Why social media isn’t good for….me
Posted by Adam Ainbinder in Ironman Training, Life, Time Constraint on March 11, 2010
The downside of being a fully employed triathlete is that there is a lot less time for social media, including writing this blog. I’ve taken on a lot more responsibility at work, and I’ve seen my free time slowly vanish into oblivion (yes, that happened slowly). I’ve broken down my time into work, training, girlfriend, dog, and sometimes there’s a little leftover for [insert something fun here]. And definitely not in that order (right, Adrienne 
). Given these time constraints, I’ve simplified my life and really focused on what’s important.
And with that….I’ve struggled a lot internally with the benefits of this blog and of social media in general. I keep coming back to what is the point – if this is a journal, why does it need to be public? Are others learning from what I write? I know I read other blogs because I learn a lot from those people – about workouts, about new products, and about how to go about a daily life. But why should I feel I’m that important?
And what about social media? I didn’t realize how much time social media took up until I gave it up for the past month and realized how much more time I had, how I could finally focus on things that were important and not get distracted every 10 minutes with incoming facebook posts or twitter feeds. I should note that I am continuing to avoid it even after my month hiatus ended, which should be the clearest indicator of how I felt that month went.
But it’s more than just gaining time. Because of the lack of deep meaningful relationships built over social media, I found that I was becoming someone I didn’t like. For example, I was extremely active in dailymile before I left for my Greece trip nearly two weeks ago. Daily mile was the one site I was continuing to update/check despite my social media break. I haven’t posted since that trip, and damn I feel good. I found that I was often working out just to see what others thought of my workouts. I even would venture to say that I’d workout for other people’s critique. I was even calling out other people’s embellishments because of that inner baby, i mean competitive spirit, within me. I lost sight of what training is about, of what I set out to do when I decided to do an Ironman last summer. Yes, community is great. But when I start doing things for others or what others think, I’ve fallen off the path I set.
In addition, I think social media is very self interested with the appearance of being social and for the betterment of the community. I convinced myself that I was doing social media for myself and trying to help others, but then I realized that I created a feeling of self importance. Do people really care? Or do people care about you because they want you to care about them? And let me clarify: I’m referring to the people too that you don’t know in real life. I really care about what my friends are doing, and to be honest, since I took my social media hiatus at the beginning of February, I’ve missed knowing what those people are doing on a day to day basis.
But going back to my point, I want to clarify this. I stopped interacting with a number of people online because I felt they were in this category, and they drove me nuts. To illustrate, let me give you a “real life” example rather than an online one. A friend of mine in high school would always want people to come to him. Everything was at his house. If things took place elsewhere, somehow it seemed to end back at his place. The parties came to him, he didn’t go to the parties. When I look back at these events, I’d say I ended up at his house for nine things for every one he came to mine. But it always appeared that he was just being social and fun and his place just happened to be more of a cooler place to hang. To me, this is narcissism. Why do I make the efforts to go to you when things aren’t reciprocated. That is not community.
What I found in social media is that many people possess this – they communicate and talk to others because they want those same people to follow them and come to their site and check out what they have to say. It’s very self interested, although it appears to be “community building”. I found myself creeping into that category. I could give you examples of these people, but I think you’d know them if you think about your interactions in this context. Do they really care about you? Do they really want to help you or do they simply want to tell you how great they are and thank you for supporting them? Or do they talk to you because they want you to read their blog? This type of person has left a sour taste in my mouth for social media, and I can be hard on myself because at times, I’ve slipped into this category.
So what’s been my answer – giving up on social media. I still check out blogs of the people I enjoy following. And I plan to continue to blog as soon as work dies down a bit (which may be never, but somehow I’ll figure out how to do both). Based on what I’ve said, one could argue that I’m continuing to go down this narcissistic path by blogging, but this is one area I disagree. I blog for those close to me who want to find out what I deeply care about. I blog so that I can have a journal of what I do, and maybe that journal of training and life can help others on their chosen path. But with a blog, people can choose to read. They can find me possibly in a search engine on a topic they care about. They don’t have to follow me or friend me. It’s a one sided option.
