blogkitten.com

The New Site

Carolyn — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 19:22:49 +0000

Not that this one is going anywhere, but I’ll be posting over at my new lifestyle blog Health Kitten.

If you recall my post from a few weeks back, I was having what I’m calling the “curse of the 8′s¹” where I question everything going on in my life and my true purpose of being. While I work in a job where I get to do a lot of good for a lot of people, it leaves me wanting more. “More” in the sense of I lack personal fulfillment.

I love writing. But I’ve never had the opportunity to fully realize that love because “life” got in the way. Too much to do, too much responsibility…well, thanks to a wonderful husband, I’m going to dip my toe into the pool of my dreams. Hopefully, if things go the way I want them to, I can quit this corporate job and do what I truly love: writing and cooking.

Health Kitten is going to chronicle my journey into wellness and living well in my own skin – which means I’m going to be a happier and healthier Blogkitten going forward. I’ll have recipes, photos, and more insight into my struggles going forward in the hopes of inspiring others and helping them do the same for themselves.

Please subscribe and please give me feedback! Also, a follow on Twitter would not be turned away…

Thanks for the support!
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¹ I’ve had these crisis moments at 18, 28 and now 38. I can’t recall what happened when I was 8, but I’m sure I had a crisis then as well.

Don’t Stop Me Now!

Carolyn — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 14:59:24 +0000

If you haven’t seen the Google Doodle for today (9/6/11), please go look now!

It’s not a secret that I love Queen and I was saddened as an 18-year old when Freddie Mercury died from complications of AIDS. A talent that the world will never see again, especially now that the music industry is more concerned with looks rather than talent.

On the Official Google Blog today, Brian May guest posts about Freddie on what would’ve been his 65th birthday. A touching memorial from the good doctor¹.

I’m even more inspired to live my life as fearlessly as Freddie did. Hope you can be inspired to do the same.

——————
¹ May earned his PhD in astrophysics in 2007 with his thesis entitled “A Survey of Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud.” Yes, he is a giant nerd.

Living In My Own Skin

Carolyn — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 15:28:03 +0000

On Friday I had a bit of a stir up in my bran and was thinking of what I want to do with the rest of my life and blathered on about it in my last post. Later that day, I had an epiphany of what to do about it.

I can’t say much now, because the project is in its preliminary stages, but it feels good to have a goal and something to work towards. It also helps that I have the best, most supportive husband in the world encouraging me to reach for the stars with this project. I can’t wait to share more, but I have work ahead of me first. Trust that I’ll be bragging all about it on here once it’s ready.

Between this and the other shakeups I have going on, it’s going to be an interesting next few months!

Happy Monday!

Seeds of Change

Carolyn — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 15:50:14 +0000

I’ve got this nagging feeling like there’s something missing. Like I should be doing something else with my life; that I have a purpose for greater things. I feel like all I do is spin my wheels, driving a car I don’t want to be in, and going nowhere.

I do have some big changes coming up in these next months, ones I will not be discussing with anyone but my closest friends and family. Aside from that, I’ve been doing a lot of self reflection and proverbial navel-gazing to try and put my finger on what’s wrong. Marriage is wonderful – Tim’s actually one of the truly awesome things I have in my life. My job, while I don’t hate it, seems to be moving towards doing more stuff I don’t like and less of the stuff I love. Plus, there’s a whole other level of stress with recent business developments that I’m not sure I’m ready to handle. As the years go on, I have a hard time reconciling what I do with who I do it for. I’m an environmentalist and there are things I just can’t stomach.

Does that mean a career change? Who knows – but that will have to happen far down the road. There are many things I would love to do as a career (if I could get paid to do it), but it’s just not in the cards right now.

[EDIT] – Not that a new job will fix things, it’s just a general dissatisfaction with things at this moment. [/EDIT]

I’m going to chalk this post down as stream-of-consciousness venting and leave it at that.

Happy Friday?

Daily Squee

Carolyn — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 14:43:05 +0000

I dare you not to squee over these baby otters swimming in a tub. The chirps! The cute!

*dies*

No Sweat

Carolyn — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 19:56:45 +0000

As I’m slowly healing from my muscle issues, I’ve been putting all sorts of pressure on myself to get back up to speed to start training for the half marathon in October.

