Hi!

It’s after midnight which means it’s Wednesday! On Monday my office closed early due to the snow forecast. We were supposed to get somewhere between 1 to 2 feet of snow overnight. I grabbed some computer files and a spinach calzone at the pizzeria on my way to the bus about 1pm. The calzone was because I was anticipating the worst. I thought it’d be a long commute home with the snow steadily falling and I hate being hungry when I’m stuck on that bus. =) But amazingly it was one of my fastest commutes ever and I was home before 2pm! I don’t regret the calzone though—better safe than hungry.

I have spent the last 15 years riding out most blizzards, hurricanes, blackouts, etc alone but since our office was going to be closed today I had this crazy idea that instead of working from my home maybe I could ride out the storm over at Mr. SOTSS’s house. He liked my crazy idea so I packed up my laptop and the doodle and headed over. I brought over some goodies including a pint of Ben and Jerry’s and we watched a movie and caught up what’s been going on in each other’s lives the last few days.

Yesterday morning I had a conference call early in the morning and then worked most of the day, but we snuck out go for a walk in the woods about a mile away to let the dogs play in the snow.

happy feet!

happy feet!

Brown dogs look good in white

Brown dogs look good in white

This just might be one of my favorite shots of Chester

This just might be one of my favorite shots of Chester

Always with the phone in my hand. Busted!

Always with the phone in my hand. Busted!

The only makeup I have is the rosy cheeks provided by Mother Nature :)

The only makeup I have is the rosy cheeks provided by Mother Nature 🙂

Houston: We have a problem.

Houston: We have a problem.

lick

Someone loves his dad so much he’s not afraid to show some PDA.

running-duncan

Snow legs!

serenity

I never grow weary of nature’s beautiful scenery

sleepy-dogs

two tired pups!

winter-wonderland

I love how the snow covered branches frame this shot

It was exhausting to trudge through the snow. I’m guessing there was somewhere between 8 and 10 inches of fresh fallen snow. We didn’t get the full on blizzard that they said we would get but apparently just 40 miles north east of us in parts of Long Island and up in Massachusetts they got hammered.

So you know that my knee gave out on me on Sunday while trying to get in my long run. And it bothered me walking in the snow as well as tonight when I came home and shoveled my driveway.

It’s actually hurting right now and I’m just sitting. Somewhere during that walk in the snow this afternoon and writing this post I made a decision. I am taking another running hiatus. I’m thinking of taking another 3 weeks off. And I might even try and see a doctor. I know. Crazy! I’m actually relatively calm about this. I’m grateful that my life is filled with so much these days. Between my regular job, my freelance jobs, spending time with all my friends and family and Mr. SOTSS I’ve got lots of life in my life and I’m in great spirits. So taking this running hiatus is really fine. I just had this conversation with Mr. SOTSS today about how I met him just a couple of weeks after the last full marathon that I’ve run and then i was injured so he hasn’t known me as marathoner. He hasn’t seen me on days I’ve put in 20 mile training runs. He hasn’t seen me over-the-moon from running a marathon without hitting the wall. This made me realize that I can’t imagine not being able to run more than 3-5 miles without having knee pain and I must fix this so I can have a long future of distance running.

Tell me something about your week so far. I want to hear it….the good, the bad, the ugly. 

Have you ever gotten “hangry” (angry from not eating) before?

 

Hi everyone! Hope you all had a good weekend. I had a nice balance of lazy and busy as well as some highs and lows when it comes to running. I’ll fill you in…

Friday it was sunny and relatively warm (for winter in New York City)—about 40 degrees. So I decided to just go for a short run. I was so thrilled that I felt no knee pain at all. I’m continuing to enjoy the Garmin Forerunner 10.

Short and sweet and pain free!

Short and sweet and pain free!

It was the first time since last September that I ran on 2 consecutive days (I had run 5 miles the day before). HIGH! Then I took the doodle for a walk to enjoy the sunshine too.

another doodle pic

doodle sunshine

Does this angle make my butt look big?

In the evening I met my childhood friend Tara for dinner. We try and see each other about once a year. We caught up on life and while she isn’t on Facebook yet she FINALLY got an Instagram account and we took our first selfie!

Saturday was quite the lazy day. We had snow and rain overnight leaving the roads slick so I took advantage and just stayed put and did stuff around the house like cleaning, freelance design work and knee rehabbing. I did manage to get the doodle some run time on this soccer field by my house to enjoy the few inches of snow that we had received.

