In Like a Lion, Out Like... Well, You Know

Running: I ran 7.33 miles this week in 53:46 (7:21/mile).  It wasn't hard because I only ran one day (Sunday).  I decided to take it (very) easy this week because I was sick on Monday and Tuesday and wanted to make sure that I was feeling good enough before I started running again so that I didn't reset my recovery.

Writing: Didn't write another word.  I should have written more, I just have some sort of block about writing more in the month of September.  I am accepting failure on the 50,000 words in one month challenge, but I am going to keep the beginning of the story around in the hopes that I'll pick it up again and write some more.  I don't think that it was a complete failure because I think that I learned a bit about writing and I'm impressed with the amount that I did write.

So what's next?  I am going to break my 5k PR on November 19th.  It will be very difficult.  Everyone I've mentioned it to has said so.  I ran my current personal best (16:23.79) on a track while I was in probably the best shape I've ever been in.  I have sketched out an ambitious plan for the next 9-10 weeks and am determined to put the work in and take a shot at running under 16 minutes.  Then, depending on the results, I'll be running either a 5k or 10k on Thanksgiving.  And then?  I don't know.  I'll probably start trying to get into longer races.  Until then, I'm taking things one step at a time (no pun intended).  Only 491.3 miles until glory.

-Lane

Training Ends

Whew...haven't been here for longer than I would have liked. The last week of training for my new job was absolutely crazy. It took place at three different locations around Manhattan, and involved a couple new topics that were both brand new to me and very technical in nature. The long and short of it was that I did not have time for much more than just a quick run, dinner, and bed. Thus, no posts from Alex...

Anyway, the last three weeks of training have generally been good. I gained a solid foundation in basic financial instruments, and introduction to the programming language Python, and an overview of the main initiative that I will be a part of as I start actual work. I learned a lot through the training and met a bunch of people who will help to build my network as I start. However, I am glad that it is done and that I can now move on to learning my role in my actual job, which starts tomorrow morning.

I will likely post a couple more posts about the training to relay some of my observations about both the training and all the people I spent the last 3 weeks with. Topics might include: professionalism, networking, learning, etc. Not exactly sure what, but there is certainly more to come.

~Alex

The Big Apple Post

So, finally, the big summary of my first week in NYC... I'm going to go on for a while on this one, but, I'll make sections to keep it organized.

The Final Weekend

Last weekend was my final weekend in VT. It was great fun, but really crazy. I had a bunch of friends from both college and high school as well as some of their parents over on Saturday. We started by going to the Vermont Brewer's Festival. This festival is a great gathering of many of the excellent brewers in VT at the waterfront in Burlington. Admission gets you tickets to go around to the brewers and sample the beers. It's a great opportunity to try beers that you wouldn't necessarily buy a six pack of, or that are not bottled. After the festival was over, we returned to my house and had a cookout through the evening. It was really hot all day, so most of us were pretty well fried by the end of the day. But, it seemed to me that a good time was had by all. For me, it was a great way to end my residence in Vermont.

The Trip to Connecticut

On Sunday I packed the last of my stuff into my car and Lane and I drove together (separate cars, same route) to his apartment. I got to check that out and grab a bite of dinner with him. I then continued along the way to my apartment. I got all my stuff moved in, my computer set up, and went to bed to be ready for the start of what was sure to be a crazy week.

Orientation Starts

The first day of orientation was a bit disappointing. It essentially amounted to a set of ~30-45 minute sessions punctuated by two hours of unplanned time in which we could "explore the city." While this might have been fine for the people who had been flown in from other sites and were staying at the hotel. These people could just go up to their rooms and take a nap, watch TV, read a book, go out and about--basically, lots of options. However, for those of us who are NYC based and had to commute in for the day, it left us with a lot of downtime and not much to do.

Once we got through this though there was a bus tour of Manhattan scheduled for the evening, and I figured that since I am not from NYC I might as well go and learn some of the area. Additionally, it was a good way to meet some more people, and dinner was included to boot (Pizza, salad, cheesecake, and an open bar). So, it was definitely worth it. The major downside though was that I didn't get back to my apartment until ~11:15PM. Since I had to be back in the city by 7:30 the next morning for breakfast I had to get up at 5:30. So, not much sleep to kick the week off...

