conveniently started near where he lives, and ended in Guttenberg, where my family has homes along the Mississippi River.

This year, we registered for two days (Day 4 and 5) in the middle of the course because the overnight town was Cedar Falls – my Mom and Dad’s hometown (and super close to where they live now). How lucky that the course went so close to the part of Iowa much of my family lives in, two years in a row!*

I was excited to try the middle days and see if they were as festive as the last day (yes, yes they are) and to check out all the post ride hubbub in Cedar Falls. Last year, we didn’t finish with an “overnight town,” but most of what you hear about RAGBRAI is all the partying people do at night!

Last year, Steven and Mom dropped us off in the starting town of Independence and took alternative routes around the course so they could see us in some pass-through towns, then meet us at the finish with other family members. This year was a bit different – Mom drove me and Dad to Eldora on Wednesday to ride Day 4, then drove straight back to Cedar Falls. Since my dad’s mom lives in Cedar Falls, somewhat close to the course finish, we just rode to her house when we were done. Easy peasy!

It’s kind of humorous to be driven 50 miles just to ride 60+ miles back to where you started, but we saw quite a few other cars racked up with bikes headed the same way as us, so we knew were weren’t the only ones doing it!

One of the cool things about RAGBRAI is that you can do it however you want – pick the amount of days, pick how fast you go, pick when you start, when you finish, how long you spend in the pass-through towns, how hard you party, and so on. It’s not a race. It’s purely for fun – a giant party on wheels! Our preferred start time was between 7:30 – 8:00 am both days. We heard of people who started at sunrise, and others who didn’t start until noon!

We pulled off on the side of the road near the start in Eldora, and after packing up my jersey pockets (we wore last year’s official jersey), pumping air in my tires, and a few pics and selfies, we were off!

Right away, we were in group of slow moving bikes with lots “slowing!” and “stopping!” being yelled by cyclists. There were cars in the road with us, and that was slowing us down. It only took a couple of miles until we were free-flowing, though.

I should note, when we started it was 59°F with some clouds in the sky and felt great out!

Image from here

We slowed to a walk for the first pass-through town (Steamboat Rock) and… nearly every subsequent pass-through town after that. Dad and I discussed that we didn’t remember walking our bikes so much through the pass-through towns last year. I didn’t mind getting off and walking (I liked the break for my butt and didn’t care about pace), but Dad said it didn’t help his legs, ha ha.

We had eight pass-through towns (although one of them we don’t remember and another town had 57 residents and not much more than a funny sign and one booth up!), and I liked that they were so close together (most were less than 10 miles apart) and that it gave me a good reminder to stop, eat and get more water. Sometimes I forget to eat when I am riding my bike for longer distances.

We brought some food with us, but I bought some “real” food too. There are only so many Clif gels and bars you can eat before your stomach asks for something else!

I stopped a few times away from official towns too. I had to get my pickle!

I wasn’t super chatty for much of the ride (like I can be when I am running). Dad and I rode together and mostly commented on other riders (how fun their outfits were, that it was cool they were blasting music, etc.), and other sites (lots of funny signs and interesting facts about the towns) we were seeing. I know the Iowa landscape seems boring to some, but I do find it peacefully beautiful.

It’s such a treat to be with a huge group of cyclists, taking over the road this way and not worrying so much about vehicle traffic. You’re very often getting passed and passing other cyclists yourself, but most people are courteous and watching out for one another. Many warnings are yelled: “car up!” “cyclist up!” “rumble strips!” “on your left!” It’s a real community feeling, even though you are with a bunch of strangers!

My muscles felt good for the ride, but my left toes were getting numb, and my shoulders were a bit sore toward the last twenty miles of the ride (we put in just over 60 miles on Day 4). I played music from my phone speaker for a bit to get me pumped up. Around 10 miles from the end, Dad told me he was feeling really sore and wasn’t sure how he’d be able to do a second day. Eek! I was worried!

We made it to the end though, and were all smiles when we finished!

We finished around 1:30 pm (it was 78°F out then), and spent just over five hours cycling, and were gone for five hours and forty-four minutes, overall (see Garmin stats here). We averaged 12.0 miles per hour, and had 1,644 feet of climb. It felt mostly flat.

