I Live in Iowa: Week 40

40 weeks!! That's fantastic! I like consistency and routine, and I'm getting there. Of course I also like new challenges and adventures...

This week at work was a good week. The Deere employees had Monday off but being as I don't work directly for them I did not get eight hours of holiday pay. So I went in and worked for about five hours. It was really nice, sleep ten hours, go for a morning run in the day light, work five hours, go for an afternoon run in the daylight. The rest of the week I resumed my normal 8-9 hour days. Once again I finished two projects this week. Actually three, but one only took me three hours. Then on Friday I was able to talk to my supervisor's supervisor who actually hired me and thank him for this opportunity. I am very blessed to have had 40 weeks doing what I do here. As my debt continues to decline, my bank account continues to climb, my social circle continues to expand, and my aerobic base continues to increase I feel so incredibly fortunate! There is so much wealth and prosperity that I enjoy! No one deserves this much success.

On a side track, I make a point of thanking servicemen that I work with or exercise with because I am so thankful for them working to make the world a better place. I enjoy so many privileges simply because of where I was born. This weekend I finally thanked a serviceman from Afghanistan that saw "action". Everyone else I have encountered was in Iraq, some saw no action because they were stationed at large bases. I realized that I take an interest in their stories because I want to empathize with them and share their pain.  It is not appropriate that 1%, often the most disadvantaged 1%, have to bear the burden of safety for all of us in this country. While I never intend to put myself in that position of getting shot at or blown up, refusing to greatly appreciate that sacrifice would be just plain ignorant. While I am ignorant about many things, I feel this topic is too great to avoid.

Circle back toward the title, I finally moved to Iowa this week. My van now has Iowa license plates. It also has 280,700 miles on it and it doesn't like to steer in the cold very well. This worries me because if it breaks, I do not have a backup. Thus, I am officially in the market for a newer vehicle. Feel free to solicit me with you opinions. Keep in mind that I do take a long time to make decisions and hopefully I will not actually buy anything for two or three years.

Coaching is going well. On Saturday we had a track meet at UW Whitewater. In total from the time I arrived at our gym in the morning until we returned it was 16 hours. On the positive side our kids are improving and getting better, even though none of them are performing as well as they would like. But that is the whole point of development, break the perfect performance into trainable qualities and systematically train them in some order over a period of time so that when put together at the end of the season the result is the greatest. That is why we have classes in schools and in college. One lesson or class does not a student make. In other words my athletes, you are probably not going to PR very often until April, then you will run faster than you even desired.

My own running went well. I ran 56 miles, about as much as last week. I talked to the coach at UW Platteville, Tom Anczak because he enjoyed much success as a marathoner in the 70s and 80s and as a coach now. Two of his suggestions were to run my daily runs faster, and to work on my sprint speed. So I am. I did a 10 miler at 6:30 pace and a couple of runs at 6:05 pace this week and a few slower repeat miles around 5:40 pace. In other words, hardly a workout they are so easy, but far harder than my typically daily runs. Next Saturday, I'm getting on the track to run some races. I'm not sure which ones, but I will probably run an open 400 in addition to a distance race. My PR is a hand timed 58 high and I would like to go under 57. I have also volunteered my services to several coaches and athletes as a rabbit in case they desire to run a fast (implied a national qualifying) time.

Socially, RFA/Minnesota Engineering, my actual company had a friday night get together and dinner this weekend. It was a really good time. We all work together and see each other but we rarely talk socially or do anything outside of work and it was nice to get to know everyone a little better.

My life is surely good, I hope that you had a good week as well.