Room for improvement
I had my first in-home meeting with my personal trainer (Brian of Essential Fitness) today to get all of my initial measurements – weight, body fat, body measurements, etc. I am so so so excited to be working one-on-one with Brian! We set up our first appointment for next week. I can’t wait.
It’s funny though. For someone who runs so frickin’ much, I sure do have a high body fat percentage and am well overweight. This is NOT a surprise to me, nor was Brian saying anything about this to make me feel bad.* Nor am I too worried about it! The whole point of me hiring a personal trainer is to get more fit, right? Of course I know I have room for improvement.
And that is the weird thing about me. When I see these high numbers and know I am in the overweight BMI** category, I don’t feel discouraged, I feel encouraged. I like knowing I have room for improvement! I know I haven’t reached my peak health and fitness level. I am just odd – I know most people would be upset if their body fat percentage was where mine is, but when I see those numbers, I think “Let’s work on bringing them down!”
So, we’ll see if that happens!
*This is my commentary, not his.
**Not that I take BMI that seriously.
Custom Shirt Fiasco
My mom’s dad ran track in high school and always took a very active interest in my running.* After he passed away, I remembered there was this awesome picture of him breaking the tape in a race, and thought it would be cool to have it put on a t-shirt to wear at my next marathon.
Cool picture, right?!
I had been thinking about using PKstrong to design shirts for the Trolley Run (which never happened), so I decided to use them. I liked their website and thought it was easy to use, and they had been very responsive in the past when I was asking questions.
Something was wrong with their site when I was trying to design my shirt, but once I contacted them, they replied (on a weekend) and said they would design the shirt for me and send me a proof, and get it to me in a week (my request). They were very responsive and helpful, and the proof looked exactly like what I wanted (click to see larger):
I showed it to my sister, and we both agreed that it looked good, but that the “g” in grandpa looked like a “c.” I ordered it and hoped that it would be more legible when printed.
It came within a week like they promised (and the price was not bad – $25 for the shirt and it is Badger brand – nice quality) but the text was even worse. You could not read a single word because there was no white space in the letters. I was upset. I contacted PKstrong to let them know how bad the text turned out, and asked that they advise other people not to use that font on that shirt. They actually told me they would take that font off their site (which they have) and offered me a 10% discount on future orders. Again, great service. But I was surprised in the first place that the shirt turned out so bad and they still sent it to me. I am the one who picked the font out of a few options, so it is my fault for picking it, but, yeah, I was surprised.
Luckily, I didn’t run the marathon that weekend. Ha. It was rainy and windy and a white shirt would not have been a good idea (maybe it’s not a good idea at all since I sweat so much?). I asked my sister what she thought I could do to fix the shirt. She recommended going over the letters in another color. But when she visited last weekend, she had an even better idea.
She filled in missing white space in the letters with white paint.
Now you can actually read it!
Of course, it’s getting too warm to run in a t-shirt so now I am not sure when I will wear it. Maybe at the New York City Marathon?
Have you ever made a custom shirt (or article of clothing) for racing or something else? Who do you like to use – either local or online?
Erin heard good reviews of My Race Ragz so I may have to try them someday.
*He and my grandma both did/do, when I ran in middle school, and in these past few years. It is interesting that they are so supportive and interested, because there is another family member who is so opposed to my running that he has to bring it up every time he sees me.
The Garden Project: It's Back
Alternatively titled “The Garden Project: I am a lazy smack.”
I am sure you have all been dying to know if Steven and I will give the garden another go this year (see last year’s garden posts here). Well, unfortunately, Steven remembers that we gardened and wants to do it again, despite me remembering what a pain in the a$$ it was Hells yes we are! This year, we are going to be smart about it though. Starting with having my dad till it for us:
Muah ha ha. Actually, I heard Steven tilled at least half of the garden, and then my dad finished it. Where was I? Pretending to exercise At the Petathlon with my mom and sister of course!
