Monday 19 March 2012

Deep Cold


Unlike some of the other bloggers I have been following, my Saint Patrick’s Day run was not overly exciting.  I did not run in a race, but I certainly felt like it was a race to try to fit in my run amid our errands before the festivities could begin.  My Saturday run consisted of me heading out in far too many layers for what I soon realized was an absolutely gorgeous day.  I did a short run, around 2.5km to my favourite flower shop, The Flower Shop, to pick up a bouquet for a friend’s birthday.  On my way I saw many revellers and a sea of green in front of our downtown watering holes. 

According to my “coach” (Nike+), I was supposed to do a longer run today (4.5 km), so I headed out with a friend at lunch.  In all honesty, I was ready to head home from work, because the “runs” seemed to be consuming my day, but I thought, if I’m going to make another deposit I might as well run, at least it will happen more quickly!  With that, I donned my running tights, which felt extremely inappropriate in the hallway at work, and we were greeted by another beautiful day on the East Coast.  I forgot a jacket, so only had a tank and a long-sleeved shirt, but this was definitely enough.  The run was great; my friend is more advanced, but was nice enough to humour me throughout and even allowed me to do 10:1 run/walk intervals.  What a relief that one-minute is!  This was also the first time I went for a run during work and I must say it was pretty fabulous!  I was longing for someone to wheel me back to my desk post-run, but after an hour or so I felt really energized and so pleased that I went. 

It was not until after the run that things went awry.  Two words for you: Deep. Cold.  Being the genius that I am, I decided that since I would not be able to ice my shins immediately following my run, I thought I would do the next best thing, use deep cold gel.  For those of you who are not familiar with it, it is a blue gel that does some sort of chemical magic when placed on the body and acts as ice once applied.  So, off I went to the ladies washroom to change in one of the stalls.  I felt very prepared – wipes to wipe off the sweat (and eventually the gel), deodorant, new sets of undergarments, work clothes and the tub of deep cold.  In order to give you a complete understanding of what I am about to describe, I must tell you what my work outfit consisted of: dress (I later found out a colleague was wearing the exact same dress – what are the chances?!), tights without feet.   I assessed the situation and approached the application of the deep cold very strategically – I put the dress on first, prepared several wipes to wipe my hands with and applied the deep cold.  What I forgot to think about was that the deep cold really needs to dry, or “set”, before you put the tights on; this was a huge problem for two reasons:

1. I was overly generous with the gel; and
2. I had a conference call in five minutes. 

… I assume you have all guessed what happened next.  Once I realized what was about to happen I had no choice but to pull up my pants, knowing full well I was about to disperse deep cold gel all over the lower half of my body.  When I say all over I mean all over, all over my legs, butt and “other” regions.  Not only does deep cold make you cold, but it also makes you tingle.  Think about that for just a second.  Here I am at work, my lower body is numb and a-tingle all at the same time.  Not good.  I will have to come up with an alternative solution for future applications. 

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