It's beginning to sound like Christmas

This week I started teaching Christmas songs to my violin students. Mostly this is because of a performance coming up that has lots of Christmas music on it. Now, you might think that I have a bit of a bah humbug attitude going on, but remember I'm a musician. I perform for a living. So, all of those nice Christmas concerts you're going to have to have musicians to play those lovely Christmas songs, which requires practicing on our part. It always seems like I play the same songs over and over again this time of year. Add 4 hours of teaching the same Christmas songs over and over 4 days a week, and well, you would feel the same way too. I don't dislike Christmas music, but I've been listening to it for 4 weeks because people have been teaching it or practicing it for a while now. Somehow it never seems to be my favorite Christmas songs. That's okay though. My students love it and they always get really excited when I pull out the Christmas music. So I have swapped Twinkle Twinkle Little Star for Jungle Bells.

Today's run wasn't as good as yesterday's. My knee is being really cranky today, so I cut the run short and headed home and cracked out the ice pack. We'll see how it's doing. I may not run again until Saturday. Honestly, as long as I can run my race next week I'll be happy!

Still waiting

Germs, germs, go away, and don't come back!! Between this cold and the fall allergy season things haven't been fun lately. It's been 1 1/2 weeks since my last run. It feels like eons!!! This morning I attempted a two block walk with the dogs to see how things were doing. HA! I started coughing the minute I walked out the door and continued for most of the first block. Maybe my lungs just needed to clear things out? One can only hope. At least I'm not winded when I play my violin! Must stay positive!!! I tired some yoga when I got home from the walk. I can till my legs have recovered from the marathon already, which is great because I have a 1/2 marathon coming up on Thanksgiving Day. Yeah, running again would be awesome! I've been doing a lot of yoga since the race. I love how good I feel afterwards, but someone is going to have to explain how downward dog is a resting pose. Because yoga focuses so much on stretching it's really great for runners and musicians! Never tried, but always wanted to? Here's a little introduction from one of my favorites (you can check more at her website www.tarastilesliving.com):