I know many of you may disagree with this, and I’d love to hear about it. But for me, my interactions have become more meaningful since I gave up social media, and I’ve found the time to keep in touch with those I need to keep in touch with. Surprisingly, I’ve even discovered how to use the phone again! Crazy!
Business Travel
Posted by Adam Ainbinder in Business Analytics, Life on February 28, 2010
Today was the first time in my life where I was sitting in front of my computer and I was shocked to see it was Sunday when I looked at the date! Jet lag, or long days, or intl flights, or maybe just the delays are starting to make this one of the longest “days” I’ve ever had. I know following days should be an easy thing, but when you do this international travel through 9 hour time zone changes, it’s easy to forget.
I also failed to mention I’ve been in the frankfurt airport since 10:30 AM. It’s now 6 PM. Berlin time. I think. This photo just came in
Ugghh! Shoot me! It’s like the day will never end. I’m on my way to Crete through Frankfurt and Athens. I think I’ve been in Frankfurt for 8 years, errr, hours. Was supposed to be arriving in Crete right about now, but instead I’m hoping to catch a 12:45 AM flight tomorrow. And that depends on getting to Athens tonight, before 12, and that seems unlikely.
This travel will be about 46 hours from the time I left my home to arriving at the hotel in Crete! That’s a long ass time and what I really hate about business travel. That’s about 14 hours more than I wanted, and with a lot less sleep than I planned in between. Although I deal with this, it sucks! I guess some people thrive on it though. Maybe one day I will. But that day is not today, and nothing sounds better than a warm shower and some soft box (or line of chairs) to sleep on! And a USA hockey win!
Race Report: Surf City Half Marathon
Posted by Adam Ainbinder in Race Reports, Running on February 7, 2010
What a beautiful day!!! Rain the past two days, followed up with the clearest skies and most beautiful views I’ve seen in quite some time. Weather was good, almost too good. Must have been mid 60s.
I beat my goal of 1:35 with a 1:33:13. Placement stats were:
I’m very pleased with my performance. I would have loved to push to break 1:30, but that day is in the future. It wasn’t today.
I stuck to the strategy, but my heart rate was much higher than expected (averaged 157 or so, and was north of 150 most of the time). I had to take a leak in mile 2, and it was much longer than I expected and took up about 40 seconds. Didn’t realize that how big of a deal those small bathroom stops are as that was the difference in breaking the 1:33 barrier.
Here are my splits:
I ran a bit more than the 13.1, so the pace on the Garmin was 7:05 but actual pace was 7:07. You can see the pee mile in mile 2 at 7:36, and then I basically sprinted to catch up on some of that time. Mile 4 was a big turning point for me. You can see here my heart rate average for that mile went up quite a bit, and my pace slowed from the prior mile. I noticed my pace getting slower with a higher heart rate. Not a good combo. Then, in the next mile, I was able to go downhill a bit and my heart rate recovered. From there, I didn’t look back, pushing my body harder and harder to get the pace down.
After I passed the slight incline in mile 10, I wanted to push hard, but the tightness in my right hamstring prevented me from pushing it until the last mile. I didn’t want to go out too hard in case it tightened up. I could feel my form compensating for the tightness, and it definitely made running a little harder. However, I pushed through and ran the last 1 mile and change pretty fast.
My evaluation:
- Very happy with my performance – enjoyed my new running style and kept digging through the pain I started to feel in my legs
- Would like to figure out the balance between drinking a lot of water before the race starts and peeing. Would love to do these races without having to stop in the first 2-3 miles
- Wear sunglasses if it’s sunny – last 4.5 miles directly into the sun was a little brutal
- Want to work on my stride so I glide more horizontally. I am happy with the improvements, but if I want to get south of 7 minute miles for a full marathon, I want to glide more and I have some things to work on. Videos my dad took on his bike can been seen here and you can see that I’m gliding somewhat, but not nearly as much as the guys who are doing those 5:30 /minute miles. Maybe one day…
- I love racing. Feels so good to be around a community of runners.
