Reasons I Don't Have a Roommate

1, 250. The number of minutes my booty was seated on my sattle this month. One month. It's exciting to think about, as I am filling out the workout schedule for the upcoming month, that even though I will be doing 140 miles in the Ironman, I've already started putting in my "Miles to IMOO". For the most part I can't complain, month one went along swimmingly....or maybe I should have made a bike reference, since the focus was a 'bike block'. But this isn't really going to be focused on my workouts, I've done a lot of that in my other posts. Rather I felt the need to take a step back and kind of ramble about a thought that crossed my mind the other day. While scrambling around my apartment trying to cram all of my work stuff into my backpack, pack my gym bag (why can I never find one of my gym shoes?!), half dressed for work (please don't forget to put a shirt on before you walk out!) do my hair, and drink my coffee while it's still warm (yea right!) I just rolled with the resistance that this was going to have a "case of the Mondays" on a Tuesday.

By now I know better than to pack things the morning of, yet it still happens. By the time I'm grabbing my keys and locking my door I take a quick glance around, did I turn off my hair straightener and coffee pot? And oh dear gawd, my place looks like a tornado went through it! I guess I'll have to clean that up later....maybe....when am I going to do that? In the car ride to work I tried to think up my 'to-do' list for the day and I couldn't help but chuckle to myself. My mind was still on my apartment and how much of a mess it was. In the one month of triathlon training I realized that there is a reason I don't have a roommate. Actually there are many reasons:

1) My life expectancy would drop instantaneously because of the wild schedule that I follow. Getting up at 4am and going to bed by 9pm is not something someone could live with harmoniously. There would probably be a lot of passive-aggressive noise making to signify how annoyed the other one is with you for being awake/asleep.

2) Laundry. I have to do more loads of laundry a week than anyone I know. And it's almost always all workout clothes. But before the clothes make it to the washer they sit everywhere; on the floor, in the sing, handing over the tub, and if they aren't stinky and wet, there's a 5% chance they will actually make it into a dirty laundry basket.

3) My fortress of solitude would not be so solitary. I'd have to realize that I was sharing my apartment with someone and that yelling out Lady Gaga lyrics at the top of my lungs is not really being considerate of the other person. And the loud clanky noise the trainer makes is enough to drive anyone up a wall. But the reality is that I would still go ahead and do all of this anyways because I need to get the workout in. I'd probably find myself with many of unexpected flat tires from spite.

4) Seasons change, but there is no "off" season. Through the snow, sleet, rain, and sun I'm outside. That being said when I come inside all of that season comes with me. Mudd, water, and sand, makes itself at home on my floor. It's not like I don't clean it up, buuut lets be honest it's definitely on my own time....or the next time I have to do a workout on the floor :P

5) And if someone were able to see past all of this and decide I wasn't totally bat-shit crazy, my diet would probably get them. I go through more almond milk, peanut butter, and edamame than any one person really every should. But that's not the worst of it. I'm also a fan of protein shakes, they are delicious and help with recovery but washing them out right away? Ain't nobody got time for that! Dishes aren't usually a priority so the obsessive-compulsive cleaning freak would have a field day with me.

If you walked into my apartment, which is tiny too by the way, you would find my bike locked into the trainer, but it's blocking the door to my closet so getting anything out of there means you have to suck it in. There's another bike propped up against the end of my bed collecting dust. And baskets of laundry surrounding it. I never actually manage to put away all of my clothes. They kind of just sit in a basket or on my bed when I'm not sleeping in it (so the clothes are less wrinkly...yea right). Come on, even if I put them away they'd still end up out anyways, why waste time? And my bathroom is filled with wet bathing suits, caps, goggles and probably yesterdays workout clothes in the shower, drying out before I throw them in a basket so they don't mold....Ew. There are protein stains on my wall, because lets be honest, I've had my moments where I have forgotten to tighten the top and well, the walls are now an off shade of white-ish-brown.

So to put an end to a long winded story, I have embraced the triathlete lifestyle. And while I'm not sure if it is compatible or possible to live in harmony with the non-triathlete species I'm pretty sure a lot of this is more me just being a messy human being and putting a title to it. But fresh mud prints make it all the more homey :)

Patience, Persistence && Positivity

Not again! Being bitten by the cold-bug once was more than enough for me, but I didn't have any say in the matter. There I was, the middle of my recovery week when I was taken by complete surprise, pretty much jumped from behind, there's no way I could have seen it coming. I mean honestly, is there no common courtesy left in letting me know before you are just go to take over my body? A simple 'batten down the hatches' would have worked fine, and I'm accessible via phone/text/email/twitter/facebook....heck you could have even sent a carrier pigeon!

