Shampoo, Cooking Oil, Dishtowel, Lighbulbs, and Hangers

How many things do we, or at least I, take for granted and forget about until after they run out? It seems like every day in my new apartment I am finding a new item that I don't have. It is a little frustrating, but mostly humorous. I have had so many "fiascos" in the mountains that burning some eggs or only having two working lights in my apartment is more funny than irritating.

The other thing is, as I think about growing older and possible future things I wonder how I could ever take care of someone else well when it takes most of my effort to keep me from falling apart.

Industry is a different place than college. There is a lot more money at stake. People are in a slower rhythm that I suppose they intend to maintain for 40 years. Everybody seems to be married and have kids. I feel like 2010 was a bubble year for me. Then and before then very few of my friends were having kids. Now it seems like everyone I know has kids. I feel like I am "supposed" to get married and have kids. This transition kind of happened overnight, at the end of January.

On the other hand, being single leaves so much more time and money in the discretionary category. The moral of the story is I need to go shopping, but at least tonight I'm doing the laundry. Plus, I've run over 150 days in a row. The deeper moral of the story, enjoy every day for what it is and what you have because you never really know which day might be your last. If you have the resources to read this you are fortunate. Not everyone can read. Appreciate (and share) your gifts, that is what I am trying to say.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Cake is Done!

We still have to put the frosting on and maybe some sprinkles, but the cake is done! Of course when I say cake I mean the extensive specific and long workouts associated with training for a marathon. Wednesday night I managed 16 miles on a cinder rail trail in 1:32:44. That means 58:01 through ten miles and 1:15:55 for the half marathon. My second fastest half marathon and a mere two minutes slower than my personal record and it was solo on a dirt trail.

From here on out I have 2-4 workouts in the 5k to 10k range. Noting too tiring or difficult. This is the bulk of it. A few longer tempos and long runs in the bank of my legs and now the goal is to rest and do just enough work to keep my body remembering what marathon pace is. I know I still have more than two weeks, but the workouts and the experience of training for a marathon has been amazing. If I explode on marathon day or have some other setback I will be comforted by all that I have already done. This whole ability and experience of running is a gift that I am able to enjoy now and I don't take that for granted.

All of that being said I already know my preparation was not as good as it could have been. There is always something to tweak and make better when it comes to humans.

Recovery days

Last week I had two strong workouts on back to back days. That has been followed by four days of slow and very tiring runs. Sometimes our bodies just need to take it easy. As I get older I feel more and more in tune with my body. I can feel soreness and preinjury pain before I force an overuse injury on myself. I have learned to take it easy on my recovery days. After all as a long distance runner I am training for one massive performance. Several massive workouts do the bulk of specific preparation for any one event. Thus, training hard most days will only limit my training for the big workouts.

It can be hard to be patient as I try to squeeze more workouts into the ever shortening time to marathon day. I simply try to comfort myself with what I have already done and not worry about the final result. No one or two workouts is going to improve my marathon time by five or ten minutes now. As I always say:

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

I'm good with one and two now and doing fairly well on three so it would be better if I did not get picky about the details and let recovery take it's natural course.

A Month Entirely Wireless

As I was searching for Internet service in Dubuque I was astounded at the prices. With only a one year commitment the price of Internet through the cable company is $55 per month. With cable television (including Starz and Cinemax) it was $100 per month. There is no way I am going to pay that kind of money so that I can sit on my couch and watch reruns. There are several other options I am entertaining. I get 1.5 Mbps 3G at my house, which is incredibly fast, the fastest I have ever measured on my phone. I might get a limited plan so that I can plug in a USB device and get Internet that way. Plus, I would be far more mobile than using a local wireless router. Secondly, there is the chance that one of my neighbors, who has a wireless signal that reaches my apartment (there are four, all encrypted) might be willing to let me use their connection for a small fee every month. Third, I might be able to bundle DSL with my cell phone bill and save money but I might as well get 3G for the speed that DSL has. Fourth, is a rather novel idea that I am going to try for the month of May, not pay for anything more than I already am.


I currently pay $30 a month for unlimited data plan on my iPhone 3G. While I have never used more than 500 Mb in the two and a half years that I have had it, I have kept the unlimited plan because when 4G (and I mean true 4G not HSPA+ or LTE) becomes available in a few years there will be no need for anything beside a phone. Netflix already allows video out connections from an iPhone 4 and iPad to a television. Of course when you can connect a wireless keyboard and monitor to your phone and use the phone processor and Internet connection for everything, there will be little need for average people to have computers, aside from their phones. Of course, while hardware and software people are on the ball, the wireless and cable companies are way behind the ball so the transition to fully wireless will probably involve whole bunch of legal problems.

