(Shorts, long sleeve, rain jacket)
Every time I run in the rain, I think about my sister. I showed up at her house one morning when it was raining, and she opened the door, saw the rain, and said, “What do we do?” WE RUN, that is what we do;). BUT let’s be honest… If my treadmill was working (it’s making really loud noises right now), I probably would have been on that ha.
This hat is a must for me to survive running in the winter. It keeps my entire head warm (especially my ears) while blocking snow/rain from hitting my eyes. It has a great little ponytail hole too.
Just remember to braid your hair before you go out for a run in the rain.
And this was after working on the snarls for 5 minutes ha.
Not sure how I chose to do 15 minutes of upper body strength while I was soaking wet, but I hope I get bonus points for doing it.
Snow started coming down FAST at about noon.
We finished the day off with my in-laws for dinner and gift exchanges!
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Let’s talk about some favorite things!
*I added F.LUX on my computer (it’s free) to adjust the lighting according to what time of day I’m using my computer. I am at my computer often when the sun is down, which has helped reduce blue light from my desktop. BUT I also wanted to see if anyone has any blue light glasses they recommend?
*What Brene Brown said about her STRETCH-MARKED HEART! This summed up the human experience so so well.
*A few people have asked me for my thoughts on the things I bought from the Madewell sale (calling my current wardrobe changes my mid-life crisis;). They are still doing a 20% off sale!
*The bodysuit is a success!
*For anybody else that loves the matching sweat sets, these are ridiculously soft, and it is hard to convince myself to not just put these sweats on every single day of my life. (I went with a small in the top and an xs for the bottoms).
*We are still loving the Greenlight Card. I posted about it when we first got them here and wanted to share that we are even more in love with it after using it for a few months. It’s been a great one to teach our kids more about money, motivate them to work a bit more for it, and the app makes it so much easier for me and Andrew to pay them/monitor/keep track of where their money is going.
*The ability to watch every Christmas episode of our favorite shows… Andrew and I do this every year with the Office, and it’s one of our favorite traditions.
*I’ve told you this before, but my goal is to own a massage chair someday. I love them so much… but until I can talk Andrew into spending 10k on one, I will keep loving this back and neck massager. It is also heated, and it feels incredible. I use it on my hamstrings too, and it is a $52 win, in my opinion.
*14 Peaks documentary on Netflix… SO SO SO GOOD.
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Can anyone help out Arthi?
Have any fun weekend plans?
Last thing you watched?
Are you at a computer a lot or not so much?
36 comments
Maureen
If you like hats with a ponytail hole, check out Ponyback Hats! It’s a woman and mom who wanted to be able to wear her hair in a bunch of different styles while also wearing a hat to chase her kids around. She made these hats and they’re awesome. The back can be completely closed because of magnets or opened to fit your bun or ponytail through then use the magnets to keep it closed. Even has them in kids sizes which I think is amazing. Gifted one to my sister and she loves it as well. I saw she came out with beanies for winter and I need to pull the trigger on it.
Sadly I am at my computer a lot because of my job but I try to take breaks and get up to walk around. Which helps since I drink lots of water and have to pee ;)
Tomorrow some friends are coming over to bake Christmas cookies and I can’t wait! Have a great Friday Janae
The Hungry Runner Girl
I will totally check out those hats, thank you so much for sharing… love their story and the magnets are brilliant! Hahaha drinking a lot of water always helps;). Oh that sounds perfect, enjoy every second tomorrow with your friends. Thanks Maureen, you too! PS you’ll have to tell me which Christmas cookies were your favorite!
Carrie
I have never had hamstring tendinitis however I think I was almost at that point. My knees were bothering me a lot along with some other things. I have a joint condition and I thought it was getting worse. I saw my sports med doc and he said “ it’s your hammies!”.. He had me rest for a few days then start more strength. My sports med doc said that injuries to the hamstring are always about weakness and/ or over training. I already was doing some to build muscle around my knee. But glute work, hamstring strength, and core work are key. You might want to find out where your weakness is, a PT could help with it. You need an experience PT though, one that is not just interested in mobility but sports performance. Oh also rest is also key. Good luck!!
Arthi Raghu
Thank you, Carrie!! Glad your injury never lingered for too long!! I’ve been living in glute bridges and have a good sports recovery clinic I’m going to so hopefully things turn for the better soon! Have a great weekend!
Carrie
Single and double weighted deadlifts is what I use a lot to build hamstring strength. I primarily use Kira Stokes for strength now who is hardcore about glute and core. I am doing Run to the Finish runner group right now online and that has some good runner strength work. It just takes time, at least 6 weeks to see any difference in strength. But if you have a sports recovery clinic that is awesome!
Arthi Raghu
Very good to know on the timeline! I’m only on week two of being diligent about strength and rehab but hopefully by the new year things start to turn for the better! Did you take time off running or keep it easy while doing strength training?!
The Hungry Runner Girl
Thank you so much for helping out Arthi! Yay for building more muscle, it’s going to keep us running forever. Have the best day and thanks again, Carrie!
