I've Been Spoiled

My spoiled life of leisure is ending today.  For the past 15 months I've been able to train whenever I pleased.  Ride on Saturday - no problem.  Run at noon - no problem.  Swim when I'm good and ready to drive to the pool - no problem.  But today I start a job. 

I'll be working at Bath and Body Works part time as a "Sales Leader".  That's their term for Assistant Manager.  Fortunately it's part time, but unfortunately it's retail - which means Saturdays and Sundays.  The store is located right next door to the Belk department store in Shallotte.  My husband, Bill is the Store Manager for Belk so I'll be right next door to him.  We can have lunch together sometimes!  And since he is the boss he can adjust his day off to coordinate when I'm not working - Bonus!

I suppose if I wanted to close every Saturday night I could still go on the Ocean Isle Beach Cyclists rides on Saturday mornings.  But working until 10:00 PM every Saturday night isn't something that I care to do.  I am excited about my new job though, and they said that they could work with my race schedule!  I love Bath & Body Works products!! 

I'm not a big fan of riding by myself, not so much because I need the company and encouragement, but I worry about getting hit by a car and being left for dead in a ditch.  It seems like the older I get the more paranoid I get about this, I never used to worry about it.  Plus I like the group dynamics of riding with others, it makes me push myself much harder than riding solo. The miles roll by much faster and I truly enjoy the camaraderie.  All this being said, I imagine I'll be doing some riding by myself.  Maybe I can get a sign like this for my back when I ride.


Planning my running and swimming won't be an issue at all.  Running especially.  I don't have any problem with tempo runs or negative split runs or even the long slow distance runs.  The iPod is my friend, and for Christmas Phoenix and Bogey got me a new 8GB Nano so I have tons of songs to choose from for running now.  The upbeat ones for faster runs and I love listening to Podcasts for my slower runs. 

Swimming by myself is fine as long as I have a workout to follow. I've had to do that ever since we moved from Texas where I swam with the Dallas Aquatics Masters (DAM).  There are so many sources on the Internet with a variety of workouts that it's easy to have a plan and follow it.  And when I was training for the 4 mile Take The Lake Swim last Labor Day I just contacted Bobby Patten, one of my old swim coaches with DAM for some ideas for high yardage workouts. Granted, I really enjoy swimming with a Masters Swim Program and miss it but I'm okay by myself.

I just have to get more scheduled and diligent in my training.  The outcome is "to be seen".  I'll let you know.