Okay, so seriously, the plan this year is a bit different. Last year was our first go and we planted a lot of different things. Some were successful, some weren’t. This year, we are going to plant the things we really liked, and one experimental crop. The cucumbers grew like rapid fire, and we liked them, so they are getting planted again. The green beans were a huge disappointment (so few grew) but dammit! I will not give up! We are planting a sh*t ton more and I hope I have more green beans than I know what to do with. Because I love me some fresh green beans. Tomatoes are an obvious – homegrown ones taste approximately 345893128 times better than the ones in the store, so they are getting planted (well, bought in plant form then planted). And the experimental crop will be sugar snap peas (is that right Steven?).
Doing the garden was so rewarding last year, but damn, I feel so so so so lazy right now. Like, really lazy. I don’t want to do anything. I am barely exercising. I am tired, and all I think about is sleep. All day long. Even when I get enough sleep on the weekends, I take naps (ahh). I sleep on the train to work; I sleep on the train ride home. Sleep sleep sleep is all that’s on my mind.
Time to SNAP out of that! Let’s get these little seeds planted* and see what happens this year!
Who else is planting crops this year?
What are you too lazy to do right now?
Here is my list:
- Work in the garden
- Clean our house
- Care about my diet
- Figure out that dental bill thing from a few months ago…
- Work on the model airplane with Steven
- Be any sort of interesting wife at all
- Put up with other people’s sh*t
- Finish a book within a month
- Write posts for my blog
- Go shopping for groceries
Apparently, I am not too lazy to:
- Write long emails to my friends
- Skype with friends Gina and Steve (they’re in NYC)
- Sign up for races I shouldn’t be running
- Buy a Soy Chai Latte at Starbucks
- Get an EKG
- Watch lots of movies
- Nag Steven about all sorts of things (travel to KC and NYC, taking Data to the vet, do this, do that, blah blah blah)
- Buy stuff on amazon.com
Items that are questionable (sometimes lazy, sometimes not):
- Strength training
- Working on the running club’s 5K website
- Reading blogs
- Exercising in general
- Running
*Maybe Friday or Monday?
Unsubscribe
I’ve been spending the last month cleaning out my personal email by unsubscribing to all the random emails I get and don’t care about (Bath & Body Works, Victoria’s Secret, Livestrong*, etc.) as well as deleting folders and emails. Some of the companies make it kind of cumbersome to unsubscribe (you have to read through a bunch of crap and select different options instead of just clicking “unsubscribe me”) but I have been diligent in trying to figure it out.
Until today, none of the companies made it funny when I unsubscribed, but Groupon takes the cake for that. They present this video when you unsubscribe, asking you if you want to punish “Derrick – the guy who thought you’d enjoy receiving Groupon emails.”
The audio didn’t work, but basically, this guy says something to Derrick, punches him then walks away.
Then they ask you to resubscribe to make it up to Derrick.
I thought it was clever and it made me laugh. I won’t be resubscibing though. I don’t like how they changed their emails to make you click through to their site to see the deal. Too much work! It’s like all those blogs with the summary (abbreviated) feed in reader – too much work for me to click through. If you don’t catch me with your title and first paragraph, I probably won’t be reading it.
Do you unsubscribe to mass emails or just delete them out of your inbox? Are you less likely to read a blog that uses an summary (abbreviated) feed in reader?
*Actually, they make it really confusing to unsubscribe so I am not sure if I did that one or not.
Training Week 83
Day 575 | May 16, 2011: yoga
Wow. I do not even remember the last time I did yoga (how many times have I written that on this blog?). I did the YogaWorks Beginners DVD, and it felt more challenging that it used to. No surprise there!
Day 576 | May 17, 2011: 5 m run + strength class (= bad idea!!!)
Well, I am NOT doing that again – running then going straight to my strength class. I was wiped out, in a really bad way. And not many people were at the strength class, because they were doing the club speedwork session (this is the one night it was on a Tuesday, it will be on Wednesday the rest of the summer), so I was partnered up with the trainer and didn’t get much of a break! We worked with medicine balls and did some boxing. My heart was beating really hard during the boxing part, and, yeah – I was out of it.
And the run before? So windy. Why? WHY?! Why must it be so windy all the time?! I just want to cry, when I am running in to the wind. I am so over it. So over it. I also had a major GI issue that pretty much demoralized me. But I won’t go in to the details. Let’s just say it is a very good thing I had another part of shorts in the car.