Hope everyone had a good race today! For more views of today’s race, see below. If you have questions or comments, I’m available as usual to talk with you! Have a great rest of the weekend!
Videos
Pictures
Race Strategy: Surf City Half Marathon
Posted by Adam Ainbinder in Race Strategy, Running on February 6, 2010
Tomorrow is my first race since the MCM marathon at the end of October. I’m excited. This is a very low priority race for me, which means no taper, but it did fall within a rest week (meaning only 7.5 hours of training – wow, real restful), so I feel fresh relative to past weekends. I’m really looking forward to this. My running has been much faster since I switched to forefoot running, so this will be a good test to see if I can keep up some of this speed for 13 miles.
I haven’t done too many runs beyond 8 miles (two that I can count) in the past few months because of blisters from switching the landing spot on my foot, but given the endurance work I’ve done on the bike AND that I’ve put in 20-30 miles of running a week each week for the past few months, I think I’ll be ready. I’ve done a lot of speed work, tempo runs, and drills to improve my running, and I have seen a noticeable improvement in my pace. My 8 mile runs have been in the low 7 minute range, and when I push it, it’s been in the high 6s.
I feel like I could bring the 7 min/mile barrier tomorrow, but I’m not going to try to do it as a goal given the low priority status of the race. This year is all about endurance and triathlons, so that is my focus, but of course, it’s a race, and it’s not easy to, well, take it easy. I must be somewhat careful though since I have a century ride next weekend in Palm Springs.
I don’t have much experience in the half marathon category. My history in half marathons: one. I did the OC half last year, and I did a 1:39:52. One thing that is cool is that this will be my first race as a Brooks ID member. I’ll be sporting Brooks shirt, shorts, and shoes (the Ravenna’s, which are also known as AA – funny, my first/last initials – WOOO). I’ll try to post pics later! I love my brooks stuff. And although I like my launch shoes better, I still don’t feel comfortable doing a long race in a neutral shoes, and that’s why I like the Ravenna’s mild support (FYI – i’ve been in stability shoes forever, but now that I’m doing more forefoot running, I can handle neutral shoes without much pain).
So with that being said, here’s my strategy:
- 13.1 miles doesn’t seem difficult anymore. With 80 mile bike rides and 3 marathons under my belt, I’m not nervous about the distance. However, I still want to treat it with my usual race prep. I plan to leave at 6:30, so I’ll get up at 5, eat, walk the dog, move around a bit, and drink LOTS of water. I’ll have some bread with peanut butter on it. And hopefully have 2-3 bathroom visits before departure
- I plan to warm up by running from the drop off spot to the starting line. Mix it up with some strides but most of it will be an easy jog.
- I’m carrying a water bottle filled with cytomax. No GUs, no Clif Blocks. That should get me through all 13.1 miles so I don’t have to stop for water/food.
- I plan to start in wave 1 (<1:50), which I imagine may be crowded since a lot of people will be in this group.
- I’ll go out at about 145 heart rate or 7:10 pace. That is generally my heart rate at that pace. It may be higher from the crowd, so if it is, I’ll let pace dictate where I stand. If I do get in the first mile at around 7 min or a tad less, that’s ok, but I want to settle in at that heart rate and pace after mile 1
- I hope to keep up that pace until mile 9. At mile 9, there is a straight away for the next 4.1 miles with a slight elevation gain. If I’m feeling good and not too tired, I’m going to start pushing it. If I can, I’ll do it progressive style, increasing about 10 seconds per mile for the last 4 miles.
