Learning to DO

Coaching Dramatic Athletes

2012-02-15T05:10:00.000-05:00

We had an event recently on the UD track team that brought some of my own ideas to light. One particular high profile athlete created some drama. In short, he left the team and said some undesirable things and then desired to return to the team and a communal decision with the entire men's team in the style of Occupy the Track was made that at the present time he was not welcomed back. I realized that my view of my role as a coach was different than many coaches.

I am an incredibly forgiving person and I will welcome a person back over and over again if he or she quits and changes his or her mind to come back. Part of my reasoning is that this team likely means something to him or her and without it that person might become involved in less constructive activities. I prefer to keep kids on a team rather than wandering around causing trouble. Another aspect of my reasoning is that at my core I believe that a person has the ability to repent and be forgiven an infinite number of times. In practice this is much harder to implement. How much harassment must one person or a group take before the decision is made to excommunicate the offending person? Part of the problem is that the offender in this case said things on Facebook and Twitter which are unsavory and demeaning to a number of the people currently involved with the team. I haven't read them even though I spent three minutes trying to find the remarks. Additionally, he had done things in the past that were not consistent with a strong team player.

In trying to reconcile my thoughts I tried to relate this to other aspects of my life to figure out how I might have managed the situation, had it been my responsibility. I will try to relate everything to stock and investors because the relationship between an investor and a stock is very simple. The investor desires to buy a stock for a low price and sell it for a higher price later, with the exception of dividend stocks that you might desire to keep for your entire life because they are continually rewarding. Here are several examples from life: the relationship between an employer and an employee is a two way stock-investor relationship. The company invests [money] in the employee, which is the stock and who can be replaced, similarly the employee invests [time] in the company, which is also a stock and can be replaced. A [college] student invests [money] in teachers and a school, which are the stocks, in the hopes for an education which can translate into a nice occupation after college.

Similarly, an athlete invests in a coaching staff and hours of training with the hopes of success. I view myself as the stock. Any successful athlete will incorporate a number of stocks [books, articles, coaches, experts, doctors, family, friends, etc.] in the portfolio for success. However, I feel that a valid view of a coach is as the investor as well. The athletes are the stocks which are invested in and eventually sent off with someone else at graduation. It is a different concept because in any example the investor's interests are always more important than the stock's interests. Although, the hope is that both succeed so that the situation is mutually beneficial. However you see the dichotomy, the investors have many stocks to choose from and can easily choose other stocks or none at all, while the stocks need investors or they will be worthless. In other words, I see myself there for the athletes, not for myself. Coaches, myself often included, love to talk about the successful athletes they have nurtured, and it can be very egotistical. Engineers and doctors are all the same. People love to think they are the greatest because of some amount of success. I have been there many times. Unemployment was really good for my ego. I needed some humility. I am sure that I will be egotistical again and need to be humbled again.

One of the complaints of this particular dramatic athlete was that the training that we were doing was not as good as what they did last year with a previous coach. My solution to the problem is to ask the athletes what they want to do. I do it all the time. A happy athlete is typically a successful athlete. However, I do understand the training process better than any of the athletes I work with so overall I feel I know better what stimulus will provide more improvement on any given day. Yet, once again less physiological improvement with significant psychological improvement is preferable to the converse. Again my training theory:

Stay Motivated
Stay Healthy
Train Hard

Once you lose the motivation forget everything else. Chris Lukezic was a middle distance runner that ran very fast and was still young when he left the sport of running to do something else. I have been reading about "financial engineering" a lot recently and comparing it to my present job where I am rewarded for the hours that I work, not any of the additional contributions that I bring to the workplace. I see people older than I doing work very comparable to what I do now and I wonder, will I do this the rest of my career? Could I instead sell myself to the "brain drain"?

This all goes back to motivation. How do you foster and nurture and promote motivation and direct it? In the corporate world we think of money as the simple motivator. However, in college NCAA D3 athletics money is certainly not the motivator.

Circling back to the athlete in question, I feel there was a lack of positive motivation involved. How do you keep a successful person motivated? What performance standards must be regularly met to keep a person interested and feeling progressive as well as what goals must be placed after a significant success? It will depend on the person. In this case I certainly don't have the answer.

As an after note, I feel a great measure of coaching success is athletes setting personal records. This past weekend we set at least one school record and had a large percentage of the team set personal records in their events. This is significant because when a high profile athlete leaves the team because he feels the coaches are not doing a great job, it gets my attention. However, the results that are being produced this season are speaking for themselves, we may not be winning the meet as a team, but we are winning races and nearly everyone is setting personal records.

There is No Dumb

2012-02-14T19:38:00.000-05:00

For a long time I have been struggling to communicate my thoughts on the idea that there is no such thing as "smart". The reason that I do not like the idea of "smart" is that it implies a dumb. As soon as you call someone dumb, they have lost. How does one come back from that?

I was walking down 3rd street here in Dubuque on my way to Monks (it's a coffeehouse and bar) and I finally realized after months of months of thinking how to redefine smart and dumb. People have different reasoning capabilities. In other words, instead of the smart to dumb scale being one dimensional there is a reasoning capabilities universe that is at least three dimensional but includes different things. For example, math and science are in one area, but emotional understanding is in a different area, and humility is in another area, and the capability to throw a 90mph curve ball yet another area. There must be hundreds or thousands of areas. Everybody is capable of having a number of these reasoning capabilities, and chances are they are in different proportions to everyone else. These reasoning capabilities makes up our personality and our abilities.

In the space I am imagining one can be the farthest possible distance from the center point of math and science that we think of as "smart" yet in this model there is no dumb. While one may have a lack of reasoning ability in a certain area that does not mean that that person has no reasoning ability in that area.

This is great stuff! I apologize if this is all just fluff to many of you but people have been calling me "smart" for most of my life and while I like they are recognizing my math and science and multiple input, multiple output understanding of primarily numeric systems, I have often felt that people do not appreciate other reasoning capabilities. In other words, I love getting cheered for my achievements, but I love to cheer others and celebrate other people's achievements, even if they are not in the same realm of reasoning as my own life's reasoning tasks. By the same token I do not particularly like the way that some reasoning capabilities are rewarded so highly. I feel that instead of recognizing single abilities, perhaps it would be more appropriate to reward combinations of abilities. For example, at my alma mater, WPI, there is a President's award for the IQP project. In short, it is typically an environmental or social engineering "competition" that everyone must take part in and ultimate success in the award depends on more than the technical project and includes presentation skills and communication. Similarly no start up company had funding because of a good idea alone, it takes skills to sell the idea and to organize it.

I was watching a CNBC special on Google a few months ago and one of the things that one early Google employee said was to the effect of, 'find the smartest people you can and work with or for them.' She was meaning Sergey and Larry. I read their paper this week and it got me thinking about the "smart" thing again. If you have not read the paper that Google was founded on, it's relatively simple, rather elegant, and a great insight into one of the largest technology companies in the world.

There is no smart, there is no dumb. Or at least if there is a smart there is no dumb but rather varying levels of smart and that is simply one reasoning capability amongst hundreds of reasoning capabilities.

I Live in Iowa: Week 43

2012-02-13T05:41:00.000-05:00

Another week living the dream. Of course the dream is a process of development and a mental state far more than it is an actual achievement. I forget that all too often.

I worked 43 billable hours this week. It's not much really, but it is consistent and the amount of work that I get done in an average hour is improving. This week was fun as well. I worked or am working on an articulation lock. Usually I don't mention what I am working on for fear of saying something proprietary, but articulation locks are so common among construction and forestry machines that the sheer amount of time that I have spent on it seems an enormous investment for something that is relatively small. What is interesting about the simulation is that I am using solid elements, nonlinear material properties, and contact interfaces. Those are things that I don't get to use terribly often and it is fun because they are more complex than the standard shell element model.

In the coaching world we continue to have victories and defeats. We had a high profile athlete cause some drama this past week, which I have a blog post 90% written with my take on the situation and reflections on my role as coach. That counts as a defeat because we failed to diffuse the situation before it became a problem. The victory this week happened when several of the athletes, perhaps most, set personal records at the meet on Saturday. We keep telling the kids that we have been through the track season cycle numerous times and had success, we know for the most part what we are doing, and it showed this weekend. Almost all the throwers threw season bests. We had a sprinter run one of the five fastest times in the country. One of the distance runners who greatly doubts her speed ran a new 800 meter best, off of two weeks of injury and rehab. That is just a sampling of the meet, but in short, we rode home from UW Platteville with a bus full of smiles.

My own running was terrible this week. I get stressed every so often trying to fit engineering, coaching, running, and anything resembling a social life into my life and I had a few days this week where I felt like I was failing at them all. You need to have the hard times because they make one appreciate the good times or the successes more. I ran only 61 miles and only one workout. Although it was a very short workout it was 4x200 with 3-5 minutes rest and I averaged 29.5 including one 200 meter repeat in 28.9 seconds. That's nearly as fast as I raced a 200 a few weeks ago! I refuse to accept running 30-31 for hard 200s and calling it good enough. I am faster than that.

In the social life I spent a few hours at a friend's house watching a poker game. That's about it. Because of the feeling of stress in the middle of the week I slept over nine hours a few times. I needed some recovery time.

I am going to include a weekly tracking of the DHT (Double Hull Tankers) stock that I bought so that we can see together how it does. As a reminder I bought it at $1.18 per share. It closed on Friday at $1.08. So I have already managed to "lose" money. However, it is not real money right now as it is instead stock in a company. I did buy more of it when it went down, but that was for a different account so I will not mention that particular stock again. I am not worried because I feel the company financials are still stronger than the price that I bought it for. Additionally with a $0.03 dividend every quarter this stock is returning about 10% a year in dividends at this price. That is ridiculous. I didn't know that any dividend returned 10% a year. Occasionally you hear about 4-5%, but never over 6%.

Life is good. Any complaints that I can think of involve my ignorance and laziness, so I guess I don't have any.

Competition Yet Uncompetitive

2012-02-12T17:37:00.000-05:00

To get many of the things I desire I have to be competitive. Unfortunately, I am a rather uncompetitive person, unless I am in some sort of fight or flight situation. I am enamored with teamwork. I have so many faults and deficiencies that I can hardly get to work in the morning dressed, fed and on time.

I recently started chasing a new goal. From step one the waters are more competitive than the safe aspects of my life. Why do I do this? Why do time and again I put myself in unfamiliar cutthroat positions? Do I put myself in these situations intentionally? Do I search out competitive situations? I don't know.

I feel I live in a dichotomy. In a race I will throw an elbow and make you pass me on the curve, at least I used to. If we are engineering I will spill patentable ideas and multimillion dollar saving plans like they are water. (Although you will have to wade through the unmanfacturable, cost prohibitive plethora of ideas that I have along the way.) If you are ever tied into a rope with me above treeline you will see greater fear and greater confidence in my eyes than you will on level ground. Mountain climbing is a great competition. Complete teamwork and complete competition at the same time. Competition against ourselves and against the mountain yet teamwork with all of the other people there.

I don't know. Do you ever reflect on your life and think, 'is this really where I am?' I would never have believed a few years ago that nearing my 26th birthday I would live in Dubuque, Iowa, and like it.

At every step of life there is teamwork and competition, which are fundamentally at odds with each other. A marriage involves intense teamwork with each other and competition against the outside forces causing trouble. The military must work together to get anything accomplished yet so often there is an opposition competing for the same people and same land.

I don't know. It just strikes me as odd that uncompetitive teamwork and competition often exist so close together. What decides that we choose to align ourselves with A and challenge B instead of align with B and challenge A?

Learning to Restart Myself

2012-02-08T22:37:00.000-05:00

I don't have very many bad days, but sometimes I feel as though everything is a struggle.

Today was one of those days. I spent hours at work trying to solve a model more complicated than necessary. I sat through a meeting where a designer didn't know the critical testing requirements for the assembly he was designing. Finally I ran only 400 meters of a 7000 meter workout.

It's not a bad day, but it all adds up. It started so well with a 25 minute run and an omelette and a mocha...

The solution to the negativity was to take a walk listening to modern jazz and write a blog post. It is nice to have a forum for emotional expression even though it is one way and totally open. I am so fortunate and so blessed.

...I'm trying to come up with some deep conclusion or positive ending thought, but my mind is filled with rigid elements, contact interactions, anaerobic and aerobic metabolism development desires, a half broken car, no summer plans, no upcoming races, and no general change in sight. I love development and even a moment of stagnation leaves me feeling incredibly lazy and unproductive.

Buying and Selling a Stock: Part 5

2012-02-07T10:38:00.002-05:00

I just bought DHT for $1.18 a share... And of course two minutes later it is down to $1.16.

Buying and Selling a Stock: Part 4

2012-02-06T21:20:00.000-05:00

DHT was a flop today. At least my attempts to buy it through a limit order failed. It was obvious 20 minutes after the open that it wasn't going to go back down to $1.07, but two 10% gains in a row?! How often does that happen? Had I bought it a week ago I could have sold today for a nice profit. I still want it, but the lower the price the better so I have a solution: I'm not going to tell you that I bought it until I do. But as soon as I buy it I'll put an article up. I'm not saying that people read this blog and drove the stock price up, but it could have happened. The volume on it was four times the normal daily volume. I like stocks that go up, but preferably when I own them, and slower than 20% in two trading days so that I don't go crazy.

In short I still want it, but if it keeps going up 10% before I have a chance to put in an order, this might just be a stock that I don't end up buying. Unless I buy it with a market order, but knowing myself I would buy at $1.30 and it would not see that price for another two years...

I Live in Iowa: Week 42

2012-02-06T21:07:00.000-05:00

I was only in Iowa part of the week. I spent a lovely three days in Arizona with my family this weekend. That was surely the highlight. Before I celebrate that time, let me first discuss the usual business.

I worked 35 hours of random projects. We have not had anything incredibly pressing the last week or two so we are tackling some of the more tedious projects that still need to be done. I suppose that tackling some of these projects through finite element analysis does save the company money, but one project I am working on would take all of two hours to do in real life, but will take me a week. On the other hand, if it failed in a real test, then there would be a significant amount of work to be done to fix it, more than a week. Business is continually interesting.

I was only at track practice a handful of days this week, but I was there for the workouts. It's strange having two jobs. I don't think I have ever had two jobs, at least two jobs that pay more than $20 a month. It's good I like working. I get to do the analytical numerical work during the day then do some socializing, exercising, and supervising in the afternoon.

I ran 72 miles including two tempos, a set of short hills, 4x600 at 3k pace, and a desert run that was simple terrible. My legs were stabbed by cacti over and over. I scraped my legs. 32 hours later I pulled a 3/8 inch long cactus needle out of my left quad. It's the kind of situation where I pulled it out after running ten miles on it that day, swimming, showering twice, and living my life, yet I had this significant sharp object in my leg.

On the investing side, I sold my positions in GTAT and GRVY for a 9% and 25% profit in short term gains. Had I held GRVY one week longer I would had been able to cash out a 50% profit, but I don't want to be greedy.

Arizona was a bundle of fun. I spent time with my parents and grandparents. The younger three went hiking at Agua Fria National Monument (cacti land), and all five went to a number of restaurants. I went swimming, spent some time with my skin in the sun, and went car shopping. I test drove a Mini and stopped by the Land Rover and Porsche dealerships. It's fun to dream...

The older I get the more I value my family. You only get one. I suppose that this is part of the process of life, growing up, mourning over a lack of deep relationships, appreciating what you do have. I am so fortunate! I am so blessed!

Buying and Selling Stock: Part 3

2012-02-06T11:16:00.002-05:00

DHT is up today a few percent and I want it. I canceled my $1.07 limit order and put another in at $1.15.

Buying and Selling a Stock: Part 2

2012-02-05T21:45:00.000-05:00

Article started February 5th, 2012, 7:40 PM. (Yep, I'm not watching the Superbowl.)

I'm still sticking with a P/E low, below 15x on the stock screener but hopefully below 5. Also and Price to book below 1, preferably below .7. In other words, I'm still researching and I'll spare you the details of the dozen companies I have passed over in the last few days. Most of them you have never heard of, which is most of the reason I passed on them. However, I passed on Citigroup and Credit Suisse because I also have more than 10% of my account in one financial company and I don't trust banks enough to dump everything into banking stocks despite the fact that I expect most bank stock to go up 20-40% this year.

I changed some of my search criteria until I found the following combination:

This particular group led me to DHT, or Double Hull Tankers.

DHT 6 Month Chart and Overview

I have had greater quick success with micro cap stocks than the larger stuff. So here is the pertinent information that I gleaned reading through the tabs. The price of the stock was around $15 per share a few years ago. The company owns and operates nine large double hull tankers for the oil industry, but has only five employees. Their book value is around $200M, which means if they threw in the towel tomorrow, they could sell everything at market value and settle their debts and the five employees would walk away with tens of millions each. Their most recent quarter they beat analyst expectations, thus the recent jump from $0.80 to $1.10. Their sales are almost as great as their market cap, which is great. A terrible analogy is imagine that you have a renter property with with a $100k mortgage, and pretend you put $0 down for this example. Now imagine if you brought in $70k in rent in one year. Sounds like a good deal?

However, there is never a perfect paradise. One of the largest shareholders, an investment company, MMI, recently dumped over a million shares some 2% of the company or more. That is partly responsible for the price decline over the last two months. Why did they sell? Well, as they are an investment company I figure that they don't hold stocks less than $1.00. It's a mental thing. Stocks in that range feel cheap. Below $5 is another perfect example, most large investment companies dump at that level. Bank of America had that kind of moment a few months ago dropping into the $4.90s a few times one week. Now it's up to $7.84. The point being large shareholders selling is not a good sign, but it is not always a bad sign.

How do I personally connect to DHT? I like the idea of double wall tankers. Single wall tankers are the kind that seems to always be getting into oil spills. Plus, with the situation in Iran, oil trafficking might be of increased importance over the next few months or even years, in other words, the price will go up. Even if we do not get any oil from Iran, say Russia and China do get oil from Iran. If they no longer get oil from Iran through a pipeline or local tankers, they will need oil transported the long way, using tankers, preferably double hull tankers. Secondly, the economy is better than the media is portraying, the same way it was worse than they portrayed in 2007 and 2008 and 2009. So I expect more people to vacation in the US this year, thus using more oil. So I expect the price to go up significantly this summer. The more money each tanker cargo goes for at port the more the companies owning the tankers will be paid.

Buy Order for DHT

So I put in a limit order for 1000 shares. Yep, I'm betting over $1000 that this is a good bet even though I had never heard of the company an hour ago. That does mean a few things though, I will be skittish to sell the stock relatively early because I am not 100% familiar with it like I would be with Apple stock or John Deere. In other words, in my magic calculator I have a target price of $1.94 for this stock. Don't ask to share that on my blog, that's part of my secret. But I will show you in person if you want to look at my laptop. Basically it's an algorithm based on my priorities and selected financials of the company.

One last comment pertaining to microcap stocks I am unfamiliar with and my value formula. I sold GRVY stock this week for $1.82 a share after buying it at $1.42 per share about 22 days earlier. I had a target price on the stock of $1.88 but it went up so quick that I sold it a little early even though it is now trading at $1.96 or something ridiculous.

Gravity Company Win

The point is, Benjamin Graham and Warren Buffet are not geniuses by any stretch of the imagination, but they sure understood the idea of value investing.

Article completed 8:45 PM. (Still not watching the Superbowl.)

Buying and Selling a Stock: Part 1

2012-02-01T20:56:00.003-05:00

Blog article started at about 8PM Central Standard Time February 1st, 2012.

Here we go. There were only four votes, yet around 300 unique visitors in the time the poll was open. However, like many things in life if you don't take the chance to vote, you don't get a say in what happens. So I'm going to go through the process of buying a stock and describing the process to everyone. Here we go with Part 1: Research

Step 1: Log into your brokerage account. For me that is ShareBuilder. I chose it because it links to my ING Direct account, which used to have great interest rates. I also have a Fidelity Account.

Step 2: At the current moment I am into "net asset" value stocks, preferably Micro and Small Capitalization (Cap). So I go to Research > Find Investments > Investment Screener. Then I select on the Basics tab > Small and Micro. On the Fundamentals tab > P/E Ratio and Price to Book. We will pick a P/E Ratio of 0-15X and a Price to Book Ratio of 0-1X.

Since that gives us a huge list of 283 possible companies, and I am too lazy to go through them all we have to make the list smaller. Let us stick with only Small Cap stocks because I have a feeling some of my readers would be terrified to invest in a Micro Cap stock. Let us also add companies with a Debt to Total Cap ratio of less than 50% because a company with less debt is probably a good bet. We end up with:

That gives us a very manageable list of only nine companies.

The List of Possible Value Companies

Unfortunately, none of those jump off the page as best investments ever. However, I am interested in Ruby Tuesday because I recognize it and Interactive Brokers Group because it has nearly no debt and a very low P/B. Here is where it gets tedious. You have to read. Let's start with Ruby Tuesday.

Ruby Tuesday Stock Overview

Now, the first thing I do is read the Profile and check some News & Events. I won't show you every screen shot but I didn't know Ruby Tuesday owned Mozzarella's and Tia's. I vaguely remember a Tia's somewhere. They also use Tiffany lamps in their restaurants. I had no idea. Oh, it seems the CFO is going to retire in June. At first a CFO leaving raises a warning flag for me. The most recent quarter results announced January 5th say that they lost $0.03 per share, which beat analysts expectations of a $0.06 loss per share. Beating analysts expectations is good, but losing money without any specific one time events such as a large investment or spinoff is not a good sign. However, the economy was not great this fall so fewer people probably went out to eat, that probably explains it. It seems almost all restaurants were down for the year.

Finally I click on the Financials tab. This is where the real meat of the kill is. They have only $10M in cash, but including property have a whopping $1.19B in assets. However, they have some significant long term debt and accrued expenses for liabilities of $595M. That means they have a book value of $592M. Thus the Price to Book ratio of .82. Additionally, the 52 week high is $14.48 and the 52 week low is $6.35. At a share price of $7.74 this looks like a good deal. However, the price to earnings ratio is 14.7 while the statistical 300 year average is 12.1 for large companies I believe. Plus, they did lose money the last quarter. Their stock price has been dropping over the last year, which often indicates that either the company is going bankrupt eventually, or set to go back up again. It seems that prior to 2007 the stock traded at $20-30 consistently. Again, that can be a good sign that it will likely rise again.

However, due to the high P/E ratio, recent Q2 loss of $0.03 per share, and my skepticism about Ruby Tuesday as a restaurant of choice and the overall American dining out prospects for 2012 I am not going to invest, but I will keep Ruby Tuesday in mind if I hear anything. Also to see if It goes up to $10 a share or something next month.

That is all for tonight. I've been typing for over an hour. Just because I research a stock doesn't mean that I have to buy it. Furthermore, for someone who better understands the restaurant business this might be a great investment. I would suggest this investment more than 90% of the companies out there based on the numbers that we looked at tonight.

Article finished 9:23 PM CST Wednesday February 1st, 2012.

I Feel Guilty of Being Lazy, All the Time

2012-01-31T21:37:00.000-05:00

I am terrible at saying no. I like to please people. I continually feel like I am not living up to the expectations set for me. I feel like I am always letting people down. However, feelings are not fact. I typically leave my house around 6:30 AM and get back around 6:30 PM. Yet as I lay here on my couch at half past eight, barely awake and with aching legs from a 12 mile run I feel like a failure for not doing some more work after supper. Where does this ridiculousness come from? Did my family raise me to be this way? Did a never ending thesis teach me never to relax? I don't know.

I do know that these feelings propel me onward. When I am feeling lazy I remember times when I was productive and felt great. That's what keeps me energized to stay active in all aspects of life. Success is like a drug. When you have a little bit of it you start to wonder what a little more would feel like.

I Live in Iowa: Week 41

2012-01-30T05:57:00.000-05:00

This was such a fun week! I have such a great life. Often I wonder what purpose is it that I have so much when others have so little. I mean this about everything. I have accumulated more wealth this past year than other do in five years. I have some of the most amazing family and friends. Where do these people come from? How in the world am I fortunate enough to be friends with them? How is it that I had such a wonderful formal education? I mean seriously, I went to one of the top 5% of public schools in Kansas. I went to the college that while ranked only in the 50s by the standard rating agencies, has the 9th highest starting salary for undergraduates. In my opinion the measure of starting salaries is a little more descriptive of the value of an education than a ranking based on class size or starting salary compared to cost of attendance. By the way, WPI ranks higher on the starting salary scale than MIT. I'm just saying.

