weekend in California

First of all, sorry to all of my followers who have been checking for my posts. I haven't been posting as much as I've wanted to.  Also, hello to all of my readers! Last week I had a big jump in my page hits.

I had a great weekend in California. The weather was in the 80's and dry, and it was a beautiful weekend for the wedding! I should have taken more pictures but I was slacking a bit. First off, I packed way too many liquids in my carry-on bag. I have a few ways of trying to conceal the extra liquids I have. One way that I used to do a lot was that I would bring TWO quart-sized bags and put one in the first bin that I sent through the x-ray machine, and the other in my last bin. As if they aren't both mine! Lately however, I have just used a gallon sized bag, folded it over to make it look as small as possible while still holding all of my liquids, and sending it through.

I guess you can't really tell that that is a gallon bag and not a quart sized bag, but it is. I was talking to someone this weekend who said they asked the TSA what is going on with the liquids, and they told her that if they can tell the liquids are all together, you don't even have to take it out of your suitcase anymore. I don't know if that's the "rule," but good to know if you are traveling. I haven't tried bringing any large bottles yet. I keep it to a large collection of small bottles. It works.

Like I was saying, the wedding was beautiful and Jessica was a beautiful bride! 

Unfortunately I didn't get to run on Saturday because we were up late getting things ready for the ceremony. So that means I missed Thursday's run, Saturday's run, and I didn't cross train on Monday. I was still feeling sore and I hadn't run in 5 days or so. I am going to start adding in a protein smoothie after my workout and taking my multivitamin. I know I keep saying that, but I am really going to do it this time because it's starting to really annoy me!

Last night was the Tuesday Track run. It felt great. It was a ten minute warm up, followed by 1200m, 1000m, 800m, 600m, 400m, then 200m fast runs. They were at increasingly fast paces. Then followed by a 10 minute cool down. 

Tonight is a cross training workout and I will also do some strength training. My training program doesn't specify exactly when to do the strength training, but they did recommend doing it 2-3 days a week and not on days that I run. So I think I will do it with my cross training.

This morning I talked to Josie (my 2 year old niece) on the phone. She told me she found Addy's toy mouse at Pop-pop's house (my dad). I think she loves Addy more than me. Last night, she was on the phone and she wouldn't talk to me. They Leah (her mom, my sister-in-law) said, "Remember Aunt Kimmy's cat Addy?" and then she was off talking about Addy the rest of the time. I don't get to see her that often, so if Addy sticks out in her mind, until she is older, she will at least remember me through Addy! Here is an adorable picture I took of her and Addy last summer when I visited.

Alright, I know you want to see another. Addy was in the car with us and climbed into her car seat.

So cute, I know. Alright well enough pictures of Josie. That's all for today. I'll write again tomorrow. Promise.

no-run thursday.

Well we didn't run last night. I am still sore from Tuesday and Sunday! What is going on? It is not too bad, but I notice it still when I go up and down the stairs. Also, for some reason I was a little scared of the run and so I think I used my soreness and my schoolwork to give me an excuse not to do my run. Why I am scared of a 7 mile run but not the 13 miles I have to run this Saturday morning, I do not understand.


I have been trying to drink more water, and I also did take my branched chain amino acids. Once though. That probably isn't good enough. I need to bring them to school with me and take them at school, but sometimes I feel strange pulling out my vitamins or supplements in public and taking them. Especially because the supplements I have are not a 1 pill a day...they are capsules and usually I have to take 4-6 of them a day to get the full amount and so then I just feel like I'm being JUDGED to be a pill popper, that everyone is watching me, wondering why I am taking so many pills! In reality, I'm sure no one even notices or even thinks twice about it if they do, so I should just get over it.  However, there is one further complicating factor and that is that once, when I was at school in LA, I took my vitamins and then almost exactly half an hour later I ran out of the classroom and had to vomit. So that has caused me to refuse to take my vitamins unless I have a really full stomach.


Enough about that. My grandmom always says that old people just want to talk about their "poops and pills" so I will withhold the former in hopes that I am not turning into an old lady. Not that I don't have anything to say about it - most people who run experience problems in the GI area at some point or another - but I'll spare you.


So last night, instead of running, Scott and I worked on a presentation for class today. This is what we looked like. Please ignore my messy apartment.

Scott is grumpy again.

I realized that in my effort to show you how excited I was to be working on the project, my posture was terrible and that is not acceptable for a chiropractic student.  Here's a better photo.

Still I realize I should be at a desk, with my screen at eye level, and my elbows at 90 degrees, but... this is all I've got for now.


