When I last updated about 2 months ago (sorry!), I was pretty frustrated– I wasn’t able to run because of my knee/IT issues, and I wasn’t seeing much progress. I was throwing myself a bit of a pity party, probably from the lack of endorphins and withdrawal from the bridle path.

And maybe I should re-name this blog “Lindsay Never Runs” because 2 months later, I’m back in the same place. Let’s rewind…

In early March, I started seeing Dr. Levine, a pseudo celeb in NYC running-land, for ART and Graston that really helped my leg. After a few weeks of seeing him 2x/week, I was seeing awesome progress. I also stopped cross-training because I thought spinning might not be resting my IT enough, and I wanted to get back to running ASAP. I finally eased into running…with no pain! I gradually worked my way up from a mile a few times a week (so. out. of. shape.) It felt SO good to reunite with my friends on the bridle path, and kickstart my day with some fresh air and sweat.

In mid-April, I had worked my way up to a long run of 6 miles (!) pain-free. While I was huffing and puffing slowly through Central Park, at least I was out there and nothing hurt. Times were good, friends!

In mid-April, I also got a bike and started bike commuting to and from work.

It’s teal and it’s perfect.

If you’re a fellow resident of the Upper East Side, you can empathize with how terrible the 4/5/6 train is each morning. My commute to work down on Spring St is easily the most rage-inducing part of my day, as the subways can be so ridiculously slow and crowded. Including a 10 min walk to the subway, my commute can take anywhere from 30-50 minutes depending on the day. It shouldn’t. However, it takes ~30 minutes to bike door to door and is so much nicer (except the part of 2nd ave where the bike & car lane are one. eeee).

The night of my bike’s one week birthday, I was riding home from hanging with my sister who was in town from LA for work. It was around 10 p.m., but still plenty of cars/people outside. I was biking up 1st Avenue in the bike lane, and as I approached 79th street, the light turned from green to yellow. I went through the yellow since I had full momentum on the bike.

Well, the cab heading east on 79th street had a different idea as he went through his red light, likely in anticipation of the light turning green soon. In the process, he hit me and knocked me off my bike. Thankfully, I was wearing my helmet, didn’t lose consciousness, or visibly break any limbs or worse. I even tried to get up and insist I was fine, I was only 9 blocks from home after all, but felt shooting pains in my lower back and side when I tried to lift myself up.

And so, kind strangers helped get me to the sidewalk and called me an ambulance. They helped me call my friend Noelle who lives close by, who met me as I was in the ambulance and came to the hospital with me and called my sister.  Even though I knew I was okay physically for the most part, I couldn’t stop bawling. It was so scary, I don’t think I’ve ever been in an ambulance before?

I went to the ER (thanks, kind staff at NY Presbyterian Cornell!), bike and all, and got checked out. Thankfully, they thought it was just extreme muscle soreness and nothing was broken– I left close to 3am, prescription for pain meds in hand. It hurt to walk and bend, so I didn’t leave my apartment for 5 days. I half-worked from home on Thursday and Friday just to combat my boredom and feel productive.

Day 4. Still on the couch. BOO.

I can’t express how thankful I am for the support of friends and family who kept me company when I couldn’t get out of bed or move far from my couch and delivered delicious things like flowers, Pinkberry and cupcakes to my door. Who walked with me from the 24/7 pharmacy to my apartment at 3:30 am so I wouldn’t have to leave the next day to fill my prescription. Who put up with me when all I wanted was extra sauce on my chicken parm hero and Luigi’s forgot it. Who brought me bagels and coffee while we were glued to the couch watching Boston coverage. Who came with bottles of wine and food to have a girls night in and plot my return to Boston ’14 (more on that another day). Who delivered my laptop from the office and a 6-pack and pint of ice cream. (Guys, I’m literally not moving from my bed, I don’t need any more food. But I’ll eat every last bite, thanks.)

And everyone who sent amazing emails, texts and tweets wishing me well and offering to help in any way. That meant the world to me! There is no better feeling than to know you have a large support network in such a big city that often times still doesn’t feel like home. And the biggest shoutout to my mom, who spent all of Wednesday cleaning my apartment, doing my laundry, and making me food. She is the best and I’m thankful to have family so close.

