the endurance phase

I am starting to hit the endurance phase of software. Where you're finally in shape enough to handle the mountain of task, and the mountain gets bigger.

I can't get the iron out of my neck.

At dinner tonight I started -- and finished, appropriately -- a book called The UltraMarathon Man. It's by a guy who runs 100+-mile races. Once he ran a 122-mile race, which all the other entrants ran in 12-person relay teams. He ran it alone. "Team Dean" they called him.

"It's not that I'm better at anything," he said. "I can just keep going longer." And, "I like the solitude."

I sometimes get flashes that the future might hold something bigger than even the biggest thing I have done so far. This makes me incredibly happy.

That guy's thing is running. Mine is growing.