I Live in Iowa: Week 94

What a week! I mean that on several levels. Isn't life interesting when things progress in several projects at once?

First, work, because work before play, I had a breakthrough in communication, or rather articulation of something I have tried to communicate more recently. We have been working on a big project. (On a side note, when is anyone not working on a big project in engineering?) Anyway, due to my limited experience I know how big the scope of the project is and I have a general idea of the scope of errors that we are probably making. In short, I expect to be plenty busy this year.

Anyway, four of us are standing in front of a computer screen as a design engineer opens the thing we were working on in the model. The thing is about the size of a shoe. Gradually the nearby castings, pipes, plates, and hoses all flash on in the model. Eventually the zoomed in screen looks like a modern art mess. I said something like, "this is the kind of thing that is giving me anxiety." Unfortunately, given that I am the one who is supposed to make sure all this stuff last past the warranty period, it's not really a joke to say that this project is giving me anxiety. It feels really good by the way to admit that I have anxiety related to a project at work. It is honest. Plus, admitting that I have fears somehow makes those fears less scary.

Overall, work is going well. Monday afternoon I spent a little time in a machine shop making sure that a couple parts were welded to be the most structurally durable. They were. Another aspect of work that is interesting is that I am nearing two years in the same position. I understand the things I am working with on a deep level, and it feels good.

Running went really well, first 90 mile week since September and I raced a 5000 on the track in a two seconds off my PR time of 15:46. My 1k splits were 3:06, 3:07, 3:09, 3:13, 3:11 and the last 2k we were lapping people like crazy so that adds maybe 0.5 to 1 second per lap. I did a couple light workouts like 2 x mile in 5:34 and 10 x 400 averaging maybe 80 seconds. Nothing special. I might race the mile this weekend, but my hamstring has been tight lately and I don't want to push it. If I do not I have no races planned until outdoor track I want to do a 5k, the Augie 10k on the track like last year, and the Drake Relays Half Marathon. Then an October Marathon.

Coaching went well. We had two 25 second PRs in the 5k Saturday and a few other 5k PRs. Some good races at shorter distances as well. We aren't as fast as I would like to be, but it's so early in the season and we have not done the specific work yet that I am sure we will drop some serious time in April and May.

Other than that, socially I'm warming up an article. People have totally different attitudes about relationships than I do, and it's interesting. I'm not sure what to learn from other's relationships, but I suppose if I try to write something about it I will learn something.