In the spirit of experimentation and innovation, I have decided that for the month of May I will not pay for more Internet than on my cell phone, which I planned to pay anyway. In keeping with any value proposition, I am going to track of my Internet usage. AT&T meters my data so that will be easy to track. I typically go to coffee Saturday morning so I do not consider those $4 costs to be directly related to Internet usage, but I will be counting all coffee shop Internet uses. I will be getting a library card so that I can use the Internet there in the evenings, although I have to use their computers. I can also use the Internet at work, and they track usage as well so I will figure out how to check my usage there as well. Since I went to Redbox three times last week I am going to keep track of how many movies I rent or buy that I might have streamed from Netflix or Hulu. The goal is to see what volume of Internet I consume and if that is something I am comfortable with or not. In other words, if I miss Wikipedia, Facebook, and other websites or not.

As I thought about it more and more the thing that is likely to suffer the most is my blogging. Without my computer my ability to edit my posts will probably be a little limited. I will probably not be the most active emailer either, although I can still send and receive everything. Basically, every dollar I manage to save and invest now will be ten dollars by the time I will worry about retiring. So if I can save $100 a month that is like saving $1000 a month that I can use in 45 years. Alternatively I will be saving $100 that I can use to buy something more enjoyable than reruns.

Bear with me. I will still aim for four or five blog posts per week, although central to the entire blog theme is having new content to discuss, so no guarantees.

I Live in Iowa: Chapter 1

After weeks of debate about what to call my new weekly series (with virtually the same content as the old series) I decided on something pretty simple. So here we go, living in Iowa. When will this series end? I figure when I move out of Iowa, go on an extended expedition (and have no home), or die.
Well I started work this week and it is a very different situation than I was in at Kohler. There I was the only person that did finite element analysis while I was there. Now I sit in a honeycomb cubile thing with three others who do exactly what I do, and have all been doing it long than I have. When I have questions I just shout out the problem and whoever is available will answer. It’s a little more formal and tactful than that, but not much.
So far there have been no big surprises at work. They don’t have a coffee machine, so no on-sight lattes. The cafeteria is somewhat large, far smaller than any college, but big enough to have a variety of food. There are windows in the room I am in as well as huge windows in the cafeteria. Of course when I stand up at my desk the room is so big with so much stuff that I can’t see the windows, but that might be due to my height as well.

I only worked four days this week. John Deere had Good Friday off, so I had off as well. I felt guilty about taking time off because that means that I already have a deficit as far as hours worked and hours that I should work. On the other hand, it was nice to have a day off. I considered going in on Friday to do a few hours of work, but I ended up sleeping in two hours and not feeling like working. Instead I went out to coffee and then ran all after noon.

Speaking of running, this was quite the week for me. I started off by doing the 20+ mile tempo that I consider one of my core workouts leading up to Green Bay but it was incredibly windy Sunday afternoon when I tried so after averaging 6:15 pace for 13.6 miles I quit. That’s at least 5 seconds per mile slower than I wanted. As an example, The first two miles were run into the wind in 6:22 and 6:40. Both of those were at what I considered 6:00-6:10 pace. The one mile I measured going with the wind at that same effort was only 5:50. In other words the wind slowed me down maybe 15-20 seconds per mile going into the wind but only gave me 10 seconds per mile going with the wind. It was brutal. Then I moved to Iowa…

After a few days of running up and down the bluffs trying to find a nice place to run I ran a track workout Thursday. I ran an 8k in 27:14, which is really good for me. That’s 20 seconds faster than my 8k cross country personal record. That was one of the five workouts I want to get done before I race the marathon and it went better than expected, which is always a good sign. Still feeling good Friday I decided to take advantage of the afternoon and do a long run. At least, give myself the opportunity to do a long run if I feel good enough a few miles into the run. Well, I discovered (was told about by a coworker and bicycle store employee) the Heritage Trail just north of Dubuque. It is AMAZING!! It is pancake flat, flatter than all the other rail trails I have run on. It is nice and cinder/dirt so a little softer than pavement. The moral of the story is that I went through two miles in 13:38, very surprised to be going that fast, but I never slowed down. I do not think I had even one mile over 7 minutes. I ran 15 miles out in about 1:42 and 15 miles back in about 1:41 which includes approximately a 2:57 marathon. I was pretty exhausted the last few miles, but still managed to maintain the same pace and even kick it in the last mile. Basically, it was the second best long run I have ever had, behind only the 20 miler at 6:20 pace that I ran about 16 months ago. Also, to do it the day after a tempo, is rather surprising.

In other news I watched three Redbox movies and wrote another sonnet. My mom and sister also brought a couch, dresser, television, and my bicycle down so now I have more than a bed in my apartment. All in all, a good week.

