Hello, It's Me

After 6 weeks of illness and recovery from dental surgery, I can finally say that I'm feeling almost like myself again. Almost, because my mouth isn't 100% healed, but I'm done taking pain meds, and I'm eating food that can be chewed. Lol. Between health issues, the weather, busyness at work, and the unrest in the country, I was feeling a little shaky. I don't want to jinx it, but I'm in a much better place.

Thankfully, we had a reprieve, albeit brief, from the bitter cold this week before the deep freeze rolled back in. I was able to get outside for a run on Wednesday. And what a run it was!! It did me a world of good. Here's to hoping for a few more like that. Weather gods, are you listening?

Tiptoeing Back to Where I Want to Be

It's been a bumpy start to 2026, and that includes off the trail. I won't tackle what's happening in the US on this blog. In my little world, there's been illness, and this week, dental surgery. I'm continuing my return to fitness and am hoping to stay healthy from here on out. 

back at it

It was an otherwise uneventful week in my life as I resumed my post-holiday routine. Work continues to be busy as the baby boom continues unabated! I can't complain. I'm grateful that almost all the parents we see are pro-vaccine. Tough times, for sure. And while this is a fitness blog, I also want to comment on how heartbroken I am for Minneapolis and the family of Renee Good. It's hard to process the news cycle these days. 

Chicago had some good news late last night as the Chicago Bears beat the Green Bay Packers in a wild playoff game!!

As always, I lean into running and fitness to give me an outlet and relief from the anxiety I am feeling. While I'm feeling better physically after having back to back illnesses, I'm tired.  It's all been a lot lately.

Happy New Year!

I considered not posting this week, as this is a fitness recap and I don't have a lot of fitness to share. But old habits die hard, and I wanted to start the new year off right. Plus, I had deer photos to share! 

I continue to recover from illness #2, aka Covid, and the fatigue is real. After being off work last week for the Christmas holidays, I returned to work on Tuesday, masking while I see my patients. Still not feeling even close to 100%, I limited my fitness activities to mostly easy movement. 

Overall, December was pretty much a bust for me, fitness-wise. Because I was sick most of the month, I only had 53 running miles for the month. Total miles for 2025 were 880. 

Mini Book Reviews: December 2025 and Year End Summary

Disclaimer: I received ARCs of A Guardian and A Thief, The Tortoise's Tail, Next Time Will Be Our Turn, A Ferryman and His Wife, Family of Spies, and Before I Forget from NetGalley and the publishers in exchange for my honest review. This post contains affiliate links. 

Wow! What a fantastic month of reading. I had big goals for December-I had all my NetGalley reads from November and December to finish up this month. I even managed to squeeze in a few library holds as well. It wasn't hard to do, as I was sick for 2 weeks this month. Lots of time on the couch = lots of time to keep my nose in the books. I can't believe I read this many books, but they were all so good that the pages just flew by!

I also took time to review my Goodreads statistics for the year. They are summarized at the bottom of the post. It was fun to look back on all the books I read this year. I feel so lucky to have access to such great books!

I never set reading goals for the year, and 2026 will be no different. I always vow to dig into my Kindle to clean out some downloads, and I hope to do that again this year. But my NetGalley library is already bursting for January, February, and March with lots of intriguing reads coming up. I can't wait to dig in!

Holly Jolly Holy Moley

This post contains affiliate links.

Despite the festive season, the hits just kept on hitting this week. After a visit last week to my PCP, I received my blood test results and found out that I am prediabetic. Not only that, but I carry a gene that makes me at high risk for heart disease. As you can imagine, I was very upset by this news. I hope that eating well and exercising are enough to overcome my genetics. I have scheduled an appointment with a cardiologist in February to discuss my risks and my options.

I also had a couple of really challenging incidents at work this week. While I won't go into details, the antivaccine and antiscience sentiment is increasingly impacting our practice. Vaccines are a hill I will die on, and if this week was a sample of what's to come, then retirement will happen much sooner than I wanted. 

And after Christmas, I fell sick again, with fever, body aches, and congestion. I spent Friday and Saturday on the couch. I thought it was influenza, because one of my partners has influenza B. The hubs went to the pharmacy to pick up a test, but there were none left! I had some old Covid tests, and I tested positive. When I messaged my partners, another one messaged that she has influenza A! We are the trifecta, lol. 

What a way to wind up 2025.

All I Want For Christmas

This year, I had no idea what to put on my Christmas list. I never do, because when I want something, I just go out and buy it. But this week, I was gifted some really nice runs after recovering from that respiratory illness, a new Fluid Running workout, a PR at the gym, a fun photo on IG, and a new Garmin. 

It was a fruitful week! The weather took us on a windy rollercoaster ride, tho....