We reconvened for dinner at my Grandma’s and left her place at 9:00 pm to check out the post ride festivities! My brother-in-law’s sister, Julie, had arrived to ride Thursday (Day 5), and came out with us!

I really had no idea what to expect at the event, and was kind of bummed to see it was a bunch of food vendors and a beer tent, and a stage (not sure what I was hoping for?). I had already eaten dinner and didn’t know what the music was going to be.

But! We had arrived right in time for the main show – Hairball, a super fun 80s rock tribute band. If you know me… you know I’d enjoy it. They’d do a few songs dressed up as one band (KISS, Journey, Van Halen, and so on) then do a costume change and come out as another band! I really enjoyed it, because it was most of my favorite songs being performed!

Aunt Sue, Will’s sister Julie, me and Mom

We couldn’t stay all night though. I knew I’d regret it if I didn’t try to get a decent sleep. I was so jacked up Tuesday night I didn’t sleep well for Wednesday’s ride (but felt fine during), and didn’t want that to happen again (ha ha, it did, complete with weird dreams about not having my ride “bib” (um, there isn’t one) and other strange things). We left the concert just before 11:00 and were up until past midnight, hanging out with my sister and her husband, Will, who had just arrived so Will could ride Day 5. I guess even if you aren’t out partying, you’re still too excited to get much sleep!

*I know, it’s not likely it will next year. I told Dad we should do Day 7 again, because no matter where it ends along the Mississippi River, we can travel up/down to Guttenberg, after we finish.

Comments (7)

By kilax, July 26, 2015 9:18 pm

Highlight of the Week: Spending so much time exercising with family members!

Monday | July 20, 2015: 4 m run (inlc. 4×400) + teaching strength class
Loc: hood, Temp: 77°/77°, Time: 37:29, Pace: 9:23 avg, Difficulty: medium, Felt: beat, itchy
Strength: AireX pads & medicine balls, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Tuesday | July 21, 2015: rest
Wednesday | July 22, 2015: RAGBRAI Day 4 (61.7 m w/Dad) + 6.5 m run
Loc: Eldora to Cedar Falls, Temp: 59/78°, Time: 5:08:41, Pace: 12.0 mph avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good (just numb toes/tight shoulders)
Loc: Waterloo, Temp: 78°/79°, Time: 1:01:36, Pace: 9:28 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: shockingly good
Thursday | July 23, 2015: RAGBRAI Day 5 (76 miles w/Dad, Julie and Will)
Loc: Cedar Falls to Hiawatha, Temp: 60°/80°, Time: 6:25:07, Pace: 11.8 mph avg, Difficulty: easy/medium, Felt: really good
Friday | July 24, 2015: 11 m run (4.6 m w/Dad)
Loc: W’loo to Evansdale, Temp: 68°/68°, Time: 1:52:12, Pace: 10:12, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good, steady!
Saturday | July 25, 2015: 5 m run
Loc: Waterloo, Temp: 70°/71°, Time: 49:52, Pace: 9:58 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good, a little slow to wake up
Sunday | July 26, 2015: 16 m run (w/Dad on bike)
Loc: Cedar Falls Trails, Temp: 71°/73°, Time: 2:49:58, Pace: 10:37 avg, Difficulty: medium to easy, Felt: good

Notes:

• RAGBRAI was a lot of fun (and different than last year)! I’m looking forward to spending a few days processing it all and reviewing the photos my GoPro took and typing up some ride recaps. It was fun to spend a day riding with my dad, then to spend the next day riding with him, and my brother-in-law, Will, and his sister, Julie, and seeing how they reacted to their first time doing a day of RAGBRAI!
• I spent Tuesday evening through Sunday afternoon in the town I grew up in in Iowa. I stayed in a part of town I haven’t before and got to run some new-to-me routes and also got to run with my Dad (while he biked)! I was lucky enough to have two overcast/somewhat rainy runs on Friday and Sunday that felt AMAZING! The others were hot and humid!!! Summer weather is definitely here! It doesn’t feel as much like death this year to me though, I think, because I’ve been doing lunch runs to try to get used to it.
• I’m really surprised I got my goal 40 running miles in for the week, with all that cycling. When I was leaving town today my dad said he wished we lived in the same town so we could workout together (awww) because he knew I would get his butt moving. Well, he definitely is the one who got me moving on my long run on Sunday, so it goes both ways! He can pretty much count on me expecting him to join me for a long run when we’re together, and I count on him to ask about it and make sure it happens.
• No swimming this week (well, beyond a hot tub at a surprise birthday party, but more on that later) and my swim lesson had to be canceled for pool cleaning. Bummer! I hope I can still fit one in, at some point!

