It's over, man. Let her go.

Flat, thanks, I'm hanging in there! Just crazy busy with work and family "stuff."

Kelli, no worries, and please don't feel bad about anything! I'm a terrible blogger. I'm lucky to get the time to blog the little that I do get in to just log my workouts, let alone read/comment on everyone's blogs. Usually, I get a few minutes to head over to some blogs, read their latest entry or two, comment on one and move on. It's really sad since I can't keep up with everyone's progress, successes, injuries, etc. I do try to read the race reports when I have a few minutes, though. Your ultras are crazy - in a good way, by the way!! I'm seriously impressed!!

Here's the short of it:

I had a stress fracture in my foot that was masked by my previous neuroma problems. I had gone to my Podiatrist with pain again, but it felt different and was a different type of pain than the neuromas of the past. She treated it with the cortizone shots and new orthotics since she couldn't determine there was anything else wrong, but it didn't help after 3 rounds of shots. I still wasn't able to run a step! She said that the cortizone loses it's effectiveness after so many treatments and I had probably hit the limit that my body would benefit from them. I waited a few more weeks then I decided to go to an Orthopedist who is a very accomplished runner so I knew she'd understand.

She suggested the next step - alcohol based injections that would kill/shrivel up the neuroma and hopefully solve the neuroma problem from coming back. The side effect is some numbness in the toes the nerves fed. After 3 months (5 series of shots, two+ weeks apart with weekly PT) and little to no improvement, she suggested surgery. I insisted on an MRI (which I guess was part of the pre-surgery process, anyways) since my Internet research told me it should have been fixed and feeling a ton better with 2-3 shots. I also wanted to be 100% sure it was the neuromas that were causing the pain since the surgery has potential long term, even worse side effects with at least a 8+ week recovery time.

The MRI showed a stress fracture in the same general location as the neromas - hence the similar but different pain I was feeling. The shots did what they were supposed to, which I was happy about. Long story short (I know, I said this was the short of it, but you know me), no surgery but 11 weeks in a boot and I'm able to do a little running now. Woo Hoo!

Here's to the second half of 2011! :-)

Now for the long of it (don't feel committed to reading the rest...):

The three months while I was supposed to be getting better, I was depressed about not feeling any improvement when I was doing everything I was supposed to. My wife had been in a boot for a foot problem a couple years ago and wore it for maybe 2 (off and on) of the 8 weeks she was supposed to. After about a week of wearing it every waking hour, she says, "wow, you're really serious about wearing that boot!" My response was, "I'm really serious about running again!" Of course, I got all the comments when I told people it was a stress fracture, they'd ask how I did it, I'd say probably from running. Several people said, "See, that's why I don't exercise/run." I'd just give them a look and walk away. Shesh.

It was painful to walk so I wasn't doing much at all physical, plus the weather was cold and snowy. If I was smart, which I obviously wasn't, I'd have been working on my core, general strength & stretching, and keeping up some type of cardio. Spinning/biking wasn't really an option for that, though, since it was still too much pressure on the foot.

I didn't blog during those 5+ months since I didn't have anything to write home about and just didn't have the time. Not until the last two weeks in the boot did it even start feeling better at all. I seriously considered just dropping the boot a couple weeks before that and resolving myself I wouldn't be running again. I was tired of the boot. I hated that thing!

I've been out of the boot now for a couple of weeks and I've been seriously racking up the miles, lol. It's getting better and I may try to run a 5k on June 11 (Riverview 5k) just to do a race again. It's a fairly tough 5k, but I ran it last year - part of it with my daughter for her first 5k - and it's in my neighborhood so I really want to do it. I'd be happy to go sub 30 at this point (it's a flat .75mi, then up a small hill, around the observatory, back down, then down about a mile, then it's a mile of uphill to the finish) but finishing it without walking would be awesome. LOL I ran it in 27:31 last year but I stayed with my daughter for the first .5 mile or so at about a 13:00 pace. I think a 25:00 or faster would have been possible.

I've lost a lot of strength and endurance with these months off and gaining 7-8 lbs, but I know it will slowly come back. I can't say what the root cause of the stress fracture was, but I'm going to take it easy and build slowly. I had really wanted to do my first marathon this year with Steve, but after getting hurt it will have to wait until next year. I hope to be up to doing the IKEA Half in the fall, but I'm just going to see how it goes. Normally, I register early to commit myself to the races I do, but this year I may just wait until it gets closer and pay the extra fees.

I don't expect any PRs this year, but if I can get the strength back up and some endurance, I'll be pleased knowing I'm going into next year. Then the goal is just injury free running so I can manage my stress levels and enjoy life again! Spinning is fine, but it's not the same for me.

And now the even longer of it (sorry to those that have hung in here this long):

At the same time all this was going on, we had a "voluntary resignation program" (VRP) at work that was designed to give some incentive to reduce our head count by giving some incentive to voluntarily leave the company by offering an extra week (3 weeks vs 2 if laid off) of pay for every year you had been there before they started laying people off. They offered it to about 400 of the approx. 2,000 IT staff with the goal of eliminating 150+ positions in this first round. They'd then do 2 more rounds, targeting other areas in IT.

