Christmas break

Happy Christmas and Merry New Years to you and yours.
hanging out at ME's parent's place. I'm exhausted and was puttering along at some work stuff but have given up in favour of 3 glasses of wine.
Christmas brings such a mixture of emotions. we went and visited ME's old neighbour who is quite elderly. seeing her circumstances and helping yet another elderly lady up off the floor (great-grandma H had a tumble on sunday night at grandma M's) at the nursing home has got me thinking. in addition there was a snowmobile fatality up here and the fellow killed has a young family. then there are people like us, home with their families everyone is safe and sound and having a merry Christmas. it's difficult to resolve the polarities of everyone's situation but makes me grateful for another happy and healthy year.
as for the running - we missed a 3M and our long run of 8M on the weekend b/c of the nasty snow recently. -17oC is no cake walk so we decided to stay inside. since I've managed to put away 3 glasses of wine already today (lil sis, you know what I'm saying here) I don't know whether we'll get out for a run today or now. plus ME is out at the liquor store with the other boys.
looking forward to ME's one Christmas present. should be a great experience for both of us.
missing Mom, Dad and lil sis. can't wait to see you guys.

Tonight's run

on deck for tonight: 5M at 10:09/mile pace. hopefully it won't be Snowmeggedon tonight but if Environment Canada is calling it a "fast-moving but dynamic storm" with "heavy snowfall" expected, I think I'll be out of luck... should have sucked it up and ran last night instead. I was just so exhausted though. made the highly intelligent decision to go to bed early and then proceeded to watch 3 episodes of Grey's Anatomy.

I'm knitting a baby hat right now. I'm a little concerned about size though. this one is a bit of a 'fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants' pattern. so far I'm happy with it, although I'm only about 10 rows in.

it's such a struggle right now to be productive. I am ready for it to be Christmas. the time off is needed!

TOM has said that 2009 is going to be the year of the skinny. I want to organize a mini Biggest Loser at work/with friends to help motivate people. could be fun. just need to figure out the logistics.

crack-a-lackin'

three whole delicious, pain-free runs!

• saturday 13 december - 3M, outside, with ME. 30mins and change.
• sunday 14 december - 7M, outside, with ME. 1h, 12mins and change. saw a couple deer, one of which jumped a big fence to be with his lady friend. startled me so badly I grabbed ME's arm. had a nice soak in the tub after dinner. (had some yummy steaks and sweet potato fries and laughs with L,M and MN over. little M is so sweet and getting very mobile!)
• monday 15 december - 3.1M, hamster wheel w/ KT on elliptical beside me (whoo hoo another work out buddy!) 28mins and change for 3M, 1min and a bit for walking cooldown.

all of this with no pain from the dastardly L knee! smiles all around! both knees are a bit sore today going down stairs but that's nothing a bit of ice and advil tonight won't fix. must get some yoga/stretching in tonight to loosen up a bit.

in other non-running news...

got a whack of Christmas shopping down on the weekend. now torn about what to give ME for Christmas since I can't do both of the extra cool items without being wildly over the budget. K(M)P and AVD have both suggested the same route so now I just need to make the last purchase.
still have a couple things to pick up for AE, Mom H, and lil' LH. but, for the most part, I am done and wrapping is started!

what to have for dinner tonight? I'm so freakin' hungry rightthissecond!

note to self: post training schedule

pain free run!!!

hamster wheel 4 miler - no pain folks!

wednesday night after work I ran 4miles with a normal feeling knee! how great is that?! admittedly it was a bit slow (40:20) but I walked for the first .25 of a mile and the last .25 of a mile. ran the first mile at 8:20ish pace and the 2nd and 3rd between 9:40 and 10:10/mile. not too shabby considering how little I've been able to run as of late.

yesterday I got an arms and abs workout in before work. it really helped me stay alert during the day but didn't save me from making some bad decisions in order to stave off some really bad decisions. wait... maybe it did sort of save me... anyways, I feel asleep on the couch for 2.5 hours last night and slept another 7 in bed as well. it's a sign: I don't sleep enough.

need to get another 3M in tonight, after work before my date with ME! :o)

this weekend has Christmas shopping and a 7 miler on the schedule.

still no runs

WTF knee? seriously. I played soccer last night. 50 mins (all 50 mins since we didn't have any female subs) and the knee feels great. no pain killers, no ice. all good. today I'm sitting in my chair at work and go to sit on my left foot b/c it's cold (not ergonomical I know) and the knee is stiff. not hurting but where was this this morning going down the stairs? can I run on it or not? is it just faking the not hurting? sigh. I'm frustrated. I think I'll run at the gym tonight and see how it goes.

been reading lots of running blogs lately (over lunch) and I'm feeling pretty motivated. mawh I wanna run so bad. see the blogs I follow to the right to bask in their motivating glory.

sent MC the wikipedia link for the Beer Mile. gotta do this. asap possible as they say around here.

today's goal: get into bed early. 9:30-10pm no later.

so sick and no runs. i'm miserable.

Today my fever broke (yipee!) and I haven't taken any cold/flu meds in 5+ hours. I will be taking some tonight to get a good night's sleep in but overall I'm feeling about 65%. Better than Tuesday night's 13%. So, considering my 52% improvement, I thought maybe I would be ok for a run. Rather than put myself through a relapse, I decided to do some research. I read some
Where Does It Hurt? care of Runner's World because I remembered something about a neck up rule. Turns out that I should wait one more day before running again. Even then I think it's in my best interests to run inside. Damn it. I hate having to be patient. I really need to be running!

The knee continues to cause issues. I think it's IT band inflammation but LM among others have said I should suck it up and get the doctor to send me to physio to be on the safe side. This is really making me want a trainer for my bike so that I can at least get some cardio in and not cause further damage to the knee. I'm looking at the CycleOps Mag+ Trainer as an option. **cough cough Christmas idea cough**

Speaking of Christmas ideas... http://www.moeben.com/ I really like the giraffe ones...

:o)

Off to bed.