December no Run Challenge Midterm Report, and Other Notes

So far, so good…I have successfully abstained from running since December 4th. I have January 5th marked in my planner as the day I will end the month-long no-running challenge. I have been holding up well the past 2 weeks, but the hard part is still to come. I’m not going to hunt through my training history and confirm this, but I think this will be the longest I’ve gone without running since I was a sophomore in high school, which would be 8 years ago. For someone of my size, hovering around 185-210 for that time period, it’s pretty impressive this is my first injury to speak of. The ice is doing a good job of motivating me to not want to run, but the temptation still hits me occasionally. I have substituted erging and a little time on the elliptical into the running workouts I would have been doing. Training is still going extremely well as a whole. My only worry now is that without any significant race until the end of April, I may explode from anticipation.

In other news, the countdown to my tri-bike fitting is 35 days…getting close.

Also, Christmas is fast approaching, and I’ve been kind of a Christmas bum this year. The bonus of being married in regard to Christmas time is…even though there are more people to buy for with 2 immediate families, gifts can be given from both of us. And with my wife’s natural female instinct to enjoy shopping, she strategizes and actually purchases most of the gifts we need. So, Christmas shopping has become much easier since I really only need to focus on getting gifts for her. That being said, I’m not done yet and haven’t wrapped a darn thing, but I’m close enough to not feel stressed about it.
I did, however, decorate the exterior of the house with lights and some other miscellaneous things. It looks pretty amateur, but not bad for a first time. It snowed yesterday and that definitely accentuates the Christmas look. I’m satisfied with it and was surprised that hanging icicle lights was much easier than I expected.

Our dog, who had to have an impromptu surgery yesterday to deal with an abscess, is now home even though I haven’t gotten there to see him yet. It was strange being in the house without him around even though he’s only been with us for 2 months. It’s amazing how quickly he became one of the family. Anyways, it will be good to be greeted at the door again.

That is all for now. I think I will post again to brag about all my Christmas presents like a spoiled 8 year old, but I’m not sure if I’ll get anything in before that. Happy holidays everyone.