I Live in Iowa: Week 144

What a week! Life, done to it's fullest, is tiring! I will admit there is more I could do in the world, but often I do too much. I arrive exhausted at the end of the day, barely able to read a paragraph or crawl from the couch to the shower after eating supper.

Work was demanding, in a mostly positive way. I mean, things are getting done, we are correcting errors and design flaws. Yet, every week the pressure escalates to meet upcoming deadlines and make decisions about situations we do not have the full information. However, perception is reality and success is relative. In other words, is a successful design update the best or simply better than the current design?

There is so much I could say about work and our program and projects. I mean, I am learning so much, we all are. The scope of the program is so huge too. It's really a blessing that I am having the opportunity to work on a project of this scope this early in my career. This is not simply an incremental improvement, well, maybe a 10% improvement in every direction… In other words, I'm attempting to climb the highest mountain in the world without bottled oxygen, and that sort of going after ambitious goals is the same zest I take to my career.

Running consisted of 61 miles, one tough workout of four miles of quality in 20:50, and two races. I raced the mile and the 800. The mile went okay in 4:40, considering I haven't done any mile specific workouts, but the 800 was a purely tortuous fail in 2:12. We are doing Live Healthy Iowa at work and I weighed in at 136 Friday. That's 10 lbs. more than ideal, maybe even 12 or 15. Considering that, and lack of more specific workouts, I will take the results for what they are, a stepping stone to better results and one or more PRs in the next few weeks and months.

Coaching went. Being a coach is not easy. There are races that are not great. There are workouts that are slacked through. There are athletes that don't want to run more than the minimum, often only 20 or 30 minutes. It is a mental and emotional challenge, not for the faint of heart. That all being said, we are making good progress with some PRs this past weekend and some really strong workouts.

Everest preparation continues. Various items are in the mail as we speak. I'm all paid up with the tour company, permits, plane tickets, and the vast majority of gear I will need. A satellite phone still has not been purchased. I didn't have one in Pakistan in 2009, but I feel I have to get one to maintain better communication with the rest of the world than I did in 2009. Vote, should I shell out for a satellite phone? I suppose that, and some food, is actually the only thing I have left to buy.