The Joys of being a Female Engineer....

Being one of the 3 female engineers in a team of 40 people has always been interesting....for various reasons.....and here's one of those reasons!

This is a conversation between me and one of my female colleagues at work!

Background: We have a team offsite tomorrow where we are all renting a party boat and heading out to the lake! FUN!!!!!!


Colleague: Are you planning on swimming tomorrow? I don't really want to be the only chick in a bathing suit ;) I have a 2-piece that's not a string bikini that I was planning on wearing. Can't be baring it all for my coworkers. LOL

ME: Yeah - I'll swim….prob sticking to a 1-piece though! :)

Colleague: Sounds like a plan :)

ME: The funny thing is we're gonna see guys of all shapes and sizes baring it all…and not worrying one bit!!....:D

Colleague: Ha ha good point! The 2-piece I have is a halter top with full coverage bottoms. I'm sure it'll be ok. If I have to look at some of these guys' hairy bellies, they can look at mine. Ha ha!

ME: hahahahha....WELL PUT!!!!


My crisis at work is FINALLY over and I had a fabulously chilled out weekend recuperating.....watched THREE movies in the theatre....ran 10 miles around Town Lake....went Kayaking with Areille...ate some good food... made dinner for friends and watched like 6 episodes of That 70s Show with them!!....

Aaah....Life is Good! :D

Friday Evening Venting

It's Friday evening....6pm...and here I am.....still sitting @ work!!....quite sad indeed...the rest of my team just bid adieu and are off to Happy Hour!! Ugh...I could totally use a drink right now!!

This whole week @ work has really been a blur...All the enthusiasm I had on Monday morning post-Triathlon pretty much fizzed out by mid-day Monday and well it's just all been downhill since then....

We have this crazy issue that we are trying to debug at work right now....and it is just creating a big mess in my mind....all our minds really...we have a lot of data...but none of them really helpful...we have a lot of theories but nothing really to back them up....and everyday we get yanked in a different direction which is annoying...and the biggest problem is really that the issue we have just seems to reproduce when it wants to and chooses not to otherwise....it's unbelievably frustrating and I am just absolutely mentally tired....I really just want to go home, but can't until I have all the systems that I need running overnight completely set up....ugh ugh ugh....can you believe that I've actually been having nightmares about this issue?? How absolutely sad.....

My original Friday/Saturday plans were to go home, take a nice long nap, get up , have dinner and head to a Potter Party with friends....watch little witches and wizards run around...get my Book 7...head home....try very hard not to read the last chapter first....go to sleep instead....get up in the morning...go for my run....come home, shower and chill out on my couch all day reading Book 7.....with a side of Haagen Daz coffee icecream....

Instead my plans look like the following: Go home whenever I am done, eat, sleep, wake up, run, go home, shower, eat, come to WORK!!!! :(....It's quite depressing really.....

I am actually looking forward to my run tomorrow - we're going to be doing 16 miles!! This is the longest distance I have ever run and I should be feeling extremely nervous.....but for some strange reason...I am not....I can't wait to get there and start running - cos this is going to be my "vent run".....I plan to channel all my current frustrations into that run.....hopefully I succssfully do that and not collapse out of exhaustion instead!!! haha...a highly likely possibility!!......I've been visually drawing out the route in my head - it goes as follows..........

The South Austin Ramble - 16miles:

