Monday you sly fox

How in the wide world of sports is it Monday already?  Sheesh.  I don't need a 3 day weekend every weekend or anything, but I do strongly prefer it when the work week does not sneak up on me like it did this time.  

Oh, weekend... you started off not so promisingly, and ended up... not so promisingly.  I want a mulligan on you, and to do you over better.  Friday I woke up to horrible back pain that had me reaching for the pain killers I keep in my desk for my coworkers.  Unfortunately, they didn't quite do the trick, and I was in bed by 8:30pm Friday night.  Which is, apparently, my new Friday night bedtime, since I've been crashed out in bed by 8:30 on the last 3 consecutive Friday nights.

 

Saturday, Gunner and I both had massages.  Well, I had a massage, and Gunner had Tellington Therapeutic touch. TTouch as it's called for short is used to help correct issues and imbalances that animals may have.  Gunner has a lot of weird quirks as a rescue dog now living in his third (and FINAL) adoptive home.  He has crazy anxiety that we have been working through.  The TTouch does a WORLD of good for our favorite chocolate lab, and I can not say enough good things about it.  But it isn't cheap, and it feels a little silly that we take our dog for periodic massages.  Luckily, our trainer is teaching me some basics that I can use on Gunner at home on a daily basis, in order to keep our costs down.

After our trip to Gunner's doggy spa, Ammon and I had a brief lunch date at Chipotle before we came back home for my massage.  The best thing that has ever happened to my stress levels is having a massage therapist who comes to my house.  Driving to and from a massage is always the worst, because you're too tense from other people being stupid to fully relax and enjoy your hour of relaxation.  My back finally started working much better again after the massage.  I had a long run scheduled for Saturday that ended up moving to Sunday, because of those back problems.  Thankfully, a massage was scheduled in the first place, otherwise there might have been some real problems.

On Sunday, I realized why blogging has been one of the best things that has ever happened to me.  You may or may not know it, but that half marathon that I'm doing in May?  I'm actually doing it with Alyx, who is pretty much the coolest young mom I've ever met.

If it weren't for blogging, I never would have met her.  I sure as heck never would have driven in rush hour traffic on a Friday to hang out at an airport with her.  But I did meet her through blogging, and then I did meet her in real life a few weeks ago.  And we did sign up to run 13.1 miles together in Lincoln, NE on May 4th.  Because we're super awesome like that.

We also agreed to help each other stay on top of our training runs.  Pushing the button to register for a big event may be 60% of the battle, but actually showing up to said event prepared for it is another story.  We are both dedicated to rocking the shit out of this half marathon, and making sure that we BOTH succeed at meeting our goals.

So come Sunday afternoon, when I just wanted to take a nap, and my boobs hurt, and my period had just started, and it was only 36 degrees outside, I texted Alyx and asked her for a little pep talk.  And she totally came through for me, reminding me that I just needed to do it, and then I could feel better about eating chocolate afterwards.  It was a little silly, but it was exactly what I needed to push me in the direction of putting on my most supportive sports bra, pulling on my compression socks, lacing up my shoes, and heading out for those 5 long miles.

She also followed up later to see how my run went.  If that isn't a true testament of the caliber of blogging friendships, I don't know what is. 

It didn't matter that my weekend went too fast, or that I was hurting for all of it, or even that I spent those 2 days in a hormonally induced firestorm of emotions.  It reminded me that friendships are special, and that there are amazing people in my life who can lift me up, even when I am flat like a pancake on the ground.

I hope that you have a fantastic Monday!