I Live in Iowa: Week 246

Wow! What a week?!

Work was actually quite calm. I was in the office all week, at least every day this week. I have been working on this little project, a hydraulics project and I think that some good progress was made this week. Sure, I had some setbacks too, but that is part of the design process, and it's way better to realize my errors early rather than later in the development process.

Running was a mix. I ran 50 miles, but I took two days off and only ran 20 minutes on another day. It started on Sunday I ran 24 miles, and while I started out really well, around 7 minute pace the first hour, soon after that I began to slow down, mile 10 really was where the pain started. It was more of a just plain exhaustion feeling than nutrition or an injury.

Huge Positive Splits, Not Good

As you can see, that's not at all how you want to split a run. Monday I ran 20 minutes, Tuesday I came home and laid on the floor. Wednesday I came home and laid on the floor again, so my coach suggested upping the iron, through meat mostly. I took my iron pill and ate some steak and starting Thursday my runs have gone really well. It's strange how a little mineral, like iron, can make a huge difference if you are just 50 mg or maybe 100 mg short. Plus, rest is good too, and I struggle to rest unless I really feel bad, which I did.

So Friday I go into the office, bringing bagels, for a co-worker's birthday, doing my work, on the hydraulics problem, when at 10 AM a different co-worker announces, "I bought a car in St. Louis!" and now he was trying to figure out how to get there. He blanket asked, "Anyone want to go to St. Louis with me?" and I said "yes" just like that. I had three vacation days to use by this coming Friday, and no plans to use then, so I figured, nothing really needed me the rest of the day in the office, might as well go help a friend pick up his car.

Beginning a Road Trip

It was fun! We drove five hours down to St. Louis, I went for a run, bought a fast food dinner and drove his pick up truck back, getting a speeding warning as I got back into Dubuque. Yes, I am thankful I just received a warning, because the officer had every right to give me a ticket. So I got back to Dubuque around 11 PM, spent all of $13 on food and drinks, helped a friend out and used a vacation day.

What does this week hold?! We shall see... Some big news actually, not that Everest wasn't big enough last week.