Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links…
Kicking Off the New Year Like…
My group of running friends and I have a group text that sees very few idle days. Our virtual conversations go from chatting about our next run to discussing when we can get together for dinner. On New Year’s Eve while making plans for where to meet the following morning before our New Year’s Day 5K, my friends started sending pictures of their beverage choices for bringing in the new year. Not to be outdone, I sent a picture of what my NYE was going to look like. LOL
On New Year’s Day I pulled out an empty Runner’s World Training Log from my desk drawer and decided that this one must have been in there for a very long time. This is the very same style running outfit that I chose for my very first marathon in 1997.
Although I was quite a bit wetter… And yes, that was a cotton cropped tank.
Back to my training log, even though I have a Garmin (affiliate link) I still like recording all of my workouts on paper. I just wish I’d saved my logs from my early marathoning days…
I Don’t Want to Admit it, but…
I’ve come to the conclusion that my nagging glute/hammie pain is a result of a flare-up of the bulge between L4-L5 that put a sudden stop to my marathoning days back in 2012. I’m sure it’s sciatic nerve pain and that annoys the heck out of me, especially now that I’m starting to experience numbness in my foot. I’ve been there before, and believe me, I don’t want to go there again. On Wednesday I called my spine doctor and the earliest appointment I could get is on January 25. Ugh, I wanna run!
And the Winner is!
On Wednesday, I reviewed Laura King Edward’s Run to the Light (affiliate link), and in my review, I promised to purchase a copy for one lucky reader. To enter, all the reader had to do was make a comment so I could use random number generator to pick a number, match it to the comments, and have amazon ship a copy of the book (or Kindle version) to the person whose comment matched the number generated. Drumroll please – the lucky winner is Judy from Chocolate Runs Judy!
And now to my workouts…
Running
I only ran once this week (see my whining above) and that was at the New Day New Year 5K with my friends. I was grateful to feel well enough to run, but within a quarter mile, I started getting that deep glute pain. We ran slowly and for the most part stayed together. It was so fun to start the new year off with some of my favorite people!
Biking
On Thursday afternoon I hopped on my spin bike for a steady paced ten-mile ride. I now have extra incentive to ride because as I type, Bill is out on a group ride in Western Loudoun with the Bicycles & Coffee crew and when I feel better, I plan to join in on the fun.
Strength Training
I did a much lighter than usual workout on Sunday morning and then hit the sofa for the rest of the day. By Wednesday, I was feeling well enough to push myself a little harder and by Friday I felt almost back to normal. I really hate to miss my workouts because I need to keep my core as strong as possible.
Yoga
A real yogi would have laughed at me at my cautiousness. I actually had two blocks stacked for my fingertips for some of my poses. 😉
Last Week on the Blog
In case you skipped checking in on my blog this past week, here’s what you missed…
- Sunday – If M&M’s Were Miles…
- Wednesday – Run to the Light: A Story of a Sister’s Unfailing Love
- Friday – Catching Up Over Coffee: Books, Avocados, and Coasters
Looking ahead to this coming week…
- Tuesday – I’ll be talking a little bit more about the cool racing medal coasters that I mentioned in my coffee date linkup.
- Thursday – I hope to have my New Day New Year 5K race recap ready to share.
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 New Year’s Eve/Day?
- Have you been able to stay clear of the crud going around?
- Did you run in a New Year’s Eve/Day race?
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!
Your running group chat sounds a lot like our running group chat! Go figure must be that MRTT friends love to chat. Hope you are feeling better!
I know my MRTT friends and I love to chat! 😉
I’m so sorry to hear about your back! When I first felt that pop in my back, I thought maybe it was a disc issue too! Once the pain calmed down, it was one-sided and I breathed a sigh of relief. I hope you get good news when you see the spine doctor. Hang in there!
Yes, you’re so “lucky” that it was your SI joint and not a disc. I hope it’s feeling better! I’ve started doing some yoga that’s specifically aimed at helping sciatic nerve pain.
I remember when I had a bad injury I got so frustrated that I had to scale down the work rate. But a physio I worked with said that ‘yes it seems like a bummer but it’s also a blessing’. Basically he was saying that it gives the whole body a chance to recover. He kept saying just concentrate on your posture and form for a few weeks then the work rate can quickly catch up later.
I hear you and you’re right… I’ve been here before and I’ve had to take up to three months off to recover. 🙁 I’m hoping that I don’t have to do that again.
Like you, I like to actually write down my workouts in my training journal. I’m mote of a paper and pen type of gal even though I do enjoy all the awesome things we can do with technology.