The Rest of this Week's Orientation Program

Once Tuesday started we managed started on a schedule that would be relatively consistent through the week. The morning is set as a hard skills time, essentially financial training (amounting to Finance 101 as I gather). For some people with a heavy finance background this time is excruciatingly boring and repetitive, but for the relatively large portion of us who have a technical background (engineering or computer science, generally) it is a really useful session. The afternoon is then soft skills training. These training sessions have been on a mixture of topics. The first day was building a roller-coaster for a marble in a very large team, the second was on generational differences in the workplace, the third was about working in global and virtual teams, finally today's session was about you Professional Brand (business etiquette, dress, networking, introductions, etc.). All in all, these have also been interesting and informative. My understanding is that this pattern will continue through next week as well.

Where am I again?

One of the strangest feelings that I have had during this orientation is the feeling that I am back in Australia. A bit of background, during my junior year of college I spent two months completing a project in Melbourne, Australia. Now, you might wonder why being in NYC would make me feel like I was back there, but it really does make sense. When I was in Melbourne I was experiencing a few things for the first time in my life. First was spending significant time in the center of a large city. Second was commuting by train to and from work everyday. Third was being surrounded by people with Australian accents almost all the time. By the time I left Australia, I actually found my self thinking in an Australian accent. So, how does this add up to me feeling like I am back there now? Well, the first two should be obvious, I commute by train to and from Manhattan everyday and I spend significant amounts of time in downtown Manhattan (thus, the first two points are covered). It is the third point that I think really seals it for me though. When I first got to orientation I tried to find a group to at least start to talk to, and I happened to find a large group of guys who will be based in London. So, obviously they speak with a British accent (well, except the two Scottish guys, but like the Australian accent it is close enough). Additionally, the instructor we have for our finance training is British. So, for much of the day I am hearing accents that are close to an Australian accent and doing activities that I have only ever done in Australia before. The result? I feel like I am in Australia, and have started thinking in a British accent again. Strange...

Did I live in the Right Place?

I came home on Tuesday night and was wondering if I had actually picked the right place to live. Maybe I should have lived in the City after all...my commute would have been shorter and I would be where all the action was. I was worried about it for a while, but also had to accept that I have signed a one year lease here, so I won't be moving for a year anyway. But, when I went out for a run and it cleared the issue up. I drove about 10 minutes across town where the city gives way to a far more country like feel. There I was able to start a run in a nice little park and run for a few miles entirely in trees. I even ran across a dirt road at one point. That helped my remember one of the main reasons that I did not want to live in the city: I wanted to be able to get out of it. Mission successful on that count. Though, it does segue well into my next topic...

Running

Running has been interesting since I started my job. Most notably because I haven't had much chance to. I haven't been getting home before about 6:30 at the earliest (and most times much later than that). This doesn't leave that much time to run. I was able to get out for 3 miles on both Tuesday and Wednesday, but did not manage to get out either yesterday or today. I don't know how likely this is to change. There will continue to be less daylight as the year progresses so I don't expect to get much outside running in. There is a fitness center in my building that I am hoping I can use to get a little bit of running and also start lifting to work on general strength. Additionally, I have found while I am not able to run much I am walking for 40-60 minutes a day, both to and from the train station on both ends, and sometimes around to other parts of the city as well. So I figure that should help keep me moving some in the very least.

Anyway, I think that is plenty for now. NYC has been crazy so far, but I am at least starting to get used to being down here and am settling down. Ivan is coming down for the weekend, so I am hoping to explore Stamford a bit more with him.

So, here's to my new place, new job, and new life. I'm looking forward to learning much more about finance and the city and I can't wait to share the experiences here.

~Alex

Vacation's Almost Over...

I guess I should come back and give another post...it has been long enough anyway. Since I have generally been sitting on my butt and enjoying my time off, I haven't found that I had a lot to write about.

But, that all changes soon. Lane, and some other friends from college are coming up this weekend for the Vermont Brewer's Festival. Basically, we all get to go to the waterfront of Burlington, VT and sample beer brewed by the many Vermont brewers. We went last year and it was a blast, so we are all looking forward to a repeat. But, after that, I drive to Connecticut and prepare to enter the Real World. My new job starts on Monday in New York City, and with that my days of lounging around screech to a halt.

As my start date approaches I've been thinking about what it means and what new things I will encounter and experience. I've realized that it has been really cool to be able to read Lane's posts on this blog and follow his adjustment to life in the working world, and I hope to be able to follow a similar process of documenting my transition here over the next few weeks.

