Holy cow, its been a while. I guess its as simple as clicking the new post button? Going to have to remember that. I actually have a list of things in a note app on my phone that I want to discuss with myself via this forum. Including my first triathlon! And my second! And my third this weekend! Any my current lack of motivation to sign up for something else this fall! See, LOTS to get through!
I was headed to bed early tonight, as in the same time Chad and Megan crawled in, but just not meant to be. I tried crawling right in at 8:30. Might have to wean myself off these 11pm nights a little more slowly than I thought. I swear I get a surge of energy after they climb in bed. Strange.
Anyway...I started a new job, um wow, 4 months ago already. Time flies when I'm having fun? About two months in I was having a freak out moment. Things were going well, really well, and I was headed to a golf outing with some new coworkers that I hadn't yet met and a whole bunch of customers. I put on my company golf shirt, clubs in the car and headed for The Bog in Saukville.
About half way there I had a strange feeling. And no, it wasn't attributed to all the sweating I knew I'd be doing golfing in the 95+ degree temps, around strangers no less. I had recently left a company where I had and thankfully, still have, friends. I worked there 10 years and did not take my decision to leave lightly, I was leaving my work fam. Friends, mentors, running buddies, drinking buddies, people you can discuss bodily functions with buddies, you name it. It wasn't so much the company that was hard to walk away from, it was the people.
In my car on the way down it finally hit me that I had a different golf shirt on and was not going to be golfing with my work buddies who know I kinda suck at golf even though every once in a while I have a good hit. Felt like I had lost my support system. The people that accept me not being an awesome golfer. Gone. I had to make some new friends this day. I called my dad on the way there to express my thoughts. Was nice to be like hey..this is strange and exciting at the same time. Most definitely an opportunity.
The guy that had a lot to do with pulling together the event is thought of as a legend in my work world. I've heard that more than a few times since I've started the new gig. I hadn't met him when he asked if I had anyone I wanted to be
specifically paired up with. Um yeah...my answer was to put me with a
fun group. This would be the first time I'd met him in person. Turns out, he's a normal guy. That works super hard, is super intelligent and has customers that respect, if not, love him. Not unlike most others I've had the opportunity to work with.
So, I pull up to the drive, find a parking spot, take a deep breath and head inside the clubhouse where there was to be a presentation before golf. I walked in and found that I had met and knew more people than I thought. Sweet! I had worked with one guy right when I started and he was in town for the outing too so that was super cool. Milk, you know who you are and you rock. The majority of the customers and vendors that were there were people that I had met somewhere along the way over the past 10 years. This IT world in Wisconsin? Its a small world after all.
I think I knew more customers than I did the people from my new employer. After the presentation, it was time for some golf. My coworker/partner was Stan and we were paired up with two customers. I didn't realize that for a shot gun start, everyone rolls out at once. So, Stan and I were the very LAST people in our cart because I still had to put on my golf shoes and get my clubs in the cart. Yep, awesome. 23 other carts waiting on us.
Stan is pretty awesome. He totally set me at ease and made me feel welcome. After the first hole I quickly figured out that the customers were much better golfers than I would ever hope to be so I settled on not trying to impress anyone with my mad golf skillz (like I had a shot at that and yes that is a z) and set my focus on having fun and getting to know the peeps in my foursome. Aside from sweating my arse off it was a fun 18 holes. Made even more fun when we actually used my ball a few times and I did a cartwheel at a hole without falling on my face. Mhmmm. Cartwheel. Hole 16 I think. 14 holes seems to be about my max. After that all bets are off.
We rounded out the day with a some drinks and dinner. Its a little intimidating looking at room full of people and picking a place to sit. Well, maybe more of an opportunity. Here I am with that opportunity word. Totally. Just had to embrace it. I ended up sitting with a guy I hadn't met before, but had talked with on the phone and another guy that I had met years ago when I called on him a few times. Turns one of the guys is a cyclist, rides a Trek Madone (me too!) lives in the area with his wife and does quite a few rides around the area. Um cool! And the other guy remembered me - or at least said he did - so good to know that even though I lost the business I was trying to get when I was calling on him - at least I formed some sort of bond.
Post dinner, customers started to head out so I was left with my new coworkers. There were probably about 8 of us or so. I was weighing in my head the value of staying later and getting to know my new coworkers or getting home at a decent hour. Yes, I stayed and it was so worth it. After about half hour I was like yep, these are my new peeps. They are all pretty tight, but not once did I feel like an outsider. I felt like I was included and already part of the crowd. I started the day faced with a different sort of realization of what I walked away from and ended the day with the realization of what I had to gain. New people to add to my work family? I think yes.
