San Diego

Flew to SD Friday night to spend the weekend with Katy (Crazy Ironman Girl). Been having great fun. It's been ridiculously hot here! Yesterday we ran a 12 miler and it was 86 degrees, this at 9 am....good grief. We went and visited with another work pal - Kirsten & he husband. K & I first met when I was at Cisco. She worked in the wider change team. We struck up a friendship when she came onto the NetApp account. She's fun and funny and we get along well, also helping each other deal with some work stuff. After lunch by the sea with K & hubby Katy and I went car shopping for her. Test drove a Mazda crx-5 (2013). Sweet ride and perfect for Katy as she can put her bike etc in the back. Early evening we walked around the water front near her house - pretty.









Off to run a 10 miler today and see a little more of SD. Fly home early evening.


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More running schmack

The weekend is done; it was big.  Really it may not sound like much to add a few miles to a marathon, but it's big and I was a little afraid.  Trail runs are tough in a different way.  There are some simple formulas........times are easily doubled on the trail for equal distances on the road.  Different muscles come into play, you are out there for longer, your body more depleted.  Road running is a pounding slog, trail running is artful. For the first time I took salt tabs, really needed to as it was so hot.  I discovered rock mellon, water mellon and bananas are what I gravitate to (they won't get me through a 50 miler but they ease the pain). Cute moment, a very grizzled veteran of ultra's offered me some of his salt tabs at one point, reminding me they were important, he was running his second 50k in 2 weeks.....awesome; I had my own but it was sweet of him to offer.  I met some interesting characters (including a Vet......Coast Guard) and also spent big chunks of time running alone, not another soul in sight.  Thankfully the course was well marked.  The folks on the aide stations were fun and engaging and as you near the end they know you can't quite coordinate yourself, taking your water bottle and filling it up as you struggle to bring it all together.  A couple of times I had to take my shoes off, get rid of little stray pebbles (there is a clothing solution for this.....got to get on to that).  Little insight, on the 50 miler it's most likely the crew will need to help "manage me" as time goes on and tying shoelaces becomes more complex as the hours tick by.  I have a very vivid memory of my Army training, humping a pack for hours on end, stopping to rest, taking the pack off and then, as we were told to gear up, turning to my pal and telling her that if she didn't lift my pack onto my pack I wasn't going anywhere.....humbling moments, ultra's feel like that.

50k done

Finished in 6hrs 42mins. Temps in the mid 30s. Beautiful course including some tricky trails and good sized hills. Learnt alot along the way but kept well hydrated and some how figured the electrolyte stuff. Great rehearsal for the 50miler. Cool tee, not so sure about powder puff blue socks tho!




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Rock on!

Rocks got delivered on Wednesday:






Now Irene (with Lotte's supervision) gets to rock it out:





It's glamorous work:



But making things look very pretty:






Got my 50k Sunday - feeling a little nervous. It's in the East Bay so going to stay with a friend so I'm there in plenty of time to pick up my bib for a 7am start. Gonna take me some where between 7-8hrs, what are you doing this Sunday?


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Weekend update

Over the weekend we advanced a few projects. My task to lay the weed mat under Lotte's watchful eye:






Which translated into an opportunity to play:


But the task was eventually completed:






Next week Irene has the dubious honor of adding the rocks we are using to replace the wood chips that were there.
I will be watching as I am running my 50k on Sunday - lugging rocks not part of the training plan.


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Tapering.....

My 50k is two weeks away so I am tapering down the number of miles I am running per week.  It's weird going from 50+ miles down to 20-; not sure what to do with all this additional time!  I've maybe got a new running buddy, meeting on Friday to go for our first run.  She's training for her first triathlon so hopefully there is a click and more opportunities to run together.  Ran with someone else new last weekend too, that was fun.  It's not really easy to find people to run with, given I don't want to join a running group.  I am hoping at the 50k to at least talk to some other runners and start to meet people doing the sort of distances I am doing....get some good tips at the very least.
I've been following the Olympics on line - reading lots of the background stories of the athletes.  Hard to imagine the sacrifices every competitor has made to get there.  Kiwis seem to be doing alright, although I'm not sure what the expectations were going in.

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.


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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).