I worked 42 hours and finished some more projects this week. This is great I am hitting my stride, it just took a nine month warmup. Projects that formerly took days and weeks I am doing in hours or days. I feel almost guilty when I start a project and finish it less than three hours later. I feel like I shouldn't be going that fast. However, I still have significant room to grow and improve in the areas of structural evaluation. The things that we are doing with nCode and load surveys are pretty interesting and still not optimized for accuracy and efficiency. Honestly, in five years on products that we have been making for at least 10-15 years we will not need to physically test before we start selling them. Maybe it sounds like magic to imply that something will be able to go from computer screen directly to customer without us trying to break a few at our proving grounds, but the time of that is nearing, and we aren't even close to atomic scale modeling yet. (When we get to the point where normal cluster computers can model structures at the atomic scale and include everything like discontinuities and welding we will really begin using engineering minds.)

I ran two races this week, the mile and the 200 meters. Both went well. The mile I ran in 4:39.59 going through the first 809 meters in 2:15 I slowed down significantly but managed to recover enough to run 33 something seconds in the last 200 meters. The 200 I ran in 28.52 and received deal last place by more than a second out of the 38 people who raced it. I was so slow that about a dozen women beat me. Hopefully, my two races provided some inspiration to the members of my team. For the sprinters I hope that they saw how I put myself in an uncomfortable position and gave it what I had. I ran a sprinter workout with them on Tuesday and was tearing it up in front of them. Hopefully they can say, 'hey this guy only raced two seconds faster than he was running repeat 200s this week. Maybe I can pick it up in practice a little bit.' For the distance runners I hope that they can look at my 200 and think, 'I'm faster than that in the 200, I should be a little closer to him at the longer distances.' Plus, I feel we have a good relationship among our whole team right now, but it could be better. We are having some of our distance runners run 4x200s and 4x400s in meets and the occasional sprinter workout. Similarly sometimes we get the long sprinters to do a longer workout or outside distance day with us. I feel that bridging the gap between strait sprinters and strait distance runners is important to building a loyal team. If you can get those two different groups together you will end up with the jumpers and throwers being in on the huddle as well. When everyone on the team knows everyone else and respects them, you get a lot more cheering and encouragement. Oh yeah, I ran 72 miles this week it was my first 70+ mile week post-CIM.

In other news, I am trying to get a team for Reach the Beach New Hampshire this year. If you would like to join and be part of a relay and run three legs totaling about 20 miles over 24 hours let me know. WPI Alumni runners preferred, but I will take others as well.

What You Seek, You Will Not Find

2012-01-29T14:57:00.000-05:00

What you desire, you will not enjoy.
What is your motivation, will seem pointless.
What you need, you will have.
What you lack, you will learn.
The destination is the journey and the journey the destination.

A Week Without Coffee

2012-01-27T07:56:00.000-05:00

I drink 1-2 cups of coffee per day. Often that comes in the form of mochas and lattes or chocolate covered espresso beans. Well, over the last few months instead of having coffee 3-5 times a week I was drinking it nearly every day. Fearing the stories of caffine addiction I decided I needed to take a week off.

Starting last Friday I quit coffee. I made it all week. The worst day was Monday because I hit my head skiing by falling off a table in the terrain park Sunday and I had a headache from that. I am sure that the caffine withdraw also contributed to the headache as well. It was a relatively minor headache and far less disconcerting than the altitude headache I had at 20,300 feet on Broad Peak.

The illusion of control is a funny thing. We like to think we control something, but it is an illusion. Thus my attempt to "control" my coffee habit. Regardless of the fact that I am back on the cup now, the experiment was a success. I proved to myself that I could quit and continued my illusion that I control my coffee intake.

Does Loyalty Matter Anymore?

2012-01-26T21:41:00.000-05:00

Part of "The American Dream" is that by working harder you can get ahead, whatever that means. However, it is a well known fact that switching companies typically leads to a promotion and a raise. I have also been part of many organization that often focus on recruitment, and not retention. While this article is not the recruitment versus retention discussion, it has some of those themes.

This came up a few months ago among some of my friends. The subject came up that people sometimes leave something hanging to go somewhere else to get a bigger paycheck yet those who stayed do not get bigger paychecks at the end of the project. We felt as if loyalty was not rewarded. In hindsight I think that perhaps we were not thinking as long term as we should have. Often times the top management at companies consists of people that have been very loyal to the company for a long time. Additionally people do receive bonuses and raises based on their performance.

Another similar example is coaching a team of "individuals". I do not do much with recruitment because I feel that my time is better spent doing other things. Besides, my coaching salary comes out to about half of minimum wage already. However, I do feel a huge need to be involved in retention of current athletes. I can not coach someone who doesn't show up. Furthermore, I am currently dealing with such a small group of people that losing just one to injury or motivation is a double digit percentage loss. So I regularly ask how everyone is feeling and say thank you to them for showing up and cheer them on not only in running but also in other life events. Part of my job as coach is an attention giver. To some extent all the kids that show up want some sort of attention. Not every day, but at some point they want reinforcement of their perceived success.

In other words, if you can buy gas for $2.99 a gallon at the corporation that funnels money through warlords or buy it for $3.14 next door at the "free-trade" corporation that you have been using for the last three years because the two gas prices used to be the same price, would you still buy the expensive gas?

Loyalty is a finicky thing. Car companies have it, heavy equipment companies have it, Apple has it, Coke and Pepsi have it, cigarettes have it and so do a number of smaller companies, like my family's greenhouse. One of the interesting questions that has come up as a contract employee is, 'does the company that I am at have any loyalty toward me?' They are not providing health or retirement benefits and my timesheet and pay are on a weekly basis. It is quite obvious that if there would be a downturn severe enough, the contract employees would be "let-go" before the actual employees. The contract labor system is becoming more and more common at all levels of pay at a company. It is especially difficult for unskilled and low-skilled workers, the demographic that I feel would benefit the most from enhanced corporate loyalty.

I am learning so much as I grow up and experience life. It is not necessarily that my perceptions of the world are turned upside down, it is simply that a secret door seems to open in one room after another and provide me with a whole new set of ideas and experiences. I wasn't really looking for these doors, but since I now know they are there, I want to see what exists on the other side.

Leave a comment. Does loyalty still matter?

It's Official.

2012-01-23T20:18:00.000-05:00

One of the interesting things about "industry" is that if something isn't written down, it didn't happen. In other words, when I write a report, or even an email, what I wrote becomes official and could end up in court if someone sues.

The problem is, if doubt is expressed in writing about something that does not get changed, heads will roll. That is a good thing, however, to the best of my knowledge the repercussions to being oblivious to a problem are minor. In other words, if I approve a flawed design because my calculations were flawed no one in engineering will be punished for it. On the other hand if I reject a design that gets made anyway and it fails, people will get in trouble. Or at least the company will get in trouble and have to pay millions.

I have not been put in this spot, and I doubt that I will because I do my analysis well and the physical testing protocol that we have is very stringent. I also understand that the corporate laws are set so that there is limited liability to individuals working for the corporation. That is a good thing as well because simple mistakes that could destroy many strong careers are instead absorbed by the company instead of the individual.

However, I like accountability. I like the reward of success and the burden of failure. It might sound crazy to say that I like failure, but I do. If you never fail you aren't trying hard enough. Failure is recognition of our faults. Failure is the reminder that we are nowhere near perfect. Recognizing and accepting failure is also an important stage in growth. When we look back and think, 'I could have handled that better' the desire is that next time we will handle it better. Believe me, I am far more prepared for unemployment now than I was before when I failed at unemployment.

In other words, if I find a problem, I will say so. My relatives all say my grandpa was honest to a fault. He would tell people things they did not want to hear. I hope that I can be that definitive with the facts.

I Live in Iowa: Week 40

2012-01-22T15:34:00.000-05:00

40 weeks!! That's fantastic! I like consistency and routine, and I'm getting there. Of course I also like new challenges and adventures...

This week at work was a good week. The Deere employees had Monday off but being as I don't work directly for them I did not get eight hours of holiday pay. So I went in and worked for about five hours. It was really nice, sleep ten hours, go for a morning run in the day light, work five hours, go for an afternoon run in the daylight. The rest of the week I resumed my normal 8-9 hour days. Once again I finished two projects this week. Actually three, but one only took me three hours. Then on Friday I was able to talk to my supervisor's supervisor who actually hired me and thank him for this opportunity. I am very blessed to have had 40 weeks doing what I do here. As my debt continues to decline, my bank account continues to climb, my social circle continues to expand, and my aerobic base continues to increase I feel so incredibly fortunate! There is so much wealth and prosperity that I enjoy! No one deserves this much success.

On a side track, I make a point of thanking servicemen that I work with or exercise with because I am so thankful for them working to make the world a better place. I enjoy so many privileges simply because of where I was born. This weekend I finally thanked a serviceman from Afghanistan that saw "action". Everyone else I have encountered was in Iraq, some saw no action because they were stationed at large bases. I realized that I take an interest in their stories because I want to empathize with them and share their pain. It is not appropriate that 1%, often the most disadvantaged 1%, have to bear the burden of safety for all of us in this country. While I never intend to put myself in that position of getting shot at or blown up, refusing to greatly appreciate that sacrifice would be just plain ignorant. While I am ignorant about many things, I feel this topic is too great to avoid.

Circle back toward the title, I finally moved to Iowa this week. My van now has Iowa license plates. It also has 280,700 miles on it and it doesn't like to steer in the cold very well. This worries me because if it breaks, I do not have a backup. Thus, I am officially in the market for a newer vehicle. Feel free to solicit me with you opinions. Keep in mind that I do take a long time to make decisions and hopefully I will not actually buy anything for two or three years.

Coaching is going well. On Saturday we had a track meet at UW Whitewater. In total from the time I arrived at our gym in the morning until we returned it was 16 hours. On the positive side our kids are improving and getting better, even though none of them are performing as well as they would like. But that is the whole point of development, break the perfect performance into trainable qualities and systematically train them in some order over a period of time so that when put together at the end of the season the result is the greatest. That is why we have classes in schools and in college. One lesson or class does not a student make. In other words my athletes, you are probably not going to PR very often until April, then you will run faster than you even desired.

My own running went well. I ran 56 miles, about as much as last week. I talked to the coach at UW Platteville, Tom Anczak because he enjoyed much success as a marathoner in the 70s and 80s and as a coach now. Two of his suggestions were to run my daily runs faster, and to work on my sprint speed. So I am. I did a 10 miler at 6:30 pace and a couple of runs at 6:05 pace this week and a few slower repeat miles around 5:40 pace. In other words, hardly a workout they are so easy, but far harder than my typically daily runs. Next Saturday, I'm getting on the track to run some races. I'm not sure which ones, but I will probably run an open 400 in addition to a distance race. My PR is a hand timed 58 high and I would like to go under 57. I have also volunteered my services to several coaches and athletes as a rabbit in case they desire to run a fast (implied a national qualifying) time.

Socially, RFA/Minnesota Engineering, my actual company had a friday night get together and dinner this weekend. It was a really good time. We all work together and see each other but we rarely talk socially or do anything outside of work and it was nice to get to know everyone a little better.

My life is surely good, I hope that you had a good week as well.

Meb Won Because Carlos Lopez Won

2012-01-19T05:28:00.001-05:00

Back in the early 1980s a young American, Alberto Salazar, was running some very fast times and people predicted he would win the 1984 Olympic Marathon in Los Angeles at the age of 26. However, one of the best coaches at the time, and really the guy that wrote the book on long distance training, Arthur Lydiard was asked to make a prediction about who would win, and he picked Carlos Lopez, who was 36 at the time.

The reason being that all other things being equal, in a marathon the person with the biggest aerobic base has the ability to run away from everyone else at the end. So when Meb Keflezighi at age 36 ran away from Ryan Hall at age 29 to win by 22 seconds over the final miles it should not be a big surprise. He may not be the fastest, but in a championship style race the race is typically won in the final miles and again, other things being equal, the person with the largest aerobic base will win.

It is also interesting to mention that Meb set a personal record at New York City in November at 2:09:13 on a relatively tough course, and then set a PR about ten weeks later in Houston at 2:09:08. When I tell people that I have a long way to go in running, that is what I mean, setting personal records twice at age 36. Now I might move on to something else long before then, and perhaps have a family or something, but the fact is, it takes a long time to reach your potential in this sport. One season or one year is not enough.

I feel like it is a good metaphor for other careers and for life. When will I peak in my professional career, 50s? 60s? 70s? 80s? No way! Not my 80s! But I just asked the question, and like a seed the idea will grow. The question will arise, is it possible to be on top of your game in your 80s? What about socially, with a family? At what point will I be most effective as a family member? I don't know, but the point is, I have a lot to look forward to in the future.

Ten Things About Engineering You Don't Learn in College

2012-01-18T18:03:00.000-05:00

They say experience matters, and it does. In fact, knowing what I know now I would say that twelve months of experience, such as during a co-op, is a great idea and huge advantage to an engineer's career. Well here is a non-exhaustive list of things they don't thoroughly teach in college.

Cost drives everything. You can make a great design that lasts for decades, but if it survives the warranty period that's good enough, and it probably costs less.
There are many right and many wrong answers, but no grades. It's really a pass or fail world. Of course, defining fail is another reason engineers get paid so much.
The expectation is to get X amount of work done in Y amount of hours. It usually takes .5Y or .75Y or .9Y to do X amount of work. But there are days when it takes 1.5Y hours of work to do X.
Seniority is based primarily on age and years of experience, not necessarily education or performance although they do account for something.
There is a lot of monotony. Instead of taking four different classes you are doing one thing or perhaps two, nearly all the time.
Few people use calculus. I know a lot of math, but most of the time I don't use any of it. Most of the important calculations have spreadsheets or macros (small computer programs or additions to a computer program). Simply plug in numbers and receive a result.
Microsoft Excel is probably the most used engineering software in the US.
You are likely to get hired if you already have a job in that industry. It is harder to get a job if you are unemployed or changing fields.
Successful engineers must keep learning to stay current. If you thought education ended when you got a job, you are wrong. Standards and expectations are always changing.
The things that we do and choices that we make in our offices costs others millions of dollars and can determine life or death for some people. If a roll over protection system fails, someone will likely die. Engineering can be isolating. We don't always see the manufacturing process or the operator using our product. A "win" might be a part that weights 30 pounds less (when measured on the computer) or seeing yellow (moderate) strains instead of red (high) strains. At the end of the day the bridge is not 10 feet longer or the building one story higher, the pictures on the computer simply have different shapes.

Those are a few of the things I have encountered. I could expand on most of those, but I will leave it as it is. I am so fortunate to have the job that I do! This is such a great learning experience for me. One of the things that I like to do as I am encountering these new situations is ask, how could we do this better? So often, I really don't have an answer. It is great to be working to improve something and not have a cut and dried solution already in your head. It keeps it interesting. It keeps me thinking.

I Live in Iowa: Week 39

2012-01-15T16:27:00.000-05:00

I worked 42 hours, I ran 57 miles, I coached through my first track meet, and I did not sleep enough.

To elaborate on that I was thinking about the progress I have made in one year as a structural analyst is amazing. I am so productive. I finished two projects this week and made significant progress on a third. I am significantly more valuable now than I was a year ago. Basically one FEA class would have been a huge benefit for me, but now that I have on the job training it works out.

I ran a three mile tempo, 4x400 meters, short hills, and a five mile in 31 minutes this week. It's not a great week, but it's huge progress. I am planning to run some indoor track races over the next few weeks with an eye toward bring down my PRs from 400m to 5000m. Specifically, a 56 or 57 400, 2:08 800, 4:2X mile, 8:XX 3000, and something big in the 5000. I would like to get in a high 14s 5k race and see what happens. Can I break 15? I'll let you know in a few weeks after I get a few more workouts in my legs.

Coaching is going well. We have very few runners, but they are excited to be there, and I know we are making significant long term progress. We had our first track meet of the year and a handful of people had PR performances. Most did mediocre. Overall, it's good to know where we stand now. Plus, no one is peaking for the first of 16 meets this year. We want to perform our best at the end of the season.

The Olympic Marathon Trials took place down in Houston and I was glued to my phone checking updates. Hopefully I will be able to watch it at some point, but NBC is typically giving terrible coverage of long distance running. Oh well, only 41 million Americans are runners, hardly a target demographic. Fortunately, there were several media from people microblogging the race.

I hope you all had a good week.

Guessing the Olympic Marathon Trials

2012-01-15T00:30:00.000-05:00

On the men's side:
1. Meb
2. Hall
3. Abdi
4. Ritz
5. Gotcher
6. Carlson
7. Cabada
8. Archinaga
9. Carney
10. Jimmy Grabow?

I guessed:
1. Hall
2. Meb
3. Ritz
4. Trafeh
5. Archinaga
6. Morgan
7. Gotcher
8. Hartman
9. Cabada
10. Sigl

That's two of the top three and six of the top ten. And who is Jimmy Grabow? (I just looked him up, he debuted today but was a 1:03 half and 28:35 10k 27 year old who puts in 120 miles per week regularly. Well, that's about what a 2:12 takes.) Also, congratulations to Carlson, Cabada, and Carney who all set PRs today. The toughest part is that Ritz set a five second PR to finally break 2:10 and he gets 4th.

On the women's side:
1. Flanagan
2. Davilia
3. Goucher
4. Hastings
5. Cherobon-Bawcom
6. Kastor
7. Grandt
8. McKaig
9. McMahan
10. Lewy-Boulet

I guessed:
1. Davilia
2. Flanagan
3. Kastor
4. Goucher
5. Lewy-Boulet
6. Hastings
7. Rothstein
8. McGregor
9. Rhines
10. Grandt

That's two of the top three and seven of the top ten. The big surprise of the top ten is Janet Cherobon-Bawcom who set an eight minute PR to 2:29 today. Rumor had it her trainingwas going well, but an eight minute PR is pretty big. Shalane did set a three minute PR to win although New York is considered harder than the trials course.

Learning Through Failure in Investing

2012-01-11T20:28:00.000-05:00

I have failed hundreds of times. Some notable examples since I started blogging: Janzen Gear (Part 1), most of my initial M.S. thesis research, running (constantly a mix of failure and success), unemployment, and my personal relationships. I am here tonight to add another to the list of failures: investing.

The stock market is a lot of fun, but as with many endeavors there is a learning curve and a difference between understanding what you are doing and understanding what you are doing. In Spanish "saber" is to know (informally) and "conocer" is to know (intimately). I wish English was as descriptive. So we begin with the story...

I read Joel Greenblatt's "Little Book that Beats the Market" about formula investing, and while I still think that the system works, I thought I could do better than his mutual funds with less than an hour of research. I scanned the stocks on the list and came up with several I was interested in investing. The one that formed my learning curve is Jiangbo Pharmaceuticals (JGBO). All of the financials that I saw looked good, the idea of a pharmaceutical company in China, where everything is exploding, sounded great. The numbers did not seem too good to be true, but they seemed the best compared to the other companies on the list. I was hooked. I bought 105 shares at $4.58. Including the commission that was $490.85.

Mistake #1: I bought stock in a company that I did not understand. I know nothing about pharmaceuticals, especially pharmaceuticals in China. A few days ago I mentioned that I traded USO (Oklahoma oil futures contracts) this summer. Oil I understand. By looking at charts and graphs and listening to the news I knew that when USO was around $30 (52 week low of $29.10), a 52 week low and at the end of summer when oil is the least expensive and after 3% of the US reserve was announced to be released, chances are very strong it would go up (it's at $38.92 tonight). Oil futures contracts in Oklahoma I understand; pharmaceuticals in China are a total mystery to me.

A few weeks later the CFO resigned effective immediately. When it comes to a company's financials you want the CFO to be a stand up, honest, long term person. The kind of person who notifies the board of directors months in advance of leaving the company. When a CFO leaves abruptly chances are that person realized that there is a financial problem at the company.

Mistake #2: When the CFO leaves abruptly, sell everything immediately! Even if you take a loss on it, at least you will probably still have some left. CFOs are not the kind of people you want dropping off the face of the Earth. I've never seen this "rule" written anywhere else, but after this experience I will not soon forget it. I would have only lost about $100 had I sold then.

A few weeks later Jiangbo Pharmaceuticals was investigated by the SEC and trading shares on Nasdaq was stopped. Several weeks after that the results were that there were major problems at the company and the stock was delisted from Nasdaq. Now the shares are traded over the counter on the "pink sheets". I waited until 2012 to sell my stock so that I could use the loss as a tax deduction. I sold the stock last week for $0.15 per share. After commissions that means I lost $485.05.

Lessons to take away:

Invest in what you understand.
If the CFO leaves abruptly, sell everything!
When investing in foreign companies that trade domestically, make sure you know what you are doing. As of now I am invested in nine stocks and ETFs. Only one is foreign and it is not in China.
Market capitalization of 2/3 net assets + insider buying + 52 week or 104 week low = worth looking into as a buying opportunity (it's probably a bet-the-house situation if you understand the company). That has nothing to do with everything above but it's genius.

Lest people think I am throwing my money away, January 10th and 11th (yesterday and today) I "made" over $500 in unrealized gains. Particularly today I had a huge day. It was the first time I "made" more on the stock market than I did at work. I had four stocks that went up over 3.5% and one of them went up over 10%. By the way the markets were up about .9% Tuesday and about flat today. Which brings up the typical rich person problem, "should I quit my job to play the stock market full time?" No of course I won't, this year.

2011 My Year in Review

2012-01-10T05:48:00.000-05:00

2011 was a great year for me in many respects. I could make a convincing argument that it was the best year in my life, but a statement that general ignores so many details that I can not admit it was the best year of my life, although, it was a very good one.

Economically this was my best year ever by far. I paid more in taxes this year than I made last year. I made around three times more than I made while being a graduate student in 2009. I wrote down this was the best year professionally for me, but that is not true. Getting a degree, getting a patent, learning about all of those processes are barriers to entry that make them more important in the long run than the first job in the chosen field, in my mind. I worked 1970 billable hours this year. My goal for next year, 2012, is 2100 hours. This is a critical point in my life, the small amount of money that I can save now will go a very long way toward providing me a large amount of money in the future. Since I am not a great saver, compared to my ideals, I will still spend lots of money on food, coffee, running stuff, and other luxuries, the solution is to work a little bit more. I will probably put in the extra hours during the summer when I can run early and work late and still have plenty of sun to shine on me while I run. Plus, I enjoy my job. I have learned so much this year I feel far more valuable now as a structural analyst.

Financially, I did very well. I paid off the first of my 11 loans because it had a high interest rate. the principal was just under 5000 in May when I paid it off. I made the minimum payments on nine of my other loans, and I started paying down the second of my loans and I expect to have it paid off probably in March. I started investing in the stock market. Here is a sample of the investing in oil (USO) that I did this year:

Lot: Acquired 06/29/11 07/19/11	32	$1,225.25	$1,208.35	$16.90
Lot: Acquired 08/05/11	10/25/11	20	$717.03	$692.55	$24.48
Lot: Acquired 09/22/11	10/25/11	20	$717.02	$629.15	$87.87

In total I sold four stocks this year for an adjusted cost basis of $3626.40 and a short term gain of $305.00. It's not impressive, but 8.4% in short term gains in a year the stock markets are flat is not bad either. Plus, I have to admit in the last 12 months I have learned so much about investing that several of the investment choices I made last year were not good and I won't make the same mistakes again.

My running had an amazing year! There were so many accomplishments that I am not going to go into detail. Here is a list with many of them:

Ended a 174 day running streak
Debuted a 2:34 marathon on a very windy day and 800ft long course
Ran a new highest mileage week of 140 miles
Had a legitimate (sub 7 minute pace) 30 mile training run
Won a five mile, 5k, team triathlon, and individual duathlon, and was second in a half marathon and a four mile race
Completed a special block workout (2x 2mi warmup, 14mi tempo)
Managed to throw down 5:20s more than 15 miles into a long run
Ran several of my best 20 minute tempos getting my paces down to 5:24ish
Ran better than my previous half marathon PR of 1:17:06 at least eight times
Ran 4x1600m in my best average (5:08) with a 1:45 400m jog rest
Ran approximately 3640 miles for an average daily mileage that rounds to 10miles
Acquired a sponsor
Acquired a number of positive new friends and acquaintances through my running

Coaching I had a great year. I now get paid to do help younger men and women develop as athletes, students, and people. It is pretty awesome.

Socially, I made the rounds this year. I have quite a few friends now that I am really happy with. I have people to ride bicycles, friends at the pubs, friends to run, friends to help move, friends for summer yard parties, and nice people at work. Also, it was a really good year to visit people so I won't go into details but here is the list:

February I visited my best friend from high school in St. Louis
July I celebrated a 21st birthday in Kansas City with some high school friends
October I went to a good friend's wedding in Omaha
November I visited some of my menugas from grad school in Massachusetts
December I visited some family friends in Sacramento
December I went to Colorado and saw friends from college and summer camp

As far as the dating scene goes... errr... I can't say it has been better in the past, but I just haven't met or spent enough time with a person who is on the same wavelength as I.

As far as climbing and mountaineering it was terrible. I spent one day with a rope outdoors, one day in a gym, but a whole lot of time on a hangboard. It wasn't a total loss, but not much climbing.

As for other things, I have a really nice carbon fiber bicycle, a nice single speed cyclocross, I gardened and got a little bit of good food and I read a handful of books. It was a good year.