But I digress. The point is I had no choice in my body taking a blow to the cold bug again. After work last Wednesday I knew I still had another workout to do but the fatigue was too much, I gave in to my bed for the rest of the evening. Then around 4:30am I woke up and every part of my being knew there was no way I was getting out of bed that day. So I started the telephone tree with all 75 million of my bosses/coworkers (ok it was more like 4 but really it's still obnoxious to send a text/email at 5am). I like to think that I have a pretty high tolerance for "pushing through things" especially illness but this hit me head on. I spent the entire day at home, in bed, and almost went crazy for all the sitting still I did. My mind started to wander and the hours felt like days. Really!? Am I complaining about a day off work where I laid around all day. Indeed I am. I missed the structure and the constant moving around....not to mention going this long without getting my heart rate up was taking a toll on me.


By 5pm I had hit my wall and decided to do a short 30 minute Jillian workout, just to get a little sweat going. I have to say it helped quite a bit because I did in fact sweat, but it also relieved the tension I had built up all day. I felt slightly better the next day, still icky but well enough to get back to school. So while I picked up my training again in the afternoon, it was anything but easy. My mind told me that I needed to bust my butt because I had missed a workout but my body was like "To hell with that!" Building yourself back up after illness or even while still fighting illness can be challenging. As an athlete you work hard every day and you owe it to yourself to be good to your body. Not to mention that stubbornness that rears it's head about how you will "fall behind" is really more of a mental obstacle to overcome. It may be hard getting back into it but you have to remind yourself that part of a persistent plan is rest and relaxation. 

In a Tizzy of Tired

How often do you ask someone how they are doing and their response goes something like, "I'm good, just tired". I feel like we all go through life carrying out tasks, set on level "tired". How ever do we get through it? I'm coming to see that there are actually different levels of tired that one can experience. There's the sleep-deprived tired, that comes with staying up too late to just finish this one last thing or just one more text message. Or the end-of-the-week exhausted tired, when the week's worth of stress and the "forget this, it's Friday" paper work is set aside for two days, hits you. And of course, my personal favorite, and more recently consistent, is the body fatigue tired. All of these have hit me this past week and my remedy for all of them is to have another cup of coffee. I should probably sign myself up for caffeine-addicts anonymous, but that would be admitting that I have a problem....

So this week of training got a little bit harder. Three weeks in and my legs are no longer "fresh". Rather they are working off the build up from the week prior. The good thing about this is that by working through the soreness I can feel myself getting stronger. I had to move one of my workout days around, swap the bike for the run because of time restraints, and Steph's response, "That's fine, the goal is for your legs to be tired for your long run on Friday." I love that she is setting me up for a more realistic idea of what it feels like to run on tired legs, but it's definitely not as fun when you're actually doing it. This past Friday I had an 8 mile run, the longest distance in training so far. Now 8 miles for me is a cake walk. But when I actually hit the lake path I was just trying to convince myself that I could do this and to ignore the muscle soreness. It didn't help that I was fighting the wind for the majority of the run as well. And let me just say, it's so frustrating to run and feel like you're being pushed backwards, I actually found myself cursing at the wind out loud :/ I felt so fulfilled finishing that run, but at the same time, so sore and so, so tired! I quickly showered, threw on the closest pair of clean sweats and just fell asleep for an hour. My body had given up.

Week days are starting to fall suit into a pattern, and I'm beginning to figure out what days workouts fit where. Most mornings, unless I've gotten to bed by 9pm, I have difficulty getting up to do one of the workouts. Not to mention, I usually set my alarm for a good 45 minutes before the workout so I can have a bowl of oatmeal and a cup of coffee--I rarely workout without eating first. Plus then after the workout I can have second breakfast....yum!!! But the point I'm getting to is that through toughing out the "tired" I'm learning a lot about my body and how much it can handle. Some mornings I just give up on even considering the early workout and just place it all in the afternoon. And I've even been looking forward to rest days.....I don't think I have ever said that O_o


So next week will be a recovery week, which I can let up a little on the workouts and let the tired just kind of ease out of the body so I can come back stronger at the start of month two!