From RunTex Riverside
Head South on S. 1st St.
Right on Barton Springs Rd.
Left on Bouldin Ave.
At W. Annie St. jog Right
then Left to continue on Bouldin.
Bouldin T’s at Live Oak.
Right on Live Oak.
Left on S. 5th St.
*Water stop at 5th and Cumberland*
S. 5th T’s at Cardinal Ln.
Right on Cardinal.
Left on Garden Villa.
Right on Banister.
Cross over Hwy 290/Ben White.
Continue on Banister until it splits at stop sign
Go to the Right onto Richmond Ave
*Water stop at Richmond and Lansing*
At Lansing turn left onto small dirt trail and
over the rail road tracks.
Run straight ahead for 1 block
Right onto Emerald Forest.
Cross Stassney Ln.
After the church,
Left on Armadillo Rd.
*Water stop at Armadillo and Emerald Forest*
Right on Cooper Ln.
Cross William Cannon Dr.
Continue South on Cooper.
Cooper T’s into Dittmar Rd.
Right on Dittmar.
*Water stop at Dittmar and Forest Wood*
16 milers right on Forest Wood
Right on Matthews Ln
***Be AWARE on Matthews
Narrow street no shoulder.***
Left back onto Cooper Ln.
16 milers: north on Cooper
Cross William Cannon
Left on Armadillo Rd
*Water stop at Armadillo and Emerald Forest*
Right on Emerald Forest
Cross Stassney Ln
***PAY ATTENTION!!!!!***
After the bridge
Take a Left on Lansing Dr.
***DON’T MISS THIS!!!***
*Water stop*
Cross the RailRoad Tracks
via the dirt trail & then
Right on Richmond
Richmond becomes Bannister
Take Banister to
Cross Hwy 290/Ben White
*Now pick up pace to MGP or no faster than HMGP*
Left on Garden Villa
Right on Cardinal
Left on S. 5th St
*Water stop at 5th and Cumberland*
Right on Live Oak
Left on Bouldin
At W. Annie St. jog Right then Left
To continue on Bouldin
Right on Barton Springs
Left on S. 1st St
Back to RunTex


YIKES!!!!!

Oh well....back to work....hope ya'll have a much better weekend than the one I'm gonna have!!

Couples Tri Post-Mortem....

Every morning of a race - be it a fun 5K or a full-fledged Sprint Triathlon...I always wake up wondering why I am doing what I'm doing - getting up at ridiculous hours....putting on my sporting gear...eating my nutrituous breakfast (ie. tasteless)...trudging to the race venue half-asleep...trying to compete for parking with all the other hundreds of participants..etc..etc...

And the next thing I know...I am at the race start...the gun shot goes off...then I go off!...And that's when all the fun really begins....once the race starts...you forget everything...and your mind begins to just focus on one thing....getting to the finish line!...And when you are doing a triathlon....you are focusing on getting to not just one..but THREE finish lines!!.....

I did the Couples Tri yesterday morning with Amit...we signed up just 2 weeks ago on an impulse....I completed my first ever Sprint Tri almost 5 weeks ago (Danskin) and had not gotten on a bike or into the pool since then!....My only real training before the race was a 5mile bike last Friday and a 800m swim at Deep Eddy's last Thursday....the only thing I have been doing consistently is my running....and ironically...my timings for both my swimming and biking improved in this race whereas my running absolutely showed no improvement....a result I am extremely bitter about (maybe that's why I called this a post-mortem improper bostonian? :) ) But the one thing the running did help is give me the stamina to finish this race with almost no training...so thank god for that!

The Swim...800m

Danskin: 23:05

Couples: 22:39

The Swim course was slightly different from Danksin - but was in the same lake. The water temperature was also almost the same. This swim was slightly more comfortable than Danskin, just because there was less people in the water (Note: Danskin has close to 2600 participants - compared to the 700 participants at Couples). I improved by 26 seconds which I am quite pleased about considering I hadn't really done any swim training since Danksin. I also managed to get in more freestyle this time, which I'm also pretty happy about. Overall felt good about the swim.

Transition 1...

Danksin: 6:11

Couples: 4:54

My Transition 1 time was also much better for the Couples. I attribute it mainly to the fact that the transition area itself was a lot smaller than Danskin, and it was much easier to find my bike amongst all the hundreds of bikes. As for the actual transition activities (dry myself..put on my shoes...bike helmet..gloves)...I still feel that I can become more efficient and this is something I want to work on before I do my next Tri.

