Category: Health

Oh, the Places You’ll Go

So what did I do in 2017?   I made a conscious decision to focus on goals last year and had a lot of success because of it.  Here are some highlights.  Many of these started as  New Years resolutions or expanded from things I annually focus on.  I generally believe you need to have focus (or more specifically time) dedicated to five things; your family, your faith, your career, your health (intellectual & physical), and your community.  The list below represents the fruits of the time I spent on the last three of those things.

Teaching

I am the CTO of Automation Integrated so teaching isn’t my career, it is something I do to give back to the people entering this industry.

I never wanted to be a teacher.  My dad was a grade-school teacher before becoming an administrator and I remember how hard it was, how disproportional that work seemed to be compared to the compensation.  Boy, was I wrong!   I love teaching.  I love the students.  I love this industry and getting to introduce it to other people.  I love watching them fall in love with technology the way I did.

Documentaries

I love documentaries and made a new years resolution to watch 12 as an excuse to justify changing the channel from the second season of “Stranger Things” when I’m too numb to even read a book.  Overall, I’m really impressed with the quality of “YouTube” documentaries but it is hard to beat Ken Burns.

    1. Al Jazeera English: The Caliph, Part 1
    2. The Roosevelts: An Intimate History: Get Action
    3. Al Jazeera English: The Caliph, Part 2
    4. Hjernevask: The Gender Equality Paradox
    5. Al Jazeera English: The Caliph, Part 3
    6. Hjernevask: The Parental Effect
    7. Oklahoma City
    8. Hjernevask: Gay/Straight
    9. Ekip Films: The Hittites
    10. Hjernevask: Violence
    11. Hjernevask: Sex
    12. The World of Compulsive Hoarders
    13. Hjernevask: Race
    14. Last Chance U: Season 1
    15. Hjernevask: Nature or Nurture

Of all the documentaries Hjernevask is by far the most controversial and exceedingly interesting.  The Roosevelts coincided with the obsession with Teddy I had at the beginning of last year.

Public Speaking

I spoke or was a panelist at a number of technology related organizations last year.  Two of the presentations were because of the interest in non-relational databases & Big Data.  The other three were related to my role with Automation Integrated.  All of them were a lot of fun, primarily because we have amazing technology people in Oklahoma City!

    1. 1 Million Cups:  A Tale of 2 Companies
    2. OKC Big Data: Introduction to Non-Relational Databases using CouchDB
    3. OKPSA: Innovating in a Brick and Mortar Business
    4. Open Source Databases Meetup: CouchDB is Awesome
    5. Innotech Panel: Key Components in Getting IT Projects Approved

Running

I finished the year with exactly 500 miles.  The final 8 were done the last day of the year on a treadmill due to the weather, but done non-the-less.  I didn’t start tracking my outdoor runs until late in the year but some of them are on Strava.  Probably the most mileage I’ve had in a single calendar year, although there was a 12 month period in 2008-2009 I had more.

Reading

I love Goodreads because of how easy it is to track the books I’ve read or listened to.  There is also a Chrome extension that tells me what books on my reading list are available for electronic checkout at my library.  I was able to finish 69 books last year with my favorites being Ten Philosophical Mistakes by Mortimer Adler and The Lessons of History by Will Durant & Ariel Durant.  They were also two of the shortest books I read.  Here is a link to my summer reading post, and a specific winter reading post should come soon-ish.

Being Fat

I had already lost about 20 lbs by the time New Years came last year.  My goals was a modest 10 lbs of additional weight… I eventually lost 30 more.  In fact, I dropped all the way down to 160 before I started working on building up some after the weight loss.

Writing

Two articles I produced as part of my PSA presentation were also published.  I’m particularly proud of these as I’ve never had a third party publish anything I’ve made previously.  The were Cultivating a Technology Innovation Mindset and Breaking Barriers to Technology Innovation.

Summary

Some of the success I had last year stems from two realizations:

1) I need a measurable way to track my goals if I’m going to do well.   I see more success when I use apps like MyFitnessPal, Goodreads, and Strava.

2) Goal setting is HUGE for me.  Even if I fail to reach a specific goal the overall result is dramatically better if I start out with a goal in mind.