Feelin' that Fatigue

Sunday mornings are my favorite time. There's (not usually) a rush to get anywhere, I can sit with a cup of coffee (after a glass of water of course!) and read through post-secret/email and update my blog. It's really the calm before the storm....since after I'm done here I know I have my longest workout of the week....I like to go looooong on Sundays :) So to delay the inevitable, I figured I'd pick up the pieces to the rest of my week/end. The pain/soreness is a lot less prevalent today, which I guess is good since I hope it means I'm getting stronger. Slowly but surely.

Friday was my run day, and it was well needed. Not to mention it was 56 degrees outside! Amaaaazing for mid-January! My set had me going 6 miles, 1 easy mile, 3 at Half Marathon pace, and 2 at 10k pace. I love the way Steph structures my runs because they are more based off of feel, and having just a few races under my belt, I can tell the difference between 10k and half marathon. As soon as I walked through my door after work I threw on my shorts, (yes shorts!), a long sleeve T, and busted up out my door. I encountered some slight difficulties when I was coming back, since I got so excited my first mile was pretty fast and my pace didn't drop significantly through 2 and 3. One of the things on my "To-Do" list is to set up my heart rate monitor, so I can get a better idea of how fast I'm going, but until then I need to learn to not go all out, stamina sam!

When I got back I decided to hit the gym, since I still had the other half of my strength circuit left from the other day. Upper body, woot woot! Now I have this thing about being in any gym at 5pm. I CANNOT STAND IT! Mostly because that's when everyone comes feeding in, like cockroaches out of the wood work. But, lucky for me, my gym, on a Friday, doesn't get like that. Apparently, ain't nobody got time to get fitness in on a Friday night. haha. So I got through everything and took my tired self home to my sweat pants.

Saturday was another gorgeous day outside. But as it was written, I had an 80 minute bike ride, inside, with 3 X 5 minute zone 3-4 intervals. Needless to say, I was kinda bummed I couldn't run. So before I got on the bike I texted Steph, "Can I please run today? Just a little bit? Please!?" haha I laughed to myself thinking, "Wow, you just asked your coach if you can do another workout....please ma'am, may I have another?" She responded by telling me I could only run if I had only gone for 60 minutes on the bike and if I had done the full 80 I could run for NO MORE than 15 minutes......but I could walk for however long I wanted. As luck would have it I was at 62 minutes. I hopped up off that bike faster than the road-runner and left the fotress-of-solitude, that is the gym :)

My run was short, but fast. I caught the tail end of the Polar Dash Half marathon and joined in. Even though I wasn't racing, I was immediately racing everyone. The competitive drive inside of me told me to go-go-go! As fast as you can, past as many people. Mind you they were 7 miles into a race and I was 60 minutes off a bike and maybe 2 miles into a run. To stop myself from running all the way back up to Grant Park I pulled away from the race for two miles the other direction. But I found myself back on the race path and people were cheering for me because it now looked like I was one of the last people running. Damn. I saw the turn around point. At that moment I picked up my pace, close to a sprint and ran through it yelling, "I WON, I WON!" The race volunteer was very confused, but then I just kept running away from the race. It was worth a good laugh. I spent the rest of the day cleaning and relaxing, and eventually headed over to Steph and Jeff's for a bike/gear changing clinic....and yes, there was pizza.....

Half way Hump: Week Two

In all fairness I haven't made it all the way through the week, I still have my long bike rides to look forward to this weekend since it's only Thursday. But I thought I would add a post, earlier on to remind myself how fricken sore I am. So in my last post I said that I respected my rest day on Monday but I think I got a little ahead of myself, as I ended up going pretty hard the last few days. Mornings are still rough, I have the option of getting up at 4:30 and getting to LA Fitness by 5am for lifting or treadmill running OR the 5:15 wake up for a swim/run/lift/bike at UChicago. Tuesday and Wednesday I opted for the bed and missed the ship for either of those. Which left me doing both of my workouts in the afternoon/evening. Tuesday was long. I was at school all day and by the end of it the last thing I wanted to do was be around people, uhg. So I told myself that I could break up my workouts at two different gyms and then at least I'm not around the same people for a long time. (PS. I know this sounds terrible, coming from a social worker, but a little isolation goes a long way).