- If I can stick to the strategy, I should be somewhere between 92-95 minutes. That would be awesome
Of course, I’m not running on rested legs, especially after my rolling hills simulation on my trainer today, but I’ve achieved similar paces on tired legs, so I might as well give it a go. If I can’t keep up the pace or bonk in the last 2 miles, then hopefully I can beat my PR of 1:39:52.
Good luck to everyone running races this weekend, and if you’re in Surf City and see me running by, wave and say hello
One way to start the new year
Posted by Adam Ainbinder in Goals, Ironman Training, Training Ruminations on January 31, 2010
January is over, and the stats are in: it was one hell of a month to start the ironman year. Just finished my first build period, well, the hard part of it at least with a recovery week to come. One build period left, then peak, then race time!
Overall, I got in 50 hours of training, ~500 miles on the bike, ~100 miles running, and nearly 6 hours in the pool (yes, slacking here). 4 total hours of pilates, and a lot of foam rolling. It was a great start to what I expect to be an awesome year of training and pushing my body to new levels. A few keys to success after an enduring month:
- Balance, balance, balance – training is a hobby, not a profession. If i miss a workout, so be it. I must remain dedicated, but not at the cost of the true values in life
- Recovery weeks – yes, three weeks in a row is tough, but that fourth week makes it worthwhile. As the saying goes, make the hard workouts hard and the easy ones easy. Must stick to this
- The indoor trainer will be key to improving my cycling skills. Yes, the long base workouts help, but hills and intervals will be my path to success
- Swimming sucks – it’s more enjoyable when you mix up the workouts, but I’d rather be running
- I miss running – 3 days a week and a 100 miles is a lot in a month, but I miss the days of the real long weekend runs and 3-4 days in a row during the week. Next year I guess
- It will be tough to keep up this workload when I start traveling for work. Bring the shoes and get some runs in. Don’t get down on travel as it’s critical to success in a global company
- I think my heart rate monitor is broken – it’s giving me reads of over 200 for an entire workout. I feel lost without it and I must get a new one
In case you’re interested, here are the stats:
Surf City next weekend, Palm Springs Century next…will be an awesome few weeks!
Random thought: Switching lanes on the hwy
Posted by Adam Ainbinder in Life, Random on January 25, 2010
This topic SERIOUSLY amazes me. I don’t know if this is a Southern California thing, but next time you’re on the freeway, try switching lanes two ways.
Way 1: Look to see when there is space and go
Way 2: Look to see where there is space, signal, and go
In Southern California, I’d say that almost 80% of the time when I’ve signaled, the car that was cruising at the same pace for at least a mile, SPEEDS UP! What the hell is wrong with that scene?
I don’t know if this is consistent with my theme lately of being a runner and biker and HATING cars because they seem to not understand that if they hit me in their car, that I will get HURT! For every 3-4 hour ride I do, there’s at least one close call and at least one other asshole driver that needs to get really close to me on my bike despite having a gigantic lane to drive in. Doesn’t he realize if he as much as touches my bike, there’s a good chance I will fly off and break something. And why do drivers get so mad when bikers share a lane for a quarter mile because of a tight lane or close shoulder? You’re losing maybe 15 seconds of your day for my safety. Is that too much to ask? Not to mention it’s my right to share the road.
Sorry, I rant. But why do cars naturally speed up? And I heard that Californias never signal – is this the root cause? Is it because when I do signal, there is a greater chance of that gap closing? Today, this gap was widening as I tried to get into the lane for the freeway off ramp. Instead of just doing my usual cut and go, I signaled, and the white BMW SUV speeds up and has to slam on his/her breaks. I don’t even look back thinking how ridiculous this is, but what’s behind that?
