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?

 

Happy Wednesday…

I am officially on vacation until next Tuesday. I have lots to do around the house so it’s going to just be a STAYcation…and the timing is perfect because we’re getting a blizzard starting after midnight tonight.

Last night I received not one, not 2, but 3 packages!

photo 1

I knew that my replacement running capris would be arriving soon and I knew my sister-in-law had ordered me an Otterbox iPhone case for my new phone (foreshadowing), but the Run Like a Girl medal holder was a total surprise! We were talking about how the 2 medal holders I have were filling up and she wanted to make sure my 2014 bling would have a home. I love her!

I hit the mall this morning at 10am when they opened to go to the Apple store and finally upgrade to the new iPhone. I brought the new case like a parent would bring a car seat to bring baby home. LOL.

photo

welcome to your new home iPhone 5S. I will love you forever two years

I used some gift cards I received over the holidays and then forked over the balance. Considering my phone is probably the most valuable thing after my dog and my running sneakers I’d say it’s worth the money because I get every penny’s worth and then some!

Next up was a pit stop to Dicks Sporting Goods for a stash of Sport Beans and HoneyStinger chews now that my long runs will be 14+ miles.

photo 2-1

And then to the Dr. for my follow-up and pathology results. Benign! Benign! Benign! I am so relieved.

I hit up Trader Joes for some groceries so I won’t starve tomorrow during the storm.

photo 1-1

note the most important item, the chocolate covered almonds!

And then I met my dear friend Doreen and her Dogues (the Turner and Hooch dogs) for a nice long walk.

photo 2

watching the bird formation. they are gettin’ the heck outta dodge before the storm

photo 3

walkin’

photo 4

can we stay here forever ma? i’m having so much fun.

photo 5

over here guys! i think i found a mouse

We let them off the leash to romp in the snow a bit since not a soul was around. It was great! And that’s how I started off this STAYcation..

I’ll be shoveling tomorrow for some cross training I suppose and probably will move my run to Friday…but not Friday evening. That would be pathetic. Well maybe not….spending Valentine’s day running is love for sure….

Question: What music are you loving lately? I have lots of iTunes gift cards and want to buy some new stuff while I’m snowed in. How is life with you these days? Happy? Healthy? I sure hope so

Well, I  survived but it was no fun. Yep. 4 hours to go about 25 miles. The snow started about 8:00am. I kept trying to leave early but work kept pouring in. By the time I left the office it was 3:40pm.

Started out waiting for my usual bus right in front of the Macy’s in Herald Square…

Macys

I wish the snowflakes weren’t blurry.

katie holmes

Is this katie holmes? I think I need to buy some of that makeup =)

This was going nowhere. The woman at the front of the bus line had been waiting well over an hour. So I decided to hop down into the subway and take it downtown hoping i’d have a better chance at getting on a bus.

waiting for the bus, waiting for the subway, taking pictures of the snow and the traffic

waiting for the bus, waiting for the subway and taking pictures of the snow and the traffic

Eventually I made it onto a bus. An hour had passed by this point but I was sitting and warm and hoping that was the worst of it. Well, 3 hours later I made it to my car (parked at the bus stop). I did the best I could to remove the snow from the windshield, warmed it up a few minutes and then slowly drove home.

Almost home. Just gotta dust off the jeep.

Almost home. Just gotta dust off the jeep.

I came home and ripped into this:

Edy's Chocolate Chip

Yes please!

Today I couldn’t bear the thought of commuting with my Gilligan’s Island trek still so fresh in my head so I finagled working from home. It worked out well as I started at 9am and finished at 4:56pm. Perfect!

Then I hit up the gym to log in the 4 mile tempo run I was supposed to do yesterday.

Real Feel: -2? I'll take indoors for 200 Alec.

Real Feel: -2? I’ll take indoors for 200 Alec.

I am not a fan of the “dreadmill” but I have to say that for a tempo run it’s great. Set it and forget it! My tempo is supposed to be 9:57 pace but I usually find mills to be a little easier than running outside so I kept my pace at 9:33. It felt GREAT! The run itself plus just getting myself to drive there on such a cold (did i mention it was 15 degrees with a real feel temp of -2?) day.

So I took a lil’ video in the parking lot because I was just so proud of myself!

I came home pumped! Perfect because I needed to shovel the driveway (which i didn’t do last night…thank god for jeeps), then pack up and put out a lot of garbage. And if that wasn’t enough physical activity, one of the cabinets I ordered for my bathroom arrived from Target, so I started assembly—but 2 hours later I realized this is a 2-day job.

build-a-cabinet

Gotta start somewhere.

assembly in progress

Main frame done….tomorrow doors and drawer and the flimsy plywood back with 6,000,423 screws. #prayforme

Tomorrow I’m supposed to run 5. It’s probably going to be a treadmill run again and it might even get cut back to 3 miles. I am really sore and tired. Heck it might just get scrapped all together. Winter is tiring. I love the snow but just bundling up, warming the car, shoveling etc…it’s tiring. Sunday I’m running the Fred LeBow Manhattan Half Marathon. It’s supposed to be pretty frigid again.

Good thing they reminded us to dress warmly.

Good thing they reminded us to dress warmly.

I am not racing it. It’s just going to be an easy training run that I paid a lot of money for =) I’ll take 2 apples AND a bottle of water at the finish for sure 😉

Question: Do you buy “assemble it yourself” furniture? Do you use the instruction book or wing it? What’s the worst commute you’ve ever had? I bet nothing as bad as mine.