The Official Diagnosis

Today's Workout: stretching, lower body strengthening

Today was the day I saw my family orthopedist. He diagnosed me with what I sort of knew all along: IT Band Syndrome. He also prescribed me some anti-inflammatories, taught me some stretches, and told me to take about 3 weeks off from running. 3 weeks?!! I know that 3 weeks in the great span of things isn't that long, but right now it seems like forever. And now I'm definitely not going to be able to run my 4 miler on April 29th and this is putting my Brooklyn Half Marathon hopes at risk, too :( This is truly a very sad day. At least I still have my Easter candy to get me through this. Or maybe the rest of this AMAZING egg cake...

My dad always know what will cheer me up.

These are the real eggs I colored with my mom. My fav is the speckled egg.

In happier news, I have been at my parents house on Staten Island for the past few days after I spent Easter here. I am on spring break from school (woohoo!) and decided yesterday that I seriously needed to do some spring cleaning. It was incredibly overdue. I had a ton of clothes here that needed to be sorted through, most of which I honestly hadn't worn in years. I am afflicted with "Well, I may need to wear it someday"-syndrome. But this weekend I was on a mission and instituted the 1 year rule: if I haven't worn it in a year, I will throw it out. I threw out some outfits that I couldn't believe I ever, ever wore out in public. There's some embarrassing things in these bags...

Four bags to donate. There was also one bag (not shown) that just went right in the trash.
Man, I am good.

That's what happens when you put your mind to something. Look at all those clothes. The sad part is that I still have a TON both at my apartment and here at my parents house. Where did I even get all these?!!

After the clothes were sorted, my mom and I moved random clothes from closet to closet to better organize where everyone's stuff is. None of my siblings live at home anymore and each of us has clothes randomly located throughout the house. I probably had some things in every closet in the whole house. Totally unnecessary. So my mom and I successfully remedied the situation.

We also went through my little sisters room and threw away her old furniture. Her furniture has been around probably since before I was born (for reference, I am 23). Some of the drawers didn't even open anymore so it was about time this stuff went. This was no simple task since we had to empty everything and lug the pieces outside for the garbage men to pick up. That stuff was heavy and I immediately counted it as my workout for the day. Who needs to life weights when you can lift furniture instead?

All the trash outside, and yes a photo of Johnny Depp on my sisters old drawers.

Although spring cleaning was alot of work, it felt really good to get rid of all these things. It also helped keep my mind off of not being able to run. I am easily distracted. And gullible. You can probably make me believe anything if you are semi-convincing.

Anyway, when I get back to Brooklyn later today I'll have to start swimming and using the elliptical again. Blah, so boring compared to running. But at least I can do something to get my endorphin-fix. Swimming and elliptical will have to do for now!

What types of running injuries have you had? What helped you get through them?
How's your spring cleaning going?

Running with a View

Today's Workout: 5 mile easy run 

Besides a short jog the other day, today was my first normal run since the NYC Half last weekend.  Luckily it was a really nice day out and didn't rain like it was supposed to. I was on Staten Island visiting my parents so I decided to go down to the boardwalk for an easy 5 mile run with some nice beach scenery that I don't normally get in Brooklyn... actually who am I kidding, I never get beach views. So this was a treat.

It was 55 and sunny. Those should like perfect running conditions, right? Well it would have been except the light, springy breeze that I felt by my house was more like gale force Hurricane "Insert random hurricane name" winds down by the beach. Would have totally blown my parents 4 pound Chihuahua out to sea. Nevertheless, I made sure to run into the wind on the first half of my run and with the wind at my back for the second. The views were so nice that the wind didn't bother me too much.

 

Saw some interesting folks out walking around in some choice outfits. Wish I was coordinated enough to take photos while running to share with you the daytime styles of some Staten Islanders (in case you're about to feel the urge to defend SI, I can say these things because I was born and raised on SI. And I really do love it there. Just don't always love the clothes). Let me put it this way, lots of not-so-young adults wearing Juicy Couture and "LOVE Victoria's Secret PINK" matching sets. Ah, good old SI.

The view was amazing and I always love seeing the Verazzano Bridge in the background. But I definitely need to find a running partner... can't wait until my world-traveler sisters come home then I can drag them out with me. They just don't know they've agreed to this yet. But they have.

 Probably will take it easy tomorrow and swim or elliptical. Don't want to push myself too fast, even though I'd always rather be running.

Where are your favorite places to run?