Is it our competitive spirits? Is it our concern for time? Does our cost/benefit analysis capability in our brain just breakdown at that moment and we forget we are maybe losing 2-3 seconds of our lives? All I know is that I let people in now when they’re signaling, unless of course I’m forced to slow down. Then I get upset for an entirely different reason
Time is a limited resource
Posted by Adam Ainbinder in Ironman Training, Life, Time Constraint on January 22, 2010
I don’t know about you, but I often wish I had the life of a cat or a dog. I roam around the house, chillin, eatin, poopin, peein, sleepin. That’s about it. And it would be a dog, so I can play a little more than just eat, sleep and waste. Of course, this life is not for me given my athletic lifestyle, but there are days, like when I look at this picture of Kaila to the left, that I just wish I could sleep for a whole day guilt free.
I guess I can. On a Saturday or Sunday. Maybe. Or call in sick. But it’s just not in my D.N.A. I like to be busy. I am, based on personality tests, an achiever. An introverted achiever, but an achiever nonetheless. What motivates me is pushing myself to get better. This often contradicts with my goal of enjoying the journey, but I even strive to achieve mastering the process (kind of contradictory, I guess). I always strive to get better. I like hearing what I’m bad at and actually have a hard time taking compliments. I enjoy being told that I can’t do something because then it pushes me that much harder to do it. I wish I knew what made me like this, like what childhood event pushed me to want to prove people wrong. Was it my sister who said that when I get into junior high, my grades will go down, and when they didn’t, well, they’d go down in high school? Who knows! But I can tell you that was motivation to get better grades. Maybe I’m onto something…
So I digress…the point of this is that one thing I really fail at that I just wish I could do better is find the time to maintain this blog. It seems minor, but with how much I’ve learned from what others share/write, I feel like I could really give back in that way. I wish that I could blog at least 3-4x a week. I see the production of people like Danica with the Chic Runner blog, Brandon with his Brandon’s Marathon (blog, show, and everything), my all-time favorite blog in the world, Ray at DC Rainmaker (who finds time to blog more than me amidst a 15 day trip to Asia!), and lately Pete’s Runblogger and his scientific methods, and I totally wish I could find or make time to do something similar.
I read so much about training and have learned so much from my friendly twitter, facebook and daily mile community that I feel like I want to give back to everyone by discussing what I learn.I’ve also been told that my work ethic and dedication have inspired several people to get out of their place and run, or bike, or swim when they weren’t feeling up to it. If I can have that impact sharing some quick tid bits on daily mile, then what else can I provoke in people?
But between the typical 8-5 (and it’s now become a bit more than 8-5 as my responsibility increases), work travel, the 12 hours of training, my girlfriend, my family, my friends, the puppy, the cats, and well, my own free time for my sanity, there’s not much time to document these videos, to put in the pictures I take, or to sit down and write out my thoughts and feelings from the workout I just implemented from a training plan I’m writing from scratch. I guess I look at the trade-offs and say, do I sacrifice the 30 minutes of sleep? So far, that answer has been no.
And THAT’s the crazy thing. Because I’m training harder, I want to eat healthier, which means cooking more and picking up less crap for dinner. It means making lunches. It means trying to get a little bit more sleep when I can. It means trying to conserve energy so I can be present for conversation with my girlfriend and to be playful with my puppy when she needs to burn some energy! The lifestyle commitment I’ve chosen requires more time, and it’s just pulling time from other things.
Time is a valuable commodity. I like the fact that its a limited resource because it makes us choose what is important, and I think I’ve done that. I guess I wonder how others do it. How do they make time and provide a wealth of information for others to learn from? I am envious of those who do it, and do it well. Envy isn’t a good thing, so maybe that’s not the right word, but I do want to be like you (yeah, that’s envy )
How do you manage your time? How do you prioritize? Is it based on your values? Do you even think about this stuff? Please share – as usual, I’m willing to learn.
