Miscellaneous

So, day 18 at my new job is in the bag. As I have already said (over and over again) this has been a big adjustment for me. I guess I haven't really said why,  and it goes a bit beyond the obvious fact that new jobs are always an adjustment. I was at my last job for 12 years. 12! Long enough to feel very competent, knowledgeable and to have been involved with just about every aspect of the business. Add to that, I was the fifth person hired at the last company I worked for and when I left we were 25 - so, a very small though steadily growing place. My new company, at 120 (?) people feels huge in comparison (though I realize that probably still qualifies it as a small business). The industry is completely different (the common thread is software but other than that I am definitely not in Kansas anymore).

Anyway so yeah, big adjustment, whine whine whine however I have to say that after 13 days, I noticed a small but significant step change in my level of knowledge and comfort in my new position and today, again, I noticed another small but important change in my comfort level. So much so that I have promoted myself from "Useless" to - drum roll - "Mostly Useless". And while being "Mostly Useless" feels pretty shitty at best, it is still heaps above "Useless". Even better, I can see in the not too distant future when I feel very confident I will rise to the level of "Somewhat Useless".
If none of this makes sense, see: Syndrome, Impostor.

On the running front, I ran my second race of 2014 on the week-end. The first one had been a 10 km at altitude while sleep and calorie deprived, jet lagged and dehydrated on loose sand (I DO enjoy lining up those excuses) in which I eked out a 43:50 10 km. I thought that would for sure be my slowest race of the season. Enter the last (god I hope it was the last anyway) blizzard of the season being coincident with my first 5 km of the season and that yielded a 20:57. In the hours after the race I berated myself thinking that the conditions had not been THAT bad and that I am really out of shape etc. etc. but then the race pictures came out and after looking at them I have decided to just Let It Go because really, yes, it was THAT bad:

Otherwise I feel oddly confident in my fitness and training. I am doing some new-style work-outs like 25 X 200 m @ goal 5 km pace on short rest. They are hard but different and that keeps in interesting. My next race is in 2 weeks, another 5 km, and I am really hoping for sub-19.