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Christmas Week
On Sunday afternoon, we arrived home from visiting my mom and celebrating an early Christmas with her. On Christmas Eve, we enjoyed our traditional family time after mass and as per usual, we snapped a family picture…
Christmas morning Pablo learned quickly that gift bags contain fun toys and treats, and he couldn’t wait to help all of us open our presents. It was adorable how he went from ignoring the tree and packages earlier in the week, to eagerly anticipating opening each gift with hopes that there’d be something fun inside for him, tail wagging all the while.
His new Snoopy was a hit!
Because Jess was out of town with her family on Christmas, she and Daniel came over yesterday afternoon. Pablo was sporting his New Year’s Eve bow tie, a few days early…
If M&M’s Were Miles
If M& M’s were miles, I’d be setting records… Fortunately, most of the plain ones are gone (thanks mostly to me) and even though I like peanut M&M’s, I’m able to dig deep and find the willpower to stay out of them.
When Wannabe Bartenders Experiment
Last night, while watching the bowl games, Bill and I started reminiscing about mixed drinks that were popular many years ago. Back in the day, one of my favorites was the Tom Collins, a drink I haven’t had in over 15 years. Since we don’t normally have gin stocked in our bar, we decided to make a new drink, a twist on the traditional Vodka Collins. Here’s what we came up with…
- Vanilla Lime Collins
- 2 shots vanilla vodka
- 1 shot freshly squeezed lime juice
- 1 shot simple syrup
- Shake on ice, strain, and pour in a Collins glass over ice
- Top off with a small amount of club soda, stir
- Garnish with maraschino cherries
- Enjoy
And now to my workouts…
Running
I only ran one mile this past week. Yes, you read that correctly, one mile. After my painful glute/hammie flareup during last Saturday’s run and residual numbness in my right foot this week, I decided to take it easy. Thursday evening I was feeling antsy and decided to run a mile to see how I felt. I kept my pace slow, and even though I felt pretty good, I stuck with my plan and stopped after a mile. It was nice to see Christmas decorations lit up since most were turned off during my super early morning runs leading up to Christmas.
Biking
Once home from my mile run, I hopped on my spin bike for a steady paced ten mile ride.
Strength Training
I got three solid strength training sessions in this week.
Yoga
I may have overdone it with the forward bend during Monday’s yoga session. I’m so cautious with any forward bend poses and use a block to prevent over stretching and putting too much pressure on my lower back, especially as I return to standing. Things just didn’t feel right after I finished and I suspect that I didn’t do myself any favors with whatever minor mishap occurred…
Last Week on the Blog
In case you skipped checking in on my blog this past week, here’s what you missed…
- Sunday – Released to Workout and Pablo’s First Christmas with our Family
- Tuesday – Christmas Blessing to You
- Thursday – Year of Running 2018
Giveaway Coming up on Wednesday
Looking ahead to this coming week…
- Wednesday – I’ll be reviewing Laura King Edwards’ book Run to the Light (affiliate link). You won’t want to miss this review and a chance to win your very own copy (Kindle or paperback) of Laura’s heartwarming book about turning a devastating diagnosis into a fight to find a cure for her little sister and other children suffering from Batten Disease.
- Friday – I plan to join in on the Ultimate Coffee Date fun with Deborah and Coco.
In addition to the workouts I mentioned above, here’s a complete run-down of my workouts from this past week (completed mostly in our home gym)…
- Questions:
- How was your week?
- M&M’s: plain or peanut?
- Do you plan to race on NYE or NYD?
And that’s a wrap… Have a great week!
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links which means if you click on the blue product link and then make a purchase, I will receive a small commission for referring you. You will pay no more or less for the product; however, Amazon will show their gratitude for my referral by paying me.
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I’m linking up with Holly at HoHo Runs and Wendy from Taking The Long Way Home for their Weekly Wrap. Be sure to check out not only the hosts’ posts, but the other great bloggers joining in on the fun!
I hope your hammy/glute heals quickly! Sometimes I find deep stretching to actually exacerbate the issues I’m having. Ugh. Maybe those M&Ms will help heal you?
Happy New Year!
Oh, I like the way you think – M&M’s for the win!
Oh no, I’m sorry that yoga aggravated your back. That’s really just not fair. 🙁
A NYD race. It was my one race streak going, but last year they cancelled it due to extreme cold! This year thankfully that won’t be a problem.
Happy New Years! And feel better soon! And of course Pablo is super cute. 🙂
Judy @ Chocolaterunsjudy recently posted…Wrapping up 2018: 12/14-30 Weekly Wrap
I remember how cold it was last New Year’s Day. It was 12° and breezy here for our race and I remember it was even colder up your way. It’s supposed to be in the mid-50’s and partly cloudy for our race tomorrow. What a difference!
A bunch of gather on New Years Day for a run at our lake. It’s a 1-mile loop on the trail, so most of us do 3 miles, but it’s easy for people to run more or less since we’re relatively in the same place. There may even be a champagne toast when we finish 😉 I’m not a huge M&M fan…I’m more of a dark chocolate gal, but I don’t mind the peanut M&M’s (probably because the peanuts cover the taste of the milk chocolate LOL). Hope you have a great New Year!
I’m not much of a candy eater, but I do love M&M’s. If I were going for a plain piece of chocolate it would have to be dark, not milk. Hot out of the oven cookies? Now that’s a whole different story!
I’m with Wendy – M&M’s must have some kind of healing power. 🙂 My week of workouts was wacky but I did manage to get in some running. It was everything else that fell by the wayside. Whoops.
angela @ happy fit mama recently posted…Last Week’s Workouts
Oh, don’t I wish! 😀
Your Pablo is just adorable! It sounds like he had a great time on Christmas! I am with you as far as the stretching goes. I have stopped doing the stretches after Body Pump class and do my own set of stretches at home so I don’t aggravate my hip/hammy. Happy New Years!
Laurie recently posted…Searching for Balance
Thank you! We think Pablo is pretty adorable, too.
You know, I’m so careful not to overstretch on forward bend and always use a block so I don’t put stress on my lower back during the pose. I think I was just careless as I stood after the pose…
Ugh sorry that yoga hurt vs. helped! It always helps me with issues 🙁
No New Year’s race for me…hopefully a run outdoors but its going to be FRIGID in Minneapolis!
I just love that Pablo. He’s so darn cute!
Normally, I feel so much better after yoga. I think it was operator error and I did something wrong and put unnecessary pressure on my lower back as I stood back up (or overstretched it while in forward bend).
Stay warm during your runs!
Pablo says, “Thank you!”
Plain, milk chocolate. Mom commingled the dark ones which made it easy to stay out because those are icky. Hershey kisses on the other hand.
Love Pablo’s bowtie and attentiveness. Hope you’re feeling better
Cari recently posted…2018, you were amazing
I like the milk chocolate M&M’s better than the dark chocolate ones and I usually prefer dark over milk chocolate… Perhaps next year I should mix the two so I’ll stay out of them as well! 😀
Sabotaging food can sometimes be the only way for me – also salt on top of food I’m not packing up to keep myself from mindless picking at the table
Cari recently posted…2018, you were amazing
Although I adore M & M’s, both plain and peanut, I couldn’t stay out of the Hershey Kisses this year. I remember the Tom Collins! It’s crazy how our tastes in cocktails change over the years. Hope your hammie/glute issue is better! Thanks for linking!
HoHo Runs recently posted…Looking Back at 2018 (WW # 178)
I took a bartending class at a local bar while in college. I remember making Tom Collins back then and still have the recipe in my little recipe notebook from the class.
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