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Running with my mom - a recap of Cellcom Green Bay Half Marathon
So apparently it takes running a half marathon with my mom to get me out of blogging hibernation. I'm envious when I read other blogger's posts that are short, sweet and to the point. And then I think why couldn't I just take 15 minutes and write something like that? Um, because I don't feel like a natural writer and feel like its not worth it if I don't say EVERYTHING on my mind. And it takes me like two hours to write anything.
On January 1 I was sitting at Barnes and Noble in Green Bay while Chad and Megan were at the Packer game. I figured I'd be nice and drop them off and pick them up close to the stadium so Megan didn't have to walk a mile all bundled up. Nice right? Anyway, I sat and B&N and tried to plan out a running schedule for the first few months of the year. I had just been registered by a friend for the Capital City Half Marathon in Columbus and was looking at the CGBM website. Somehow I talked to my mom, I wish I could remember how the conversation went, but all I know is that we were both registered for the half marathon before I left B&N. And I emailed her the half training plans I followed the year before. No worries, we've got time.
And so I kept training. And she trained. I did Seroogy's 15K (painfully cold and hard), we both did the Point Bock 5 miler and kept training. Somewhere along the way her knee started hurting. We did an 8 miler together on vacation in Outer Banks. We ended up running 5 and run/walking the rest. No worries, its all about logging the miles. Somewhere around mid March I was so sick of my training. I was ready to get these two upcoming half marathons over with. Its crazy, because it seems when I get to that point in training I always get sick of it. Add to that a house remodel, vacation, considering a job change and its no wonder, I was probably feeling overwhelmed. But then something happens that makes me enjoy it again. A good run, a run with a friend, run with my mom, a run in the moonlight with a headlamp - whatevs, the important part is I start to enjoy running again along with the feeling of strength and peace that comes from it.
Back to that knee...yes I was a little worried. Wasn't my knee, but still I was worried. I had decided Columbus would be my A race (cough, cough, another post, a 2:24 finish that felt harder than my 8 minute faster PR) and I would enjoy running Green Bay with my mom. Unless she went and got super fast on me in which case I'd kill myself trying to keep up.
Well, guess what? We finished! Together. Our official time WAS on the race website with a time of 2:48:15 (mom) and 2:48:16 (me). This is no doubt the most enjoyable half marathon I've ever completed. Excessive heat included. Turns out our times aren't official because we finished after the race organizers called the race due to heat and lack of emergency resources. I'm still calling it good. Sometime, I think on the way up to GB the morning of the run, she told me she wanted to finish in 3 hours or less. I'm thinking, yeah, no problem, we are going for 2:45. The girl with no plan had a goal, it was time to come up with the plan. Which was run more than walk, walk through the water stops and no walking UP the hills.
We were late jumping in the starting line because the lines for the johns were so long. I didn't care, I really had to pee. I didn't feel stressed at all, just excited and curious to see what it'd be like to do a half marathon and not try to go as hard as I could. Oh - and be doing this with my mom. How cool is that? We needn't worry about starting 8 minutes after the gun went off, we jumped in line to cross the start and still had to wait. No corrals, everyone just got in line and started shuffling.
Our first mile was a 11:15 split, hey, not bad, if we keep this up we'll hit 2:30 no problem. It was fun to see Myriah and fam during the first mile. Our 5 mile split was 59:something. Our 10 mile split was 2:05 something. I think it was somewhere between 5 and 6 miles that we saw the first few ambulances drive through the crowd. One lady was running with headphones and as the ambulance came up behind her she almost jumped off the road. It was kind of funny, although I'm sure took a bunch of energy out of her. It still wasn't really hitting me that people were struggling that much. Yeah, it was hot and I was sweaty (liquid awesome) but I was feeling good and mom seemed to be feeling alright too. She was running through all the sprinklers and we really were mostly still running. I knew we'd see two friendly faces of Tom and Mary Anne Quinn around mile 7 so I was really looking forward to that. We stopped and Tom took a picture of us, pretty cool, I hope it turns out! There was a hill leading up to that turn and I was like come on mom, let's run the hill, we can walk once we get to the top if we need to. Lots of walkers at that point and I wasn't about to let the hill chew up some of that time. She said she'd try and aside from the picture we sure made it. About a mile later we come up on this young looking guy who asks me what mile we are at and how long we've been out there. We started chatting with him (yeah, longer walk break than I anticipated) and found out that he's 25, works at Kohler, his dad was running and talked him into running too. Except this dude said he hasn't trained. At all. I think he had on basketball shorts and a regular old cotton tshirt and all I was thinking was chaffage.