Preview of the 2012 Olympic Marathon Trails

2012-01-09T05:42:00.000-05:00

To get some background start with this article by friend Mario Fraioli, read everything on this joint website, watch some Flotrack videos, and visit the official site.

Since the fun thing to do is talk about the finish placing I'm going to do that.

On the men's side:
1. Ryan Hall for the win. The guy is fast. He pushes international fields from the start. Even though he ran the Chicago Marathon in October, I am sure he will have no problem popping out a 2:09 or 2:10 leading the entire way if he wants to. If he does sit and kick, I still pick him for the win because he has the fastest half marathon.

2. Meb Kerflezgi in second. Meb ran New York in November so he had even less recovery time and training time. He even had to battle a foot infection after New York. However, considering he ran a PR with a nasal strip chaffing in his shoe, and he has a second at the Olympics, and won New York once (making him one of two American who have ever beat Hall), I think he has the experience, aerobic and strength base to run a 2:09.

3. Dathan Ritzenhein in third. While he is slow at the marathon compared to the times he has done at the shorter distances, he has run 2:10 flat, his slowest marathon was a 2:14 debut at age 23 in New York, and he did get 9th in Beijing (making him the other American to ever beat Hall in a marathon).

4. Mo Trafeh is a 1:00 half marathoner, he mentioned Renato Canova in an interview, and he cleaned up this year on the USATF road racing circuit.

5. Nick Archinaga has run 2:11 twice, both times off of less than optimal marathon prep.

6. Mike Morgan has only run 2:14, but he has run some good times in rough conditions and I hear his training is going well so I expect him to get a little faster.

7. Brett Gotcher is still relatively young but he ran a 2:10 after slowing down the last few miles. He hasn't been totally consistent, but I think his coach Greg McMillian knows what he is doing.

8. Jason Hartman has gotten better the last few years after moving up to the marathon. Given his recent consistency and experience he will probably do pretty well.

9. Fernando Cabada, who I believe is the American 25k record holder, is training under Renato Canova, enough said.

10. Tyler Sigl is a huge dark horse, but as a guy that routinely beats me on the roads I think he has a shot. He paced the women in Chicago at 5:18 pace for 20 miles then a week later ran a 1:06 in Des Moine back in October. Considering the great weather the last few months I would assume he is in good shape.

Wow, that was a terrible description of the placing. I left out Jason Lehmkuhle, Jorge Torres, Abdi Abdirahman, and Justin Young to name a few.

On the women's side:
1. Desiree Davilia is the marathon class of the field. She has consistently improved over the last four years and has the best marathon time for an American woman in the last four years of 2:22 at Boston in 2011.

2. Shalane Flanagan has not done much in marathoning but a second place in New York is a good race. She is quite fast and given the larger aerobic base and experience that she has now I estimate her at second.

3. Deena Kastor has not done really well the last few years in the marathon, but with a 2:19 and low 2:20s to her credit she knows exactly what it takes to run a 2:25 and she probably has a pretty large aerobic base at this point.

4. Kara Goucher has the second fastest marathon time at 2:24 this Olympic cycle and she is certainly going to up front if she is not injured.

5. Magdalena Lewy Boulet went to the Olympic the last time and has lowered her personal record since then.

6. Amy Hastings has only run one marathon, but it was a 2:27 and she lives up at Mammoth Lakes with some of the best marathon coaches. Terrance Mahon even calls here "Little Deena"

7. Stephanie Rothstein only in the last year or two figured out her gluten intolerance, and lowered her marathon PR to 2:29. Now that she has that figured out I imagine she can lower it a little more.

8. Katie McGregor has not been in the 2:20s in the marathon and Team USA Minnesota does not have the reputation that the groups in Mammoth Lakes and Flagstaff do for marathoning but she has solid shorter distance credentials and lots of race experience.

9. Jennifer Rhines went to the Olympics in the marathon way back in 2000 I think. Her huspand is Terrance Mahon and now that she is returning I think she will not make many mistakes.

10. Clara Grandt is a relatively young marathoner but it is hard to ignore someone who runs 2:29 and seems to have herself in a consistently working environment.

Again, that was a terrible description. I left out Zoila Gomez, Melissa White, Tera Moody, Blake Russell, Paige Higgins and more. Well, at least I have something out there. I am pretty sure that Ryan Hall and Desiree Davilia will be in the top three. Other than that, we will have to watch the race Saturday.

I Live in Iowa: Week 38

2012-01-08T19:39:00.000-05:00

This was a great week! I started back at work on Tuesday, having forgot hardly anything. Coaching was good. Running was mediocre. I was super busy all week. Here goes the rundown.

I want to emphasize how interesting this week was at work. On Tuesday all before 9 AM I made the rounds talking to the various people I am working on projects with to see what the status was of all my projects. It's a simple process, walking around talking to people, but not too many people seem to do it. I think it is crucial to socialize with the people I work with enough so that we keep the lines of communication open. The reason is that there comes a point when sitting beside someone and talking through the problem is far more efficient than making a presentation, emailing it, and then replying to questions later. This brings us to Wednesday...

One of the supervisors scheduled a nine hour meeting to go over various aspects of a project. I think 11 people were there from different functional groups to provide input. It was great! We were able to talk through issues and when one person suggested a fix, a different person would shoot it down, a third would suggest a second fix, and a fourth would modify the second suggestion so that it would actually work. Without a meeting with those four people, it would take each of them ten minutes to understand what was going on, five minutes to type up an email, four hours for the group to all be notified through email, another ten minutes for the person to modify the suggestion, and another five minutes to email the change, and another four hours to notify everyone through email. Then, there is a chance that one or two people would object to the idea because they were not clear on what the change was and that would take more time to fully explain the idea. So while a meeting that I estimate was costing John Deere $7 per minute and lasting for nine hours might not be a good solution to most things, I feel we got a lot done. We could have probably done it all in five hours or less, but planning a nine hour meeting sends a message that this is serious. We ended up getting done 45 minutes early, so it was really more like an eight hour meeting.

Thursday and Friday were rather typical and it was really nice to get through the first week of the year. I say that because now on my resume I can put April 2011 to January 2012. Spanning the two years I think is important for the ten second glance over from prospective employers. (I'm not applying for other jobs at the moment, but it is nice to have that experience in case I was fired or laid-off tomorrow.)

Coaching was another highlight to the week. I took a USATF Level 1 course and assuming I pass the test will be officially certified shortly. It has been on my list to do for a long time, and now I've done it. It was funny though, one of the presenters was talking about coaching a 400 meter runner to second place at state the year before, when the University of Dubuque head coach who coached the 1st place runner is sitting in the audience. However, that class was not the highlight of my coaching week. One athlete finished class early this week and inquired if it was possible to do the workout early. Through a series of text messages I gave the runner three options, with A being double. The runner chose A! I will not force kids to double because I had a bad experience in high school. However, doubling is one great way to get better and when an athlete comes to that solution willfully, good things happen. Plus, this runner was a freshman which means we have lots of time to improve even more.

My own running was not spectacular at all. A total of 43 miles, one day of stations (probably 20 minutes of core and neuromuscular work over the course of 50 minutes) and a couple strides. I had lower leg and shin pain most of the week, which turned out to be shin splints. I have been neglecting toe ups and experience showed me years ago, neglect them (and it seems even more important after a marathon) and get injured.

Socially I woke up at the beginning of the week in Dillion, Colorado and drove back to Dubuque. I did not get the sleep over the last week that I desire. However, caffeine helps to accommodate a lack of sleep in the mornings.

I Got Myself Into This.

2012-01-04T22:24:00.000-05:00

Life seems to happen all at once. It's kind of doing that right now. And it is all my fault. I made the choices to do X, Y, Z, and all that other stuff and now I have to follow through.

I Live in Iowa (more or less): Week 37

2012-01-03T21:16:00.002-05:00

I spent less than 12 hours in Iowa this week. I was rather occupied with family and friends, a good way to spend the week.

Sunday and Monday I was in Wisconsin with the family. I slept in, spent time with my family, and did a lot of good talking. For whatever reason I have some of my best conversations with my family. They are the deepest most intimate most informed conversations I typically have. I think that is because we spent so much time together. I feel that with any relationship spending time with each other is incredibly important. In other words, without spending time with each other we can not develop the relationship. In my head relationships are strengthened by the exchange of ideas, feelings, and emotions. Simply seeing my actions on the Internet does not strengthen our relationship. The point being, relationships take time and effort and are certainly not always easy but persistence leads to a more honest and understanding relationship.

Tuesday I headed out to Colorado. That night I had a private brewery tour at the Denver branch of the Breckenridge Brewery. I might post some video that I took.

The next day I met up with my friend G from WPI after hitting up Movement for some V0 and V1 bouldering. We had steak and headed up into the mountains. After four restless hours of sleep in my van in a windstorm and an hour changing clothing we headed up the hill at 3 AM. The going went well until we got above tree line and kept losing the trail. Finally a half mile farther up the mountain than I expected we were getting pelted with 50-60mph wind gusts and turned around. We had brunch at The Mountaineer, the classic Estes Park breakfast joint without yuppies (myself excepted). I spent the rest of the day buying another pair of PrAna pants, blogging from Amante north, and running part way up Green Mountain.

Friday I took the day off from the mountains. Seriously I didn't leave my friends house until about 3PM to run ten miles. The night just got interesting from there. I met up with my friend L who was going through a rough time the last time we were physically in each others presence. I am so excited to see the change and maturity in her now! Then my host B and his girlfriend J and the two of us had a double decker Papa Murphys pizza and a s'more pizza. Then we went to a biker bar. Yep. It's similar to what you imagine. You have to be in the club or a friend to get in. Some people have guns. There was a lot of smoking and my clothing still smells terrible, or at least smells of the stench of an enlightening experience. Without getting anyone in trouble, as I laugh sitting here in my apartment, I had three drinks, was not the DD and was clearly not in a state to drive so I didn't. Everyone was very nice to us. Ohh Europeans...

The next day we had a very late start driving to Dillion to stay at yet another friends condo. The winds were up to 100 mph at some of the resorts so no one was out skiing. I did get in a nice hour run along the lake in rather cold and breezy conditions. That night we started off at the Breckenridge Breckenridge Brewery. Due to B being an employee we ate huge burgers and drinks for nearly nothing. Then we had a private tour once again and I took some more video. It was cool because that is where the cutting edge of new brews is made and it's just two guys in the basement and attic of a restaurant in the mountains. I still don't drink beer. Plus I was the designated driver for the night. I was just amazed how nice our Breckenridge hosts were to us. We didn't deserve that.

After the tour the brewer took us to Trattorias or something where his wife works and the owner greeted us. All of the Italian pictures on the restaurant walls the brewer S and his wife took on their honeymoon in Italy. We talked more and watched the fireworks which I hear were better than Breck has for July 4th. After that, having had a meal, bought some clothing, and having a number of drinks we were out about $30.

From there we went to Ollie's or something, a dive bar (young people, sticky floors, loud modern music). Once again I am laughing thinking about it. I had a great time and so much happened it deserves a longer article. Finally after midnight I drove my stumbling friends to the condo in Dillon.

I went out to climb and ski and I didn't really do either last week. But I did develop several of my relationships. Life is about relationships and I easily lose sight of that in pursuit of my own selfish egotistical goals. Fortunately my family and friends keep me social. To my family and friends: Thank You!! 2011 was an amazing year for me! I have so much blog ammunition to reveal over the next few weeks. 2012? It is looking like it might be even better...

I Live in Iowa: Week 36

2012-01-02T21:15:00.000-05:00

This week blew by. I worked 40 hours in four days, I ran 42 miles, and I traveled back to Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin for Christmas with my family. That's about it.

There is clearly a difference between working eight hours a day and ten hours a day. I got to work while it was dark and left after it was dark again. Typically when I get home I am excited to get dressed and go for a run, but when it's 5:30 at night and I'm a little hungry and mentally tired from the day I end up laying around for 15 minutes or longer before I work up the motivation to go running. It is strange. How is it that eight hours at work leaves me motivated to go get in shape while ten hours leaves me exhausted? Oh well, either way, I like the money that I made from working the extra hours.

I did get to spend some time outside at work this week watching a tracked feller buncher cut trees down. I even took some personal video, which I may post at some point because we were cutting trees along a tree line which means I had a fantastic view which would normally be very obscured in a forest. It was great! I got to walk around and I got mud on my pants. I feel like a spoiled kid. I want a nice engineer job, while I have an outdoor manual labor jog, and then when I get it I want to spend time working outside. Although, at this point half a day a week is enough to keep me content.

As far as running, life is going fantastically well! After Green Bay it took me the rest of marathon week plus six weeks before I got my mileage back over 40 miles per week. After CIM it was the rest of marathon week plus only one week. That is an exponential improvement over my recovery from Green Bay. This is exciting! I do have a leg pain on the inside of my lower right leg so I do not plan to push it in the next week or two.

That Was Not the Plan...

2012-01-01T11:30:00.000-05:00

I'm siting here in a condo in Dillion on the day that I plan to start heading back to Iowa, and this "vacation" has not gone as planned. I originally intended to do ice climbing and skiing, but as things happen that turned into some hiking, running and private brewery tours. That is just the way it goes.

After the Longs Peak failure, which I am totally content with because the wind was making it less safe, I took a rest day. Then the next couple days we either had a late start to the skiing day and didn't ski or it was too windy or the snow was bad. Although I may still ski Loveland pass. So... It was not what I intended to do. How does one evaluate the "success" of doing something other than intended?

On the upside I had two private brewery tours at the Breckenridge Brewery in Denver and in Breckenridge, even though I don't drink beer. It was interesting because this is one of the expanding breweries and one that is trying new things all the time. Plus, when I say private brewery tour I mean all the details even the ladders and catwalks. After dozens of sterilized tours it was refreshing to feel part of the club. It was almost as comfortable as I feel at John Deere in the factory. Plus, I met some more people and once again expanded my social circle. While I value my family and close friends more than simple acquaintances, I have benefited from my acquaintances greatly and you never know what events in life will lead an acquaintance to being a best friend. Perhaps the ever present role of relationships is once again the reason things happened the way they did. As with most things I am still too close to the events to interpret a deeper meaning.

Stumbled Up and Blown Down

2011-12-29T17:17:00.000-05:00

I once again attacked my favorite mountain, Long Peak. This time I attacked it in the winter. Since all of my native Colorado climbing partners were busy I was fortunate enough to be joined by G my mountaineering partner from WPI. The plan was to ascend the north face. We brought ropes, a little gear, crampons and two ice axes/ice tools each.

We ate steak the night before in Loveland and drove up to the Long Peak Trailhead for a few hours of terrible sleep. It was great to catch up because G and I spent quite a few mountaineering Saturdays in New Hampshire going up and down the classic 5000 foot peaks. He also did a huge amount of work to get the ice axes manufactured. I would work with him again professionally any day and I would rope up with him any day as well.

before we went to sleep we agreed on a 1AM wake up time. At 1AM we agreed on a 2AM wake up time. At 2AM we started moving around, eating drinking, dressing, and by 3AM we were walking up the trail. We signed in at the register and started uphill. Within ten steps I was huffing and puffing. Going from 1000 feet to 9200 feet in 45 hours is a little quick. We slowed down and settled into a seemingly slow pace. However, we kept moving and soon enough were above treeline, well before the sun was up.

The wind was rather strong. Gusts were initially in the 30-40 mph range, which is not very challenging, but it gets your attention. Plus viewing the world with the light of a headlamp gives you a rather one dimensional view of the world. We kept moving and were continually losing the trail. I have hiked up and down that trail more than a dozen times, but in the snow and wind I felt like a total novice.

I tried to angle up toward the trail junction with Chasm Lake. However we never hit the trail junction on the way up. Under the assumption and feeling that we were moving like snails, and with at least one gust to about 60mph (the forecast said gusts to 80mph) we called it a day and started heading down.

As it happens we were nearly a mile farther up the trail that I thought. We were on the side of Mt. Lady Washington well above the trail junction. On the way down we ran into the trail that curves around to the gap and followed that down to the junction. We took a few minutes of a break there and this about describes the situation:

The Situation!

Okay, I can't torture you like that and leave you hanging so much. It wasn't as bad as Febuary 2006 on Mt. Adams with I. Windchill of -50F is so cold...

The Situation! With Less Drama. (By the way notice the nice boots!)

I took some video as well, which I will post when I have a little more time. I still have to go for a run and drive to Denver today. Anyway, the moral of the story is I have some amazing friends and going from 1000 feet to 12,200 feet or so in 48 hours is definitely possible with enough hydration and conditioning, but it is not recommended. Oh yes, I already knew that you can't walk in wind more than 50mph, but I'll repeat it for the benefit of others.

A Cheese Basket

2011-12-27T12:07:00.000-05:00

For over a decade I have wanted a cheese basket. It seems to me the epitome of something you give to someone who has everything. It means you made it. This Christmas my sister gave me one. In my haste to start the voyage to Colorado I left without it, disappointing my sister. So I'm driving across the country sulking about disappointing yet another of the people that matter most to me.

I do plan to drive back to Sheboygan to get it in a week or two. I'm not about to abandon that much good cheese.

The Intersection of Life and Business

2011-12-23T15:01:00.000-05:00

Where does business and life intersect? What components of business are personal? How do you define something personal versus something that is public and and economic performance based? Why does business depend almost entirely on economic performance?

I ask these questions because I had to run an errand to the post office this past week during my typical work hours. Since I get paid by the hour, or at least because I am scared of screwing up my employment, It was probably the second time that I have left work in the middle of the day to do something. I felt like I was being a slacker or cheating the company. Time not spent working is time not spent getting paid. One of the things I have been frustrated with since being employed is running errands. Going to places like the DMV, insurance agency, doctor, dentist, post office, mechanic, and other business hours businesses is frustrating because between work and coaching I am busy 7AM to 6PM most days. Fortunately, the Hy-Vee grocery stores in town are open late, even 24 hours I believe. It is frustrating because the industries that I feel are service industries do not really seem to service at the hours that are convenient for me. I know that is being selfish but if they want my business hours that are convenient for me will get my business. The grocery stores and restaurants have figured it out, and they get lots of my money.

Changing subjects somewhat, business can be harsh. Life can be harsh as well, but business seems to value profitability in a monetary sense in a way that life does not value economic profitability. For example, life (in my world) is about relationships. For me to develop and grow a relationship sometimes I have to put in time and money that will not be reciprocated. However, the value of that relationship to me is worth the one way effort that I put in. In business, if you are not profitable, you lose. In life if you never get out what you put in you typically still have a huge value. Those emotionally draining relationships that we have still have value in a way that an unprofitable business does not.

A doctor that fixes a burst appendix and does not get paid would be an example of a draining relationship, but one that has significant value. Realistically the doctor could ask for 5% of that person's earning for the rest of his or her life and it would still be worth it to the patient because he or she did not die. That would be maximizing the economic profitability.

I also see in my older colleagues the intersection of family, specifically dependents, and work. That is a whole other can of worms. Fortunately, my life happens slow enough that I have time to adjust to life changes and come up with philosophical explanations for how I spend my time. Right now, spending time doing what I am doing seems the best use of my time, but I foresee that changing in the future. While I plan to run until I am 90, it will certainly not always be the same as I do now. I did not have more than one day of vacation at a time this year, but again I see that changing dramatically as I age. While I don't plan to retire in the formally accepted manner how will I juggle my time with my family and friends and business as I age? When the conscious decision not to retire in the traditional sense is made it changes the entire picture of life, work, and money. Instead of valuing the free time when I am in my 60s, 70s and 80s more than the free time I have now it liberates me from the burden of saving for a currently intangible delayed life plan and allows me to pursue life now. It also places a huge burden of possible unexpected long term unemployment upon me, so I end up saving a lot of money anyway.

I don't have many answers, but at least by asking the questions we can refine our priorities.

Review of Training to Run CIM in 2:30

2011-12-20T05:40:00.000-05:00

Buildup to CIM

Well, the immediate pain of running a marathon has subsided, I've started running again so it is time to review the work I put in. Let us discuss what went well, went went poorly, and what to improve upon next time.

First, an overview: I tried to follow a Renato Canova schedule by doing as much running from + to - 10% of marathon pace as I could handle. I also tried to get in a lot of mileage, much of it ended up being slower than 8 minute pace. I also did some short hill sprints, strides and some faster pace stuff to keep my legs fresh. I place a huge importance on recovery eating and nutrition as well.

Second, long runs: My 20+ mile runs came in at 23.5, 22, 22, 22, 21, 20, and 20 miles. That's eight runs 20 miles or longer. One twenty miler in 1:59, the 23.5 miler in 2:24 with the last 11 in 1:03 and pace variation, and a 21 miler in 2:10. Those are my three best long runs ever. I tried a Bill Squires technique, which is focus on the long run and involve some pace variation particularly during the end of the run. Bill would give the team moderate workouts during the week then put everything they did during the week into the long run. It's a genius technique, and I ran several 5:2Xs and a bunch of 5:3Xs more than 15 miles into my long runs. I'll be doing that again. Also, after a 5:2X or 5:3X mile I would often back off and run 5:4X or 5:5X, which is still rather fast, but feels slow after a faster mile. In short, my long runs went extremely well.

Third, long tempos: My 9+ mile tempos were: 14, 14, 12 and a half marathon race. The two 14 mile tempos were on the same day during my special block. Aside from that workout I totally failed to do an adequate volume of tempos this cycle. I did incorporate tempo training into my long runs, which I think is very effective, but there was still a lack of 9-18 mile tempos at or slower than marathon pace in my training. I would ideally like to get in a 12-18 mile tempo every week at about 90% of marathon pace. Failing to do these workouts contributed to hitting the wall my last five miles because I was not burning enough fat during the entire race.

Fourth, short tempos: I had a 20:12 for 6k, 27:40 for 8k, 38:47 for 11.2k, 21:27 for 6.4k, and 37:40 for 10.8k. There were several other tempos of similar distances with paces 5:40+. Those tempos were quite good for me because I had never run 5:24 pace for four miles in a workout before. In the area of 4mmol lactate threshold or anaerobic threshold I did the best I have ever done, which is lacking. A good 6k-8k tempo at that pace every ten days is what it takes, about two every three weeks. A 20 minute tempo is the best workout there is in my opinion, and I didn't do enough of them. I would like to do about twice as many during my next marathon cycle.

Fifth, mileage: I had nine weeks at 100 or more miles with the two highest at 140 and 116. I also had eight weeks between 60 and 99 miles. The 140 mile week destroyed me. I only ran 64 miles and took a day off the next week. While I was running it I was fine, but I crashed after it was over. Overall I am satisfied with my mileage, but I would have liked to do more in October and November (which is another topic). I did have quite a few good medium long runs (14-18 miles), but none at a tempo pace. I greatly enjoy my slow miles and the extra efficiency they give me. It is hard to say what I will change in the future. Perhaps alternating 120 and 100 mile weeks instead of trying for 140. Given that I will be stronger next time it is hard to say now. This is one area I really listen to my body. I feel that I rested better this cycle than I ever have before by taking easy days when I needed them and running miles slow when I was tired. Overall, a step in the right direction.

Sixth, intervals: a 5mi. fartlek with 2min on 1min off the on around 5:15 pace, 4x1600m in 5:07-5:09 with 400m rest in 1:45, a 4:49 1600m with 2x800 in about 2:28 each, and a huge like eight mile fartlek at 1, 2, 3, 4, 4, 3, 2, 1 with rest equal to the previous hard running. Again I pushed what I have done in the past by setting a mile practice PR (1600m 4:49) and an amazing 4x1600m workout that was very consistent. Again I would like to do more workouts on the track of this quality like the short tempos, but I was training for a marathon so this is a lower priority.

Seventh, muscular power: I did three short hill sprints and eight stride sessions and not much in the weight room at all, I would like to more like eight and twelve. There is no reason for me to skip these any week. I should be doing a set of short hills and strides every week, or at least three times each every four weeks. Still it was better than not doing them. Overall, not enough, but what I did went well.

Eighth, nutrition: I did the best job of recovery eating this cycle that I have ever had. I ate soon after almost every workout. I ate quality vegetables and pasta and protein. I probably ate better the last six months than I ever have before. In a way that is unfortunate because while I am skinny for an American I am fat for a marathoner. Due to a friend's eating disorder I long ago set a 120 pound minimum weight limit on myself but I have not been under 126 since then. In other words, I did well but there is room for improvement.

Ninth, racing: I set personal records at just about every race distance I ran. It is hard to complain about that. I think my half marathon came at a good time although a few weeks later or earlier or both might have been better. In the future I would like to do more long races in a build up like 2-3 15k+ distance races.

Tenth, cross training: I rode my bicycles a little under 2000 miles this summer. That is over 100 hours on the bike with most of that in June and July. I think bicycling was a great addition to my training. It helped me develop my aerobic capability and fat metabolism. The routine I had this summer of an hour run followed by an hour bike ride was great and I intend to do it again. However, the amount of time spent on the bike to get the same work out of it as a run makes it impractical during peak running mileage.

