The love of a pet

In the scheme of life my family are kinda crap at really demonstrating love for one another.  While we do front up in times of crisis and we quietly demonstrate care, we aren't that demonstrative to one another......but we love love love our pets, both adopted and our own.

Ra (the Princess) is gone and I'm so sad, not just for me but because I know Bidwill Street is sad.  Stinky, rumply thing with a lot of attitude  (oh wait, I think I just described my entire family.....but she was the only blonde).

Blew off the SF Half Marathon

Yesterday I went running in the hills of Oakland with a friend - turns out the route she chose is actually part of my upcoming 50k so gave me a taste of what to expect (heat being a key ingredient!).  Afterwards we sat and had a coffee; it was nice to have a running buddy as I seldom get to run with others these days.
Today I was supposed to run the SF Half.  Back story, I originally registered for the Full Marathon then, several weeks back decided to do the 50k.  Timing had it that I am actually starting my tapper towards to 50k in two weeks time so no way could I do the marathon then expect to do the 50k so I thought I would switch to the half.  Long story short, as I started to figure out getting to and from the race it all go complicated.  Finally it came down to "do I really need to get up at 430am in the morning to go run a half marathon?????".  Well the answer fairly quickly became NO.  Instead I got up at a civilized 8am and went and ran 10 miles (which was actually on the plan anyway).  So no race, but I did get the tee shirt (SF Marathon Tees are the best!).
Still not on a project.  It really is getting boring.  Bunch of stuff in the pipeline but need it to come through - it does unnerve me a little I have to say.  Got to trust the process and the partner who is driving this stuff that it will all work out in the end.
Nothing much else - counting down to 50k!

Nothing much is happening

I'm running a lot and waiting for my next project.  Running a lot translates into 50m/80km a week - I like it.  I've signed on for various "races" but suspect everyone is pretty bored with my talking about it so won't over share, check out Future Challenges.  Not having a project is proving to be deadly dull (although I'm assured by others this is "the best" time).    I kind of hate it - I'm not used to doing "nothing".
I ran the Marin Headlands again on Saturday.  OMG, it was tough and I beat my last time by all of 1 min.  It was so hot......warm water, bleech.  But I made it last for the full 26 miles (this I failed last time, running out 2 miles before the end, bad bad bad).  My body felt wrecked.  It's so much harder to run in the heat (don't get me wrong, I've looked at the Arctic races too, it's not like they are "easy").  This was tough though as I'm experimenting with different foods.  I have to run twice that for the 50m and need to eat along the way.  This is tough.  Irene is being very hardcore with me about getting my nutrition right.  She's part of my support crew for the 50 miler and she has a much better sense of nutrition.  I'm working on it........

Chugging along

I spent the weekend at a friends beach house near Santa Cruz. Met some new peeps and got two beach runs in! Had great fun and go to watch the dolphins feed/play.
Last week Irene and I went to this very cool garden shop; saw this



Plants available were real cool. Irene has a garden project, removing all the bark chips and laying down stones (that's where I come in!). Adding some new plants too.


All a work in progress, including replacing some rotting boards.
Been doing some little house things too, adding lamps and art to the dining - coming together nicely.


I've also been organizing for the 50 miler. Sadly Michelle can no longer commit to being support crew (have to provide you own support for the first 46 miles), so now it will be Katy, Irene and Marcia - so all still good. Without the crew I can't do the run so I'm really grateful that folk do what they can....they'll be awake as long as I am and will have their own boredom to deal with - remembering this starts at 10pm at night and will take me between 12 & 15hrs; it's a big ask! I've hired a mini van so plenty of room for gear etc. All starts to feel real.....and really not that long to go.
Have my 50k in four weeks time so that will be a test too and a good opportunity to learn some stuff. It's a trail run so, all going well I am hoping for something shy of 7hrs - 8hrs is the cut off. It doesn't sound much more than a marathon but it's all in the pacing and the degree of difficulty of the course - might be a very steep learning curve.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Clocking the miles!

