Lunch walk.

My 1:1 with my Director this morning unexpectedly included a robust discussion on my career development. I was pleasantly surprised to hear that all of my leaders agree I'm ready for the next step in my career (which would be Director level); it's just a matter of something opening up. She mentioned they are focused on giving me opportunities and me being happy so I don't leave lol! I was careful not to mention the sudden and suspicions timing of last week's promotion of my friend - the last thing I want to do is come off as whining (all though it would be a totally valid question to be honest - the inconsistencies from our leadership are abundant). But it was a great conversation and left me feeling valued and appreciated. 

It's a little cooler today so we took a good lunch walk without completely melting.

I think I'm on the other side of my back spasms. Felt pretty good last night and this morning. I was woken up at 2:30 a.m. though by my phone ringing. I immediately thought OMG someone died - but it was that guy from Bumble?! We haven't texted or anything in almost 2 weeks (after a week of nothing, he had texted me "is everything OK?" and I replied "Yes doing well!" and he said he hadn't heard from me so was confused. In my head I'm like SIR - I hadn't heard from YOU after you rolled your eyes at me then texted you were really busy. Clearly I'm not interested anymore). Of course I didn't answer but it was so annoying because I couldn't fall back asleep. Considering blocking his number, something I've never done before. I don't have any interest in middle of the night drunk dials.

Had to wait until 7:30 p.m. for the heat index to get below 95.

My back killed me again last night, to the point where I got out of bed at 3:30 a.m. to take some ibuprofen. Took more around 10 a.m. and it seems to have done the trick for the day. I also bought a heating pad at Target for future episodes, so I'm expecting my AARP card in the mail any day now.

Wasn't sure this was a good idea with my back still hurting, but it loosened up the longer I swam. Enough to bump this up to 1500 yds.

This facility is changing reservations to allow 2 swimmers per lane next week, which kind of sucks because you have no idea if you'll be thrown in a lane with someone doing a very different type of workout. I'm most concerned about unintentional contact if I'm sharing a lane with for example any of the people in the pool today - all elderly folks doing physical therapy type of things.

Slept much better last night but still some lingering back pain. Feeling old for sure haha.

And a bit of drama at work. One of my work besties who I mentioned earlier is applying for a different role in the company was *suddenly* given a promotion on our team. Which is hilarious, because the company preaches that we don't do "promotions in place" - that there has to be an actual head count opening to be promoted. But he is the 2nd person on our team to be handed a promotion without asking, applying, interviewing or even knowing that was a possibility (his boss was the other one). Whenever it comes up, our leaders swear up and down that it's because the role's responsibilities have changed so much it warrants a new title. But that's such a loose justification - you could say that about any role because everyone's work ebbs and flows depending on the needs of the business. It's an OBVIOUS knee jerk reaction to keep him from leaving when they found out he applied for a role on another team, which I have very mixed feelings about. If you want people to stay, don't wait until they take it into their own hands!

But I digress. I'm happy for my friend. And the lesson I'm taking away is that if I apply for a promotion outside of our team I might just be handed one if they want me to stay, haha! Trust me my eyes are scanning our internal jobs site frequently. 

Upper fix - had to modify some of the ab work with my back hurting.

Evening walk

Chattanooga 70.3 registration opens today, and I'm tempted to snag a spot because it typically sells out. It will be May 22 next year, which is sort of early in the season but might be a good kick start to IM training. OK I registered 

Tweaked my upper-mid back yesterday - probably the BeachBody workouts. The muscle relaxers I have don't do anything. I took one at around 8 p.m. then got up at 3 a.m. to take another to see if it made a difference and nope. It's not debilitating, mostly just annoying. 

Lower Fix. This was really hard on my knees. All squat type of activity. I literally cannot do squats anymore so just lowered a few inches and tried to get out of it what I was supposed to.

Another hot lunch walk trying to stay in the shade.

BOTH of my work besties are applying for different roles at our company, and that makes me a SAD LISA. I have this premonition that they're both going to leave the team at the same time and I'll have no one to send my snarky messages to during meetings  I'm actually glad Christina is pursuing something else, because our leaders decided a long time ago they didn't love her, and it shows. 

In the back of my head, I see this as a good thing because our leaders typically take advantage of team turnover and decide to move people up and around. Which could be good for me.