Weekly Summary: End of the Base
Posted by Adam Ainbinder in Ironman Training, Trail Running, Training Ruminations on January 10, 2010
It was so nice to have a “chill week” after I’ve been “slapping the bass, man” (see video below from I Love You Man) for the past few weeks. The base period has ended, and although I feel like I could of done more to improve that base, I like that I improved my speed, my technique, and even extended my cycling base. I have some concerns regarding my running distance with my new form, but overall, I’m pleased. I mapped out my schedule through mid-April today, and it’s going to be a hard few weeks.
In this recovery week, I did 7:45 of working out, with most of that going to cycling. Here’s the summary:
Four hours on the bike, 2 hours running, and not nearly enough time in the pool (with an hour of pilates). It was definitely a chill week, and one I needed for recovery and as prep for the hard three weeks coming up. The only thing to note in this week despite the ease was the trail race. This was my first experience running trails, and I’m not talking those 5 foot wide trails that are clear of rocks, trees and brush. These trails were single file, layered with ups/downs/rocks/brush/little mud/trees/etc. For the most part, very clean trails. But I have no clue how to run down a steep trail head with slants to the right and left and a small flat space down the middle with room to run foot over foot.
The experience was very difficult. I learned a few things:
- I need to learn to run downhill, in general, and especially on tight trails
- I need to move up in races. I’m getting faster, and I was held up the first 3 miles with slower runners. Not a big deal, but I would of enjoyed it more being upfront.
- Trail runners are SO FRIENDLY! What an awesome atmosphere
- As beautiful as the area was, it’s so hard to take in the views because I was so focused on not eating shit on the trail. Most of my focus was on the rocks two feet ahead. I want to learn to be able to trust my instincts and just run.
- The host, Baz, is hilarious. So chill! I’d love to do his races again.
On that note, my upcoming week is the start of the build period. I plan on working out close to 12 hours a week for each of the next three weeks, which ends with a mellow week (that includes the surf city half marathon). Then I start the build period again, with the Tour De Palm Springs, a 100 mile ride in palm springs. I’m only 10-11 weeks from the Oceanside 70.3, and I can’t believe how that’s creeped up on me!
My schedule for the week (3 hours running, 6.5 hours on the bike, 2 hours swimming, 1 hour pilates):
- Mon: 1 Hour Run, 1 Hour Pilates (track work: run, interval, short, high intensity)
- Tues: 1 hour bike (short intervals)
- Wed: 1 hour run, 45 min swim (zone 1 run with an iwillnotbonk finish, evening swim)
- Thurs: 1 hour bike, 30 min swim (longer intervals on bike)
- Fri: REST
- Sat: 4.5 hour bike (endurance ride)
- Sun: 45 min swim, 1 hour run (short interval swim, tempo run)
If you want to check out my schedule in general, here it is:
I love you, man: Slapping the bass!
Training Ruminations: Base 2.3
Posted by Adam Ainbinder in Training Ruminations on January 6, 2010
Walking the dog - frequent workout
I want to get back to my weekly ruminations post, and although I’m already into this next week, I wanted to provide a quick wrap up of my activity last week. It was one of the better weeks working out that I’ve had in a while, so I wanted to share the good and the bad. This was the peak of my base period, and I felt it was a good one (12 total hours, 145 miles).
It was my first full week blister free on the run. It felt so good to be on my forefoot without worrying about blisters developing (see pic below, if u want, of what I’ve been fighting). As a result, I was able to run fast at low heart rates. I haven’t pushed the distance past 8 miles in a while, but I got in 5 runs, 4 at about 7 miles and 1 1-miler after a long bike ride. Pace was about 7:15 overall, and my heart rate was at or under 140. I think I need to do some tempo runs maintaining higher heart rates for longer distances, and if I can accomplish this, I think I’ll feel comfortable pushing faster speeds in 10ks and half marathons with higher heart rates (i love that aerobic zone, not so much the anaerobic zone). I did one interval run last week on the track (3 x (4 x .25 miles) with one minute rest in between), and I swear, that stuff is making me so much faster.
