After work

Two shorter walks with Ellie Mae

Feeling great about last weeks workouts, and I may have found someone from the Tri Club who is my pace and is also training for Augusta 70.3. I asked the question to our facebook group (explaining how I got lost Saturday), and SO MANY other people chimed in that they had gotten lost on those routes, either on Saturday or in the last few months. You would think that the folks organizing rides would realize someone needs to go out and re-mark the roads if they're going to continue to bring 30-40 people out there every weekend.

Work wise, something my boss said the other day is lingering in my mind. We were talking about career/development stuff and that my next step is to become a Director and preparing me for that. She mentioned something along the lines that you never know, you could apply to be a Director in a field location and go back to the field. Which hasn't crossed my mind. That would mean moving from Atlanta/headquarters to a location Cox serves (like when I lived in Wichita). An interesting thought - what if that is the next option to move up, and I have no idea when the option here in Atlanta will be available? I'm mostly thinking of implications if I buy a home in Atlanta next year, which was my plan. Hmm hmmmm.

Heat index 92. Definitely need to get out earlier.

Walk with Ellie Mae

Atlanta Tri Club ride from Cartersville - 1,500 ft of climbing.
Early wake up call to drive the hour up north to be signed in and ready to ride by 7:30 a.m. There was construction on I75 that took 4 lanes going north down to 1, so even at 7 a.m. it was heavy traffic. Scrambled to pump tires and put sunscreen on and such, but all was good.

Unfortunately, NO ONE my pace was riding 30 miles today, which totally defeats the purpose of a group ride. I offered multiple times for people who were doing more than one of the 14-mile loop, but the beginner group people were scared to stray from Nicole, so I just did this solo. Meh.

Everything was fine until about halfway through the ride when I missed a turn. All of the turns are marked from an annual ride (with 14, 31, 48, 68 and 100 mile routes) but of course, this section had been re-paved and while there was a weird, non-route marking pointing the right way, it wasn't marked "BBC" which is what all the others were, so I missed a quick left turn after a right turn. I went what appears to be 3.5 miles before stopping to look at a map. But I didn't know where I was supposed to be vs where I was, so LIGHT BULB, I re-purchased the Ride With GPS app on my phone because I knew I had saved these routes last year in that app. You have to pay for it to do turn-by-turn navigation, but once I had it running it was fairly easy to see how to get back on the course. So glad I had cell service out in the middle of nowhere, Georgia! A very nice guy in a car had passed me and turned around to see if I was lost. He said he rides out here and had a hunch I had gotten off course. He confirmed I needed to be going the opposite direction :)

Back on track, everything was fine again, just lots of hills and climbing. I declared to myself that these routes are DEFINITELY harder than the Chattanooga course. I can't even average 15 mph out here! So, I ended up riding 7 extra miles than intended, but it all turned out OK.

Planned brick run immediately after the ride. I've decided that I'm going to do at least a mile (buildling up to 2 mile) brick runs after every long ride leading up to Augusta. I mean, I'm going to run the mile at some point anyway for my run streak, so this makes lots of sense.

SUPER pleased with my pace.

Long walk with Ellie Mae

Map below of my ride this morning. I was not supposed to do the little loop with the smiley face (or the little finger). Route goes counter clockwise, so I turned northeast instead of going west up there. GOOD TIMES.

Treadmill at the work gym before heading to the swim gym.

Slow and sloppy feeling. First swim since Chatt 70.3.

Short walk with Ellie Mae.

Happy hour last night was all right. I think what made it better, sadly, was that my boss was out of town and her boss left super early. They are the two who people have the most issues with. The big boss stayed and chatted with everyone - very genuinely. I'm glad I went.

But I'm dragging today because I stayed up to watch the NBA Finals and see Toronto win - yay! They have a player who came from Wichita State and I have always loved watching him play. His story is gritty - his dad died in a drug deal when he was a kid, raised by a single mother, came to Wichita and went to the Final Four, etc. but was UNDRAFTED by the NBA. Got a chance with the Raptors and is killing it. Last year he signed a 2-year contract with Toronto for $18 million. And he scored 22 points last night and his team won the whole dang thing. Not bad for being undrafted a few years ago.

Swimmy tonight, then riding with the tri club for the first time this year tomorrow morning. I'll have to get up early and leave the house around 6:15 a.m., but I'm looking forward to it!

Took a super long lunch at home to do this so I can go to the happy hour tonight (and not have to do it at 8 p.m.).

After happy hour, with Ellie Mae. Stopped when a little Yorkie was running loose and I took her home down the street. Then stopped again for Ellie Mae to sniff an old greyhound that we see around a lot.

Having to scramble to find a dog sitter for my July trip - again. After booking my normal gal, she cancelled after realizing she had a conflict. I found another sitter through a local women's Facebook group I'm in - booked her. She cancelled last night. Hoping third time's a charm?! Jeez Louize. 

We have a large team happy hour tonight, and I'm on the fence about going. First, I have a 90-minute bike ride to do. I'll probably go home and do that over lunch. But more so, I just don't want to make small talk with our team right now - the vibe has been so moody lately. Our leaders are putting on these fake smiles and acting like everything is great, when in reality people are miserable, pissed off and applying for other jobs in our sister companies left and right. The recent, abrupt changes to our team leave everyone scratching their head. Personally I'm good and staying out of the drama, but the VIBE on the entire team is awful. I do know that in general it pays off to show up at these things, so feel like I should for my career's sake more than anything else. But ugh, what a waste of time.

Average run in below average temps. 70 degrees!

Ellie Mae

Ooh interesting. Ironman's announcement today is that they're bringing IM to Tulsa, OK. Lots of salty comments on the Facebook post . Race date is May 31, which is pretty early for that area of the country (it snows regularly in March and even early April - do ya'll remember that relay race I did one April where it snowed and sleeted? Awful). Training outdoors will be a challenge for locals. It's one reason I never signed up for IM Texas or anything in April or May. Also tornadoes are a very real threat that time of year. BUT, hoping for the best as plenty of my Kansas friends have been itching for a full IM event within driving distance - looking forward to seeing how it all turns out!

Lunch treadmill.

Trainer

Ellie Mae