Week 32 to 39 – I was a Job Hunting Zombie

Posted on October 30, 2013 by specialk

Over the last two months I’ve been stressed out about my next job. And I’ve felt like this zombie whose only thought was “JOBS”. My wife would ask me to take out the trash and I would respond “JOB”.

Much like real zombies, a Job Hunting Zombie is a terrifying beast. The Job Hunting Zombie can be heard moaning in every general direction:

Maybe this job is for me.

Maybe I shouldn’t be looking for a job

My interview sucked.

My interview went great but I’m not sure I liked the company

I didn’t get a call back.

And unlike the standard Zombie, the Job Hunting Zombie wants to eat your patience and your good humor… The Job Hunting Zombie will eat your desire to be a supportive friends with endless repetitions of the following questions:

Is this the right job for me?

Am I making the right decision?

What about this? And that and the other thing?

Is the salary good? Or bad?

And the worst part of the Job Hunting Zombie is the Job Hunting Zombie Fakeout. Cornered, and trapped, unable to escape your life energies sapped the Job Hunting Zombie will say:

I’ve decided to take job X

And you’ll rejoice, you’ll think you’ve been saved, that the redneck with the gun showed up just in time only to realize no decision has been made … He’s still in full on zombie mode….

And the Job Hunting Zombie will keep coming at you … And nothing but a clean shot to the head or a decision will stop the Job Hunting Zombie.

And Job Hunting Zombie is a really bad athlete. A Job Hunting Zombie eats whatever he finds in front of him. A Job Hunting Zombie half-asses his workouts. A Job Hunting Zombie is lethargic.

The good news is that I made a decision. And after my decision was made, I discovered that I was cured of Job Hunting Zombie disease. Although the damage done to my family and friends psyche was… well… not as readily cured.

The short version of the last 8 weeks is that I trained poorly. I ate poorly. And only when I finally made a decision was I able to focus on my training again.

The good new is that I recovered in time from my disease to be able to do a pretty fast half-marathon and not destroy my chance to do a faster than 5 hour Athens Marathon.

Morgan Hill Half Marathon Quick Report

Posted on October 20, 2013 by specialk

There will, hopefully, be a longer version of this in a week.

The morgan hill half marathon can be visually described in the following manner. Take your left hand and and open it with the knuckles facing towards you. Fold all of your fingers such that only the first finger bone is showing. Now extend the index finger and stare at the visual.

The visual is worth a 1000 words or one spoken a 1000 times…

The half marathon has a long nasty climb from about 350 ish feet to 650 ish feet over 6 miles that then ends with a brutal knee destroying descent back to 350 in less than 2 miles.

My race plan was to go slow for the first half and then push hard for the second half. Not true to form I was able to to do exactly that. In fact, the first 3 miles were done at a 12 minute mile pace and the last three at a 9:38 mile pace. The last mile was done at an 8:48 mile pace… Not a bad negative split.

There were the usual set of amusing moments and funny stories to tell… I look forward to writing about them when there is more blood sugar in my brain. Right now all I can feel is the excruciating muscle fatigue …