The strangest part of this approaching change has been the fact that I don't actually start work on Monday...I know, it sounds strange, I start my job but I don't start work? Well, as with most jobs (especially entry level positions), there is orientation, but unlike many jobs, mine is three weeks long. Three Weeks! The whole process sounds like it will be a bit like school where I am basically attending training sessions all day and some networking sessions on some evenings. The nice difference though should be no homework (at least I hope not). I suppose it is all well and good though; since I am starting a job in finance, and have little to no experience in the field, it will be a good way to get up to speed on securities trading and the like. Besides, I get paid for it anyway, which is good.

I hope to have much more to share in the coming weeks as I adjust to work and life in New York City. But, until then I will be spending the last precious days of vacation celebrating the many wondrous varieties of beer at the VT Brew Fest.

Bottoms Up!

~Alex

Moving Out, Moving In

No internet at home means no serious blog posts for a while.  Fortunately, that has passed and I should hopefully be posting regularly again.  Why haven't I had internet?  In case I didn't mention it, I moved out of my apartment in Worcester to be closer to my new job!  The process looked something like this:

Morning of May 30th

Around noon, May 30th

Afternoon, May 30th

Morning, May 31st

Just before I left on May 31st

All moved in to the new apartment!  Thanks to my sister (pictured here) for helping!

What a crazy time!  Getting everything moved out of an apartment and into an new one in two days!  Since I moved in, I've been discovering all of the things that I'm missing.  Silverware has been a bit of an issue.  I'm lucky that Brianna gave me chopsticks for our anniversary!  I've been very busy trying to get my apartment ready to be lived in for the next year.  I will have to repeat the process again next year (to move in with Brianna) but after that I will hopefully be able to stay in one place for a while.

Unfortunately, my start date at work, which was set to be this Monday has been pushed back to Wednesday because there was a mix-up with my drug test results and I have to retake them.  As if I wasn't already nervous enough about starting at my new job, things needed to get more complicated.  Regardless, I'm still really excited about starting!

End of the World, can you dig it!?

May 21st 2011 while the rest of you were probably carrying on with your everyday lives, I was curled up in my bed with my tin alloy mind shield tightly secured to my head awaiting the end of the world. As the my cell phone's clock slowly ticked closer to the dreaded 6:00 pm EST, I thought of all the good things that I had experienced in my 22 years on planet Earth and wondered what the inevitable oblivion would be like. 6:00 pm EST came and went and the Earth continued turning....

Sitting there in the dark slowly removing the pie tin that had protected my brain, I wondered what could have prevented the rapture. Then it occurred to me only the day before Randy Savage, better know as Macho Man passed away in from a heart attack. Macho Man must have been transported to heaven and single-handedly prevented the rapture, and for that I'm eternally grateful.

So take a moment this Memorial Day and remember the men and women who have laid down their lives to protect this great nation, especially the American hero, Macho Man and snap into a Slim Jim.

Lt. Dan*

*product contains alcohol

Artistic rendition of Randy Savage preventing the Rapture

This blog post brought to you by ConAgra Foods, Inc. makers of Slim Jim.

College Graduation and The Comeback Begins

Two big things happened in the past couple days: I graduated from Worcester Polytechnic Institute with a bachelors degree in aerospace engineering and I took the first steps in my post-collegiate running career.

Graduation was awesome.  I spent the whole weekend surrounded by friends and family and received a diploma symbolizing all of the hard work I've put into my education.  For me, it represents not only the work I put in the past four years, but also the work that went into the previous 13 years of schooling to put me in the position I found myself in freshman year.

The ceremony itself was nice but nothing out of the ordinary for a graduation.  Speeches were given and the diplomas were handed out.  Everything went smoothly and I can't wait to see the pictures.  I was somewhat apprehensive as there had been some controversy regarding the speaker, Rex Tillerson.  Mr. Tillerson is an accomplished businessman (he's the CEO of ExxonMobile) and the President of the Boy Scouts of America and delivered a speech that was good, if somewhat clichéd.  A small but very vocal minority was upset that the CEO of a giant oil company was being brought in to speak and initially intended to disrupt the ceremony.  After negotiation with the administration, a compromise was reached: the students would be allowed to walk out before the keynote speech and then return after and receive their diplomas in a way that would not distract from the pomp and circumstance.  As it turns out, I couldn't even tell that anyone left (even though I looked) and only eight students left.

