2010: My Year in Review

January started with me as confident as ever about my career and my running going as well as it ever had gone. I moved out to Colorado to live with some college friends and I have to say that was an amazing three months. I met so many people. I had so many beautiful runs through the mountains. I enjoyed life. I even officially started Janzen Gear in February. However, my running took a hit as I adjusted to the altitude.

However, March came and went and I fell apart. After three months of unemployment I was totally out of money and without any interviews in that whole time, I was depressed. I was so stressed out that things were not going the way I had planned that I gave myself back pain. That was a huge life lesson about the things in my life that I value, and what is really important to me. I am guessing that it will never happen again because I have a better understanding of my own mentality.

Because of the whole money thing I packed up and went to Minnesota and worked for my uncle for six weeks in the family greenhouse. It was tough physical labor. Not what I ever expected my first job out of college would be.

In mid May I headed back west to teach rock climbing at Boy Scout camp again. It was my fourth summer at a Boy Scout camp. I had a fantastic summer. I climbed harder than I ever have before. I ran like crazy until I got a stress reaction. My friends and I had a great time. Again, it's humbling to have a master's degree in engineering and be teaching 13 year olds how to belay for a relatively small paycheck. I also attempted the Grand Teton for the first time and I led two pitches up the Casual Route on the Diamond before it rained and snowed us off. Regardless, this summer was about the relationships I have with my friends, and it was an unequivocal success. I have the best friends in the world!

I followed up the summer with a month long road trip through Utah, California, Washington and Montana and a few other states. In the psychological aspect of life I was able to spend time with two of my American friends who shared the summer of 2009 experience with me in Pakistan. In many ways it was the final chapter in my mental recovery from that experience. I also spent two days trying to climb the Nose on El Capitan solo and a day trying the Regular Northwest Face on Halfdome. The inspiration for the road trip was to do something "big" my climbing just did not pan out, I had a great time, learned a bunch, but I ended up scared and tired. So at the suggestion of my friends, on two days notice I ran the Wonderland Trail, and accomplished something "big".

Once again out of money I had the choice between staying in Colorado and making snow (physical labor) for a few months or going home in the hopes of a job offer and more Internet access to apply for more jobs. I went home, also because my grandma had a stroke this summer and my family is very important to me. I only have one family.

The last three and a half months of the year were, by my standards, uneventful. I gradually began running more miles in hopes of some good races from the 5k to the marathon in 2011. I had an interview at GE and they ended up going with someone more qualified.

By the numbers:

• I estimate from reading my own blog, that I applied to approximately 378 jobs in 2010. 
• I ran 3379.6 miles total including five 4+ hour runs and nine 100+ mile weeks. That is an average of 9.25 miles per day, every day all year. Only one personal record racing this year, 1:36 at 15 miles.
• I slept in 12 states and traveled in 22 states. 
• 11 painting started and 10 paintings finished, a record for me.

2010 was, for me, about valuing the intangible things in my life like relationships, health, freedom, and life itself more than I did when I was younger. The lessons I have learned about saving for a rainy day, starting a company, stress, communication, and other still unknown things are not all clear to me yet. I think that the lessons of 2010 will impact me for the rest of my life. I feel that events of the past year will teach me new things for years to come as I continue to mature and better understand what really happened in many situations.

Thank you all for the comments and the caring in person, on the blog, in letters, on Facebook, and in your prayers. This blog has been a great way to express myself and I plan to keep at it for years to come.

Thank you,

Isaiah Janzen

It's Not Rocket Science: Week 40

This was by far the best week of 2011 for me so far. I didn't apply for a whole lot of jobs, again in the single digits, but I did have two interviews. One was an in person interview at a local company that lasted a total of about four hours. The second was a phone interview that was a little more than half an hour. I also have an interview for this upcoming Thursday in Michigan. Three interviews in the space of eight days! Perhaps I will have a chance to entertain more than one job offer before I accept one. That would be a little funny considering the lack of job offers the last 13 months.

Running I had a great week. 102 miles total with a nine mile tempo and a workout of six by 300 meters between 800 and mile race pace. That fast workout was with a college friend of mine, who I had not seen in a year, who focuses on the 800. After that workout my runs the rest of the week were somewhat (20 seconds per mile or so) faster than before. Part of that is due to the three treadmill tempos I did over the last two weeks and generally fast running on the treadmill but a lot of that is due to running 4:20s and 4:30s pace around an indoor track. The strange thing about the week was that my longest run was only 14.2 miles, which is somewhat strange because long runs are my favorite workout.

I spent about ten hours total driving around Minnesota and Wisconsin this week, fortunately it wasn't snowing anywhere.

That was about it. There was a little socializing in there with a college friend and my sister, but the high points are the interviews, and a good week of running.

How to Recover from a Long Run (Two Hours or Longer)

I just had a good 21 mile run, not terribly fast, and not the farthest I have have run but a good pace and distance for where I am today. However, what was great about this run was that I recovered nearly perfectly and only an hour later I feel relatively great.