Wah.
Distance: 5.0 | Temp: 61° | Time: 48:48 | Avg Pace: 9:45 | 1: 9:28 | 2: 9:56 | 3: 9:52 | 4: 9:39 | 5: 9:48
I should mention, in the morning, I met with the Ragnar Madison to Chicago relay team! I am running with Erin and her work running group. I will be running Leg 8 – 6.7 miles, 2.5 miles and 9.9 miles, for a total of 19.1 miles!
Day 577 | May 18, 2011: cross
Recumbent Bike Time: 40:00 | Distance: 6.83 | Set on “Manual,” Resistance Level 5.0
Day 578 | May 19, 2011: cross
Recumbent Bike Time: 30:00 | Distance: 5.32 | Set on “Manual,” Resistance Level 6.0
Day 579 | May 20, 2011: 3 m run + 4 m run
For some reason, I got it in my head that I needed to do a two-a-day to prepare for the relay – even though I was telling Erin all week that I didn’t think it was a good idea. Well, it wasn’t a good idea. The first run was hot and my right calf/shin was bothering me on the second one. I should have just done one quality long run! Steven rode his bike with me during the first run, so it was at least nice to have company! I think I have been feeling the runny blahs because I have been running so much by myself (I haven’t been able to meet with the club to run).
Distance: 3.0 | Start Temp: 67° | End Temp: 69° | Time: 28:50 | Avg Pace: 9:35 | 1: 9:31 | 2: 9:33 | 3: 9:42
Distance: 4.0 | Start Temp: 69° | End Temp: 66° | Time: 38:32 | Avg Pace: 9:37 | 1: 9:23 | 2: 9:33 | 3: 9:48 | 4: 9:45 | 5: 9:45
Day 580 | May 21, 2011: cross
I attended SELF Magazine’s Workout in the Park with my mom, sister, Erin, and my sister’s friend Abby. This is actually the third year I have done this workout – in 2009 I did it with my friend Diane, and last year my mom and I did it together. It’s fun – they set up a main stage and have different 20-minute workouts you can try. There are also yoga classes and a toning zone that you can sign up for, and a bunch of booths with freebies and advertisements.
It only rained a little bit – we were modeling our umbrellas!
This year I tried four classes on the main stage – Sexy Stretch, Top It Off, Masala Bhangra and Retro-Robics. My favorite was Masala Bhangra. It’s an Indian inspired dancing workout! I am not very good at it, but the instructor was really good at teaching the steps and it was fun to try. I also really like the instructor from Top It Off. She has been there the last three years and is high energy and fun! All of the instructors that come are local Chicago instructors from Crunch Gym.
We also tried a yoga class called BodyART that I didn’t really care for. It was more cardio yoga, and less stretching. We had a great view during class though:
We also got a ton of freebies. And I got to try on the Asics Kayanos! They felt really good.
I really have fun at this workout. It’s only $15 (I think?), you get a free SELF subscription when you sign up, get to try a bunch of classes and get a bunch of freebies! Even though they seem to repeat the classes, I still like it. I will probably be there again next year!
Day 581 | May 22, 2011: cross
My mom and sister and I participated in our local no-kill animal shelter’s (Save-A-Pet) annual Petathlon – a 1-mile walk or 5K to raise money for the shelter. My sister had a donation page and raised over $150 (some of it from blogger friends – thank you!).
A lot of people brought their dogs to participate! I was surprised by how well behaved they were. It was fun to see them all.
The shelter had local animal businesses there, as well as fun games for the pets, and a tie-dye station!
I can’t wait to see how it turns out tomorrow!
We arrived at 12:00 and checked out all the booths, and did the walk at 1:20.
I was happy the walk was shaded – it was in the high 80s and I was hot!
Afterward, there was lunch included with your entry (I had a vegan hot dog!). It was a nice event put on by the shelter. I was happy we could participate and help the animals out! Our entry fee ($35) will feed one animal for a month!
Week Summary: 12.00 miles
I feel like I got back in to the workout groove this week! I did want to do another long run on Sunday, but I was waiting for the temps to go down (high 80s? no thanks!), and by the time they did, we had a crazy thunderstorm. Guess I will be getting up early on Monday!
