"Iron Mike" Schubert

Thank You for Serving Our Country

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 11:11:00 -0500

Today is Veteran's Day in America. If you served, thanks for keeping this the land of the free by being one of the brave.

Communication is the Answer

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 20:30:00 -0500

What single thing can you do to make people more satisfied in their interactions with you. I assert it is communication. It can't simply be conversation - but needs to be thoughtful interaction. Follow up on a previous question or direction. Provide insightful information on how a transaction is progressing. Give proactive notification when something happens that adds risk to a transaction completing.

This is a tale of two eBay experiences. I purchased two items using "Buy it now" last Sunday, November 2nd. For one item, I received an email a couple of days later that it shipped along with the tracking number. Friday, the item arrived. The other item I have received no communication from the seller on, and have even tried to initiate email communications with the seller to no avail. I see feedback showing up for this seller on similar items, and some of the feedback indicates poor communication, so at this point I don't have reason to believe I'm screwed. I'm merely concerned. And the fact of the matter is that a simple email saying "I shipped your item today via USPS parcel post" would satisfy me and give me a window to look for a package. Communication would increase my satisfaction greatly.

The same goes for the workplace. Lack of communication can zap employee morale and cause stakeholders to lose confidence in leaders. Check out this article published today in the Atlanta Business Chronicle -> Workers' morale hurt most by communication failures.

Whether you are entering into a transactional exchange for goods, in the workplace, or thinking of buying a motorcycle at home -> crank up the communication a bit and the needs of your stakeholders are likely to be better met.

Tomorrow is a New Day

Sun, 09 Nov 2008 17:21:21 -0500

Sunrise Over Mirror Lake
Originally uploaded by Mike's Adventures.

I had a crappy run today. I reached a point somewhere after mile 10 where my quads hurt, the wind was demoralizing, and it was just time to bag it. I guess the migraine Friday night plus the 10k race yesterday added up and sabotaged my shot at 20 miles today.

I am not making excuses. There are some days that just aren't your day. And if you have to realize that and learn from them. Sometimes they are beyond your control (migraine) and sometimes they are within your control (scheduling a 10k race the day before a 20 mile run).

I don't know what tomorrow will bring. And that was part of the reason I wanted to run today. It might rain the next time I try to run long. Work may interfere. There are a whole host of events that could conspire against me. But there are a whole host of things I can do right.

Tomorrow is a new day. I will make the best of it.

Sales Force Management as a Barrier to Customer Satisfaction

Fri, 07 Nov 2008 08:30:00 -0500

During the first 10 years or so of my programming career, a number of my projects revolved around sales force automation. At Windsor Group, I worked on tools that would make our territory managers more competitive. At GE Capital Consulting, I worked on a couple of client engagements that involved customizing a sales force automation tool called Overquota. Eventually at Solarcom, we built our own tool in house, based on best practices that we had developed over the years of working with these other tools.

One common thread through each of these implementations and customizations was the desire to tag a customer or prospect as belonging to a particular sales rep. For a customer, it was fairly clear that the person who first sold them something would likely own the account. With prospects, a regional approach was generally taken. Here lies the rub - for larger companies, which region do you choose: the region that contacted you, or the region where the company's headquarters is. The response I usually saw was that it was based on the headquarters.

It straight sales organizations, that isn't a tremendous barrier. The cost of on-site sales calls is usually transparent to the customer. In fact - they are built into the margin of the deal. If the rep comes from outside of your office's region, you had better believe you are paying a slight premium to what a local representative would be able to offer.

What if it is not a straight sales engagement? What if professional services are involved? Here is where it gets tricky. I usually have seen it where the partner's local presence is engaged. For a company site in Atlanta with a headquarters on the west coast, this means you as the customer are partnering with a company that is going to provide service from the far side of the country. Every flight, hotel, meal is going to add additional overhead to your engagement.

There needs to be some intelligence employed by vendors and their value added resellers to provide the best value to the customer. Staffing projects requiring onsite resources with those 3,000 miles away does not seem practical - especially when the VAR has a local presence with a presumably local talent pool.

There needs to be a focus on putting the customer's needs first at their office location - ahead of the needs of assigning business within territorial bounds.

Who is Doing YOUR QA?

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 17:30:00 -0500

I was looking for some pointers on dynamic assembly loading, reflection, etc. within the .Net framework and found an assembly the author decided to call myAss:

It really struck me that an author or publisher would want to put that verbiage out in the general domain. I went through all of the material and found many instances to myAss - so it's not like it was overlooked. Why on earth someone did not flag that do be changed to something like myAsm is beyond me.

