Working out the kinks

The last few days have been crazy. We stayed home Sunday while it snowed. I was forced to run on the hamster wheel treadmill instead of outdoors. That was two days in a row that I was indoors. Cabin fever set in big time and I was eager to get out of the house. Monday morning our neighbor came by and used his snowblower to clean our driveway and walkway. What a relief that was. Then we took the Element out for a ride just to get out for a little while. I needed a change of scenery.

We drove around town, grabbed lunch and Wingman dropped me off and then went to work. I grabbed a shovel and cleaned up the rest of the driveway. The hardest part was the end of the driveway where the plows leave snow. But since I didn't have to shovel the entire driveway, I wasn't about to complain. I just paced myself and considered it my weight training for the day.

Yesterday I drove out to Hewlett to visit with some friends. My 'little' friend, who's not little anymore :-( is almost 21. Zoinks! I could go on and on about with "I remember when she was this big"stories, but I will spare her from any public embarrassment. Her family and I went to lunch and then drove around a little while looking for places to take pictures. I had a few ideas for photos, but with all the snow, it made it hard to do. So we went back to their house and I swapped lenses, handed her the camera and set her loose on some stuff.  She did a nice job. Her stuff came out really nice and I gave her digital copies of all the pictures.  We had fun and it was great seeing her again. When the weather gets nicer we'll plan a trip out this way and head further east for some photo opportunities.

This morning the Wingman and I went out to run. We drove to another part of town where the shoulders are wide and clear of snow. Plus there wasn't a ton of traffic to deal with either. I had a 45 minute 'easy' run planned. It started out as anything but easy. But I am starting to learn to be more patient at the beginning of my runs. In the past, if I started sluggish or feel slow, I would get aggravated with myself and have a bad run. Now, I find myself a little more forgiving about it and it keeps me relaxed. By the 2nd mile, I was moving along with ease. Before I knew it I was at the turn around and heading back to the car.

We got home and I enjoyed a nice hot shower. Then it was off to the stores for food shopping and then home again. My shoulder was sore from the snow shoveling the other day. It's a little hard to work on your own shoulder, but I did some soft tissue work on my pec minor/major and that relieved a bit of my soreness. I whipped out my foam roller and massage ball to work out some trigger points near my right scapula. Then I did some stretches for my neck and shoulder. I also have some glaring muscle weaknesses to address.