I've been there for "only" 5 years, and while not offered the VRP in this round, would have in the third based on how they laid it out. I would have taken my chances since looking for a job in exchange for an extra month of pay wasn't that attractive in this job market. But for over 65% of our company's employees that have been here for over 10+ years, it was very attractive.

You can imagine what happens when you're offered the VRP and you have 15 or 20 years there and by being offered the VRP, you assume your job is in jeopardy. Do you take your chances and lose those extra weeks of pay or take it? To make it worse, the VRP process wasn't transparent at all. If you wanted to be considered for it, you had to fill out an "application" and submit it by a certain date. You could retract it before that date, but once the day came, you were committed. The VRP option was seen as an "employee benefit" since only if you had had good reviews would they let you take it. If you were sub-par, they would deny your application and you'd likely be let go involuntarily sometime afterwards. They wouldn't say how many of those 400 people applied for it, who applied for it, who was denied, or even who they accepted - not even our manager or division manager knew except what their employees had told them!

Of course, there was enough talk/gossip that you knew who in your department/division put in for it, and heard through the grapevine of others. I knew some who were waiting to apply based on who in their department had put in figuring that if someone with similar responsibilities put in for it, that you had a better chance of not being laid off. Even afterwards, they didn't publicize in any way who was leaving, but they were "kind" enough to stagger the roll-off dates for those leaving between 1-3 months out. (rolling my eyes)

Well, they had enough people voluntarily apply to take it that they didn't have to lay anyone off, but that meant that lots of people with a lot of years in the industry left. My boss had been there 36 years and took it - he had tried to retire with his wife (she had 30+ years) the year before but was denied due to a reorganization combining his dept and ours. He's now enjoying retired life while being paid for a year from the VRP while collecting his pension. Their pension program was unbelievably awesome, along with a half way decent 401k matching program. I don't blame my boss for taking it in the least. If I were in his position I wouldn't have even hesitated. He told me later that he had the application filled out and submitted before the end of the day - they announced it at 4pm that day, so he was a little anxious. LOL

For some strange reason, the company hasn't followed through with the next two rounds that were supposed to start this last February. Gee, I wonder why.

About a year ago, the company announced that they weren't continuing with their pension program and only if you had 5 years with the company by June 1, 2011 would you keep those pension benefits. If not, somehow what you had "earned" by that time would be rolled into some other retirement program. Well, my 5 year anniversary was 5/15/2011 so I missed it by days - but I haven't cared enough yet to figure out where those benefits were put. Oh well, such is life. I was surprised they even had a pension program after I had been hired since pensions are so rare these days. I figured they'd have to get rid of it at some point anyways.

Most everyone I knew that took and subsequently got the VRP, were very happy about their decision. None have regretted it probably because another major employer in town has snatched up a good portion of those that left.

One really sad case, though. There was a woman who assumed that since she was offered the VRP that her job was in jeopardy and so she put in for it just in case and got it. They offered the VRP based on job titles or departments that needed to be trimmed down. Her boss had been offered it since he was a division manager of a department that we knew would be eliminated or maybe rolled under another one. She was offered it since she was his assistant, not because they would let her go if he took the VRP. She was an incredible assistant (I had worked with her a fair amount since I worked with her boss) and she figured that they wouldn't let her go, but she had been there 12 years and if she was going to be let go she didn't want to miss out on the extra weeks of pay. Since they accepted almost every application, she got the notice that she would be leaving and was absolutely hysterical - to the point they had to escort her out of the building!

I only knew of 2 people that had their applications denied. There were two departments, that I know of, that had all or all but one person put in for it. The one where everyone put in for it one person was denied since they had to keep one admin around. He was the one with the least number of years at the company, but also wasn't the most experienced. But since it was seen as a benefit, they awarded it to the more senior people.

Us poor souls left at the company are having to pick up the slack and 9 months later, we're now seeing several people resign because of the work load and a lot of the knowledge base had left. It doesn't help that a lot of those that left during the VRP have been recruiting people away to their new companies either.

Anyways, it's crazy since everyone in our department that was offered the VRP took it and it cut us from about 18 to 10. So I've been putting in an incredible number of hours to just keep my head above water and it's not going to get any better. Normally, my busy time of the year is the last 3 months of the year but it has only gotten more busy as the year has gone on with no end in sight.

So what used to be hour to go for a short run sometime during the day to clear my head and get away from the desk is replaced by meetings - even the "sacred" Noon-1pm slot that everyone would usually avoid scheduling during is being filled since that's the only time anyone is available anymore. Or I use it to catch up and try to stay on top of things. Then I stay late/start early to get some quiet time to get caught up or get ready for the next day.

Here it is Memorial Day and I woke up at 7:30am and couldn't go back to sleep knowing I have several hours of work I needed to do this weekend that I haven't done yet. Plus, I knew the family would be sleeping in until late anyways. But instead, I'm avoiding work and blogging! :-) This is a welcome distraction even if no one even reads to the end of this. Ha Ha! It's been therapeutic.

Oh well, I have 15 more minutes of blogging time then it's time to get cracking on my work!

Happy running everyone and Happy Memorial Day! :-)

It's over, man. Let her go.

May 04, 2024