Training Week 254 & 255
Highlights of the Weeks: Running some speedy (for me!) miles with Yvonne | Getting a few runs in with Gina and Steve (and one with Dad)! | A stellar solo long run on the 7th
Monday | August 25, 2014: 3 m run + teaching strength class
Loc: Millennium Trail, Temp: 81°/74°, Time: 29:02, Pace: 9:40 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: exhilarated
Strength: Lebert and 1 dumbbell, Difficulty: medium, Felt: sore in my knee from running in to a table
Tuesday | August 26, 2014: 5.2 m run (w/Yvonne) + 3.3 m run
Loc: Grayslake, Temp: 68°/67°, Time: 50:13, Pace: 9:40 avg, Difficulty: medium, Felt: decent
Loc: hood, Temp: 66°/68°, Time: 34:35, Pace: 10:29 avg, Difficulty: hard, Felt: sluggish/ready for rest day
Wednesday | August 27, 2014: rest
Thursday | August 28, 2014: 5 m run (w/Yvonne)
Loc: Grayslake, Temp: 59°/59°, Time: 47:42, Pace: 9:32 avg, Difficulty: medium, Felt: good
Friday | August 29, 2014: teaching strength class + 5 m run (w/Adam & Dawn)
Strength: Lebert and 1 dumbbell, Difficulty: medium, Felt: decent but tired (sleepy)
Loc: Grayslake, Temp: 69°/69°, Time: 54:37, Pace: 10:55, Difficulty: easy, Felt: mostly good
Saturday | August 30, 2014: 7 m run (w/Gina & Steve)
Loc: Guttenberg, Temp: 70°/71°, Time: 1:11:07, Pace: 10:09 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: okay
Sunday | August 31, 2014: 3 m run (w/Dad & Gina)
Loc: Guttenberg, Temp: 65°/67°, Time: 34:25, Pace: 11:28 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Monday | September 1, 2014: Benefit Classic Half Marathon (w/Gina & Steve)
Loc: Dubuque, Temp: 67°/73°, Time: 2:24:28, Pace: 11:04 avg, Difficulty: medium/hard, Felt: like my RPE was way too high
Tuesday | September 2, 2014: rest
Wednesday | September 3, 2014: rest
Thursday | September 4, 2014: 4.5 m run (first 3.5 w/Yvonne)
Loc: Grayslake, Temp: 72°/71°, Time: 41:34, Pace: 9:17 avg, Difficulty: medium, Felt: good enough!
Friday | September 5, 2014: teaching strength class + 4.15 m run (w/Dawn)
Strength: Lebert and 1 dumbbell, Difficulty: easy/medium, Felt: tired/out of it
Loc: Grayslake, Temp: 74°/74°, Time: 44:38, Pace: 10:44, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Saturday | September 6, 2014: 12 m ride + 2.4 m walk (w/Steven TO SEE KITTENZZZZ!!!!)
Loc: Millennium Trail, Temp: 59°/63°, Time: 57:38, Pace: 12.5 mph avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: happy I rode and didn’t run
Sunday | September 7, 2014: 21 m run
Loc: Around town, Temp: 53°/72°, Time: 4:02:23, Pace: 11:32 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: fantastic
Notes:
- Twice in this cycle I got caught in crazy storms! On August 25th, I got caught in the middle of a downpour and the route I took as part of my out and back flooded in 10 minutes! It was such a blast to run through the puddles! Then on September 4th a storm came in with hail and I got poured on, and beat down by hail for the last mile of my run. Exhilarating for sure! Have you ever run in the hail?
- August was my highest mileage month so far this year! Woo hoo! Let’s hope I keep the mileage up since I am registered for marathons in October and December. Hee hee. One way to do that is to start the month with a race!I loved that I could run a half on September 1st! I always feel motivated when I run the first day of the month.