We soldiered on and not once did I think my mom was hurting that bad. Every time I'd pick a new vantage point and say how about we run to here and then reevaluate, she was mostly game. A few times she wasn't sure so we slowed down but kept running. And I was feeling awesome. Hot, but good. So, this is how I can enjoy a half marathon and not be cursing life by mile 10. We just pass mile 11 and some guy is yelling that the marathon course is shut down. So I was thinking just the full marathon was shut down. Then he says something about stopping at the next water stop and a bus will come pick you up and take you to the finish line. Ha - right - did he really mean that when we were so close to the finish? Not happening. We kept on moving and by this time there were definitely more walkers than runners. Mile 13 was our slowest at a 14:21 pace, but we kept moving and even had a little push to cross the finish line.
How many people can say they ran a half marathon with their mom? I can. It's pretty cool and I'm really proud of both of us. I've learned something different from each half marathon I've done and this one is no different. It was super fun to encourage someone else to the finish - although I have NO doubt in my mind that she would have made it to the finish without me. I was just hoping I wasn't annoying when I kept saying come on, next corner, we can make it. Silver car parked up there, we can make it. Up that hill, we can make it. SO close, who cares if the course is shut down and there are ambulance sirens wailing everywhere, we can make it. I sometimes think I lack mental toughness, especially when it comes to running, but after Sunday - there's no way, I come by some genetically.
Yay mom! What's next for us? A couple of years ago I started running again. I've done ToughMudder with my dad and brother and a half marathon with my mom. I know there's a finite amount of time we'll be able to do this kind of thing together and I am enjoying it while it lasts. Also makes me realize how much I want to stay healthy and active so I'm able to enjoy these things with my kid someday.
Peace.
On January 1 I was sitting at Barnes and Noble in Green Bay while Chad and Megan were at the Packer game. I figured I'd be nice and drop them off and pick them up close to the stadium so Megan didn't have to walk a mile all bundled up. Nice right? Anyway, I sat and B&N and tried to plan out a running schedule for the first few months of the year. I had just been registered by a friend for the Capital City Half Marathon in Columbus and was looking at the CGBM website. Somehow I talked to my mom, I wish I could remember how the conversation went, but all I know is that we were both registered for the half marathon before I left B&N. And I emailed her the half training plans I followed the year before. No worries, we've got time.
And so I kept training. And she trained. I did Seroogy's 15K (painfully cold and hard), we both did the Point Bock 5 miler and kept training. Somewhere along the way her knee started hurting. We did an 8 miler together on vacation in Outer Banks. We ended up running 5 and run/walking the rest. No worries, its all about logging the miles. Somewhere around mid March I was so sick of my training. I was ready to get these two upcoming half marathons over with. Its crazy, because it seems when I get to that point in training I always get sick of it. Add to that a house remodel, vacation, considering a job change and its no wonder, I was probably feeling overwhelmed. But then something happens that makes me enjoy it again. A good run, a run with a friend, run with my mom, a run in the moonlight with a headlamp - whatevs, the important part is I start to enjoy running again along with the feeling of strength and peace that comes from it.
Back to that knee...yes I was a little worried. Wasn't my knee, but still I was worried. I had decided Columbus would be my A race (cough, cough, another post, a 2:24 finish that felt harder than my 8 minute faster PR) and I would enjoy running Green Bay with my mom. Unless she went and got super fast on me in which case I'd kill myself trying to keep up.
Well, guess what? We finished! Together. Our official time WAS on the race website with a time of 2:48:15 (mom) and 2:48:16 (me). This is no doubt the most enjoyable half marathon I've ever completed. Excessive heat included. Turns out our times aren't official because we finished after the race organizers called the race due to heat and lack of emergency resources. I'm still calling it good. Sometime, I think on the way up to GB the morning of the run, she told me she wanted to finish in 3 hours or less. I'm thinking, yeah, no problem, we are going for 2:45. The girl with no plan had a goal, it was time to come up with the plan. Which was run more than walk, walk through the water stops and no walking UP the hills.
