Comments (10)

By kilax, September 5, 2016 12:37 pm

During my run today, I stopped at a gas station to buy something to drink. As I was walking toward the counter to checkout, I went by a store employee and smiled. They stopped, looked me up and down and said “You sweat a lot.”

I responded right away, “that’s because I ran five miles to get here.”

Other appropriate responses:

• Well, it’s midday and 85°, why wouldn’t I?”
• I sure do!
• GFY.
• I hadn’t noticed (then brush a sweaty arm against them).

Ugh. What a weird thing to say. Thank you, Captain Obvious!

Comments (4)

By kilax, September 5, 2016 9:23 am

I’m not sure if I am pooped from my Saturday long run,

moving back upstairs Saturday,

or my whirlwind Sunday trip to Iowa for my nephew’s birthday party (including LOTS of time in the bounce house),

but I sure am happy it’s a holiday!!!

The move on Saturday went well! Data was excited to assist:

Anne and Terry came over to help, (yay, so thankful!), and our new mattresses were delivered!

I’ll post “finished” pictures tomorrow!

Since we completed the move on Saturday, I was able to make a day trip to Iowa on Sunday for my nephew’s 8th birthday, and to see my dad’s mom, whose 80th is today!

It was such a treat to see them all!

And to have a lazy, lazy day after such an exhausting weekend!

Comments (6)

By kilax, September 4, 2016 9:48 pm

Highlight of the Week: Hitting my mileage goal for the second week in a row! Doing a double!

Monday | August 29, 2016: 10 m ride + teaching strength class
Indoor Ride Time: 42:30, Pace: 14.1 mph avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Strength: Kettlebells and Lebert Equalizer, Difficulty: easy, Felt: surprisingly good (just so sleepy lately!)
Tuesday | August 30, 2016: 7 m run + 10 m ride
Loc: Van Patten loop, Temp: 79°/81°, Time: 1:12:31, Pace: 10:21 avg, Difficulty: hard, Felt: so hot, so tired
Indoor Ride Time: 39:05, Pace: 15.4 mph avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good, sore butt
Wednesday | August 31, 2016: 3 m run
Loc: Chicago Lakefront Trail, Temp: 77°/75°, Time: 29:16, Pace: 9:44 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: windy, but enjoyed the breeze
Thursday | September 1, 2016: 6 m run
Loc: hood, Temp: 69°/69°, Time: 57:58, Pace: 9:39 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good (right knee a still bit tender at start)
Friday | September 2, 2016: teaching strength class + 4 m run (incl. 4×400) + 5 m run
Strength: Kettlebells and Lebert Equalizer, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Loc: hood, Temp: 70°/71°, Time: 38:48, Pace: 9:42, Difficulty: easy-ish, Felt: best during the intervals!
Loc: hood, Temp: 71°/71°, Time: 51:13, Pace: 10:14 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good, minus almost bathroom emergency
Saturday | September 3, 2016: 15 m run
Loc: DPRT, Temp: 54°/69°, Time: 2:45:26, Pace: 11:01 avg, Difficulty: hard, Felt: low on energy (hungry), tired (legs)
Sunday | September 4, 2016: 7 m ride
Indoor Ride Time: 28:19, Pace: 14.8 mph avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good on the legs!

Notes:

• I’ve been lazy with water on my runs, choosing to run with my handheld and running by fountains or places where I can buy water. My 7/8 mile loop has a fountain, but the water tastes so bad – like iron. On Tuesday’s run, I stopped there to fill it up, and it tasted even worse – like iron, but rotting. I took three sips then dumped my water bottle out (with 2.5 miles to go) to make sure I didn’t drink anymore. And I survived!
• Other stories from my runs this week:
  • It cracks me up when I run by fenced in dogs and they get all excited and run “with” me. I much prefer this to loose dogs!
    
  • During my Thursday run, I was leaving our neighborhood and someone was pulling out of their driveway, then stopped, and reversed when I ran by, to let me go by. I thought that was nice. Then he pulls up to me as I am running down the street and says “Did you see how I pulled back for you back there?” “Yeah, thanks!” I responded. “You know why I did that?” Oh geesh. Where is this going? “Why?” “Because people who exercise are A-OK with me!” Phew. Ha ha. Then he asked if I wanted to be a “skinny kid” and we had a short convo about how much we like food.
  • I was doing a u-turn in the grass on my second Friday run and almost stepped right on a snake (like this one in the picture)! I felt bad that I almost did!
    
