The End of the Road Trip and the Bummer of an Injury

Hi all!

I've got two big updates on my life for the interwebs.

First, I'm back at my parents' house in Washington. Yes, my Epic Road Trip (it's a proper noun, y'all) is finally over. It was an absolutely incredible experience, but my body was NOT happy with all that driving (see point number 2). It's nice to be home with my family for another week before I head back to New York to start work at my law firm!

So far, I've mainly relaxed and shopped with my sister. I guess I was actually pretty exhausted from 3.5 weeks of travel, so I've been really tired! My house is a really nice place to relax because I've never found a comfier couch than my parents', I swear.

This is partially a picture of my parents' dog, Zoe, and partially of the comfy couch.

My family has this adorable tradition of the first person up brewing a pot of tea. It doesn't happen every day, but more often than not, warm tea is waiting when you get to the kitchen. Even nicer, my parents sometimes bring it to my sister and me in bed. It's one of my favorite parts of being home -- being greeted in the morning by my mom or dad's gentle knock on my door and a warm cup of tea.

Anyway, between the tea drinking and the relaxing, the past two days have been pretty chill. Except for point number two...


 I have a hamstring injury. You might remember, I've mentioned it hurting a bit in past posts, but something last week really set it off, and it started hurting more on Sunday when I went for a short run. I cut that run short, hoping a massage would cure the pain, and while the massage really helped my hip and piriformis aches, my Monday afternoon miles hurt just like Sunday's. Again, I had to cut the run short.

It was Tuesday night's yoga class that confirmed that my hamstring was injured rather than just ridiculously tight, though. I went to a gentle yoga class and left feeling more pain in my hamstring -- the biggest sign of an injury versus tight muscles.

Random mountains... because mountains make me feel calm.

I immediately met with a physical therapist Wednesday, who told me I needed to rest my hamstring from running, especially avoiding high mileage or speed work for a little bit, and I can't do my planned 22 miler on Saturday. If I can jog slowly without pain this morning, I might be able to run my dad's first half marathon with him tomorrow. Otherwise, I'm relegated to icing and following the exercises I was given.

Soooo that's where I am. Relaxing. Hamstring injury-nursing. Trying not to drive myself crazy by thinking about how terrible it is for running the Chicago Marathon that in my peak mileage week of training, I can't run.

Although right now, my biggest concern is running the River Run Half Marathon with my dad on Saturday! I promised him when I convinced him to sign up that I'd run the race alongside him. It's his first half marathon so I want to support him the whole way. Cross your fingers I get cleared at my physical therapy appointment this afternoon!


How do you keep calm when you're stressed out over training or an injury? Does your family have any fun traditions that make you feel at home?