There's stuff that isn't running?

What do you do with all that extra time once your 20 hour a week part time job training gets de-railed?

Wellllll ....

I started cooking again. A lot. And by cooking I mean baking. Pink lemonade cupcakes. Car bomb cupcakes. Kahlua cupcakes. Coconut cupcakes. Sugar free brownies. Sugar free banana bread. Sugar free pumpkin bread. Grapefruit shortbread. Orange apricot scones. Cranberry orange scones. Lemon blueberry scones.

Sorry I don't have any pictures of these, but let me just say if you want to make pink buttercream frosting that it can't be done with a primary color kit. The result is a bluish flesh color. And if your star tip isn't sharp enough, it looks like you piped brains onto your cupcakes. Which would be awesome if you had these cupcake holders: https://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/kitchen/e558/

but is pretty awkward at a party in NE with uptight people.

Oh and Oreo mint cupcakes taken from this blog: http://sharedbites.blogspot.com/2010/12/mint-oreo-cupcakes-and-uh-laziness.html

which I think I might have volunteered to make for my anime artist friend D who drew this version of me:

For the record, me as an angel I think is meant to be ironic.

I also regained my creative spirit. No, I won't be drawing my friends as amine characters. I dragged my ridiculously tolerant BF, we'll call him Polar Bear, to this:

http://artjamzdc.com/

Let's just say my frustration over not being whole showed up in my painting. PB hung it on his wall. This is reason #547 why he's awesome. He was okay with going to a booze and painting event I think because he was worried when I said I had a surprise, that I was going to make him go skydiving with me.

I also have been getting back into fashion blogs. I love flipping through the collections, and being snarky. I pretty much live in gym clothes, suits, and pajamas. And the occasional Patagonia dress. So this is purely fantasy, unless fleece polka dot pajamas become haute couture.

And on the active front:

KAYAKING!!!

I LOVE being on the water. I love it so much I have no idea how I made it through the winter. We went kayaking twice this weekend and it was heaven.

I'm also trying to get back into rowing. Which is also awesome. Even at 5:15 AM.

There's just something about the way the morning light illuminates the smog and the sewage.

And if you write a blog I've actually read it and been commenting with annoying frequency. Sorry about that.

FML

I have so been dreading writing this post. I guess in part because posting makes it real.

A few weeks ago I drove up to Martha's Vineyward for the MS Bike Ride. I had to stop halfway through. It felt like someone was dragging razor blades across my hip.

Needless to say, this was somewhat alarming. I got back got in to see the Orthopaedist and got a RX for PT.

Now I had previously spent 4 months in classic PT, and they had recommended I see a chiropractor. So this time I went to the chiro first.

This particular chiro specializes in the Graston technique and ART. I'm pretty sure Graston is Flemish for torture because that's essentially what it is. Although it does leave you feeling a lot looser and in less overall pain after a couple days, so I fully expect to come down with some sort of Stockholm syndrome.

The chiro confirmed I have a metric crapton of scar tissue in my body and that I am quite frankly, damaged goods. As painful as having scar tissue ripped from muscle is, nothing was as painful as what came next.

The chiro told me he never likes to tell people they can keep doing an activity but I *need* to stop running. He said I'll probably need a hip replacement in my lifetime and running is only bringing that eventuality into the nearer future. Like say 55 instead of 65.

I cried all the way home.

I cried later when I got home.

I cried the next day at work.

I did not punch the co-worker who said, "Well you can still walk on the treadmill".
Although I really wanted to. And I'm still fantasizing about it.


Then I emailed my old PT, who I'll most likely go to once I'm done with the chiro, for a second opinion.
Due to the severity and irreparable nature of my injury, nothing over a 10K.


So to be clear: no half marathons, which I've been doing 3-4 a year since I started seriously running. No marathon which I've been trying to work up to for two years. No Ironman, which has been a long term dream for years now.

F. FFFFFFFFF!

What am I supposed to do now?

Then I cried again and ate two sugar free ice cream bars.

Just a tip: never eat two servings of anything sugar free, especially if you aren't supposed to run.