Yesterday while on a walk with Tim, I asked myself why I was killing myself to get training by August 20th* and I decided that I’m going to drop down and do the 10K race at the Mankato Marathon instead of the half marathon. I know that mentally I can do the half (which is half the battle), I just have to cut myself some slack physically as this healing process is very slow.

My mind is resting a bit easier now that I came to that decision. As much as I love a challenge and pushing myself, I also don’t need to stress myself out over it.

- – - – -
* – That was the day I would’ve had to start the half marathon training program to be ready for the October 22nd race. But, I would need a base of running consistently for 4-6 weeks, running 30 minutes without stopping and putting in at least 12 miles per week. I’m nowhere near that level of fitness and I decided I was going to concentrate on getting healthy and doing a 10k instead of trying to kill myself doing the half.

I’m A Warrior!

Carolyn — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 20:11:42 +0000

On Saturday, July 23rd, I did the Warrior Dash race. It was described as “3.02 Hellacious Miles” and boy they were not kidding!

Got the "finisher" medal to prove I did it!

The photo above — while not mine — is an accurate representation of the final 10 yards of the run (after crawling in mud under barbed wire!). And yes, that’s a color photo.

Since it was at a ski resort, there were a lot of hills — including what I estimated as a half-mile uphill climb practically at the beginning of the race. That wiped me the hell out in the 90+ degree weather, so I pretty much walked the course. Some obstacles were easier than others and I finished in around an hour, which wasn’t bad as there were obstacles that I had to wait in line to even start. If I hadn’t had to wait for other people and I could’ve done them at my own pace, I would’ve probably finished 10 minutes sooner.

This was AFTER getting rinsed off!

But my goal wasn’t to be fast or anything, it was to finish.

And I did!

Afterward, the “hosing off area*” was a guy with a snowmaker, so it didn’t do a very good job rinsing any of the mud and dirt off me. Those shoes got donated to a good cause and those socks went straight into the trash. I had the foresight to pack some soccer sandals (that are just hosed off to clean them) to put on after the shoes got donated. There were a lot of barefoot warriors walking back to their cars afterwards!

So many shoes...and the pile was twice as big after this photo was taken!

The bus ride back to the parking area was a muddy one, so I wasn’t too upset about the lack of getting perfectly rinsed off at the event. Again, I had the foresight to fill up six quart-sized Nalgene bottles with tap water before I left and packed some clothing that I would be able to strategically change into out in the open. It worked surprisingly well! Then I covered my carseat with garbage bags and towels and started my 1hr drive back home to a shower.

That was the best shower of my life. Also, it took a day to get all the mud out of my right ear canal (thanks to some overzealous racer in the mud crawl portion splashing around) and today, I finally got the last of the dirt out of my toenails!

I hope to do it again next year – but I definitely need to train for hills if I do!

Now it’s half marathon training time! Whee!

- – - – -
* – Other events showed tanker trucks with actual hoses on them for rinsing off, which would’ve been MUCH more effective than high-pressure mist.

Ow.

Carolyn — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 21:08:04 +0000

I think my personal trainer Jill is trying to kill me.

But then, I *did* ask for her to “kick my ass” last night in training. Boy, did I get what I asked for. Above is someone doing walking lunges. Jill made me do them — a LOT of them — in addition to squats, step-ups and other such instruments of physical fitness torture.

Today, if I sit for too long, my quads take a while to wake back up out of protest. But, the training is helping; I was able to do a 2.5 mile interval (run 90s/walk 90s/run 3m/walk 3m x2) in around 30 minutes Monday night. Quite slow, but I didn’t have any issues with my hip during or after, so that’s a good thing!

I got my training sessions with Jill at a summer discounted rate…but I think I’m going to keep going to her throughout the winter as I want to keep up my fitness this year. I really think that’s what killed me this year – I really slacked off over the winter.