So that raised the question - who is doing QA and what were they tasked with? Perhaps their scope was merely to make sure the code in question functioned. That would require entering all of the code into individual projects, compiling, running, and verifying their output. Perhaps they were tasked with making sure the wording was technically and grammatically correct.

A third option is that the QA tasks were assigned to someone for whom English was not natively their first language. Given my experience in high school Spanish class, I doubt this to be the case. Learning the naughtier words of the language was virtually a requirement. Sure, we wanted to know what they were because we thought it was funny. But the teaching point was more so you did not make a fool out of yourself (or you at least could reflect on why you made a fool out of yourself) if you slipped up and mispronounced a word that ended up being dirty.

The lesson for today is that you need to have a plan of what you want to QA, how you are going to do it, and who are the right resources to perform those tasks.

Great News!

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 08:30:00 -0500

I missed all the campaign speeches, otherwise I would've been voting for Obama early and often. Evidently, he is going to be paying for gas and home mortgages! Thanks for spreading the word Peggy!

Go Vote!

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 11:56:24 -0500

It doesn't matter who you vote for, just go vote. It's your own little revolution, every four years.

Update 12:08PM - Evidently, it is a felony in my state (Georgia) for Starbucks, Krispy Kreme, etc to give me free stuff for voting. Makes perfect sense. I'm not sure why every state does not do this.

O.C.G.A. (Official Code of Georgia) § 21-2-570

Any person who gives or receives, offers to give or receive, or participates in the giving or receiving of money or gifts for the purpose of registering as a voter, voting, or voting for a particular candidate in any primary or election shall be guilty of a felony.

I remember growing up that there were vans that would go into impoverished neighborhoods in Atlanta, take people to the polling place, then take them somewhere to eat lunch. And reportedly, when they arrived at the polling place they were told to "Punch #37" or whatever the punch card slot number was for the candidate who provided the transportation and the meal.

I'm sure this Google gadget is getting hammered, but I had to embed it anyway.

Butchering National Anthems

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 20:19:57 -0500

The performance of the Star Spangled Banner at sporting events has gotten out of hand. Performed at tempo, it should take 45 seconds. Singing it should be about honoring America and those that created and defend our great country. Unfortunately at sporting events, this is no longer the case.

Tonight is a prime example. I have tuned in to watch Game 1 of the World Series, only to find the Backstreet Boys on camera to perform the Star Spangled Banner. Two and a half minutes I'd say - that's how long it took for them to show off and promote themselves. They weren't honoring America, they were hoping to gain some more record sales.

I am by no means singling them out. There have been many other musical acts representing all genres of performance to butcher the song. In fact - most of the time national television is not involved.

My question for the day is - is it this way in other countries?

Conformity vs Accomodation in the Workplace

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 12:30:07 -0500

I attended a webcast today that focused on cultivating and retaining key skills and knowledge on your team across generations. One question that interestingly appeared in the chat window (I don't think they intended for us to see the question) was along the lines of

When I started at my company, I had to conform to the communication and presentation styles of my company. Why the focus now to change to the new generations coming in?

Wow. Someone attending this webcast actually had this question? I started at my new company 8 months ago, and the world has changed a lot in those 8 months. Unless you started yesterday, things have changed. Even at an old company, culture evolves (albeit sometimes slowly). Furthermore, your company may have gone through a similar exercise of preparing for Gen X'ers like myself to come into the workforce, but since you weren't there - you wouldn't know it.

It seems to me that you have to be constantly evolving and reinventing yourself. Keep the good qualities, refine those that need improvement. Learn new skills while honing those that make you stand out. College grads entering the workforce today don't know the world without the Internet. They are used to texting their friends, and seeing what they are up to online. You don't have to be into that, but you'd better be in tune with it.

Just my 2 cents...

Happy Birthday, Bike!

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 22:35:23 -0500

Me and my new bike
Originally uploaded by Mike's Adventures.

A year ago today I brought home my new ride. I've put over 1200 miles on it in the past year. Yeah, it gets jealous when I go to spin class. But I'm not spinning that much any more, so I'm starting to get more road miles in.

It is time for bottom bracket maintenance and some new bar tape.

Dear Stupid Driver on Westside Pkwy @ Cumming Street in Alpharetta

Tue, 09 Sep 2008 08:57:34 -0500

Red lights mean stop. Even if you're turning right. I'm not sure what theory of traffic law you misunderstood to mean that you only have to slow down to 45 mph to turn right at a red light. Hopefully you got that as I was yelling at you through the window as you almost mowed me down in the cross walk.

Hopefully you will notice the pedestrians out there in the future and yield to them. Try not to kill me 369 days before my next Ironman. Ok?

