Nurse on the Run

Last week, I most definitely had my grumpy pants on.  Thanks for all your jokes (I giggled, I’m easily amused), and please take me on vacation with you.  A warm beach sounds nice. Maybe I should move to California…just saying.

Anyway, I don’t want to totally be like, “OMG: running solves EVERYTHING,” but it really does help.  My hip was being cranky last week (we were fighting to see who could be more cranky, I might have won…), so I took some days off from running.  Namely, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday.  Oops?  I worked on Friday night, but just after I posted about being grumpy Smurf, I headed out for a short four miles to see how my hip would cooperate.

I took it on the slower side and kept it easy (looking at my splits, maybe I didn’t, oops?), and it felt good just to be out there.  Four miles doesn’t take all that long to run, but when I got home…I felt much better.  I wasn’t totally dreading going to work (latte in hand, I only slept until 1:30pm, gah), I was feeling a little better about everything that was stressing me out.  More or less, this reaffirmed the fact that running does so much for my mental health and without it, you probably don’t want to be around me.  Especially if you take away my caffeine too, it’s a deadly combo.

Friday, February 10
4.26 miles in 34:26, avg pace of 8:05

On Saturday, I was planning on running, but I slept a little late after night shift and barely had enough time to caffeinate and shower before meeting Meggie and Jocelyn to see The Vow.  Cute movie, Channing Tatum is nice to look at, but the movie wasn’t mind blowing.  I had higher hopes for the movie, but oh well.  This was then followed by a champagne tasting and night out in Murray Hill (oh dear me) with one of my nurse friends.  Sometimes running is overrated rest is important.

Waking up on Sunday, I wasn’t sure how my hip would feel.  Or this weird spot on my groin that feels like a muscle pull.  But I wanted/needed to get some miles in, so I headed out for a long run with hopes of doing ten or twelve miles.  Ben2 was in tow (or he had me in tow, whatever), so we set out to Central Park.  I survived the first loop with some minor annoyances in the area where your leg meets your torso (groin?  yes?), which makes me think of a muscle pull or something.  But I could run okay, although at a slower pace.  When heading around on the second loop, my back and I were not getting along…sharp pains in my lower back that made me pull over and carefully stretch as certain movements sent shooting pains through my back.  Weird.  I’ve gotten lower back pain before, sometimes a result of work (hello, 400 pound patient), sometimes running.  I stretched it out and headed on my way.  Ben ditched me after about ten miles, and I was left to finish up on my own.

At some point, I decided to upgrade my mileage to 14 miles, but as I was coming around to complete the loop, 16 miles sounded better.  And it started to snow like crazy, and I sure do love me a snow run, so I added on another lower loop of the park and called it a day.  My back only hurt a little bit and the rest of me had loosened up somewhat nicely.  I’m a fan.

Sunday, February 12
16.29 miles in 2:12:29, avg pace of 8:08

That’s probably how fast I should do doing my long runs anyway…oops.

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Anyway, I started this post with a plan about what I was going to write about, but then I got carried away talking about running…oops?  Forgive me, this is a running blog.

So, I was really grumpy last week.  And then I got upset at myself for being so upset about everything.  Because that totally makes everything even better.  After a few comments on my post and some self talk (it wasn’t as deep as it sounds, I promised), I realized it’s okay to not be happy all the time.  Or to not be perfect.  Back in the day when I used to read Glamour magazine, they had a section called, “Hey!  It’s Ok.”  Christine likes to do posts like this.  So now, I will present you with some of my recent Hey!  It’s OK thoughts.

Hey!  It’s OK…

…to sleep until 2pm on a Thursday.  Everyone else is at work, what are you really missing out on?  Plus, you got in some good reading at 3am.

…to take a rest day.  If something hurts, don’t force it.  Better safe than sorry, and nine weeks until Boston is definitely more time than it sounds like.

…to order take out two days in a row.  Comfort food in the form of pad thai and General Tso’s chicken can work wonders.

…to not start your long run until 3pm.  That’s the glory of winter running.

…to sometimes wonder what it’d be like if you never ran.  Lazy Sundays NOT followed by a 16 mile long run?  I guess that’s how the rest of the world lives.

…to actually enjoy that 16 mile long run.

…to have no idea what you actually want to do in life.

…to be excited to do your taxes because you only have to file in one state this year.  And then to want to scream, “Screw you, NY State Taxes!” when they tell you how much you owe.

…to eat yet another bagel with cream cheese for breakfast.  If that’s wrong, I don’t want to be right.

…to reference blog friends as “friends I’ve known for years.”  Because it’s true.

…to laugh at some “problems” people have at their jobs.  When something goes wrong at my job, really bad things can happen.  Like dying or something.

…to consider flying home to get a hug from your mom.  Or to be 27 and want that.

…to not be sure what is the best way to switch between a day and night schedule.

…to eat cake at 8am.  Totally normal.

It’s so easy to get caught up in the little things.  And although sometimes they matter a lot (coffee in bed is one of life’s greatest pleasures), many of them really don’t matter.  (Life goes on if you wash your dishes right away, believe it or not.)

So what’s your “Hey!  It’s OK!” thing this week?