- Friday the 5th marked one year that I have been teaching the Friday 5:00 am class at Efit! Schweet! In that time I’ve only missed once class, when I was out of town for my snister’s wedding. That’s 51 4:00 am Friday wake-up calls! Ha ha.
- During my long run today, I stopped to buy water for my Nathan vest and the gas station clerk was asking me all of these questions about it – what is it, how does it work, where can he get one. I was like “Aww, he must workout, too!” Then he’s like, “I am going to buy one and fill it with beer!” Ha. Ha ha ha.
Anniversary Trend
Monday (September 1) was our seven year anniversary!
We celebrated, um, by me running a half marathon? And eating lunch at Red Robiño then going to the Mississippi River Museum…
Ha ha, it was a really fun day! And Steven got me a stuffed otter toy for our anniversary! Yay! Otters!
With our anniversary always falling near Labor Day weekend, I’ve noticed a trend – we tend to either spend it in Guttenberg, Iowa, or at another wedding. I think we’ve only been home one year, and in Kansas City, another year. Because we usually have travel plans, we tend to forget to plan anything “special” for our anniversary. Oops! This year is no different! Maybe we’ll do something this weekend. Or maybe not. I am cool with whatever.
However, I am really craving a vacation for just the two of us. Since we’ve been married, we’ve only done that a few times! Most time off and travel is reserved for seeing family and friends, which we love, but I think that “us” time, where we’re away somewhere together, with no distractions, is important, too.
And speaking of going away, gosh, it feels weird not to have ANY travel on our calendar for the month. Maybe the end of October? Then two trips in December. We traveled so much this summer, it actually feels odd to be home! Let the laziness commence!
Chasing bananas
Although I mainly go to Guttenberg, Iowa to spend time with my family and friends, one of the things I love about that area is the community. My family has homes on Esmann Island*, which is a mix of people who live there year-round (like my grandma) and people who stay in their homes seasonally (like my parents).
Since so many people have “vacation” homes there, the island really has a “vacation” vibe to it. Nearly everyone you pass is smiling and waving. People are chatting and happy (and happy to help you out!). The pace is slow, slow, slow. No one’s in a hurry, and don’t you dare go over the 15 mph speed limit. Everyone is there to have fun and enjoy life.
And it shows.
My grandma is always telling me about these fun events that go on on the island – golf cart poker**, the bloody marathon contest, golf cart parades… and who knows what other shenanigans.
I had heard so many stories about the golf cart parade but never witnessed it myself. So when Rachel and I were visiting two weekends ago, and I saw a sign that the parade would be happening Labor Day weekend, I was stoked! I thought it would be so fun for Luca to watch!
Wait. What would be more fun than watching the parade? Being in it!
Muah ha ha. Gotta get use out of those Halloween costumes.
It didn’t take much convincing to get people to wear the banana costumes. The gorilla… was another story. So I ended up wearing it. Which was fine, when the golf carts were moving and there was a breeze! But this parade has a lot of stopping. Stopping to give parade watchers drinks, and to get drinks from people on the course. Man, these people know how to have fun.
And man, gorilla costumes really heat up in the sun when you stop! Ha. Ha ha.
What a fun morning. We decided to play the banana boat song on repeat as we drove through (the course was a few miles that took about an hour). Mom decorated the golf carts with balloon bananas and palm trees. Gina, Steve and Luca teased me from the back of their golf cart with a real banana. Steven drove. Mom and Gina handed out candy. We were cracking up and making other people laugh too.
But what gets me is how in to it the other paraders got. I thought we were being crazy wearing costumes. I think our golf carts were the most tame!
And the show stopper, and winner of “best float” was the “Esmann Bacon Station.” Ha ha. They were handing out freshly cooked bacon and had some sort of bacon drink, too.
Like I said, an amazing, fun community. You have to try hard not to have a good time when you are there!
(I snagged a few of these photos from the island Facebook page – check out the rest of the photos here)
*I had never looked up the island history until I was writing this – interesting!
