Good job-news

I think I'd mentioned in a comment a few weeks ago that my life and work hours might be getting a little easier:

I've been working for the last almost 4 years with a local Eye MD group, as clinical assistant for one of the surgeons. Due to reasons that would be more appropriately discussed with you all in a non-internet venue, I decided in December to step out of that position and become a ophthalmic technician for the same practice. This is a good move for me. First of all, instead of living in Coon Rapids and working between our Bloomington and Maplewood offices (about 1-1.5h of commute time a day), I'll be working the majority of the time (80-85%) at our Coon Rapids office (5 miles away). Instead of working every hour my doctor is in clinic (often 45-50hr/wk), I will be expected to avoid overtime. Instead of being at the top of my position's payscale, I'll keep my current pay, maybe get a raise at my April review, and have room to grow. I have one more week of training my replacement before I start on my own training.

I lived in Washington D.C. for 9 months in 2004-5, having started a 2 year program to be an Ophthalmic Technician. The program was a waste of my time, I dropped out of school (always wanted to say I've done that), and I studied on my own and earned the same level of certification while working on the job. My new position will basically entail what I had planned on doing to begin with.

Also, at my part time job I was hired on by the company as opposed to being a temp employee. I did get a small raise, and I've changed my hours to start at 8p on work nights instead of 6p.

Pretty darn soon I'll be able to reasonable get a work-out in in the a.m., in the evening, or between jobs.

Other potential goals I haven't done

So what happened to me?

The last Sunday that I ran, the first few steps were definitely painful, but each step got better. Within a few miles there was NO pain at all and I ran the full 10 miles. To be safe I went home and iced the previously painful area.

I woke up Monday with DEFINITE pain. It hurt to walk on my left left. My left ankle felt "creaky" when I'd point it. Obviously I would be done running until it felt better. I still don't know what it was, although it reminds me of what I self-diagnosed as a stress fracture back in the fall of 2004. Same area and same sort of pain (but again, self-diagnosed). Although it has improved, I still occasionally get tweaks of pain, especially going down stairs or right away in the morning.

Another goal I've had that I've never done is to eat nothing but Peeps for a month, or maybe during all of Lent.

Also, yesterday at work I got to talking with a couple of co-workers about White Castle Crave cases (100 hamburgers) and I thought an interesting challenge would be to attempt to eat the entire case and then run/walk the number of miles needed to burn them off. At 140 calories apiece, that's maybe 140 miles? Then our marketing manager suggested that I didn't have to eat them all before the miles; maybe I could use them as sustenance DURING the run. I'm not sure; would that degrade the challenge? I do like the idea of running for 48 hours on a treadmill at Lifetime with a Crave Case.

Go Wild

1/4/09 (Day 9): 10 miles (10min/mi). 4:30pm-6:30pm, listening to a couple of episodes of "Car Talk", which is not the best running show. Slept a solid 10.5 hours last night and then dozed for another hour. The leg definitely was bothersome at the beginning of the run, but gets BETTER as I run on it. It was fine all last night, but a little bothersome this morning when I first got up. I'm losing my voice and have a bit of a cough, but not feeling too poorly.

I'd like to say that I was now going to go watch the Wild game, but I think I am actually going to watch the last episode of Season 2 of "The Wire". I still have season 3 from my brother, but I need to start thinking how I'm going to watch seasons 4-5.

Leg pain

1/2/09 (Day 7): 10 miles (10min/mi x 8, 9min/mi x 2). 5pm-7pm, listening to solid music on the ipod. Slept 5 hours the previous night both keeping RR company during mudding and also watch an episode or 2 of "The Wire". I had planned to get up and run before work (starting about 4am, but the alarm went off and I decided I'd go into work (part time job) late instead, running between jobs. Some continued left calf pain that lingered well into the night while walking around.

1/3/09 (Day 8): 10 miles (10min/mi). 7:30pm-9:30pm. I'd planned on testing out my new ipod tuning gadget that allows me to listen to radio stations through the ipod, so I specifically waited until this evening to run so I could watch the Wild game with sound on the Lifetime t.v.s. Unfortunately the game was not on Fox Sports so not on the LT t.v. I watch Suze Orman instead. The gadget works slick. Slept an interrupted 6 hours or so, dozing between 5a-7a.

Today was the first day where self-preservation almost kept me from running. First of all, the left leg. I'm not sure what's going on with it. I don't think it's JUST muscle soreness, but I don't think it's something serious either--it's just not that quality of pain. It was as bad as it had ever been today, and was noticeable on Wednesday (but almost non-existent during Thurs/Friday runs). And by 6 miles in to the run today, it was essentially gone. It's lower left leg, more in the back, but sometimes feels as if it is wrapping around the inner calf. Stretching doesn't do much. I notice it walking down the stairs--sometimes. Any ideas?

Also, I got a sore throat. At 9:30p last night (see... I'm in tune with my body). I was at work, felt fine, and coughed, realizing that, oh, my throat hurts! And I have a cough!

I got out of the part time job at 3:10am last night and had a voicemail (two actually) from RR saying, "Dr. Diane: Diamond Dave is stuck on Hwy 10 and needs gas. He needs your help." My part time job has no cell phone service at all, so I didn't get the message until I left the building and had no record of when the message was left (although I knew it was after my 11:15p break). I called RR--no answer. I called DD--out of service. I called E-force and Big Scotty to try to attempt to get a current cell# for DD--no answer. But along Hwy 10, 1/2 mile before my exit, I saw RR and DD on the side of the road, so I did a u-turn, helping them get more gas in the truck. Ended up going to bed WAY late and letting DD sleep on my couch.

And MORE snow? Really?!

New Year's Day

12/31/08 (Day 5): 10 miles (10min/mi). 2pm-4pm. Listened to 2 episodes of "This American Life" podcast, which is equally dangerous as I'm just as likely to fall off the treadmill crying as I am laughing. Slept 4 hours last night as I kept RR company while he mudded my new garage walls, but I did take a 3.5 hour nap late afternoon/early evening before that.

1/1/09 (Day 6): 10 miles (10min/mi). 2pm-4pm. For some reason my ipod battery was dead--maybe I'd left it unlocked in my purse and a button turned it on so it played all night. I don't know. I ALMOST went home to charge it up and come back later, but as I have to run early tomorrow before work(s), I didn't want to do an evening run. I did something I rarely do: a run without outside entertainment, only my thoughts to amuse me. Not too bad. Slept a broken 8 hours or so, dozing between 5a-7a and up for half an hour or so between 10a-11a.

I'm having a twinge of left calf pain, but only slightly. Remember I went from 0 miles per week to 20 miles in a week, to 70 miles per week, slightly more than the recommended mileage increase levels. I've done it before successfully, but again, I might be nuts, but I'm not crazy. If I am injured I'll stop.

New Year's Eve last night had a pack of us out for dinner at Timberlodge Steakhouse and then to Rapids Bar and Grill to ring in the New Year. Had a great time.