A week of ups and downs

Work was a roller coaster today.  We started out in a happy place, but dark clouds were on the horizon.  Little did we know, the gremlins would be casually removing semicolons from our code.  The gremlins are real, though I have not seen one myself.  I have seen their handiwork: changing settings, rearranging charts, hiding production lots.  On my team, we have one ambitious gremlin fighter.  He notices when things are amiss, and make it his responsibility to undo the damage the gremlins have done.  Today, he bravely tracked the location of the gremlin mischief, and started the factory running smoothly again.  My hero. . .  And, as I leave today, things are back as they should be, quiet as a church on Monday.

Another week of work goes by

Things have slowed back down again at work, and I am feeling happy about my current job role. I am learning new tools, and feeling more comfortable with my responsibilities. I am working on losing a few pounds with a better attitude. I am concentrating on eating enough to keep my fitness a priority, so the weight will come off slowly, but I will feel better in the meantime :-).

I am still a little bummed that my race was cancelled, but I am looking forward to going to TX to run a 1/2 marathon with my brother. I will have only run races with my brother this year, which is pretty strange! I ran a new year's 5K with him and the Rock and Roll 1/2 in Phoenix. He seems like he is doing really well with speed work on the treadmill. I am jealous, I can never make any progress at all if I can't run outside. Those darn treadmills make me nervous at speed!

The 3PM-3AM schedule I am working right now has been a little tricky to settle into. The hubby and I are struggling with my long weeks where I go almost 4 days without seeing him. (We did play racquetball today before I left for work, and that was awesome). The weekend will be only Sunday for us this week, and then he's off to work M-F. At least we see eachother in the evenings Monday and Tuesday, so there's that. It makes me not want to go to Monday night yoga anymore though because then I miss spending time with him :-(. I know there are people who have to deal with more difficult schedules, and I pity them, this has taken some getting used to.

The summer is finally reaching an end. . .

I went for a bike ride this morning, only 20 miles, but I wasn't tired or dehydrated at the end of it, so I call it a win! My work schedule doesn't allow me to wake up very early to go for a ride, so I will have to wait until it cools down to really persue my south mtn and usery goal :-). I am still bummed about not having a triathlon this year, but I have a 1/2 marathon coming up in November with my brother in TX, so that will be something to look forward to.

Tomorrow is going to be my long run- 12 miles at this time. I will begin getting back up to speed, and getting back to my distance over the winter. I may be able to sign up for a 1/2 IM in April! That would be great to get done before the summer hits again. IM distance for next year if I can get signed up for the race :-)

wow, what a day!

I have had just the worst time with this coworker. She loves to talk to me in this way that makes my ego shrivel to 32 nm. She starts each sentence with my name, which wouldn't be bad, but it actually is quite condesending. I know who I am, please. . . "Jessica, you are not understanding what I am asking." Too much contact with her today has lead to a fun new discovery about stress and poor eating habits. I have learned that if I just let myself throw a fit (not in public), then I am ok to go about my day without binge eating. Fantastic, this must be how normal people handle their issues! I have used some very destressing language in my car and cried a few angry tears, but I feel better now. . .at least about that.

My terrible day had some leakage into my other life, my triathlete life. A month or so ago, my triathlon I was training for was turned into a duathlon, and I got pretty bummed, and lost all motivation to go to the pool. Well, today, I got word that the race has been cancelled completely.

Things are looking good.

I am getting better at motivating myself to swim. I have discovered that swimming 1000 yds is best done by counting 10 100 yard sets. I feel like it is easier to complete 10 rather than saying 40 lengths! So, yet another way to trick myself into feeling like this isn't a long time spent in the pool.

My weight loss project is going pretty well right now. I am back down to 140, and preparing to face the inevitable temptation to eat my way right back to 145. I feel like I am more motivated to lose the pounds, and I have more control over myself. It feels good to be on track. I will be at my goal by the end of August!

If I am lighter and the temperatures start dropping off, I am hoping my speed on both the bike and the run will increase rapidly. My long runs have slowed to a relative crawl (10:30 min/mi at times). My bike speeds are not too bad, but I tend to go in the early morning, and the movement of air seems to keep me cooler. I am hoping to bike Usery Pass tomorrow before going to San Diego at 15 mi/hr (that's a 3 hour total ride time).

Today I feel accomplished

I have spent most of my day running around trying to get things done and ready for the first checkpoint of the deinstallation of a piece of equipment at work. I spent the morning working to make sure all the big requirements were met, and had some others take care of double and triple checking some smaller things. I lucked out with getting my scheduled walk-through to give the ok for the beginning of phase 2 because another person dumped that slot since they weren't ready :-). I was supposed to give 48 hrs notice, but wasn't at work, so it slipped my mind! We passed with only a few minor concerns with me not signing off a couple of items on our checklist (because I did them this morning, and I was a bit nervous). This was my first major project, and I have impressed everyone with my ability to get things done on time and with good attention to detail. I worked through lunch, though, and now it is time to take a break at the gym, and do some stationary biking and weight lifting. Before I go home, I am going to hit the gym again for a swim! Should be fun.

I spent a good part of today enjoying my job. There is a project we are working on, and I was given charge of it. So far everyone is impressed that I am getting things done. I don't know if I should be insulted or feel proud when my collegues are surprised that things are already scheduled and moving along.

On my lunch break today, I ran on a treadmill for 6 miles. I felt really good except for the humidity and lack of air circulation. I suppose it is still better than running outside, but I long for the winter days when I could run at noon outside :-). I have been becoming more brave about my speed restrictions on the treadmill. I put it up to an 8 min mi for a while. I think I could do the whole run at an 8:30, but I didn't. Next week, I will try to do this.

My calorie restriction is right on track for today. Maybe a few more good days like this and I can get those 15 lbs gone!