Running With Scissors

I started my new job Monday so it's been a busy week.  Lots to learn.  Lots to do. And my routine has been completely thrown off....at least for now.   


I no longer work in the bike industry, which is a little weird, but the new job seems like it's going to be great.  I like my boss and my co-workers, and overall the company is a ton more organized.  They have processes in place and my role is much more defined than it was before.  With more than 40 meetings already scheduled for April, I can tell I'm going to be busier than I used to be, but it's a good kind of busy. 

I'm the SOC forecast analyst, SOC standing for School, Office, Craft.  So I'll be forecasting sales for a lot of different scissors and craft supplies.  Exciting... I know.


One big difference between this company and the one I came from is the way they utilize their software.  CSG has SAP and didn't utilize it for forecasting, which more or less made statistical forecasting impossible.  If I'd had easy access to good sales history, I could have written some formulas in Excel to generate stat forecasts, but even that would have been too time consuming since each product category had a different seasonality index and different trends and that's too many formulas for one person to try to figure out.  

But FBI (yeah, I went from CSG to FBI) uses JDE and I have access to several different forecast modules and some incredible reporting software.  So I can use the system to generate sales forecasts based on historical data, seasonality, trends, etc. and the system figures out the trends and seasonality per SKU so I don't have to try to figure that out myself.  And there are a lot of automated reports that get e-mailed to me all day.  So basically, I have all the tools I need to be successful right there at my fingertips.  Now I need to learn to use them. It's pretty cool.


But that's just what I do between workouts, which is what this blog is really about.  Today I ventured out for my first lunch run.  I no longer have a bike path that connects to the parking lot, so I ran on the sidewalk through a residential neighborhood.  The route was okay, but I'm convinced there's a better route.  

So I think I'm going to experiment a little with some different routes and see if I can come up with one or two that I really like.  One thing I'm really happy about is the hill I can see from our parking lot.  It's perfect for hill repeats.  It leads up to the Ag Building (whatever that is) and there's virtually no traffic since it's just a road to a parking lot.  One side is pretty steep, and the backside is longer and not as steep so I can run either side and mix it up.  Or I can run in the grass where there's a really short, really steep hill.  So I have three options rather than the one hill I had at CSG (it was a great hill for hill repeats though so I couldn't complain).  I was worried I wouldn't have any good hills nearby with my new job so I'm happy to have options.  And with it so close to work I can do whatever kind of warm-up I want and do hill repeats for most of my lunch hour.  Only a triathlete (or runner) would get excited about running a hill over and over at lunch.

I'm excited about statistical forecasting and hill repeats.  Geek.