The Bike...12 miles

Danskin: 1:00:05

Couples: 58:46

The Bike course was almost exactly the same as Danskin (including the 2 nasty nasty hills)...and although I could have done much better considering that I was now familiar with the route and knew when to anticipate the tough portions of the bike course, the lack of training really played its part here. I had a slightly better timing overall but it was still as tough as Danskin was and my legs during this course started to show signs of becoming tired!

Transition 2...

Danksin: 2:54

Couples: 1:56

Once again, a slightly better transition than Danskin - and once again attributing this to the smaller size of the transition area and also to the fact that I knew exactly where to go to start the run...I was a little lost during Danksin! Efficiency-wise, not sure I could have done anything better - I thought I was pretty quick in taking off my biking gear...putting on my run cap...and well really...that was it!

The Run...3.1 miles

Danksin: 44:24

Couples: 44:13

Now this is the leg of the race that I am truly upset about...yes I did improve by a grand total of 11 seconds...but it's not something to boast about considering all the running I have been doing since Danskin as part of my marathon training. I was hoping to complete my running in at least less than 40 mins! Even my half-marathon pace was MUCH better!!!...I was thinking about it all day yesterday...and I figured the way I train for a marathon is completely different from say how I would train for a 5k - for the former, my key focus is on endurance - whereas for the latter, it is more on speed. I did finish the run without feeling like I was going to die, which is always good...but I was still slow...some of it probably due to my legs hurting after the biking...but a lot of it mostly due to the fact that I "felt" so tired mentally...I believe that there is still a lot of room for improvement in this leg of the race...I'll defn need to do more bricks (bike+run training together)...focus a little more on speed and trying to push myself even though my mind is telling me to do otherwise... and try to achieve an overall more powerful finish!

Overall Results:

Danksin:02:16:41

Couples: 2:12:30.2

All said and done, it was still a fun race and I felt really good afterwards....The awesome post-race massage I got also helped (I wish I could have taken this guy home!!!! ;) ) It was also neat being in a race with my coaches!! And also even more neat to have been in a race with some top-class ironmen triathletes!!....

And last but certainly not least of course....this was the Couples Tri after all....and I couldn't have done it without Amit Bhai!!....He was extremely supportive throughout....gave me tons of good tips for the bike leg...was there cheering me on at the finish line (he finished waaaaay ahead of me!!).....and although we could have had a much better ranking overall if I had gotten some better results...he never once worried about that and instead focused more on our individual improvements!! Thanks Amit!! You're the best!!

And these are all the reasons I guess I keep wanting to race again and again!! :)

Next Race: Thinking of doing the August 26th Skeese Greet's Women's Tri with Sharanya...Let's see!

The Simple Joys in Life....

