Last Place Runner

I treated yesterday as a rest day in that I didn’t run at all, but I did get in a 2.75-mile walk on the treadmill.

I decided to train on a modified schedule I found at Jenny Hadfield’s web site. Today I was going to start either at the end of week 2 of her 10K run/walk training program or at the beginning of the third week. I still think those runs will be easy for me while also pushing me.

But before I could do anything, I had a job interview this morning. My interview had been scheduled for Monday afternoon. The weather has been just so stupid here all winter. It’s been bitterly, devastatingly cold without a drop of snow. A week later, we’re all running around in short sleeves. Rinse and repeat all winter long. But Sunday night we got our famous layer cake of ice and snow. So the recruiter called Monday morning and told me they didn’t want me to come in because the roads were too bad. So the interview was rescheduled for this morning.

I went out yesterday afternoon and cleared off my car and tried to clear the sidewalk. I finally got it cleaned up after dinner and then, lo! It started to snow again!

My interview was at 9, so I still had to be ready to leave the house no later than 8. I was only going 8 miles in a straight line, but I didn’t want to be late. So I was stressed out about that.

Last week I took one of our dogs to a new vet about a chronic skin condition that her old vet basically kept putting a bandaid on. The new vet gave us a daily oral medication to use for 60 days and advised me to take our dog off her thyroid medication.

This morning, though, the dog wasn’t walking. She was favoring one leg, but she was also acting like she couldn’t use her other three legs. She is kind of a nut job anyway and is nervous about walking on our wood floors, especially when she has to step off the rug onto the wood. She is worried about falling down, so then she usually does because she tries too hard not to and gets her legs all tangled up. Anyway, I wondered if she wasn’t having muscle issues from being off her thyroid medication. She peed all over the hallway, which is unusual for her.

Of course, all of this started happening around 7:30 and I was mopping the hallway in my underwear. I did finally get in my car a few minutes before 8 and by 8:30, I was only about 1.5 miles from my house. The roads were not bad. They were patchy, of course, but they were definitely passable. But the major roadway I had to take to my interview was a parking lot. I had to cut through a neighborhood and take a different route. When I got to my interview, the woman I was meeting was at the reception desk asking if I had checked in yet. To say that I was already super irritated by my morning so far is an understatement. But I tried to put on a good face for my interview.

The company I interviewed with is massive. Their interviews are different than other interviews I’ve had in that they don’t talk to you about your knowledge about a job or your work experience. They ask questions from a script and you have to provide specific examples of a time you dealt with something similar in the past.

I knew this going into it, but I didn’t know what the questions would be. I hope I didn’t seem like a deer in the headlights. I did find out that I do have a lot of knowledge to bring to the position although it’s from “the other side” of certain processes. I also had no way of knowing how I did.

My husband took the dog to the vet while I was gone. I tried to call him when I left my interview, but he didn’t answer. So that made me worry and that made me more irritated.

They finally got home — the dog had gotten a shot and a refill of her thyroid medication. She weighs about 60 pounds and we are having to carry her outside to pee. Tomorrow my husband works all day and then has class until 10 pm. On the one hand, it’s a good thing I can be home with the dog tomorrow. But on the other hand, I can’t even think about dealing with it all on my own tomorrow. Maybe I won’t start out overwhelmed in the morning and things will look a little better.

Anyway, it was early afternoon when I knew I wouldn’t be running today. It’s the one thing I’m at peace with right now. Tomorrow, though, it’s back on. I can’t let Lauren down for the half marathon and I also think skipping my workout today certainly didn’t help me not have this headache.

Next Monday I am starting my third 24-Day Challenge, so hopefully I’ll get to write a little about that process and how I manage during the cleanse.