I returned to work (slowly) on Monday, still a bit out of it thanks to the Percocet. I went to my primary care doctor to get a referral for x-rays, as the sides of my ribs were a bit tender and I hadn’t felt that immediate after the accident. We also did a saline injection on the primary spot of pain in my lower/mid back which seemed to help alleviate some discomfort. Which was good, because on Thursday night I had vacation plans to head to Iceland!

Reykjavik

Not gonna lie, the pain put a damper on the trip for me as the pain is pretty constant with every step, but I had a blast! Until one morning I was stretching out my back muscles and felt a ‘pop’ in the side of my rib cage followed by immediate shooting pain. I immediately thought I popped a rib out of place and panicked. There were tears and lots of ice packs, followed by slow movements the rest of the trip. I decided to wait it out until I returned home since I was scared to go to the ER in a foreign country and didn’t want to miss out on vacation.

Gullfoss Waterfall

Blue Lagoon + beers? Heaven.

We flew back to NYC on Monday night, and once I got back to my apartment, weirdly came down with a high fever and terrible aches/chills. Because I’m a symptom Google-r, I was immediately convinced my dislocated rib had led to an infection in my lung like pneumonia and I was dying. I tried to sleep it off but woke up at 3:30am and felt terrible. So, at 4 am I checked myself back into the hospital so they could take a look at my ribs and do an x-ray immediately. And because I’m a baby when I’m sick, I called my mom and she drove into the city to meet me as soon as I was done with x-rays. (I swear I’m an adult).

Thankfully, nothing is broken or fractured, though I’m still not sure what that ‘pop’ was in my ribs. Seems like I just severely tore/aggravated/inflammed the muscles around and in between my ribs after being weakened from the accident. It still really hurts, especially when moving from side to side when sleeping, and I can’t really cough or breathe deeply without feeling aggravation.

I’m no doctor, but this is where it hurts on my left side. Darn intercostals.

So, it’s been nearly 3 weeks since my accident, and thus, 3 weeks in which I haven’t done any type of exercise. Given that it still hurts to walk and breathe, I don’t think I’ll be returning to running anytime soon…

It’s also been 1 year since I last ran a race (Boston 2 Big Sur), which is probably the longest period since I started running 13 years ago. Depressing, to say the least. Due to crazy busyness/stress, I pulled out of Chicago ’12 in mid-August because I couldn’t handle high volume training at the time. I had to skip a few winter tune-up races and the NYC Half because of the stupid IT/knee issues, and I definitely won’t be able to run (even for fun!) the Brooklyn Half.

So many race fees down the drain, so many doctor’s co-pays, so many depressing thoughts and feelings of helplessness. It’s been a not-so-great year on the running front (and my bank account), to say the least.

At least I have a bit of time on my side, for now. While I’d like to be spending May building a semi-solid running base to kick off training for Chicago ’13 instead of on my couch, realistically I have until June to really start laying the foundation with 4 months out. I won’t attempt to run or exercise until the pain is fully gone. It’s also still too soon to tell if anything else is out of whack or misaligned from the accident that could pop up once I start running.

But I have my health, and I know that the accident could have been so much worse if the driver was going faster, he hit me at a different angle, I fell differently, etc. It also happened the day after the Boston Marathon, which really put everything in perspective. I will run again, it’s just a matter of when and how fast. ‘Till then, you can find me walking slowly, consuming mass amounts of froyo and margaritas, and watching terrible TV re-runs.

And yes, the bike came away entirely unscathed

Well, it’s been about a month since I last wrote– and I’d been meaning to post earlier as I was gradually returning to running and workouts (woo!), but the good times didn’t last too long.

I returned to running kinda gradually, and got back into workouts when I felt more confident, as my knee/leg issues seemed to be getting better. I felt in tune with my body and the lessening pain, and felt I could do a mix of running and cross-training, and with continued icing, foam rolling & stretching, the pain would gradually work itself out. And it seemed to be getting better, so I kept at it.