The rest of the weekend was spent hanging around the apartment with my family, friends, and their families as well as eating at some of Worcester's best restaurants.  Over the weekend, we ate at 111 Chophouse and Bocado.  They were both delicious and I ate to extreme fullness both times.  The best part of the weekend, though, was seeing family I don't get to see nearly enough.

Today, the great comeback began!  After the end of my scholastic running career, I took about three weeks off from running.  I found that without running, I feel somewhat hyper-active and require several hours less sleep to feel rested.  My guess is that this is an adjustable thing that wouldn't last if I continued not running.  In any case, I ran 3 miles with my roommate, Alex in 22:36 which is a very easy effort for me. I have thought a lot about the next step over the past couple weeks and I think that in the next couple months I'll be focusing on trying to put some solid, non-specific training in and building a strong base.  This will require more steady and tempo runs and less interval work than I am used to, though I will be trying to incorporate regular strides into my running.

-Lane

Bill Rodgers and Good-byes

Today, there are two things on my mind:  A conversation I had yesterday with Bill Rodgers about running and running shoes, and saying good-bye.

First: Yesterday, my fiancée, my friend, and I went to Boston to a high school classmate.  It's also convenient to go to the Bill Rodgers Running Center when I'm in Boston because they sell racing flats which are hard to come by.  Lo and behold, Bill Rodgers* himself was tending the store and I tried on the shoes that I had had in mind and ended up buying them.  I commented to him that flats were very hard to find and he sighed and said that flats don't sell very well because people aren't as interested in becoming very competitive in racing.  He mentioned that more people run, but fewer and fewer people are getting to the point where they need flats.

It brought me back to the last time that I had gone looking for flats at a different running store.  I had called ahead to ask if they had flats, which they assured me they did.  When I arrived, I was taken back to a wall of spikes (for racing on the track or on a cross-country course).  After attempting to communicate exactly what I wanted, I was shown waffles ("spike-less spikes") and minimalist shoes.  I told them that they didn't have what I was looking for and started to leave and the owner came over and asked me what I was looking for and took me back to the minimalist shoes.  I finally managed to get out, but I was disappointed that people who sell running shoes for a living no longer know what shoes go with what races.

In any case, talking to Bill Rodgers about the fall of competitive, "club level" road racing in the United States was disappointing.  I think that it's cool that running is so democratic, that I can interact normally with one of the most decorated American runners in history, but it's sad that he has to witness the decline of the US from world power in running to a mere mid-packer.

Today, I said goodbye to my co-workers at my work-study job.  I have worked there since freshman year and have seen a lot of changes happen.  People came and went, but they all cared for me and took an interest in how I was doing.  It was a little embarrassing (in a good way) when they told my family how helpful I've been, but I'm happy that that's the way I was embarrassed.  I learned so much from working there and met a great number of very important people that I won't ever forget.  I owe them so much, but the funny thing is that they got ME gifts!  I am going to wish for two things: that my future co-workers are as good to me as they were and that I can be as good to other people as people have been good to me.  Saying good-bye is hard!

-Lane

*Bill Rodgers is basically the Tom Brady of American distance running.  Hero of Boston and all that.

The End of An Era

I am graduating from college in less than a week now, which brings with it a lot of very exciting things: a degree, a new job, moving to a new town, etc.  It also means the end of my scholastic running career.  It is a little bittersweet: on the one hand, I started running in the context of a school team and it has grown to be a pretty big part of who I am.  On the other hand, I think that after 8+ years, I am ready to take a slightly more relaxed approach to running.

As a member of a team, I always felt that I should run every race as hard as I could, regardless of the way I was feeling.  This led to both more successes and blow-ups than I otherwise would have experienced.  My last race in a school uniform was a 5k in a championship meet (after I also ran the 1500m) where I was tired but started out with the leaders to give myself the best chance to score.  I ended up fading towards the back and finishing in the low-17 minute range, but I was proud of the way that I ran.


I have had a lot of success through the years, from state championships and school records (and a state record!) in high school to fast times in college.  I will probably have very limited opportunity to run either track and field or cross country again, so any future races I do will likely be done on the roads.

I don't yet know what my plans for running in the future are but I have decided that I won't run until I can't stand not to.  I expect that My first run back will be on May 30th, but I'm not holding myself to that.  In any case, I definitely want my nagging aches and pains to go away.  For now, it's time to hang up the spikes, take a long rest, and then start something brand new!

-Lane