**Get a different card (and have a different drink) at each house you visit via golf cart.
Benefit Classic Half Marathon Race Report
We just got back from a fabulous vacation in Iowa with Gina, Steve, Luca and my family!
Steve, Luca, Gina, Me, Steven, Mom and Dad
My parents invited Gina, Steven and Luca to their place on the Mississippi River when we were all together in June for Christina and Will’s wedding. I was STOKED when Gina and fam said they could come!
Step 1: pick a weekend for their visit (Labor Day)
Step 2: find a race!
Ha ha. Yes, I search for races every time I travel. And lucky us – the Benefit Classic Half Marathon was on Labor Day (in Dubuque, Iowa), and only about an hour drive away from where we were staying! This was Gina and Steve’s first race in Iowa, and my first half marathon in Iowa!
The race was put on by the Mississippi Valley Running Association (MVRA), and they put on a stellar event. The cost was low, we could pick up our bibs race morning, there were plenty of water stops, the volunteers were nice, all of the intersections were controlled, and the course was clear to follow.
And what a course! When I was corresponding with the race director before the race, she warned me about the giant hill. Ha ha. Ha.
But it was SO worth it. The race started in Eagle Point Park, located on a bluff high above Lock and Dam #11 in Dubuque. Then the race course went down to river level, along the river to the Lock and Dam… and back up! I thought it was so neat we could see the turnaround point from the start, and see the start/finish from the turnaround point!
The view down to where we’d be running to – almost all the way to the Lock & Dam.
The bluff to the left is where we had to run back up to after turning around (you can see the Lock & Dam to the right)!
So, yeah. It was challenging! Going in to the race, I was hoping to average around 10:30s. Which I kind of did through mile 9! Then the sun came out and I felt like my effort was the same, but my pace slowed down big time (I finished in 2:24:44 with an average 11:02 pace)! It was a really strange sensation to feel like I was pushing it and look down and see paces much higher on my watch than I expected – my rating of perceived exertion was WAY off. It’s either: 1, the sun, 2, me being out of shape, 3, the hill, or 4, the fact that I was dehydrated with a bad headache the day before and skipped dinner. Or all four! (or maybe riding around a golf cart in a gorilla costume the previous morning? ha ha, nah, that was heat training)
Whatever it was, I was lagging behind and told Gina and Steve to go ahead. So we all ran just over the first 10 miles together, which was fun! I got to hear lots of people were commenting on Gina and Steve’s Texas flag shorts!
They got a “welcome to Iowa!” cheer during the race, and afterward, someone from MVRA came over to talk to them, thank them for coming, and to ask what they thought of the course (and told us this course has the biggest elevation drop of any half marathon in Iowa). I thought that was really nice!
The MVRA person was telling us how this is the second year they have used this course, and how much better people like it than when the course was mostly in the residential and industrial areas near the river. I thought that was interesting because when I was reading race reports people said the course was crummy, because so much of it was industrial. But this course wasn’t like that at all, so that must have been a review from 2012 or earlier.
The course we did started in the park with a loop, went down a large hill through residential area, then went through a small industrial area to get to the river. Then we ran along the river and through another park, which was fun (we saw someone doing ski tricks!), and then went the same way back. Almost the entire course had really neat views – whether it was of woods, over the bluffs, or of the water.
Out and backs aren’t typically my favorite course type, but I liked it here, and think it would be fun to do this race again! I like to imagine next year I would do better. Ha ha. The winning times in my age group were just under 2:00 hours (surprisingly, the 24-29 age group was more competitive). And there were not many people competing – 110 total in the half (there was a 5K, too). I was last in my age group and 98th overall! Ha! I have never been so close to the end in a half marathon.
Even though it was so small though, I still talked to someone from a town in Iowa who knows Alyssa. Always fun when that happens!
Now… until our next race – the Dallas Marathon (and half for Steve) in December! I can’t wait (and am looking forward to getting back in shape for it)!