Those are the main point of my training. In summary, it was my best cycle of training ever, but there are inconsistencies that I desire to correct the next time I train for a marathon. It was great, it was good, I am blessed, but I want to do better next time.

I'm Hungry.

2011-12-19T05:31:00.191-05:00

I was listening to the impact of poverty on children on Talk of the Nation on NPR and had some thoughts. I was on free lunches while I lived in St Louis and reduced price lunches throughout elementary and into middle school. I suppose that means I lived in poverty. I never felt like I lived in poverty because I had plenty of toys and we always had food and the heat always worked at home and we had a home!

As 2011 draws to a close I am realizing that this year when I file taxes it will be the first year that I get paid more than minimum wage for the entire year. I suppose I have been poor my whole life. Even as I write that I cannot actually believe it. Wealth is about so much more than income.

For example, my family always had a place to live but my parents did not own a home from the time I was five until I was 20. We lived in apartments and houses lent to us by my dad's employer. I consider having a house, apartment, or place to live wealth. The same goes for vehicles. My parents have bought only one new car in my 25.5 years, but numerous cars over ten years old. Having one or more vehicles counts as wealth to me. Even though I currently drive an 18 year old van with 277,000 miles, I consider that a luxury item.

I am continually thinking about motivation. How does one get it? Where does it come from? What events lead to increased motivation? What things will decrease motivation? Why do I pound out ten or more hours of running per week? What am I trying to prove? Why do I care about getting the best answer to an engineering problem at work and not just an acceptable answer? Why do I model things with solid (3D) elements when others use only shell (2D) elements? Why did I go to college at WPI in Massachusetts? Why did I get a master's degree?

I finished Steve Job's biography by Walter Isaacson on Saturday. What was Steve's motivation? It seems making the best possible user experience, but that is not 100% clear. I will write a review of the book in the coming weeks.

Motivation is something that is cultivated and grown, but exists within. Can one person give another person the seed of motivation? That is one tough question. If the answer is yes then I give credit to my parents for the roots of my motivation. My family vacationed to Colorado when I was young and we camped, had fires and cooked, and my dad told stories of hiking mountains like Longs Peak. I think that those little trips were the seeds of my mountaineering motivation. It was developed along the way by four summers at Philmont, and numerous hikes and climbing in Rocky Mountain National Park and the 14ers around Leadville. Yet it started with a hike to Emerald Lake and a drive to the continental divide ranger station in RMNP. My other motivations have roots with my parents. When I was six or seven I out sprinted my dad in our back yard. He might have let me win but I decided that I should not be able beat him and I did not want others to beat me unless they were actually faster. However, had he beat me would I have gotten discouraged and chose not to pursue running? Probably... My parents are geniuses. I hope I can do half as well with my kids as they did with my sister and I.

I feel that my motivation wanes when I have more luxury in life. Nice things, which I really like, give me the feeling of being complacent. (I'm struggling to come up with an example. I've been sitting here for at least 10 minutes without writing a sentence.)

I quit acting when I went to college. I did five musicals, four plays, and a slew of speech and drama routines at competitions in high school. The highlight was my senior year when my duet with Dana May Salah was amazing. We cleaned up at just about every meet. We were getting first and second at almost every meet we went to. That was after three years of struggling to make it to finals at local speech and drama competitions. At state that year we expected to cruise through semifinals and compete for the win, but judges rated us terribly. Our second round was the best performance of the year. It was the best acting I ever did. When we calmly walked out of the room we were seriously jumping up and down because we just had the most amazing performance of the year! The judge gave us a ranking of five, with one being the best and ten the worst. Unbelievable. We didn't even make it to semifinals. I did do improvised duet acting also at that state meet and my partner and I got 8th at state with a really really tough draw in the semifinal round. The point being, my motivation for acting left after that state meet. People in my home town thought I was going to go into acting, and were surprised that I cared so much more about engineering. Some were even disappointed.

I had no success in competition acting for two and a half years then I had success at the end of my junior year and lots of success my senior year. I was loaded with motivation at the state meet my senior year. After the rejection I feel I felt acting was a search for acceptance and popularity. I felt that hard work did not necessarily pay off. Success or failure was determined by the whim of another person. In engineering and running and mountaineering and relationships the return on investment seems far more direct. If I train hard in running, I run faster races. If I study more material in engineering, I will have a better grasp of the phenomena. If I climb more I will be able to climb more. If I spend more time with a person we will have a stronger relationship (if we can work past the fact that I am a self centered egomaniac). In the words of my high school running coach, "You get what you get."

Another aspect of my attitude is that I compare myself to the best in the world. Watching the movie Inside Job one person commented that investment banking became a contest. 50 Billion dollar deals were not enough it had to be 100 billion. Unfortunately, I feel that way sometimes. So and so runs a 2:14 marathon, so I want to see if I can do it. So and so climbed Everest without oxygen, and I'm a way better runner than he is so I must be able to do it. So and so started a company that revolutionized the industry, and I'm a far better engineer than he is and more personable too. These thoughts filter down to the way that I live. Why don't I get rid of my van and buy a Mini Cooper like I have wanted for a decade? Because I would rather drive a Prosche 911 Turbo. Why don't I buy a nice bed and some more furniture and a huge TV? Because I would rather buy land and have a house. Why did I go to Pakistan and try an 8000 meter peak instead of trying Denali or Aconcagua first? Because it's bigger and bigger equals better right?

I am clearly delusional. I am obviously crazy. I have accepted those opinions as facts. I fear that these ideas in my head hamper my ability to have a committed romantic relationship. Or any relationship really. On the other hand my focus is very long term. I've been thinking about Mt. Everest for eight years, now it's just the funding. I do know that these expectations and desires set me up for disappointment. March 2010 was a really rough month. Fortunately, I am enough of a normal person to take joy in how far I have come. When I defended my masters thesis I was incredibly happy! After so much time and work, I had something to show. It was the most fulfilling formal educational experience I have had. There were so many times I thought about quitting. When I ran a 4:38 mile at Smith college my senior year of college I was ecstatic! While I planned and still do plan to be able to run under 4:20 in the mile some day, actually getting under 4:40 was amazing because part of me never thought it would happen. It is the same with my engineering. I solve problems and make products last longer, and in 2010, I was not sure I would ever have that chance. I'm a useful addition. I'm part of something. I am economically productive. It is very rewarding.

I still have a lot to do in life. I have a number of "delusions" to chase. However, if this afternoon I end up unable to walk, talk, see, and work for the next 50 years of my life I have enjoyed more success than any one person ever deserves. It is the dichotomy of performance. The new best performance is not enough, yet it is infinitely more than is deserved. I am so blessed!

I Live in Iowa: Week 35

2011-12-18T16:27:00.000-05:00

Another week living the life. Every time I say that I have some fear that I am actually at the top of my game and it is all downhill from here. My article tomorrow is all about goals, expectations, and satisfaction. Come back again tomorrow please!

I had a very nice week at work. I worked 47 hours, my second most hours engineering. Industry involves far fewer hours than college. At WPI I had very few weeks with less than 50 hours. On Friday I had a breakthrough. I was writing a report trying to correct a number of failed strain gages from a stress test and there were a few failed gages we didn't even try to solve, and I despise giving up so easily. As I was staring at this area with bent plates and welds I suddenly realized that the bends in the plates and the welds were in the wrong locations. The bends were in the areas that did not have much strain and the welds were in area with a large amount of strain. It was backwards! That is easily one of the best ideas I have had at work. It is not patentable or anything, but it is possibly an industry changing design. So we shall see if anything comes of it in the next few years (big businesses don't move too fast).

There was no coaching this week because UD was out for Christmas.

I ran nine miles. I started running again Friday and I was in a great mood all day. It was funny, at my weekly one-on-one with my supervisor he said, "Today is one of those days I don't want to be here, and you know why? I haven't been exercising." I was totally the opposite, my first time running in 11 days and I was in a great mood. Exercising makes a difference.

I finished reading Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. Steve was crazy. I'll elaborate on that in the coming weeks.

Friday night my department went bowling and I convinced a few of my coworkers and friends to try the Voodoo Pizza with me. It has the ghost pepper, the hottest in the world. You can't tell me something is the "...est" in the world and not expect me to go for it. I only ate four bites. My friend on the right of the picture ate his whole piece before I even got to my second bite. Many tears were shed...

The Voodoo Pizza Challenge

How Do I Find a Gift?

2011-12-16T05:16:00.000-05:00

I have always struggled with gifts, and most of family has as well. I have often bought someone something that I wanted. Example: I bought YakTrax for my parents last year because they are getting old and slip and fall on the ice. My sister bought them for me. I think I used them more before January last year than my parents did all winter. However, I must mention one of my parents slipped and fell on the ice while shoveling the driveway without wearing YakTrax. I was there later to say, "I told you so."

The problem is we do not know each other well enough to really know what the other person wants. We just use the easy way out and ask. Additionally, I know what some people do want, or would greatly appreciate but it is beyond my budget this year. So coming up with a creative useful wanted gift within my budget without asking is as tough a problem as I know. I also struggle because nothing physical that I have does anyone else I know want. Seriously. Except for my new bicycle, but they would all probably rather have the money than the actual bicycle. Who wants a seven and a half year old computer? Who wants a 25 inch tube TV? Who wants a sagging couch? Since I live this way I find it hard to justify spending money buying something that will not enrich anyone's life. A bigger flatter TV, another screen to stare at, anything for cooking or cleaning, anything ornamental, these seem like gifts of excess or gifts that imply something. I want to give gifts that say thank you.

Leave some suggestions below please. Thank you for reading!

I'm the Expert?

2011-12-15T05:05:00.000-05:00

As it happens in life, if you stick around for any length of time other people start giving you responsibility. It happened in Boy Scouts, it happened in high school clubs, it happened in college clubs, now it is happening in engineering. Suddenly I have more experience looking at stress contours and fracture mechanics for the assembly in question than anyone else. Suddenly, decisions I make have the ability to save money, risk failures, add weight, and reduce manufacturability. They may only be small things, but they are profitable professional things.

I really like being the one in the room that has the answer, but I know from experience that if I make enough decisions, I will eventually decide wrong. This time there is more at stake. They could fire me. Lest anyone get the idea I am guessing the answer is not typically only A or B. Do we need a bigger weld? Do we need thicker plates? Do we need a doubler? What shape doubler? Do we need to change the contour? Do we need to use a different material? Do we need to change the way several plates weld together? Typically the answer is a combination of those factors.

I suppose life is the process of learning and then doing, which I am. The curious part is the progression is nonlinear, yet my brain plans things very linearly. I also understand linear things better than nonlinear things. I am still coming to grips with the reasons that I spent 57 weeks after my masters degree unemployed or working for minimum wage. Of the over 400 jobs that I applied for and eight or so interviews I had John Deere and RFA spent the least time interviewing me yet offered me the best opportunity.

While I do feel useful at work and as though I have something unique to contribute, being unemployed helped me realize that I am replaceable. You can not replace the whole package that is me, but there are plenty of other engineers who can do work just as well or better. The fear keeps me hungry.

I Was Hacked

2011-12-14T05:51:00.000-05:00

Most companies get hacked. There was an NPR program that highlighted it recently. The guest said that there are two types of companies, 'those that know they have been hacked and know it and those that have been hacked and don't know it'. Well, it happened to my website.

I had a poll last week about how many hours per week salaried people work and by the time it closed I had over 10,000 votes for "less than 35 hours per week". That was the first choice in the poll. What I suspect happened was a robot or other automated program found my website and started clicking on the first option on my poll and kept clicking on it for a long time. Unless someone physically clicked on that 10,000 times, which considering people were only allowed to vote once, is unlikely that someone would go to the trouble of removing the Google cookie to revote that many times. Plus, I only had about 700 visits and 1200 page views while the poll was open which indicates that some sort of automated "hidden" program found my website.

Thus is life. Welcome to the 21st century. You can either be paranoid and upset, accept the loss of security, or a combination of the two. Frankly, I don't really care in this case. If my financials get hacked and I lose money, then I would be upset. On the other hand, if someone would like to take away my debt they can have it. Other than that, I know that my movements around the Internet are tracked and the order that I click buttons is recorded. There is actually a huge boom for people skilled at deriving meaning from "big data". One kid at Brown who is 19 has been tracked by a recruiter since he was 16. That does not have much to do with being hacked, except that people that you don't know and will never meet know things about you that your friends and family probably don't know. Of course, they don't know that the things they know about you are about you in particular.

For example, people read financial stuff in the morning and evening on their phones and tablets more than a computer, which they use during the day, that hits my habit of checking the financial news directly. But who knew and more directly, how can that be channeled to make a company more money from advertising?

So my friends, you are being tracked and likely hacked, often.

I Live in Iowa: Week 34

2011-12-13T04:24:00.000-05:00

Another fulfilling week of life. The weekly summary will be a little short this week, but I have other posts lined up for the next few days So it will probably even out.

I ran the California International Marathon on Sunday to a delightful 2:30 finish. It was a nice way to start the week. I ended up running one nine minute mile Monday at practice with my college kids. It sounds terrible and it was even worse to watch, but the day after Green Bay I limped through about .2 miles before I gave up. This was a five times improvement, and I didn't quit because I was in pain I quit because I only wanted to run one mile.

The week at work was also rather satisfying. One of the projects I was working on we wanted to get some testing done and as we started to ask, we found out that another group was actually doing the exact test we desired. I couldn't plan things to work out that smoothly! Then there is all sorts of other excitement such as a new steel and another round of physical build and testing. Plus, while I don't always like criticism, I took a little this week, and the criticism giver was totally and completely right and I was all wrong. Ahh yes, the learning experience.

I spent some time coaching and while we have a tiny cohort of distance runners I am sure that they will all have breakthrough seasons this year.

Finally, I have run since the day after my marathon and I am recovering twice as fast as from Green Bay. My downtime has been filled with pizza, movies and a few glasses of wine. (I even stayed awake until 11PM twice this weekend!)

Right and Wrong

2011-12-12T07:57:00.000-05:00

Belief is a scary thing to people who see it in someone else. Example: terrorists. They have a belief about the way things work that allows them to do things that many people consider unthinkable.

I like to think that I have a strong belief. One of the by products of my belief is an understanding of the world in terms of right and wrong. There is gray area in life. Examples are: which college is the right one? What structure modification will make a product I work on last the longest and cost the least? What length and pace of tempo run today will make the greatest improvement? What is the difference between an 8k tempo at one pace and a 10k tempo a few seconds per mile slower, and which one is more effective for the runner today?

Not all answers are clearly right or wrong, there can be varying degrees of better or worse. However, by viewing things in terms of right and wrong many answers become clear. When deliberating over the length and pace of the temp, the question about what type of workout is the right one to do today has already been answered, a tempo run, not a recovery run or intervals or hills or a long run. I use running examples so often because it is so simple. If you do A, B and C, you are probably going to get D.

Getting back to the point, I had someone recently attempt to place gray area in a topic that I saw as right and wrong. I briefly argued my point in front of the present group, and after a very unsatisfactory response I just kept quite the rest of the session. I am reading Steve Jobs biography and he often lashed out verbally and aggressively at people that he thought were incompetent. That is not my style, but I felt like it would have been an effective way to respond. After all, because of Steve's harsh criticism, he ended up building a team at Apple of high performers. He got rid of the people that did not perform well.

The problem is, I feel I have no authority. I am the youngest, the newest, the least experienced, and I feel the least respected. How do I tell someone who has more influence over the situation, "you are wrong," when I know that saying that will almost surely draw me negative criticism and probably the response that I am wrong? As much as I may pretend to not care what other people think about me, I do care.

This is a source of conflict for me. Do I have the courage to stand up for what I think is right? Apparently not. I think about this and am appalled at my weakness! If can't stand for this one thing, can I stand for anything?

Before I stated my disagreement at the event in question my heart was thumping as loud as it has in a long time. Louder than it does before I ask a women out. I thought it was going to beat out of my chest. I didn't know if I would even be able to speak. Of course, after I got a few words out it calmed down and interestingly enough another member of the group put in a few words to back up my train of thought. Still, not continuing to argue what I know is right, is wrong. In other words, even though I poked a hole in the bubble, I didn't squash it to pieces.

I see myself excelling at upper management some day. The ability to direct a group of people to the best solution thrills me. Part of management involves saying "no" and telling people they are wrong. I can do that now, but as a lawyer friend told me, the law is not about right and wrong it is a discussion, compromise or argument that gets drawn out and changed all the time. At my stance on the totem pole, I feel I would lose every battle.

Following a tangent, I see politicians, Occupy Wall Street, the Tea Party, Europe, and others saying things and I think, "you guys are idiots! but you have a good point..." Of course we need to raise taxes on the wealthy, but not so that we can continue to retire at age 65 or even age 60. Of course we need some sort of heath care overhaul, but not so that we can give everyone diabetes and heart disease medication, but so that we can get people eating healthy and exercising so that we have preventative health care. Of course we need a better education system so that we are not paying $32,000 a year per inmate in California, but not so that we give out degrees willy nilly based on what teenagers want to do but what they can do to be employed productively after graduation. Of course we need to curb government spending, but not at the expense of the least fortunate and most challenged citizens in this country. On a super direct tangent, that I am extremely passionate about, and have not voiced publicly on the Internet before, because I care what people think about me, but I will now in the interest of being direct and honest and open, (this is really big for me, drumroll please,) abortion is wrong, but we need to address planning parenthood because we need to do something better than we do now! Seriously! I think that all babies are a gift, but I think that many of them are burdens at some point as well. It seems incredibly ignorant to me to be against contraception without providing copious education. Actions have consequences! I see your Occupy movement Wall Street executives and Congress politicians and raise you the Bolshevik Revolution.
Well, that's how my thoughts mutate. I don't like to argue unless I know I will win. Case in point, I had an argument with a biology major in college and it boiled down to the grass not being alive according to his statement.
So that's how it goes, another blog post that probably only gets me closer to being fired and having fewer friends.

Sophisticated...

2011-12-11T22:47:00.000-05:00

Anytime someone uses this word, be wary. They use this word to describe the financial sector often and take it from me, you don't want to invest in anything sophisticated. When someone describes something as sophisticated it is code for "I don't entirely understand it." Since a good talker can convince you of the way it is without actually telling you how it works you are at risk of buying into an inflated facade. Be wary my friends.

My Second Marathon: California International Marathon 2011

2011-12-08T19:20:00.000-05:00

Describing the marathon is not an easy task. There is so much suffering and work that goes into it and it feels insufficient to use only words to describe it. In shorter races you can try again in a few days or weeks. In a marathon you get one, albeit very long, shot. However I will try because the experience is so great that not attempting to explain it is a failure.

Over the next few weeks I will write the article dealing with my training highs and lows and another one about my next running goals. For now you get the race day excitement.

My day started at 4:45 AM and I was awake before the alarm went off. Despite only five hours of sleep I was raring to go. Well, as raring to go as I could when it was dark out and an uncertain future loomed. I happily ate half a bagel then I forced the second half down. I drank some coffee on the ride to the start line and tried to eat some chocolate croissant, but there came a point when I just could not stomach any more food because of the nervousness.

We parked near the McDonalds and started to walk up the hill a mile to the start but some shuttle school busses picked us up and dropped us off at the start. My host G and I walked around to calm my nerves. The 200 port-a-potties were emptry at 6:15 AM which is nice because no one likes to wait in line.

I just kept walking around to stay warm in the 37F chill. Finally 21 minutes before the start I went for a 11:37 jog out and back along the start, probably 1.4 miles. After some leg swings and active isolated calf stretches I lined up way in the back (the tenth row or so). I was even behind some 50s and 60s age women. In other words, I had to weave around a few people the first half mile. There comes a point when moving to the front of the pack gets negative looks from the people you are pushing aside. It is a hazard of the sport. A slow person can line up shoulder to shoulder with one of the best in the world if you don't mind some pushing and shoving. Try standing on the line beside Tim Tebow during his first play of the game.

The gun went off and I started my watch just before I crossed the line. I took it out at a pace that felt easy and manageable. The first mile is significantly downhill so it was very fast. I clocked myself at 5:18.85. By that time I was in front of the third pack. The leaders were off quick. The second pack was a mere 5 seconds ahead of us. Clint Verran and another Hansons runner were up in that pack and I had this strange feeling of living a daydream. I have many times on runs imagined running down famous runners in a marathon so to be there a few seconds behind a guy that has performed multiple times and consistently was realizing that I have arrived. I thought I would slow down on the flatter miles so I felt really comfortable with my place.

My next three miles were 5:22, 5:25, and 5:21. I ran with the third pack and I would pull ahead five or ten feet on the downhills and get caught into the second row of the pack on the uphills by maintaining a consistent effort. I knew I would slow down but it was so fun see these splits! I felt so good! I have felt terrible the last three and a half weeks and I have not totally figured out why I felt amazing Sunday.

Going up one of the hills I let the pack run away from me. I have to run my own race and not get lulled into going out over my head. My next miles were 5:33 (27:00 at five miles), 5:31, 5:33, 5:38, 5:43, 5:35 for a 54:59 at ten miles. Every mile was exciting to look at my watch and see that I was putting the feet to the pavement. 5:20s, 5:30s those are not terribly fast mile times but to be able to do them over and over after barely training at those paces was rewarding for all of the training that I did.

With every passing mile I was getting more excited. I figured I would probably slow down, but I also figured there would come a point when all I had to do was run six minute miles to finish and get under 2:30. As I gradually drifted back through the other runners I hit 11 in 5:31, 12 in 5:43, 13 in 5:40 and the half in about 1:12:27, which is a mere 39 seconds slower than my PR. It is also my second fastest half. I felt so good! Well, I felt really good considering that two months ago that would have been a PR for me. In other words, to run a great marathon I think you need to feel totally fresh at halfway and I did not feel fresh. I felt strong and consistent but a 1:12 half is not a walk in the park for me as it needs to be for me to even split at that pace.

I came through 14 in 5:37 for a 1:17:32 total and my first PR of the day. Likewise 15 in 5:49.8 (I list the decimal on that one because I can't usually see the decimal when I am running and there is a mental difference between seeing 5:4X and 5:5X even though in this case it was about 1/5th of a second actual difference) for a 1:23:21 split, 16 in 5:47 for a 1:29:08 split, and 17 in 5:43. At that point I was really excited mentally. That's about 2/3rds of the way through the race and I was averaging something fast. Physically though, things were going downhill. My vison was a little blurry entering the flages for 17 miles. That is typically not a good sign.

My eighteenth mile was 5:51. Not terribly slow, but 5:50s counts as slow in my book. I didn't put negative thought into it because at that point I was working pretty hard and I knew I would run whatever times I would run and as long as I didn't "give up" I would run as fast as I could on the day.

My nineteenth mile was 5:50, 20 was 5:53, and 21 was 5:55. Those miles went... well enough. Passing 20 I made sure to check the little numbers on my watch that gave my overall time: 1:52:27. That was super exciting. I managed to calculate that 37:30 is what six minute pace would be the last 10k. So when I knew that all I had to do was run sub six pace to the finish I was thrilled to know that I would break 2:30.

Alas, no one is done until he or she is done. My 22nd mile was a plodding 6:01. I figured I had something like two or three seconds a mile slower than six minute pace to get to the finish before 2:30 so I was still happy. I hit 23 in 6:05. No problem, I can easily throw down a sub 18 5k. Unfortunately, my legs, specifically my quads and calves, were in pain. Additionally, the sports drink that they gave us (Ultima I believe) was a terrible choice for a marathon as it had no carbs or sugars. I was living through "the wall".

The 24th came and went in 6:08 and I was feeling worse and worse. The 25th passed in a painful 6:09. At that point I knew I was close and I thought, 'less than 2k, less than five laps around the track and if it is good I am under 2:30.' Any energy reserves that I had left I threw into the boiler of final-marathon-mile-torment. I felt that everything before was leading up to this part of the race and I was giving it everything I had. My legs were so heavy as I tried to deal with the pain and accelerate to faster than six minute mile pace. You could have tripped me with a chopstick.

However, as races go, we run them to see what happens. My 26th mile was 6:17 and yes I did look at my watch because I hoped that I had hit sub 6. At that point I really did not have a great idea of how fast I was going. I think some people passed me in the last few miles, but I was pretty much at war in my head with my body.

As I made the turn to the finish there were crowds directing me to the men's finish, and when I made the final left turn I saw the clock had already flipped to 2:30 and I was to remain a 2:30s guy for another cycle. I ran through the finish and the finish staff caught me before I fell over. It was over 2:30:20 (gun time was 2:30:24) after it started and six and a half months after I started my build up.

I will of course write more about this in the next few weeks but I am not disappointed with my race or huge positive split. Yes, had I gone out in 1:14 I would probably have run sub 2:30. I felt so good. The thing about the whole experience that does disappoint me is that the sports drink did not have any calories. I learned the hard way that I do not tolerate gels well at 5:40 pace, but sugar water I can drink at that pace. Had I even been able to get in a cup or two of sugar water the race might have turned out better for me the last four miles.