Until one day, after a workout and a ‘long’ run, my legs were super tight. Typically, an easy shake out run and a day or two of rest works out the stiffness for me– tight legs and sore muscles are common, and a given when increasing training load. But when things still felt off almost a week later, I knew something wasn’t right. I was clearly altering my gait to compensate for the pain, creating tightness and stiffness in entirely new areas unrelated to the knee/hip pain I’ve been dealing with for 2 months now.

About 1.5 weeks ago, I completed one of my favorite CPTC workouts– 8 miles, 4 at marathon pace and 4 at half-marathon pace. While my paces weren’t even close to my norms, which I’m OK with and respect, the bigger red flag was the leg stiffness that prevented me from opening my stride and settling into a rhythm. It felt like every step forward required SO much effort and balance, and I was totally limping on our cooldown. I rested on Friday, and decided to meet up with friends to shake it out on Saturday morning.

About 5 miles into that run, I called it quits. My leg, typically stiff to start but eases up after I warm up, wasn’t cooperating. I hung my head and had a total runner’s walk of shame the entire mile from Central Park to my apartment. It was cold, just starting to drizzle, and miserable. I resisted shedding some tears from frustration, and resigned myself to the fact that I just need to stop running until my leg gets 100% better.

I had been gearing up into workouts and regular runs in hope I could do the NYC Half as a workout and potentially get fit to PR by the Brooklyn Half in May. At this point, I know neither of those goals are attainable. I started to see a new doctor upon Kelly’s recommendation, for ART, Graston and chiropractic adjustments. My old PT didn’t do any of these things so I’m hopeful.

If I’m being honest, these past 9-10 months have been really defeating. Mentally, physically. The last race I ran was the Big Sur Marathon at the end of April ’12– though that was more of a run than a race, as with the ‘speed can kill’ Boston Marathon inferno last April as well. That’s a long time for me!

For someone who has been running seriously for the last 12 years, I have come to define myself as a runner. I feel most like myself when I am fit and cranking out long runs, workouts, and racing. I measure confidence and success by these runs and race results. I don’t just run to run, I run to run fast. And not being able to do so has me a bit depressed. Who am I?

I took a break this summer/early fall due to travel and stress demands. For my sanity and my health, that was the best decision for me at the time and while it was personally sad not running Chicago ’12, I don’t regret it one bit. Along the way, some weird health issues that I’m still trying to figure out have me feeling (and looking) totally unlike myself; I initially felt like I could get physically fit again through training but it’s pretty clear to me that I need to take some medical steps to make things normal again. And then there’s the knee/leg issue that’s been persistently bothering me since before Christmas. Set back after set back after set back. I don’t even want to calculate the amount of $$ I’ve spent in registration fees for races I haven’t run and continued doctor’s co-pays.

And yet, because I’m an optimist and I need to picture a light at the end of this funky tunnel, on February 19th I found myself cursing Active.com and accidentally registering twice for this race.

Chicago Marathon, I’m coming for you again! Thankful I decided to register before it turned into a lottery.

Call it silly based on how the last year has unfolded for me; the negative voice in me thinks I just need a true break from running and need to accept I’ve peaked and I’ll never get faster than my 3:03 at NYC ’11. I’m determined to try to take the right steps to sort things out, get healthy, get fit, and continue my quest at sub-3:00. I’m only 25 (26 in about 2 weeks) and know beyond a lifetime of running, I better still have a few good years of competition ahead of me.

It’s still so early, and I need to be realistic with what I can achieve, but I owe it to myself to go for it. Maybe I’ll have to end up swallowing my ego and running this race for fun (vs. DNS-ing like this year), but I need to try. For the sake of my sanity, self, and happiness. I long for the feeling of a solid training cycle and successful race– where you’re truly challenged, motivated and driven throughout the process and accomplished post-race. I know I shouldn’t let running define me and dictate my happiness so much, but at this point in my life it’s still something I love and a passion point for me.