When a runner starts to do long runs that last longer than two hours all sorts of things happen. Form deteriorates and runners cover the distance less efficiently. Good habits deteriorating into bad habits exposes runners to a heightened risk for injury. Nearly all of the glycogen in a runner's body is depleted so that more fat has to be used to cover the distance. Basically what happens is that it takes a lot more perceived effort to cover the same distance at the same pace that earlier in the run was relatively easy. This is why the wall in marathoning is so famous, it hurts. Also, during the entire run the runner is sweating and creating micro-tears in his or her muscles. This broad combination of problems can be dealt with quite quickly after the run is over, but it can also be dealt with poorly and lead to a setback in training.

1. The first 15 minutes are the most important:
• Do not quit moving around, simply walking around or standing or active stretching for 15 minutes will dramatically help your muscles cool down slowly and prevent them from getting uncomfortably tight.
• Drink some fluid. About one liter in the first fifteen minutes is pretty standard for me. I prefer milk because it contains a little of everything mentioned below.
• Eat some carbohydrates (sugars), electrolytes (salts like sodium and potassium), and a little bit of protein (to help start repairing your muscles).
2. For the next hour:
• Continue to eat and drink. The more you can eat in the hour after such a long period of exercise the better, up to about 1000 calories is a good place to start. The problem often is that after such a long period of exercise the body might not feel hungry.
• Try to be a little active before you take a nap or become a couch potato.
3. Several hours later:
• Eat a large meal if you did not eat much in the hour after your run. Your body is still replenishing it's glycogen supplies so a carbohydrate rich food like pasta is ideal. Your muscles are also quite torn up so consuming protein will help your muscles recover.
• Take a walk even if it is short walk it will help stretch out your legs. A bike ride, swim, or even another run are all positive things that will help your muscles from being incredibly tight the next day. Keep in mind that whatever physical activity you do after a two hour or longer run that your primary run for the day is over, so take it easy.

These principles apply to short runs but the significance is magnified on longer runs. Now go and suffer comfortably.

Life is Moving Quick in 2011

In the first four business days of 2011 I have been invited to three interviews in three different states. I have already had one of those interviews. That's about as many as I had the whole of 2010.

A friend sent me a message along the lines of "Aconcagua tickets round trip only $1011!! We leave in two weeks are you in?"

I had 60 and  70 visit days to my blog, that's above average for me.

I made $0.31 from an Amazon sale on Squidoo, which considering the 50 or so people that have visited my Squidoo pages that is a good start for a new thing.

I ran with a college friend I had not seen in a year.

This is all so exciting!

I am More Feminist than Many Women

I've been thinking about this post for weeks, and in part even months. I was directly inspired because through the grapevine word had it that I said wrote some chauvinistic things in previous posts relating to women. So here I go, on a vain attempt to salvage some integrity, which will likely only portray me as an even more evil person than everyone previously suspected. So what else is new?

Let's talk feminism. I really knew nothing about it until a very close friend of mine went to college a year before me. In the course of her studies she learned about feminism and the subject came up during a phone call once. I really knew nothing about it, so when she said that she was feminist I decided to do some research and see what that meant.

On January, 2nd, 2011 Wikipedia defined Feminism by the following opening sentence: Feminism refers to movements aimed at establishing and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women.^[1][2][3]

There is absolutely no question in my mind that feminism, as defined above, is something that should be practiced by everyone. Therefore, I decided as a high school senior that I am a feminist.

As the years went past one of my jobs in college was taking pictures at sporting events, specifically the basketball games. I took pictures for both the men's and women's teams. While I have little interest in the sport itself, I found women's basketball more fascinating than the men's and not because they were women I may have been attracted to. Women's games are often lower scoring than men's games which means that more time and thus effort is put into each goal. Passing, dribbling, turnovers, and other ball handling skills are more important in a low scoring game. Unfortunately, as just about anyone that has gone to a men's game and women's game in the same night has experienced, there are typically far more spectators at the men's game than the women's game. Unfair? I think so.

Next was post-college graduation when many of my friends landed their first salaried jobs. Salaries are not often talked about but they tend to come up every now and then. Also, comments people make are very insightful into how much those people make. One of the things that seems to occur is that women make less money than men. I find that ridiculous! I don't want to get paid more simply because I am a male! I want to earn what I get paid because I am incredibly awesome and productive at my job.

Recently I was riding in a car with a woman and we were listening to music and the song "Sound Track to My Life" by Kid Cudi (a male) came on. The first line is: "I got 99 problems and they all bit*$!&." I said to the woman in the car, "Don't you find that offensive?" Her response was a slightly shocked, should-I-be-offended mumbling, "No..." I find it offensive. Wether any women out there do or not, who knows, but I find it offensive that he refers to women that way.