Charanya: G3!! I found the most awesomest juice place today...near town lake...full organic stuff!!...ull loveeeeeee it
Gayathri: reallly???...is it daily juice?
Charanya: hmm didn't seem to have a name...its next to deep eddy pool
Gayathri: ya ya thats daily juice
Charanya: Aah ok
Gayathri: i have been wanting to go there for the longessttt
Charanya: so u know then...hahah
Gayathri: yayyy .... now i will go with u..i have never been there
Charanya: awesome!!
Gayathri: but i always wanted to
Charanya: i had their MANGO LASSI and it was out of this world!!!
Gayathri: wow really???...nice nice
Charanya: yeah totally yummmm...and they have VEGAN CHOCOLATE CHIP that u can add to smoothies...yummmmm
Gayathri: wowwww..niceeee..ok i am coming running with u next week
Charanya: yes yes
Gayathri: once i recover from wisdom tooth ofcourse..but yayyyyy
Charanya: OF COURSE...haha...ok let's start our one new place in austin at least every 2 weeks deal
Gayathri: i love new food places .. gets me so excited
Charanya: be it food place or anything else
Gayathri: yes yes...ok..done
Charanya: summer is the best time!!...yayyyyy
Gayathri: yayyyyy :D
Charanya: hehe
Gayathri: everyone around is gettoing hooked and we are getting excited on juice!!!
Charanya: wotever
Gayathri: how smart are we!! :D
Charanya: haha
Gayathri: hahaha...but i prefer juice anyway
Charanya: simple joys in life are the best
Gayathri: so it don't matter!
Charanya: the husband we'll get bored with anyways eventually...haha...but the food...will always be there for us!! :)
Gayathri: i know!!
Charanya: u shopped?
Gayathri: bought one pajama...thats all i cud find...one after half an hour of macys pajama dept
Charanya: haha
Gayathri: then i got bored and went home and started watcing scrubs
Charanya: i got Sabrina in my netflix today chick flick...and got spinach pizza from whole foods
Gayathri: oooh tell me how it is
Charanya: life is good
Gayathri: nice niceee
Charanya: LOL
Gayathri: :D...ya i got food from mr. N...and scrubs ...yayy...i think i am going to make some tea ...
Charanya: ohhhhh i got to go to that place again sometime soon!!
Gayathri: i feel like drinking tea..ya u do!!
Charanya: next weekend
Gayathri: we gotta go there on a saturday afternoon and order off the menu
Charanya: YES!!!!
Gayathri: instead of the specials
Charanya: next Sat...it's a date!!! ;)
Gayathri: done
Charanya: ;)
Gayathri: :D
Charanya: im so gonna post this conversation in my blog
hahahahhaa
Gayathri: heheh
Charanya: and title it "the simple joys in life"...hahaha
Gayathri: haha...very apt...alright i am going to make some teaaa
Charanya: ok shower time... i smell like a hippie
byeeeeeeee
Gayathri: hahahaha...ok byee

Go Chick!!

I JUST found out that my Iron Chicks coaches Michael and Cecilia will be participating in the Couples Tri next weekend as well!! They are SO gonna kick Amit's and my butts!! :)....

It should be fun though to see them again....they were such awesome coaches!

On other news....my wonderful Singaporean namesake...(well I guess technically I am HER namesake!) Sharanya is doing her 1st Triathlon this weekend!!....This is kind of like the Rookie Tri I did a year ago - it's even at the exact same venue - The Texas Ski Ranch!!....I am soooo excited for her....and am quite a proud mother hen....considering it was my little Danskin post-mortem email that spurred her on to join the Iron Chicks program!!....She's gonna be riding my bike as well and I hope my Scarlett performs well for her! Here's wishing her all the very best for the race! I'm sure she's gonna do AWESOME!!

GO CHICK!!! :)

CLOSURE!

Okok...don't get too excited looking at the title...this isn't going to be a blog about the dramatic closure to a tragic failed relationship or any such thing! :)

Recently at work, I was told by my lead that I would be contributing 50% of my time to another group....I was okay with that and figured it's probably because I had been complaining that I had all this bandwidth to spare but not enough work to do (yeah...I'm weird like that...)...turns out they are "sharing" me with another group to take advantage of a certain skill I apparently have....which is the ability to "take issues to CLOSURE".....

I thought about it and realized that this is someting that I do generally always try to do even in my personal life...be it relationships...a home improvement project...a fitness goal...a trip to the grocery store...etc etc....I really hate leaving things unfinished....goals not met...loose strings untied....if I decide to do something...I am usually on it as soon as I can...before I get the chance to change my mind...and I tend to do what it takes to make sure that I complete it...be it a 5 minute trip to fill gas...or a 6-month goal to complete my 1st marathon....

I kind of used to have a "Monica-ish" go-getter attitude about this for many years....and would be quite anxious about the outcomes of my actions/projects etc....but have slowed down more in recent times and learnt how to "enjoy the journey"a little more....which is where all the fun....and learning is....right?

But I guess your innate personality does still creep up sometimes though....be it at work or otherwise....in my case....I guess it has creeped up for the good...

Just some random thoughts while I wait to go home......

Going to H-Town this weekend to celebrate turning a quarter-century with the family....this is one era in my life I wish I din't have to "close" so soon!! haha.... :)