I Live in Iowa: Week 145

This was an awfully long week. That is actually a really good description: "awfully". I could have said very, tiring, exhausting, draining, or some other word, but awfully describes it well. Okay, actually, now that I am on the other side of the week it is not so bad, but Friday night I was at my wit's end.

We have a number of deadlines at work. It's natural to set timelines to get work done. This past Friday was one of the several deadlines coming up over the next few weeks. March 14th is going to be an even bigger week. Why is this stressful? Several reasons:

1. I've never been through this process before. I feel somewhat incompotent about my ability to get the work done.
2. So much of "my" work depends on other people. If they are working on it, well, I have to wait on them. It is a hazard of any large project, yet as the person ultimately responsible for the parts, I feel stressed the work does not go faster.
3. I am leaving for Everest pretty soon. There is quite a bit of work that, if I don't get it done, with all of my detailed part knowledge, it will end up taking hours of work of others to figure out the details. Now, the knowledge is there, I am replaceable, but I don't want to let down the team.

Finally, there had been a delay in the project. Again, not related to any of my work, but a large series of small errors, by many people, and now some of our deadlines are being extended. However, not any of the deadlines in the next two months.

Running went well. I had a good workout Tuesday and a below average 5k Saturday. I planned to register, but I didn't, and then with 90 minutes to go before the race I asked if they had space available, and I ran a 16:23. The slowest track 5k I have ran in years. Slow because I didn't have the mental time to prepare for the pain, slow because of the mental and emotional toll of the work week, slow because I just did not take care of my body in the days leading up to the race like I was going to race.

Coaching, I can finally say I am partly (perhaps a large part) responsible for an individual school record as a coach. Granted, our school record is so slow I'm not even going to write it down. Yet, because I have been there, day after day working with a kid for over 18 months, he finally got his name on the board. Coaching is a two way street. The more the athlete puts in, the more I put in. When everyone puts in more effort, school records and qualifying times are the result.

I should also mention, on Valentine's Day I had supper with my parents up in Madison, Wisconsin. I was so stressed out. Fortunately, descalating my anger, frustration, and stress over the weekend by a series of people was quite successful. Family and friends are quite priceless.