First let me just give a big shout out to my dog and wish him a happy 6th birthday! Y’all know how much Duncan means to me. He’s truly my best friend. (Well, except when he is misbehaving lol).

Sock monkey destruction

Proud of his gifts but tolerating the hat

Waiting patiently for me to give him the ok to eat his cookies

I’m 6 which means in dog years I’m older than my mom

Yesterday I kicked off my 2 week vacation with a relaxing morning with 2 of my favorites.

Two great mugs!

And then, late morning I decided to go for a run. I covered just over 5 miles.

thinking about running in place inside to avoid the cold and cloudy outside

OK so here’s the boring novel I’m about to share about “runjuries”. Feel free to skip if you want and go directly to the Luna Bar Giveaway instruction below =)

I was pretty banged up when I got home. My right piriformis (butt cheek muscle) has been a bit spazzy the last couple of days. My chronic tight left hamstring was SOOO tight and I could feel the tightness behind my knee and down the side of my calf. And the right knee! The annoying, frustrating mystery knee pain that started at the beginning of October decided to be a punk for the last 2 miles. Interestingly I really had no issue at all during our holiday windows run this past Saturday. While we covered between 6 and 7 miles we stopped frequently to admire the store windows and tree and also walked a lot too so I’m guessing the impact was much less than a normal run of that distance.

These “runjuries” are really disheartening. If I can’t make it through an easy 5 miler without lingering pain, how will I start marathon training in a few weeks? My first long run is usually 7 or 8 miles. That just isn’t going to happen the way I’m feeling lately. Not to mention, i feel like my usual mental health benefits of running aren’t happening because I’m to fixated on the physical stuff during the run that I can’t clear the cobwebs in my head like I’m used to.

So here’s my short term plan:

• Start icing knee 2X a day.
• Take ibuprofen for a few days straight
• Foam roll legs (especially quads, hamstrings and glutes)
• Strengthen core, hips, glutes, hamstrings and quads using exercise from PT and online
• Keep exercise low impact for 2 weeks. Try not to run but if i must run then only 1-3 miles on soft, flat paths.

Long term I’d like to get my running form/gait evaluated and probably get a new primary care doc who will be happy to send me to a PT who specializes in running mechanics and injuries. I’m also prepared to start my marathon training a few weeks later than normal and/or fall back to the half if i have to. The New Jersey Marathon is April 26th and a 16 week cycle would have me start on 1/4. So realistically if I can be healed by 1/18 I’ll still get 14 weeks of training in. And if I struggle at all, I can drop back to half training 10 weeks out starting mid February to give myself an extra month to heal. I’m saying all this like a mature adult. But I can tell you that if I am not healed or have to drop back to the half I’ll probably cry and feel sad and go through all those emotions. =)

Luna Bar Giveaway!

Gift from Luna

So about a week ago, Luna sent me a box of their newest, and now gluten free, bars. I have had 2 of them so far. The chocolate dipped coconut one was my absolute favorite. They are now gluten free! And Luna has offered to send a box of bars to one of my readers.

To enter just leave me a comment below about anything you want. (make sure you’ve added an email address when posting so I can contact you if you’ve won.). I’ll select one reader at random on Friday afternoon 12/26 so leave your comment before 9am (EST) on that day. This giveaway is only available to my U.S. readers as the bars can only be mailed to a U.S. postal address.

That’s it! I’m off to start baking now for Christmas Day. I’m bringing homemade brownies (yes! from scratch, not a mix) and my grandmother’s famous rum cake. It’s basically a doctored up yellow cake mix cake with rum in the batter baked in a bundt pan but the glaze has lots of rum and sugar and walnuts. OH SO YUMMY!

I won’t be reunited with my laptop until after the holiday so if I don’t post again beforehand have a very merry one!

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