  • I hate that some of the cyclists are so rude on the trails out here – mostly coming from behind and not calling out, then coming WAY to close to me (when I am running). During my run on Saturday, I had something new happen – I was running over on the right side of the trail, and a group of cyclists came toward, me around a corner, and decided to swarm on either side of me, instead of all go to my left – where there was PLENTY of space. They were all wearing matching jerseys and going FAST. That was a dick move. No other word for it.
• Time for the August recap! In August I ran 107 miles, cycled 88.7 miles (8 indoor rides, 1 outdoor ride) and swam laps 4 times. My coldest outdoor run was 58°F and my warmest was 89°F. I taught 8 strength classes, and did 1 strength session at home. This was the first month of the year I didn’t teach any weekend classes (and with good timing, with all our house work). I’ll be back at it in September.

Link to Training Week 358

Comments (10)

By kilax, September 3, 2016 6:44 am

(part ii!)

Lucky me, I never have to set an alarm clock to wake up for my weekend long run (or anything else, any day of the week), because Data is kind enough to make sure I always get out of bed.

Thanks so much for having my back, Data!

Comments (19)

By kilax, September 2, 2016 6:53 am

1. Moving back upstairs! Getting our new mattresses! Hanging up artwork!
2. Both of my grandmas turning 80! And maybe (hopefully!) seeing them this month.
   
   Grandma Pete (Mom’s mom), me and Grandma Tiger (Dad’s mom)
3. Skamp!
   
   Skamp 2015!
4. Teaching fitness boxing again.
5. Getting hot chai lattes at Starbucks.
6. Socktember – it’s the month to start learning to knit socks! Actually, I have two other projects that kind of got bumped in front of the socks. Maybe I will still have time to try socks though! It’s really time to start knitting holiday gifts… is it bad I’ve been listening to some holiday music already?! And that it started in late August?!
7. Whatever house project Steven and I start next.
8. Having our final house inspection (for the FHA 203k streamlined work) and getting that off our shoulders!
9. Double dates with friends!
10. Eating healthier than we did in August.

What’s on your list?

Comments (25)

By kilax, September 1, 2016 6:26 am

Happy nine year wedding anniversary to Steven!

Last year we spent the evening of our wedding anniversary packing up the bookshelves in our office (and we went out for dinner). It was the first place we started to pack up to get the townhome ready to put on the market.

Now, a year later, we’ve gone through two moves AND LOTS of home renovations (at both the townhome and our forever home). It’s been a busy year! And it’s been a stressful year that could have really “rocked the boat,” but it actually made our relationship stronger, because we’ve had the same goal, and have been working together to achieve it. It feels good to work so hard on what is best for us.

And that’s one of the great reassurances about being in a partnership – that the other person always has your back, and your best interest in mind. That they’re there for you to lean on and take the lead (from time to time, or a lot of the time, in my instance!). That their strengths complement your weaknesses, or, if it’s a weakness you both have, you’ll work on getting better, together.

I feel very grateful to have such a driven, take charge partner, with a “I can figure anything out” attitude. Those are NOT my strong qualities, but it doesn’t matter because my partner has them and I have 100% confidence in him.

Awww.

(By the way, those boxes we packed up on our anniversary last year are STILL in storage. Ha! Everything else we’ve brought to the house, we’ve unpacked, but our books, a few kitchen things, and a lot of garage stuff remain in storage. Winter project?!)

Comments (5)

By kilax, August 31, 2016 3:57 pm

One last run, and “Adiós, August!”

I am not sad to see you go!

Garmin stats – amount of runs took a big nosedive, but at least cycling and swimming was consistent!

August brought my lowest running mileage since July of 2014! Eek! I barely broke 100 miles! We were just too busy with our house projects for me to fit in as much running as I’d like to.

And that is A-OK. I am proud of what I did get done. And happy I am not training for a single thing. I have a 5K on the calendar in October, and that’s it! And at this point, I think that will be a 5K for “fun” and not for “time.” Works for me!

I am looking forward to more miles in September though, and hopefully, some cooler weather! Karen nailed it when she said if there was a month to run less, it was August! Yuck – I am sure I speak for everyone when I say, “enough with the humidity and high dew points!”

Comments (13)

By kilax, August 30, 2016 12:25 pm

… I’m really digging the new paint color in the master bedroom!

