So much catching up

My apologies for not posting much this month. Life has been crazy and busy!! Let's start from the beginning...... DISNEY WORLD!!!! I decided to go down to Walt Disney World to cheer on a few of my friends that were running during marathon weekend. It was a blast! I had a great time playing catch up with @acityrunner, @jilliankmf, @mikeandthemouse, and @goobermonkey since I haven't seen them since we were all in Atlanta in November. If I wasn't excited before, I am definitely excited now to be running the Dopey challenge in 2015.

Spending time with some of my favorite princesses

She already likes race bling :-)

babymouse cheering during the half marathon

I have some awesome friends that got these for me at the race expo. I'm coming for you Dopey!!!

Last day at the Magic Kingdom before my flight. I literally had an alarm set so that I could leave the park in time to get to the airport. I had a great time with my runDisney friends. Congrats to all of you on your races!

As soon as I got back from Disney, I immediate got hit with reality....and several days a week with my chiropractor. We did a lot of adjustments to my ankles, knees, and hips. He also did FAKTR (pronounced factor) active release treatment on my legs. FAKTR is a way to help treat the soft tissue in your body. He used this lovely (please note my sarcasm here) instrument on my legs to help get rid of adhesions so that my muscles work better. I am so happy that I knew before hand that there was going to be bruising. My legs looks like I got beaten with sticks!! It wasn't the most comfortable thing in the world, but it wasn't really painful either. My legs looked like a hot mess, but I could honestly feel an improvement after the first time that he did it. 

It doesn't look pretty, but they feel so much better!!! I also have a love/hate relationship with my foam roller now. I have decided that IT bands are just evil to runners. Pain is temporary though and whatever it takes to get better and stay injury free right? I had my progress exam just a few days ago and they said that they haven't seen such a drastic improvement in quite sometime.  I will be meeting with them again soon to get the results of my progress exam and see  what our plan is for the next phase of my treatment.  On the plus side, they said that I can get back to running!!! Thank goodness because I have a few races to get ready for in February. 

I've also been doing a bunch of cleaning of the house because......MR. BEACHMOUSE IS COMING HOME!!!!!! I guess it's safe to say that I am a tiny bit excited about it. It's going to be fun to watch him with babymouse. She has changed so much since he left and has definitely gotten more vocal. Well, she is her mother's daughter. Hahaha

Adjustments & Goals for 2014

So my running is having a very slow start so far this year. 3.1 miles run so far. Yes I understand that it's only the first week of 2014, but I really need to start working on my training. I am looking forward to coming home from Disney World (yes, you read that right) so that I can start going to get adjusted by the chiropractor. The idea of having someone adjusting me freaks me out a little bit, but there is something about him that has made me feel super comfortable since day one. We had actually met for the first time in October when he taped my knee before the Wicked 10k. I saw him a few weeks later when he taped my knee again before the Surf n Santa 10 miler in December. He asked me if I was still having the same problems with my knee, I told him that I was, so he asked me to come in and see him for some x-rays. I was already impressed with him because he remembered me and my knee issues. With the amount of people that he had seen at both events, plus his regular patients, that says a lot to me about him, so I made an appointment and had x-rays done. I went in a week later to discuss my x-rays and a plan of action. Man are my hips jacked!!!! It turns out that my right hip is lower than the left, so that is effecting my stride and causing my pain. So for now the plan is to do some adjustments and some muscle release therapy. I can still run, but for now no more than 3-4 miles at a time. I can't complain too much, at least I can still run.

I've been thinking about my goals for this year. I definitely want to try to run 14 races in 2014. I was originally planning on having a set number of half marathons in that list, but I decided to just go with the flow. I took a look at my schedule and my spring is looking intense!!! I've also decided that this is the year that I will get my Disney coast to coast medal. The biggest goal I think that I have this year is to train like crazy for Dopey in 2015.

What are your goals for the year? What type of plans to you have for the year ahead?

BRING IT 2014!!!