On August 28th, 2021 DNFd the Cascade Crest 100. I dropped out at mile 35 after 9.5 hours and 8k ft of climbing. Here is the race report Goals Results Don’t die – ACCOMPLISHED Enjoy being outside – ACCOMPLISHED Finish the course (even if after the allowed time) Officially finish (under the official 34 hour cutoff) Finish in under 30 hours Top 50% of finishers Finish in under 27 hours Top 25% of finishers Finish in under 24 hours (my bucket list item for this year) Tactics Be in last place at the start – ACCOMPLISHED Don’t exceed 140bpm in the first 26 miles – Failed No mile in the first 50 faster than 8 minute pace – ACCOMPLISHED 5 minutes or less at aid stations and stops – don’t stop moving – ACCOMPLISHED No single mile (and mid-mile stopping) is >30 minutes – ACCOMPLISHED 400 calories an hour for the first 50
This wasn’t the plan. The plan was probably not enough anyways, but now we’re certainly in not enough territory. I’m not really sure how this will go. After a month of lower-than-expected training (injury and illness), I’m just feeling good enough to run again and I’m going to attempt to run the Cascade Crest 100 this weekend. This is one of the harder 100 mile races in the country on account of the vert, amount of single track trail and sheer ruggedness of it. One section of the course is so steep that there is a rope you have to use to navigate up and then back down it. Over the course of 100 miles, run mostly on the Pacific Crest Trail, we’ll cross streams, climb 23k ft and descend about the same. Technically this year the race is 102 miles. They had to adjust the course due to fire
Better every year. That is my goal. I believe that through focused effort I can keep improving and ensure my best years are still in front of me. With that in mind, at the start of a new year, I take the time to set my focus for the coming year. By being selective about where I direct my energy, I can achieve results that are exponentially greater than if I split my attention. I detailed my 2021 focus here (read that first if you want more context) & did a quarter year update as well. Here is how I’m progressing. 2021 Theme: Together 2021 Challenge: Setup A Contact Reminder System After beta testing one application to help with this, I have identified a second app I want to try out. 2021 Habit: Weekly Reach Out I was 11 for 13 in Q2 on reaching out to someone weekly. Some of the
This year my bucket list item is running a 100 mile race. Specifically, I want to finish the Cascade Crest 100 in under 24 hours. If you know anything about me though, you might have guessed that I also have a stretch goal. That stretch goal is to end up on the podium, finishing in the top 3 spots. That will likely require me to finish closer to 18 hours. Either 24 or 18 hours will be quite a feat as this particular race features over 20k ft of elevation gain (running up mountains), which really makes it more like 140 miles of flat-course equivalent. This is probably something I should train hard for. The trouble is, I’m a busy guy. I have 4 kids and a job leading a team at Google, so I don’t have as much time to train for a race like this as I would
This year I am thinking about the theme of relationships, as I described in my Yearly Focus 2021 plan. I haven’t been great about doing anything with the theme the last few years so I’m going to attempt to change that by writing some more – to encourage me to think. I haven’t had a lot of time to write lately though (I still owe an update on a 135 mile adventure I did 9 months ago…), so I’m going to time box this and see what I can get on paper within an hour and just go with that. Relationships Who Needs Them? The simple answer it is seems to me everyone successful I have studied as a part of my yearly exemplar has a handful of critical relationships. They come in all sorts of forms, but what is consistent as I read the biographies of people I want
Better every year. That is my goal. I believe that through focused effort I can keep improving and ensure my best years are still in front of me. With that in mind, at the start of a new year, I take the time to set my focus for the coming year. By being selective about where I direct my energy, I can achieve results that are exponentially greater than if I split my attention. I detailed my 2021 focus here (read that first if you want more context). Here is how I’m progressing. 2021 Theme: Together I haven’t done much research of the theme specifically yet, more to come. 2021 Challenge: Setup A Contact Reminder System I have been testing out the beta version of a contact system. I’ve found the biggest challenge is the upfront work it takes to get everything set up. Part of me feels like this might
Better every year. That is my goal. I believe that through focused effort I can keep improving and ensure my best years are still in front of me. With that in mind, at the start of a new year, I take the time to set my focus for the coming year. By being selective about where I direct my energy, I can achieve results that are exponentially greater than if I split my attention. More details about the process are in this blog post and you can review the results from past years (2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020). 2021 Theme: Together This is the fourth year of my current sabbath cycle, a six year period where I am focused on preparing for my calling. As I was thinking about what I needed to do to prepare myself for achieving goals over the long term, I thought of the proverb “if
With the start of a new year, I take the time to set my focus for the coming year. I believe that by being selective about where I direct my energy, I can achieve results that are exponentially greater than if I split that energy across many different goals. I detailed my 2020 focus here (read that first if you want more context). I’ve posted a few updates throughout the year (quarter year, half year and three quarters update) and now is time for a final review. 2020 Theme: Action Economy Self Grade: 7/10 It shouldn’t come as a surprise that 2020 did not go exactly as planned. I didn’t make as much concrete progress on my theme as I had planned, but I did spend a good amount of time this year saturated in the topic. While I don’t have the deliverables I was hoping to produce, I have
This year I picked Warren Buffett as my exemplar – a person I think demonstrates the trait I am trying to learn about – for 2020, the theme is ‘action economy’ which is a fancy way to say efficiently using your time to achieve your goals. I write these reviews following a review template to help me get the most out of the process of having an exemplar. Below is my entry for Warren Buffett. What did Warren Buffett achieve? Warren Buffett is the most successful investor of all time. He founded an investment fund that achieved a yearly return that consistently beat the overall market for 50+ years. His ownership stake in that fund has made him one of the richest people in the world (in 2008 he took the top spot for one year, the only year where he has held it). Why did he care about that?
With the start of a new year, I take the time to set my focus for the coming year. I believe that by being selective about where I direct my energy, I can achieve results that are exponentially greater than if I split that energy across many different goals. I detailed my 2020 focus here (read that first if you want more context) & did a quarter year and half year update as well.. Here is how I’m progressing. 2020 Theme: Action Economy 2020 Challenge: Develop a Strategy Evaluation Model I’ve started to get some ideas into a draft blog post but need to sit down for a few evenings to get it ready to publish. The themes that are emerging are the ones I wanted to think about: leverage, prioritization, compounding growth and delegation. 2020 Habit: Run 13 Projects & 52 Common Tasks Through the Model I haven’t made any progress