I headed strait for the chocolate milk and then the massage tent when I had my calves and hamstrings stretched. I talked to Kenny of Boulder Running Company who ran 2:19 a 3.5 minute PR, and while he missed out on the Trials, he was really happy with such a big PR. Someone else ran 2:30:04 and was really disappointed about missing the 2:20s but a few seconds. Soon enough I walked the four blocks to my host G's car. We stashed a quart of chocolate milk, orange juice, chocolate croissant, and water there which I proceeded to down on the way to the airport.

Already less than an hour after the race ended I knew I wasn't done. The way that race went down I feel like I have so much more running ability left in me. My training was mediocre at best. Even on my best weeks I only managed two strong workouts. My mileage, while good, could have been better. There was a conspicuous lack of 12-18 mile medium pace tempos (5:55-6:10 pace) that would have been better included weekly. Plus, I went through 10k about 25 seconds away from my PR, and less than 40 seconds off my half marathon PR. That is ridiculous. Had I been totally crazy and ran with the pack that I started with I would have PR'd in the 10k and likely half marathon if I managed to stay with them. I would of course faded harder than I did, but it is not reasonable to set personal records in the 10k and half marathon during a marathon. In other words, I need to get faster at the shorter distances.

How do I feel about not making the Olympic Marathon Trials for 2012? Not terribly bad. I've only had two marathons a 2:34 and 2:30, both with big positive splits, and less than optimal training. I am running marathons 10 seconds per mile faster than I raced the 5k in high school. The progress has been rewarding.

Overall, I had a great weekend in California! I ran a great race (probably the fastest in the US). I spent time with amazing hosts. And I know I can do better in the future. Since I can't help my self I will tell, I am going back to the track for 400-3000m training during indoor season and then outdoor probably 5k/10k and after a trip to Alaska around June, there is a little 100 mile race in Leadville in August that I have been thinking about for eight years...

I Live in Iowa: Week 33

2011-12-06T20:45:00.002-05:00

In the interest of tantalizing you for a few more hours you will have to wait another day to read about my recent marathon.

In working news I worked almost 35 hours in four days. I spent much of that time with a bracket for the exhaust on one of our upcoming final tier four machines. For those not in the engine industry there are new emissions requirements coming out in a few years that further reduce the allowable emissions of petrol engines. Basically, greatly over simplified, this means that the muffler is far more extensive and there will be a Diesel Exhaust Fluid (DEF) tank that will need to be filled regularly. In other words, the new emissions requirements contribute to the stimulus of my bank account.

One thing that frustrates me that happened for the first time in high school is when people tell me that I would so strong professionally if I put as much effort into my career as I did into running. That is totally not true. Ten hours a week of engineering would not lead to dramatic progression. I think what they mean is if I spent all of the time I spend running on my career as well as the time I already spend on my career I would enjoy greater success. Okay, miscommunication rant of the day done.

I don't know how much I ran but it was like 45 miles and one terrible 5k tempo. I had one lower leg pain after another. Finally on Friday in California I had a good 40 minutes that was as good as I have felt in more than three weeks. Saturday was just as good. Perhaps there is something in the air in California...

While in California I stayed with family friends from early in my parents marriage and early in my life. Interestingly enough they have a dozen different fruit trees in their backyard and he works at the California EPA. Dare I say, it was stereotypical. The weather out there was great in the 50s and 60s. They were just getting around to raking leaves and some were still mowing lawns.

In the coaching world the distance runners further dwindled. The two of us distance coaches had only three runners one day. Coaching at the college level seems to involve recruitment... Great teams don't just happen they are recruited and developed.

It was a good week.

Applying Education

2011-12-02T12:57:00.000-05:00

I realized something yesterday, I have had more short term (daily and weekly) consistency for longer in my life since moving to Iowa than I perhaps have ever had. My reasoning is that in school there were semester breaks and class changes and long summers. Considering that, I have been doing somewhat the same thing for eight months.

It is strange because I still feel like it is new and I have not yet arrived at the end of the semester yet there is no clearly defined next semester although some may argue retirement. This is now the application of what I learned through years of school. Lest my discussion be misunderstood as complaining, I suppose I never really explored the concept of acquiring a position of optional complacency.

People often talk about the corporate "ladder" but I feel a pyramid is really more descriptive of the advancement process. The ladder illustration implies that everyone climbs equally in single file which is clearly not the case. Instead many people remain well below the top of the pyramid. Our education system is in fact designed to accommodate this. There is no bachelors of Chairman of the board. I am not saying that anyone's aspirations are misguided. I am suggesting that the dynamic nature of our education system does not adequately prepare entry level employees for the consistent nature of big businesses. The only suggestion I can think of is a multi-semester class such as "Math and Physics for Engineers" which would last for two or three years, at the same time of the day and week with the same instructor for the entire class. (Sure, they can still have four month summer breaks, but that is a different topic.) I think injecting some long term consistency into the lives of young people, who might be missing that consistency at home would help develop better professional manners, long term relationships, and perhaps even some accountability.

In other words, I do not expect to be in the same position in 30 years because I have never had that kind of consistency. However, that is a possibility that would still be considered a huge success in my view. Many people do not use their degree within their career and in that respect I am more fortunate than most. This journey is continually interesting!

Coming Together or Falling Apart?

2011-11-30T22:01:00.000-05:00

My last good workout was November 7th. Since then I have not had a single workout at the level I feel I should be running. October was unquestionably the best month of running I have ever had. However, I had a series of small injuries in my lower legs the last few weeks (plantar fasciitis in my left foot and some lower left leg pain that could be anything from a stress reaction to a calf knot), my grandma died, the time changed so that I am now running mostly in the dark, and my two training partners have been injured or busy when I am trying to do a workout. The combination of all that stuff has hampered my training. However, it might be a benefit.

Emil Zatopek was a and these days Zatopek Syndrome is what we say when a well training person, dare I say training too hard, has to take it easy for an extended period of time and has an amazing performance. He was hospitalized before one of his European Championships for two weeks I think, not running a step until the day before the race, and eventually racing against doctors orders (I could be wrong) he won, or at least did really really well.

I am not sure if my low mileage the last few weeks is making me perfectly ready for a marathon or if I overextended myself a few weeks ago and I am going to race slow. I am leaning toward the former. I have to. I have had a number of just amazing workouts this cycle which are so far beyond anything I have done in the past. One simple example, before this cycle my best 20+ mile run was 20 miles in 2:06. This cycle I have done 21 in 2:10, 23.5 in 2:24 (with the last 11 in 1:03), and 20 in 1:59. That's a night and day difference between where I used to train and where I am now. The question is, did I get derailed these last few weeks?

I have been in this situation in regards to running once before in the spring of 2008. I had an injury in March that setback my training. Then in April my first few races were poor 5k performances. Finally, a week before the last meet of my undergraduate years I ran a strong 1500m PR. The next week I ran a 10,000m that was everything I had been hoping for the entire year.

Regardless of the outcome of my race I have decided that my trip to California will be good. Additionally, I'm still hungry to compete. There are moments in training when I am tired, sore, bored, and frustrated that I am seemingly not progressing. I wonder why I don't just throw in the towel and quit. However, I know why I don't quit, I have made the choice to see how far I can go. I mean "far" in the philosophical way. It's about working hard and committing to something and putting in the work to improve. In other words, at the moment running is like my girlfriend. The cool thing about athletics, unlike just about everything else, is that you have a finite amount of time to progress before you are in your 40s and start regressing. If one can learn the techniques and processes to progress to a high level in a short amount of time those techniques and processes experience can be reapplied in other endeavors. What are the similarities between a successful marathoner and Fortune 500 CEO? A marathoner must educate oneself on the history and technology of training typically through copious reading, mentors (coaches), and self experimentation. A Fortune 500 CEO I would assume would be the person who knows the most about the company, their market, their strategy (all considered copious reading and mentors (colleagues and managers)), and has experience both in management and as an entry level worker (education through both the role of mentors (other managers) and self experimentation). I am sure that double parenthesis are not allowed in English, but they are in math!

I Live in Iowa: Week 32

2011-11-27T18:01:00.000-05:00

I am so fortunate! On the whole 2011 has been a phenomenal year for me. I have expanded my capabilities and accomplishments in just about every area that I work on, with the exception being climbing. I'm doing it, life that is. I'm engineering and saving the company money by making things lighter and I am making things stronger by identifying weak areas. On Tuesday this week I realized at the end of the day that I ran about six different FEA iterations trying to improve this one area. I realized that in the past running six different concepts would be impossible. The resources to build a machine, gage it, test it, and evaluate the data takes at least weeks and often months. Additionally it costs a lot of money. I was able to do six iterations in one day. That's not even impressive, it's just that I happened to count instead of trying a dozen or more iterations as I have in the past.

I "worked" 44 hours this week including two hours on Sunday and 16 hours on Thursday and Friday of paid holiday. I have been wanting to come in on the weekend for a while but with marathon training and cross country meets I have been otherwise occupied. I again worked on the Disk Saw Felling Head all week. It is such an interesting piece of equipment. The thing that it reminds me of the most is thrust vectoring on jets. Although, it's probably more like landing gear. Regardless, it's a complex dynamic system.

I ran a measly 53 miles including a terrible 6k tempo. The worst I have had in at least eight months. I think there is a plethora of things that have happened to cause me a running setback. I had an amazing month of training in October. It was great. Then my grandma died. Then I had a few little lower leg pains. Put them together and I think you get some terrible running. I feel this is the way that I am being told to take it easy. My life goes in cycles. Things go well, I want more, then I crash, I recover and reevaluate my life, then I repeat the process again. I think that these setbacks will help me be more rested and ready for my marathon. Regardless of the outcome of the race I know that my trip to California will be good.

The UD kids had the week off of school so I did not coach. Do kids go to school at all any more? A week off here a month off there. I'll go be a teacher just for the four months off every year.

What else? Does the world repeat 80 year economic cycles? I am just struck by the similarities between the 1930s and now. On the one hand, we can not find finite element structural analysis engineers and there are help wanted signs all over Dubuque, but unemployment is still high. I don't know what is going to happen. It is certainly interesting.

http://spiraldates.com/?p=575

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_supercycle

http://steadfastfinances.com/blog/2010/08/16/spooky-similarities-between-1930-2010-stock-market/

I Have No Manners, I am a Mess, and I Smell

2011-11-26T18:10:00.001-05:00

The great thing about family is the no-holds-barred critique of each other. I just spent the last three days with my family and the title reveals some of the lessons I learned. I bring this up in part because I also discussed my dating life to a greater extent with my family than I have before. These are things which, while not mentioned by those that said them, are quite possibly partly responsible for my lack of a dating life. In a related article in the next few days I will criticize the ladies I was fortunate enough to spend time with in a dating setting, but for now, let the self-inflicted torture begin!

Strait up, I have not spent much time around members of the opposite sex over the last seven years. That is not completely accurate, I spent time with a number of women scientists and engineers who were, and as far as I know still are, incredible. However, some of them have few manners and are messes as well. None of them smell, but I attribute that to my plethora of running clothing that I detest washing after only one use. It is interesting, as I think about the women I knew through college the best, those that are in committed relationships (I can think of only seven) are without exception in a relationship with another scientist or engineer.

I am reading "Steve Jobs" by Walter Isaacson and he talks about Steve's "reality distortion field" he would distort reality to get his way. In other words, someone would say it will take a month, and he would convince that person to do it in a week. That was his reality. Sometimes it worked, although other times it did not. For years he was a fruitarian (one who eats only fruit) and bathed only once a week and believed he did not smell... he did.

The point is, I feel I have created a reality distortion field around myself. Examples: going to Pakistan under-experienced, running at the Olympic Marathon Trials in 2012, and my career goals which are so far out there that I am not comfortable writing them down here for all to read. I have assembled this image of how the world works and what is possible for me and what matters that I excuse myself from the responsibility or the courtesy of obtaining or even maintaining the social graces desired when in dating mode. The potential hazard is that the mess or smell of my apartment will likely make a larger impact upon an interesting lady than my passions, my ambitions, my skills (you can laugh but I do a handful of things pretty well), or my beliefs. Perhaps it is for the better. I don't want a relationship built upon how well I smell while we are dating.

This is a very interesting time in my life. Twenty-five years is right in the thick of interesting changes. There is so much I do not know and so much more that I know now than I did seven years ago when I left high school. I have dramatically changed in the last two years as well. There was Paksitan, then unemployment, now a career. Looking ahead two years I have no idea where I will be. I have a few ideas which state I will live in and what I might be doing for an income, but who knows. I guarantee I will not the person in two years that I am even today.

In summary, thank God for family! It is not always pretty, and as often as not it can be hectic, but at least for me, it is honest.

Recovery Trumps Stress

2011-11-21T20:48:00.000-05:00

I'm talking about physical recovery versus things that cause physical stress on our bodies like running 18 miles. I took today off, even though I felt good. I was just doing other things, I got a massage, I had a good run yesterday, a workout tomorrow, and a marathon in less than two weeks. As I often say:

1. Stay motivated.
2. Stay healthy.
3. Train hard.

A run today would not boost my fitness for the next two weeks so I decided to recover from my long run yesterday more than I planned. Life is good. All too often I get caught up in the numbers and forget to enjoy my incredible blessings!

A Duct Tape Water Bottle Bicycle Cage

2011-11-21T18:35:00.001-05:00

A few months ago I was about to embark on a 50 mile after work bicycle ride with a co-worker and friend but in my haste to get to the trailhead on time I forgot my water bottle cages on one of my other bicycles. However, given a roll of duct tape I improvised. In fact, it is still on my bicycle something like three months later.

Side View

Close up of Bolts

Top View of Duct Tape Bottle Cage

You can fix a lot with that stuff.

I Live in Iowa: Week 31

2011-11-20T17:36:00.000-05:00

Overall a good week. I mean, I find it very hard to complain about my overall situation when things are going so well for me.

I worked just over 43 hours for the week. Since I get paid by the hour and can build up hours working a few extra hours each week is something I like to do. Then I can take more vacation, and get a quarterly bonus (if I work enough hours). I spent the whole week working on a new Disk Saw Felling Head. I won't say which one, because it is one we do not sell yet. I have to say I enjoy working on the DSFHs because the load cases are more diverse than most things that we have. For example, an airplane wing only gets loaded in a few different manners but the DSFHs get abused every which way. So it is interesting. Plus, they are a very visible part of the machine. I can take 180 lbs. out of a boom and three people notice, but I make a DSFH last a few thousand hours longer and half a dozen managers notice. Thus there is a little bit more pressure to get it right.

My running was in the tube most of the week. The special block I had scheduled for Sunday turned into a failure with only two miles at about 92% of marathon pace instead of 2x8 miles at marathon pace. I totaled only 59 mile for the week. My lowest mileage since the second week in July. Thus far in November, the month leading into my marathon I have had one good workout (the seven mile tempo a few weeks ago). I have been having left lower leg troubles, tight/knotted calves, plantar fasciitis, shin pain, etc... However, I ran a seven mile cross country race Saturday. The Living History Farms race is a true cross country race. A dozen stream crossings with some over two feet deep, hills so steep they had knotted ropes to pull yourself up, gravel roads with tennis ball size gravel, and brutal single track trails.

Proof I was there.

My name will not show up in the results because my friend broke his ankle two weeks ago and they would not let him transfer the number to me, so I just ran under his name. The picture above has me in it, not the guy in red of course but the guy in the black singlet coming out of the stream below him. I think this was the stream crossing that was two or three feet deep. Coming out of it I tried to stretch out my legs, but after taking a five second ice bath they did not want to stretch...

It was a great race, plus I enjoyed spending seven hours with my supervisor and his wife, the conversation was great. I don't have very many engineering/entrepreneur/economy/current events discussions in my daily life. The LHF race was the most technically difficult race I have ever done. Now I just have to figure out how to do something like that in Dubuque. Over 7500 people ran the Living History Farms race because it is different than your typical road race. Dubuque has a whole bunch of land that could have a race like this, in fact we have bigger hills and streams than central Iowa so it would be even harder. Although, I think that shorter than 7 miles would be better. Perhaps a 7k or a 4.7 mile run or 1.8 leagues. Some very non-standard distance that would take most people less than an hour but almost everyone more than half an hour.

Coaching this week I spent some time with the sprinters and throwers and trying to talk our resident can't-take-time-off runner into taking time off and doing yoga. One of the perks of coaching is getting all the new team clothing. I mean we have some really good clothing and since I typically don't buy much new clothing I tend to appreciate new stuff. We have a hoodie that is especially nice.

In economic news, do not expect any big improvement (media coverage) for the next month, but expect things to increase dramatically in the first couple months of 2012. At least at my company we are anticipating a new round of hiring in the next calendar and fiscal year. The actual economy in the US has been getting better all year but the stock market and big banks continue to yo-yo so there is a lot of hesitation in companies and consumers about increasing expenses. However, both companies and people have begun saving very seriously and we are likely approaching a tipping point where all of that money will burn a hole in some people's pockets and expenditures will go up. For example, John Deere is having trouble finding people to do finite element structural analysis. If we (with all of our big company benefits) are having trouble everyone else probably is too. So if these companies want to continue to get work done and fight for qualified employees, salaries will go up. This happens when people at the top who know about the extra cash will decide that getting the work done in a timely manner is important and they will increase the salaries they offer to new employees. I am not sure if that applies to retaining current employees, but I hear Siemens is hiring finite element structural analysis engineers in Boulder to do analysis on composite wind turbine blades...

Doubting Less

2011-11-17T21:00:00.000-05:00

I had a setback this week with my running due to a number of things culminating in pain in my shin and calf. So I had two consecutive days that I did a total of four miles. When that happens less than three weeks out from a marathon, the tendency is to panic. Fortunately, I have had so many setbacks over the years that I know setbacks are just part of the game when you approach your current limits.

How I react has changed over the years. My first injury in college reduced me to tears one mile into a run. I cried as I walked a mile back home with excruciating knee pain. Now I greet setbacks with an appropriate overreaction. Typically that overreaction involves drinking more milk, stretching, doing the little strength exercises, eating a variety of vegetables, and sleeping more. Basically three days of that and I'm good to go again.

On the mental side of setbacks there is a lot of doubt that one can have about one's abilities. For example, I have not done a workout in a week and a half, I'm scaring myself that I am out of shape. However, the facts are I have had my best three long runs, two best 20 minute tempos, one and only special block, best pace variation tempo, best mile repeats, and two days with over 30 miles. I'm in the best shape I have ever been in.

Similarly I had doubts at work last week. My grandma died and one day that week I said probably two sentences all day at work. I felt like I was in a dead end anti-social situation wasting my life behind a computer screen. Then this week we had a number of social informal discussions at work and it revived my attitude. I have trouble being patient sometimes, but it is typically to my advantage to be patient.

All of these life experiences help me to doubt less. What will happen will happen and worrying about it will not make it any better. Feelings are not fact. When I feel insecure about something the facts are that I am likely more secure in that situation than I feel. At the same time, doubts help us question ourselves and refine our thoughts. I suppose that doubts are the process of refining our thoughts until there are no longer any doubts.

I Live in Iowa: Week 30

2011-11-15T21:48:00.000-05:00

Thirty weeks! I'm practically a native!

Worked 34 hours due my grandmas funeral, which I talked about several times over the last week if you did not hear already. Work is work. In the words of a mentor at Kohler, "Some days it [engineering] is the most interesting thing in the world, other days it is work." To be honest I was productive and finished two projects this week, but I had other things on my mind as well which made it difficult to stare at a computer screen for eight hours a day.

My running went okay. I have my best pace variation tempo ever Monday but no other quality running the rest of the week. 77 miles total including the seven mile tempo in 38:42 or something.

Coaching we had our regional meet this Saturday. Several of the kids set personal records, but not as many as I hoped. Frankly, I was disappointed, not with the kids, but that we didn't set them up to PR at the last meet of the year. On the other hand ten out of eleven runners set personal records this year which is a good percentage for any team. Also, I would like to mention that we had the cross country runner with the most playing time at regionals this year. That is to say last place in the men's race. While some may be shocked that he ran so slow, it was nearly a 30 second PR for him and he improved with every single race this year, plus he is a 10.9 100 meter guy so 8k is not his strong suit.

What else? I suggested buying Deere stock a few weeks ago at 61-62 and it is up to 75 now. I did not buy any because I had no money, but Bill Gates bought $571 million around that time. I am not going to suggest selling it now (I would retire with it) but if you needed a quick 20% profit there you go.

http://www.isaiahjanzen.com/2011/10/great-recession-is-not-going-to-relapse.html

Happy Veterans Day!

2011-11-12T09:02:00.000-05:00

I meant to write an article yesterday but I was busy from 6:30AM until 11PM. In fact I was out with an Iraq war veteran and some other friends. I considered the military when I was in high school but ultimately decided against it because the risk of getting shot at was too great for me. For those of you that have served in the military, thank you! The risks that you have taken and continue to take allow me to have the best life in the world (that's just my opinion) and that is not something I take for granted. Thank you very much!

Sick, Dead, and Burried

2011-11-10T05:38:00.000-05:00

It is strange when a loved one passes away. My grandma was as tough as nails. She had colon cancer the year I was born, which back then was almost always deadly. She was in the hospital for this or that on a rather frequent basis from my point of view. When she had her stroke last summer we knew the end was near. I did not understand the devastation of a stroke until I saw her in rehab. She could not use half of her body. It was sad. That's more motivation for me to keep running. One day I could very well be in her position and I do not want to yearn to run when I get to a point that I will never run again. I want to say, "That was fun, but now I'm looking forward to..."

My grandmother typically had an attitude that we would see as pessimistic, but as I try to remember her complaining, I can't. In fact, most of my memories of her are of her lighting up when she saw us. It is strange, when she was here I thought of her as quiet, a little odd, smelling a little different, and set in her ways. Yet, for the last week all I have thought about is how happy she was when she was around us, her grandkids and family, and what she must have been like when she was my age.

My grandfather, Palmer, died in 1964 a couple of weeks after his 40th birthday thus my grandma was widowed just before her 39th birthday. Everyone left knows her as a widow, but I can't help but think about her younger years. I know that my grandpa had diabetes and there were heavy discussions about wether they should have children or not because diabetes in the 50s was a death sentence. Fortunately for my cousins, sister and I they did have kids. I keep imagining a young couple, him with a life threatening disease and those two people in love making decisions about what kind of life they wanted. It is very intense. I am curious if they ever thought about grandkids or great grandkids. But we have no memory of that because we were not there. We only know the frail woman who both never left home, and traveled to 47 states and over 50 countries. We only know part of the picture.

I know that a number of my relatives will read this, and for many of them there are things that I wonder, that I will never ask because it would make them angry with me and I suppose that those things do not really matter. Still, my grandma will not tell me of her relationship to my grandpa because neither one of them are here. My aunt and mom only have the vague memories of preteen kids. I do not think she kept a journal, but I am sure it would have been interesting.

So that is how it goes, one gets sick, then there is the death, then a funeral. I am a Christian, and my grandma was a Christian, and to the best of my knowledge my whole family are Christians. My faith defines my view on death and there is quite a lot of comfort in that. In fact, I have only cried since her death when someone has said how much her grandkids meant to her, I hear they were her greatest accomplishment. Aside from that, the sadness is over, her pain is done. To be honest, I am happy that we had the time with her that we did even while she was in the nursing home. It was not as nice as when she was able to care for herself, but it gave us plenty of time to consider the value of our lives. Life is such a blessing. For her to spend 86 years with us, while not always comforting at the time, I feel she taught us the value of family in a way that only a grandparent who lives far away can.

My entire senior year of college my one goal for running was to run under 33 minutes in the 10,000 and qualify for ECACs. The reason being that my family was going to come out for graduation and would be able to see me run. At the last meet of the year I ran 32:58.50. As it turns out only my parents and grandma came out. It was the first and only time my grandma went to a track meet or watched me race. Running in circles is at times and from many points of view a pointless endeavor, but I see each step as a celebration of the blessings that I enjoy. Wether or not she saw it that way I do not know. What better way of physically thanking God for our blessings than to run a race?

After the funeral Tuesday night my parents and I went out to Chili's. We spent time talking about my grandma in the quiet restaurant as I am sure we will many times in the coming months. We must talk about her so that we can grieve and move on. When we returned to her house I went into her bedroom and office, which I had never been into and opened some drawers and lifted some papers. Everything has to be gone through. My mom and I found my grandpa's wallet and multiple licenses for everything from his taxi license in Chicago to his milk truck license in Wisconsin. Nearly 50 year old documents preserved almost perfectly. My mom asked if there was anything I wanted (to of course be discussed among the family so that I don't run off with a pile of gold bars or something) and when I saw her cane I knew that was it. It is not even a very nice cane, but to me when she used that to get around she always projected an image of dignity and adventure. She didn't want a wheelchair, and she was not going to miss the excitement either. Like I said, tough as nails.