Which is why I was only at LA for about 45 minutes, getting through a quick chest/shoulders lift before I decided to switch up my workout and do my 60 minute steady ride that was supposed to be for Thursday on my trainer at home. I will admit I liked the solitude of the ride but I can see how, down the line, it will be a mental barrier. Fresh off the bike and I dashed over to the UChicago pool. But before I did I decided to deck myself out in a pair of boys, rainbow drag shorts. Wooo Hoo look at that hottie! Haha! Needless to say I got a few laughs and some stares but I really didn't care, I was on a mission to get through my sets! I felt pretty good about myself after that swim and after accomplishing all that work, enough so that I decided it would be ok to sleep in the next day.

Wednesday was a run and lift day. I don't think this will ever get old: I hate the treadmill. Honesly, I feel like it gets a bad rap sometimes but then I think, that doesn't make it any more appealing. So I did my warm up and then my 10 X 1min all out runs with 1 min jogs in between, and it sucked. It's not the typical running I'm used to, which is just going as far as I want for however long I please. After my run I took on the weights. Today was a legs day. One thing I will (hopefully) get through my head is that even though leg lifting is my favorite, it's not ideal to go hard and heavy on a Wednesday because you still have workouts up until Sunday. After I finished I felt fabulous! Even threw in some core. (This one is a good one, back on the yoga ball against the incline bench, raising your legs....that'll get you tight!) Needless to say I'd be paying for it later though.

 This brings me to today. Today I am sore and my muscles are fatigued....and I'm walking around like I have a stick up my butt. Occasionally my legs give out too. No one to blame but myself and the leg press machine ;) I was thankful for an endurance swim this morning (4 X 400 alt. pull/swim) but still had a bike ride to get to this afternoon. Now I switched out my "interval" ride for my "steady one on Tuesday. Totally regretted that as soon as it hurt to put my ass on the seat and bring my RPMs up to 90. Whoops. I fought long and hard, for 70 minutes with 2 X 5 mins high intensity/low cadence. Wrapped it up with some ab sets and I called it a day. I loafed around my dads house for a good hour before I decided I couldn't handle the hunger any more and took myself and my sweat pants to the grocery store. The funny part is, even though I bought all of this wonderful food my impatience got the best of me, and I ended up going to Panera for a salad.....where the employees know my name, my face and my order. I know, I live a sweet life :) But I figured I deserved a tiny reward, even though it was my decision making that got me into this mess in the first place, but I'm gonna pretend like I don't know that since I have a 6 mile run at different paces for tomorrow. But you best believe I'm sleeping in!

Week One: Coach Knows Best

One week down.....geeeesh I don't want to think about how many there are left to go. But it was a great first week, I will say that. I'm happy to be getting back into the pool consistently and to have a schedule of things that need to get done every day. My Type A personality is beyond pleased to have a few more things to add to the daily 'To-Do' list...you see there is a huge sense of gratification that comes with crossing them off....kind of like that good feeling you get from popping bubble wrap.....or maybe that's just me. Anyways, things seem pretty light for now but my awesomely-amazing coach, Stephanie, knows me well enough that in the corner of my training log she wrote "Don't do a lot of extra heavy lifting and rest on the rest days!" Now I do solemnly swear that I am going to do my best with this, but! I ended up doing a leg lifting workout on Thursday, and I went heavy....and added some stuff in there. I paid for it hard the next day. My legs wrote a check my booty couldn't cash! So the next day (Friday) my 6 mile run was HARD! My butt felt like it weighted an extra 7lbs and my legs were screaming at me like, "What the hell are you doing crazy lady?!" But I got it done! Lesson learned: Don't do a heavy legs workout the day before a run.

The weekend was a double bike weekend. I'm actually really happy Steph has me biking as much as she does because lord knows I need it! Saturday I ended up going to the gym but I told myself I would set up my trainer by the end of the day. For goodness sakes I'd had it for over a week and still hadn't moved it. Plus I have a membership to two different gyms but there are times when I just don't want to be around people, or share equipment, I know, I'm such a brat! But really. So Sunday morning I did my first ride on the trainer. It went really well, plugged in my pandora and just let it go for 2 hours, feeling out the switching of gears and being on my bike for 120 minutes. I'm not gonna lie, I had every intention of going to the gym after that ride but, much like Steph told me, I was tired, my legs were tired and I didn't feel like doing anything extra. So I called it a day. But made sure to have a recovery drink :)



<--- (ice, protein powder, almond milk, banana, peanut butter, blended all up to all of its deliciousness)


 Now, in closing, I would like to acknowledge that I respected my rest day on Monday, mostly because by the time I got off work I ended up passing out for a nap BUT! It was so hard to not feel like I was losing a day of fitness, or that I was getting "weak". Which is why I guess with training, the physical activity is only half the battle. 

