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...