We buried her in the 35F rain beside my grandpa who died 22 years before I was born. When someone walks the cemetery in the future they will see a husband and wife who died 47 years apart and no mention of kids or grandkids or parents. My grandma spent thousands of hours on genealogy and I am interested to look through the files and hopefully document everything on the computer. I have relatives that were at the funeral that I had never met before. Once again there was far more to her life than I know.

What does the future hold for our family? I am not sure but as the sun shines through a window on me after a snowstorm, I know it will be good.

I Live in Iowa: Week 29

2011-11-09T14:00:00.000-05:00

This week was almost as emotionally exciting as my life gets. The things that can top the emotions of this week are either things I am building up to and planning on or things that I hope to put off for many years. The big event of the week was my grandmother's death. Ever since she had a stroke last summer we knew this week was coming. It was nice because we had just over a year to get ready for it. There were no surprises, everything followed a rather predictable path. People always say they want to die quick and not suffer, but seeing her suffer through this experience (and perhaps she was a closet optimist) gave us time to get used to the idea so that when she finally passed away I felt as much relief as sadness. I'm going to write another article about it and post it tomorrow so please return again tomorrow.

I worked 33 or 34 hours in four days, taking Friday off to visit my grandma for the last time. The emotional high and low of the week at work was getting offered to go to Georgia for a week to observe field testing, only to get told it would be too expensive. In hind sight, I would have only been there for one day then had to fly back for my grandma's funeral, so it worked out for the best, like everything does. As far as what I am doing at work, I am working with aluminum for the first time since Kohler and that is always a nice little change from steel. I find different materials so interesting...

In the running world I ran my best "workout" ever. Really it was two workouts, one in the morning and then the same again in the afternoon. In the morning I did a 2.5 mile warm up followed by a 14 mile tempo at 5:51 pace per mile average and in the afternoon I did a 2 mile warm up followed by a 14 mile tempo at 5:57 pace per mile average. This is a so called "special block" for the marathon. The rest of the week I just ran recovery pace and racked up a total of 101 miles. Running 28 miles faster than my current marathon PR pace in one day does not make recovery quick.

Coaching is going well, although this week with my grandma's events I was somewhat distracted at practice most days. Our kids are in the best shape they ever have been and I am really excited to see what they do at regionals this coming Saturday at Wartburg.

In the socializing scene, I went to Massachusetts for the weekend! One of my friends from grad school was having her birthday party and two of our other friend had the idea that I would be the surprise. It totally worked. We spent the weekend with each other, going to the best margarita restaurant that I know of, Mezcal. It was nice to seen familiar faces and familiar places. I love my friends, even (and you could say especially) those in New England that I did not see this weekend.

On a different note, New England is so crowded! I grew used to it while I lived out there but after being away for almost two years I have gotten used to open spaces, light traffic, courtesy, and short lines. I did not feel as at rest as I could tell my friends were when we were lounging around their houses. For me, and those that have worked at Tahosa, light a fire in Docs, put on some music and enjoy the stars from the porch or read a book or discuss life. That's relaxing. Add some Dubliner cheese and I'll be content for a long time. As for the hills in New England, they are not as big as I remember. I ran one of my typical 15 milers while I was there and I remember how I thought the hills were and I felt they were so much smaller now. My perception of the world has changed and it will surely change again. I am not who I was before, and I am not who I will be in the future.

My Grandma Died Yesterday

2011-11-06T22:00:00.000-05:00

At approximately 4:40 AM in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin my mom's mom died. How do I follow that up?

My grandma had a stroke about 16 months ago and TIMs (micro strokes) since then. She had all sorts of health problems and last week it all got worse due to pneumonia and a bowel obstruction. She had formerly declared (years ago) that she had had so many surgeries that she didn't want to have any more. So when the results of her tests came back Thursday afternoon that it was surgery or hospice, the family chose hospice. It means pain medication but not more medicine. The doctors said it would be one to four days until she died. What do you think when the timeline is one to four days?

After work and stopping by cross country practice I decided to do what I do well, go for a run. Getting out there and physically exerting myself makes thing more clear and releases my emotions. At one point going up a hill I stopped to cry. I made the decision that I would go see her Friday instead of go to work. What good would I do for her as she was partially deliearous? None, her fate was sealed. However, I don't abandon people. It is not a precedent I desire to start. Perhaps it is a trait I learned mountain climbing, or the result of having a small family. The point is I did not want to start of trend of abandoning someone.

So I woke up and ran Friday morning then headed the 140 minute drive north to Wisconsin. When I got there my mom greeted me. We knew this day was coming, it was still strange that it was actually happening. I hugged my grandma and told her I loved her and then my mom and I talked, in the general direction of my grandma who managed to recognize me and she seemed happy I was there. After a scant half hour I had to leave to catch a plane back in Dubuque. Five hours of driving for a 30 minute one sided visit may seem ridiculous, but I have done more for less.

The next day I went for a 15 mile run on my old stomping grounds. After I finished I heard the news through a text message. She died a mere 18 hours and 20 minutes after I last saw her. I felt relief. Her suffering was over. She was no longer in pain. It is strange because no one alive or that I know knew her when she was my age and I have been thinking about that a lot recently. I feel like I should read her biography to know about her what I do not know, but she does not have a biography. What knowledge and experience died with her yesterday?

I am comforted by my faith. Death is not the end. Our understanding of life and death is so temporary it is like our attention spans. After all, it is impossible for anything to go faster than the speed of light, but CERN might have managed to send a particle faster than light speed several weeks ago. Impossible is nothing.

Controlling Your Emotions

2011-11-02T21:50:00.000-04:00

From my limited experience, you can't. Your emotions have the upper hand when it comes to you. When I had my psychosomatic incident in 2010 I had no idea that I could emotionally tear myself apart like that. During the University of Dubuque's most recent meet, when our top girl had a psychosomatic event I was reminded once again how much we love the idea of controlling something. Here is the problem: you don't control much of anything. Control is an illusion.

As a coach we want to control our athletes to get the best possible performance out of them. The reality is we only have direct influence over their lives about 90 minutes a day. An athlete can quite conceivably dawdle or hammer the given workout and thus not achieve the intended stimulus. When it comes to race day we have even less hands on input into their races because we can not be there running beside them or on a bike every step of the way. From an athlete's point of view there is less control over the entire activity so the desire to do something a specific way is not quite as present. However, the desire to perform well is always present. The difference is, as a coach we can take out our frustration through the athletes, as an athlete there is no outlet once the athletic endeavor becomes a requirement instead of entertainment. Now I do not mean take out frustration by yelling at kids (although some coaches typically outside of running do) I mean by changing the workout plan for the next week or asking why someone raced a certain way. In other words, at least from my point of view, the frustration is with myself about why one of my athletes failed to do something I thought he or she was clearly capable of. So I ask myself what can I do to get that athlete to do whatever it is we are trying to do?

By asking myself what I can correct before the next go around the emotional let down of failure takes a back seat to the excitement of trying something new when I know we are already in a good basic position, despite one race. I find that looking at the global situation often leaves me with a far better emotional understanding of the situation than looking at the details. Someone can get really angry about the results of one person in one race. For example, by announcing that I am not going to even try for sub 2:19 I have already disappointed several people. However, I still intend to try to run sub 2:24, which would be over a 10 minute personal record in only seven months. That is a huge, huge improvement. Even if I fail at that goal I know that my training this cycle just blows what I have done in the past out of the water. On Sunday I did 32.5 miles with 28 of that at an average of 5:54 per mile pace. That's amazing! That is more than a marathon, faster than I ran my last marathon. Regardless of the actual outcome I have made significant progress, and I did get a half marathon PR out of it so far. By looking at my global situation (and in this case I mean just running but looking at everything is even more critical to maintaining a positive outlook) I will be happy with the entire process.

In conclusion, you can influence your emotions by the way that you view the world and circumstances of the events in your life, but you can not control them. If they want to keep your from breathing during a race or give you back pain at all hours of the day, they will. Appreciate your emotions and try not to hide them so much. I know I try to hide them often enough. My grandma is going to die soon, and I am really sad. It is strange knowing that in all likelihood we will have her funeral before Christmas because she is still alive and even yesterday was talking coherently. It is strange to think about...

I Live in Iowa: Week 28

2011-11-01T21:19:00.000-04:00

Another nice week living the dream, or something like it. What to say...

I spent most of the week meshing plate steel assemblies because most of India was on vacation for Diwali so I had to (or rather I chose to save John Deere the time) do my own grunt work. The designs that I am working with are getting better and better with every iteration that I run. I learned this past week that because of my optimization on on particular assembly (a boom) I am saving John Deere over $200 per machine. Plus, I am saving them 85kg in that optimized boom on the working end of the machine so they will be able to pick up a tree 200lbs heavier now.

It is exciting because there is relatively little recognition in the work that I do. Having even one person (the design engineer in this case) recognize the huge amount of weight and money that we took out of the boom goes a long way toward keeping me motivated. Now if only I would get a bonus or a pay raise because I just saved my company over $1000 per week, on just one of my shorter easier projects...

I ran 82 miles with two tempos on the track. I have been putting in a strong week followed by an easier one, and this was an easier one. I had a workout the Saturday before and the Sunday after so it was sandwiched between two hard workouts. I continue to progress really well, it just takes time, and rest, which honestly, I am going to run so well once I taper.

Coaching was a good week. Nine out of the eleven starters that we had on Saturday at the IIAC meet set personal records. That kind of success is almost unheard of. That being said, our team started with almost nothing, so compared to other teams, we have a long way to go. We also had one runner DNF. It was or is a situation very similar to Jenny Simpson (formerly Barringer) at the 2009 NCAA XC national meet.

That presented an interesting experience because it is similar to the experience I had just before I left Colorado in March 2010. When a top runner DNFs there are so many questions and trying to figure out what is wrong, having gone through a similar experience I feel I was able to do more work to get her mind on the right track in the seven minutes it took us to walk back to the team than I would have in a month or more had the 2009 and younger Isaiah been doing the talking. I feel like the de-facto UD runner sports psychologist now.

Growing up, or whatever it is called as you age, is continually interesting. It is amazing how the things that plagued me when I was even a few years younger are the same things that a bothering kids now, and the solutions I used work for them as well.

Think Descriptively

2011-10-27T05:24:00.000-04:00

People describe things terribly. I have known that for years, but it has never been as clear to me as it is now coaching some inexperienced college kids and regularly working with Indians. Two examples:

Me, "Is A welded to B along the bottom edge?" There was a picture to look at.
Indian coworker on our instant messenger, "y"
Me, "Yes?"
Indian coworker, "yes"

Now that was a simple y versus why misunderstanding. Often the description goes the other way and I communicate terribly. I would give an example but my errored writing does not compare to the vague run-on sentences I often use describe things. Besides I try to put the exact words out of my memory after one of my blubbering incidents.

Me to one of my athletes running a workout alone after the fourth of six 1200m intervals, "How do you feel?"
Sophomore student athlete, "Okay" in a tone that meant something hurt despite running good times.
Me, "Use more descriptive words."
Sophomore student athlete, "Well, my shin hurts a little, besides that I feel good."
From there we talked more about the details of how he was feeling, but if I had not prompted him to say more, I would have no idea his shin was hurting.

I find the best way to be more descriptive and clear to other people is use context clues and pictures to describe my point. If I can draw a picture that has thus far always gotten the point across. When drawing a picture is impractical I find it convenient to use numbers as much as possible to describe the issue quantitatively. Finally using generalizations to get the point across usually helps too. Example: "The longer the tail and larger the radius typically spreads out the strain better on a doubler or at a perpendicular intersection." It may not be very descriptive but if we are talking about a specific plate or intersection it generally describes what I want to do.

So I encourage you to answer questions in the future with a little positive and a little negative instead of "fine" or "good".

Meet Athletic Republic, My Official Sponsor

2011-10-25T05:41:00.005-04:00

After years of running on teams, I entered the post-collegiate world, and for the first time in my life I was without some entity giving me clothing and support to continue running. Until I encountered Athletic Republic.

The story behind this relationship is that I have a coaching job at the University of Dubuque, and the head cross country and track and field coach was the former majority owner of Athletic Republic Madison. Now he is a minority owner and when I told him tales of my running exploits he was sufficiently impressed to provide me with an assortment of clothing and gear. With any sponsorship, the more I do for the company, the more reward there is for me, and not just by running faster. Doing clinics, providing personal coaching, writing blog posts, and other things that relate my experience to Athletic Republic customers and potential customers.

Athletic Republic's target audience has been those people interested in performance training. For the most part that means sports with short sprints like football, track sprinters, basketball, hockey, baseball, and other high strength for short duration sports. The idea is that working on your form will allow you to get more power out of each step or throw. Distance runners traditionally shy away from this type of training because it is so far away from race pace that it seems irrelevant. However, even Renato Canova suggests short hill sprints of 8 to 12 seconds at a high speed for marathoners. He also has his runners do "diagonals" which involve sprinting across a soccer field. The point is, even marathoners can benefit from short sprints at a high intensity. Additionally improving your form can improve your efficiency by reducing the amount of oxygen required per step. For example, tensing your shoulders drives blood flow to your upper back and away from your legs. If you tense your shoulders enough, eventually on long runs you will have a sore back and shoulders. I used to have that happen to me regularly.

The reason they are sponsoring me is that they wish to expand their business to distance runners and I am a poster child for a balanced training program including sprinting and weight training. Additionally, I have years of competitive running experience which has given me a coaching perspective that your typical athletic trainer does not have.

I am excited to see where this sponsorship leads. I think there is a lot of untapped opportunity in this market for a distance runner.

I Live in Iowa: Week 27

2011-10-24T05:56:00.000-04:00

I worked 42 hours including spending three hours on the phone and instant messaging my coworkers in India on Friday. I had one of those great moments where I said something, and I was right. It is still unusual for this to happen to me, so I'm going to toot my own horn. My coworker in India desired to do some finite element analysis, even though it was not his job. He was using ANSYS, which I used at Kohler and have not used in six months. Yet I spent enough time with the software I was able to give him enough advice and suggestions that after 20 minutes of trouble shooting, the model solved on the first try. This is important because I feel that he put in several hours working with the software prior to asking for my advice. In other words, I was teaching, and I taught well enough to get a model to solve. There were a number of differences between his model and mine, but there was still information to be learned from his simulation. Simply developing autonomy...

I managed to run 100 miles including my personal record half marathon and my second best long run. The half marathon was run in Des Moines. I ran a 1:11:48 for 17th place out of about 4000 people. I was pretty even paced for the whole race with a few faster miles and some slower ones but an average of 5:29 and many miles within a few seconds of that. Since I have obviously been training to run 5:18 pace for a full marathon I feel nowhere close to the goal, even though a 1:11 half marathon is my best race ever according to purdy points and vo2max charts. So there is a mental low associated with running half of a 2:23 marathon when I am training for 2:18:58. I know I am a long shot, but I was hoping to be a little faster. I know, I'm so demanding. I finished the week off with a 20 miler run in 1:59:26. It was the first training run that I decided with about 12 miles left that I wanted to run 20 faster than 6 minutes per mile pace. The best part is that the first mile was in 6:50 so I spent the next 14 miles trying to get rid of those spare 50 seconds. Overall a very good week in running that was at the time, a little depressing.

Coaching continues to go well. I give some of the runners extra exercises to do for soreness, and it works! It is amazing for me because I know what works to help most of my recurring aliments but when the same things work for others, it is continually surprising.

Other than that, my grandparents came to town and we had an afternoon and two nice evenings with each other. I am always happy to hear the stories and advice they have to give. There is so much attained wisdom stored in our octogenarians and septuagenarians that we ignore. We are not smarter than those that came before us, more often than not it seems we just repeat the mistakes of the past. Getting into debt is good? Seriously? Who came up with that idea? History is littered with examples of societies that went into debt and struggled or failed to get out of it. So why did we go into debt once again? Wasn't the economy going well enough the last 30 years? The wisdom of our elders is valuable. I plan to listen and avoid the mistakes they lived through.

Confidence, Cockiness, and Arrogance

2011-10-23T21:51:00.000-04:00

Talking running with some friends, the subject of a particularly arrogant runner came up. It has come up that my attitude can at times be elitist and arrogant on this blog as well. In the context of coaching or competing or training or even engineering and academics there is a certain confidence that is needed to complete the work necessary to rise to the next level.

For example, Saturday the 22nd, I ran 20 miles in 1:59:26. It is the first time in training I have ever been a few miles out, in this case about 8 and decided that I wanted to do 20 in under two hours. There is quite a lot of confidence you need to decide to run 12 more miles in 70 minutes after doing 8 miles in 49 minutes. Unfortunately, the confidence talking about doing 20 miles at 5:58 pace translates to a certain arrogance about my ability to run 20 miles. As millions of people run and will never run 20 miles in under two hours I have trouble relating completely to their point of view. They ask how to improve, and the simple fact is, they don't work hard enough.

I come from a family which encouraged a very hard work ethic. The amount of time that I have put into my education and engineering (and continue to put into engineering at an average of 42 hours per week) have given me experience regarding certain situations that I speak about with a very opinionated view. You can not have square inside corners on an object that will be in tension or compression and must have any sort of fatigue life. That is just the way it is.

It is strange for me as well because I know that I say things on the blog in a way that I am uncomfortable saying them in person. It is hard to be that direct. It is also hard for me to confront others on events that I perceive as opportunities for their improvement. However, as I coach I am getting better at providing suggestions. Another professional way that I am improving is by helping to teach and work with my colleagues in India. I spent close to three hours Friday on the phone and our instant message communicator discussing modeling techniques.

I suppose my view is that sometimes X is the truth. If my presentation of X comes off as ignorant and arrogant then the problem is with my presentation of X. Within the United States I feel there is sometimes a refusal to stand up for our beliefs. If standing up for my beliefs is arrogant, I feel that is a better solution than not standing up for my beliefs. Although, translating words on paper to a real time conversation is typically difficult. So you can expect me to be a shy as ever in public, and as arrogant as ever on the blog. It's strange, I know, but it is easier than shouting from the street corners. Plus, when I decide that I said something crazy on the blog I can go back and edit it. It is kind of cheating, but every other web based news and information service can do the same.

Developing Autonomy

2011-10-18T22:24:00.000-04:00

Coaching is a great experience. As my middle school track coach once said, "You should all have to be a coach someday so you know how hard it is..."

One of the unique things about our team this year is that we have three college cross country veterans and the other eight to ten are freshman. It creates an interesting dynamic because they look to the coaches for guidance when it seems obvious to us the solution. An example, the starter announces three minutes to start time and we get asked if there is enough time to do another stride. The answer is yes. You can pretty much do whatever until they say a minute or 30 seconds to go. Yet our kids have not been in enough races to understand that.

Part of that is the general transition to college. Doing your own laundry, finding food every day, sleeping enough, showering, and staying out of trouble are things that most college kids have never structured for themselves. Adding a physical training plan with races every other week throws a new set of problems in the mix for them as well. Time management becomes even more important.

How do I take actions that help them become more autonomous? Allow them to fail sometimes. Several of our runners went out too hard at the most recent race and ran very slow the last part of the race. I was excited because they worked hard to give it a shot, and now hopefully they have a better feel for pace so that they can feel early in the race if they will be able to finish at that pace. Another method is when they are doing their warm up and cool down. I will tell them to get started, and walk away, but stay within sight. We have a very organized warmup and cool down. I am not going to be overly critical if they forget something, but it is import to make sure they don't stand still between warming up and racing. By getting them started warming up and letting them go it is my way of giving them approval as a team that they have the knowledge required to warm up and race. Hovering over them gives them the impression (in my mind) that we will always be there to make decisions for them, and that is clearly not true. I will not be there every step of the way telling anyone to attack or relax during the race. Each athlete must have the ability to make decisions during the race when to push and when to hold back, and make that decision during every one of the 5400 steps in a 30 minute race.

I am still learning of course but the point is by allowing them to make their own decisions and fail sometimes, they will (hopefully) learn to make better decisions. Hopefully the process of decision making they apply to running, and time management, will take root in their heads and help them make better life decisions. See! Running does apply to life!

I Live in Iowa: Week 26

2011-10-17T21:33:00.000-04:00

If you look at this week by itself, it looks like a wash, but if you look at the week before, or the day after, or the impact that I am having on the UD kids, or the work I am doing at John Deere, this all fits into the picture rather well. It is all progression.

I worked 39 hours. I took part of Friday off to go to LaCrosse for the Tim Jerews cross country meet. That is beside the point. Right now at work the new forestry machines are near the beginning of their promotion to virtual build, which is the process of making sure that everything can be built and work. After this we begin physical build, which involves building several dozen prototype machines. The point is, it is a time when a lot of work is to be completed and the volume or pace of finite element model simulations that I am producing is the best that I ever have.

My running involved a small 64 miles and one workout. The workout was a 10k progression run that I ended after 6k because I was struggling. But a minute later I felt good so I finished it with 2x2k after a few minutes of rest. It was a good workout. Basically as awesome as my week was last week I really really suffered from it this week. I mean I was extremely tired and had very heavy legs. Plus, Tuesday night I remember being half awake clenching my feet and pulling my feet into the bed, effectively stretching my shins, and cramping up the bottom of my feet (plantar fascia) and calves. I woke up Wednesday with plantar fasciitis in my left foot. I was so tired besides that that I took the day off. Anyway, I fixed the plantar fasciitis, and I should write an article and make a video because that injury is kind of my specialty. I'm getting so I can fix it in a week.

Friday and Saturday the UD team traveled to LaCrosse, Wisconsin for a cross country meet. It was our first overnight team trip. The team did well with several personal records despite two very hard weeks of training the last two weeks. Some of the runners also had really good aggressive learning experience style races. Sometimes you need to go out over your head so see what it's like. You also learn what it feels like to hit the wall and what it feels like at the beginning of the race when you hit the wall. When you watch the very best they generally feel the pace and know at the beginning of the race if the pace will be manageable. They have gone out too fast, and just right, in the past and they know what it feels like.

I have such a great life mixture right now. A great job, great running situation, a great second job, some cool friends. Life is good.

Beside a Corn Field...

2011-10-14T23:04:00.000-04:00

Right now I am in the AmericInn outside of LaCrosse, Wisconsin because the UD te I coach is running at the Tim Jerews cross country meet tomorrow. We ran the course, which is fast and on a golf course, and beside a corn field. I had the realization as we walked to the bus after our run that many times in the last ten years I have gone to race in places surrounded by agricultural fields. Why is any of this worth talking about? Tomorrow we line up beside the University of Minnesota and I am pretty sure they will send a few runners under 25 minutes for 8km. To me that kind of ability seems like it should be in a place with cameras and fans and stadiums, not beside a corn field in Wisconsin. But that is the whole point! These places are all just places on the earth and people are all just people. At some point we each spend time alone and in places that are "normal". Corn is normal. There is not much more of anything in the United States that is more normal than corn. The relationship between just people and just corn to me exemplifies the relationships between all of us on the earth. No one is isolated from everyone else. We must work to not ruin it for everyone else.

How I Ran 140 Miles in One Week

2011-10-12T20:41:00.002-04:00

Since this was the best week of training I have ever had, I would like to share it. Plus, for those that don't read my running log this is what it takes to succeed. For the record, this whole athletic thing that I am doing is all part of the 30 year plan that includes my career, and this blog. While you can say it is only physical, there is a link between the physical and the mental and the emotional, and I feel to succeed at the highest levels mentally and emotionally I personally need to physically strive for success as well.

In reverse order:

10/8	Run	Rail Trail	Long	21.0 mi	2:10:04	6:12
10/7	Run	Trails	Recovery run	11.4 mi	1:31:08	8:00
10/7	Run	Trails	Recovery run	8.7 mi	1:01:25	7:04
10/6	Run	Trails	Medium Long Run	16.0 mi	2:02:29	7:40
10/6	Run	Morning Run #1	Recovery run	2.6 mi	22:31	8:40
10/5	Run	random	Recovery run	5.5 mi	45:02	8:12
10/5	Run	Indoor Track	Strides	900.0 m	2:30	4:29
10/5	Run	random	Recovery run	4.5 mi	38:31	8:34
10/5	Run	Morning Run #3	Recovery run	3.5 mi	29:38	8:28
10/4	Run	Track	Fartlek	11.6 km	54:47	7:37
10/4	Run	Track	Recovery run	3.4 mi	27:46	8:10
10/4	Run	random	Fartlek	11.0 mi	1:16:03	6:55
10/3	Run	random	Recovery run	9.0 mi	1:10:52	7:53
10/3	Run	random	Recovery run	5.2 mi	43:53	8:27
10/2	Run	random	Recovery run	7.0 mi	51:02	7:18
10/2	Run	Rail Trail	Long	23.5 mi	2:24:55	6:11

Some key things that I took away from making this such a successful week in my eyes:

Sunday I ran 30.5 miles, probably my single best day of training yet and for sure my best long run yet.
Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday I averaged over 8 minutes per mile pace.
I had 15 running events (I don't count the strides as separate) which means I tripled on Tuesday and Wednesday.
In total I ran 24 miles faster than 6:00 pace.
I ran the two best long runs of my life this week.
On both long runs I had company for most of each run and on the 20 miler I had my sister bicycling with a gatorade bottle in support. It made a huge difference.
I slept and ate a whole lot this week.