I’m really sorry to hear about your back 🙁 I hope that you get some good news from the doctor.
Thanks, Kim, me too!
I keep my work calendar on my phone and I’m often surprised at the number of people who don’t. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised since I love to log my workouts on paper. 😉
Oh, lots of back issues in the recap this week 🙁 I hope you can get yours sorted out before it becomes too serious.
I love the retro flashback to running attire 🙂 Ah, the days before Garmins as well! I used to have to map my routes, but then just guess on paces.
Same here – I’d actually drive the route in my car to get the distance and then run it, clueless of the pace until I was finished. I had a 4-mile route, 5-mile route, etc. and I’d mix and match them to get the distance I needed. Those were the days! 😉
So sorry to hear about your sciatic nerve injury. I think that is the root of my problems too. Ugh! Hope you get good news from your doctor when you finally get to see him. We ran with our running club on New Year’s Day – a trail run. It was so much fun! After the run, we had food and Bloody Marys and a lot of good company. It was the perfect way to begin the New Year!
Laurie recently posted…Life Happens Over Coffee
Ugh, it can take so long to move on past sciatic nerve pain. I was completely sidelined for about three months back in 2012. Hope yours is behind you and doesn’t cause any new problems.
Your New Year’s Day run and post-run continued celebrations sound fun!
I love the retro running outfit! So 90’s posh! Lol! I hope your back feels better soon. It seems like there’s a lot of that going around right now. Boo!
Thanks, Angela, so do I!
Yay, congrats Judy!
I’m a half step from the creeping crud. Was upstate for my niece’s birthday and she was sneezing, wiping her cute little nose all over me. Plus I stayed at mom’s Friday night and she & Bob both have/had a cold.
Hope there’a a cancellation with your spine doc
Cari recently posted…Celebrating two years of running with a book giveaway
Hope you were able to fight off all the bugs you were exposed to from your family!
Knock wood, I have stayed healthy thus far this “winter.” My New Years run was fun, though a bit chilly. But there was no way I was missing out LOL Hope your back is feeling better soon!
Thanks, Kim!
It’s so great to have a group of girlfriends like that and glad you were able to kick off the new year by running with them, even if it was slowly. That marathon outfit and running log pic are cracking me up! I also wore a cotton sports bra during my very first marathon…and it poured…and I still have a scar from the chafing!! Thank God for technical clothing!!
Allie recently posted…The Rundown – Hello 2019!
Oh yeah, I’d forgotten that my first sports bras was cotton. Prior to that we had to wear regular bras. Ugh!
UGH, I’m so sorry to hear about your sciatic nerve issue. See, I have an issue with my foot. It started off as annoying tingling sitting, standing, laying… I went to a back doctor and they said there was some degeneration and pressing from the L5 to the S1; fast forward to tons of foot issue (same tingling one), an operation for a neuroma (I knew personally it wouldn’t remove the tingling), now nerve damage in the toe and no one actually paying attention to my MRI from a couple years ago… it’s frustrating! It sucks you have to wait so long. Have you ever done shots (and I don’t mean tequila…)? what could they do to help you, do you know?
I haven’t been sick but there are quite a few colleagues who have been.
We did a NYE day run, it was really fun! NYE evening was lots of fun too; not sure where we can go next that could outdo it!
Renée recently posted…Week 1 -Thank You For Being So Kind
Do you still have tingling in your foot?
Yes, I had a series of three shots in my spine in 2012 when I had very severe sciatic nerve pain, and that really helped. I’ve also done tequila shots on occasion. 😉
I am sorry to hear about your back. Back pain is so hard to relieve. I hope that you are able to get some rest and get back to running pain free.
Thanks so much! I sure do miss running and hope this doesn’t last long.
I love seeing the running fashion from 1997. You know everything comes back around…
I hope you can resolve your back issue. I hurt mine skiing 5+ years ago and I think it is what is at the root of my current hip and glute pain.
Happy New Year! Thanks for linking.
It sounds like a lot of us have similar problems. Hope yours clears up soon, too. :-/
Sorry about that nagging glute pain. So frustrating.
We had a quiet NYE with our neighbors. I did stay up until midnight, but was ready for bed immediately after.
I’ve stayed fairly healthy since my little bout of allergies/sinuses before Thanksgiving. Mr PR has been struggling despite his acupuncture, so the allergist is probably going to be his next step.
I am looking forward to hearing what the spine doctor says and hope it’s good news.
Jenn recently posted…weekly wrap: ’twas the week before christmas
Thanks, Jenn!
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