In another example, someone suggested that when I talk about racing and beating women that my tone and words are very chauvinist. I compare my own race results very often to women's racing results. I compare my results to those of my friends and other male runners as well, so my comparisons are not limited. However, many of my running goals, based on times at various distances I want to run, are probably similar to many of the current famous professional female runners in the world. In that way when I compare myself to the women, it provides one understanding of how well I am doing. I ran a 15 mile race in Colorado this summer and I was beaten by one woman, who had been 13th at the 2004 Athens Olympic Marathon. For me it provides a clear understanding of how I am doing. Famous women runners are far more likely to have biographies and race result times listed on the Internet so that I can compare how well she raced at that distance to other distances. This most interests me when it comes to marathoning. I have not run one, and figuring out how I am progressing toward future marathons based on how I race shorter distances against established marathoners is one way that I do that. I could talk about Ryan Meissen, Mark Stenbeck, or Michael Wardian, but it is harder to determine which runners fall into the marathon trials oriented group versus the runners that just enjoy running fast and focusing on the shorter distances. As one of my coaches once said, "Don't compare yourself to others, you are different." Well, I've done a whole lot better about that the last 15 months now that I understand my own training more. Still, I run races to be as fast as possible and I like to know who is beating me. It's self-centered I know, that is part of the reason I'm not in a relationship now.

Finally, I leave with a quote. This quote is very sincere to me. It is not strictly about feminism yet it illustrates one relationship where I stood on an equal footing with this woman and feminism is about equality. The person that said it, and her friends that agreed with her, are so unique among all the friends that I have ever had that I do not anticipate ever hearing this from anyone else. She said, "Isaiah, you are the best guy friend I have ever had, except for my family, that I haven't slept with."

It's Not Rocket Science: Week 39

I spent just about the entire week dog sitting, house sitting, and greenhouse sitting in Minnesota for some of my relative who are in Barbados. Yep, Barbados. They even had a spare ticket. Oh well, I got woken up every night between 1 and 6 AM by their dog, and enjoyed -20F wind chills. Who would give that up to go to Barbados?

On the positive side, I applied for 20 jobs exactly, I don't often count the exact number but I did this week. I have an interview this upcoming week at a local company in Wisconsin, and I am very excited for that. I have spent dozens of hours considering what it would mean for me having a job and living at home with my parents in a town where I know hardly anyone. I have come to the conclusion that I will save hundreds of dollars every month, I know a few young fun people, and I already have an infrastructure (running routes, coffee shops, YMCA, GNC, Michael's, and other random stuff I know) and those things will at worst make it bearable, more likely it would probably be exciting. An extra $500 a month to put towards my loans would really help get rid of them. Plus, there are other expenses that living with my parents I would probably not have if I lived alone or with friends, like food and drink or expensive entertainment like a season ski pass.

Running I had a really good week. It was not fantastic mileage at 83 miles, but I ran a 20 miler in 2:17 (my third fastest 20+ mile run), a 5 mile tempo in 28:35 (which is one of my best tempos ever), and a six mile tempo in 37:23. I don't often get that much quality in one week so I am pretty pleased.

I spent much of the week taking care of a greenhouse and I'll write some about that in the near future. Plants are pretty cool.

2011 Here We Come

When I talk negatively about 2010 understand that I am not mad about the personal relationships I had in 2010. The connections I made with people in 2010 were the highlights of the year. That being said, I am an engineer and 2010 was pretty terrible as far as engineering. I spent a whole year of job searching without landing even an internship or a technician job. 2% of my career, hopefully it will last another 49 years, is gone and I have gone nowhere.

I have a feeling that 2011 will be different for me. I will find something.

On the other hand, the United States economy is recovering so slowly that I think this recession is pointing out some flaws in our current business model. Among those flaws is the the way we perceive competition. Taking cars as an example, where are the best cars made? Europe and Japan, or at least the best cars are designed by European and Japanese companies. Where are budget cars made? India and probably China as well as Europe but I am most familiar with Tata in India. What kind of cars are made or at least designed in the United States? The lower upper class or cheap luxury style of cars. That happened because we experienced our bargain phase before the second world war and have since grown to have greater safety standards and more expensive standards of living that was available for large amounts of people. The problem is, most of the world can not afford a $27,000 car, $7,000 is far more reasonable. So while companies in the United States were trying to win most of the American share of automobiles Toyota was selling 80% of the vehicles in rural Pakistan.

Why is that important? That example is important because growth in a developed country for an established product will be close to the rates of growth for the population and economy. Growth in a developing country on the other hand, like China, could be huge! Remember Ford's growth during the 1920s and 1930s.

What does any of this mean? While Europe went high class and quality, in part due to the fact that they had to after WW2 and the Cold War, Asia has gone bargain. That leaves the United States without an international market for our bread and butter products, like Ford. Which means that finding a job in this country will not be drastically easier in the near future because most of what we make will only grow at the rate of our growth. Which would be fine is we could all learn to appreciate life and relationships instead of placing so much value on working.

That's what I learned in 2010, to appreciate my life and relationships more. I hope that 2011 is just as fulfilling, with bigger paychecks.