Accomplishments: October 2024

October hit like a storm. Lots going on, lots to do. The usual.

  • Training for Tour de Tucson
  • Job Hunt
  • Start Building a Second Brain

Training for Tour de Tucson

This went remarkably well. From October 1st to the 28th, my FTP (functional threshold power) jumped 4%, and my body weight has stayed below 195, with some minor fluctuations. I have a few tweaks to do to the bike before Tucson, too — new pedals, new bar tape, maybe a new chain, and I need to decide if I’m riding my gravel tires or my Conti GP5000 road tires. Probably the former, for comfort reasons.

Post-tour, I’m going to focus on not losing momentum like I did last year. Last year, I got home and I was tired, burned-out, and didn’t get back on the bike until January, and didn’t get on it regularly until almost March. Bad idea. The current training plan, which I’ve been following pretty rigorously, has me in a rest-ish week after Tucson. That is to say, three endurance rides and a single 1-hour tempo ride. I fully expect that by late November that all of my rides will be indoors, but it was also 80ºF on October 29th this year, so who the hell knows? I’ve got a bunch of new mid-weight cold weather gear so I can keep riding outdoors when things start to get shitty.

Job Hunt

October started off a little shaky, but by the end, I had opportunities crawling out of the woodwork. I’m feeling more optimistic about things and ideally would like to be working by Dec. 1st. The first weekend in November, I’ll be doing a take-home assignment, and it looks pretty fun.

Start Building a Second Brain

After reading Tiago Forte’s book, I’m in the process of building a second brain. Most recently, I’ve used Todoist for most of my organizational crap, but I’m now to the point where I need more than just a checklist. I’ve added a Notion account, and that took up a bunch of my time in October as I organized everything and started seeding it with notes.

Minor/Other Accomplishments

Got to Washington, D.C. for a quick weekend blitz. Hitting Washington, D.C. has been on my to-do list for awhile now, and getting out there for Di’s dad’s 70th birthday was a great opportunity. Really enjoyed the heck out of this trip, and I’m looking forward to going back.

Crushing the coding this month. Been blasting through leetcode, working on a client site, and toward the end of the month, I also got a programming assignment as part of my job interview stuff.

Getting Eddy into therapy was a huge hit for the month — he doesn’t actually start until November 5th, but we spent most of October looking for a referral.

Standardizing meds management. Kate and I decided that one parent needed to be responsible for getting meds refilled and for keeping everything organized. I volunteered. So now it’s on me to make sure all of this is getting done. The upside is, it is getting done and we’re staying atop things.

Blockers

MEA Week. The boys, like the rest of the state, had three days off school. Sam was in daycare, thankfully, but Eddy has aged out of such stuff and was home for the duration. That’ll put a crimp in things, especially when he’s imitating the seagulls from Finding Nemo — popping his head asking “SNAAAACK?” in an Aussie/Seagull accent.

Eddy homework. He’s more motivated to get it done because there’s money on the line — opted to start paying him for grades as a motivator, and it’s working. The downside is, I feel like I have to spend a LOT of time working with him on stuff that he should be learning in-class.

Lessons Learned

Onward. Forward. Keep grinding.

(Featured image created with/generated by Adobe Firefly 3. Prompt: A cyborg turkey working in a factory.)

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