Post-Christmas Post

One of the things I love about Christmas is that my older brother still is the first to wake up/wake me up, and my parents still fill our stockings! Never gets old.

After church on Christmas Eve night, the fiance & I set out for an easy 3 mile run through the neighborhood among the lights. So beautiful! It also happened to be in the 60s, so the weather was great. That was my first nighttime run, and I loved it. So peaceful.

I woke up Christmas morning with sinus pain. I have been poppin these bad boys the past few days & feel pretty good at this point.

Even though I felt pretty beat on Christmas night with the sinus stuff, I knew we had a scheduled 2 mile run to do. I was planning on just skipping it, but we ended up running it on the treadmill at my future in law's house (they have a home gym!). I kept off the incline, though.

Friday was my first rest day this week. Today was a milestone! We took advantage of the amazing weather and went to First Landing State Park, where we ran 6 miles (a half mile longer than the most I've ever run) on the trails/through the mud! All I can say is wow...painful! I have problems with my esophagus, and while the first 3 miles felt pretty good, during the last 3 I felt like someone was stepping on my esophagus. I grunted and moaned my way through the last 2 miles. It really sucks because this happens often and is very debilitating, even though my legs, respiratory, and circulatory system feel fine. I could not have finished this run without the fiance by my side, encouraging me & praying with me. It sounds dramatic, but I pray this doesn't happen during the actual race, because it could really prevent me from finishing, and that would devastate me. On the other hand, the scenery was beautiful & I definitely want to run trails again. We finished in 1 hr, 5 mins, I burned 843 cals, and had an average HR of 151 (pretty high for me to sustain for that long).

Tomorrow will be a well deserved rest break. Keep it real.