Winter is Coming for a Visit!

Its been hard to get in the holiday spirit this year. I dont know if its because it has been in the mid 70s daily, or because Matthew and I have both had recent travels for work, but its just been difficult. I usually put up the Christmas tree, hang stockings, and even put up lights around the house all around Thanksgiving. But this year has been slow. And also unlike most years, this year Matt and I get the honor of having Christmas dinner at our house! Partly because we are having relatives coming to town, and partly because my parents are leaving town shortly after...but the reason doesnt truly matter. I am very excited to have Christmas dinner at our house this year. Long story short, I had to get the decorations up!

 Luckily, the weather has decided to put a little winter spirit into Southern Arizona. Its going to be cold for the next few days, and it might even snow! So it seemed like the perfect time to make my house look like its ready for the holiday season. We got the tree up last weekend, but neglected to fluff and decorate it until yesterday after work.

But, alas, it is complete!  We even finished wrapping all of the present and put them under the tree. With the amount of stuff under there, you would think we have a bunch of kids...but no. Most of it is clothes that we have bought and wrapped just to feel like we are opening presents. Of course, there's a few special secret things under the tree, and stuff for family members and the dogs too.

 So now that we are in the Christmas spirit, and the weather has gotten cold and cloudy, it was time to go for a run. Earlier this fall I had bought some running capris and even a pair of tights. I have been wearing the capris for my lunch time workouts, mainly because I dont want to walk out of my office wearing running shorts; I get enough funny looks for "working out", I dont need more for wearing short shorts. But I have never worn these articles of clothes for long runs, so I am excited about the weather being cold for a few days!

Today, I wore a warm long sleep shirt (also new), a tee shirt, a pair of funny colored capris (not so new), and shorts. Why the shorts over the capris...because they hide the inevitable wedgie that running tights give you. And even though I LOVE these capris, they are quite funny looking without shorts over them. I dont think color fade clothes will regain popularity...if they ever had it. Sadly, the picture Matthew took does not show the funny colored pants, but maybe thats a good thing!

Matt dressed much more like a normal person. Except the head lamp. Good one Matt! I guess it is my fault, I told him it would probably get dark on our 7-10 mile run. It didnt get completely dark, but another mile and it would have been. Better safe than sorry. (I stored mine in the nifty backpack).

The run went OK, I guess. I got in a 3 mile run at lunch today, and had some strange aches and pains, but nothing too bad. My foot is better, most of the time. Instead of hurting on these runs, it just goes numb. So I wont complain about that now! From the first half mile of this evening's run, I knew it was going to hurt. My old injury flared up, and just kept getting worse and worse. But I am stubborn, and I needed to run!

Running with Matthew by my side is so much better than running alone! We were talking throughout the run, even singing at one point of the run. It almost didnt matter that my leg felt like a brick every time it hit the pavement, I was just so happy to have my running partner back by my side. I finished 7 miles, slightly slower than I would have liked, but considering how much it hurt, Im just happy to have finished it. Matthew went on to do an extra mile (to burn off the donut he ate at work).

Im starting to believe that running is almost as much of a mental game as it is physical. And a large part of that is about pain management. There are times when running is amazing. When there is no pain, no boredom, no frustration. But lately its been the opposite for me. Ive been hurting since the first half marathon, and especially since the second one. Ive been battling a few injuries, running alone, and getting more and more frustrated with every run that doesnt end well. But I need to manage my expectations about running, just like I need to manage pain during the run. I have gotten pretty good at running through aches and pains. It hurts, but my mind is far more stubborn than my body. We have only been running for 8 months now. We are still beginners. I should not expect for every run to be easy. If running was easy, I dont think I would like it nearly as much. It has taught me a lot about how strong I am, how much I can do if I put my mind to it, and has brought me a lot closer to Matthew. Since I dont want running to be easy, I should accept that there will be hard days. There will be days where running is the last thing I want to do, but I need to get out and do it anyways. And someday, there will be a day when I can no longer run, so I need to be thankful for the incredible gift that running has given both Matt and I, and just go along for the ride.