Announcement Time!!!

I have some good news to share. EXCITING news. Well, exciting for ME anyway. I received an out of the blue email/phone call last week from a former employer (I worked for this group one day a week when I first moved to Ohio) offering me a full time position. I am fully employed somewhere else right now, but I have two major projects that are about to finish. Once those projects rollout, my agenda looks a bit......ummm.........sparse. Which means this phone call came at a GREAT time. After a little back and forth, today I accepted the offer and gave notice at my current place of employment.

I think the new position is a better fit for me personally - I get to go back and work with non profits but I will be based in a for-profit setting. I like to keep work off the blog for the most part, but I wanted to share this because it is a pretty big deal for me.

I mentioned the other day that a certain announcement meant good things for my training schedule - well, THIS is that announcement. The company I am moving to is a small business of 5 full time employees, owned and operated by a husband/wife team. The husband is a Boston qualifier and has run Boston a few times. Both he and his wife have dabbled in triathlons, too. While they no longer do the tri thing (I think C put it this way "I can't compete in a sport where typing my shoes counts into my finish time!"), they fully support the active lifestyle and can understand the rigors of training. I am hoping this turns out to be beneficial for everyone involved.

So that's my big announcement. I am so very thrilled. I will remain at my current job through mid October then transition over to the new place. Another bonus of the new job? I get to work from home one day a week! AND I will be spending a fair amount of time each year in Portland, Oregon. Seems like there could be some beautiful running and great beer drinking there!!!

Lastly, a HUGE congrats goes out to Kristin at Triathlon Dreams for completing her first 70.3 in Syracuse this weekend. I love her blog, and you will, too. Congrats, Kristin! What an amazing accomplishment!!!!

It's Hot hot HOT

It's only April right? Okay. It's April and it has been 80+ degrees outside most days this week. 80? In the Midwest? In April? Hmmmmm. Since I am now a working woman (more on that later), I have chosen to do my runs in the evening when I get home from work. I am now doubting that plan. Tuesday was a 5 mile day. Training from the new job let out around 4, so I was home by 5. I checked e-mail and all my fave blogs and sites then changed into my gear. By the time I got to the trail, it was shortly after 6pm. It didn't feel that hot. Not when standing in one place anyway. I made it through mile one okay, but I started to drag on mile two. Mile two???? When I hit my turnaround point at the 2.5 marker, I had to do a short 45 second walk just to prep myself for the return journey. Although I drank a heck of a lot of water throughout the day, I felt parched. I should have filled a couple of the bottles on my Fuel Belt and brought them along. Lesson learned for next time.

I finally finished the run (5.33 miles) in barely under an hour. That was nearly 12 minutes a mile. I know I'm slow, but geeeeeezzzzzz. I'm normally under 11:30 per mile even on my slow days. The only thing I could attribute the performance to was the heat. I did have 4 beers the night before between darts and the Duke game. (2010 NCAA CHAMPS, BABY!) That could have a bit to do with it. But honestly, I've been drinking 4 beers every Monday night during my training and never struggled through a Tuesday run. (before you think, "WOW, that's a lot of beers," I rarely drink through the week or on the weekend, so there. Well, except Saturdays. And sometimes Sundays.) Okay, so I don't drink any other times during the week :p

The other issue that has reared its ugly head is a nagging pain in my right hip. Oddly enough, I don't feel it when I am running, but as soon as I get home and sit for a while, when I get up the pain fully sets in. I can still walk around, but it is definitely sore. And it will be sore at random periods the day after - like today for instance. After sitting during job training for a while, when I got up at breaks the hip pain was back. I'm trying some hip stretches my sports med buddy taught me, so here's hoping they help alleviate this issue in the next few days.

In non-running news, the new job is going great. I love my cool new workspace. I even got a name plate! A NAME PLATE! With my FULL name! I've never had a name plate! And my HR cohorts got me flowers, candy and a card. How awesome is that? Turns out I am actually based out of HR, which is a new department for me. Since I will be working with all departments in the organization, they felt this would be the best place to put me. Plus, I will be doing trainings, etc, so HR makes the most sense. It also turns out I am really in the "executive" or at least "middle management" ranking in the new gig. Also a big deal for me. I'm normally one of the peons, but now it appears I'm one of the ones who helps influence change. This job stuff seems to have all worked out for the best. SWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET.

One last random thought before I go. I finally had Nutella for the first time. HOLY CRAP. Why am I just discovering this now??? It is amazing!!! So far I have only put it on toast. What do you do with it? I need ideas!!!!!!

Recap of the week

Hey, all - I finally installed Google Chrome (thanks to so many folks' reccomendations), and it seems like my problems have been abated for a while. Excellent. The computer and blogger are friends once again. Whew.

This week I ran about 30 miles. The weather was beautiful nearly all week, and I was so thankful that my last week at home was a beautiful one. The only issue with this lovely weather is that all the local wildlife has been out enjoying it, too. On my 4.5 mile run on Thursday, I had to jump over EIGHT baby snakes sunning themselves on the trail. ick ick ick. I love animals, but damn...snakes freak me out. They wiggle and jump and ewwwwww. Thursday was NOT a good day for me on the trail. My skin would crawl every time I saw one of those little buggers. I'd just leap over 'em, but it took quite the exercise in concentration to discern what was a stick and what was a snake on the run. At least that kept my mind preoccupied!!!!

My long run was today - 8 miles. This is another first for me - 8 miles on my own. No running buddies. Just me, the iPod, the trail and the fuel belt. I'm as slow as ever, but I made it. I was feeling good enough on the way out that I ran up to a turn around point a bit farther than where I was scheduled to turn around. In the end, it added an extra .3 miles to the route (nothing huge), but it was nice to do just even a little bit extra on today's run.

This week will be about building new routines. I start my new job tomorrow (omgiamsofreakingout), so that means no waking up at 9am then doing yoga. It means getting up at 7am and out the door by 8am to ensure I make it to the office by 9am. I am soon to be a working woman again. In about 24 hours, I will have completed my first day of gainful full time employment since late July 2009. Craziness. But with the new job means a new workout schedule. I will now be joining the masses for those post work runs in the early evening. I tried to do early morning runs before work last year, and they drained me. I am not a morning person at all, and definitely not a morning runner. With the super awesome-o weather we have been having though, a 4.5 mile run starting at 6 or 6:30 may not be too big of a deal.

In other news, HOW ABOUT THOSE BLUE DEVILS???????!!!!!!!!! I am so so so pumped that we're in the national championship. I love it love it love it. I have darts tomorrow night, but I want to get bumped out as early as possible so I can watch the game at home with Mike. How awesome would it be to have the NCAA title back at Duke??? Oh please please please!!!!!

Please send me good vibes for tomorrow. I am both excited and terribly nervous about my return to the workplace. New people, new routines, new responsibilities. New new new. I guess that's fitting for Easter Sunday though, huh??

I'll touch base soon - thanks for reading and posting!