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Bored and unhappy Sunday, October 1, 2006 I have got to get out of this situation, or at least get figured out so that once coaching is over, I'll be where I need to be. Not hearing anything after those interviews is dragging me down, especially since that's the only retail lead I've had since I started filling out applications in the beginning of September. I also need to either get out of this house or out of this city. A small change would be better than nothing, because I am more than ready to be living on my own... but my finances definitely won't support that now, and if I don't get a job soon, I'll probably be stuck here for quite a while. Not a fun prospect, but I guess I'll have to make do.
I haven't run in a few days in order to let my IT band heal, and I think that it may be ready for some light training again. I'll get out on my bike tomorrow for a little while to see if spinning bothers it, and if it doesn't, perhaps I can start getting back into the swing of things a little bit. I think not training much has been part of my problem lately, but having an injury puts a damper on one's mileage.
Standstill Life is parked in neutral right now, and I can't seem to find a way to put it in drive. No progress on anything; in fact, the only positive in the past few days has been the apparent healing of my knee and iliotibial band. I'm pretty sure that if I take it easy, I can get back into training, and I suspect that will help my mood, if nothing else.
It appears there is no easy solution for getting health credits so that I can get that extra certification. I'd have to go to either Penn State or back to Michigan to take a couple semesters' worth of classes. I'd happily go back to Ann Arbor (yes, even though I have sworn in the past that I would never return to Michigan), but I'd need some means of paying rent first...
Disease, databases, and other weirdness I've felt pretty crappy all day - headache, sore throat, muscle aches and a possible fever (didn't bother to check, though) - so I took it easy, doing some research. I've been trying to figure out how to get a few certain web projects to work, and I have determined that until I have time to sit down with about a dozen good books on the subjects, I will probably not be able to handle databases and the fancier scripting of more sophisitcated websites. It's not beyond me, far from it; I just don't have the time right now. Assuming I feel ok tomorrow, I really will get out on my bike, despite the cold temps of late. I think tonight will get down to the high 30s (*sigh*), and I've been a weenie about riding in the chillier air. Time to bite the bullet and just do it, I guess. Otherwise, the Dirty Dozen could be a total disaster. On a related note, I've got new handlebars for my road bike coming soon. I've had my current Profile bars for at least five years, and in all honesty, they're pretty horrible. These new bars are going to be amazing. Hopefully between now and next April I will have a chance to finish all my prospective road bike upgrades (new fork & headset, SRAM Force 10 shifters & derailleurs, new wheelset). Most of what's on it is original spec from when I bought the frame at the end of 2002, so it's ready to be replaced. Non-sequitur of the day: dogs are weird. I'm housesitting at the moment, so our family dog has become attached to my hip. This is not weird. What is weird, which becomes much more apparent when I see the dog more often, is the tendency that dogs have to circle around in seemingly aimless fashion before they settle themselves into one spot. Our old dog used to do this to such an extent that I thought he might be trying to make himself so dizzy that he wouldn't be able to stand up anymore. This dog, who is about five times larger than the old dog, does the same thing, but it must be lack of coordination that results in him plopping down on the floor, rather than dizziness. He also has this odd tendency to get up from one spot and move around to a slightly different spot or position every ten minutes or so. While I suppose I only have intimate knowledge of the behaviors of the two dogs we've ever owned, it's hard to imagine this restlessness is entirely normal. Sure, I move a lot in my sleep, but this isn't sleep. Oh, he'll look like he's drifted off to the land of Nod, but five minutes later he's on the move - definitely not sleeping.
I'm now the "Deputy Sherrif" for Yankz! in the Pittsburgh area. Better watch out... I've got the fastest transition this side of the Mississippi. This town ain't big enough for the two of us! *Cue music from The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly* (Ok, ok, I'm done... talk about weirdness. I guess that's what happens when you spend too much time in front of a computer.)
All bad things... Yes, the phrase is "all good things must come to an end." I'm being optimistic here, because it feels like my throat has finally turned the corner and started to get better. I have been absolutely miserable all weekend, which kept me from enjoying the last bout of good weather for the year. I got out and about a little bit, but did zero training and couldn't sleep or eat much because of the pain in my throat. It didn't test positive for strep yesterday at the doctor, so I guess I just have to wait it out.
