Starting from scratch in an elite fitness-blog-world full of expensive gear, and Personal Records she couldn't beat with a car.

Monday, October 1, 2012

Do not meddle in the affairs of Jawas

Today's run was odd.

Apparently calling me on the phone with bad news while I'm running makes me insanely rude. I eventually apologized, but still that was surprising. I am normally extremely patient on the phone.

Today's run was expected to be chaotic because I had an ophthalmologist appointment later in the evening with not enough time to go home, so I ended up packing my gear the night before and heading to my old neighborhood to run right after work. I changed clothes at work but I still felt like a bug under glass gearing up in my car in front of a random house on the side of the road. Warmup stretching was truncated (yoga floor poses and littered asphalt don't mix well) and I was a bit worried about my ankle, which was still stiff.

I was just getting into the swing of things and starting to feel my ankle loosen when I got a call which I pushed into voice-mail. This was about five minutes in to my run and on a main road so I waited a bit to listen to it. It was the Ophthalmologist's office telling me there were some problems with my referral and to call back with my insurance card handy. My card was locked in my car so I figured I'd call when I was done. I was annoyed to be sure, but motoring through.



Twenty five minutes in I get another call from the Drs office which I answered since I recognized the number by this point. Apparently she said "hello, can you hear me???" one too many times because I eventually blasted her with:

I'M RUNNING AND ON A CELL PHONE. STOP SAYING HELLO.
I CAN HEAR YOU. WHAT IS THE PROBLEM???!?!?

Short answer was that my GP apparently never set up my referral so all of that oddness and pre-planning was completely pointless. I could have had a nice run in my own neighborhood, a shower right away, and been settled in by sunset for some quality cat snuggle time. I responded with a string of bad words, but this is about where I started apologizing for shooting the messenger as she was being very sweet and the general problem wasn't her fault at all.




I could most assuredly have handled it better and I think I may have flustered her a bit with my reaction and language; but to be fair she was being quite dense.

"So... uh... I guess you'd like to reschedule then?"

No, I'll just go sit in your waiting room for a few hours, I will be there in an hour as originally discussed. Charge me accordingly please, YES I WOULD LIKE TO RESCHEDULE, CAN I DO THIS AND GET BACK TO RUNNING NOW????


I paused my devices and walked during the exchange and actually ended up back at my car by the time the conversation was done. I decided that with just under two miles under my belt I might as well finish.

At this point my mood was just plain foul and I had lost track of my original route so I was just sort of meandering through the nearby roads trying not to get too far from my car. I also felt like I was just on the edge of having something cramp a number of times and I'm taking that as a sign that I REALLY need to stop skimping on warmup and cooldown.

I finished though, and by the time I was back in my car and headed home I had burned through the worst of the grump but I can feel the effects of running all tight and distracted in that mode and I expect to be sore tomorrow.

Regardless: I'm glad I made the arrangements to run today despite my appointment and I'm proud of myself for sticking to it and finishing even after things went a bit pear shaped.

 ******
5K run plus 5 minute warmup and cooldown walks
3.11 miles at an average of 12:22 per mile -  total time of 38:29


I'm trying to decide how I want to move forward at his point and I may switch to doing somewhat shorter but more numerous runs. I'm thinking something like three, one and a half to two mile runs across the week and one 5k during the weekend when I can do it earlier. Nothing definite, but it's food for thought anyway.

I surprised myself in both positive and negative ways today, have you ever had an experience like that?

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