On Saturday June 19th, 2021 I did not finish the Gulch Countdown race, getting disqualified after ~30 miles. Out of 46 runners, I finished 7th overall. This is the race report. Goals I ran this race in 2019 and wanted to beat my result there, where I was DQd on the 12th lap Make it to the 12 lap (26.2 miles) – ACCOMPLISHED Make it to 14th lap ~50k – ACCOMPLISHED Make it to the 16th lap (Previous Race Record) – Not Accomplished Be the last man standing – Not Accomplished Successes What am I proud of from race day? Excellent restraint early – had covered a half marathon before my heart rate went over 140 bpm Had a lot of fun meeting other runners and talking on the trail Failures What areas could I improve for future races? Failed in the exact same way as in 2019, didn’t push
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?
Every October, some Google employees host a walking competition for other employees called Walktober. The idea is to set a walking goal and see if you can hit it. It predates me by a decade or more and as of 2020, over twenty thousand Googlers participate. It is so popular, in fact that some of us joke that our CEO, Sundar, initiated the acquisition of Fitbit last October to try and get a leg up on other walkers in this competition. For most of the 20k Googlers that participate, it is a chance to try and get 10k or 20k steps per day. To achieve that goal that your fitbit or Apple Watch is always telling you to strive for. At some point, someone made a leaderboard though, so inevitably there are a handful of people that walk 10, 20 or 30 miles per day on average, logging 2 Million+
I recently finished my second year at Google and so I wanted to take a chance to reflect on what I’ve learned and see how I’m progressing along the goals I set for myself when I joined. Things I’ve Learned During Two Years at Google 1.By Year Two, You’re A Veteran It seems a bit crazy, but in only two years, I’ve now been at the company longer than most of the folks I interact with. I’m the expert in my domain. It seems like just yesterday I was starting out, looking at a list of names my manager sent me and scheduling meetings with these folks to basically say ‘hi, I’m new and I think we will work together’. Now on a weekly basis new folks join and I’m on their list of names. 2. Credibility Is Earned Much In the Same Way Everywhere I’ve spent my whole career
Our living spaces and how we do best when they exist in the space between indoors and outdoors How corporations learn and retain knowledge as employees come and go Salt water hot tubs Structuring incentives and limitations to get the right behavior Walking – there doesn’t seem to be a limit to how far we can walk aside from sleep and injury The qualities that make the best ice creams – low air content, lots of creme, natural rich flavors Hobby churn, the pros, cons and how that can be its own niche The pros and cons of being front-stage vs behind it – Buffett vs Munger