At the beginning of 2016 I wrote about my focus for the year. I’ve posted a few updates throughout the year but want to take some time now to do a final review. 2016 Goal: Write 50 Blog Posts Self Grade: 10/10 I was able to, thanks to a heroic effort in December, meet my goal of writing 50 blog posts. Here is a chart I found interesting. Blog posts per week vs miles run per week. While I got most of my running in during the first half of the year, I did the bulk of my blog posting towards the end. Though I hit the target number, this isn’t an ideal way to do it. Part of my reason for setting goals like this is to set a habit that I view as positive. I believed that if I focused on writing posts for a year, I would get
It was January 1st, 2007. The day before my flight from Prague to London had been canceled due to weather and I was stranded in the Czech Republic. I had finals in Ireland in two days and, needless to say, being present for those, passing my classes and getting school credit was very important to me. — I had been backpacking around Europe for the past two weeks. The way the school year worked out, my Irish University shut down for the holidays and hosted finals in the beginning of the new year. My college in the states, where I would return for the following semester, started a week later. I didn’t think it made much sense to fly all the back to California, only to fly back to Ireland and then to Pennsylvania, so instead I took all the money I had left and went on a two week trip around Europe.
On November 6, 2016 I ran the New York City Marathon. I finished in a time of 3:11:37, about a half hour slower than my best marathon. Here is the race report. I debated writing this – I wasn’t sure it passed my litmus test of being a race – or of deserving a report. In my mind the goal of writing a race report is to document the ins and outs of an all out effort in order to learn from it and also to serve as way to remember a momentous event. I ultimately decided to write this because I think I have something to learn from it, and it was quite memorable. If you’re interested in the training I did leading up to the race, you can read more about it here. Successes What am I proud of from race day? Finished Was leading my heat for the first mile Solid
After the birth of my third child, I realized my previous six day per week marathon training plan would no longer be possible. We simply had too much going on to spare that kind of time for running. I decided that all hope was not lost though, I would change my plan and see if I could get more efficient and take another shot at running a 2:37 marathon. Below are the changes I made to adjusted my previous plan – if you haven’t read that plan yet – you might want to start there: here is the link. Things That Stayed The Same Season Schedule My season would progress the same way it always had – see the previous plan for details. I want to note however this is one piece I have fully tested since I only implemented this plan for the eight weeks of September and October, between
In 2016 I set a new record – the worst kind – I got sick more than I ever had before in a year. A total of six instances that averaged about a week each. 40 days in which I was ill enough to skip running, some of which I was bad enough to call in sick to work or at least work a partial day. This was an outlier year – my typical year involves one cold that knocks me out for about a week. Though I usually try to fight off colds without intervention from a doctor, this year I gave in a number of times and got on meds. On the third trip I asked my doctor what was up and he calmly explained that the combination of kids, an open office and public transportation and marathon training were doing me in. So armed with that information, and since
On any given day, you will see people worship their god(s) – but none quite so obvious as today – Christmas day. I’ve read that the easiest way to find out what god or idol a person cherishes the most is to look at what, when lost or at risk, causes them to turn to prayer. Is it their own life, like a foxhole Christians, their family, their job, or is it something else? A second, and perhaps more externally obvious method, might be to look at how they spend December 25th. Regardless of which god(s) a person worships – and all people worship some god – today is a day that seems to highlight it. Perhaps it is the freedom that comes with a national holiday. A day in which most people may decide how to spend it. Christians will worship Christ. Those that are familiar, will commune before a familiar
I have begun looking at life in terms of chapters – each separate from the others, full of its own unique advantages and opportunities. This view is freeing in a number of ways. With positive things, it encourages me to savor the best parts of this chapter. It is not guaranteed that future chapters will be the same. I am so glad I surfed as much as I did when I was young, single and living two blocks from a legendary beach. I took advantage of what was possible then but hasn’t been possible to the same degree since then. With negative things, it assures me that they will not persist forever. I can suffer through many things if I know there is an end and there will ultimately be a benefit for getting through the hardship. When I bike to work in Seattle on days in the 30’s, I remind myself that this
In 2012 I challenged myself to surf Mavericks and consume less. That was v1.0 of my yearly focus. Since then the process, one I call my ‘yearly focus’ has become more specific and better documented. Here are details on my newest iteration of creating a yearly focus. V 1.0 – 1.3 Since I haven’t succinctly documented the iterations anywhere, here is a quick run through of what I’ve done so far. I mentioned v1.0 above was having goals, that started in 2012 with a few Facebook posts. In 2013 I realized I needed to write down & report on my yearly challenges to create accountability for myself. That was v1.1. I broke it up into a challenge, goal & theme. I have been blogging about that under the category ‘Yearly Focus’ regularly since then. In 2014 I played around with the items a bit to hone the process. That was v1.2.
There are those people that care most about solving a problem that is important to them and there are those that care most about making a profit. Whichever one you are, if you are to go far, eventually you will find need of the other. You will learn to speak in their language. Those that seek profits will put words to a big problem they can solve: to help people, to provide jobs, to create beautiful products that people love, to connect the world or to create equality. Those that seek to solve a problem will find ways to demonstrate the potential of a profit to investors; market potential, owning the data, upsell potential or the leverage of first mover advantage. Those lines will blur in time. You might lose track of whether the profits you make justify the energy you put into solving your important problem or whether solving that problem is how you
Despite never being much of a sports fan as a child, as a young adult I became a huge fan of the NFL, particularly of The Atlanta Falcons. Doing so later in life, and as someone with an over-analytical tendency, has resulted in my viewing the experience as an experiment of sorts. One in which I observe and reflect on patterns even as I participate in them. One of the strangest aspects and one I am deeply affected by is that of team loyalty. Loyalty Snobery Sports has within it, the strangest of snobberies – one that centers around team loyalty. Watch some time as a team rises from the ranks towards a championship and their fans seem to multiply. You will see new hats and jerseys on the street and every day there will be new converts. But many of them will be chastised as fair weather fans. Their fandom