So, I’ll be working on getting myself healthy and back to baseline. I don’t know when I’ll return to running, but I’m going to be patient and cross-train until I feel fully confident there is no pain. If you’re still reading this long rambling after my once-a-month sporadic posting schedule, you rock. I’ll admit this has been a long, frustrating struggle but I’m hanging in to get back and better, and I thank you for checking on on my progress (or lack thereof).

It was just about a month ago when my knee got so bad I decided to stop running on it. I figured I’d take a few days off to rest, and it’d go away. The few days of training lost wouldn’t be a huge setback and I’d be back on the roads in no time.

Welp, one month later I can see that I was entirely wrong. This stupid knee issue continues, but I’m happy to report I’m making progress and actually kinda enjoying cross-training.

Thanks to a few free class credits (lucky/weird), I totally drank the SoulCycle kool aid and love it. It’s like a sweaty, endorphin-filled dance party. Sorry haters, hate on. While I’ve been three times so far, including a class with Ali, I don’t understand how people pay that much to do it regularly (Though I’d probably pay to be in shirtless Bradley Cooper’s class). I think I might try it once a month because it makes me feel downright awesome. #treatyoself.

I’ve also been hitting up good ole New York Sports Club regularly for spinning classes with Kelly who has also been sidelined from the bridle path temporarily. Injuries make me glad I didn’t cancel my previously-rarely-used gym membership. I think we’ve tried and tested just about every 6:30 am spin instructor by now. After spinning, I’ve been spending about 30 minutes stretching and pretending to lift weights and do PT exercises before showering and going to work. I’m so over gym showers and their terrible blow dryers.

And I’ve also done a free class (and have another free class tomorrow– East Coast vs. West Coast hip hop rideeeee) at Revolve Fitness. It’s kinda like SoulCycle, but less dance-party-esque but still a good workout. I love these fancy spinning classes, but really only when I can do it for free and I can’t spend my energy running.

My training log is sad, and I still haven’t gotten around to re-adjusting my “Goal weekly mileage” totals. It’s safe to say at this rate, I’ll be able to run the NYC Half-Marathon on 3/17, but any PR attempt is out the window.

Yay for signing up for races I can’t do. I just took advantage of the unlimited beer at the finish.

When injured, some people turn to cross-training like crazy and hit the gym, bike, pool, elliptical, etc. for hours to make up for an equivalent effort not running. I am not one of those people. Kudos to you who are! Sure, I’ve been trying to get to the gym most days and have a newfound love for spinning, but I definitely think I could be doing more to maintain or gain fitness. That’s why I’ve been hitting up classes, because otherwise I’d never push myself on the bike or elliptical.

While cross-training certainly has its benefits, I believe that if you’re training for a running race, you should spend the majority of your time running. When you can’t run, cross-training is the next best thing by default. But I believe that a 45 minute spin class, no matter how sweaty, doesn’t deliver the same running fitness gains. Someone once told me that for every minute run, you should double that time to get the equivalent running effort. Whether or not that’s true, that’s a lot of time I don’t have…

Maybe I’m lazy. Maybe I’m unmotivated. Maybe I’m playing it safe. I know I’m not doing all I can to get back in shape by 3/17, but I really have no desire (or time) to spend like 2 hours at the gym daily to maintain or build my endurance right now. This stupid knee has really knocked out the positive mojo I had leading into 2013. I feel like I took two steps back during the month of January.

I can’t blame my loss of fitness entirely on my knee. I did aim to take responsibility for my actions this year. Remember?

I can’t change my knee pain (to an extent). I could cross-train more or harder. But honestly, I don’t feel like it. So I’m changing my attitude and not letting myself get down by it and being realistic about what I can accomplish. This race, though my favorite, is just one day. I’m going to set my sights on another half marathon in May (probably Brooklyn because it doesn’t involve travel) and work towards getting healthy and fit for that.

In good news, I AM slowly returning to running. About 2 weeks ago, I tried walking/running a few miles during the Run to the Brewery 10 miler in Long Island. The out and back course made it easy to do as much/little as I needed to, so I probably ended up covering around 7 miles total while running 4 of the miles on and off. I didn’t want to be too late to the beer at the finish. Priorities. Last week, I tried running 3 miles easily but the cold weather seemed to make my knee lock up a bit more and everything felt sore and tight afterwards.

