I Live in Iowa: Week 71

I did not have the most productive week or the most personally rewarding, but in terms of building and developing relationships, and myself, it was a great week.

At work I was simply, not very productive. I finished some work, but the amount of work that I finished was not up to my own standards. What kept me from being more productive? I suppose I have been a little tired lately. Maybe trying to multitask too much.  On the positive side, we are about to begin physically testing one of the projects I have been working on for nine months. I am excited! Also nervous that I missed something that will be a show stopper!

I also had the chance to be involved in a supplier meeting this week. I do not interact with our suppliers very often and it was interesting. The sales guy probably talked 40-50% of the time and at one point I was showing some of my strain contour plots and we were having some trouble communicating what we were looking at. It was a great experience because after staring at this type of stuff for a year and a half it seems pretty simple to an engineer like me, but to him it might as well have been a Jackson Pollock painting. It was good to be involved in that so that I can learn to communicate better.

I ran a whopping 68 miles over 11 runs. That includes a few longer runs that were at 6:40s pace. Plus I did at least a couple strides like four times! This was the first week of cross country practice. We have 34, or maybe 35, people nearly three times what we had last year, and some of them are quite fit. Fit enough that an 18 year old ran away from me on a four mile tempo at the end of a 12 mile run. Sure a 5:39 mile is nothing special and I am not in great shape right now, but the fact that I am really being pushed is a great sign. I think we are going to have a great year!

On the lazy side my programming class is not getting done on time. I haven't done any work in a week and a half. I will finish it, and write an app or two, but it's not at the top of my list.