New Toy

I just bought a Garmin Forerunner 910XT.  It's way over specced for me and is really designed for the Ironman/Tri folk - measure all that swimming/biking stuff.  It's the latest fancy gadget (yeah, that title usually lasts about a week).  The main reason I bought it was because of the battery life, a whopping 20hrs.  Although I bet that doesn't apply when the GPS is on.  Now I am doing longer runs the battery life on my old Garmin isn't long enough.....seems at 5hrs it becomes somewhat unhappy so I did some research and kept coming back to this.  Best thing is I have used some rewards/recognition points I have accumulated with ACN, so it almost feels like I am getting it for free!  Can't wait for it to arrive in the mail.  I am going to try and actually learn all the relevant features this time so I get my money's worth.
Yesterday I ran 24miles/39km.  I completed the same run I did a few weeks back when I posted pictures.  I took a chunk of time off my previous run, I think because I actually paced myself better through it and had a better understanding of where I was going.  Unfortunately the bladder in my hydration vest sprung a leak - I didn't lose all my water but had very soggy shorts as it slowly dripped away.  The run itself is incredibly beautiful and really can't beat San Francisco on a good day.
This weekend is Gay Pride and I haven't really done anything.  Irene and I went to watch the Dyke March; best part being Dykes on bikes taking off at the start.  There were hundreds and hundreds of people so it was fun to watch.  Glad I was marching though (anyone can join in) as I was a little weary after my run.
Next week is my last week on my project and I still don't know if we got the other job yet.  It will be strange to leave everyone behind and the routines I have created (particularly running after work around the water treatment station).  I guess I will just have to create new routines.

ACN Prom

Notwithstanding running 24 miles on Saturday I got all glammed up and went to the ACN Prom!



Meet the girls and one boy (photo bomb!). Event was at City Hall and very stylie. Three halls; string quartet down the stairway in one, jazz band in another and dancing in the third. Excellent food too and fun pre.party (where photo was taken). About 1100 peeps so no small affair. It was fun!


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On the run

Tried posting this yesterday but had some technology challenges! Went for a 24 mile road, trail, beach run. Weather was gorgeous, took some photos.












Gotta go run 10 today...


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2 Year Anniversary

Yesterday was my 2 year anniversary for joining ACN - wow, where did that time go?  I've had my ups and downs with joining such a large organization with so many well established traditions and such a strong culture!  That said, I really do like the people and I've learnt a huge amount.  I am looking at rolling off my current roll at the end of this month, so moving to a new project will be like starting a new job (we all know how much I like to do that....).  We have a client presentation for the proposal next week so, if we win that, that's most likely where I will go.  I will really miss my current team and the client - it's been a challenging role at times but I've really like the people.  The team are great fun, but folks move on, I am just one of many.
This weekend we have our "Prom"; swanky party they have at City hall.  It's for ACN Northern California folk so I think over 1000 people will attend.  Everyone will be all flashed up.  I am sort of looking forward to it and sort of nervous.  I think I'll mostly enjoy the pre-event gathering as it will be small and with folks I know.  Not sure how the bigger event will go, although I will know at least some people there. We shall see we shall see we shall see.

Fairly dull week, ending on a fun note

Week was a little dull, until Friday.  Best part of the week, Katy (Crazy Ironman Girl) was in San Fran for training on Friday and stayed over at mine Friday night and through Saturday.  Funny adventures were had as she lost her i-phone in the cab Friday morning. Several frantic instant messages later (we have IM on our work laptops) saw me heading down to the main office of the cab company lost and found (about 10mins from my house as it turned out)....this an adventure into a world I clearly wouldn't want to be part of on a regular basis.  Long story short, cabs are housed in a huge carpark behind two barrier arms; park outside and walk in to be confronted with the "grave yard" of taxis that have been in some pretty major smashes! Gruesomely cool to check it out thought. Look across a big parking lot  and still see no sign of anything resembling an office.  Look again to check where all the random bodies might be walking to....walk that way, still no signage to let me know where, exactly, I should be going.  Finally hit a building and look for signage, nada, nothing, zilch.  Give up and ask some random woman standing outside a door.  She sends me inside, upstairs (still no signs) into some kind of office area with a waiting room and a service window.  Random guy in waiting room asks me what I need, I start to speak and the famous "glazed" look comes across his face i.e. clearly does not understand my accent ay ay ay - here we go.  Anyway finally get to the guy behind the window, describe the phone and give the cab number.  He pulls one out and asks what the wallpaper shot is....OMG, I have no idea.  He shows it to me and it's some grid iron team - well Katy isn't exactly a GI girl, as far as I know and I most definitely don't know the security code so I have to say "hmmm, not sure".  Seriously it could have been someone else's phone for sure.  Long story short I end up calling her phone from mine to prove I know her.....he finally decides I'm good to take it and phone is secure (much to Katy's relief.).
Friday night me, Katy and Monica went to BlowFish for the most awesome Sushi and catching up.  Saturday Katy and I go on a 10 mile run (yayayayayaya to having my running buddy back) and then Irene, Katy and I go to our local cafe for lunch before Katy and I go to Sports Basement to spend lots of money on sporty type things.  It's been great to catch up with her again and Monica and I think we will head to San Diego  (where Katy lives) for the 4th of July.
Sweet little Henri is also staying so Irene on doggie watch and I'm the tag along.  Lotte is so sweet with Henri and plays with him - very cute to watch.

