A rant to start off the new year...
K and I just did a preliminary estimate of our taxes for the year. We were quite surprised to find that we are going to owe at least a thousand bucks - due in part due to us now being married, making "too much" money, and lack of the appropriate taxes being taken out of my checks for the teaching gig (which either way turned out to definitely not be profitable for me in the end and offers another reason against doing it again). I have gotten a nice size refund for the past couple of years since I found out about the student loan interest deduction so I was quite eager to see how our taxes would turn out this year. Needless to say, I am now in no hurry to file since I've got to come up with $500 for it. GRRRRRR.....
In other news, 2009 came in without too much of a bang (well, literally there was quite the bang with all the fireworks around here at midnight). I stayed at home while K opted to go out last night and meet some friends who were in town from Dallas. Once again, he partied like a rock star with The Party and didn't get home until 3am. That pretty much threw out the possibility of doing the Runtex to Runtex run this morning. We ended up spending the afternoon furniture shopping because we were looking to get a leather chair for the living room to replace an old chaise lounge chair that I have had since my days at SMU (a long time ago, people). After hitting a few more stores than we had intended, we finally found success and are looking forward to getting our new chair early next week (just in time for K to watch the National Championship game).
The year didn't end on the best note for me in terms of running since my fall on the Greenbelt and forced hiatus for almost 1 1/2 weeks. It was just enough time for me to lose some momentum and fitness. I've done a couple of short runs so far this week - the first one back was UGLY. I felt like a 50-year-old 200 pound woman running for the first time - I felt the pounding and everything seemed to creak and ache; I felt heavy, slow, and inefficient (not exactly what you want obviously!). Things seemed to loosen up once I got a couple of miles in thankfully and my next run was much better - I was able to hit under 9 minute miles again but with much more effort than it was taking just a couple of weeks ago. I worry that I have lost a significant amount of fitness which is obviously a concern with a 50k next weekend and hoping for a 50-miler in a month. I have to remind myself that I just ran a marathon 2 1/2 weeks ago and you don't lose it THAT fast. I'm hoping to run long out at Bastrop this weekend and we'll see how I feel, not exactly what I would do if Bandera was an "A" race in which case I would be tapering right now.
I had a massage earlier this week and asked my massage therapist for her analysis of how my legs seem to be doing. In short, everything is tight, namely my calves and hamstrings. K got me a pack of gift certificates to go see Ann again so I am eager to see her in a couple of weeks and let her inflict the pain that I know is necessary.
I had to work all day yesterday and have to work tomorrow too. I really wish that I would have been able to take some time off for down time over the past two weeks, but essentially every vacation day that I have and will get over the next few months is already accounted for. We still haven't taken down our Christmas tree and other decorations so that is on the agenda for the weekend. Our house also needs a good cleaning so I am hoping to get to that as well. And don't even get me started on my nails. My nails are generally a good indicator of my stress/busyness level and they have been in terrible condition over the past couple of weeks. Let's just say that I have absolutely no business wearing open-toed shoes right now, although I am.
We're off to the gym in a little bit. I'm hoping that the New Year crowds won't really hit until next week. We shall see.
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