The one upside to all this is that I think my leg has had time enough to heal. I got out for a run today with the team, and it felt fine. Now I have to keep cool and take my time to build up my mileage so I don't get injured again. Talk about boneheaded.
Cold! Thankfully, I mean the temperature and not the illness. I'm finally well enough to consider myself over whatever I had for the past week (a very severe cold? who knows...) and I'm very excited to be eating and drinking normal food. For a while, I was limited to scrambled eggs and warm milk, which were the only two things that I could manage to get through the gauntlet of fire that was my throat. It was great to be able to run yesterday, and today was even better. Unfortunately, it's that time of year when everything gets cold again. I detest winter, because it makes it a lot harder to ride a bike outside. One needs many layers, and sometimes those layers don't quite cut it. I've got extra motivation, though, becasue I just put new handlebars and a new stem on my road bike, and I can't wait to try them out. Perhaps tomorrow, if it's not too frigid, or over the weekend. I haven't been on my bike in weeks, though, so I'll have to take it easy.
Speaking of taking it easy, I should do the same with running. I need to ice my hip tonight, since it started hurting a little bit after today's intervals. I knew I should have chilled out, but my blood was up and I was having a good time at practice with the kids. Dumb dumb dumb. Fingers crossed I can head this off at the pass and prevent it from becoming a bad injury again. Maybe it wasn't quite healed enough... *smacks forehead*
Non-stop Tomorrow is the first day of the rest of my life: time to enter the world of the gainfully employed. As such, this has been a busy weekend, getting ready for the madness fo the next few weeks. I start training at another Borders store, since "my" store isn't even finished yet. I'll be there for two weeks, and then we start stocking our store for another few weeks. Grand opening is November 16th. It'll be early up for me from now on, since my time on the clock will start at 7 AM after tomorrow, and the store where I'm training is probably 45 minutes away. Morning rush hour traffic ought to be fun.
I don't think I've had a chance to sit down at all today until now. I made a list of things I needed to get done before the day ended, and a few items still remain on the list. Everything major was accomplished, for once, and all I have left to do tonight is to fold and sort clothes.
... And now I'm exhausted Welcome to the rest of my life: up at 4:30 AM, dead tired by 9:00 PM.
Time for bed.
365 Days Exactly one year until the biggest race of my life. I watched the live coverage of the Ironman World Championships today. Very inspiring, as always, even without any silly NBC human-interest stories or soundtrack. Norman Stadler lit everyone up with a ridiculous bike split, and Chris McCormack nearly caught him from ten minutes down on the marathon. If I was still training with any consistency at all - which I'm not - I'd be very motivated for tomorrow's training sessions. I'm pretty sure I'll be taking more time off, though.
I think the best thing for me to do is chill out again and give my body time to fix what I screwed up last month, and then I can start back up more sensibly and gradually build back into training in time to start my schedule in late March. There's a lot of time between now and then, so a good long break sounds good to me after being so burned out earlier this year. I haven't quite found the motivation to get myself out the door when I'm not forced to (for coaching), so that's also a good sign that I need more down time. With a few weeks of very long hours coming up as we prepare the new store for opening, this is the ideal time. Perhaps I'll get back into it around Thanksgiving.
Long days My life is going to get very busy very soon. We start our store's stocking period tomorrow, where we bring in all the inventory from the first book to the last, plus all the multimedia and other stuff we sell. It's going to be really long days, anywhere from 10-12 hours with the possibility of going even longer sometimes. I'll be eating, sleeping, living and breathing books for the next 18 days. Don't expect to hear too much from me between now and next Sunday.
I'm also starting a month-long break from just about all training. My legs were not pleased with me when I was running around yesterday at the NCAC Conference meet to cheer on the boys from Kenyon, so I think they need some serious time off to heal. Once I get to around Thanksgiving-time, I will reassess my legs and see if they are ready to get back into it. When I do start up again, I'm going to be smart about it and not get myself hurt.
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