It’s “Sidewalk Gray” from Benjamin Moore. Did you know Sherwin Williams has Benjamin Moore paints programmed in to their computers (and probably vice versa)? Our painter uses Sherwin Williams and we were working off of a Benjamin Moore paint deck. I thought we’d have to match colors at the store, but nope – they just pulled them right up at Sherwin Williams, making it super easy for us!

This is the first room we’ve (had) painted a new color in the house – it makes it feel more “us”! And I can’t wait to see the room with our bed and furniture in it!

Here’s our “inspiration” photo:

We have a headboard similar to that, and actually, some old cabinets from who knows when that are that color. Our night stands are dark though. Eventually, we might put our night stands in the guest bedroom, when we can afford all new cabinets for our bedroom. Someday!

And someday, we’ll also replace our living room furniture. That is WAY down the road, but we have an inspiration picture for that, too! I might as well post it here in case it gets lost. Or to laugh at how different our preferences are in a few years when we actually can do it!

Comments (8)

By kilax, August 29, 2016 6:36 am

Granted, I would have liked to spend the entire weekend sitting on the couch, doing nothing, but a couple of hours Saturday and Sunday night was nice (and it was nice to get to workout both mornings!).

Since August 4, our living room has looked like this:

We spent some time moving things around on Saturday so we could actually sit on the couch (gasp!) and turn on the TV (double gasp!!!):

We’re in the final steps of getting ready to move back upstairs. On Friday we ordered new mattresses for both bedrooms (so we won’t be carrying the old ones back up there!). On Saturday we bought all the lighting trim kits and vent covers, as well as wall and floor trim (to replace damaged and missing pieces), and paint!

Then on Sunday, we prepped the rooms to be painted – took off hardware, face plates, etc., and got all the trim pieces ready to be installed. That took all afternoon. Blah.

A contractor is painting all week, then we can start moving back upstairs Friday night. I can’t wait!

Comments (8)

By kilax, August 28, 2016 11:18 am

Highlight of the Week: Having more time to workout (because we weren’t working in the attic all weekend and every weeknight)!

Monday | August 22, 2016: 12 m ride + 4 m run + teaching strength class
Indoor Bike Time: 47:00, Pace: 15.3 mph avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Loc: hood, Temp: 75°/75°, Time: 38:07, Pace: 9:31 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: surprisingly good!
Strength: one dumbbell and cards, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Tuesday | August 23, 2016: rest
Wednesday | August 24, 2016: 5 m run + 13 m ride + attic work
Loc: hood, Temp: 74°/75°, Time: 47:45, Pace: 9:32 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good, but hate wearing a visor
Indoor Ride Time: 50:50, Pace: 15.4 mph avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good, but a bit sore butt!
Thursday | August 25 2016: 6 m run
Loc: hood, Temp: 70°/72°, Time: 1:01:06, Pace: 10:11 avg, Difficulty: medium, Felt: super muggy out
Friday | August 26, 2016: teaching strength class + 800 m swim (breaststroke, w/Anne) + 5 m run (incl. 10×1:00)
Strength: step, 1 DB & boxing, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Loc: Grayslake Pool, Temp (air): 64°, Time: 22:58, Pace: 2:35min/100m, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Loc: hood, Temp: 75°/73°, Time: 48:14, Pace: 9:38 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good, especially after my knee warmed up! Enjoyed the breeze
Saturday | August 27, 2016: 8 m run + 5 m ride
Loc: Van Patten Loop, Temp: 70°/72°, Time: 1:23:52, Pace: 10:28 avg, Difficulty: medium, Felt: tired legs, muggy
Indoor Ride Time: 23:25, Pace: 12.8 mph avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: tired
Sunday | August 28, 2016: 12 m run
Loc: Kilbourne to trail head loop, Temp: 69°/74°, Time: 2:05:32, Pace: 10:28 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good, just thirsty!

Notes:

• My right knee was so tired this week. I think it’s either from crawling around in the attic so much the last three weeks, or needing new shoes, or a combo of both. The good news is, I won’t be in the attic as much in the future, and I have new shoes I can wear, so I’ll see if those two things help! Or maybe my body was just like, “Whoa, we’re actually running our normal amount this week? WTH?”
• Yay! I actually did get to run my preferred 6 days, and 40 miles this week! HORRAY!!!!
• Friday was the last day the pool Anne and I swim in after class is open for lap swim in the summer. Sadness! We both really enjoyed going there after class. I’d kind of like to find another pool I (we!) can drop in and swim laps for relaxation, but I don’t think I am going to find another one with a $3 drop in fee!

Link to Training Week 357