Today I leave for California for Jessica's wedding!! Rehearsal tonight, run tomorrow morning, wedding tomorrow night. Going to see Joy and Kevin quickly Sunday morning and then come back Sunday afternoon. Still not doing well in those heels. Wish me luck :)

treadmill tuesday

I have been really bad this last week about posting. There hasn't been that much interesting going on (running or otherwise) so I've been spacing my posts out.

Monday I took as a rest day. I probably should have done a cross training workout but I was still so sore from the 11 mile run on Sunday, so I decided to take the day off.

Tuesday was Track Tuesday. This turned into treadmill tuesday because of this heat. We did half mile intervals at a pace of 8:10 min/mile. Wow that was fast. But I finished the whole workout, yea!

Wednesday (yesterday) still sore. Probably from Tuesday. Not super sore, but a little sore. I decided I need to start taking my branched chain amino acid supplement and probably do some kind of protein/recovery drink after my workouts to help curb this soreness. So yesterday we went to the swimming pool and swam for about 25 minutes. Well, we were in the water for 25 minutes. Probably only swam for 15. I enjoyed it. We went to the outdoor pool at the gym and it was nice. Here is a picture of us after our workout.

Scott was grumpy because he hadn't eaten enough. We shared a black bean burger and it was delicious. I'll admit before I had one, I thought it sounded gross but yummmm they are awesome. I should have taken a picture. Next time.

On a much cuter note, Jeff (brother) just emailed me pictures of his kids (my nieces). They are adorable and I love them and miss them.

I can't figure out how to post the pictures next to each other so that's why they are on top of each other. The first one is Genevieve, and she is 9 months old. The second one is Josie, and she turned two this past March.

On a weather note, it has been HOT here. OMG so hot. Yesterday, at 6pm it was 98 degrees. Holy cow that is so hot. I can't wait for this weather to break! I've heard that September is a beautiful month here, so I just have to wait for that, but that's still...6 weeks away?

So today is Tempo Thursday. Here's the workout.

1 mile easy (10:33 pace)

5 miles MP (10:01 pace)

1 mile easy

That doesn't sound very fun. Will probably be inside again. We are in an excessive heat warning until Saturday at 7pm. Today's high is around 100, peaking around 4pm.

One last thing, this weekend I'm going back to LA for a wedding that I'm in. It's going to be so fun and really great to see Jessica (who is getting married). We have very cute black bridesmaid dresses and really really tall heels that I cannot walk in yet and on Saturday I will need to walk in grass in them. Not sure how that is going to work out.

Who discovered America?

How would you respond to that question?

A - "Columbus!!" (D personality)

B - "Can you give me a hint?" (I personality)

C - "I may be wrong, and I don't want to offend, and if anyone wants to disagree with me, that's OK, or if someone wants to take my turn, I'll let them because I have already probably taken too long." (S personality)

D - "I am not sure if you want me to say Columbus because the Indians were here before him, and there were Vikings here also. So I am not sure I understand the question." (C personality)

My response without hesitation was D. That is me to a "T." This was one of the questions from the DiSC personality profile survey. (Laurel remember you are the dictionary and I am the encyclopedia?)

Here is another example of how a firing squad would work under different personality types.

D personality - FIRE! FIRE!

S personality - Ready, Aim, Ready, are we all ready everyone together now, Aim, Aim Ready, Ready………..

I personality - Ready, FIRE, Aim

C personality - Ready, Aim, Aim, Aim, Aim, Aim, Fire

I thought that was pretty amusing too.

Well I haven't blogged since last Thursday. We did Thursday's tempo run outside and it was HOT. So we only ended up running the four miles instead of all 6, but we did keep the proper tempo for those four. So overall I was happy with that workout.

For lunch Friday I tried out an Ethiopian lunch buffet. Wow was that delicious! And it was vegetarian and so filling. I have never had Ethiopian food, but I will definitely be going back. Look how pretty and colorful the food is!

Friday was a swim workout. It was 200m swim followed by 50m kick, then 1 min rest. Repeat 5 times. I taught Scott how to flip turn, but still finished quite a bit ahead of him. I think that he will pick up pretty quickly on swimming (especially if we keep swimming once a week) so right now I am going to relish in the fact that I finished ahead of him.

Saturday was a rest day. Laurel was supposed to come in as part of her road trip, but she met up with a deer along the way and the trip ended somewhere in West Virginia. I missed you this weekend, Laurel!