Friday Question 258
Do you donate blood? Do you know your blood type?
In the past week several blood donation and blood draw stories have come up, and it’s got me thinking… I really need to donate blood one of these days! I never have! I’ve only had it taken.
Hopefully when I do it, it doesn’t give me a story to tell like the ones that inspired me asking the first question.
I’ve definitely asked the second question before, because it surprises me how many people don’t know their blood type. Of course, I have no idea how I learned mine, but it’s A +, which apparently, is the second most common for Caucasians. That is Steven’s blood type, too. I found this page from the Red Cross site really interesting – it shows which blood types are most common and how blood types can be matched for transfusions.
Now someone hold me to it that I actually donate!
I found Flow!
I first heard of the concept of “flow” when I saw it on a list of “12 things happy people do differently” in July of last year. On that list, flow was described as “a state in which it feels like time stands still and you are so focused on what you are doing you become one with the task” and “nothing is distracting you or competing with your focus.”
The concept has intrigued me ever since. And really, eluded me. I wanted to get to this sacred flow state, dammit! It sounds like a nice place to be.
So I was really excited when Running Times featured an article about flow (pdf here), and put in this chart that explained so much to me:
Gah! I see why I don’t have flow that often! I spend most of my time in the other three areas of the chart – anxiety, apathy or boredom!
On what part of the chart do you spend most of your time?
This chart made so much sense to me, I got, um, a little over excited, and found myself telling a lot of people about it. I felt like I found the secret to get to flow, and wanted to share it – just match a high challenge with high skills.
Ha ha, of course, it’s a little more than that, but I feel like this chart, and article, really lead me in the right direction.
This article is mostly spoke about flow in running (and how to get there!), which has only happened to me a few times (and is different than a runner’s high). But it did mention how flow experiences are important for life, and that it’s important you have a lot of small ones, not a few huge ones. Just a few highlights from the article:
People are happiest when they do activities that require skill and concentration. This may come as a surprise given our cultural attitudes toward difficult work (negative) and passive leisure (positive), but decades of research have shown that people report better moods and feelings when confronted with challenging tasks that have clear objectives.
When you become deeply involved in autotelic activities to the point that your mind no longer wanders, Csikszentmihalyi found that you enter a mental state known as flow.
And that [flow] can be very enjoyable. Note the use of the word “enjoyable” and not “entertaining” or “pleasurable.” Passive activities like watching television or twiddling with a smartphone turn the mind off by bombarding it with a stream of unimportant information. Sensual pleasures, like eating ice cream, occur automatically, requiring no focus or skill. Flow activities like running engage and challenge a person. In fact, it is the challenge that makes running so enjoyable.
Flow occurs in those settings where people devote their full attention to their tasks and find ways to make their work challenging. Odds are you encounter small flow moments all the time when working on a complex problem at the office, cooking or designing a new piece of furniture in the workshop. Seeking out these types of smaller flow moments, in fact, is one of the keys to finding lasting happiness.
“There is evidence that for the quality of your life, it’s better to have a lot of smaller flow experiences than to have a few large ones,” Csikszentmihalyi says. “If you achieve flow only very occasionally in special conditions, you spend the rest of your life wondering, ‘Why can’t I achieve this more often?’ “
And after reading this I figured out my go to flow state – editing photos / working in Photoshop. It’s challenging and I feel like I have the skills to do it. I definitely get lost in it, and do find it enjoyable.
Now, if only I could get more flow at work!
Rings can be dangerous
Whether it’s kinesthesia or proprioception*… something is off with my body’s control of its limbs in space. BECAUSE I KEEP RUNNING IN TO THINGS.
Last week I hit my hand on a metal bar on the train when I was taking my seat. I wasn’t rushed or anything. There was no one in front of or behind me. These things just happen (to me).