Mariah
I’m at the computer a lot for my job and love my blue light glasses! I have a pair from Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07W9GP26S/ref=dp_iou_view_item?ie=UTF8&psc=1 ), a pair from Goodr, and my regular glasses have blue light lenses too.
Sorry about your injury Arthi ? I haven’t experienced that before, but I hope you get better soon and can run Boston!
The Hungry Runner Girl
Hey Mariah! Those glasses look awesome, I’ll have to grab some. Thank you so much and for your sweetness towards Arthi! You are the best!
Arthi Raghu
Thank you for the well wishes, Mariah!!!
Erin
I work as a PTA/massage therapist but do not take any of this as actual medical advice, just suggestions… I’ve learned to look a lot at the muscles that are the antagonist to the muscles where there is pain. Sometimes hamstring issues are due to tight hip flexors pulling you into an anterior pelvic tilt which in turn causes your hamstrings to constantly be overstretched and weakened hence why stretching the hamstrings doesn’t seem to help or even makes things worse. The majority of humans are very tight in the muscles in the front of their body due to sitting a lot, poor posture, constantly reaching forward, looking down at cell phones etc. which means we are very weak in the muscles along the back side of our body that have gotten over-tired from fighting the tightness in the front of the body. If you think of how hard it is to maintain something like a wall sit for period of time, that is kind of what your postural muscles are subjected to all day when you have poor posture or a weak core. It adds up over time. I highly recommend working a lot on hip flexor mobility (quad and psoas stretches/massage) with stretches being held for at least 3 times 20-30 seconds a couple times a day. If you are going to PT where they do dry needling it can be very helpful in releasing psoas and quad tightness. You should also work a lot on glute strength/hip extension strength to counteract the tightness in the quads. This article touches on good things to consider https://www.gbpersonaltraining.com/why-your-hamstrings-are-tight/
Good luck in your rehab!!
Arthi Raghu
Erin!! This is SO helpful and such great insight!! Thank you for sharing this!! I’ve def noticed it helps when I stretch my hip flexors but hadn’t thought about dry needling for the quad/psoas area!! I’ll bring that up at my next appointment. Appreciate your thoughts here!!
Melissa Cummings
Last thing watched:
–Dopesick (so freakin’ good and will make you so mad, it’s on Hulu. The acting is amazing!).
–The Great (on Hulu, story of Catherine the Great (Season 2 recently came out). So very funny. Quite raunchy, but the humor and the costuming is fantastic)
–Drunk History (on Hulu, an old series where people – who are very drunk – tell accurate historical stories with people acting as they are telling. Hard to explain, but very funny and with great actor cameos)
–14 Peaks – I have started this one…but have not gotten far yet.
This weekend:
–Make “from scratch” cookies with my 14 year old daughter. We had a big cookie fail last weekend…so we are gonna try a different recipe this weekend!
–Reviewing the Christmas list and trying to get most of it done (I am close, I think!)
–Watch at least one Christmas movie.
The Hungry Runner Girl
Oh my goodness, thank you for sharing what you’ve been watching. I’m so excited to have things to watch now! I hope the cookies turn out perfect this weekend and good luck with finishing up the Christmas list, we just finished and it feels so good. Have a beautiful weekend, thanks Melissa!
Arthi Raghu
Thank you so much for posting, Janae!! And thank you to everyone in advance for your guidance!! Very much appreciate any words of wisdom :)
Angela
I went round and round with hamstring tendonopathy about 18 months ago. It felt like it took forever to resolve. I went to a fellow runner’s Airrosti chiropractor who had the same problem. I had a PT program of quad stretching, foam rolling, and a bunch of strength exercises targeting glutes, core etc. I didn’t start to improve until I went to my original sports chiro and he did a series of SI adjustments. Then I began to make progress and right now it’s completely pain free. I’ve done two cycles of marathon training with no recurrence, but I stay on top of the strength work. I hope yours improves soon. I feel your pain and frustration!
Arthi Raghu
Angela!! You give me hope!! I’m SO glad you were able to resume marathon training and haven’t had a flare up. I’m seeing a sports chiro who has also been doing some adjustments as well as ART and I’m praying that if I keep that up + all the strength exercises you outlined, I’ll be on my way back to training! THANK YOU!!
The Hungry Runner Girl
Hey Arthi!!! You have to keep us all updated with how you are doing. Praying for the fastest recovery and that you can get to those races!
Arthi Raghu
I absolutely will! Thank you!
Jackie
We are addicted to The Curse of Oak Island. We keep watching even though they never find any treasure! I am at my computer all of the time and bought blue light reading glasses at the start of the pandemic. They are Peepers and I love them. I have normal readers from Costco for everyday reading, etc. but keep the blue light glasses by my computer.
Becky Przy
It’s so odd to see snow!We have only gotten a few inches here and the kids are anxiously waiting! Haha, I like the mid-life crisis wardrobe change;-)
Tonight we are going out to celebrate our 12 year anniversary (which is tomorrow). We are also going to see Christmas lights–it’s a small walk-through village. They also flooded our local ice skating rinks, but I think it might be too warm for them to be frozen. So we might have to stick to walking for a while.
