A little catching up

Well everyone. As I described in the last post, things have been shaken up a bit in the land of Travis Earley. Like I said before, I got a new job and my official title is a "staffing consultant" and I work for a national recruiting company named Spherion:

And as we all know, a post without pictures is worth nothing at all (or at least is really boring to read) so I decided to spice this one up and include some candid shots.

Things work wise have been going really well. I still work in a cubicle, but it is no longer in a living hell. The last company that I worked for (whom I will not name at this time because of some grudges that still are held) was completely and utterly negative. I used to adjust automobile claims for an insurance company and constantly had to deliver bad news to people. (ie. we cannot pay for the damage to your car, you are at fault for this accident, you are getting sued by the other party you hit...etc).

But in contrast, this new job at Spherion has been incredibly positive! Every facet of this position is extremely positive. I interview people and screen out potential candidates for jobs and get to deliver news to people like, "XYZ corporation wants to hire you!" or "I found you a job!" and it has been so rewarding it is incredible. I love it. I've referred to this job as extremely anti-Safeco...(oops, I guess I did drop that company name) But to make a long story short (too late!) my new job is great and I'm loving it.

Training wise, even though there have been some set-backs this season (getting dropped by my main sponsor TS.com...) I was able to pick up a new sunglasses company to sponsor me and keep those UVA and UVB rays out of my precious eyes. Tifosi Optics is the new official sunglasses sponsor of Keep Moving Forward. They are a snazzy new affordable sunglasses company that has been keeping me happy to date and I can only hope to do the same for them in the near future. The sunglasses retail for around $60 and they sent me two promotional pairs (one being the ever good looking Q2 model) and here is a shot of the stuff I got from them in the mail a while ago:

The pair in the foreground are the Q2 and the model behind is known as the "slip" and they will be my racing glasses as they have three sets of interchangeable lenses for various light and racing conditions.

They are all REALLY comfortable and I've never had a real good pair of shades and you can REALLY tell the difference between good and not-so-great lenses. Tifosi's are excellent!!! (I know, I'm a little biased, but they are great!). So, yeah, it was nice to grab another sponsor in the mix after the loss of a major one. You may notice their logo in the sidebar.

I've changed around the 2007 race results section as well, since landing a new position and getting that steady paycheck again, I've had the opportunity to get out and register for several more races in the community, which is GREAT. I was going to do a post with a Spring Forward 15k road race report and title it, "Go out hard and die like a man" for that because that was my game plan for that race, but it turned out ok.

That race I hadn't run more than 5 miles under 7:00/mile pace for 2007 and I was worried as we hit the first mile marker in 5:50...I felt like I was going to explode as we passed by mile 7 but held on thru 9.3 to finish 7th overall and 3rd in my age group holding 6:12/mile pace thru the entire race. I thought I was going to blow up but was able to hold on strong and even edge a guy out at the line in a sprint finish. I guess good old base training pays off...

This Sunday, I'm signed up for a 15 mile trail race run thru Mendon Ponds Park in Mendon, NY. It's the Medved madness trail run and I'm stoked because I'm doing the solo division to get ready for IMLP (hoping I get a slot at Muskoka). They offer a relay for those people who like the shorter stuff, but I have been bitten by the endurance bug and I want to keep it that way.

I'll write up a report probably on Monday, so I'll get back to that once a week posting schedule again. I hope everyone is training hard and long. The season is upon us. I'll leave you with a quote I saw the other day that I am using as my new mantra, "Excellence is not easy, it is a decision you make every day". Train hard folks, Cheers.