Doing the wrong right thing

It has been a while since I have blogged, but I had a very good reason: I have a New Life Plan wherein I always do the things I know I should be doing (instead of the fun, easy, lazy things that keep me from achieving my full potential), and I’ve been so swamped with work that meeting my deadlines, going to yoga once in a while, and paying attention to my loved ones were the only things I have had any business doing.

That philosophy served me pretty well last week, since I logged a ton of hours and met two huge deadlines. Then last night I decided that having fun with my family was what I needed to be doing, so I proposed that we go out to a late dinner, a later movie, and then stay up to try to see the meteor shower. Our older teen already had older-teen plans, but we took Mik out for pizza, Godzilla, and kind of a dud of a meteor shower.

(Oh, Godzilla? Soooo awful, but slightly fun, too. And some very drunk guy walked into the nearly-empty theater, chose a seat almost right next to me, and proceeded to make loud comments in my general direction throughout the previews and the first few minutes of the movie, before falling soundly asleep. He was still unconscious when we left.)

This morning I slept in as long as I could, cleaned up the mess that had formed in the wake of my work crisis, and then went out for a short run—since the kids and I have this plan to do a relay triathlon in a matter of weeks (July 20) and I am expected to do the 5K. Except a muscle in my calf went twang while I was running, and the hip pain that had been kind of dormant flared up again. I dutifully iced them both (because that is the right thing to do)—but I have to say that perhaps, in retrospect, running was not the right thing to do after being up until 2 a.m. the night before.

In my head I am a stud distance runner who can handle a 5K on next to no training, but this isn’t going to work if I get injured every time I step out the door.