And then I spent 27 hours in Orlando for work, 1 hour of which I got to spend outside. I also forgot to pack sneakers so there was no working out (darn.)

Yesterday, I decided to reunite with my running buds for our usual Tuesday morning runs. It had been nearly a month and I missed them! The roads were a bit slick due to the rain/slush that fell Monday night so we tried to take it easy before heading to the bridle for some intervals. I didn’t feel confident to test my knee with the uneven footing and mud/ice mixture, so I called it quits after two. Related: I am totally out of shape and wanted to die during the 1200 and 1000 intervals I did do. Nonetheless, my knee held up OK with some lingering soreness/tightness. Mostly, it felt good to be back for my first ‘real’ run and it’s a starting point.

I’ll probably stick to running once more this week, and spinning the rest of the days. Maybe next week I’ll work up to 3 days of running if it feels OK!

‘Till next time, when I can hopefully share a not-so-depressing update about how I’m back hitting the roads and rocking it.

It was bound to happen, sooner or later. After a history of being plagued with random running injuries through high school and college (2 stress fractures, rotated pelvis, tendinitis, low iron, IT issues…), it’s been generally smooth sailing the last 3 or 4 years. Little things here and there, but usually things I can train through.

Right before Christmas, I just finished an 11 mile run in Central Park, doing part of it with Nicole. We averaged around a 7:30 pace, which was quicker than I’d been used to but felt surprisingly fine! I brought my credit card to run errands at Duane Reade on my way home, and recall feeling a slight twinge in the back of my knee as I stood in line to pay. I didn’t think much of it and just tried to stretch, but it was a bit nagging.

The next few days, the pain moved from the back of my knee to the inside of my knee, but it was just annoying, not debilitating. I could tell it was throwing my gait slightly, but usually went away once I warmed up a bit. I ran 39 miles the week of Christmas, my highest so far, and I figured the weird twinges would work themselves out.

On New Year’s Eve day, I ran in the park with Terence and Noelle. The pain was much stronger and didn’t go away the entire run. I decided to take New Year’s Day off to rest (well planned…) and hit the roads on Weds the 2nd with Alex and Meredith. That was the last time I really ran. The pain had traveled to the front of my knee cap, and hurt when I walked and especially up and down stairs. Eeek. It even hurt when I was out at the bar dancing…that’s when you know it’s bad.

I took 5 days completely off exercise of any type. Considering it hurt to walk, I couldn’t exactly cross train! Annoying, but I kinda welcomed the laziness.

I finally saw a doctor on Monday the 7th, who didn’t really have a firm diagnosis for me but ruled out tendon/ligament damage and thought more rest and icing would help the inflammation. And it has, generally. Now that the pain has disappeared from my knee cap (but is still present on the inside of my knee), it doesn’t hurt to walk anymore. I’ve begun to cross-train, which I hate. If I can’t run, I am really lazy and can never motivate myself to get in an equivalent hard effort on the bike or elliptical or pool. Meh.

Pain=near the medial retinaculum

I saw a PT on Friday who cleared me to try running on a treadmill (because you use less effort to propel yourself forward) in quarter mile increments, alternating running and walking for 2-3 miles max. The weirdness is still there, but it is much milder and definitely dissipated once I got going. And it was really, really boring.

I think it’s always hard to tell what to do when faced with strange pain: is it the onset of an injury, or can I work through this? If I stopped running every time something hurt, I’d run a lot less miles. I’m really frustrated, because I felt like I was finally getting back into a groove of running regularly and working out. I purposefully ran semi-regularly most of the fall so that when I started to train for the NYC Half-Marathon, I’d have a decent base and prevent injury. Plus it’s been weirdly warm-ish lately and I can’t take advantage of it!

It’s also not the end of the world. Yeah, I’m losing the little fitness I did have, but I do have confidence I’ll be back (outside!) running soon. I just need to be patient and not stubborn. It also could be far worse. While I might not be in peak shape for the NYC Half, maybe I can set my sights on another half in April or May to use as a goal race instead.