Sunday morning I got up at 5:30am and checked the weather. It was 80 degrees and 69% humidity!! And we had an 11 mile run to do!! So after talking to Scott, we decided to forego the outdoor run and choose an indoor run. Yes, 11 miles on the treadmill does sound dreadful but 11 miles of 80 degrees and 69% humidity sounds worse!

So I got to sleep in and then Scott and I made vegan oatmeal pancakes for breakfast. They were delicious too. Somehow in my move to KC, cinnamon didn't make it, but cinnamon sticks did, so here is Scott grating cinnamon sticks to put in the pancakes.

The run in the gym surprisingly went well. Finished all 11 miles on the darn treadmill and felt great! 

Poor Scott followed the run with a hockey game which he said he surprisingly felt good for. He said he made the best goal of his life. Something about getting the puck, getting tripped and while he was in the air falling towards the ground, he hit the puck in the goal. Sounds pretty cool. You probably can't tell from my recounting of the goal, that I was, in fact, actually there (and watching too!), but somehow I missed that spectacular goal. I saw him laying on the ice after the goal and could tell from the celebrations that it was his goal, but I missed it. I was pretty bummed about that. I am the worst hockey spectator ever. Something about following the puck and the sticks and the jerseys and trying to figure out who is in what jersey, complicated by rules which I do not completely understand makes it hard for me. But I try, and I am usually there. I follow the emotions of the guys on the bench. Sticks banging - I cheer! Yay, Scott! Go Stars! As a side note, their team is the Stars and their jerseys have a large flying ant on them. Yes, a flying ant. Figure that one out.

Mary Poppins

Today in psych we had a presentation on the DiSC personality typing. It's a quadrant system and the main components are if you are people or task driven, and outgoing or reserved. Usually when I take personality tests I feel like I am all of the above. I like to think I am both people AND task driven. I also think I can be outgoing OR reserved depending on the situation. So in a quadrant, I look like this.

Like Mary Poppins, I am "practically perfect in every way." I knew there was a reason that was my favorite movie as a kid. Also, I like to wear black a lot.

If you remember the movie, Jane and Michael Banks wrote a poem for their dad to help him post for a nanny position. Then they sang it to him. This is the poem:

If you want this choice position 

Have a cheery disposition

Rosy cheeks no warts

Play games, all sorts 

You must be kind 

You must witty 

Very sweet and fairly pretty

Take us on outings, Give us treats 

Sing songs, bring sweets 

Never be cross or cruel

Never give us castor oil or gruel

Love us as a son and daughter

And never smell of barley water

If you won't scold and dominate us

We will never give you cause to hate us

We won't hide your spectacles so you can't see

Put toads in your bed 

Or pepper in your tea

Hurry nanny 

Many thanks, Sincerely, 

Jane and Michael Banks

I think if I lived in the 1930s, and in a world where you can fly with umbrellas and jump into sidewalk chalk drawings, it would have been me who showed up on their doorstep, not Mary Poppins. I don't know what castor oil or gruel are, but I am sure I would not feed those things to Jane or Michael, and I most certainly would never dare to smell of barley water!

Well back to what I am supposed to talk about: my training. Rowing last night was...different. I kind of liked it, probably because I was still complying with my workout and I didn't feel like I was killing myself (or working too hard). I was supposed to be working at a pace that was "medium-hard" (a 3 on a scale from 1-5). Here's how that scale works.

Effort Level 1: Easy. No increase in breathing rate; can go all day.
Effort Level 2: Easy to moderate. Mild increase in breathing rate.
Effort Level 3: Moderate to hard. Noticeable increase in breathing.
Effort Level 4: Hard. Noticeable increase in breathing; difficult to talk in full sentences.
Effort Level 5: Very hard. Breathing hard; unable to talk.

So I think that "moderate to hard" pretty accurately describes the workout from last night. I would say while running I am usually a 4-5 (I try to stay away from 5) so maybe that's why I didn't feel like I was working that hard. Also, the day after long runs is an optional cross training day. If we choose to do that one, it should be performed at a level 1. That sounds fun and an easy way to feel accomplished!

Today is a tempo run. It's 2 miles easy (10:33 pace), 2 miles short tempo (8:58 pace), 2 miles easy. Doesn't seem too bad. I like when it's broken up like that into sections and not just a 6 mile run. It keeps it interesting.

That's all for now. In my ramblings about Mary Poppins, I didn't finish my story about the DiSC personalities, but now you have something to look forward to tomorrow!

moving again.

Forgot to mention, Scott got the job in Florida!! So in January he will be heading to Coral Springs (outside the Miami/Ft Lauderdale area) and he will do a 3 month internship followed by having a 2 year job working there after he graduates. Congratulations, Scott! (I don't even think he reads this.)