I swam for only an hour. It was a good endurance swim (10 x 200 with long drill of warmup, 45 seconds rest in between, and a decent cooldown – learning this is way too much rest) focusing on drills and body rotation, but I wish I swam more. My goal is to do 2 hours in the pool every week. If I can do more, great, but I just don’t enjoy it as much as running or cycling. Investing in some underwater headphones may help, but we’ll see. I am noticing improvements in my stroke with these drills, and my times are coming down. I’m not as worried about endurance for my 70.3 in a few months as I was for my first tri as swimming for an hour isn’t a big deal anymore.
Cycling…oh cycling. If there will be one major area of improvement for my Ironman this year, it will be cycling. That is my focus for 2010 training. I did my longest ride ever last week. A 70.4 mile ride down PCH to the power plant past San Clemente and back. It was a great ride, averaging over 18 mph. I focused a lot on cadence, trying to keep it north of 90 most of the time, but also switching it up with higher gears. My neck and shoulders really started to hurt around mile 55, and I think I just need more time in the saddle on longer rides for that to heal itself! I was sore as hell on Sunday, which really impacted my weekly load since I could only squeeze in an hour run.
I also did some an interval ride on the trainer mid week, and I really attribute my pedaling improvements to these workouts. I sometimes focus on trying to achieve 80-90 cadence in high gears, and other times I try to keep it over 100 cadence in fairly high gears (big ring but lower gear). The other rides were casual recovery rides.
I also got back into pilates (one hour – other). YAY for pilates. It makes my body feel so much better. I’m trying to do the foam roller more frequently, but that thing HURTS!
This week is a recovery week, so no interval or tempo work. I hope to get in about 6-7 hours. I have a 12k trail race on Saturday with Cale that I’m excited about, but other than that, expect low intensity all week with a drop in mileage across the board. I’m also starting the 100 pushup challenge. Excited for that! The build period begins next week, and I’ll be back to intervals, tempo and endurance at that point.
Here is a pic of the blister(s) I’ve been fighting. That’s the good looking foot
Year in Review
Posted by Adam Ainbinder in Goals, Life, Races on January 3, 2010
A year has past, and what a year has it been. I love these end of the year posts (last year’s post is here) because it gives me a time to reflect on things that went well in my life, things that didn’t go to well, things I want to change going into the new year, and that which is all good.
Entering last year, I wasn’t in the best place. I was in a struggling marriage, and this life struggle was disrupting the equilibrium with the other things in life. I was having trouble focusing on work, I had trouble focusing on my goals, and I had no idea what I wanted. I had trouble sleeping, and everything was cloudy. Was this what life was supposed to be like, I often questioned. I would often sit in front of my computer for hours, chatting, tweeting, stumbling (literally) endlessly with that awesome firefox plug in stumbleupon! I was distracting myself, constantly. If you want to see some of the dark places I reached and things I questioned, check out my posts on life (you can read here) for the first 3-4 months last year. Some of my most reflective/sad/interesting (heartbr8king, emotions – good or bad, alone, living with loss).
Once we decided to divorce, I started running. I ran a lot. It was my escape. I had run in my first marathon the previous year (2008), and I really enjoyed it despite the hellish pain of getting across 
the finish line. And yes, I never did a 5k, 10k, half marathon or any race for that matter…I jumped right into the marathon, and not just to finish, but to finish in under 4 hours (I finished SF, one of the harder marathons, in 3:52:42). It was a big accomplishment for me, and the feeling I got from overcoming those “impossible” barriers made me feel…made me feel, great!
So when I went through this struggle, I decided to run, and when I ran, I was at peace. I had a clear head. My buddy Matt suggested cycling, so I started riding too, but just for fun. When I was on that road though, I felt free. I could feel my body, my heart beat, my head sweat, my legs hurt. That feeling though was amazing, and for the first time in a while, I really felt alive.
