In 2015 I have committed myself to the theme of living slower. This involves me spending time thinking about what that means, putting it into practice and sharing my learnings. This is the first update in that theme. Good Morning The first hour of the day sets the tone for each that follows it. In seeking to live slowly, the way we approach the moments after we wake are among the most important. For many of us, our days start with a jarring introduction of the infinite. The moment after our eyes open, they turn to a glowing screen that waited patiently for us while we slept. We begin to catch up – reading emails, text messages and social updates, before we’ve gotten out of bed, and as such we dive into the day’s issues like a plunge into icy water. It is hard to find peace in the morning
For the last two years I’ve blogged about a efforts I’ve decided to take on during the new year. I’ve enjoyed this activity. It helps me strive to complete things that I think are important or interesting but more importantly it give me focus by allowing me to say ‘no’ to other things. After two years of this process I’ve learned a few things that I want to account for in my third year. This will dramatically impact how I spend my year. In 2014 I decided to train for an Ironman. That ended up being how I spent almost all of my free time. In some regards this is great because it allowed me to focus for a single year and achieve a solid result. I couldn’t have done that if I had split my time between multiple activities. But, now that I realize this, it is important for me to take
At the beginning of 2014 I wrote about my goal, theme and challenge for the year. I’ve posted a few updates throughout the year but want to take some time now to do a final review. 2014 Goal: Read 24 Books Self Grade: 7/10 My goal was to read 24 books – I finished at 17. I had hoped to cover 12 fiction and 12 non-fiction. I actually read 3 fiction and 14 non-fiction. I also got 50 hours through the 60 hours of Les Miserables. I started the year off doing pretty well. I cruised through the first 8 books, thanks largely to utilizing audiobooks. I hit a rut in the summer when I stopped listening to audiobooks as I trained and got stalled in the paper books I was reading. That resulted in months of no progress. I eventually got back in the habit though & finished strong by
We are now in December and I’ve only finished 13 books. I don’t think I’m going to be able to hit the goal 100%, but maybe if I push to the finish I can at least clear the 2/3 mark. I was falling behind in the Fall & hoped that after my Ironman in September I would be able to catch up. The Ironman got cancelled though and I registered for a new race in November. That meant a few more months of training and a shorter window of post race time in which to read more. Time to push to the finish line. To date this year I’ve read: The Millionaire Next Door* David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits and the Art of Battling Giants* The Joy of Less The 4-Hour Workweek* The Art of War* Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring The 7 Habits of Highly Effective
This is one of 14 updates about my 2014 challenge to complete an Ironman – you can see a list of the others here. I did it. I can now call myself an Ironman. What did the right to that title cost me? $6,000, 4,000 miles over 450 hours of training, 25 lbs, one toenail & 100+ hours of research. All of that and a grueling day that tested every fiber of my body & mind. My finish time of 11:01:10 put me in 277th out of 2,390 total finishers (not counting 248 DNFs). I was also 15th out of 112 in my division (excluding 5 DNFs). All & all I was faster than about 90% of people out there on race day. My goal was to win my age group and I missed that by a significant margin. To be honest though, I set that as a goal knowing it
This is one of 14 updates about my 2014 challenge to complete an Ironman – you can see a list of the others here. Here I am again. Race week. I was gifted an extra two months to train when Ironman Lake Tahoe was cancelled in September. Once I found out I was going to race Ironman Arizona in November, I decided to extend my training by adding another build phase followed by a taper. Here is how that went. Training Data Instead of just trying to extend my peak, my plan would ideally allow me to push myself even further before getting race ready again. Those extra miles pushed me over the 4K mark. You can see the really low week in September – that was when the last race was supposed to happen. After that I built back to my max milage over the next two weeks. I planned
This is one of 14 updates about my 2014 challenge to complete an Ironman – you can see a list of the others here. I got in to Ironman Arizona! On November 16th I’ll have a second chance to complete my 2014 challenge. I am particularly excited because Ironman Arizona was actually my first choice back when I started looking into races in January of this year. It is such a popular race though that it was full almost as soon as registration opened last November. This changes a lot of things though. Before we look at that though I’d like to take a second to talk about the Lake Tahoe Ironman. Lake Tahoe Ironman Cancelation Immediately after the race I shared some of my thoughts. Having a race canceled 15 minutes before the start is a rough way to start a morning. Especially a morning you’ve been looking forward to
This is one of 14 updates about my 2014 challenge to complete an Ironman – you can see a list of the others here. 4:30AM – Alarm goes off, grab breakfast and mix my fuel drinks 5:00AM – Drive to T1 5:30AM – Go to T1, get marked with my race number, get the bike set up and add a few things to my bike bag 6:00AM – Wetsuit on, final things finished, a light rain starts 6:20AM – Head down to water, walk in to knee deep, get ready to warm up, race starts in 20 minutes. 6:25AM – The announcer comes in over the loudspeaker. “Ladies and gentlemen, we have some unfortunate news about today’s event….” Due to the low air quality caused by smoke from the nearby King fire, the race was canceled. Where we were for the swim was fine, but the run and bike courses had
This is one of 14 updates about my 2014 challenge to complete an Ironman – you can see a list of the others here. I’m sitting in a cabin in Lake Tahoe, days away from my first and what may be my only Ironman. I picked up my race number today. Despite the forest fire raging not too far from here and the smoke filled air, I’m trying to relax and stay focused. As I sit here I’m thinking back to my first day of training and the two miles of running that had me winded. I’m thinking back to the first time I clipped into the bike pedals and how I fell four times on a three mile test ride of my new bike. I’m thinking back to my first trip to the pool and how I timidly got into the slow lane. And day after day I did
This is one of 14 updates about my 2014 challenge to complete an Ironman – you can see a list of the others here. On your mark ready set let’s goIronman pro I know you knowI go psycho when my new bike hitJust can’t sitGotta get aero wit it [Chorus:]Na na na na na na na nanaNa na na na nanaGettin’ aero wit it[Repeat 3x] -Will Smith (sort of) I am one week out from my Ironman. My training is done. This final week is all about resting my body & mentally preparing for the race. There is almost nothing I can do to help improve my performance next weekend. Almost nothing. The one trick I have left up my sleeve is becoming more aerodynamic on the bike. Today we’re going to talk about that. But first, a training update. Training Data Nine months. 3,176 Miles. 357.5 hour of training. Hundreds of hours of