Shrinkage

Yeah, yeah, I know what you're thinking...no, not in the George Costanza context. I'm referring to the loss of product, the accounting version of shrinkage, that is, loss of mileage and quality training over this past week while I've hit a mental bad patch.

I have basically written this week off as one of those flukes, I am hoping that I will wake up tomorrow to a brand new week with a whole new level of motivation, energy, and attitude. If this were a business, I'd have a tax write off, in shrinkage. Just like running a grocery store.

Total of 22 miles this week. Ugh. Pathetic. I did 2 this morning with Iris. She was demonstrating the use of her GPS device. And that was all I could make myself do.

Such a beautiful fall day, and all morning I felt like crawling in a hole and hiding out from the world. Finally I got a little motivation to do some errands, I went to the store to buy dog food, I planned to make refried beans and turkey, spinach & zucchini enchiladas tonight so we'll have some food to eat for a few days- no work lunch crisis this week, I hate to resort to cafeteria glop.

And I finally scrubbed out the hot tub and cleaned the inside of the cover, and refilled it. I turned it on and all the jets worked and the heater was working, it looked like maybe the thing was going to work perfectly, until...

I noticed there was a leak on one of the dials on top that turns off the jets and makes the water bubble up from the center of the tub. I am compeltely mechanically inept, so I don't even try to figure these things out on my own. All I know is that I saw the leak, and I lifted up the plastic part of the dial to see if I could screw it on tighter, and it felt like it was stripped. So I pulled the outer piece of plastic off, and up came another piece of plastic, followed by a volcano of water shooting 4 feet into the air, soaking me, and the tub was quickly losing all it's water! I looked for an OFF switch somewhere but couldn't find one, so I turned off the breaker in a hurry.

The girls were watching this whole event and they thought it was hilarious. Australian Shepherds definitely have a sense of humor. They both looked at me, their little butts wiggling, and Iris walked toward me, twisting her body into a U, and smiling. She thought it was funny. Isabelle did too, but she just stared at me.

Then I told Dennis about it, and of course being the man, he thinks he can fix everything, so he tried to figure out what was wrong. He held the plastic thing down without getting the volcano effect, but then the jets no longer worked.

I was so bummed out. I was sooooo looking forward to soaking in there later this evening.

So now, I will have to call the repairman, Shane, over at Spa World. He knows our hot tub. We know his first name. We are his job security. Crap. I was hoping we'd be able to just get in it, it was a surprise when I fired it up the first time and it worked!

Last night Dennis tried to help my mood by taking me out to the Nike Outlet store and buying me two new running bras that I wanted. And I didn't feel like cooking, so we ate pizza. And beer.

I can't believe it's so beautiful outside and I am so unmotivated. I hate losing beautiful days. Maybe it's a touch of seasonal affective disorder too on top of everything else? I don't know. I just know I'm in a funk, and I don't like it. I wish I could snap out of it overnight. Tomorrow is back to work, this coming weekend is my work weekend, which means I work a lot of days this week and it cuts into my running time.

The problem is, I don't know what I need. Hugs? Girl time? A pillow to scream into? A vacation? I don't know. If I knew, I'd be doing it. At this point, I need to get some energy back because if I don't, this trip to OKC in a few weeks will be a waste of effort. I don't want to go into a race feeling listless, unprepared, and apathetic.

Maybe I need to plan a trip somewhere, another trip that doesn't involve serious running. I need to stop indulging in running bras, new clothes, chiropractors, and beer, like I have been doing all this week, if I want to make that happen. Or else I'll have to load up on extra shifts at work again. And I know for sure I don't need that.

I did have another moment of humor today though. I got an e-mail from Woofie's ultra list today that someone posted, with the subject line "Alene Nitzky in the news". They must have somehow seen my running column in the Coloradoan today and posted to the ultra list about it. When I saw the e-mail, for a second I thought, "Did I die?" Because there hasn't been much posting activity on the list lately, it seems like we only hear anything lately when somebody dies.

Maybe shrinkage is the problem, my brain is shrinking. If that's the case I wish my butt, thighs, and belly fat would shrink, too...