Only a Flesh Wound

Duly noted:  a little adult language ahead.

I'm happy to report my ice-related-injury of Saturday is healing quickly and I believe I'll be able to run in the Miller Park Zoo Stampede 5k this weekend!

Saturday night was a blast!  We had a great time celebrating our friend John's birthday:

Our dear friends Barbie and Tony

Me, John, and hubby Jason

Seems I can't take a picture with my eyes open, but aren't we cute?  :-)

I love that in these pics you can't see the mark on my chin.  (you know, because lucky me, my face broke my fall on Saturday.)  I do have a little mark on my chin where it hit the curb, but that didn't really become visible until Sunday morning, and actually it's not too obvious - looks a bit like a shadow and not really road rash.  I WISH I had a photo that included my legs - I had these super-fantastic-sparkly-patterned tights on, and the most awesome multi-colored blue/black/turquoise 4-inch heels!  Had a little too much to drink and stayed up past my bedtime, but we got to hang out with some great friends that we don't see too often.  SO much fun!

Sunday morning I woke up early (isn't that just the way when you have all day to sleep in??) and headed downstairs for my weigh-in.  Boo.  I was up 0.4 lbs for the week- which I take as no change - I mean, we're talking less than 8 ounces... up OR down, who cares, it's a zero sum game.  Disappointing after the really good week I'd had.  Frustrating.  I think it's time to do some research and figure out what's going on.  Pretty sure this is a food issue, rather than an exercise issue; feel like I'm doing great on the exercise side of this equation.  Time for a trip to the library.

I was in a lot of pain on Sunday.  A lot.  Mostly due to my leg, but it may have been exacerbated by a mild hangover.  But after some serious couching and limping heavily whenever I got up, I braced myself to take the dog for her walk.  Jason offered to go with me... partly just to hang out and jokingly to be there "in case you fall down again."  With the ice / snow situation on the sidewalks in our neighborhood, we decided to drive to a local park where we could pick up the Trail.  I was limping pretty badly at the start, but we walked at what I'm going to call a very leisurely pace for a little over an hour and covered just under 3 miles.  After about 30 minutes, I was walking almost normally.  Almost.

Found this here on Facebook and could NOT stop laughing.

When we got home from our walk, I was about ready for a nap.  Seriously, it really took it out of me.  It seems silly - it was just a one-hour walk, for crying out loud! - but I was ready for a break. Jason had another idea though.  He had some errands to run and talked me into joining him for a trip to the grocery store and The Dreaded Menards.  Menards always seems to take FOREVER - Jason loves wandering around and investigating new toys and tools to play with... but he was right, it was good to keep moving and keep that leg loose and warmed up for as long as possible.  And he promised to keep the wandering to a minimum!  So I got about another hour, hour and a half of walking in... I don't really count that as "exercise" but it was good for my leg.

Today was hard but much easier than yesterday.  The pain is localized in that muscle on my thigh - my knee and ankles feel pretty close to normal but that thigh muscle is tight and sore as hell.  It feels like someone PUNCHED me really hard on my leg. I was still limping, especially in the morning, but knowing how much the exercise helped yesterday, I made a point of getting up every hour or so at work and wandering around the building, either going to the bathroom, walking to the kitchen for more water, whatever I could think of.  At one point I was doing some research and just got up and paced around my desk and flexed my legs while reading reports.

After work, I took Coty for another 3-mile walk.  My leg was feeling much better and after about 15 minutes I was able to do the rest of the route without limping.  I didn't try any running but think I'll give that a shot tomorrow!

So screw the scale:  I'm still moving forward, weight-loss or no.  There's hope for participating - maybe even running! - in this weekend's 5k after all!