But I Will Be An IRONMAN!!!

You know that feeling you get on Christmas morning as a kid, when you rush down to the tree and see all the presents Santa left? (PS, I apologize in advance that I'm being culturally incompetent right now to all of my Jewish friends but you all get 8 nights of presents, and there is something about instant gratification that us crazy Christian folk love to indulge in). ANYWAYS! That build up, the excitement.....it didn't really happen for me on Christmas this year, rather, it came 5 days later, on January 1st when my Ironman out-season training started! My coach had sent me my training almost two weeks prior to look over and ask questions but hell, that was like handing me a huge wrapped present and telling me not to open it. You can look at it, shake it up, and make guesses as to what's inside but you can't have it. Damn! Patience is a virtue Sam (eye roll). The funniest part was that she has me set up for Monday rest days, so my "first official day of training" was actually a rest day (face palm). Ok ok, it wasn't that bad but I was ready to start training. It's been months since I've been on a triathlon workout plan and there are some areas that have been neglected.

Like the pool. I have skipped out on the pool because it's a lot of work to get in there, do your sets, shower, get dressed, ain't nobody got time for that! At least with a gym workout I can skip the shower if I have to.....but I would never do that.....??? haha. So Tuesday morning, New Years day, I was up at 8am and ready to take on a 2500 meter swim. I had gone out with friends the night before but decided to be faithful to an early workout and turned in around 1am. As you can imagine, not everyone shared the same mentality as me, so I had a whole pool to myself in the morning. It doesn't get any better than that, really, I was beyond spoiled by this. The swim went well, but I noticed that I was pretty slow in my stokes and it took me the entire 700m warm up to get into my breathing. But heck after I got out I felt fabulous....gotta go jot that down in my training notebook....I feel fabulous!

Biking is probably my weakest link of triathlon. In fact when I raced Racine last year all I kept thinking to myself was, "Hot damn I wish I spent more time on the bike!" Word to the wise, DON'T skip bike workouts! So my bike and I are in a morning monogamous relationship since, with the help of my coach, I got a hold of a trainer to set up in my place and bike my little heart out.

Running is the love of my life, sorry bike! For the past few months I have become accustomed to just being able to run for however long and far as I want. I foresee this being something of a challenge for me, especially since I don't get to run everyday in the training plan, and most running articles/books have said not to run everyday anyways.....something about how it shouldn't be used as a "rest" or "light workout" because it takes such a toll on your body. pssshhh!!! Of course that would be the activity I love to do the most though. But so I did my 35 minute run, at about 8:27 m/m with steady increases towards the end. The only obstacle I faced with this was doing it on the treadmill. I HATE THE TREADMILL! But I know myself well enough to know that "One does not simply run outside for only 35 minutes....." haha I would definitely exceed that time limit and one of my personal goals for myself is to not over-train and not do too much  more than what my coach suggests. (With age comes wisdom Steph :))

So I am officially in training to be an Ironman. I'm looking forward to every part of training, as well as the changes I will see in myself physically and mentally. The people I will meet and the knowledge I will gain will help me along the way and each day will bring me closer to my 140.6 mile goal. This will be the hardest challenge I've taken on so far but I'm ready for it.....ready....set.....GO!

Morning Maniac && The "Grandma" Complex

There is nothing fun about 4am, EVER! Which is why my alarm goes off at 4:15....that extra 15 minutes is a necessary buffer that allows me to convince myself that I am not CERTIFIABLY insane. So I told myself, last week, that I wanted to try and start getting back into my 5am workout routine because training was starting next week (this week) and I would inevitably have to start then anyways. I'm a go-getter :) Well, the first day went alright, I was motivated and ready to take on a heavy lift....not to mention my training partner called me at 4:25 to make sure I was up. The second day was slightly more difficult but I made it in. By the third day I had decided I wasn't up for it...literally, I stayed in bed.

I can definitely speak to the fact that your body goes through changes, unlike anything puberty ever prepared me for. I first noticed these changes when I couldn't sleep past 7am. When all the rest of the normal human population is asleep I am wide awake, ready to take on the world. But it ricochets back at me when I start to feel fatigued around 7pm and by 9pm if I haven't already crawled into bed you will probably find me passed out in a corner somewhere. It's a hard life, let me tell you....for my birthday...my 24th birthday mind you, I was struggling to stay awake at 10:30pm. Now I was at a bar, my best friend was bar tending and she thought for some reason that if she kept feeding me liquor I'd wake up. No such thing, because as soon as midnight hit, and we took my birthday shot I stood up, looked at the friend I brought with me and go "we out". 