We were late jumping in the starting line because the lines for the johns were so long. I didn't care, I really had to pee. I didn't feel stressed at all, just excited and curious to see what it'd be like to do a half marathon and not try to go as hard as I could. Oh - and be doing this with my mom. How cool is that? We needn't worry about starting 8 minutes after the gun went off, we jumped in line to cross the start and still had to wait. No corrals, everyone just got in line and started shuffling.
Our first mile was a 11:15 split, hey, not bad, if we keep this up we'll hit 2:30 no problem. It was fun to see Myriah and fam during the first mile. Our 5 mile split was 59:something. Our 10 mile split was 2:05 something. I think it was somewhere between 5 and 6 miles that we saw the first few ambulances drive through the crowd. One lady was running with headphones and as the ambulance came up behind her she almost jumped off the road. It was kind of funny, although I'm sure took a bunch of energy out of her. It still wasn't really hitting me that people were struggling that much. Yeah, it was hot and I was sweaty (liquid awesome) but I was feeling good and mom seemed to be feeling alright too. She was running through all the sprinklers and we really were mostly still running. I knew we'd see two friendly faces of Tom and Mary Anne Quinn around mile 7 so I was really looking forward to that. We stopped and Tom took a picture of us, pretty cool, I hope it turns out! There was a hill leading up to that turn and I was like come on mom, let's run the hill, we can walk once we get to the top if we need to. Lots of walkers at that point and I wasn't about to let the hill chew up some of that time. She said she'd try and aside from the picture we sure made it. About a mile later we come up on this young looking guy who asks me what mile we are at and how long we've been out there. We started chatting with him (yeah, longer walk break than I anticipated) and found out that he's 25, works at Kohler, his dad was running and talked him into running too. Except this dude said he hasn't trained. At all. I think he had on basketball shorts and a regular old cotton tshirt and all I was thinking was chaffage.
We soldiered on and not once did I think my mom was hurting that bad. Every time I'd pick a new vantage point and say how about we run to here and then reevaluate, she was mostly game. A few times she wasn't sure so we slowed down but kept running. And I was feeling awesome. Hot, but good. So, this is how I can enjoy a half marathon and not be cursing life by mile 10. We just pass mile 11 and some guy is yelling that the marathon course is shut down. So I was thinking just the full marathon was shut down. Then he says something about stopping at the next water stop and a bus will come pick you up and take you to the finish line. Ha - right - did he really mean that when we were so close to the finish? Not happening. We kept on moving and by this time there were definitely more walkers than runners. Mile 13 was our slowest at a 14:21 pace, but we kept moving and even had a little push to cross the finish line.
How many people can say they ran a half marathon with their mom? I can. It's pretty cool and I'm really proud of both of us. I've learned something different from each half marathon I've done and this one is no different. It was super fun to encourage someone else to the finish - although I have NO doubt in my mind that she would have made it to the finish without me. I was just hoping I wasn't annoying when I kept saying come on, next corner, we can make it. Silver car parked up there, we can make it. Up that hill, we can make it. SO close, who cares if the course is shut down and there are ambulance sirens wailing everywhere, we can make it. I sometimes think I lack mental toughness, especially when it comes to running, but after Sunday - there's no way, I come by some genetically.
Yay mom! What's next for us? A couple of years ago I started running again. I've done ToughMudder with my dad and brother and a half marathon with my mom. I know there's a finite amount of time we'll be able to do this kind of thing together and I am enjoying it while it lasts. Also makes me realize how much I want to stay healthy and active so I'm able to enjoy these things with my kid someday.
Peace.
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Almost three months?
Boy, time flies. I still wonder what the heck I should/want to write about. Remember, newbie here. It appears its been almost 3 months since I've written anything on this thing. I'm trying to get back in the swing of things, mostly to document the jump into triathlon specific training. Is it really swing of things when I only have a handful of posts?
No Ironman events in this chick's future, but I do want to attempt a few sprint and an Olympic distance triathlon this summer. I've heard and read that multi sport athletes tend to not get as many overuse injuries, so that is a plus. I'd like to remain injury free. I'm also a data girl and want to have a plan that will help me feel confident to go out and give it a try. Lucky for me I found someone that can guide me along this path. An 11 time Ironman finisher who has lots of experience with multi sport training and a good view into my psyche. He tends to set the bar just above what I think I might be able to reach.