I just really want to get back to where I was last year: able to run 3-4 miles, then do a half hour of really intense cross training/weights, alternate days of 6+ miles running and one long 9-10 miler on the weekend. Last summer that wasn’t an issue, which is making the psychological impact of this injury this year even more acute. But it boils down to that last summer, I was doing two 30min sessions of training (albeit in a group setting and not individually) a week in addition to running. Seems that cumulative 1hr a week of squats and lunges made the difference between me running and me being laid up with a “pain in the ass.”

* * * * *
Trying to get some co-workers to do the Lifetime Fitness Torchlight 5k next Wednesday night. I get free entry as an employee at Ye Olde Part Tyme Jobbe – and I wouldn’t run it against a set time in my head, but more as a social event. Anyone want to join me?

* * * * *
I switched to another theme – Yoko – and I like this one much better and will be a better starting off point for Tim to customize. Tim likes it because it has a responsive layout. Win-win!

Summertime!

Carolyn — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 16:10:12 +0000

We’ve put to bed two of the three summer holidays already, and it just seems like summer just began. Where in the hell is this summer going?

I’m itching to have a party for my half birthday as it sucks having a January birthday, but the problem is this year’s half birthday is the day before the Warrior Dash. I really don’t want to party and stay up late the day before a race. Well, I could, but it’s not recommended. I’ve cancelled out on a race when I whooped it up the night before, and I promised myself it wouldn’t happen again.

So instead, I just want to get our friends together for another cookout sometime this month or the next. Grilling, making sides, having fun and hanging out. Easy, simple and fun.

But for tonight, I’m going to devise some plan that involves grilling, beer and hanging out with my sweetie. Works for me!

* * * * *

Tim and I discovered the gem that is Elm Creek Regional Park over the holiday weekend. More outdoorsy stuff is definitely on our list for the rest of the summer!

* * * * *

So far I’ve gotten 2 days of week 1 out of the way with the C25K training and I’ve been feeling quite good. Tomorrow, instead of doing the 3rd day of week 1, I’m going to do the 1st day of week 2. It’s not a stretch over week 1, but it uses a different split of walking/running with the same time restraint of 20 minutes. But that doesn’t stop me from feeling like a big athletic failure every time I go out! LOL!

* * * * *

“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” ~Winston Churchill

* * * * *

I’m also trying out the new Twenty Eleven theme that was included in the most recent WP update. I really like how fast it is on loading, so I think I’ll have my web designer — a.k.a. Tim — tweak it out with web fonts and logos that will fit what I am envisioning. I’m so out of practice with web work, it’s pathetic. Tim’s way more talented than I ever was, so I don’t feel so bad farming this out to him. Besides, he loves me and will do what I want!

* * * * *

I’m not sure what we have going on this weekend, but hopefully it’ll be fun! TGIF!

Running On Empty

Carolyn — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 14:56:37 +0000

I’ve been having a hell of a time recovering from my “pain in the ass” injury. Who knew piriformis muscles could get knots and take forever to heal? I sure didn’t.

I haven’t been able to run for weeks now. Instead, I’ve been going to a personal trainer and a sports massage therapist. The trainer is to help me strengthen the muscles that need strengthening to alleviate the piriformis issues. Apparently running doesn’t work all the muscles in your legs/lower body and without proper cross-training, you can develop problems — which is exactly what happened to me. Who knew? The massage therapist is working out the knots/tight tendon issues I have been fighting.

I have the Warrior Dash in three weeks, so this week I’m going to start introducing running into my routine. And, as much as it will kill me mentally, I’m going to do the Couch to 5k plan to get me back up to at least a 5k distance before I start training for that half marathon in October. Also, I’m forcing myself to start at week 1, rather than skip ahead. That’ll be the hardest part. Why? Well, because mentally I can run a half marathon (just over 21 kilometers) but my body can’t run a single kilometer right now and it’s so frustrating that I can’t even describe how bad it is. I hampered my recovery from this injury by running too much, too soon and I was laid up for 3 days with enough pain that I had a hard time walking, much less doing anything else. So, slow and steady is how it will have to be.

Needless to say, I didn’t meet any of my June fitness goals.

* * * * *

Work has thankfully slowed down due to the last big project of the summer that I work on finally being done. Now, to tackle the mound of paperwork that I’ve been ignoring these past 6 weeks…

Happy Tuesday!