It is what it is

It's been forever since I posted anything on my blog. I guess it shows how little I've been exercising, let alone training, in the past few months. Life happened and I had other priorities.

I'm looking for work. I've known since last June that my position would be abolished at the end of March 2012. At first, I didn't worry, thinking I had plenty of time to find something else. I took it easy on the job search front last summer and became more serious about it in the fall. From October to February, I networked like I've never networked in my whole life. I asked people out for coffee to find out what should be my next move in order to get to where I want to be with my career. I didn't leave a stone unturned. There were weeks when I had two of those interviews. It took all my energy because I'm not the kind of person who networks easily. In fact, if I can avoid networking, then I don't. It's not like I hide from people, but unless I do business with them, I don't seek them out.

Come Christmas, I was on a roll. I had potential opportunities and two sounded very promising: one with the government and the other one with a consulting firm. I was terrified of leaving the security of my government job, but so excited by the kind of work and the work conditions of the private sector! It took me a while, but I made up my mind that I would leave the government.

And then, everything fell apart. The consulting firm didn't have enough work to keep me busy, so they didn't want to hire me. My department put an informal freeze on hiring at the same time as they were cutting whole divisions. My options within my department disappeared. I tried to take care of my health as I was going through that immense stress, but I haven't done a great job. I've gained about 5 lbs since the fall and I haven't been running consistently.

It's almost mid-March now and I still don't have anything lined up. Everyone is waiting for the federal budget to be announced on March 29 before they know whether or not they can hire. The only thing I can do right now is keep on the lookout for jobs outside the government at the same time as I wait for something to happen within my department.

A few years ago, I had a series of injuries that taught me a great life lesson: "it is what it is". You can feel sad about what's happening to you, but it has happened anyway, so you may as well do the best you can with your current circumstances. In the past 6 weeks or so, it has been one thing after another. Maybe I need to learn my lesson again? "It is what it is"

I went for a run today. I ran 8 times 1:1 trying to keep a 180 cadence, as per my physiotherapist's recommendation. It was a good run: it felt like the first day of spring, sunny and 10C. I hope I can find the energy to go out for a mid-week run this week and enjoy the spring-like weather that is on the forecast.

I am also working with a great sports doctor to try and identify the source of that abdominal pain I've been having almost non-stop since April 2008 when I seemingly tore something in my lower abdomen. I'm going for x-rays and a pelvic ultrasound this week and we'll take it from there. Hopefully we can get to the bottom of this injury so that I can, at last, have a chance at building up my strength and endurance again, in preparation for a great 2013 racing season.