Life lately

I have wandered away from blogging quite a bit recently, since all I had to report was how injured I was and what bizarre new treatment I was currently trying. So I think I need to do some back-tracking and catch everyone up on a few areas:

1. Work: This January I took a big, big blow to my little pharmacy. I'm located inside a hospital, which is part of a large chain of for-profit hospitals. The chain decided to go with a cost-saving insurance plan that requires employees to use CVS only. I manage a Walgreens...so I just lost over 50% of my prescription volume, and over 90% of my profits (this company reimburses pharmacies well, whereas I lose money on most Medicare and Medicaid claims, so it turns out that employee rx's accounted for 90% of my profit. Ouch). This is creating a very stressful environment at work, to say the least. I'm trying to snag some new business to make up for this loss, but it's going to be difficult.

2. Play: We've actually been spending a lot of time just doing fun things, since I haven't been running as much and our weekends aren't filled with races. We took a 3-day weekend and visited Carville, Lousiana - I intend to post about that later; we went to Mardi Gras parties, including one at my pastor's house; we had a housewarming sangria party with friends and I won the taste-test with my white wine honey dew-berry version; we attended the Irish Network New Orleans black-tie gala (and this year I didn't make a dress. I ran out of time). I rarely post about these things because I am bad about taking pictures!

3. Running: After last week's half-marathon and the return of my hamstring pain, I had to decide what to do moving forward. I talked to my PT and he thinks I have residual pain from nerve damage. He doesn't feel any damaged muscle areas or weakness in the muscle, so he's ok with continuing my slow return to running. I am very aggravated, though. Every time I run I still feel some discomfort from osteitis pubis, and now I have pain in my hamstring sometimes, too. This is really making running less enjoyable. So next step is to try to get in with my doctor: sort of to get his opinion, and also to get his prescription for PT should I continue to need it.

4. Racing: My next race is the Crescent City Classic, a 10k race I have scoffed at in the past for being too crowded, poorly managed, and not even fun. But it is under new management, and that brought some positive changes, like seeded corrales and streamlined registration. I got a deal at the RnR expo and registered for just $25, which is the lowest price of the year. I'm combining training with my return to running by loosely following an intermediate-level training plan. It only has mild speed work and is low-milage, so it should be easy on my body,