Monday, January 20, 2014

I Live in Iowa: Week 141

Another week, living the dream. Every time I say that I get the psychological kickback of thinking, 'I just said I am living the dream, so it must be pretty good.' It's like saying, "I'm a good student." Well if you say it you are more likely to make it happen. So if you say you are living the dream you are more likely to feel you are living the dream. Let's face it, my life is pretty incredible. As I say that I have two reactions, one is to look around and see all the people less fortunate than I. I need to be productive and generous in my life because so much has been entrusted to me and I feel it is my duty to spread my wealth with the less fortunate. Second, I look around at all of those that have life similar to me or even better. While I know I could do better and be more generous, the same goes for many others as well.

Work was good. Work is good. I wake up in the morning looking forward to going to work. The vast majority of the year I leave for work before the sun comes up. Like I said last week, I have more relaxation about work since Christmas than I did before. Things are getting done, we are fixing problems, we will eventually go to production with a new product. It will never be perfect, people will always find things to complain about. Yet, in the time we have between now and then we will make the product even better. Sure I could get more stressed out about the process and how slow it moves and how many steps there are, but in a strange way that lumbering complexity is part of the fool proof aspect of what it takes to find all the bugs.

Running went well, I ran two workouts and a race and a total of 57 miles. Saturday I ran a 3000 meter indoor race against against a bunch of mostly Augustana runners. I finished in 8th in 9:19, and I had seeded myself at 9:15, so pretty close to what I expected. We got out slow I was in maybe 4th at 100 meters, but was boxed in and slowly drifted back along the rail as we ran I think 38, 39, 38 for the first three laps, so on the strait away after 650 meters I moved out to lane three and cruzed into first. I led for maybe two laps then was passed by two people and ran in third through at least the mile, maybe 2k. Then it started to break up as many of the Augie runners put in surges. I held my own okay, but of course ended up in 8th over all. Only a few seconds out of 4th place. I also closed well, thinking of the pain of a 3k compared to the pain of a marathon, HA! track races are easy. I out kicked one or two runners that were right with me with 200 to go. The goal for this indoor season is a 5k PR. My 15:44 is one of my weakest personal records.

Coaching was good. Those two workouts I ran I ran entirely with runners on the team I coach. I think it helps them to have someone running with them as much as it helps me to have someone to push me. Our distance runners ran their first meet of the year and overall, we are headed in a good direction. Of course I think of the negatives, probably another kid with anemia, a few out of shape, people focusing on the wrong events. However, overall, we are headed in the right direction. In a matter of weeks we will probably get several school records. Not just our relay records, which are slower than many high schools, but also a couple of our open events. The team overall set at least three school records over the weekend, Women's 55 Hurdles, Women's Pole Vault, and Women's Weight Throw.

What else in life? Preparations for Everest continue. I have been sleeping a lot. I slept 10 hours once this week and then 11 hours Friday night. The other nights I am getting a solid 8-9 hours. I had a mini-fever probably four times this week. Part of it is going to bed a little more dehydrated than I should. Another part of it is going from 37 miles and no workouts to 57 miles, two workouts and a race.

It was a good week.

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