This week I get the news that I'll soon be aiming for 8 workouts a week. 3x bike, 3x run and 2x swim. Yeah, no problem. Ha. No doubt it will be a challenge but still attainable. And, important to note, that missed workouts are life so not to get over concerned for the misses. I think I pretty consistently hit 5x/week in a very unstructured format so more will be a challenge. The goal is to stay motivated and healthy so I'm on board with that. For the most part, Chad and Megan are on board too, that IS an important part of me feeling successful. Last summer I encouraged Megan to do a kid's triathlon, but she wasn't interested. Hopefully watching me try one will give her the courage and/or desire to try one too.
Max heart rate tests were the name of the game for this week. I was excited to give this a try...especially from a data perspective. Now I know better. Remember running the mile in middle school and feeling like you were going to puke? Or maybe you were one of the kids that did puke. I didn't, but I totally remember that feeling. Well, that's how it felt - on the bike and run. The cool thing was that I had some kick ass rest days before I had to do these things. During each, I only thought wtf am I doing once. Once! Not bad. Megan said I sounded like a grunting buffalo this morning on the bike, so much so that I woke her up 10 minutes early. I know I pretty much sounded like that when I was running too. Can just imagine what I must have looked like. Good thing it was in the middle of the afternoon on a cold and windy day so I had no witnesses. I was surprised by how long it took me to feel recovered for both the bike and run efforts. I was watching my HR drop and I was still feeling spent. A sign that it was an all out effort? I hope so.
I also hit the pool today with the aquatics director at the Y. Good news is she said I have a solid, strong stroke. Bad news, well not much. Turns out I'm more of a straight arm crawler than a bent arm crawler so she talked through the mechanics and why I could tire quicker with the straight arm stroke. Makes sense and will give me something to think about next time I hit the pool. Who knows, with an open water swim it might all just go out the window and become oh shit, I'll do whatever I need to do to keep my head above water and not feel like I'm drowning.
All this said, certainly I really am overthinking all this stuff, but feeling prepared is half the battle for me. I guess its good to know that about myself, eh? My goal is to train hard and have fun. Solid.
pja
No Ironman events in this chick's future, but I do want to attempt a few sprint and an Olympic distance triathlon this summer. I've heard and read that multi sport athletes tend to not get as many overuse injuries, so that is a plus. I'd like to remain injury free. I'm also a data girl and want to have a plan that will help me feel confident to go out and give it a try. Lucky for me I found someone that can guide me along this path. An 11 time Ironman finisher who has lots of experience with multi sport training and a good view into my psyche. He tends to set the bar just above what I think I might be able to reach.
This week I get the news that I'll soon be aiming for 8 workouts a week. 3x bike, 3x run and 2x swim. Yeah, no problem. Ha. No doubt it will be a challenge but still attainable. And, important to note, that missed workouts are life so not to get over concerned for the misses. I think I pretty consistently hit 5x/week in a very unstructured format so more will be a challenge. The goal is to stay motivated and healthy so I'm on board with that. For the most part, Chad and Megan are on board too, that IS an important part of me feeling successful. Last summer I encouraged Megan to do a kid's triathlon, but she wasn't interested. Hopefully watching me try one will give her the courage and/or desire to try one too.
Max heart rate tests were the name of the game for this week. I was excited to give this a try...especially from a data perspective. Now I know better. Remember running the mile in middle school and feeling like you were going to puke? Or maybe you were one of the kids that did puke. I didn't, but I totally remember that feeling. Well, that's how it felt - on the bike and run. The cool thing was that I had some kick ass rest days before I had to do these things. During each, I only thought wtf am I doing once. Once! Not bad. Megan said I sounded like a grunting buffalo this morning on the bike, so much so that I woke her up 10 minutes early. I know I pretty much sounded like that when I was running too. Can just imagine what I must have looked like. Good thing it was in the middle of the afternoon on a cold and windy day so I had no witnesses. I was surprised by how long it took me to feel recovered for both the bike and run efforts. I was watching my HR drop and I was still feeling spent. A sign that it was an all out effort? I hope so.
I also hit the pool today with the aquatics director at the Y. Good news is she said I have a solid, strong stroke. Bad news, well not much. Turns out I'm more of a straight arm crawler than a bent arm crawler so she talked through the mechanics and why I could tire quicker with the straight arm stroke. Makes sense and will give me something to think about next time I hit the pool. Who knows, with an open water swim it might all just go out the window and become oh shit, I'll do whatever I need to do to keep my head above water and not feel like I'm drowning.
All this said, certainly I really am overthinking all this stuff, but feeling prepared is half the battle for me. I guess its good to know that about myself, eh? My goal is to train hard and have fun. Solid.
pja
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