Running it out

Running it out

Of course with all the lounging around, I found myself going in to the kitchen a little to frequently and kept dipping into this bag of chips:

My name is Sally and I'm addicted to potato chips

My name is Sally and I’m addicted to these chips

I ate so many I felt a bit sick so I finally got in the car and just drove to the mall to walk around, but more importantly, to get away from the chips and just get out of the house.

Today I took advantage of another sunny day and went to the beach to get in my 8 miler…well, I tried anyway. LOW! My knee gave out an hour into the run and I just immediately stopped running and walked back to the car.

beach view

Serenity!

Gateway National Park

Beautiful scenery for the consolation prize

It wasn’t worth it to push it any more. I have already said that I’m prepared to take more time off and not run the New Jersey Marathon in April if this knee isn’t healed and I’m sticking to what I said. For the most part I’m ok with this but we all know I’ll cry like a baby if I truly can’t run it. (I swear I feel like a broken record…although most days are like Groundhog’s day here at Sweat Out The Small Stuff….you know….walking the doodle, running, bitchin’ about injuries, binging on carbs…)

sad snowmen

These are some dirty, sad snowmen

I’ve come to the conclusion that 3-5 miles is my comfortable distance for now and I think the knee will need some more strengthening and rest before I can realistically do distances more than that. Le Sigh!

I did a repeat of Friday and took Duncan for a walk to enjoy the sunshine too (you see! just like Groundhog’s day!)

FullSizeRender 4

Leading the way

FullSizeRender

Paw prints in the snow make me happy

Good thing because I hear we’re getting a big storm of a foot or more of snow starting tomorrow afternoon!

Do you like potato chips? Do you have a favorite kind? What’s the snack you tend to binge on?
I love kettle chips!

I’m almost done with my 2014 Highlights post but in the meantime I wanted to share with you a little about my plan of attack for marathon training and knee rehabbing since I’ll be kicking into gear in just 4 days.

The New Jersey Marathon is exactly 16 weeks from today! EXCITED is an understatement!!!!

NJ Marathon finisher

Giddy after completing and PR’ing in the 2014 NJ Marathon

I’ll be starting my training cycle this Thursday as I really wanted to give my knee a solid 2 weeks rest. (Thursday will actually be the 17th day of rest. Isn’t it funny how we know exactly how many days we haven’t run.)

First, a little update on the knee:

In these last couple of weeks my knee has felt close to 100 percent and I’ll admit I got a little too laxed with all the icing, stretching and strengthening I said I was going to do so I’m lucky that the rest helped as much as it did. But, I’ve noticed that climbing up and down stairs or hills even while just walking irritates the knee just enough for me to know that it needs more than rest. And on Saturday night Mr. SOTSS and I went bowling. I noticed that irritated the knee a bit too. Bummer. Especially because I beat him in both games and was looking to win one more game before heading home but I opted to shut it down and let the knee retire for the night.

He probably let me win both games. He's that kinda guy. =)

He probably let me win both games. He’s that kinda guy. =)

I’ve been researching some good instructional videos for how to strengthen/rehab the knee so I can get a bit more structured about this. I found this little video and while the audio could be better it’s got a great little collection of exercises. It’s now bookmarked and I’m going to do this every.single.day!

OK, now onto my marathon training plan. I’m calling it the Back-to-Basics plan because I don’t plan on any bells or whistles. Nothing complicated.

Back to Basics Marathon Training Plan

Back to Basics Marathon Training Plan

I’m lucky in that NJ is a very flat course. So there will be no hill training. I’m also choosing to let go of any time goals. So there will be no speed work. Basically I just want to get 3 solid runs in per week:

1. One easy run
2. One tempo run
3. One long run

And I’ll add to that a day or two of cross training, some strengthening, stretching and some core work as well on most days. I’m not even focused on the exact amount of miles I cover for my mid-week runs. I just want to ensure I can hit those long runs. And I’ll add in some step back weeks every few weeks recover. This is mainly to ensure my knee, ankle, hamstring, calf….all the weak spots from 2014….have a better chance at healing and not causing me any grief. But also, my life has become just a little bit fuller over the last year and I want to spend time doing much more than training for a marathon. Low key just makes sense for me right now.

I can’t tell you how liberating it feels to take away so many of the rules for this training cycle.

So now that I’ve bored you guys just as much as the doodle….

yawn

YAWN! Oh and I’m 100 percent recovered and my momma is SOOOO happy!

I’m going to do something I haven’t done in 18 days…..get ready for work! Holiday vacation is officially over.

Have a great week!

Question: Are you training for anything this Spring? Anything exciting happening this week?

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

Sock monkey destruction

labradoodle gifts

Proud of his gifts but tolerating the hat

labradoodle birthday

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

labradoodle

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!

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

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

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!

2014xmascard