Is it too early for an update? Nah, I didn’t really get into the basics yesterday. I was focused on getting this site live on the 1st, so I pushed sleep back until it was passable…but not perfect. On these updates I’ll let you know how the running is going and what books I’m reading. Eventually, I’ll link to all the books with my affiliate links so if you purchase one, I’ll get a bag of gluten free pretzels or a third of a beer or something.
Reading Challenge
I’m reading two books. Why two? Admittedly I don’t have the attention span to focus on one, especially since most of them will be non-fiction. The first of the two is “Can’t Hurt Me” by David Goggins.
I had an amazing high school football coach. Coach Mark Speckman was born without hands. But even with this “limitation”, he accomplished things that most people couldn’t. He was an All-American college athlete, played the trombone, could throw a heck of a spiral pass, and was an amazing racquetball player…all with no hands. On top of all this he is a tremendous person, teacher and coach. With as much as he’d accomplished, you couldn’t tell Coach that you “couldn’t” do something. The author of this book is cut from the same cloth.
This dude overcame a terrible childhood to become a Navy Seal. But there was much more. Among other things, he completed BUDS training Hell Week THRICE. I was initially worried that this was going to be a novel about all the battles he was in and baddies he wacked. I’m only about 60% done, but all of the battles he has written about are those in his own head, mastering endurance events and mind over body techniques.
The other book is “High Performance Habits” by Brendon Burchard. This guy is the guru of Performance coaches, or at least that’s what he keeps telling me. I get it guy, all the 1%ers are your clients, and 1000’s have taken your courses. Ok, all that aside, there are some nuggets in here. Ways to get focused, personal mantras to clear your head, etc. He teaches six “high performance habits”. These are fairly common sense but he digs a bit deeper
- Seek Clarity
- Generate Energy
- Raise Necessity
- Increase Productivity
- Develop Influence
- Demonstrate Courage
Running Challenge
The running; still not a fan. Yesterday I just wasn’t feeling it and it was cold. I only ran 1.3 miles. Why did I chose January to do this one? LOL. Today was much easier. I worked my running into my workout. After every set lifted I ran either 0.1 miles or 1 minute, whichever was longer. I was able to squeeze 1.8 miles into my workout but without spending too much extra time in the gym. See, typically you are supposed to rest a minute or so between sets to briefly rest the muscles. So I used that rest time as my run time. Since I was doing upper body muscles, they still got to rest while I got my running bits in. I started at a leisurely level 5 on the treadmill which was like a 12 mile, then notched it up every time I stepped onto the treadmill, eventually running at a level 10 clip (5-ish minute mile).
- Day 1 – 1.3 miles
- Day 2 – 1.8 miles
