Monday, July 11, 2022
What I want in a Relationship
Monday, October 26, 2009
Sunday, October 18, 2009
The Ropes Course at Hot Springs
"You can bring the world into a classroom, but you can't replicate it there."
It is my desire to fully discover myself while enrolled in the Executive MBA program. First, I have a strong desire to develop a deeper understanding of the complexities of conducting business in a global business environment.
Second, I want to explore creative ways how I can best explore my inner talents and interests while having fun doing it. As part of my personal vision exercise I discovered that my strengths are writing, multi-tasking and social interactions. As part of my Belbin team role questionnaire, I discovered that I am a “Resource Investigator” and “Team-worker.”
Further Explanation of Team Roles:
The Resource Investigator provides the team encouragement and enthusiasm but is also keeps a finger on the pulse of the outside world.
A Team-worker is the lubricant that keeps the team machine pistons pumping. They are diplomats, listeners, but may not be very willing to take sides in an argument.
The overlying distinction with the Belbin test over others is that it focuses on how one performs in a team environment.
In addition, based on retaking a Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test, I learned that I am mostly anESTP (Extraversion, Sensing, Thinking, Perception). I am enthusiastic, extroverted, resourceful, witty, gregarious and quick to take action.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Forever Friends Coz the Welcome Never Ends
"Because friends are friends forever and thewelcome will not end."
Monday, September 21, 2009
Lessons from my First Half Iron
I awoke at 4:30 AM Sunday morning ready to take on the day. But this day would not be the same as any other day this year or last.
In fact my training regimen for no other running competition or marathon comes close to the physical and mental demands of what I've gone through the last two months.
Yes, only two months because I really haven't trained hard or hardly at all.
Thanks to my wrist surgery in July at Bethesda. Thanks to my 2 week trip to Europe in August. Thanks to starting my Executive MBA at George Washington. Thanks to blogging, real estate, and everything else that's important in my life or not but tugs on it anyway.
And life goes on. As long as I make it. As long as I don't go down seriously hurt. As long as my bike makes it there and back in one piece. And as long as I finish -- that's what matters. After all, this being my first Half Iron, there was no goal to strive for but to just finish, but respectfully, of course.
So I awoke and took a bite, a bit of breakfast in my room, wondering if what I was stuffing down my throat was sufficient nutrition to take me 70.3 miles in this blistering heat and baking Mexican sun.
Waiting patiently for the start of the buzzer. Notice that there is a red cap in our mix. Some racers apparently missed their group but started with us.
The Swim
Actually I felt just about everything I ate just 2 1/2 hours before almost immediately after I jumped into the warm 79 degree bath water.
The swim was a nice beach start in Punta Nizuc adjacent to Wet and Wild Park.
I was in the back of the pack in my age group but on the outside edge.
As soon as the whistle sounded, I took my time to wade in the water, seaweed and scum in the bottom got all churned up and made the water muddy and ranky.
I pushed through and after about 40 feet of wading, it was finally deep enough for me to start swimming.
Once the water started clearing up, I could see bottom, but I could also see the several other swimmers all around me -- yes, my age group was one of the largest one in the competition, and the crowded start made me feel like I was actually back home in the Metro heading to the Navy Yard before a Nats game.
Before long, the pack started to thin out -- probably because of my slow swimming technique as the heat of the pack started to peel away.
That's when I felt it -- breakfast and everything -- a huge front of a cramp like a fast moving storm swept through completely and viciously.
By then I was at the first turn buoy.
I could see one guy clutching at the buoy and then for a fleeting moment the same thought crossed my mind. This is the perfect time for me to stop, take a breather and perhaps even wave my hands in the air for dear life.
I am quitting now. Soon this Ironman would be history and I would spend the rest of the time in Cancun just lying on the beach and dissolving all my pain and frustration.