EKG Results
My doctor called me* with my EKG results today and they were different than what I was expecting. She said my heart beat is on the slower side (I was totally expecting it to be high, as I often feel like it’s very rapid). A typical heart beat is 60-80 beats per minute (bpm) and mine is about 53 bpm. She said this is not unusual for women in good shape (me?) and we discussed my exercise routine. I even saw this on wikipedia:
The typical healthy resting heart rate in adults is 60–80 bpm, with rates below 60 bpm referred to as bradycardia, and rates above 100 bpm referred to as tachycardia. Note however that conditioned athletes** often have resting heart rates below 60 bpm.
So, I am not worried. At all. However, she does want me to have a consultation with a cardiologist, to make sure that my exercise level is why my heart rate is lower. So, time to make another appointment… yay. Looks like I will be meeting my health insurance deductible again this year!
If you are interested in seeing the actual EKG, here it is. Click to see larger!
Maybe I was doing the thumbs up too early? (This picture is from Friday’s appointment).
*Actually, I called to ask if she even had them yet, then she had to track them down, then she called me.
**I don’t think of myself as a “conditioned athlete” but this makes me feel better.
Homemade Squirmle FAIL
Data has been obsessed with this Squirmle thing that Gina and Steve sent us as a joke.
Whenever we get it out to let him play with it (we have tied it to dental floss for sturdiness) he goes NUTS. He does leaps and flips to try to catch it. He makes crazy noises when he goes after it. You have to play with him for at least 20 minutes, or he’ll act crazy all day. And even then, once you put the Squirmle away, Data is looking for it the rest of the day.
Sadly, the Squirmle has seen better days.
It’s essentially made of all these little fibers, so you can’t really pull on it when it is in Data’s mouth, or it shreds all over the house (and breaks down!). Data was getting pretty bored with his sad little broken Squirmle, and my sister (Christina) won’t be here with reinforcements (from Bed Bath & Beyond) until Friday, so we decided to make our own homemade Squirmle. Here’s Data asking Christina for his new Squirmle:
Anyway, I just happened to have some pajamas that I was getting rid of (no, mom, you did not give these to me, nor did anyone in our family), so we decided to use them. YES, this is how I spend my Sundays. Fascinating.
Our method was to cut little disks of fabric and thread them together with fishing line (for sturdiness).
Data was interested, and tried to behave himself.
But as the thing got bigger, he got more involved.
We had to harass Steven to hurry up so Data could play.
The verdict? It’s more sturdy that a Squirmle, but not as bendy, and a little bit bigger. Data is interested, but not as crazy as he is about the legit toy. I guess he just has to play with this one for 5 days. He’ll survive.
Training Week 81 & 82
This is the week of the Wisconsin Half Marathon on May 7th.
Day 561 | May 2, 2011: cross
During lunch I took a nice and easy ride on the recumbent bike to get my legs moving.
Recumbent Bike Time: 45:00 | Distance: 7.37 | Set on “Manual,” Resistance Level 5.0
Day 562 | May 3, 2011: strength class
In the evening I attended my strength class. Hard to believe, but this is my 9th week of class! We did something different every two weeks (so four different things) and we’re back to dynamic weight movements. We did whole body movements with weights, then resistance band work with another person, then did that sequence over again with higher weights… for a total of four times. It was hard. At the end I was using a 20-lb weight to do dynamic curling and lifting it over my head.
Have you ever used one of those two-person resistance bands (photo above)? They are fun, but they can really wear you out!
Day 563 | May 4, 2011: rest
Day 564 | May 5, 2011: rest
Day 565 | May 6, 2011: rest
Day 566 | May 7, 2011: Wisconsin Half Marathon (13.1 miles)
I ran the Wisconsin Half Marathon for the third year in a row!
Erin ran it too. And again, the photographer failed to get a photo of us together.
Day 567 | May 8, 2011: rest
Week Summary: 13.1 miles
Day 568 | May 9, 2011: cross
Bike Time: 45:00 | Distance: 7.62 | Set on “Manual,” Resistance Level5.0
Day 569 | May 10, 2011: rest
Day 570 | May 11, 2011: rest
Day 571 | May 12, 2011: 2 m run
This was sort of a test run to see how I was feeling – fine, except for the heat. 85 in May? Huh?