Some mistakes I made this week:

I neglected the exercises and core work necessary to be successful and stay injury free. I had a plantar flare up today (Wednesday).
I pushed hard to get 140 because I wanted that number of miles but the effort I put in on Thursday and Friday, while not fast was a long time and is just now in the middle of the next week hurting me.

30 Dreamers

2011-10-10T21:55:00.000-04:00

The results from the Chicago Mathon are online and everyone tried to get the Olympic trials standard. Five people ran 2:18 and I am assuming their first qualifying race for the trials. On the other hand 30 men went out in 1:08-1:09 and ran 2:19 or slower. That's 30 people who trained well enough to run halfway on pace but had problems in the second half. Statistically only one in seven of the people who hit halfway on pace made the goal. I am sure that CIM will be nearly the same.

It's eye opening. I mean I'm only a 1:12 half marathoner this week. Those guys ran three minutes faster than my PR and tried to do it again. What am I doing!? Okay I know that this is a long term process and I fully expect to PR huge even if I do not run 2:18. Plus, I just ran 140 miles last week with 24 of them under six minute pace. I doubt many 2:20+ marathoners put down 140 mile weeks.

I'm just saying, the odds are stacked against my time goal this cycle, but you never know until you try. Seeing that at Chicago the odds were one in seven for those that made it halfway is motivational. I didn't think the odds were that good.

I Live in Iowa: Week 25

2011-10-09T20:36:00.000-04:00

This was an amazing week for me, partly professionally and incredibly in terms of running. I worked 41 hours which was lower than normal because ran so much. Technically I didn't get as much worked finished as I would have liked but I worked on several different projects and progressed on all of them, so it could be worse. Then I learned on Friday that I might have an opportunity for a promotion. There is a decent chance that I do not get it, but the fact I am being officially considered is a significant recognition for me, in my eyes. It's like the Olympic trials, if you are there you have the chance to be an Olympian. So often just being in the game in the running is a success in my mind.

My running week was my best one yet! I ran 140 miles including my two best long runs, and three fartlek/hill workouts, and a set of strides. It was rewarding. Since I have never run 140 miles in one week I feel a little obligated to describe it run by run. Alas, I am tired so it may be a few days. I will tease you will with my Sunday: a 23.5 mile long run with the first six in 41:45, next six miles in 37 all of that with G the other University of Dubuque assistant cross country coach, and last 11 in 1:03 with a 5:21 and 5:29 mile in there in the middle. For me to average 6:11 per mile over 23.5 miles is good, to put down 5:30s and 5:40 in there near the end when I am tired is even better! That evening I went over to G's apartment (and C and S's appartment) and we did another seven miles around seven minute mile pace. That made it my first 30+ mile day of serious training and it was all run semifast. The beast part is I still have six hard weeks of training left!

My sister came to visit on Friday and Saturday and that was the extent of my socializing this week. If you want to work 40+ hours a week and run nearly 17 hours a week the only other thing you end up doing is eating and sleeping.

This World Keeps Changing

2011-10-08T13:44:00.000-04:00

This was an interesting week. On October 5th Steve Jobs died. I know he had survived pancreatic cancer and a liver transplant, but it just seemed like he wouldn't die, at least anytime soon. People are beginning to wonder about the possible demise of Apple. I think that they put so much work into defining what made Jobs so distinctive that for the next several years, probably the next decade, they have nothing to worry about. Secondly, I can't help but think of the movie Tron or Batman how the son inherits the company. Who knows what the future will hold?

The iPhone 4S came out. It's cool because it has HSPA+ (3x faster data speeds), a better processor (up to 7X faster graphics), an amazing camera, up to 64GB of storage, and to top it all off it has this new thing called Siri which people don't really know what to do with yet.

Unemployment is still high, yet we can not find engineers! There are three open positions in our group for finite element structural analysis engineers for people with 1+ year experience and a salary of $70K+ that have been on the website for a month yet only 12 people have applied, and one is me and one is my coworker who sits behind me and we are just looking for a promotion.

Secondly, I hear about the booming oil and gas fracking industry throughout the midwest and tales of 2% unemployment where someone can find a job they day they arrive in town. Do you really want a job? Go to North Dakota.

On the European economic front they are having problems. We spent so much money, for so long that now it is time to pay it back. Let me tell you from experience it is fun getting into debt, but paying your way out of it is not easy. I am making more money now than I ever have but my standard of living is barely higher than it was in college. I sleep on an air mattress! (It is a double tall queen size.)

This is such an interesting time to be alive! I will be able to say that I watched the world go from no cell phones or Internet to ubiquitous cell phones with the Internet. We went from some of the greatest peace and prosperity to a 10 year old war and a long running recession and very slow recovery.

By the way, stocks on Wall Street have been up and down huge percentages recently (10% per day in some cases) and the more volatile stocks are in general the more money those in the market stand to make. If for no other reason that people are buying and selling and Fidelity, among others, is making a commission on each transaction. In other words, billionaires get richer and unemployed people in their 40s and 50s still can't find jobs.

The Great Recession is Not Going to Relapse... Yet

2011-10-04T05:26:00.002-04:00

We are in the process of a paradigm shift, debt is not good, it is enabling, in the same way that a fake ID enables young kids to drink alcohol. We worry about Greece defaulting and low consumer confidence, but let us look at some factual things.

Since I have an amazing career at John Deere let me tell you about business. We can not find finite element structural analysis engineers. If you are looking send me an email. If the economy is so terrible why is it impossible to find anyone with FEA experience? Second we are hiring for our new Chinese construction and forestry operation and it is even harder to find FEA experience in China. India on the other hand is swimming in FEA experience. John Deere recently announced the new construction factories in Brasil worth something like $124 million. Third, we are having great orders for much of our equipment. Why the stock is down at 61 from 95+ a few months ago I don't know. (disclosure: I don't own any John Deere stock, but I plan to buy some within the next two years, perhaps as soon as this week although I don't have enough money to buy many shares at all right now.)

Things are not going to return to the way they were, at least I hope not. "Sustainable Growth" is 0.0% anything greater results in consuming the world eventually. We can not spend 101% of our income as a nation and expect to sustain that. Oh wait, that already collapsed. What necessitates a growing economy anyway? Why is a recession defined as two negative quarters instead of two quarters with growth of -3% or worse? What good can we do sweating the small stuff?

My advice, graduate with an engineering degree asap (and some FEA experience). If you are older, uneducated at the college level, or have a degree which only cuts you out for grad school, I have no advice. I suppose what you can do for yourself is come up with a value proposition for your career. What is my value proposition? Good question. Something like: capable of using his manufacturing experience from three companies and creativity from two patents pending along with an MS in materials science and BS in aerospace to create structures that are stronger, lighter, and thus more energy efficient than current products. Sounds good huh? All of that only took a minutes to come up with as well. If you can't come up with a reason to be hired instead of someone else you will have a more difficult time finding a job.

Finally, the iPhone 4S or 5 comes out today and orders will be huge! I realize that income distribution plays a part in Apple being so successful and that is part of the problem. I'm just saying that business and the economy is far better than a bunch of disconnect-with-business and disconnected-with-America media people and Wall Street people are saying. I probably listen to more NPR than them all as well.

Who is Jason Flogel?

2011-10-03T06:53:00.001-04:00

There is absolutely no reason for you to have ever heard of Jason Flogel. Why am I telling you about him? He ran a 2:18 marathon in June and qualified for the Olympic Marathon Trials. He has a child and a wife and a regular 40-hour-per-week job. We have mutual friends because he went to Loras College here in Dubuque so I hear that he runs 100 mile weeks very consistently, but has dealt with injuries. He was apparently struggling with getting "faster" in the last year or so and I talked to his college coach who told him to run 4 x 200 starting hard and running the last one about as fast a possible. Thus even marathoners do speed work.

He is an example of accomplishing one thing that so many of us would like to do, qualify for that one big race. Plus he did it with a career, a child, and a wife. In the odd chance that he reads this: Congratulations Jason on running a 2:18 (and doing it while having a life)!

I Live in Iowa: Week 24

2011-10-02T21:29:00.000-04:00

What a nice week! Like I've said, I have a great life. I worked 43 hours, mostly due to 9.5 on Friday. Work is going well. I am working on a project for one of the new forestry machines and due to the finite element analysis that I did, they will probably save 90kg (200 pounds)! This is important because this is a moving assembly on the working end of a machine. Which means that one pound from this assembly is worth perhaps five pounds from a less critical part of the assembly. It is an exciting prospect to be part of a team that is using the full range of tools available to us to make a product that will better fulfill the customer needs than what we currently make. Our current models are industry leaders by the way.

I ran 87 miles, after six consecutive weeks at 100 or more I needed some down time. I was tired. I did wrap up the month of September with 447 miles, one of my better months. I had three workouts this week. Monday I tried to solo a sub 16 5k on the indoor track at the University of Dubuque, but I was hitting 77s and a 78 and 79 so I stepped off after 2400 in 7:47, three seconds slow. Then I did some 800s and 400s and a hard hard 200 to get 5k of work in 15:53, which is okay. It's not what I wanted, but it's better than just 2400 of work. Thursday I did 10x2 minutes hard, 1 minute easy for a total of 29 minutes. I ran that with M my marathon training partner on Thursday afternoon at the Dubuque City high school meet. The former coach at Loras College (M's alma mater) is now the coach at Dubuque Senior High thus the connection. Plus I know a sophomore that runs for "Senior", as they call it around here. Then Friday, feeling good enough for another workout I did a seven mile progression on the heritage trail with the last three miles at 5:38, 5:25, and 5:19. So three workouts this week. That's a nice number and it is what I needed.

Coaching at UD is going really well. We had a hard workout Monday and a moderate workout Thursday. Saturday, nearly every runner on the team set a personal record. Plus, we are not even peaking yet. I am sure that we are going to have more breakthroughs the last three meets of the season over the next six weeks.

That was about my life.

A Wedding in Omaha...

2011-09-28T07:56:00.000-04:00

Here goes the ridiculousness…
First of all, and most importantly the weekend was about the bride, my friend E, and her husband, my new friend M, so don’t let my self-interested egotistical view on the weekend get in the way of that.
I arrived in Omaha and changed into my suit in the Creighton parking lot, in my van, 45 minutes before the ceremony. I nervously paced at the back of the church for awhile until the bride moved from one hiding spot to the next and we happened to greet each other and hug. I will tell you what, she looked AMAZING!
The ceremony was nice, and I got emotional a couple of times, I’m not quite sure why. I mean I have not been that close to E in years. I had a strange moment when the priest was talking about commitment I had images of places I have been and people I have been with that involved commitment. In a church there are a hundred people watching every move but “out there” where it matters there are no spectators, no experienced authority figures, no counselors, and no lying to yourself and each other. I suppose that is a strange response to the wedding service, but I spent a few hundred miles on the bicycle this summer with a divorced friend of mine and I am sure that at the wedding he was totally confident that his marriage would last a lifetime. So many people get divorced that I can’t help but think about it. Just so that I am clear, E and M’s marriage will last a long long time based on what I know about E and her family and the what I know about M and his family.
After the ceremony I wandered around town buying a gift (I know… typical… I am idiot for waiting that long to get a gift and for telling all of you). Then I went to the reception and made the rounds talking to people from my high school experience. It is great to catch up with people. News from around town: one of my class is now a doctor, one of my class has a child with autism, one of my class is married and a nurse, one man I used to ride bicycles with has ALS (Louis Gerig’s disease), the first best-runner-I-know hasn’t ran competitively in years and I think is unemployed, one kid went to Wall Street for a few years until the crash then he wound up in Kansas City, another kid now manages money north of Omaha and has a baby, valedictorians seem to wind up on the five year college plan, everyone else must be in as much debt as I am, and while many things about people do change, many don’t.
One of my former prom dates was the head bridesmaid and she didn’t realize I was even there until I was standing in the buffet line four feet away right in front of her. Hahaha, it was pretty funny! Anyway, she lives in Chicago so I’m planning on visiting this fall. Perhaps Chicago marathon weekend (a new world record please?).
What else happened? Twins… Anything else I say will only dig a hole for me. So I’ll summarize it like this: Hahaha… Yep… haha… Really? …more or less… hahaha
As the party wore down and we left for the hotel I had a conversation with M2 who I vaguely remember from hanging out at KU when I was in high school. It was a great conversation, the kind that uses words like sustainability, protest, and vegan. As I work for a logging company and also spend thousands of hours outdoors my views on sustainability are probably a little different that most people. Having the ability to have a genuine informed conversation about capitalist pigs (those were my words but I got her to laugh because she was thinking it) destroying the environment was a nice change with M2. I'm working on a miniseries about the logging industry right now and trust me you will be informed.
For breakfast I socialized some more and handed out a few business cards. Then I played connector. M2 needed to get to Kansas City for a plane flight in five hours and J and L were driving there and were going to get there in about four hours and since they did not know each other and I was talking to both I found M2 a ride and J and L gas money.

It was a great weekend! I am so happy for my friend who is now married! Seeing all of my friends brought back memories as we created new ones. Life is good.

I Live in Iowa: Week 23

2011-09-26T08:51:00.002-04:00

Yet another week living the life. What to discuss… I worked 41 hours this week. Part of that was spent on the “Proving Grounds” (that’s the formal term, we typically call it “the hill”) learning the safety and regulations required to drive big expensive pieces of equipment around.

I spend most of my time behind the computer making pretty pictures (finite element strain patterns) and I’m getting much better at it. I came up with a good idea for a part with a thermometer shape cut out of it that would focus strain away from a nearby weld. I still have work to do, and I am sure you have no idea what I mean by “thermometer shape” but the point is I’m getting better at coming up with creative ideas how to change designs so that they have a longer fatigue life.
Our jobs as structural analysis engineers is to find the weaknesses in designs, and make them stronger. I think of it as building a better bubble. If you have seen many carbon fiber bicycles you will have an idea of what I mean. Instead of thin steel tubes the shapes involve complex curves and continuously varying tube diameters. It seems ridiculous to compare a carbon fiber bicycle frame to a boom for the forestry industry made out of welded steel plates half an inch thick, but they are nearly the same thing. The only difference is the anisotropic material properties of multilayer ceramic-polymer or ceramic-ceramic composites versus an isotropic metal (and that is really an assumption based on the processing of the metal…).
I ran 100 miles including a very nice long run, a sprint fartlek, and a moderate tempo. I tried something new on the long run. One of the things that is suggested for slow runners with predominately slow twitch muscle fibers is to do workouts that involve running several different paces, because that is something slow runners do not like to do. So I did 12 miles at a slow aerobic pace (6:55s), then I did the last 10 miles at the following effort levels (all percentages refer to as percent of marathon pace): 90%, 95%, 90%, 80%, 90%, 95%, 90%, 80%, 90%, and 95%. In total I did the last 10 miles in 59:50 which is not especially fast but the way I ran it and considering there was 12 miles immediately before it, that counts as a good long run. The moderate tempo was a 27:40 8k on the track.
In the world of coaching I missed a few practices because I had to work. We also had a race Friday evening. It was the first time most of the men raced 8k. The great thing about races is that you get to watch everyone run what you are training them for. It is a test of the work that has been done. Basically, I saw exactly what I needed to see to understand how they are all responding to training. A race is the perfect place to watch the runners “fall apart” and when in the race they do and how much they slow and how fast they started are all great things to view and then base future training off of that. Additionally, every race leading up to the goal race is really only preparation for that race so the outcome at the finish is not terribly important.
I finished my week off in Omaha, Nebraska at a wedding of a good high school friend I have not see in years. I should probably blog a few more times this week about the events of this weekend because they were simply too numerous to append onto my weekly summary of living in Iowa. I’m going to leave you hagging for today…

Everywhere on Earth is Still the Earth

2011-09-25T14:38:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I went to a wedding of a high school friend at Creighton in Omaha, Nebraska. It was the strangest thing, I have not seen most of these people in years or been to Creighton in years and at one point in the day I was struck by the similarity of Earth. I thought about sitting at 23,000 feet in Pakistan, a 60 mile bicycle ride with a divorced friend, and running at the Mines of Spain. Why does any of that matter? It matters because life is not confined to the walls of a building. It matters because for me those other places I was talking about have a seriousness and loneliness that does not happen in a building. Relationships are built on so much, so much that is not covered in pictures and videos.

I guess that the allure of those places I mentioned and others is in part due to the challenge of getting there, but once I am there I still breathe the same air and I am the same person. Seeing the wedding yesterday, and getting a little emotional, reminded me that it is one step in the process. It does not occur without significant thought and involves significant work after the fact. Two factors which do not have nearly the spectators of the wedding yet probably make or break the relationship more than a day in front of the public.

In short, it was a fantastic trip for me and I am extremely excited for my friends, the newly weds. Seeing this I realized how complex any one person's history is. I knew the bride before the groom did. We all breathe the same air and drink the same water and stand on the same dirt. To those about to rock the rest of their lives together: congratulations, work hard and have fun!

Throw Away the Hate

2011-09-22T22:26:00.000-04:00

I came up with that slogan in high school and I am reminded occasionally of how pertinent it is. Within the last week I think two people were executed for hate crimes, a white man who killed a black man and a black man who killed a white man.

This applies to other things as well. I have struggled with jealousy of others successes. As I get older there is more joy in others accomplishments. How did I change my attitude from negative to positive? First of all I certainly didn't do it alone. I had help from friends and frienemies and authority figures whose actions I observed. Whatching others who seem not to hate others makes it easier not to hate on other people. Second, I focused on myself. By defining my goals in life everyone elses accomplishments or challenges to me become a complement to my journey. Perhaps that is a very egotistical way to look at it, but from my mental perspective others can only contribute and not bring me down. In other words, everyone who I might have harbored anger against in the past, even because they were simply successful, challenged me to define myself, wether any of them or I knew it or not.

Changing subjects slightly motivation has to be intrinsic. It has to come from within based on hopes and beliefs. You cannot give someone motivation, you can try to foster an environment that encourages a desired response. Often that environment is one of competition, intrinsic or extrinsic, with a reward or rewards. Returning to the original subject, what is the reward in throwing away the hate? Certainly less legal trouble, probably less mental anguish, less self berating thoughts, more and likely deeper friendships, and despite a possibly more egotistical attitude likely a more supportive and encouraging disposition.

When people make you mad, throw away the hate.

How to Train for a Marathon

2011-09-21T22:40:00.000-04:00

This post is entirely for my own benefit. I'll just save the info in a public forum. That way perhaps you can benefit.

Abel Kirui; July and August training leading up to winning September 4th, 2011 World Championship Marathon.

Nate Jenkins lead up to his first two marathons (2:15 and 2:14; scroll down into the comments for the workouts).

Gerlindo Bordin before winning Seoul Olympic Marathon in 1988, again trained by Canova.

Random Renato Canova training threads.

Bill Rodgers training 1973-1975 including his first Boston win which was a 10 minute PR 2:19 to 2:09.

Thats about it for the night.

The point is, the training that the best runners out there did or do, is available. Neglecting to read I train for a fast marathon is ignorant. There are many paths to fast times, but there are many similarities. Lots of race pace training (or racing short distances are close to marathon pace), a decent number of miles (I've not heard of a top marathoner doing less than 80 per week), and consistency. You don't decide to run a fast marathon next month and do it, it takes years of aerobic base and workouts improving your lactate threshold and V02Max. Read up!

I Live in Iowa: Week 22

2011-09-19T21:52:00.000-04:00

Worked 41.5 hours. I'll tell you what, using India as an engineering resource saves me a bundle of time probably 60 hours thus far in September.

I ran 106 miles including a day off, a great 4xmile session, a 5k race, and short hill sprints. A really good week of training.

Coaching is going well. The kids are progressing so fast it is amazing. We did a 10-12 mike long run with most of them Saturday and they hardly were scared of it versus three weeks ago.

I'm busy! I suppose I have time for what I make time for, but it's almost nine, I haven't paid my bills, I haven't checked my email, and I haven't reserved a hotel room for the wedding I am going to this weekend.

A thought for the week: what do you deserve from your government? If we can answer that we might have a better time dealing with government debt.

I have a Great Life

2011-09-14T22:13:00.000-04:00

I think I have the best life in the world. Hopefully you think the same about your day but listen to my Wednesday:

Wake up at 4:50 to run nine miles with M former D3 3rd place at NCAA XC who is training for NYC marathon and trials standard.

Oatmeal and coffee from my French press on my way to work at an amazing job! I have such a great job and I am excited daily to go to work. I worked with a design guy R and manufacturing guy T today and we are working into some great ideas for the new skidder. Work is awesome!

Go to UD XC practice and hang out with the kids. I might not be an asset every day, but I have much to share with them. After their practice I ran the best mile repeats of my life 5:08, 5:08, 5:09, 5:07 all with 400 jog rest in 1:45-50. My friend G who is also one of the coaches paced me through the first 800 of the first two and 1000 of the third. Could not have done it all solo in the wind today. Lifted in the weight room then C made me a burrito before the first track and field meeting of the year.

That's my life. No girlfriend, which I am not really sure I have the time and energy for now anyway, but everything else is going really well. Such a huge change from 2010.

I Do Not Always Adjust Well to Others

2011-09-13T22:54:00.000-04:00

I am really good at routine. I enjoy the stability and relaxation of not worrying about what comes next. The problem is in any new relationship there is an adjusting between parties so that all involved benefit the most. I have trouble adjusting to new routines and methodologies of life.

What brings this up? Women my age talking about being a stay at home mom on the second date. That concept is so many steps beyond me at this moment in my life. I can see how it is valid topic to discuss because it is pertinent to the future, however, I feel that topic could be addressed further down the road closer to the time a decision is necessary.

When it comes to social situations, I move very slow. Basically, I do everything slow. I run the marathon because it is one of the slowest races out there. I used to think I learned fast, then I went to WPI and specifically grad school. Moral of the story, I adjust, slowly and if I can be convinced it is worth it.

I Live in Iowa: Week 21

2011-09-12T06:48:00.000-04:00

The week that was...

I only worked 32 hours this week, 40 counting the holiday Monday. I seemingly had one thing or another to do right after work this week so I ended up leaving every day pretty early. I felt like a slacker leaving so early every day. It is still strange to get used to the idea that I only have to work set hours every week. I feel like I am not really compensated based on what I get done as much as that I am for simply working a set amount of hours. I'm in a great place professionally that I don't intend to change in the near or medium term, but I really enjoyed the thrill of grad school and a thesis project.

I ran 116 miles including two races and two workouts. In fact, Monday was the probably the best day of training I have ever had. I woke up and ran a 5k race, and won in 16:16. Three hours later I did a 12x1 minute hard, 1 minute easy fartlek that lasted 4 miles. Not a fast average for a tempo, but considering half of that time was spent running at 7 minute mile pace or slower that's a good average. Then I followed up the day with a 30 mile bicycle ride and a five mile run. That's three legitimate running sessions, two nice workouts (well one was a race), and nearly a two hour bicycle ride. My workout Wednesday morning went similarly well. It was 2x2 miles. The first 2 miles was downhill Grandview in 10:15 and the second two was 10:38 uphill and I fell apart on the fourth mile running only a 5:24. Best two mile repeats I have ever done.

In the coaching world, we're getting better, and fast. Before anyone jumps to conclusions about the race results this weekend as some of our runners did not do the greatest, most of the people on the team had the longest run of their life this Tuesday. Some even ran 12 miles. Overall we have been doing a lot of hard training and for many the hardest strength training of their life, so everyone is a little tired. The point is, it is okay to be tired at races early in the season as long as you are raring to go at the end. That being said, I warmed up with heavy legs Monday and ran a 16:16. Still I am excited because I feel we are making good progress with the team.

I really did not do much else at all this week. I bought seasons six and seven of Entourage and spent some time each evening laying on my couch watching the drama. My routine in the evenings after practice with the team and my own running is eat supper and typically spend an hour or so watching something on dvd or reading. I'm getting used to thinking about bed time as 9PM so that I can wake up at 5AM to run. It might not sound fun and enticing, but I'm really getting to like 5AM.

Ten Years of... Terror?

