Wednesday, February 25, 2009

There's more to life than mileage

We have been doing other things besides mileage, I promise. This past weekend my mom came to town to visit. My mom and I went to a fundraiser for Sara Feigenholtz, who is running for Rahm Emmanuel's old seat. Then Sunday night we went out to my great-uncle Joe's house for a great chili and apple pie dinner.

Monday I made it back to work. I actually made it back last Friday, but it was hard to keep my energy up. I hadn't been that sick in a long time. It suuuuucked. I'm glad it's over. This week has felt long though after so much time outside the office last week.

Last night I finally got back on the treadmill, but I couldn't quite run yet. So it was just walking. Tonight I ran a little though before we headed over to Jeff & Sara's to watch the Top Chef finale. One step at a time. There's still no catching Rob.

Latest mileage:
Katherine: 2.5 (13.95 total miles)
Rob: 2.1 (33.7 total miles)

She's back

Katherine is feeling much better, and as a result, she's returned to the treadmill. Hopefully she'll get some use out of the iPod Shuffle she recently received.

Latest mileage:
Katherine: 2.3 (11.45 total miles)
Rob: 8.4 (31.6 total miles)

Friday, February 20, 2009

Taking advantage during sickness? Maybe...

K has been sick all week. However, my Operation Mexico efforts continue unabated. Here are the latest numbers:

Katherine: 0 miles (9.15 total miles)
Rob: 9.4 miles (23.2 total miles)

K seems to be improving, so she'll be back in the swing of things shortly.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Derailed

I was looking forward to running today. Weird. I know. I think my subconscious secretly knew I wouldn't actually be running... so that my conscious could feel good about looking forward to running without having to endure actual running.

I am sick. I have a nasty cough coming from deep down in my chest that has been throwing me into some half-not-breathing coughing fits throughout the day. Plus a low fever. So the treadmill was out. As was most everything except television and a small amount of work that couldn't be ignored.

Obviously, now I'm way behind in the competition.

Kat: 0 miles (9.15 total)
Rob: 4.4 miles (13.8 total)

In other news, we went to Blackhawks game for Valentine's Day last night, which was a lot of fun. My coughing spells hadn't fully blossomed yet. I bought Rob a Kane jersey for Valentine's Day. He bought me an iPod shuffle and loaded it with some great workout music for me today. Awww. Good man.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Happy (belated) birthday Tim!

Last night we took Tim and Emily out to dinner for a belated birthday celebration for Tim. We went to The Gage, which was great as always. Then we went back to our place for an evening of Wii Rock Band. Total fun.

So happy belated birthday Tim!!

Friday, February 13, 2009

Operation Mexico - Rob is still winning

Rob found it pretty funny that I'm comparing our mileage in my Operation Mexico posts. I believe his exact words were, "Come on. We know I'm going to win."

I suppose it's true.

Yesterday I raced back from NY in time for my book club where we all discussed how much we disliked the book we read... while eating amazing enchiladas and drinking delicious sangria. I got home to find Rob on the treadmill. Damn! So even though running post-sangria is probably not ideal (and indeed, I had to stop and walk some of my mileage... good thing I only had one glass), I threw on my gym clothes to try to keep up.

New stats:
Kat: 3.5 miles (9.15 total)
Rob: 3.5 miles (9.4 total)

Today is our day off working out. Thank god. I am sooooo tired. Because after book club, and after working out, which all came after not getting much sleep at all the last two nights, I still had to finish a bunch of work. Awesome. TGIF.

(Sara, please don't stop reading! ;)

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Operation Mexico - Rob takes the lead!

Despite work still looming and a wake up of 4:30am this morning, I raced to the gym in my hotel at 9:30pm to squeeze in some mileage before the gym closed at 10pm. We all know I'm not going to wake up early to work out. I ran nearly the whole last mile at or above 6.0 because I was so determined to get through my 2.25 miles before they kicked me out. Whoo hoo! I never run that fast, which is like sprinting for my little legs.

So here are the new stats:

Kat: 2.25 miles (5.65 total)
Rob: 2.5 miles (5.9 total)

And with that, Rob pulls ahead. Grrrr.

All I really accomplished in the gym though was burning off half the bread pudding I ate with dinner. I had a fantastic dinner with my second parents -- David and Nancy, aka Mark's parents. They happen to live down the road from where I'm staying for work tonight so they graciously came to meet me for dinner. There's nothing like dinner with loved ones when you're on the road. And awesome bread pudding to boot. :)

Now, back to work!

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Operation Mexico

The last time I was in good shape feels like a long time ago, if ever. I probably felt the best (in recent years) during the summer of 2007 when Rob and I wrapped up "Operation Portugal." It was our get-in-shape plan aimed at making sure we looked fit (or at least fitter) on our vacation to Portugal in August 2007.

It worked. I dropped back down to my wedding weight. Still not my pre-law school weight and definitely not my NYC weight. But a weight I was very happy to be as a 30-something.

Today I'm not very far from that. But I don't want to be on that slippery slope where every year I gain just a couple pounds. A lifetime of that adds up. It already has.

So Rob and I have a new plan. Operation Mexico. We leave for a week in Puerto Vallarta in six and a half weeks. I'm aiming to turn back just a little a bit, just back to my Operation Portugal weight. We've been doing weekly pilates for almost a year now, so I hope the strength I've built will help as I pick up cardio again.

In keeping with Operation Portugal, I'll log my mileage on the blog again. Rob's too. Starting with tonight's treadmill runs.

Kat: 3.4 miles
Rob: 3.4 miles

So far it's a tie....

Sunday, February 08, 2009

Toronto

Rob and I were in Toronto this past weekend. (Not the past month, as you might suspect given my latest blogging hiatus. It's just work keeping me away. When I'm exhausted, I'm sad to say that blogging takes a backseat behind reality television. No better excuse than that.)

Anywho, we were in Toronto to make up for my traveling so much in January, including on our anniversary. And then I'd promised Rob the whole weekend following our anniversary, but I had to work the whole weekend. So I planned a trip to Toronto for our 3 years and 1 month-iversary to make up for it. Rob and I had never been to Canada before and got a great deal to Toronto in the dead of winter, probably because it's supposed to be insanely cold there these days.

Fortunately for us, the weather in Toronto was great (for Canada) just as it was in Chicago this past weekend. On Saturday it was a little drizzly, but the temperatures hit as high as 50 degrees. On Sunday it was colder, down to about 30, but it was sunny. Given the single digits we have had lately in Chicago, Toronto felt fantastic.

The weekend was great form start to finish. Rob found an amazing restaurant for us to go to on Friday night for a belated, posh anniversary dinner. If you go to Toronto, go to Lucien. And just get the tasting. Every bite we had was superb.

I will try to blog more about the rest of our weekend soon. Work beckons. For now, here's some pictures. :)

A bit of pilsner at Steam Whistle Brewery. Bummer this beer isn't in the States. It's really good.

Rob outside the CN Tower. We did not go up. It was too freaky just looking up at it.


Rob in the Montreal "locker room" in the Hockey Hall of Fame, which is a great hall of fame, even for hockey novices.

Me and my high school friend Maurissa. She moved to Toronto a week ago. She'd seen my Facebook status said I was in Canada and emailed me to see if I was in Toronto. So we met up for lunch on Saturday. Too fun!



Me in a public square on the way to St. Lawrence Market, which is phenomenal. I couldn't get over how many public spaces and public sculptures are all over Toronto. It gave a feeling to the city I can't quite explain, but that I absolutely loved. I could totally live in Toronto. Save the cold. But that's what I once said about Chicago....