Distance: 2.0 | Temp: 85° | Time: 18:20 | Avg Pace: 9:09 | 1: 9:01 | 2: 9:17
Day 572 | May 13, 2011: 3 m run
Distance: 3.0 | Temp: 58° | Time: 28:43 | Avg Pace: 9:33 | 1: 9:23 | 2: 9:33 | 3: 9:43
Day 573 | May 14, 2011: rest
Day 574 | May 15, 2011: 13 m run
Wow. I think I am glad I didn’t run a marathon on the 15th – 13 miles in the wind was quite enough for me! It was windy all day and I kept putting off my run until finally I couldn’t put it off any longer – and I went out in the 20mph winds with gusts up to 35mph. Despite not feeling like I was moving, the run went well. Ha ha.
Distance: 3.0 | Start Temp: 50° | End Temp 48° | Time: 2:08:50 | Avg Pace: 9:54 | 1: 9:28 | 9:30 | 3: 9:48 | 4: 9:59 | 5: 10:04 | 6: 9:49 | 7: 9:41 | 8: 9:59 | 9: 10:06 | 10: 10:08 | 11: 10:13 | 12: 10:00 | 13: 9:59
Week Summary: 18.00 miles
Hmm. So these two weeks were a bit meh. And the two weeks before them. Dammit. I feel like I have lost my exercise and take care of myself mojo. Let’s hope I am getting it back!
Running Confession
I need a medal rack!
Nah, just kidding. That isn’t my real confession. I just have all of my medals and bibs out because I am reorganizing the closet wall I hang them on (seen here and here) and thought it would be funny to take a picture of me wearing them all. Data sure didn’t appreciate the noise they made walking around the house! Clink, clank, clink.
My real confession is that I had been planning on running a marathon tomorrow. Back in January I looked at my calendar and realized I had the base mileage to train for a spring marathon, and I thought it would be perfect for me since I love winter running. My training went superbly and I did all of my long runs at really great speeds and was prepared to run a 4:15 marathon or maybe faster! I didn’t tell many people about the marathon, because I wanted to keep it under wraps in case something restricted me from running it. Heck, I didn’t even sign up for it.
And it’s the night before it, and am I running it? No. Do I feel like I could? Yes. Do I feel like I could run it and not feel like crap afterward? Definitely. But I am not. My IT Band was acting funky during the last two half marathons I did, and despite feeling great this week and on my last two runs, I am giving it a rest, so I can be ready for the Ragnar Madison to Chicago relay, and for the Milwaukee and New York City marathons in October and November.
But I am oh so disappointed. So disappointed. So upset. I hate being responsible and making this decision. Hate it. But hey, at least I never signed up for the thing. So I am not out any cash. Just bummed that I put in all that awesome training for nothing concrete. Yes, I built a great base, but I wanted redemption! REDEMPTION from Chicago!!! Seriously, I cannot even remember my marathon “PR.” I have to look it up whenever someone asks me what it is. The Chicago Marathon was a lot of fun, but I was ready to run a marathon for real. Time for me to learn some patience!
Friday Question #156
Do you write with expensive or cheap disposable pens?
Return of the Friday Question! Yikes, it’s been awhile. I lost my FQ mojo. Do you guys think I should keep the Friday Question going?
So this week I ate lunch with a coworker then stopped at a pen store afterward so she could order fancy pens for her nephew and his girlfriend for graduation. Guys, these pens were not cheap. I couldn’t believe how expensive they were! But they sure were gorgeous. And she was having their initials engraved on them too.
It made me wonder if any of you are in to pens. I had a friend in college who was. And a lot of my architecture classmates had pen preferences. But for me, I will always prefer the Pilot G-2 05. It is a very fine gel pin that writes beautifully (and it’s not very expensive). When I googled it, I found this facebook goup – “Pilot G2-05 is the Best Pen… Ever.” Ha ha. I concur.
These look fun too, but maybe not very practical?
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! 🙂