Big weekend for me, running wise.  Marathon's are now the new "long run" for the training plan.  I decided that for my 26 miler I would head into the Marin Headlands - it's kind of hard to map a 26 mile run in a city that is 7 x 7 miles.  Thinking I was being clever (yes we know how that usually turns out). I tapped into the North Face Challenge Marathon route.  The first part of the  marathon route is actually the 10k I ran in 2009......my first race.  It was all very vivid in my mind as I contemplated how far the last few years had taken me.  The marathon route is hardcore, here's the Garmin view:

But the real telling point has to be the elevation chart below.  If you think my best marathon is 4:31hrs on the road, this took me a little over 6hrs!

I gotta say though the whole thing was beautiful:

Climbing through the mist                 

 Finally reaching the top

Dropping down to sea level, to climb again

 Heading down to the beach

 Some stairs to help along the way

And the trail leading me back to my car

It was great fun and tough and I felt very very happy, exhausted and elated at the end! Best of all - Irene (rightly) realized that I hadn't actually planned my dinner post the "marathon" so arrived down to mine with some yummy salmon, salad and potatoes (nothing ever tasted so good!).  No rest for the wicked though, today I had to follow it all up with a 10miler, kind of felt like a relief to "only" have to do 10!

I am still on the bench for work so last week did some training and went to a pool party for the 4th of July - low key.  Best thing though, I have a new career counsellor for work.  Mine is leaving so it's the perfect opportunity to switch to Davin, who recruited me to ACN.  Very happy!!!!

Not the food of champions

But despite consuming meatballs and fries I was able to run the planned 10 miles......which doesn't detract from the poor nutritional choice!  So notable in fact that Irene decided to capture the moment.  It was kind of yummy and kind of disgusting; entirely driven by Irene and I taking a trip to Ikea (the BIG store that has just about every household item you could possibly want, all carefully designed my Swedish folk).  The food court offers a range of goodies - none of it that good but edible enough.

Times they are a changing

Friday was my last day on the NetApp project.  It's been 17 months and it will be very strange not to go into the office on Monday.  I've had such a great time with this team and have learnt a huge amount.  Two years into my time with ACN and I feel like I have started to "get it".  There is a lot of discussion about the challenges of bringing in experienced hires i.e. folks not recruited straight out of college.  It gets more challenging the older the hire.  I know a lot of EH that haven't made the jump.  Honestly I've swung in roundabouts myself at times.  I think two things really helped a. I had a very clear view of what I wanted to get out of ACN and b. landing good projects with good people.  That said, I really need to get promoted next year or it's time to move on - it's an up or out culture so in terms of the ACN career path next year is do or die for me.  I've been pondering what I'd do if it does prove that I need to move on.  6 years on from arriving in the US I feel much more confident about the choices I have and the opportunities out there.  With the ACN move I opened up a second career path in Change Management, although it's clear to me that the Communications work remains my bread and butter; my love/hate relationship with it remains alive and well, but, at the end of the day, I am good at it and have some good solid skills that are very marketable.  As always, we shall see.
Currently I am "on the bench".  As we roll off projects we go to the bench to wait for a project to come up and/or proactively apply for open roles that are posted by our HR folk.  Demand is high so finding a role isn't the issue, finding the right role is.  We are still waiting to hear about the job we pitched for so right now I am not being put forward for other roles or applying for them.  Being on the bench offers time to do some additional training and is downtime away from the client facing work.  Definitely don't want to hang out here too long though, that's not good either.  Patience patience patience - the right thing will show up.
Training is going well, with my 50k coming in August.  That will be a good test of my fitness.  10m/16k have become easy training runs (almost a day of rest..... seriously, who would have thought).  Starting next Saturday the marathon distance will be the new "long training run" with the program having me run the equivalent of that distance every second week.....followed by a 10 miler the next day.  I think at my peak in the 50k training plan I am running a total of 52m/83k a week - that's a lot of running.  Although I still only run five times a week (okay as I write that does sound a lot - it's now just become the normal thing to do, at least in my mind).