Monday, October 27, 2014

I Live in Iowa: Week 175

Another week living the dream! It doesn't always feel that way, but simply saying it makes it more likely that I am in a good place.

The week started off well, I went to church and Sunday school, then went for a 22 mile run at 6:45 pace which was faster than I intended. It's always nice to run faster than the plan and feel good doing it. After that I pretty much just laid around until my parents showed up for supper. I should mention my parents bought a new car, a Prius C. In this country it's almost as small as cars go, but after riding a few miles in the back seat of it, I thought it was plenty big. Another interesting fact about cars, interest rates in this country are so low that 0% loans are relatively common for cars today. It's like free money. Third, this is the first car my parents have bought new since like 1989, or maybe 1990. Otherwise, it's always been used cars for our entire family, we could never really afford a new car, any of the four of us, the last quarter century. Wow, sounds strange to say it like that. Yet in that same quarter century the four of us have always had at least two cars, and as many as five. I write this from the perspective of people I know in the US getting new, and not inexpensive, cars every few years, while other people I know in India and Africa don't even own a car.

The week at work was quiet actually. I have a funny story from work. We were in a meeting, on a conference call, all with people I know rather well and see in person most weeks. Anyway, a couple people were asking to be included on everything that changes at this point in the program, and I must have gotten visibly flustered, because the leader of the meeting said something like, "Isaiah's turning red over here. Okay, let it out, what do you have to say?" So I said a couple sentences about how I felt we already were communicating everything, how much more detail did people want? That was all I had to say. So a coworker chimed in and talked about three times as long about a couple issues. It boiled down to, we don't want to change anything in the next few months. Sometimes it just feels good to blow off a little steam and let people know where I stand.

Running just went great this week! Three doubles, a total of 112 miles, that's 97 miles in singles, a 22 mile run, a 20 mile run and a nice 3 x mile workout. I have been running with a couple UW Platteville alumni and they are great to have around! They are all faster than me, at least at shorter distances, like 10k and down. So Thursday, on a beautiful 52°F afternoon we did this crazy workout I would never write for myself, 3 x mile with a mile rest between, three mile warm up and four mile cool down. Ridiculous. If I'm doing only three miles of quality, we're keeping the rest under two minutes. And what's up with a four mile cool down? However, all of those details that I would never plan myself, just go to show that we can easily get bogged down in the details and fail to keep our eyes on the big picture. I ran three miles at about 5:17 pace. Plus, I ended up with 18 miles total for the day. It was a fantastic workout, the best mile repeats I have had since maybe February. To cap it off I did my first long run with pace variation Saturday. 13 mile warmup in 1:25, then 5:55, 5:40, 5:55, 5:40, 5:55 and a two mile cool down in 12:50. I felt like I was struggling, the whole way, even from the outset on the "warmup" yet I managed to hit pace quite well, I even got out at 5:30 pace for the first half mile of the last 5:40 mile. In the coming month I will do a couple more of these, with longer and more challenging pace variation. It was really nice that this one, and really this whole week, went so well.

Not much else to report, I "went out" on Friday night for seriously a half hour, just to drop off a rock climbing guide book at a bar where some friends were, I didn't even have anything to eat or drink. I feel bad when I spend time in a place and don't patronize them, but I suppose I don't feel bad enough to stop doing it.

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