2011-09-11T19:06:00.000-04:00

Today is ten years since the September 11th plane hijackings and suicide flying. It is strange to think it has been that long. My sister wrote an article about what it means to her. So I thought I would write down my take. Basically I remember what she does, especially the golden sphere and my parents debating doing the World Trade Center or going over to the Empire State Building because it was like $20 per person for an 80 second elevator ride. I remember getting a pressed penny on the top floor because I collected those on our family vacations. I remember that overall the floor was pretty empty with few tourists compared to the Statue of Liberty earlier in the day. I also remember vividly standing at the corner of the building closest to the other WTC and it was a windy foggy day, well foggy above 900 feet. We watched the building visibly move towards and away from each other with an amplitude of perhaps 8-10 feet out of the maybe 50 feet away from each other they were. Needless to say it took a little effort just to walk to the windows and look down. We generally walked around the perimeter staying away from the windows.

Since then 1766 Americans have died in Afghanistan and 4474 Americans have died in Iraq in addition to the 2819 people killed on the day of the attack. Osama Bin Laden has been stopped. Saddam Hussein has been stopped. Interesting to note, none of the Hijackers came from Iraq or Afghanistan or Pakistan or Iran for that matter since those countries seem to get some bad publicity. We've had anthrax problems and scares. Shoe bombers, underwear bombers, and others creating terror.

Personally I think terrorists is a bad name for them. As soon as we call someone or group a terrorist, they are. They have created terror in us. Wouldn't it be more appropriate to call them insurgents or militants or rebels or misguided people raised in a life of poverty and under-education?

We are where we are.

Non-Linear

2011-09-08T22:34:00.000-04:00

Non-linear is a good description for many things. This topic is a can of worms so I apologize if this does not flow linearly. (ha!) Okay, first the running stuff. Renato Canova posted the July and August training of some runners who ran at the world championships including Abel Kirui who won the marathon.

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=4213844&page=1

The point is I have been on a linear (nearly identical weeks) running schedule most of my life, but it is not the best for development. In fact, many of my best workouts leading into the marathon were out of my ordinary routine (30 miles on Good Friday). Furthermore, many of the best marathoners of the 70s thrived off of one major workout/long run per week and smaller workouts during the week. In other words, a week between hard workouts. Say it takes five days for a body to recover over the course of seven weeks implies ten workouts versus the 70s era seven workouts. I won't even address the 90s era three workouts a week because it complicates thing. But since you are curious, the idea was more workouts would be better, but without enough days to over compensate and respond to the workouts the workouts will not be as effective. In other words, after hard workout X in three days you can run 12 miles at marathon pace but if you wait five days you can run 16 miles at marathon pace, even though you feel the same on the warmup or five miles into the workout.

Changing subjects, life seems to happen in leaps and bounds and plateaus instead of a little progression every minute. After 400 job applications why did I get hired here in Dubuque after only a one hour interview?

In the material deformation world non-linear is where it gets interesting. I had the chance a few months ago to do a finite element simulation using viscoelastic material properties and it was exciting. Plastic deforms permanently even at very small strain levels where as a piece of metal or ceramic will elastically rebound to it's former shape after small strains. When there is any plastic deformation all sorts of crazy things happen. Vacancies dislocate, interstitial atoms resist vacancy dislocations, crystals deform and work harden, and there is some heat released typically. Hundreds of Ph.D.s are granted based on non-linear material properties. All metal forming (machining, casting, and extruding) and joining (welding) involves non-linear material properties.

There you have it, non-linear, it's not a line.

I Live in Iowa: Week 20

2011-09-05T22:22:00.000-04:00

20 weeks and they haven't fired me! Kind of a joke, if you have ever worked with me, I get stuff done, but still it feels strange to get paid so well for something I enjoy. I worked 42 hours including a trip up the hill to mark gauges for one of our projects. In short, work is good.

I ran 102 miles including a nice 22 mile long run and a solid 12 mile medium tempo at 5:58 pace with a former D3 superstar who is also training for the trials. He might just be the missing link in my training. I also ran 13 times this week.

I am having a whole lot of fun coaching. It just comes so easily after a decade of competitive running.

In other news, I'm tired. Goodnight.

I Miss My Friends

2011-09-03T16:17:00.000-04:00

The calendar ticked over to September this week. September signals the best time for trail running and the end of the moderate to high altitude climbing season in mainland USA. I didn't spend any time in the mountains this summer. Not even one hike. I have spent at least a few days in the mountains every summer since I think 1998. Even 2007 when I spent the summer in central Massachusetts researching I spent days in New Hampshire climbing and hiking. What does this have to do with my friends?

I have many friends. Many of my friends I have met because of similar interests in the outdoors, such as climbing, running, hiking, backpacking, and camping. My summers in the mountains have served me as a place of relaxation and inner competition and celebration of life, that I just do not get in the flatlands the same way. I have friendships that have developed in the mountains at camps and on trips that are totally appreciative of the world in a way that most city dwellers just do not have. Hundreds of times I have been standing outside in the mountains in the summer watching the sun go down drinking hot chocolate with my friends so grateful for my life.

Don't think that my other relationships are built on something less, some of my best friends have never spent even a drive through the mountains with me. It is that the mountains have a simplicity and honesty and seriousness that gets lost in town. Out on a climb four miles from the nearest road and 400 feet off the ground with a climbing partner life is so simple. The worries of bills and obligations fade away. You can not hide your true self from anyone else or yourself. You can call it self discovery but I feel it is more like self acknowledgement.

I feel that one of the big things I am searching for is authenticity. The whole story including the bad not just the good. The number of revelations that my friends have told me in the mountains, for whatever reason, is astounding. I've had conversations about rape, criminal histories, drug abuse, pain, fear (which is often a can of worms), goals, and God. Perhaps part of it is because I have moved around so much the last two years that I have not made those connections outside of the mountains.

I don't know. I'm just rambling. I am having a wonderful time in Dubuque, but I miss my friends. I miss building a fire in Docs and talking about life for hours in the evening. I miss staring at K2 during sunset joking with my friends as we admire it. I miss thunderclouds at the Millsite. I miss getting a table at Mezcal after a long week. I miss doing extended lost boys during the week with my friends. I miss topping a tree off using a cross cut saw with my friend who is now paralyzed. I miss hiking out in the dark tired and scared after a wonderful day. I miss yelling for joy at the top of a mountain with a friend or friends who came along. I miss Saturdays at the rail trails with 30 teammates. I miss my friends.

It's a Small Group of People...

2011-09-01T22:30:00.000-04:00

The professional and semipro runners in this world are more connected than athletes of most if not all other sports. For example, Jenny Simpson won the 1500m at the world championships this week. That is a huge accomplishment. No one from the US has done that since 1983. We have had a number of medals in other events, but this one is gold. She has raced to the highest level from the American system of training. When one of us succeeds, we all succeed. Why does this mean something to me specifically? In 2008 between her winning NCAAs and USATFs I did a long run around the Boulder reservoir at the same time she did a 16-17 mile long run. One of the best in the world running out there alone at 7 am on a Sunday on the same dirt roads that I was running.

That is just one more aspect of running that is awesome to me. We build people up in our minds to be superhuman, yet they are all just humans, like you and I. It has taken me several interactions with "superhumans" to really understand they are no better than I. To be running the same distance and pace and course for a long run as Jenny Simpson or Nate Jenkins gives me a huge amount of confidence that I will be able to do the workouts they do and run the times they do.

On a separate note, grad school fulfilled this for my academic mental aspect. Stumping one of the leaders in the field is extremely satisfying. I talk about potential and possibilities and when one of the top ten in the world does not know the answer, I know we have so much left to learn about even something as strait forward as heat treating steel. Perhaps I will be the one to push the boundary?

Quitting and Quitters

2011-08-30T06:49:00.001-04:00

As I was running last week I thought about quitting things. To be successful at a high level at anything you have to sacrifice other things. In other words to do something well, you have to quit other things.

I was one of those kids that would say when prodded during some sort of exertion, "I am not a quitter!" Much of that comes from my family. We like to finish what we start. However, as I age and progress at a small number of things I choose to focus on those things so that I can take them as far as seems fit. My running is the prefect example of something that I have decided to excel at that I have quit other things to focus on. I no longer play my trumpet or act and I ride my bicycle sparingly. Those have all be incredible life changing events, but at this point in my life I am spending that time finding out how well I can run.

You will quit things in life. Be careful to consider the opportunity costs involved in quitting something. Are you quitting something because you don't like it or because you like something else more or both? It is worth your time to finish things that you start, but it makes sense to pursue things in the long term that can provide you some success. Defining success can be hard, but it makes the result that much more enjoyable.

Lessons from Failure

2011-08-29T22:08:00.000-04:00

Ryan Hall started taking a day off, and ran a 2:04. That's the a short description. For a longer description read this Running Times article. One of the things that stuck out to me about the article, is something that has been reflected in my own life, a sense of balance.

Hall mentions the people in the 70s and 80s that had full times jobs and still ran great marathons. He suggests that they were happier in life because they were doing more than just running. Perhaps I beat him to the idea. I am really enjoying working and training. While I was unemployed I had plenty of time to train, but I was not really happy so my training was subpar. Having both I am seeing my training progress in 2011 in ways that are faster than any other training situation I have been in, ever. Although the first six months of 2006 might be an exception because I made huge breakthroughs that season, but it was the first consistent training I ever had year round.

What are the lessons? I can not focus on one physical aspect of my life and ignore other aspects and hope to progress at the one thing I am focusing on. Other lessons, the most important day to double when training for the marathon is after a long run (except for the special block). I can not go hard every day. Having a steady income is good so that I know I can pay my bills and eat the whole wheat pasta, steak, fish, cheese, and other expensive foods I feel give me that extra few seconds in the marathon or that faster recovery between workouts.

I Live in Iowa: Week 19

2011-08-28T20:46:00.000-04:00

Another good week. I worked 42 hours this week. Part of that was a half day field trip to a logging operation that is using one of our skidders. It is nice to get out into the field and see the stuff actually be used. We can see how they use these things and the short comings they have.I like learning the details about our machines that are not as good as our competition or as good as a previous edition. It gives us something clear to improve.

I ran 101 miles this week including a 22 mile long run and a couple of workouts one with a 4:49 mile. That is the fastest mile I have ever run in a workout and it's a nice step in the right direction. I did end up chasing mileage on Saturday afternoon and doing 14 miles instead of 10 miles so that I would get over 100. It sounds ridiculous but in a month or two when I look back at this stretch of training that 100 mile week will give me more confidence about my training.

I spent a number of afternoons coaching the UD team. It is very exciting to be working with these people. They are excited to be there and there is so much to teach them. I think that without a doubt every athlete on our cross country team is going to have a great season. Most if not all will probably have significant personal records.

I even spent some time socializing with non-runners and non-coworkers. I kind of did everything this week, except go climbing. I haven't climbed in months and my finger tips are weak. For now that is okay, but I do miss climbing.

Something that kind of set in this week, is that I'm really just paying off my loans. Money comes in and money goes out and I'm still sleeping on an air mattress and driving my Toyota Previa with 273,280 miles. It is something to enjoy (getting out of debt), but I feel like I'm getting nowhere. Maybe I need to get some new clothes... I basically wear the same four pairs of pants to work.

Breaking Through Mental Barriers

2011-08-27T15:29:00.000-04:00

Friday night in my workout I ran a 4:49 1600. That's the fastest mile I've ever ran in practice. It's a mere 15 seconds slower than my personal record. Had I had some company I could have probably ran a 3000m personal best. That pace has never felt that easy for me before. What that means is that I'm in shape relative to the kind of shape that I have been in in the past, specifically for the 5k distance kind of events.

The problem is that instead of doing two more miles at that pace I mentally wore myself out thinking about the fact that I ran a 4:49 and stumbled through two 800s before calling the workout quits. I have high goals for myself. I would like to be able to run that kind of 1600m interval six times in a workout, it is just that actually getting to the level where I can throw down that kind of pace for that length of time comfortably is a shock. It is taking me some time to adjust to the fact that I am that fast of runner. I dreamt about running this kind of pace in a workout and then I do it and all of a sudden I have to adjust the other workouts I do to be in line with the kind of shape that I am in. Of course running is nonlinear, I feel great one day and a week later I feel terrible. You have to tack into the wind you can not sail strait into it.

I have at least one 5k coming up Labor Day, and I will probably do a few open 8k cross country races this fall and I just registered for the Des Moine Half Marathon October 16th. I used to think of personal records in terms of seconds and maybe 10 or 15 seconds in any given race, but now, am I in shape to PR by a minute in the 5k? Perhaps that is a long shot, but 30 seconds? I probably have that locked up right?

The best part of all of this, aside from the obvious 3k/5k PR shape that I am in and the implications for a future 10k PR is that this was nearly 30 seconds per mile faster than I need to race my marathon in December. Marathon pace has to feel slow. It is still hard work, and it will obviously not feel slow as I do workouts, but on race day I have to be able to cruise the first 2/3 of the race or at least the first half of the race feeling like 5:18 is slow. One of the best ways I can think of doing that is running 4:xx mile pace in workouts and hopefully in some shorter distance races.

Friday was a nice workout. For me to succeed at my goals this fall I will have to have a number of nice mental breakthrough workouts and mental breakthrough races. Physically I can progress very fast, I need to allow myself mentally to progress as fast as I am able physically. Fortunately, I am getting closer to the goals.

My Second Marathon: California International Marathon 2011

2011-08-23T08:06:00.002-04:00

I am registered for the 2011 California International Marathon December 4th, 2011. Why this particular one? I was having trouble getting motivated to start building up my training again to go out and progress a few minutes in the marathon, so I thought, is it possible that I can achieve the 2:19 2012 Olympic Marathon Trials standard? Because the entire year 2012 will probably not have any qualifying marathons for the 2016 trials so that year I am more or less forced to focus on other distances. Thus it is take a shot at the trials this fall or wait at least a year and a half to qualify for the next trials. Can I qualify for the 2012 trials? My answer was and is, yes, it is possible but I will need as much time as possible. A lot of things will have to go really well between now and then and on race day, but it is possible. I give myself a 4% chance of success. I have run a 10k that fast, I have run so many long runs and a few ultras that I do not expect to hit the glycogen wall, because I didn’t at Green Bay, and it’s a net downhill course. Plus, I’m in as good of a training situation as I have ever been in.
I expect there will be a group of men going after the standard and I plan to sit in behind them for as long as possible. Hopefully that is 26.2 miles. This could fail by slowing to 5:25 pace at 25 miles and running 2:19:01 (Which I would totally appeal because most courses are a little long to ensure measuring error and my chip time might be under the limit.) If success is defined by running faster than 2:19 there are many different ways that I could fail. I know that my chances are slim. Regardless of how crazy you think I am, I am giving myself the opportunity to succeed. On December 5th I will know more about myself than I do now. I don't give myself the chance, I will never know what is possible.

I Live in Iowa: Week 18

2011-08-21T16:39:00.000-04:00

This week was busy. It was not the most organized week because I am rusty at time management. Thus blog posts were few this week. Anyway, on to the action!

I worked 42 hours. As a contract employee or engineering services I am hired to work a minimum of 40 hours per week while the engineers working directly for the company are hired to work 45 hours per week. So basically we all arrive at my honeycomb at the same time (about 7AM), but I am typically the first to leave. Sometimes I am the last to leave but more often than not I am first. As far as interested things this week at work, I had a project that I started on and spent about two days on and finished. Basically the geometry was a robust enough design to withstand the accepted loading conditions. That is kind of a rare occurrence. There are almost always changes we FEA people recommend. Secondly, I will be getting a new project which happens to involve a fiberglass part. Perhaps this will mean modeling composites, which I have never done and I would like to do.

I started my coaching job at the University of Dubuque. This is exciting because there are so many things that I have learned over the years and I am excited to pass as much of that on as I can. Already I have started to share my experiences. This team is full of potential. I won't say much more because I do not want to make any sudden and not thought out statements. Suffice to say, I'm excited.

I ran 102 miles this week. It is my first 100+ week post-marathon. The week was a bit of a flop though because I only did a short hills workout and two long runs. I did no quality work in the 5k-half marathon pace range that I need to be doing 2 workouts a week for at this point. The reason is that I slept in for a 5AM workout once and two nights I was refused to run on a track because a turf sport was having practice.

What else did I do? I went out to eat twice. I worked my way through Entourage season 3. I slept over eight hours a few nights. Oh yeah, I went on a 33 mile bike ride, one that went well. There were attacks on the hills (which I like) but nothing overly aggressive so that everyone could catch up at the tops of the hills. Also, the stock market is bouncing around with 400+ point swings becoming common. All I think I know is that the price of oil looks to be going down a lot at the pump in the near future and another recession is probably not going to happen, Italy has some issues, Germany is set to take over Europe (this time for real), and there are jobs out there. At least there are jobs in Dubuque, Iowa. Construction equipment is flying off the assembly lines, engineers are in demand, and there are "help wanted" posters at a number of businesses around town. They may be minimum wage jobs, but $7.25/hour is better than nothing.

I hope you had a good week as well. If not, this is a new week. This is the first week of the rest of your life.

A+B+C+D+...

2011-08-20T14:25:00.000-04:00

Life is a game that takes us a long time to figure out. As running is a subset of the seconds of my life, it too involves a number of factors that I strive to understand. A professional career is the same way, many components requiring different skills. Cooking is the perfect example, many components at the right times and in the right quantities each component with it's own standards for optimal flavor.

I am not very good at sitting still. I mean that in the metaphorical sense. I see people who go to work, go home, and watch tv. It seems to be a popular past time that is more pronounced now than when I was younger. As much as I enjoy sitting in front of the tube at the end of the day, I can not imagine that being my main activity. This was a bit of an atypical week for me because the cross country runners arrived and I started coaching after work, and since I have not fallen into a rhythm yet I was running as the sun went down at least three days this week.

Time management is a critical skill and something that I have not really had to employ since 2009. It is possible to do so many different things in a day or week, but the more anyone desires to do, the more efficient with time that person must be. One of my favorite things about high school and college track was hanging out after practice stretching, and going to eat, spending several hours not being terribly productive. Those days were somewhat rare in college as I spent quite a lot of time studying and in meetings in the evenings, yet there were still many of them. Now as I am trying to figure out my schedule I am working on figuring out the optimal order the ingredients of my life will be on a daily basis. Will I run three times per day? Before work, with the cross country team, then after practice? How will I eat supper in that kind of situation, because I do not run well directly after I eat. Should I really try to wake up at 5AM every day to get my main run in during the morning? The problem is that many of my workouts take an hour and a half or more and that would mean waking up around 4:30. Plus, I have never really run well early in the morning. On top of all that, when do I do laundry? It sounds like a simple problem, but I need an hour and a half to do laundry, and I prefer to do it during the week, but with a 9-10PM bedtime that means getting done with everything else by 7:30-8:30, which is pushing it.

It will certainly get figured out. It always does. Until further notice the best way to contact me is using my phone number. I have over 2000 unread emails, not counting the emails I automatically have filtered.

I Live in Iowa: Week 17

2011-08-14T22:47:00.000-04:00

This week was kind of how I imagine the next four months going. I worked a nice 42 hours. It is a continuing learning experience. I did some work a few weeks ago, started the report, went through a second iteration of the report then it was suggested I redo some things. I suppose that's part of the learning experience, but it is typically not exciting to redo something. That being said, this particular project will be and already has been a good experience for me from a modeling point of view.

I ran 79 miles including a nice 20:12 6k tempo that is the fastest 6k tempo I have ever done. I also did some 400s and strides so a fair week for quality over all. I biked 155 miles including two 60 mile rides. That's about 18.5 hours of exercise this week. A new training record for me. I am planning to make an announcement this week about my upcoming training plans, stay tuned.

I went to sleep twice this week at 9 because I was sick all week. I had a sore throat starting last week and it got worse Friday so that I finally took some expired-for-over-a-year azithromycin antibiotics. Within two hours of the first pill I felt better than I had in over a week. I ran that nice tempo feeling half decent, which always makes a workout easier.

You see, when I am running a lot of miles I get sick really easily. My immune system is weak because of all the physcial stress. It is a hazard of the pursuit.

Success Expedites Improvement

2011-08-13T11:27:00.000-04:00

On my runs I often see the same people. One of those people I happened to see Friday night and we were headed the same direction going the same pace so we ran together for about five miles. He was talking about his kids in high school how one had success early and achieved greater success later while the other had difficulty early and achieved less success later, but a more valuable success because it was such hard work.

When I explain my running career thus far I mention that I had a breakthrough season in high school and then another one in college. Specifically after the one in college I wondered, if I did X amount of work to achieve A, then if I can do Y amount of work I can probably achieve B! I have not really clearly communicated the fact that I only stuck with running because I had a little success at an early stage. Specifically, my sophomore year of high school cross country. At the regional meet that year I ran 11:54 through two miles breaking my two mile PR by about 10 seconds and getting under 12 for the first time. I went on to run 18:54 for the 5k breaking 19 for the first time, I think, my memory is not prefect.

That was a huge race for me. It was a huge break through after running a couple of 20s at the beginning of the year and then mid 19s most of the season. Plus, our team placed third at that meet by I think one or two points and we went to state (I was 4th on the team and thus a scoring member). I got the flu or something the week of state and ran terribly, but the break through was accomplished.

That was the first season that things clicked. Until that season I was regularly beaten by the girls and lapped by most of the boys. In other words, a pretty typical start to a running career. I just happened to have a little bit of success fairly early, which not everybody has. I will not say that that season catapulted to me to serious training, I still thought that pre-season training meant easy running two weeks before the season started. However, I did enjoy running enough to run my first half marathon that winter and do some running in the off season and further improve over the next two and a half years of high school. If I had not had that success at that point, perhaps I would have quit the next year to do something else. We shall never know.

In America we often are chided for rewarding every young kid for participating and not for any actual accomplishment. I must admit I have soccer and baseball trophies and I have no idea if I won or lost. We just played the game. Growing up through the system of rewarded participation I am not sure wether it is good or bad. It worked out for me, I ended up doing the activities I enjoy the most and have a few skills that are applicable. Brain Sell is another example. The guy ran 15:30s 5ks his freshman and sophomore years of college at a D3 school. His marathon pace eight years later was 15:30s for all eight and a half 5ks. Had he not run those races early in college, he might have never transfered to a D1 school and never ran a 28 10k as a senior and never ran professionally. A little success at the right time goes a long way.

The Banks! The Governments! ...The Farmers?

2011-08-11T21:51:00.000-04:00

In 2008 banking got a makeover, at least we are told that. In 2011 governments are getting a makeover. It started in Egypt and Madison, Wisconsin before turning to budget issues in Greece, Italy, and the United States. We have not seen the end of this. In fact, when it comes to government budget recovery, we are at the very beginning of this cycle. It will possibly involve a decade or more of limited growth.

The question just popped in my head while I was eating dinner, 'who will fail next?' while I have no idea I am afraid that food will become the next crisis. There is already an official famine in Ethopia and Somolia. As China, India, Pakistan, and Indonesia continue to expand they will want more food and more energy intensive foods, like meat. Add that to an El Niño cycle and add some insect in the mix and before you know it food costs twice as much (wholesale) and all of the sudden 3/4 of the world is unsure of their next meal.

Obviously, I hope that there are no major failures for the next 70 years of my life, but given two big ones in three years, something else will probably come up.

Not to sounds paranoid, although I do consider myself paranoid about unemployment, I spend time running and reading thinking about the future and crazy scenarios such as massive famines. That amount of preperation helps me run races and climb mountains because I have already thought through most of the scenarios and all I have to do it react according to one of my scenarios instead of panic.

So I'm not hoarding canned food and weapons and gold, but I do have a garden... I guess I was brainwashed as a young kid. They said 'Be Prepared' and I listened. For the most part it is all mental. The key is not to panic I suppose. Those that sit down on the mountain sometimes never get up. Those that get dropped in a race during a surge either work their way back up, or go backwards. What you do on the rebound after the fall really does matter. Will you try again with your new knowledge or end the pursuit? Some pursuits are too valuable to me to stop regardless of the number of failures.

Ask How Not Why

2011-08-09T21:45:00.000-04:00

In high school, after I decided life was an anthropology experiment, I set out to understand how people react. Answering the question why they react a certain way is far harder, so for the most part I don't even try. Understanding how a person (or anything really) will react to a given stimuli is important in the future so that we can build effective relationships and not make the miskates of our past. By observing what actions obtain positive and negative reactions we can learn what to do and what not to do.

Extending this concept to economics, when S&P downgrade the US credit, the stock market takes a hit. Going down for a few days is how the stock market reacted. The why is that investors felt that trouble was eminent and there were safer place to put their money than stocks. Downgrading of a country's debt rating implies that that country is not totally stable enough to pay their bills. In other words, the country has a combination of weak economy and not absolutely effective government. Which means that a recession is possible. Even in that simple example the why is more complicated.

One more example is failure of a structure. Why it failed has to do with design inefficiencies or an unplanned load case. How it failed is the physical phenomena of material failure analysis.

Another example, perhaps someone yells at you after you forgot to do the dishes. That is how the person reacted to your dish doing failure, but chances are there is something else going on with that person that caused him or her to yell. Understand why a person yells or acts a certain way is far more complex. Although, in anoint term committed relationship the why is probably helpful to understand as well.