I like to refer to this state of being as the "Grandma complex". My body is on a track unlike any other 20-something-year old, which is probably why I get so much grief from my friends when I'm not making coherent statements passed 8pm. I've embraced my inner Grandma though and decided, hell, grandma ain't gonna have a body like this one! :) Which actually reminds me, the other change, which I actually really like, is how much I eat. Every hour, almost on the hour, I'm eating something--protein bar, banana, almonds, apple--I'm gorging. My coworkers make fun of me because I'm always pulling food out of my bag, like Mary Poppins, it never ends. I'd say this is a good change to have,

 So here's to early to bed, and early to rise and eating like I've never seen food before :)

Holiday Hustle

I read something the other day off of a fellow triathlete's facebook status. It went something like "The best way to lose weight around the holidays is to surround yourself with family." I wasn't quite sure where he was going with this, so I read on. He then explained that the combination of chaos of being around so many people that want to play this game or talk about that sport will make you want nothing more than to find a quick escape route, which for most triathletes will be to the gym. I couldn't help but laugh because I can definitely relate. This was the first Christmas Eve I had to work. Strange concept, working on holidays, apparently this is a "big kid job" thing. Anyways, I had planned on staying at my place in the city and just driving in the next morning for breakfast and presents at my dad's. That all went to hell though when my sister called me up and demanded my presence at dinner that night. And let me tell you, she may be 3 years younger and a whole foot shorter than me (ok maybe not that much but she is tiny) but when she makes a demand I am too afraid of the wrath, that is her bad attitude, that follows. So I did absolutely nothing productive at work from 9 to 3 and then took the train back to my place.

As I started packing up my things I soon realized that I was going back to my dad's with four bags. Mind you, I would be there for about 24 hours, yet I had a bag for my "nice clothes", a bag for workout clothes and a bag with my computer/work stuff in it.....along with a lunch bag filled with veggie/vegan friendly food because as my father recently quotes, in a meat-eaters house hold "ain't nobody got time for that!" So I leave my place, looking like I'm moving out (and I assure you this happens every time I go out by him, I transition into this nomad of sorts).

Dinner was of course a high class ordeal, with KFC chicken, pasta (my sister called me before hand to let me know it wouldn't have meat in it, what a doll!), jello, potatoes and pizza bites. We keep it classy in the Matiya house hold. But it was also the first time all four of us were able to sit down for a meal together in months....and of course there was food thrown, names called and dad chiming in with "knock it off!" only to be followed by all of us busting out in a fit of laughter.

After dinner we all dissolved into separate activites, and I found this to be the perfect opportunity to get out of the house for a while and go for a run. I was excited because I knew all the lights would be out across the town and figured it would be a good calorie burn. Running at night in the suburbs is quickly becoming a new favorite activity for me, mostly because it's quiet and calming. I was gone for probably an hour and a half, before calling it a night, knowing full well I'd be out the next day.

Christmas morning is always the same for us, we all get up and sit around opening each other's gifts. There's usually several comments about how awful my wrapping of presents is and my dad always gives all three of us a puzzle box with $100 in it.....but the damn thing is impossible to open....so he just sits back and watches us all fumble with it for a good 15 minutes before we give up and decide it's better to save the money anyways :) Once that's all said and done we usually eat some calorie dense cinnamon buns and eggs, om nom nom! I had a good 3 hours before I had to go over to my grams, so I decided, again right after eating, to go for a run. But I was even more motivated today because, for one it's Christmas, and two, IT WAS SNOWING!!! So I grabbed my warm clothes, layered up more than Randy from the Christmas Story (I think that's a cultural joke) and hit the bike path. There is something unexplainable about a fresh layer of snow down on the ground and your foot prints being the first to hit it.

I was gone a little bit longer than I should have, since after I got out of the shower everyone had already left for my grandparents. Whoops! Hey a girl's got priorities to fulfill! Either way,  I took some time to stretch out and use my tiger tail roller because after two days of almost 2 hour runs my knee was starting to act up and my muscles were tight. But I thought to myself, running is such a huge part of my life, even over the holidays. True it is a good break from the family, and it is a necessity worthy of a whole bag of clothes brought with, but the feeling, the release, is more than can be packed in a bag and more than getting out of doing the Christmas dinner dishes :)