So, there’s the update! Here’s to hoping the pain goes away soon…

Any advice? What do you do when you feel a potential injury coming on?

Hope you all had a great holiday season! I enjoyed a nice longgggg week at home with the family in NJ. It was really good to kick back, relax, and spend some time on the couch. I finally caught up on some sleep, destressed, and got in a few decent runs.

Home with the fattest cat in the world, Sushi

I came back into the city yesterday afternoon and headed over to Alex & Steve’s apartment for a few drinks before the 2nd Annual CPTC Ugly Sweater Party! I missed it last year, and was excited to don my festive vest I purchased for 99 cents on eBay.

And now, I’m ready to spend New Year’s Eve in NYC with friends; I haven’t spent NYE here sine ’09/’10 actually. Because I tend to feel a little bit more introspective around New Year’s, I’ll do another “reflections post“. I enjoy looking back, reading these, and seeing how things have changed (or not).

At the end of 2010, a lot had changed in my life and I felt weirdly in transition– as do most 23 year olds bridging the gap between college life and ‘real’ life. And 2011 brought even more changes, as I started a new job, joined CPTC, ran my 2nd marathon, and re-started and subsequently ended a nearly 6 year relationship. It was a hard year, especially from October-December, but I was happy and excited to grow with all the changes and challenges.

As I kicked off 2012, I was in a really good place. New Year’s Eve was great and I set a lot of goals for 2012. For the first half of the year, I was incredibly optimistic, being more spontaneous and putting myself out there in ways I probably wouldn’t have done before. I was kicking butt in running, work was going well, and I was having fun. And then somewhere along the way, I got a little lost. 

It kind of happened gradually, and I didn’t do much to stop it. I got overwhelmed with work. I didn’t know how to properly manage my stress. I was trying to do too much, and not sleeping nearly enough (I need a lot of sleep). I was trying to marathon train while traveling ‘Up In The Air’-style and not taking care of myself. I was away from home more weekends in Spring/Summer than I was home. I wasn’t happy with how I looked and really didn’t feel like myself. I developed bad habits that just made things worse.

After feeling crappy all summer, I got multiple rounds of blood work done in the fall and while my cortisol (stress hormone) was elevated and I showed a gluten sensitivity, follow-up visits to doctors and endocrinologists were pretty inconclusive. While of course I’m happy that nothing is terribly wrong, a small part of me wanted to hear that there was a diagnosis or reason why I feel so weird. I’ll admit it, it’s easier to place blame on something than accept it yourself.

A lot of the year was just a blur; I don’t know what I did or how I really felt. I was passive in my own life, not doing things or just putting them off for when I felt better. Old pictures, blog posts, conversations, memories serve to remind me how unhappy, frustrated, and void I was…or am.

But I think that’s dumb, and I’m over feeling that way. It’s stupid to wish for stuff to happen but not actually take the steps to make it happen. It’s ridiculous to expect things to just get better overnight. I need to stop complaining about things that are wrong if I’m not doing anything to actively CHANGE them.

Wake-up call, Lindsay. Stop doing the same stuff and expecting different results.

I was (am?) in a funk. I’m realizing that I can’t control a lot of what stresses me out, but I can control how I let it affect me or how I deal with it.

Stressed out about how busy work is? Stop checking Facebook & Twitter every hour and focus instead of staying late. Overly tired and need more sleep? Don’t stay up an extra hour to watch my DVR-ed episode of Teen Mom 2 (guilty). Feeling left out of plans? Go ahead and initiate hanging out with people for a change. Unhappy with how out of running shape I am? Step out of my comfort zone and start getting back into workouts and races. Frustrated at the weight I’ve gained? Just eat when I’m hungry and stop when I’m full, and stop mindless eating out of stress or boredom. Feeling like there is no time to do everything? Relax and breathe, not everything needs to be done right away, right now. And maybe stop wasting the time I do have on Facebook, seriously.

I’m unsure of the point of this post, besides being a bit stereotypical “New Year’s Eve reflections-esque” (is that a phrase?) and overloaded with positive quotes I found on Pinterest, but I’m ready to start changing how I interpret, act on, and manage things in life.

