...and a Happy New Year!

I hope everyone's holiday was as good as mine. There is nothing better than spending a few good days in a festive mood, laughing, eating and drinking all you want with the people you love the most. Oh yeah, and the whole "presents" thing is pretty cool too.

Since so much has happened in the last couple of weeks, and we all know how much I love making lists and taking pictures, here is the lowdown on Christmas/08.

First and foremost, the Friday before Christmas MY BROTHER CAME HOME FROM IRAQ!!!!

It was a few weeks earlier than they had planned and it made a great Christmas gift for all of us, but mostly for him, his wife and their three kids. YAY! Best gift EVA!

Here we are at Christmas, oh, about 27-28 years ago.


Then a few days before Christmas, J's parents came to visit. I am very lucky in the in-law department. They are the easiest house guests ever and we love having them around.



After driving up to stay with my parent's, we all went to see the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular.




Here we are keeping ourselves entertained during intermission.


Can you believe all these gifts are for six adults?


We ate an impressive Christmas Eve feast. My mom makes the best Christmas Eve dinners and this one didn't disappoint. The potatoes were insane.


I got to see my Godson Hamish again on Christmas. He was sporting the spiffy new bib I got him a few weeks earlier.


He wasn't the only tired one from all the Christmas hoopla. Zero was pretty exhausted too.


Apparently I was good this year because Santa (Jeremy) treated me very well and surprised me with a shiny new Michael Kors bag!


Since I have never spent more than $75 on a purse in my life I am constantly scared I am going to accidentally drop it in a puddle of mud (even though it hasn't rained here in weeks) or spill coffee on it's shiny camel-colored skin. So I used a gift card and some extra money from a few gifts I had to return to pick up another bag. I saw this Lucky Bag before Christmas that is equally as awesome, yet much less expensive. This way, I wont ruin the first bag with my everyday klutziness. Yay, TWO new bags for Christmas!



As far as running goes, there hasn't been much of that in the past few weeks. This morning Jeremy and I went to South Beach and walked a 4 mile stretch up the boardwalk and back for a nice, fast 8 mile walk. That was the most mileage I have done since the Columbus Marathon in October.


I spent the week before Christmas going to the gym a lot. This is the one good thing about not being able to run, I have been forced to start lifting again on a regular basis which is nice and much needed. I have also been stretching a lot which has been helping a little. Of course the week of Christmas, with the inlaws coming in and driving us all up to my parents house, I got no workouts in. Unless you count uncorking countless wine bottles from our celebratory drinking and washing dishes from the 5 million times we ate as working out. Needless to say, I haven't stepped on a scale in over 2 weeks. Oh well.

The good news however is that I found out from my doctor that the MRI resulted in no lower back problems. So Friday I decided to try running a slow three miles to see how I felt. Once again at mile 2-2.5 the tightness in my leg got so bad that the knee just had no support and basically gave out. I did run a bit slower this time though and took two minute walk breaks instead of one, which helped it to be a bit less excruciating when I was done.

That afternoon I went to see a PT. She was amazing and after evaluating me told me I have a pretty badly inflamed IT band, a bit of Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome and REALLY tight quad muscles that need to be stretched (which was probably causing a lot of my problems). After giving me an ultrasound and an IT band massage that almost had me crying on her table she said three things that really excited me.

1. She told me to keep running. She said I just need to go slow and stop as soon as the pain starts, three times a week, every other day. If I don't run, then start again, the pain will just come back.

2. She said it's probably easily treatable with more massage, heat and some serious stretching.

3. She said there is still a chance I could run at least the half in Miami.

WOO-HOOO!

I am trying not to get my hopes up too high, but we will see.

As much as I loved this woman there was one catch. She didn't take my insurance. And even with my Footworks Marathon leader discount, (she was recommended by the person who runs our running group) it was still $100 bucks a visit and she wanted to see me twice a week for at least a month. So I thanked her for making me writhe in pain, paid my hundred bucks and made an appointment for another PT this Wednesday. Hopefully, he will be as positive and as effective as this woman was and I will be out there running soon.

Until then, it's another day at the gym tomorrow and maybe a slow 2-3 mile run on New Years Day if I don't celebrate too much the night before.

Happy New Years everyone!

Merry Christmas!!!

I am sure I will not be posting until after the Holidays seeing that my in-laws are already here and we will be driving out of town over the weekend to go visit my parents.

So I hope everyone has a safe and happy (insert holiday here). Enjoy the festivities, the food and drinks, and enjoy your families (even if you want to kill them- haha, it IS the holidays after all!)

