The Broad Running Broad

I know I’m a few weeks late, and I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

I had a couple ideas for where I wanted to take today’s post, but then I started thinking about how I was going to write this and couldn’t commit to one direction. And it turns out I have a few different things to say.

So, without further adieu, welcome to the 2025 Hodgepodge Post.

During the first 12 days of 2025, I have:

1.) Volunteered at the First on the First 5k, which has become my New Year’s Day tradition. It may sound corny, but there’s something about seeing all the runners and walkers out there on New Year’s Day that makes me emotional. Maybe it’s the fact it’s usually freezing – this year we got wind and snow, and it turns out I needed an extra layer under my hoodie – and seeing smiling faces is a nice change from how cold and gray it is this time of year. Maybe it’s the fact the FOF 5k is the start to spring racing, and there’s excitement from that. Either way it’s a good time.

2.) Got my Christmas stuff put away. As much as I love Christmas, this year I was ready to take Christmas down and get the new year started. I also needed to clean up my entertainment center and dust again. I have a lot of glitter in this house, which cleaned up well to my surprise.

3.) Mastered the art of homemade podiatry. Which is another way of saying that I had to remove a glass splinter from my left foot.

Back on New Years Day, one of my storage boxes fell off my bed. Unfortunately it was the box with the glass and ceramic pumpkins. The little ones are okay, but the big ceramic pumpkin was smashed to smithereens along with a small candle votive. I thought I vacuumed up all the tiny shards, but it turns out I missed one. I have no idea how long it had been burrowing into me. It took a few rounds in the foot soaker, but with a sewing kit, tweezers and Neosporin Band-Aid, I was able to get that thing out. My foot is fine now, but holy crap it was hurting.

I’m also happy to report that the first two weeks of Spring Training are over.

Week 1 went well. I made a goal to run 20 miles as a “getting back into it” week. Over five days and six runs – 4 miles on Monday; two 3-milers on Tuesday; 3 on Thursday; 4 on Friday, and 3 on Sunday – I got my 20 miles in. Monday and Thursday were tough, while Tuesday and Friday were better runs. Wednesday was a day of rest since I had volunteering and decided to take down Christmas. Saturday wound up being a day of rest and having to cancel another volunteer commitment since I woke up with a round of acid reflux and didn’t want to leave my place if I might need a bathroom.

Week 2 didn’t go as I thought it would. Unbeknownst to me I had that glass shard in my foot, so after my short run on Sunday night, I was experiencing the mystery pain. I took Monday and Tuesday off and decided to push back my Wednesday run to make sure I didn’t have any leftover shards in there.

Then Thursday night I decided to go run with the plan being 4 miles. At Mile 2 my body decided we had enough. So I had to call it a night and went home salty.

Yesterday was my long run day. The general rule of thumb is that long runs shouldn’t be 50% of total weekly mileage. So in my case, because I ran 8 miles and way fewer miles than I was originally planning, I had to stop my long run at 8. I decided to run 7 so I could total out the week at 15.

Thankfully the long run didn’t have any issues like I had earlier in the week. I’m optimistic going into Week 3 tomorrow.

But for now it’s today. Sunday morning working through my coffee in a Pusheen mug. Marina kitty is fast asleep in the middle of my unmade bed. I need a shower since I’m heading to church later on this morning and I don’t have the cojones to roll into church with Day 3 greasy hair.

Is it cojones? Or is it laziness? Either way my scalp is greasier than a Five Guys bag, so I need to take care it this morning.

I hope you all have a wonderful morning, afternoon or evening ahead, and you’re staying warm (assuming you’re someplace cold right now.) May light find you.

Yours in life and running,

Allison