Link to Training Week 300

Comments (10)

By kilax, July 22, 2015 6:09 pm

Two interesting stories from my run today:

1. This lady driving a van stayed stopped at a stop sign to let me run in front of her. Cool. Then I see her turn down the residential road I am running on and swerve toward a group of four girls walking (facing traffic, as they should). What the heck?! When I ran by the girls I asked “Do you know that person?” One answered “Yeah, it’s my mom.” Um, phew, but… yeah, that freaked me out. Nice way to say “hi,” mom, ha ha!
2. Also, when I was out on my run, a driver rolled down their window and yelled “good job!” And it didn’t sound sarcastic! I thought that was nice.

Of course, the highlight of my day was riding 61.7 miles from Eldora to Cedar Falls, IA, with my dad! But more on that when I have more time to write it up! We’re riding 70 miles to Hiawatha tomorrow!

Comments (17)

By kilax, July 19, 2015 9:40 pm

Highlight of the Week: Not feeling like death during a super humid long run.

Monday | July 13, 2015: 5 m run + teaching strength class
Loc: hood, Temp: 75°/78°, Time: 48:30, Pace: 9:42 avg, Difficulty: medium, Felt: too hot, but okay
Strength: AireX pads & medicine balls, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Tuesday | July 14, 2015: 7.4 m run (first 3.8 virtual w/Kelly) + 1,000 meter swim
Loc: Grayslake, Temp: 71°/70°, Time: 1:12:18, Pace: 9:46 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Loc: Grayslake Pool, 50m freestyle/50m breaststroke x 10, Time: 24:22, Pace: 1:26/100m avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Wednesday | July 15, 2015:  rest
Thursday | July 16, 2015: 6 m run (incl 1/2/3/4, 4/3/2/1 up/down ladder)
Loc: hood, Temp: 68°/67°, Time: 52:00, Pace: 8:40 avg, Difficulty: medium/hard, Felt: good, but like I might slip
Friday | July 17, 2015: teaching strength class + 1,500 meter swim + 3 m run
Strength: AireX pads & medicine balls, Difficulty: easy (mostly observing), Felt: good
Loc: Grayslake Pool, Time: 37:20, Pace: 2:29/100m, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good, but sore shoulders
Loc: Volo Bog, Temp: 83°/81°, Time: 28:34, Pace: 9:31 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: so so annoyed
Saturday | July 18, 2015: 15 m run 
Loc: Around town, Temp: 73°/76°, Time: 2:44:32, Pace: 10:58 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Sunday | July 19, 2015: 7.3 m ride + teaching fitness boxing + 7.7 m ride + 4 m run
Loc: home to Efit, Temp: 75°, Time: 33:52, Pace: 12.9 mph avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Strength: body weight and boxing, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Loc: Efit to home, Temp:79°, Time: 35:54, Pace: 12.9 mph avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Loc: Millennium Trail, Temp: 79°/79°, Time: 39:54, Pace: 9:58 avg, Difficulty: medium, Felt: itchy / beat

Notes:

• For about two years, I didn’t run with music, and now I am again (when it’s safe to).  I wonder how long I’ll stick with it this time. I definitely like it for speedwork!
• Ha, during my speedwork this week, I found out my light speedwork shoes are VERY slippery in the rain. Yikes! I was worried I was going to fall when I was doing my repeats!
• To try save myself from getting overheated during my long run, I did a run 9/1 (minutes) run/walk ratio. I normally don’t do a run/walk because the walking makes my knees lock up, but, it was a success! I never felt too hot and think my overall pace is better than it would have been had I run the whole thing. Of course, whenever I stopped to walk it seemed like I was always around another runner, ha ha. I swear, I’m running, guys!
• Gah, I need to start carrying body glide in my pack so I can use it on the go if need be. I decided during my long run I couldn’t wear a shirt any longer and put it in my pack… which proceeded to chafe the hell out of me. Ouch! But it was worth it not to have a shirt on.
• When I swim laps I’ve been doing a combination of freestyle and breaststroke (for different laps, not in the same lap) because the freestyle makes my shoulders a bit tired. I wonder if I’d feel less tired doing it, if I wasn’t always coming from some other fitness activity, to the pool. But, based on the pool lap swim hours, that’s how it works with my schedule.
• I wanted to bank some running miles this week since I’ll likely run less next week (because of RAGBRAI WOO HOO!) but… I didn’t. Oops! I’ll just have to see what I can do this week (it will probably be a cutback week).