I'll be going to Calgary for my internship. After that, I'm not sure yet. I figured I haven't had a winter in 4 years, so why not go to Calgary? I drew on this map where Scott and I will be going. I didn't realize we are going exactly opposite directions from each other. After 3 years of 24/7, I guess I've had enough of him! I know he hasn't had enough of me because, who could ever get enough of me? He'll be okay though. Don't try to hug him to console him for his loss. He's not that kind of guy. A slap on the back might do.

and the gold medal winner is...

Some things I learned from my run last night:

1. Don't eat Indian food the meal before running. Burping up samosas and vegetable kofta while running is gross.

2. If you wait until sunset before even driving to the track to run, it will be too dark to run. I admit - Scott was right, I was wrong. That doesn't happen too often. :)

3. 103 degree weather at 6pm does not cool off very fast when the sun goes down. It's still hot at night.

4. Running in a rain can be nice. Running with dark, loud thunderclouds above you and lightening all around is kind of scary.

So, to make a long story short, we ended up on the treadmills last night only 5 minutes after starting our warm up run. The intervals, wow, they were hard. We stretched the 60 second rest interval to 90 seconds, but ran the mile intervals at 8:20, so a little faster than we needed to. The treadmill keeps you true to your pace, thats for sure. Scott wasn't feeling so hot, so I'm sure if we had been on a real track I would have beaten him last night. That would have been cool.

That's Uncle Brian with the gold medal.

Today we have a cross training workout. I let Scott choose which one since he really got his butt kicked last night. He chose rowing. It goes like this: 5 minutes easy, 1 min hard, 1 min easy, 2 min hard, 1 min easy, 3 min hard, 1 min easy, 4 min hard, 1 min easy, 3 min hard, 1 min easy, 2 min hard, 1 min easy, 1 min hard, 3 min cooldown. I'm not sure if I've ever rowed before.

On another note, I don't have any patients today so I get to spend the afternoon continuing to catch up on my life. I didn't get it all done last weekend.

Track Tuesdays (Week 16)

Today is the first day of my more formal running program. 16 weeks to go!!  This is my workout for today:

10-20 minute warm-up

3 x 1600m (1 min Rest Interval)

10 minute cool-down

The 1600m distances are to be run at 8:25 min.

My goal is to finish the marathon under 4:30. I think it's doable because I ran LA marathon in 4:57 in a downpour. For LA, I was nursing a few injuries (had taken 2 weeks off in the middle of training), and I ran the first half of the marathon without my GPS watch. So the stars were aligned against me.

Mile 11 where Scott and Joy met me to give me my GPS watch that I left in 

my apartment. That's me in the white trash bag. I don't think I always run with

my hand out like that. I think I was waving so that they saw me.

This time, I'm feeling much healthier. I started running earlier and although my motivation hasn't been through the roof, I am already a few weeks ahead of where I was in my training last time. That feels good!

So, 4:30 is a reachable goal I think. This training program runs off paces. There is a chart in the book but I also found this website to convert times between different race lengths.  

On a side note, we got our plane tickets on Friday for the marathon. Flying in Friday afternoon and leaving Monday afternoon. Scott's mom and Aunt Joanie are also coming in from California for the race. The two of them along with my parents and my Aunt Linda will be there to cheer for us and my Uncle Brian. Uncle Brian will be miles ahead of Scott and I, but I will leave the logistics of seeing us all up to Aunt Linda. She's good at those things!

The training book we are following.

Myrna and Grandpop

This morning in church, there were a few songs that reminded me of doing music at church with Myrna. Myrna was the music director that the church I went to in Boulder. She was a really special person to me and she passed away this year on January 1st. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the two of us together, but I do have this picture of her and her mom Hazel at my graduation party.

Hazel, Myrna, Judy, Colleen, and my grandmom

What a bunch of great women in that picture! Like Colleen said to me, "I'm sure she has a place leading the angel choir now!"Rest in Peace, Myrna! You are missed!

One of my favorite songs, recorded by the Blind Boys of Alabama, "I Shall Not Walk Alone." Here is a link to listen to it on YouTube. I left out some of the lyrics for brevity.

Battered and torn

Still I can see the light

Tattered and worn

But i must kneel to fight

....

When my legs no longer carry

And the warm wind chills my bones

I reach for mother Mary

And I shall not walk alone

....