My hand immediately hurt. Because of course, I slammed my wedding rings in to the bar, and the rings happened to be turned, so that the diamonds hit my middle finger. Yeah.
That hurt for a few days. I still have the diamond “puncture” spot on my middle finger.
A few days later, I ran my knee in to a low table. Now my knee hurts. The previous week, I cracked my bruised up toe on the top of a stair and it stung for the rest of the night (luckily that toenail is gone now MUAH HA HA, see ya later!).
Ha ha. Fun times.
I can’t figure out if I am: a. really uncoordinated, b. moving too fast and not paying attention to what I am doing, or c. losing my mind.
Okay, probably all three.
Do you ever feel like your limbs are acting on their own? Or constantly running in to stuff?
Ha. I was telling Gina about this and she brought up a story my mom told her – about the time I was walking out of a store, reading a book, and ran straight in to a GIANT mailbox. I didn’t even see it coming. Ha ha. Apparently this has been going on since my youth. PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT YOU ARE DOING, KIM!!!
*I’ve been wanting to write about proprioception for a long time but just doing research and reading that article, I still don’t have a great understanding of it. Maybe that is why mine doesn’t “work.”
Veterans Victory Fun Run Walk 10K Race Report
Is anyone else wondering if Mother Nature thought “Hey! It’s almost the end of August! I didn’t really do that summer weather thing… maybe I should now!”? Ha ha.
We’ve had a recent streak of hot weather and humid days. Which, actually, was fantastic for the beach this weekend. But… a little challenging for running.
Eh, it’s summer. I expect it. I am actually surprised we’ve had such a mild summer, so far, and, uh, how little I took advantage of it, running-wise. Ha. Wassup wit dat?!
So. It was humid this weekend. And Rachel and I were registered to run the Victory Fun Run Walk before heading out of town to Iowa. It was perfect timing – we planned to leave late Saturday morning anyway, so why not run a local 5K/10K in her neighborhood?
The race is a fundraiser for the Edgerton Hospital’s Capital Foundation and had a 1 mile, 5K and 10K option. It’s called the Victory Fun Run Walk in honor of the service star women who helped raise funds for the previous hospital* (the race was at the new hospital).
Of course, we chose the 10K option! Rachel and I both have fall marathons, so we gotta get those miles in!
Rachel let me know it would be hilly, so I was planning on a slower pace, but man, it wasn’t so much the hills (I mean, it still was…) but the humidity! It was just oppressive. I could barely breathe the whole time. It was hard. Probably the hardest 10K I have ever done!
I was happy I was running with Rachel so I had someone to chat with, until I ran out of steam (you know, metaphorical steam, because I had plenty of actual steam around me).
The race was an out and back, down a hilly access road, through a neighborhood, on some (you guessed it hilly) country roads, through another neighborhood… and back. There was one water stop at the 1.5/4.5 mile point and plenty of volunteers telling us where to go, and cheering us on. Ha ha, they were so nice, saying things like “You look great! This is such a hard day for a race!”
I think only 15-18 people did the 10K… if even that many! It’s funny, the girl who won the 10K was wearing the same shirt as me. I kept joking with Rachel that she was my teammate and I “let her” take this win. Uh, yeah. And you know, we maybe finished 6th and 7th females overall, but most of the ladies who finished in front of us were in the 30-39 age group. Dammito! Ha, not really.
We finished in an hour and three and a half minutes or so. I am not sure what our official time was. The course was short… and I was so okay with that. I was just proud of myself for surviving.
The race was small and well run – the type of race I really enjoy. I’d like to come race again in Edgerton when it’s not so humid. Okay, and I could stand to do a little hill training… maybe!
I loved that they gave us these little dog tags with the race name and year on it! You know I totally put that on my medal rack. Hee hee!
And… I loved that they were playing my power song when we started the race! I told Rachel, any race that plays Van Halen, ACDC, or ZZ Top at the start, is a good race.
