I have just finished a role and am about to start another. The frustrating situation is that for the past 4 weeks, I have been taken off the road (I am a BDM) and given desk duties that has seen my hips tighten up, my brain overworked (not that hard some would say) from staring at a computer and has basically forced me to be stuck while I await the transition. My running training has also suffered .
Yes I could have walked but I wanted to end on good terms given the details around the new company and their competition with the old one. So I have sucked it up and turned up every day to make calls, answer queries and manage the handover. But for the time allocated at that desk vs what I needed to do, it was by far tipped in the favour of having a lot of spare time.
How to best get through this I wondered. Hang on, I know. The new guys are paying for me to do an online course necessary for a successful career progression with them. Why wait I pondered as I logged on, and started the course at around the 3rd day of my final 4 week tenure. And as I sit here on my last day and quite obviously very busy, I am reflecting on the fact that I have been able to get through all 10 reading topics, end of section review tests and have started the assignment. I have turned a 26week course into potentially a 6-8 week one and this has made the time go a lot quicker than it would have otherwise.
The secret - and this was conveyed by George off Seinfeld – always look busy, hold a pen in your hand and let out the occasional exasperation so that everyone immediately feels confident you are head down working hard.
George did an amazing job of this in the episode “The Barber” during the 5th season. He wasn’t sure if he had landed a job and as such decided to just turn up on the Monday. He was quickly given the Penske file with instructions that he would know what to do with it. Suffice to say he didn’t and by the time his new boss returned from a 2week leave, he had achieved nothing. My example is not exactly like George’s but it highlights the office mentality that enforced my decision years ago to find roles that suited me more. Out meeting people, relationship building etc. If you’re in an office, try it one day. Just walk around quickly, shaking your head, pen and paper in hand and see if you can go a whole day of this and not actually do achieve anything. You will definitely reach 10 000 steps if nothing else.
And if you’re a manager, director etc. your job is to now try and spot the George in your office and catch them out. I dare you.
This leads me to what other nuances / personalities exist in the office. You all may be able to provide some interesting ones but to kick start things:
• The water cooler dude: This is the preferred meeting place for all runners, triathletes, adventure racers and part time astronauts to take 30mins to fill a small cup of ice water and convey to all that visit the cooler just how hard their latest weekend sporting feat was and just how much better they could have gone if that one piece of equipment hadn’t let them down or that hurricane appeared suddenly.
• The sick puppy: They will call in sick when they’re not so that they can go do something fun, but when they are actually sick they decide to just come in anyway and fester all day achieving nothing anyway. (think Enda)
• The fundraiser: They will hit you up for $1000 so that they can take 6 weeks off and run to Dubbo and back to raise money for a dog that is trying to get an ear transplant.
• The kitchen loiterer: Do they actually have a desk or office? Because you wouldn’t know with the copious time they spend in the kitchen chatting, making coffee, eating cake – probably baking a cake for that matter.
Please add to this as I’m sure there are many many more that I have forgotten about over the years and hope to forget more so now that I am back outside with the new role.
As mentioned, my running has suffered somewhat since joining the ranks of the rest of the workforce and working a full office day (plus 1hr drive either way mind you). The state 10 000m (remember if it’s on a track, you use metres not kms), was not a great result and the 14km equaliser 2 days later sealed the fate of my legs for the next week. Absolutely stuffed.
This week I have managed a few decent runs
Mon: 10km easy around Lane Cove
Tue: 12km with 4 x broken miles thrown in. 1km hard (3:11-18), 300m easy then 300m hard. Total reps were 2km as I used the extra 400m to round out the 7min rolling cycles. This kept me quite honest in my pace as I tried to run hard but still recover with the 2 easier stretches. In all, I faded a few secs the 4th one finishing 8km in 28:05 which I was pretty happy with considering how my legs felt.
Wed: 10km easy again around Lane Cove
Thur: AM: 9.5km CP. Too tired to do a session. PM: 4.5km jog as that was all I had time for.
Fri: 6km in Cent Park coaching
Sat: Start of a solid weekend and hopefully a resurgence. Took Jaden over to Bart's place and left him to watch TV with the kids. Then after 1km warmup, Barts and I too off on his infamous 16km hilly loop of Willoughby and Castle Cove. There are the downhills but some of the ups hurt this time but we managed to finish in a tick over 58mins which was very pleasing for me. Barts looked tired enough so I don't think he was laying up for me. 1km cool down - 18km
Sun: 30km with Ray, Barts and an online athlete David H. Started conservatively which was fine with me given the hills around Balmain then Barts asked us how many hours we wanted to be out there for and proceeded to speed up. It was Ray who had the freshest legs so when he left us at 22km, we struggled home to average 4:30 for the 30km - 2hr 15min. Stuffed the rest of the day.
Total 100km for the week. The aim is now 120km for the next 4-6 weeks.
Until next time.
CT
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