We last watched Thursday night football. My 6 year old son is obsessed with everything from stats to players to current standings. We also managed to sneak in The Santa Clause and Elf this week too.
Have a wonderful Friday Janae!
Wendy
Yay for snow!
I am loving bodysuits, and need a couple of long sleeve ones. The Madwell one is super cute!
We have a fun Sunday planned with family! A quick trip up to the mountains, to see how my brother-in-law’s mountain house is coming along, then lunch in the village, then back down the mountain for a big family dinner an event ( it’s a surprise that the same brother-in-law and his wife have planned). I’m really looking forward to being in the mountains. It’s been too long.
I’m hoping to get in a long run too, but we’ll see.
Have a great Friday Janae ?
Kate
Arthi, I have dealt with tendinopathy (at the attachment) for quite some time. I have also done 2 Ironman and a coupe marathons since diagnosed haha.
I definitely would do PT. Stretching does NOT help not yoga, in my case, but strengthening is key. Building up your posterior chain is key! Sometimes rolling, but not exactly where the injury is but around it (if that makes sense?)- in my case, the injury being up where it attaches at my sit bones, I will roll the “belly “ of the hamstring further down and that helps.
So do not fear! Sometimes I have to cut back on running and I have even taken a month off here and there but it is manageable. Listen to your body, not your brain ?
Arthi Raghu
Kate!! This is so helpful!! I teach yoga and stopped practicing the second I realized stretching is doing the opposite of what I need! I miss it but trying to be patient with the healing! The suggestions you made definitely make sense!! Thank you!!
ML
Happy Friday! I recently finished Ted Lasso, which was so heartwarming. I also really liked Only Murders in the Building on Hulu (it’s a comedy – not scary!). Have a great weekend and enjoy your snow :)
Nikki
I had upper hamstring tendinitis sooo badly for about a year. Could barely sit while driving. I did PT, dry needling, breaks from running, etc etc. nothing worked. Finally it took taking a break from speed work (esp inclined speed) and really working my core esp the glutes. In fact when I took up trail running in the foothills of Colorado my symptoms markedly decreased because my glutes were finally firing. Good luck!!
Arthi Raghu
I live in Colorado too!! If you have recommendations on the best docs in the area, PLEASE let me know!! How long did you take a break from speed work for?! I’m REALLY focused on my glutes right now and hoping a few weeks of getting them stronger will let me test out running again! I was stupid with my marathon training this last round and barely did any speed work and then raced hard which I think sent my tendons into overload that they were not equipped for. Lesson learned :)
Nikki
I went to cascade PT in Lakewood. They are fantastic with dry needling. And I should revise my comment to say I didn’t stop speed work I just brought the speed down. :) I used to do orange theory fitness and once I quit my tendinitis went away. I think it was just too tempting to push hard all the time. I should also tell you the PT told me this injury takes a very long time to heal. They said a year and I would have to say they were correct!
Arthi
I’m in Lakewood!! How convenient!! This is so helpful … Healing timeframe sucks but hopefully I can still run both marathons I have on the schedule this year! Thank you so much, Nikki!
Amy S
Hi Arthi! I don’t have any experience with that injury but I hope you get better soon! Glad to see you’re working with a sports chiro! I’m always curious which injuries you can keep running through and which need absolute rest. Also if you’re doing any cross training.. I remember when I had ACL reconstruction they took part of my hamstring tendon so I did so much biking while it was healing.
Have a great weekend!
Arthi Raghu
I’m with you!! Every doc is so different with their recommendations and every injury is so different. From what I’ve learned about tendons (and I’ve been researching them HEAVILY) is that complete rest doesn’t actually fix them. The pain will settle but once you start training again, it comes right back. Focusing on strengthening the rest of the tendon and increasing load gradually is supposed to be the best medicine! Will you keep posted and appreciate the well wishes!!
Kelsey
I had proximal hamstring tendinopathy for about a year and after trying everything from taking time off, PT, strength training, chiropractor, etc. I finally got a PRP injection in it last January and that finally fixed it. I had to take 6 easels off after the injection and then I worked with my PT to come up with a running and strength training plan to gradually increase the load on my hamstring. Doing more explosive strength training exercises seemed to help too.
Kelsey
*6 weeks off haha
Arthi Raghu
I’m sorry you had to go through all that but glad the PRP worked!! Did your chiro/PT recommend that? Or like how did you even get to the point of getting that type of treatment?! Appreciate your insight, Kelsey!!
Margaret
Hamstring tendinopathy is rough! I’ve been dealing with it for about a year. Getting in the gym is what has helped me the most as well as some ART – this injury does not respond to rest. You need to load the tendon, so think deadlifts, bridges, lever. Check out Brodie Sharp’s podcast “The Overcoming Proximal Hamstring Tendinopathy Podcast” as well as exercises on Youtube (E3 Rehab has a video on stages of rehab). Good luck!
Arthi Raghu
I have been BINGE listening to Brodie’s Podcast haha!! I’m sorry you’re going through this too!! Fingers crossed we both recover soon!! Thanks, Margaret!