Link to Training Week 299

Comments (19)

By kilax, July 18, 2015 5:28 am

Volo Bog is now on my sh*t list for places to run. Screw you and your pretty views!

Sigh.

Okay, I should actually thank Volo Bog for giving me a trail running experience worse than last Saturday’s.

What could possible be worse than running through this?

That would be running for 3 miles surrounded by this:

Bugs! Not nature (ha ha)!

Tell me, how many bugs do you see?!

Yeah, I had at least five of them buzzing around my face, hitting me in the face, shoulder, chest and hair for the 2.5 miles I stayed on the trails. It was HORRIBLE. And yeah, I had bug spray on.

We had really hot temps yesterday, so I drove to Volo Bog because it’s shaded. And it was right after it rained so that dropped the temp a bit. But… brought all the bugs out? It doesn’t help that it’s a freakin’ BOG. Probably no amount of bug spray could help me. Derrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, Kim!

I was miserable the whole time, and escaped the trail at 2.5 miles to finish at 3 on the road, where the bugs followed me. But! I ran fast, for a trail, for me. Ha.

Gah, this makes me REALLY happy we were only dealing with mosquitoes at the muddy race last week!

I woke up today with a super itchy shoulder. Ouch –

I’m sure that’s the first welt of many. Well, at least my running backpack will cover it on my long run today… which will be on PAVED trails, hopefully away from standing water, and not in the deep woods.

Yeah, trail running and I are definitely in a fight.

Comments (26)

By kilax, July 16, 2015 6:24 am

• I’m still knitting! I haven’t dedicated time to learning any new skills, so I’m still just knitting lots of washcloths for my mom and her mom. However, Mica sent me some DPNs (double pointed needles), I still want to make those cacti for my snister, and I just received these fun knitting books! So I have some ideas for what I want to try when I get around to it. And I want to start holiday gifts soon. Keeping them secret while I work on them is going to be hard for me, ha ha!

• Have you ever had to take one of those personality tests for work? The one where they tell you your strength and weaknesses in areas like leadership, influencing others, working in a team, etc.? I always score low in the area of influencing others/selling ideas, because I HIGHLY DISLIKE TRYING TO INFLUENCE OTHER PEOPLE. Especially when I don’t have the authority to do so. I don’t want to be a sales person, period. I am more of a “live and let live” person – in all areas of life. (Ha, that doesn’t mean I don’t often wonder why people do the things they do, just that I don’t want to tell them how to do things, myself.)
• We had a beautiful lightning storm here Monday night! I could have stayed outside all night watching it, but… that’s not safe! Ha.

• One of my goals for the year was to take a swim lesson (to see how my form is) and I have it scheduled for this month. I am excited about it, and hope that I am able to remember all the things the coach is bound to tell me are messed up with my form. No, I am not doing a triathlon. A few people have asked me lately “Why don’t you just do one?” since I run and bike, and sometimes swim. Eh, just not interested in it right meow. Maybe someday though!
• Oh my gosh, talking with a coworker yesterday about her daughter coming back home from a three week summer trip reminded me how mean I was to my mom and sister when they picked up me and my dad from the airport on our return leg from Spain in 2002 (when I was 17 years old). I did NOT want to be coming home. And they were so excited to see us, and I think even made “welcome back” signs. And I was just like “eh, whatever.” Sigh. I still get this hurt feeling in my heart when I think about how I treated them. But… that was thirteen years ago! Ha! Hopefully they don’t ever think about it.

Link to Random Thoughts Thursday 73