I Live in Iowa: Week 96

Another week in the books. One of the things I'm really happy about is that writing a weekly summary keeps me progressing. When I have an average week or a median week or a below average week, I know about it. It keeps me accountable. Life is so easy to get into a rut and just progress at a slow rate maybe 3% or something. However, I don't want to progress at a 3% rate. (Maybe I do, who really knows what the rate is anyway?)

Work in particular brings up the feeling I didn't progress significantly this week. I wrapped up a couple projects and continue to fumble my way through another monster thesis type project. I did spend some time in the shop doing physical testing, which is very rewarding, because it's physical. Seeing the results is rewarding compared to just another picture on the screen. Plus, it's easier to yelp and holler during a physical test than after one of my finite element simulations run for the first time. Believe me, this thesis type project I'm working through, when I get the first results I will want to dance and yell. But I won't because nobody really does that in a cubicle farm.

Running went really really well. I did 92 miles, and could have done 100 had I doubled Saturday, but I was tired and had other stuff to do so I did not double. The highlight of the week is doing more than 10 miles between 4:55 and 5:35. More than four on Tuesday and a whopping six on Saturday. Saturday was the best 6 x mile workout of my life! Splits were 5:27, 5:20, 5:18, 5:15, 5:06, 4:56 with a 400 meter jog in two minutes between miles. It really helped that I had two people to workout with. The three best runners in Dubuque county grinding out 6 x mile together! This is exactly 100% what I need to improve. In other words, the workout was perfect for me on Saturday.

Coaching is going well. Our women's team set the school record in the distance medley relay Saturday, and Sunday, today, is looking like a slew of good performances again. This is our indoor conference championships so it's the biggest meet we compete in for a couple months. Plus it's the last race for most people until the last weekend in March.

In other news, A, died just over a month ago. Her funeral was when I was in North Carolina. Missing someone is sad. In the last month three people that I have spent time with and made a connection with due to work left. Two returned to other countries and one returned to Ohio. One of the pains of growing up is losing the personal daily connections with people as they move around the country and now world as I meet more people. Social media has made it easier to stay connected in a shallow sense, but it is not the same as looking someone in the eye.

Connections and relationships are very interesting things. There is significant value in them, but not necessarily monetary value. When two crying people hug because they are sad over the same thing there is a lot of emotional connection there that improves positive feelings that at least one more human cares. Yet you can't pay for that. You can't pay someone to cry with you over your last race in your team uniform. Given how significant connections and relationships are with Web 2.0, and the fact I have been doing this blog thing for four years, meaning I have a little experience and thus authority, I feel like talking more about it. In terms of trends and ideas and the future. From the rise of smart watches to development of coffee shops and evolution of religious organizations. These are things that are changing, big things, and it would be nice to make sense of where it has been, where it is, and where it might go. So I might talk about that more in the future.

Finally, I have a big article lined up for Monday. Something like 2800 words about confronting something I have not wanted to address for years, but it is now time to address the elephant in the room.