This week

Life

I am currently sitting on the back deck in the fresh morning sun, with the dog on the couch next to me. He’d rather I was throwing a ball than typing on my laptop, but he seems happy enough just to be here.

The last week has been pretty uneventful. Summer holidays are not yet over, for the kids at least. And I’ll be spending the next five days with them in Torquay, which will be nice. Then back to school next week! Eeek!!

Work

My interviews with our engineering managers have been going well. Despite my tendency to introversion, I am actually finding that getting out and talking to people is far more engergising than sitting at my desk pondering, on the whole. I suspect there will be a limit to that, and I’m finding it’s important to block space around these meetings to digest and record. But I definitely need to find a way to keep talking to the folks “on the ground” in our teams.

Along similar lines, I am experimenting with “cramming” all my one-on-ones into a single day. Being in the head space for 1:1s is very “disruptive” to the deep focus I need for other activities, so it seems more effective to block out an entire day for it rather than squeeze it in piecemeal around other things. It will probably end up extending to more than one day given my plan to maintain deeper connections with EMs and tech leads across the business.

Training

A moderately successful first week of building training intensity. After a few interval/strength sessions earlier in the week I spent Sunday riding up various climbs around Kinglake — including the route of the final stage of this year’s SunTour — but was really feeling it by the last climb. And that was less than half the climbing (and barely half the distance) of 3Peaks. Hmm.

I have another big few days coming up, with a long ride down the Great Ocean Road planned for Friday, then the Cadel Evans GOORR “people’s ride” on Saturday. It will be interesting to see how I back up.

Then on Sunday I am marshalling for the elite men’s race, which is not really training but still lots of fun, and great to be involved in.

Theatre

I finally made it to a rehearsal, after having read the script a week or so ago. The set is taking shape, and it’s… big. And open. Open is good, and there is no need in the show for area isolation, but there’s a lot of stage to cover and the low rig of the venue means that takes a lot of instruments — or creative solutions. It’s going to be interesting.

(It’s also going to be interesting balancing time required for 3Peaks training with work in the theatre, but I always knew that was going to happen.)