The Power of One

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead

I am a firm believer in the power of one. Making one thing so important that it is the basis for thousands of hours of your time, perhaps even your entire life. Many people have trouble being that committed to something. It makes people nervous when a person is so incredibly committed to something that seemingly no obstacle will get in the way.

Now that I am sitting down to write this I feel that it can all be said in one paragraph. I have spent hours thinking about this while I was running, but there is really not much to say. When you can say, "that one thing is the most important to me" it will blow people away. In the 2008 presidential election I had a moment like that. I was discussing the upcoming election with my friends and I mentioned that one particular issue was so important to me that despite one candidate doing everything else well I could not vote for him. My friends were all a little shocked to see that one issue, and a relatively minor issue by political standards, was so important to me.

My running career is along the same lines. I get great joy from it continuously, but the goal is really one race. A race that would probably go unnoticed, even by the running community. It is the same for mountain climbing. I have been after Mt. Everest for years now, and when I do get up it my name will be just one in a list of other names. Yet, when nonclimbers learn of my passion I can tell that they do not know what to make of it. Only a few thousand people in the world are in a similar position to myself regarding Everest.

Finally, when I tell people my career goals, I can tell that they do not know what to make of it. No one has ever done the thing I want to do. Yet I say it and lay it out there as if it will be as simple as a two hour long car drive.

Unemployment, was a huge help to me, because it required that I re-prioritize my life. Not much at the top really changed, but things that were further down on the list, fell off the list. Would you prefer to get second place ten times or first place once? For me it depends on the competition, but to know that I pushed myself to the very peak of what I could accomplish mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually is more rewarding than leaving something in the tank and wondering if I might have done it had I tried harder. One thing, above all the distractions. It is going to happen.

Iowa Makes Ten

Iowa is the tenth state that I have lived in. Considering that I signed a lease Monday night it looks like I could be here more than three months. I count California, Ohio, Missouri, Oklahoma, Kansas, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Colorado, Wisconsin and now Iowa. Wow.

Before I go any farther I have to mention how awesome the Boston Marathon was Monday. I had four friends run and a slew of people who I've met ran it and as far as I know everyone had a fantastic race! (Something about the 16mph tailwind plus the net downhill...)

Anyway, another state, ten states. I'm sitting here in the Dubuque Carnegie-Stout Public Library because I don't have computer Internet access at my apartment yet. It is simply frustrating. Another place to live. More people to meet. Figuring out where the best coffee shop is, figuring out the best running routes, where to order take-out Chinese, going to the DMV to get everything registered in this state, on top of all that I want to spend time with people my own age!

I'm not going to go into how to meet people after college, because I have a number of ideas and I have done things that worked, but it is not as easy as it is in high school and college. At some point people get into a rythum and are not interested in meeting a new person. Perhaps that is one reason people get married, so that they don't have to be alone so often.

I am incredibly thankful for all of the experiences I have had, living in so many different places. I feel that I have a certain point of view on America that few other people have. People are similar everywhere, I mean we are all human. However, the differences, even among Americans can be staggering. A few examples:

• If you want to strike up a positive conversation in Massachusetts say, "#$%& the Yankees!"
• In Oklahoma or anywhere around the panhandle, don't wear a cowboy hat unless you have earned it. If you have to wonder if you have earned it, you haven't.
• In Colorado if you do not do outdoor sports basically all year round you are one of only a few.
• In Kansas just about no one follows professional sports, they follow college sports.
• In Wisconsin, there are so many alcoholics. If six drinks are not enough to get you even "buzzed" and you have to go into the double digits to get "drunk" I figure you must be seven feet tall with plenty of muscle or you might have a problem.
• In Massachusetts, and most of New England, people subconsciously believe that the world drops off somewhere in Pennslyvannia because that is the midwest.
• In Colorado, no one is origionally from Colorado they all moved there within the last 1-2 generations and have family East of Colorado.
• In Massachusetts, MIT is just another very good college.
• In Wisconsin, the heat becomes "unbearable" somewhere around 85 degrees.
• In New Mexico one summer morning the temperature inside my friend's tent at 8AM was 108 degrees.
• East of Ohio there are trees everywhere.
• West of Pennslyvannia there is corn everywhere.
• Between Colorado and the Pacific Ocean there is mostly dessert. At least, it's land that seems to be trying to become dessert.
• In Winconsin the cheese and Brats are amazing.
• On either coast, the seafood is amazing. (Being within like 150 miles of the coast counts as being on the coast in my opinion.)
• In the middle the steak is simply amazing.
• Bacon is good everywhere.
• Iowa has cassinos.

So here I am, without Internet at my apartment, in a new place, lonely, but quite fortunately employed. I suppose this is how life goes.