*They explained this much better at the start of the race but I had a hard time hearing, so that is what I read here.
Golden
Today is my snister’s golden birthday! Happy 25th, Christina!
A little then and now for ya
Wait, what’s a golden birthday? It’s the birthday when you turn the same age as your birth date! So Christina’s is today, as she is turning 25 on the 25th. Mine will be next year, since my birthday is on the 31st!
Did you know it was your golden birthday when you had it (or have you not, yet)? If so, did you do anything “special” to celebrate?
I went to Iowa this weekend to see Christina for her golden birthday, and got her “gold-themed” gifts. As in, a lot of gold jewelry. You can never have too much jewelry, right?! RIGHT?
Oh, and some “golden” cookies of course, too:
We had a fabulous weekend! “Summer” weather came around in full force this past week/weekend, and it was perfect for being on the beach!
And I really enjoyed seeing Christina’s friends that I got to know from her wedding, as well as seeing my family, and spending the whole weekend with Rachel!!! Guttenberg, Iowa is such a special place for my family, and it makes me so happy that we can share it with our friends.
Training Week 253
Highlight of the Week: Running with Rachel along the Mississippi River in Guttenberg!
Monday | August 18, 2014: 4 m run (w/Kelly) + teaching strength class
Loc: Grayslake, Temp: 62°/63°, Time: 41:18, Pace: 10:19 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: like crap
Strength: Lebert and 1 dumbbell, Difficulty: medium, Felt: so. hot.
Tuesday | August 19, 2014: rest
Wednesday | August 20, 2014: 7 m run + 4 m run
Loc: hood, Temp: 64°/63°, Time: 1:15:33, Pace: 10:47 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: decent
Loc: Chicago Lakefront Trail, Temp: 81°/83°, Time: 44:02, Pace: 11:01 avg, Difficulty: medium, Felt: great then DYING HOT
Thursday | August 21, 2014: 3 m run
Loc: Chicago Lakefront Trail, Temp: 79°/78°, Time: 32:48, Pace: 10:55 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: like midday is not my time
Friday | August 22, 2014: teaching strength class
Strength: Lebert and 1 dumbbell, Difficulty: medium, Felt: okay
Saturday | August 23, 2014: Veterans Victory Fun Run 10K (w/Rachel)
Loc: Edgerton, Temp: 73°/74°, Time: 1:03:39, Pace: 10:41 avg, Difficulty: hard, Felt: so hard on my lungs
Sunday | August 24, 2014: 15 m run (w/Rachel and Dad (first 5))
Loc: Guttenberg, Temp: 70°/73°, Time: 3:00:42, Pace: 12:03 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: surprisingly decent!
Notes:
- WHOA, what a week! It must have been our most humid one of the summer so far! I ended most of my runs completely soaked in sweat. Even my shoes were soaked after my long run on Sunday! That rarely happens to me. It’s really fun to run with your socks slipping around in your shoes. Ha ha. Not.
- I was happy to fit in some lunch workouts, but man, midday is NOT my best running time! My body likes running early, in the dark. Oh well, miles are miles right now. Even if they are junk miles, I am happy to be running a bit more. And this weather is just reminding me how much faster I feel in the fall/winter!
- Rachel and I did a 10K in her town before our trip to Iowa on Saturday! I think that was the most challenging 10K I’ve ever done! I told Rachel I need to come back and run the course with her when it’s not so humid (and could they remove the hills? Ha ha, just kidding). Report on that tomorrow!
Hi! I’m Kim, a 40-something-year-old living in northeastern Illinois with my husband Steven, and our cats, Khaleesi, Apollo, Starbuck, and Eddard aka Ned. My current main hobbies are running, painting rocks, flying, reading, and eating. I follow a vegan lifestyle and work in an account management role. I write about a variety of topics and consider this a “life” blog – a place I can share anything that’s on my mind. Please visit the “About” page to get a better idea of who I am! 🙂
