Vacation is over, nooooo!

Alas, my vacation is over:( It was a great 10 days, but I guess it had to come to an end sometime. What's really great is I that I only had to take 4 vacation days to get 10 days off due to my strategic planning of using my days to encompass 2 weekends and the 2 days that we already get off for Christmas, wohoo!

First things first, I have to have surgery to repair a torn labrum in my right shoulder. I went to the doctor last Monday to discuss the MRI results from the previous week, and the result was that I have a SLAP tear (superior labrum from anterior to posterior, google it!). However, there was no rotator cuff damage and the tear was a clean one, so recovery should be good. According to the doc, I'll be swimming 6 weeks after surgery! I can get on a stationary bike immediately, and as soon as I get out of the sling (about 2 weeks) I can start running. This is great news because both of my brothers have had this surgery and their recovery times were a lot longer than this.

After a 1 month sabbatical from doing any sort of physical activity in order to rest my body, I finally started back running and biking. I rode with the Birmingham Bike Club last Saturday morning; we got in about 34 miles out in Mt. Brook and Irondale at a medium pace, with 5 mile higher intensity section thrown in there. I rode again on Monday with a friend and got in about 28 miles of hills in Hoover. On Friday, I met up with some Alabama folk- Meredith, J, and Alex- I took them on a hill fest around Hoover and out by Ross Bridge golf course, and then finished up on Smyer Road. We hammered all the hills and keep a decent pace for the rest, and I ended up with a total of around 44 miles, making almost 105 for the week. I started running again too, and was finally able to test out my new Garmin. 18.33 miles from 12/19 until today, all base runs. I'm so glad I can actually build some good base this year before the races start this year, becuase last year I was plagued with a tight IT band until mid-summer.

Hmm, anything else? Oh yea, Christmas. I got some stuff for my bike (water bottle cage, light) and a garmin gps, and that was pretty much it. I almost forgot, I did have a nice 3-day-marinated-beef tenderloin for Christmas lunch, it was awesome!