Next year?  I’m thinking guitar, writing, and resistance training… and more teaching & reading,

as necessary as food to the body

As anyone who has ever meet her will attests, I married WAY WAY out of my league, something I am constantly amazed and grateful for.  Today I am especially grateful for her cooking, specifically my most recent addiction, hummus.  So as a quick post (and to help me find it next time I need it) I thought I would post her receipe.  The following is Heather’s Lemon and Spice hummus.  It is unquestionably the best hummus I have ever had, as can be proven by the fact that it actually gets me to eat large quantities of vegetables in the consumption of it.  Just blend everything listed below.

  • 15oz can of chickpeas
  • 4 Tbsp lemon juice
  • 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
  • 2 cloves garlic chopped (or 2 tsp if you buy it pre-chopped)
  • 1/2 tsp sea salt (we really only eat sea salt anymore but the flavor quality REALLY matters in this recipe)
  • 1 tsp cumin
  • 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
  • parsley to taste

Running on Empty

“Now if you are going to win any battle you have to do one thing. You have to make the mind run the body. Never let the body tell the mind what to do. The body will always give up. It is always tired in the morning, noon, and night. But the body is never tired if the mind is not tired.”

–George S. Patton, U.S. Army General, 1912 Olympian

Yesterday I completed the GEICO Race for Freedom 10K at Lake Hefner Park.   My goal was to finish without stopping at whatever was a comfortable pace. I completed the run without a problem although I had some concerns leading up to the race.  I evidently brused a tendon on my foot and was having trouble running on it around week 5 of the schedule.

To keep pressure off the foot I switched to biking both at home and at the gym.  Basically I took my running schedule, did the workout on my bike, but tripled the distance.  If I worked at a pace that kept my heart rate around the same as my jogging heart rate; the bike work would take about the same time as if I had run it.

For the 5K to 10K race I switched to a 7 week schedule.  I figured I had already gotten to mile 4 by the end of my 5K workout and 7 weeks seemed like plenty of time to 6.2 miles.  Additionally I included a couple hill workouts on my longer runs.  This helped improve my performance but ultimately didn’t matter much for the 10K which was a flat course.

Here is my training schedule for the 10K:

Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun
Week 1 Run 3 Miles Run 2 Miles Run 3 Miles Run 3.5 Miles
Week 2 Run 3 Miles Run 2 Miles Run 3 Miles Run 4 Miles
Week 3 Run 3 Miles Run 3 Miles Run 3.5 Miles Run 5 Miles
Week 4 Run 4 Miles Run 3 Miles Run 3.5 Miles Run 6 Miles
Week 5 Run 4 Miles Run 3 Miles Run 4 Miles Run 6 Miles
Week 6 Run 5 Miles Run 3 Miles Run 4 Miles Run 7 Miles
Week 7 Run 2 Miles Run 2 Miles Run/Walk 2 Miles Run 10K

The last two events have gone so well that I am thinking about doing a half marathon in about 10 weeks. It would be a much faster progression that I have attempted so far; but my thinking is that I am better off challenging myself.  The other option is spending 4-5 weeks working towards a 15K that I can probably do already.

What is more problematic is that the biking has gotten me thinking about a triathlon.

Run Baby Run

All human beings should try to learn before they die what they are running from, and to, and why.

James Thurber

Heather and I finished the City Arts Center Midnight Streak 5K last night. Sadly I am in bad enough shape that I actually had to train for a 5K. My seven week schedule was devised from a couple different sources but ultimately is worked out wonderfully. Here is the schedule I ran:

Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun
Week 1 Run/Walk 15 Min Run/Walk 2 Miles Run/Walk 15 Min Run/Walk 25 Min
Week 2 Run 20 Min Run/Walk 2 Miles Run/Walk 20 Min Run/Walk 35 Min
Week 3 Run 25 Min Run/Walk 2 Miles Run/Walk 25 Min Run 30 Min
Week 4 Run 25 Min Run 2 Miles Run 30 Min Run 35 Min
Week 5 Run 25 Min Run 20 Min Run 30 Min Run 3 Miles
Week 6 Run 30 Min Run 3 Miles Run 35 Min Run 4 Miles
Week 7 Run 20 Min Run 20 Min Run/Walk 15 Min Run 5K

I have some previous experience running; but I haven’t actually been in an organized event since the half-marathon I ran my Junior year of college. Great date night for Heather and I.