Weekend Recap: Keeping Busy While Injured

Sadly, I am still on the injured list since my knee is bugging the heck out of me.  It's painful to walk for an extended period of time, and going down stairs is just torture. I have a PT appointment next week, so hopefully I will figure out what's going on with it soon.  In the meantime, I am trying to do my best to stay calm, ice, rest, and focus on other aspects of my life.

I still had a few running-related activities to keep me occupied this weekend however. First up was my big post-race marathon party for the Hartford Marathon Foundation's training groups on Friday. Even though the group's focus was the ING Hartford Marathon back in the beginning of October, there were a few others (like me!) who trained with the group and chose a different fall marathon. The organizers were kind enough to delay the party until this weekend so everyone could celebrate finishing their big goal races.

The group I trained with met in Wilton (a town about 15 minutes away from me) but the majority of the groups met in Glastonbury, a suburb of Hartford, where the foundation is based.   Since the Glastonbury group was much larger than our group, it made sense to hold the party there. 

Post Marathon Party at Bicycles East

It was great to catch up with my coaches and hear how everyone's race went.  Since I ran the relay as a training run, I didn't really have a chance to see anyone at the finish line.  I was so glad to hear that it seemed like everyone's hard work seemed to have paid off!   Having a training group to meet made such an difference this year and, I'm looking forward to training with everyone again next summer.

Me and Denise (another runner) and my awesome coaches Kerri and Danielle

I planned to spend Saturday afternoon sulking about not being able to do a long run relaxing and resting, but Mike had other plans for us. We stopped by a local winery, Gouveia Vineyards, and shared a picnic dinner and a bottle of wine.

I love local wineries

 And then we were off to the best part of the evening....

Dave and Tim (sorry for the bad picture quality!)

An acoustic evening with Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds at the Oakdale! Tickets were pretty impossible but, Mike managed to find us a pair via another friend of ours.  We've seen quite a few Dave Matthews Band/Dave Matthews and Friends/Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds shows together over the years,  so it's become a bit of a nostalgic thing for us.

My original plans for this morning included a 4 miler race in Central Park, but obviously that was not happening (but big congrats to my friends Dahlia and Gary for their big PRs!) Instead, I ran some errands and checked out two new stores around me.

My bike store, Trek Bicycle Store in Fairfield, recently opened up a Trek Women store right next door.  My bike is a Trek WSD (women specific design) so I was excited to check out their offerings.

Trek Women in Fairfield, CT

I was not disappointed.  Along with the whole line of Trek's WSD bikes, they had gear, apparel, accessories, all for women.  Most bike stores can be pretty intimating (as a new cyclist there's so much I need to learn) but this one had such a warm and friendly vibe.  I was chatting with the owner a bit, and she mentioned the store offered free yoga on Sunday mornings. Will definitely have to come back again soon...maybe for clips? (I'm so not ready to clip in yet, but I can dream!)

More of the Trek Women store

I was also super excited to check out the new Nike Running store in downtown Westport. I wasn't quite sure where the new store was exactly, but luckily it wasn't too hard to spot...

hmm, I wonder what store that is

I couldn't believe how huge the store was - I think it was one of the largest dedicated running stores I've seen. They had walls of technical apparel, shoes, accessories and "lifestyle" apparel for both men and women along with a live DJ.

Nike store in Westport

 The most exciting part, however, were the employees walking around with iPads to take down email addresses for runners interested in their run club.  I hate running in the dark by myself (I just don't feel safe) so I am very excited about the possibility of a running group meeting 10 minutes from my apartments (because I WILL run again, contrary to how I may be feeling now)

But in the meantime, it's back to my ice pack.   

How do you keep busy when you can't run? Anyone do anything exciting this weekend?