Things and Stuff

I didn't realize that it had been 5 days since I last posted. It has been a relatively busy few days, though at this exact moment I can't recall exactly what it was busy with. Nature of the beast.

Saturday I got to go out and buy new running shoes after my prize money finally came in the mail. Louisville is blessed with a lot of awesome running stores and, in the interest of showing support, I've shopped at all of them. Lately I've been shopping at the new-to-Louisville store Blue Mile. The guys that work there were super helpful - and honest - in helping me pick out a Garmin and were really friendly. Not to mention they have an awesome rewards program that gives you store cash for spending money there. So I headed in and the first person I found was the store owner, who chatted with me about my volleyball shoes, told me a charming story about Balaga brand socks and passed me over to Wes for my gait analysis. I hadn't ever had a true gait analysis, so this was interesting. I brought in my past two shoes, showed them where I get blisters, and did the gait test. After some more treadmill running - questions from Wes - and a bit of bouncing around I decided on these babies

I'm glad I started the day out with such an awesome purchase because the rest of the day was spent shopping.....for ALL of my Christmas gifts. I don't know why I decided to do it all in one go (maybe because I have ZERO free time, see Infra) but it was enough to kind of dim my faith in the idea of "Christmas Cheer". Whatever happened to manners, being nice to people, and simple social courtesy?

If i sound like a negative nancy, it's probably because I'm kind of feeling negative. As good as my fitness was before thanksgiving, it has gotten equally as bad lately. My runs are sluggish, Grapefruit knee/ITBS is raging, zero energy, and tons of water retention and weight gain.

I'm having trouble deciphering what my body wants me to do. In the midst of all of the holiday craziness I want to spend my free time working out or running. Moreover, this whole trying-to-plan-a-wedding-right-now-so-my-family-will-shut-up-about-it thing means if I don't spend some quality time in the gym, I get super cranky and hate everybody (myself included). But then the physical signs make me feel like maybe I'm pushing it and could risk starting 2012 out injured instead of strong. I honestly have no idea which it is. Either way, it's gross and I'm not a fan.

In positive terms, my friend Emily got me to try a fruit smoothie with Spinach in it. I'm sort of hooked. In a preemptive strike against the holiday bulge, I filled my fridge with fresh and frozen fruits and veggies, milk and greek yogurt. The smoothies are, oddly enough, super tasty! They don't taste like spinach but they ARE spinach. Genius, really.

Emily says the trick is "don't look at it, just drink it" 

I contacted DerbyFest about switching over to the Marathon. Negative Nancy says, "Tough S%@!, too late."But i'm trying to remain positive and just keep doing my thing. That's all I can ask.

Odd, I feel better having at least openly discussed that I'm in a pissy mood....strange how that works! Thanks to you all who share your ups, downs, and in-betweens so openly on your own blogs. I am constantly inspired by even the most mundane parts of your lives and your fitness journeys - thank you for sharing with me!