Today's run - 1 hour 9 minutes @ a roughly 72% average heart rate. I'm trying something new. I'll let you know how it works.

I'm in. Again.

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 13:00:28 -0500

Yesterday I promised more big news and today I'm here to deliver it.

I have signed up for the 2009 Ford Ironman Wisconsin. The feeling is not weighing nearly as heavy on me as when I signed up to do Lake Placid last year. It's not that I am over confident - I just now know what it takes. Now it's time to learn what it takes to do it better and faster.

I am excited. Really excited. The next 371 days are going to be a lot of fun.

Hardware. Finally.

Sun, 07 Sep 2008 14:12:02 -0500

I placed 2nd in my age group this weekend in a hilly 5k. And for all of you chuckleheads who wonder - there were 9 people in my age group. So there.

I hope to have even more exciting news tomorrow afternoon. So stay tuned!

Things to Watch For During the Olympics

Sat, 09 Aug 2008 16:06:55 -0500

106_0678
Originally uploaded by Mike's Adventures.

It is inevitable over the next several weeks that you will see countless buildings of cultural significance during the television broadcasts of the Beijing Olympics. Some of those buildings will be significant, some less so. How can you tell? Count the animals.

On the corners of the roofs, there are often some number of lions, dragons, or some other significant animal. The more there are, the more significant the building. I took this picture 3 years ago (almost to the day!) in the Forbidden City. There are 9 animals, making this a very significant building - it may be the throne room or something, I don't recall exactly.

The fact that there are 9 is also very significant. Odd numbers are considered masculine and even numbers feminine. Since 9 is the largest single digit odd number, it is considered the most masculine, and is often associated with the emperor (that's why I was thinking this might be the throne room).

So while you are waiting for gymnastics to give way to track & field, cycling, swimming (or any other sport that is far superior to gymnastics), keep your eyes on the broadcasted images. You can now unlock significance in ancient Chinese architecture.

Ironman USA Lake Placid Race Report

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 07:22:35 -0500

40 seconds of glory. That's about the time it takes to run around the Olympic speed skating oval, hear your name called, and cross the finish line. As you read this entry that took over 3 years to write, keep in mind that it was all about those 40 seconds.

4:00 am
The alarm was set for 4, but I think I woke up for the final time around 3:55. I laid there for a few minutes, contemplating the day that lied ahead. I probably got around 6 hours of sleep, which was really good considering the adrenaline and race jitters that had built up.

I ate 6 peanut butter crackers and a Cliff Builder bar - my normal routine. Brush teeth, shave, shower, final bathroom trip. Everything was mostly in order. Just before 5 I left the hotel and began my walk up Main St.

Upon arriving at transition, I opened my run bag and put my socks in a zip-loc bag. The weatherman had forecasted a 0-10% chance of rain up until 1pm, with a 40% chance of scattered thunderstorms in the afternoon. I did not want to run in wet socks. I also threw a hand towel in the bag.

I headed over to my bike and aired up the tires, lubed the drive train, put my water bottles and nutrition in place, and took the plastic off that I had put on overnight. She was in beautfiul shape and I was really looking forward to 8000+ feet of climbing over 112 miles on her later that day. I helped out a couple of other athletes with their tires and was out of transition by 5:30. Got my race numbers marked, and headed on to Mirror Lake Dr.

For those of you doing this race in the future, note that the the special needs bags drop off is about 1/4 mile down Mirror Lake Dr. from the swim exit. I thought they were closer, and was surprised at the walk. I had already taken my sandals off and was walking barefoot. This wasn't a big deal for me, I had plenty of buffer and tough feet - but without that buffer it would have been a scramble.

One last trip to the port-a-john (ha ha, pre-race trip that is) and it was time to get in the water and warm up. 2300+ athletes warming up at the same time is kind of a pain. I was afraid of having a head on collision with so many people swimming in so many different directions. 10 minutes of floating and swimming and I was warm. It was looking like a Plan A day (Plan A = 14 hours).

7:00 am
The cannon (or bomb, or whatever) went off and the washing machine started. Arms were flying, feet were kicking, and over the next 3 minutes I fought to get to the starting line. I quickly found my place though and was stroking pretty good. For some reason, both times I went out, I got off course. Coming back in I had an easier time sighting. The same thing happened in practice. I don't know if I have a problem with yellow buoys (they were orange coming back in) or if I'm just a nut job.

About 7:15am, I started feeling and hearing something really strange. I poked my head up and it was pouring down rain. In Atlanta, when it pours like that it stops a 10 or 20 minutes later, so I wasn't that worried. So much for that 10% chance of scattered showers in the morning. When I exited for the first lap of the swim it was still raining. I didn't think much of it. I had more important things on my mind (I had to pee).