And happy running, to those who are still doing that sort of thing ;)

Holiday Madness

I think it's safe to say that I think I may finally be done with all the holiday hubapaloo. I actually came home from work last night and had no shopping to do, gifts to wrap, cookies to bake, homemade Christmas cards to design or packages to send and was confused as to how I was supposed to spend my evening.

Here is a little pictorial of the past week and a half.

Company Christmas Party at O Asian Grill.



Notice the beer in my hand. This picture was taken on a FRIDAY night at about 10 pm on South Beach. After we left the party at 11pm, it took us (Jeremy and I) two hours to get home (accident on the bridge) and we didn't get to sleep until after 1am. We then had to wake up at 4am for our Saturday morning training run with our groups. Sixteen miles to be exact. Mind you, I am still injured, so I wasn't even running, but BIKING! Ugggghhh....

My Godson's Naming Ceremony



I finally got to meet my little Hamish (Hay-mish), What a cutie! It was a good night with old friends. We had a blast even though we were exhausted from the night before.

Here's a picture of the proud papa! (hehe)


(that's SCOTCH by the way...a big-ass glass of scotch)

And here I am with Wendy, one of my best friends from high school.



When I wasn't at work, the rest of the week back pretty much looked like this...









I suppose I have replaced my fixation with running with a case of Christmas OCD. Oh well, I needed something to keep me from feeling sorry for myself.

As far as running is concerned, I tried running twice last week. Monday, I got to mile 2.5 before my knee started to give. But this time I noticed the pain and how it worked. It it no longer an issue with tendonitis, but is something related to sciatica or something similar. It starts with a dull ache deep in the muscle ('scuse my French, in my ass), then as I run it goes down the back of my leg, causing a numbness that eventually surrounds the knee and causes the knee pain.

After walking home the last 1/2 mile of my run, sobbing from frustration and sadness, I finally decided to call my dr. and made an appointment.

I got in the next day and he seems to think it has something to do with a Lumbar Compression, blah, blah, blah...so I went and had an MRI on Saturday and am still awaiting the results. All I know now is that any dream I may have held on to about the Miami Marathon is finally gone. There is no way I am doing the full and it will be a miracle if I do the half at this point, especially since my dr. told me not to run for a bit.

I have been going to the gym, lifting weights, getting to know the elliptical again and trying to focus more energy on my abs and lower back. I have also made an effort to spend at LEAST 20 minutes stretching EVERY DAY! Of course today I was exhausted and decided to stay snuggled in bed while the winter winds (60 degrees) blew through my open bedroom windows. It's just so much harder for me to get motivated to go to a crowded, obnoxious gym than it is to run outside in the beautiful South Florida winter-ish weather.

Sigh...

No time for anything...

I've been a little busy lately with all the Holiday madness coming up. With making homemade Christmas cards, baking cookies, decorating, shopping, work, etc, I have had little time to think straight. I don't know why I think I am Martha F-ing Stewart sometimes.

But all in all, I enjoy it. Plus, it keeps me from thinking too much about the whole "knee issue" that wont seem to go away.

I had a couple of three mile runs last week that were fine. Then I attempted a 6 mile run last Sunday and had to stop at 4 because I could feel my right knee acting up. Then I took a couple days off and tried again on Wednesday with the exact same results. Sigh.

Needless to say, tomorrow I wont be running the 10 miles I had hoped with my group while they do 16. Looks like it will be another Saturday on the bike. The thing that really sucks about this is that my holiday party is tonight on South Beach and I wont even be able to enjoy it because, once again, I have to get up at 4am to BIKE! Ugh. Does anyone know if it's hard to coast on a bike if you are hungover?

It's an extremely busy weekend that goes a little like this:

• Tonight - Holiday Party on South Beach

• Tomorrow morning, 4am - 16 mile bike ride with group

• Come home, pack

• Drive 4 hours to Sarasota

• 4pm - Hamish's (My friends new baby) naming ceremony (non religious christening basically)

• Afta party at the Roo (a great bar in Bradenton with a ton of imports)

• Sunday morning/afternoon - looking at houses in Sarasota (looking into buying a property)

• Dinner with parents and friends from Miami

• Monday morning, wake up at the crack of dawn to drive back down to Miami (4 hours) and go STRAIGHT to work.

Ugh, I'm exhausted just typing it!

I am however, super excited to meet my new Godson Hamish (or Hamster as I like to call him).



I also love looking at houses, so that should be fun too. Even if we don't know if we are going to buy anything.

Hopefully soon I will have a moment to stop and check up on all you guys to see how everything is going. Maybe I can even get a few miles in myself.

Have a great weekend!