Finding the Silver Lining

So, yeah. Injured tailbone = absolutely nothing to report on. Really no training of any kind. Which means no Manic Monday training recap.

As I said in my post about injury last week, I’m choosing to look at this in the most positive light possible. Marathon training was really hard, and the marathon attempt itself was very tough both mentally and physically. I needed a break, and the universe gave me no choice but to take one. And I have to admit, not being able to work out has had some unexpected benefits.

Because I’m not training at the moment, I’ve got a lot more free time than I usually do. My new job at Athleta has helped to fill some of that time, but I’m actually enjoying my suddenly-free evenings, weekends and lunch breaks. I’ve been reading a LOT. I think I’ve finished eight books since I got hurt. I’m extremely happy about this. I’ve always been a voracious reader, but these last several months have been so busy between marathon training, Mary Poppins, and life, that I hadn’t read a book in I don’t know how long.

Another excellent thing is that Ben and I are finally keeping up with our cleaning schedule. Way back when, we planned out a schedule where we’re supposed to do different chores each day so that we don’t leave it all for the weekends and end up spending all day Saturday cleaning when we could be doing fun things. In theory, this was great, but it’s something that we hadn’t been good at keeping up with while we were both busy. Now, we just come home and do the day’s required chore right after work (or, well, after MY workday, since he’s on break). We have meal planned and grocery shopped based on the meal plan and actually followed through and cooked supper at home each night. I’ve been able to do meal prep stuff for my workday lunches, which has made a huge difference in the quality of the food I’m eating, not to mention cutting down on costs.

This weekend, I did a huge de-cluttering purge and reorganized my clothes loosely following the KonMari method. It felt AWESOME. My drawers and closet were bursting with clothes that were ill-fitting, or ripped, or stained, or that I just plain never wore, and now everything is neat and visible and I actually have room for everything. I got rid of a ton of old, unnecessary credit card statements, insurance EOB forms, and all kinds of other junk, and I love it! I’m planning to further purge our junk in the hopes that we can eliminate our storage unit some time soon and save ourselves $65 a month.

So even though I haven’t been running, I haven’t been too worried about it. And the good news is, I’m finally starting to feel a bit of improvement in the tailbone area. The pain level isn’t as high, and I’m not having to be quite as careful when moving around. I also discovered that planking somehow doesn’t hurt, so I’m trying to at least do a plank a day so I don’t totally fall off the fitness wagon. I have my annual physical on Thursday, so I plan to talk to my doctor about the tailbone issue and get some professional advice, but after more research and talking to friends who’ve had broken tailbones, I no longer think mine is broken; just badly bruised. And if that’s the case, I may be able to get back to some activity sooner rather than later, which would be nice.

Have you ever heard of the KonMari method? When’s the last time you did a big clothing purge?