I'm back.....

These last few weeks flew by - many late nights and early mornings at work - proposal is in and team did an awesome job.  Have to wait for the next stage, orals (what a terrible word) where we go in and present "something".  It's not like I've done this before so I'm just stumbling through each stage and learning a lot. Chasing the work is fun though.  Of course if we get it then a whole new set of challenges! Most likely I will move to the new client, leaving behind my old team......who I really love and the current client who I also really love.  Nature of the job I guess.  Nothing guaranteed of course but the Partner has basically said, "we get it, you go".  Right then.  I guess the exciting thing is that I'm really starting to get some good experience consulting.  Some folk seem to land at Cisco and never move, I think that's contracting, not consulting and my one ask when I joined ACN was that I get to go to other clients - seems to be going fine.

I also wanted to finish my Italy trip - Lake Como.  This place was so beautiful.  The Lake is magnificent with little towns dotted all around it.  You get to them via ferry.  Jo did an awesome job ferreting out some great walks for us (yet really was a walking holiday!).

View from my hotel balcony, sunnier shot further down

Day we arrived we went on a little hike - got caught in a HUGE downpour, totally fun though as we say the "worlds" smallest river.......

Jo organizing, she was the uber travel planner

I think this is the Bellagio,  just one of the sights as we scooted around the lake

Cool tree

While we walked up in the hills we also weaved through the villages.  This in such sharp contrast to Cinque Terre, everything very "put together" here.  

See at the end a little "alter".  They were everywhere

Look closely and you will see a little building up on the hill, in the center almost in the middle of the picture.  We hiked up to this church.  This was really fantastic.  The path zig zagged up the hill and I was very grateful for all the marathon training, quite a hike and we'd already been walking for 3 hrs

Church at the top of the climb

View from church - this place is like Queenstown on steroids.  Lake Como has a similiar feel to Queenstown but bigger in every way.  It also has that uniquely laid back Italian feel, even as there is a sense of bustle.  

Sunny version of the view from my balcony.  Now here's a really really tricky one.  If you can, pop the photo out and zoom in.  As you look at the photo start at the pointed peak in the center of the photo, go left and about half way down the snowy ridge line stop and drop down to just above the middle line of the mountain.....you'll see a building......that's the church we hiked to!

Random boat shot, very beautiful with all that wood

This the group that was at Lake Como,  Rose and Jo, Karen and Sarah and their two children, both of whom are very very cute

 

The week that is

It's been a big working week.  My optimism about that 14 miler run on Saturday didn't quite come through, although I did run 15 on Sunday.  The last 7 days have gone something like this; working until midnight on Friday then back in the office at 8am on Saturday, out of the office at 2pm.  Sunday awesome run to Sausalito then back at the day job Monday,Tuesday, Wednesday........long days.  We are in the middle of the annual performance process so I have been part of a range of discussions to finalize peoples performance reviews.  I actually enjoy this on a lot of levels (much helped by having a fab team working for me) but we do run a particularly rigorous process so alot of new learning for me as I sit through and contribute to the various discussions.  Alongside this we are continueing to pitch for new work and I went to meet the "prospective" new clients.  Given I've never done this type of thing for ACN before that was also a new learning moment.  The Partner and my manager are being totally fab about coaching me through parts of it and I feel no small privellage in having been asked to contribute at all!  All of this has pushed me outside my comfort zone but also tapped into some of the skills I haven't been able to use for a while.  It's all exciting and exhausting....it hasn't made for the best training week but some weeks just are what they are and I'll make sure to get my long run in this weekend (well if I don't I'll go nuts).