Ugh, Hills

Did I mention my new community is all hills? The first mile of my daily run is straight uphill. I'm thinking it will be another two weeks before I don't have to walk any of it. Today I only walked two times so I can see the progress. The only good part is running back down the hill.

I did 3.2 miles on Friday and have been doing 1.8 miles on the week days. I'm pretty pleased considering I didn't run for almost a year. I can't imagine where I would be if I hadn't been walking so much. Thank go for two hyper pups. Speaking of Pups, I have to say that Norco and Ally also love this new routine. Norco likes to pick up the pace going down hill and his ear flap in the wind and his smile gets wider. Then he comes home and crashes for about an hour.

Norco is definitely going through the naughty adolescent phase. On Sunday, I reached my wits end and took him to a trainer for an evaluation. I had no idea there was this fantastic obedience school just down the road. Very cool. The trainer loved Norco and said he has an amazing disposition and would be a great therapy dog. He just needs training. So the training has started.

Here's a photo of Norkie a few months ago.

Hi, it's me

So it's been about a year since my last post. That's no good. We bought a home about an hour away and all my energy has been focused on the house and work. The drive to work has been really hard, but I'm hoping to transfer out to the Inland Empire in a few months. So needless to say, no training for me. I have really missed it. Fortunately walking the dogs 3-6 miles a day, keeps me in some sort of shape.

Still, I miss the feeling of a good run or long bike ride, so it's time to re-prioritize. I am going to sign up for a half marathon in May. There's one on May 3rd in Irvine. So, that's it. I'm signing up and there will be no turning back. This morning I took the dogs out and ran about 1.8 miles. The only issue is, my new neighborhood is all hills, straight up and straight down. It's hard on the knees and shins. So on weekends, I will have to drive to another location for my long runs.

I'm excited and I already feel better.

Oh, here are some photos of the house. We love it!

Back in the game

Finally feeling well and I went for a run this morning. Unfortunately I struggled just to run two miles and had to walk some of it. My cough is still trouble in mornings and It was a film fest during my run. At least I got back out there. Tommorow I going to take my bike to work and go for a beach bike ride after work. I hear there is a great bike path thats in San Clemente and goes all the way to San Diego. Tomorrow I'll just go about 45 minutes. Friday I will get a 3 mile run in (hopefully) and Saturday another bike ride. Sunday will be a long run but I can't say how long as it's been a coule weeks off. I probably won't work on the swim until mid Feb early march. I need to focus on my run and bike times first.

Frustrated

It looks like I'm sick again. I took two weeks off when I got the flu, I was just getting back into my work outs and it looks like I'm sick again. Sore throat seems to be going around work and now I have it. My week is blown again. Yesterday was my day off and today I had planned to run 4 miles alternating my speeds. I missed my morning run. Looks like I'll be off till Sunday. So Sunday I will go for an hour bike ride. Hopefully next week I can have a full schedule.

Nothing new to report

Nothing too exciting has been happening at work. It's time for the year end evaluations and working with both hotels has left me very busy. So since I have little to blog about regarding work, I want to make a little transaction and start blogging about my Triathlon Training. If anyone reads this has any tips, guidance or questions, please feel free to comment.

In November I completed my first sprint Tri. While I was happy to finish, I was disappointed in my time. The swim was much more difficult than I expected and it effect me. I'm also pretty new at biking, so I would like to see my bike speed improve. I'm a good swimmer and find the swim training a relaxing portion of training. However, there is a big difference between swimming in a pool and swimming in a very cold lake. The cold water took my breath away and caused me to feel like my heart was racing. (I guess this is common) So I ended up backstroking it the entire 3/4 of a mile. Not the way I wanted to start my first race.

So I have a new race picked out. April 22, 2008. International Sprint in Palm Springs. 3/4 mile swim, 24 mile bike and 6 mile run. My goal is keep the time under 3 hours. I'm slow...

So I really need a place to track my work outs and post weekly goals.

Changes

Just a few months ago I started this adventure as a GM. In the beginning I couldn't admit that I was a GM instead of a Sales Manager. I thought of it as just a trail, but I fell in love with managing the team and have found it to be very natural. It's odd to me, but I must be doing something right. The hotel has exceeded the companies expectations and the teams seem to have made a major turn in the right direction.

When I first started with this company it was at a smaller hotel in the same town up the road. That hotel is beautiful and has always had a special place in my heart. We still own it and it's always done well, that's the reason they purchased the hotel I run. Unfortunately, the hotel's occupancy has slipped a little and they have been having some minor issues. So Monday I received a phone call from the corporate office. They need me to manage that hotel also and help bring it back up to where it was. So now I will be managing two hotels in one town. I'm excited but nervous. I just got my hotel running smoothly and now I have another to turn around. So another 6 months of long hours and hard work, but it really is a great opportunity. It's the best possible thing for my career and I hope I can make a positive difference.

I'm in Shock

Before I begin, let me just point out that the hotel front desk team calls me for just about everything. They call me if they have trouble making and reservation, can't find their pay check or can't remember what day the work. The Night Auditor has always been the worst offender. He called me one night at 1 am, because he didn't see his pay check in the drawer.

So today is Tuesday, I took Monday off to do a little training for the Triathlon. I had noticed that the phone has been very quiet and the hotel has not called me all weekend. I just assumed everything was running smoothly. Not so much.....

I get to the hotel about 7:30, I greet my team and open the door to my office. On the floor is a note from the night auditor. I won't go into detail but the note stated that on Friday night (4 days ago) I guest died in their room.

Yes, DIED. A young man and his friends partied a little too hard and one friend finally called 911 after he vomited blood everywhere and died. The Paramedics came and pronounced him dead and left his body in the room. The Coroner came back at 6 am and picked him up. So the entire weekend the Housekeeping and maintenance cleaned the room for hours and I was home, just living my life.

When I spoke to the auditor today, he was convinced that he had left a message for someone "but maybe it wasn't me."

So you can call me if you can't find your paycheck but you can't remember to call when someone dies.......Interesting.