So…I trained. I ran a lot. I started cycling a lot. I did a half marathon (OC)…I did a full marathon (SF). I picked up swimming and did my first triathlon…an Ol
ympic distance event in San Diego where I crushed my goal time by over 23 minutes (2:22 vs. a goal of 2:45). I started believing in myself. I started reading about running, about training, about pedaling, about cycling. I found a community on twitter that I learned so much from. I found something to be passionate about…again! It had been a while!
I also finished my MBA in June, and although I didn’t have the greatest experience in the classroom, I met some awesome friends along the way, and more importantly, I met a special someone the day before graduation. It was a random introduction from someone I just met, and that 5 minute intro turned into a facebook message, then a facebook conversation, then some text messages, then a few phone calls, text flirting for a week, a first date, a second date, and well…a great pick up to the second half of my year. It’s been an awesome six months now, and that is one of the things giving some positive momentum to this new year that I’m very excited about!
In June, I also got a new Abby kitten I named RED, which funny enough came from him being a pREDator, but also because he is a red abyssinian. I love animals (if you haven’t gathered), and if I 
had a bigger place, I’d probably have a full farm. J/K. Kind of. Red is awesome. I always believed in having two cats since I work full time, they can keep each other company during the day. I had Toby and Riley from the same litter nearly five years ago, and when I decided to give Riley to my ex-wife since he truly was always her cat, I wanted to find Toby a partner. Red was the perfect companion, being even more dog like than Toby. He follows me everywhere, fetches, growls at the door, and wants to go for walks (which I will avoid . Sadly enough, as I wrote about in this post, Riley passed on in October, which was also a down moment this year. This was hard for me to deal with even though Riley was now Jenn’s cat because of my attachment to animals. I keep telling myself he’s in a good place and it was his time, but I still get torn up when I think about him.
In December, I went on a sweet Hawaii vacation, my first week off since my honeymoon 3 years ago. Upon my return, the day of in fact, I got Kaila. Kaila is the first dog I’ve ever owned, and although she proved to be a handful at first, I’m really starting to love her. She is so damn cute, and although I’m still trying to find my groove with her between playing, training (training her, not triathlon training , and pure dominance training (yes I pin her and growl at her showing my teeth – must be the pack leader), I’m finally starting to see why dogs are so freakin awesome! Next August or so, she’ll be my new running partner. I can’t wait. I hope I can keep up with her!!!
So that is my year for you. I’ve been employed by the same company from start to finish, hired my first employee at this company, and made some big strides there developing the business analytics program. To be honest, 2010 will be the year that defines business analytics at my company. I’m excited to see what happens. But let’s get back to my hobby before departing. Below are two images that summarize my year:
This is a summary by sport of what I did in 2010. I started keeping track of the type of run, swim, and cycling ride in October, so that’s why you see somewhat of a sporadic summary. The totals are:
- Running: 1175 miles … this is funny, but in my post last year when I ran 666.4 miles, I said I don’t know if I’ll ever run this mileage again because I’m now swimming and cycling. And I nearly doubled that running mileage In 2010, I hope to get up to 1500 miles, which may be tough since I’ll do less run training than 2010
- Swimming: 22 hours … Difficult to get mileage here, but this isn’t very much. I’ll blow this away in 2010
- Cycling: 2017 miles … although this seems like a lot, it’s really not. I’m guessing I’ll at least double this amount this year.
This image is the the most interesting to me. This is a summary by month of all sports. The thing I find fascinating here is check out my total time and my heart rate. The number of hours has really gone up the last few months as I’ve taken training seriously. But what’s most fascinating is that my average heart rate has gone down over this period of time. There could be several factors at play here, but I think it represents two things 1) I’m getting in better shape and 2) I’m cycling more, which typically results in a lower heart rate. Either way, I’m really proud of the progression. The down month in October was the result of a taper for a peak marathon (MCM) as well as a slight taper for the triathlon I was in.
That’s my 2009. Here’s to a great 2010! Happy New Year everyone!
My Life...