I know in the grand scheme of the world my problems are insignificant; people suffered great tragedy and much worse in 2012. But this is my life and I’m going to feel the way I feel. And I don’t like the way I feel, so I’m going to take it day-by-day and step-by-step to make it better, instead of sitting idly wondering why things aren’t changing.

“Without action, you aren’t going anywhere.”

Well I’m lacing up my sneakers and I’m ready to hit the ground running in 2013. Cheers!

Although Christmas is just 8 days away (what!?!) I’m only just now feeling in the spirit. It hasn’t been terribly cold or snowed, I haven’t thought much about Christmas shopping, work has been crazy busy to even think about a break, and I don’t have any big holiday travel plans to look forward to besides home in NJ.

My new couch and little Manhattan christmas tree brings joy, too.

But yesterday, I donned my holiday best and joined thousands of others to roam the city in festive garb for Santacon. It’s my fourth year doing Santacon (whoa, time flies) and my fourth year being a reindeer. Ho ho ho! And all the sudden, Christmas started to feel a little closer.

Despite barhopping yesterday for 12 straight hours (seriously how did I last that long?), I woke up this morning feeling not-too-terrible and decided a hangover-clearing run would make me feel a little less gross. It was misting/raining and I didn’t have any mileage/time in mind, just wanted to sweat it out.

A few minutes in, my mind wandered and I started feeling pretty crappy about myself and my running. I still feel off and I’m tired all the time. While it’s starting to get easier to get in my mileage especially when I meet up with friends to run, I just want to feel like my old fit competitive self. I know it’s still early and I don’t need to start killing myself, but I do need to start sucking it up and getting in some basic workouts and pushing myself on runs a bit more.

So I headed into the park and to my favorite trusty solo workout, Central Park’s lower loops. (No really, I’ve professed my love here, remember this awesome workout last winter, and here’s one of the 1st times I ever did this workout, early blog/pre-Garmin days.)

Consistency is my strong suit. While the pace was nothing special for me and actually I thought I was going to die or my legs were going to fall off, I’m proud that I completed it all without stopping short. It felt good to push, even though I wasn’t really able to drop the pace at the end.

Still, doubt creeped into my mind at the end. “How are you going to run 13.1 miles under 6:25 pace in just 3 months?” Honestly, I don’t know. That felt hard, guys. But I need to start somewhere; this is where I am today, but it doesn’t have to be where I am in a few months.

What else have I been up to? This past Thursday was our company holiday party. Even though it was just at our office, it ended up being a blast! The highlight was by far the food and drinks (oh, maybe too many drinks…), talent show, and watching this amazing Rock Center with Brian Williams segment live, alongside Hamdi himself.

Click to watch!

If you know me personally, you know I can talk about yogurt for days and days and think my job is the coolest. BUT I really encourage you all to just watch this video. And then you’ll get it. The company went from startup to a $1 billion business in only five years. It’s a crazy story, but really not so crazy when you get to know Hamdi. He’s an incredibly humble yet visionary Founder and CEO, and sharing the moment to watch the clip alongside my colleagues was truly special.

And last weekend, I kept busy through friends’ holiday parties on the Upper West Side and Brooklyn, a friend’s bridal shower in NJ, and volunteering at the Girls on the Run 5k on Randall’s Island.

Ely, in the middle, is getting married 2 months from today!

This was my first time volunteering as a running buddy, and it was amazing. My girls finished strong and happy, with a bit of a ‘sprint as fast as you can and then get too tired and walk’ pacing strategy, often linking arms to run 3 across. They were both too cute (and knew the Gangnam Style dance, whaaaa?), and one said “I never thought I’d actually be doing this. I just thought it’d be a dream! But this is real!” She repeatedly called us ‘Thunder and Lightning’. Girls on the Run is an incredible organization and I really wish I could commit time to coach. I hope I’m free to volunteer for the Spring 5K, too!

And now, I’m going to go curl up on my comfy couch, bask in my Christmas lights, and try to fall asleep at a ridiculously early hour to get ahead of a busy week. Sunday funday.

How are you getting in the holiday spirit?