Around 8:20 I was on the final stretch and poked my head up. It was raining even harder. How could this be? I swam on and came out of the water around the 1 hour 41 minute mark. Not only had a survived the swim, but I came out feeling great. Refreshed even. I worked my wetsuit partially off, hit a stripper, and jogged up to T1. In the rain.

8:50 am

I came out of the changing tent, hit the port-a-john, and gently jogged through what was becoming the mud pit formerly known as Transition. A volunteer had my bike waiting for me. I thanked him and ran it out to the mount line. It was still poruing as I hopped on and rode the downhills that took you out of transition.

The course takes you on an uphill course the first 7 miles or so. My legs felt great. My ride was smooth and shifting like a dream. Those were all the things within my control. It was still pouring and at times the rain felt like it was 1000 tiny little razors cutting my face.The downhills were very interesting - particularly the 6 mile, 1400+ foot drop. I rode the brakes more than I wanted to. I've trained in a drought for the last 18 months - I have not had the opportunity to ride in the rain, especially rain like this.

At mile 17 I stopped to pee and regroup. This is what the day was going to be like. It's time to throw plan a out the window and go to Plan B - 15.5 hours. Shoot for 8 hours on the bike in these conditions and a 5.5 hour marathon. Nothing wrong with that. I can't control the weather, so I pressed on.

12:40 pm

OK. I have no idea what time I started the 2nd loop, but we'll call it 12:40. It's still raining. The volunteers are spectacular. I mean spectacular. They hold my bike while I pee. They take the trash I'm hauling around (wrappers and such). And they know how to do a water bottle hand-off. That's so huge!

One thing that is fresh in my mind at this point was what a dude on Baby Bear told me - "hey big man, make sure you're drinking enough out here. You're sweating more than you think." I wondered what I looked like. Why was he telling me this? Did he tell everyone this? And WHO ARE YOU CALLING BIG MAN!!! In total I stopped at a port a john 5 times on the bike. I was actually drinking too much. I had been heat trained.

On the first loop, I saw markings for mama bear and baby bear, but couldn't figure out where papa bear was. I paid special attention to the road on this second loop, but still never saw papa bear. I saw little cherry and big cherry, and that was it. Some people complained about the hills, but to be honest I didn't really notice them. There were a couple of climbs to spin up, but they were handled. I came back into T2 in just after just over 8 hours on the bike. My legs felt great and I was ready to run. My bike was cleaner than when I took it out on the course.

5:00 pm

I am very glad that I did two things this morning. Putting my socks in a ziploc bag was huge. Putting a hand towel in this transition bag was huge. The changing tent was flooded. If you put your foot down, it got wet. I took my cycling shoes off and pulled my soggy socks off. As I was drying my right foot, my hamstring began to cramp. OUCH. Extending my leg out fixed it, but over the next several minutes of drying that foot, applyng a bandage to the arch to prevent a blister, putting on a sock, and then a shoe, I encountered a repeat of cramp - extend, cramp - extend. Finally my shoe was on and my left side did not pose the same problem. I put on my fuel belt, turned my race number around, and through my transition bag onto the pile.

I am shuffling down main street about to turn and head toward the ski jumps. My legs feel great. My breathing is great. Plan B looks to still be in order. Oh - and it's still raining. The plan on the run was to shuffle all the way, but walk the water stops. This worked for a while. I was running with my friend Laura and we were making good time.

Eventually, the skin on the ball of my right foot folded over in two places and her stomach shut down. We were reduced to walking great distances around mile 10. Some more running took place, but it was rare. It grew dark. And cold. There were always a number of casualties around. On the run, the rain and cool temps were taking their toll. There was a small group of us that ebbed and flowed along River Rd. and back up to Main St. I was the comedian in the bunch trying to make my pain go away and help everyone else to the finish line. Most famously, we hit mile 20 and I said "134.4 - anyone ever seen a sticker that said that? NO. They say 140.6. We gotta press on." And so we did.

11:40:39 pm

I hit the oval and the music changed. YMCA by the Village People came on. I knew this was the way it was meant to finish. So much of my training took place at the Norcross YMCA. There were a number of Ironmen there, as well as competitive cyclists and swimmers, all of whom were great in giving advice (good and bad) over the prior 15 months that I trained there. I ran around the oval and ditched my glow stick and water belt so I'd have good photos.

11:41:09 pm

Mike Reilly announced to the world that I am an Ironman. I TRIumphantly crossed the finish line, and my day ended. A day that was years in the making. All for those 40 seconds.