Random and occasional thoughts on

One of my favorite podcasts is Daily Boost. A recent episode was titled Stop Being Comfortably Miserable .  I loved the phrase comfortably miserable because it fits so many people that I see. I know people that hate their job or their career and they don't do anything about it.  Maybe they don't hate it, but they do not enjoy it or feel fulfilled doing what they spend 40 hours a week or more. If someone is not happy, why do they keep doing it? For some, it is simply inertia. They have been a plumber or engineer or sale rep so long they don't know anything else. For others it is a fear of the unknown and they see their current job as "safe".  They will often use phrases like "better the devil you know" implying that as much as they may dislike their current job, it could be worse somewhere else.  Previous generations had more job security as the common practice was "job for life" and as long as someone kept working they were reasonably certa

Ten years ago, after a 3 year stretch, I crossed the finish line of my first Ironman race.  Those 3 years saw me go from couch potato to Ironman.  I lost about 100 pounds and rarely took more than a day off per week.  How did I do that?  What was my motivation?  A common phrase lately is "What is your WHY?" where people are encouraged to find their motivation to help them overcome obstacles.  When I started running, my WHY was to spend time with one of my kids and get healthier.  When we crossed the finish line of our first half-marathon, he decided to "retire" from running at the ripe age of 13.  I was hooked and realized that I could achieve a long-time dream that I thought was out of my reach because I thought I was not a runner , completing an Ironman (which includes a 26.2 mile running marathon).  Finishing an Ironman race became my WHY.  That worked great until I crossed the finish line of the race.  Having accomplished my WHY, I found I had no driving m

Seems odd now that I've done 2 Ironman races, about a dozen marathons as well as many other shorter running races, but "I'm not a runner" was my belief for most of my life.  Why did I think that? Let me tell you a story. I was about 16 years old and was a competitive swimmer.  Not just a little competitive, but I swam with people that qualified for the Olympics and on a good day I could beat them.  One day after swim practice, the coach called us over and announced that the pool would be closed for maintenance for 2 weeks so there would be no practice.  Even though I loved swimming and the training we went through, I cheered with the rest of my teammates until... Coach called about 10 of us out and said that we should meet him by the new coliseum that was being built nearby.  I was confused. I hadn't heard anything about a pool there, but coach said to just wear shorts and comfortable shoes. I showed up and waited for instructions.  Coach said "run"

Year number 5 in a row for me.  I wasn't expecting to race this too hard since Ironman was just 2 weeks ago, but I figured it waI s worth it just to keep my streak alive at this event and with a marathon coming up in Jan, I should really be bouncing back fairly quickly. The expo was a fair size, given that it is not a marathon or Ironman.  I went on my lunch break, shortly after they opened.  I picked up my bib and then my 5-year schwag.  The 5-year stuff included a knit hat, a 5-year pin and an extra medal.  There was also an extra race bib highlighting my 5 year "Legacy status".  I didn't wear that one, but I did see a few people that had pinned that one to their back.  Maybe I'll do that next time. I was disappointed when I walked over to the table to get my jacket and they said they were out of my size.  Turns out the truck that had my size jackets was late in making the delivery.  I had to go to the information table where they took my name and bib numb

Warning This is a long read, but hey, it was a long race. Preparation I signed up for this race after a lot of thought and discussion with my wife.  Christine has never seen first hand the schedule and effort that goes into preparing for an Ironman so I tried hard to tell her what my time commitment would be if I signed up for this race.   I did my first, and only other Ironman the year I turned 40 so this would be a decade later and the year I turned 50.  My job had a somewhat flexible schedule and no other significant commitments, so it seemed like the stars were in alignment and I decided to go for it. I had already been running a lot and did a trail marathon in February so I thought my running was on track.  I did a couple of open water swims, but never managed to get in the water as regularly as I had planned.  I wasn't too worried about that since my swimming background is pretty strong.  I tried to get 3 bike rides in a week when I wasn't traveling.  One long r

Do you travel much? I travel a lot and sometimes people ask me how much I travel.  I'm also a bit of a nerd (or geek depending on your definition) but I'm definitely a very analytical person.  Therefore, when I realized how much travel this job was going to require, I embraced it and get a little excited every time I get an entry stamp in my passport from a country I have not been to before.   For our anniversary last week, my wife gave me this awesome map.  You can scratch off countries you've been to.  I haven't started scratching yet, but am looking forward to getting started. Work 2017 was a little slower on the international travel side of things, but still managed to get to 3 new countries (France, Germany and Switzerland).  This brings me to a total of 25 countries I've been to, but that includes 2 countries I was in for less than a day.  I went to a total of 8 different countries in 2017 and spent a total of 74 days outside the USA. All work