When I'm tired and weary

And a long way from home

I reach for mother Mary

And I shall not walk alone

The song reminds me of Myrna and also of my Grandpop Jubb who died last October. Both of them were suffering so much. My grandpop had a near death experience in the hospital a few months before he actually died. When I visited him a few weeks before his death, he told me until then he never knew it would be so easy and peaceful to die, and that he wasn't afraid at all. Although I hadn't been in touch with Myrna for a few months prior to her death, I am sure that she felt the same way. In fact, Grandpop was very ready and would say to me, "I don't know why it is taking so long." Here is a picture of me with him on my last visit. We would take turns being with him in his room.  He would wake up from his sleep once in a while to chat for a few minutes, and then he would go back to sleep. He was so tired. I feel very luck to have been able to spend that time with him.

On another note, it's going to hit 100 degrees today in Kansas City so I think I'll be staying inside the rest of the day!

Early morning

I reeaalllllyyy didn't want to run this morning. I was up a little after 4 to take Scott to the airport. Came back and got some coffee around 5:30 and spent the time between 5:30 and 6 trying to convince myself how fun it was going to be to go for a run. I finally told myself that this is the week the excuses are going to stop. So I laced up my shoes and headed out. I actually felt really good on the run. I had read in a book somewhere that the most important night's sleep is actually not the night before your long run (or race) but the night before that. It might be true because Thursday night I got about 9 1/2 hours of sleep and last night, only about 6 at most.

At least I got 9 miles in this morning. Not the 11 I was shooting for, but still I'm happy with it. I started getting a little achy in my knees and back around mile 7-8 so I decided 9 would be good enough for this week and ended it there.

My IT bands bothered me while I was training for LA marathon (right side much worse than left) and then only thing that really seemed to help was taking 2 weeks off from running and focusing on stretching all the hip muscles. Today's knee annoyance was a little reminder for me to take care of those things before they become a problem.

I know it's a little blurry, but here's a picture of me right after I finished LA marathon. I need to be reminded I can do this again!!

No remnant of the shin splints after I was treated in the clinic with the Graston instruments a few weeks ago.  They had been haunting me since sometime last February or March. Next week when I'm in the clinic I'll take a picture of what the instruments look like.

(Some notes for myself: ate 4 pieces of that Gatorade G1 bar around 4:30 and drank a gatorade before the cup of coffee, which was around 5:45. Then I put a gatorade at the park around mile 2 and had a few sips of that - had to use the bathroom - before continuing on my run. Never made it back to that spot as I had planned to have a drink later on.)  I'm trying to find the best eating/drinking routine to keep my stomach happy while I'm running.

Just so I can put a cutesy picture up, here is a picture of Addy looking out the window.

Tomorrow I am hoping to get motivated to go to the gym for a yoga class. I think that might be a good habit to get into after the long runs.

My apartment looks like a tornado came through it (at least that is a somewhat plausible explanation being in Kansas) and so this weekend I need to spend some time cleaning.  Catching up on my life  is what I really feel like I am doing. Being at school 10-11 hours 5 days a week sure doesn't leave much time for keeping up with my life. Somehow I do find the time to make a mess though. Funny how that works.

What happened to my motivation?

When I was training for LA marathon last spring, I surprised myself with how much motivation that I had to get out for all of my runs. This time around, I feel like I've been dragging myself out for every run (when I go) and the only good run I've had so far is my 8 miler two weeks ago.

After seeing Laurel had started a running blog, I thought maybe if I did it too it would give me some motivation for my runs. If all goes as planned, I will be excited to get back from my run and post I DID IT!!! There will be some kind of accountability. Scott is running with me also but he hasn't been much better than me at sticking to our training program!

So here's what the plan is. Next week starts my 16 week program. I'm doing the FIRST "Run Less Run Faster" program which is three days of running a week and two days of cross training. It starts out at 13 miles for the first long run, so for the last 8 or 9 weeks we've been working up to 13 miles. My longest run so far has been my 8 mile run two weeks ago. Last week, I was supposed to run 9 miles when I was at home, but I started too late and got hot and was having some bowel issues and so I stopped at 6.5.

I haven't run since last weekend. The long days at school and the holiday weekend did not help my training. The goal for tomorrow morning is to run 11 miles. Maybe that is stupid and too far to go, so I have my run set up so that I can easily shorten the run by a mile or two, as long as I decide by mile 6 or 7.

I wish I had a cute picture to post like Laurel did!

Scott is going to run now (and I feel a little guilty about not running) but I have to get up early to take him to the airport and want to run after that so I can sleep in on Sunday.

Things that are zapping my motivation:
-heat
-humidity
-looooong days at school