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This past week, I’ve ran over 3 miles a day with an average speed of about 5mph. And for the first time, I was able to run 1 mile with a sustained speed of 6mph (but with a heart rate of 170bpm). Just to be clear, I’ve never been a runner… and the last time I really had to run consistently was when I was in my early 20’s when I worked out with Seal Team PT in Richmond, VA.

Recently, Annie has been developing some shin and mild knee pains from working out over the last few months. I suspected that it could be her shoes, so we went by Road Runner to get fitted for some new running shoes. I went to Road Runner about 15-20 years ago to get fitted because I was developing shin splins, heal spurs, knee and hip pain from working out with the Seal Team PT fitness group. At that time, the Road Runner employees advised me to get a proper running shoe… and I was excited to upgrade to something new and high tech. But on the contrary, they only recommended a really boring ASICS for $120. And then they had the odasity to tell me that I needed to buy shoes every 4-6 months—I thought it was some kind of scam, but all the runners at Seal Team PT told me the same thing. Lo and behold, they were all right. After about two weeks running on the new shoes, all the pain an ailments went away. And I ended up buying new shoes ever 6 months… until I stopped Seal Team PT and started a new hobby.

So Annie and I swung by a new Road Runner store this weekend and ended up buying some shoes. For Annie, this was her first time but she landed on a shoe and custom soles that should hopefully help her with the workouts and ailments. She ended up with the Brooks Glycerine GTS 19, which provided proper support for her foot pronation.

And when I tried out shoes, they brought out some of the most boring looking shoes… reminicent of the old ASICS I wore nearly two decades ago. I was hoping to get something with new technology… but they were just a pair of boring looking running shoes. All that being said, I put them on and they were familiar, predicatable, and felt they would be able to soak up the miles. The new shoes are Brooks Ghost 13.

Here’s a comparison of my new shoes versus my old ones.

From another view—you wouldn’t be able to tell that my shoes on the left had a couple hundred miles on them.

I’m not sure if my goal is to become a runner (since I’m naturally so slow), but for now this seems to be working for me. Hopefully, we’ll continue to make more progress. On a sidenote, I’m weighing about 169lbs now. Sometimes it’s hard to notice progress unless you zoom out a little. I’ll be at 165lbs in a few weeks.

This was a project Annie and I started last year. We had a company come out and build a deck with a pergola in our back yard and I think it turned out pretty well. As you can see, our raised bed gardens are next to it, creating a nice usable area, maximizing space.

This was what the back yard looked like before the deck + pergola. As you can see, I took down one of the railings so we could step down… which was a huge inconvenience.

Now that the deck is complete, we’ve been BBQing and gardening more outside. It’s been actually really nice… though, the afternoons can get quite warm here. Next steps are to get some furniture and start planting some trees.

I’ve hooked the lights up to our smart home system, so now it’s all voice controlled. I’m now debating whether I should add some outdoor speakers as well, since that could be nice when we’re just outside lounging.

As part of the home gym, the final piece is strength training. Since I don’t know much about it, it seems that the Tonal has a pretty interesting value proposition. It offers digitized weights that use machine learning to help you improve. It’s almost like having a personal trainer, tailoring a strength workout for each person.

Annie and I tested this a few months ago and ordered it on the spot. We’re scheduled to take delivery by next weekend. It’ll be nice to change things up, since we’ve primarily focused on cardio over the last few months. While the Peloton bike and tread are amazing pieces of equipment, the content is mostly just a stream with no personalization.

I’ve also decided that I’m going to document my experience with it on youtube. There doesn’t seem to be much information about the Tonal and the comparison of it to Peloton, so it’ll be a good one to share. Stay tuned.

I’ve found myself regularly drinking cold brew coffee. I’ve been buying the Starbucks brand by the boxes from costco, and recently they no longer have them in stock. So, I’ve decided to cold brew it myself.

I’ve been grinding Philz Tesora beans and soaking them into the Takeya cold brew coffee maker for about 12-14 hours.

On the left is what the coffee looked like before putting into the fridge. On the right is what it looked like after 12 hours. One of my buddies said that it still looks little light, so it needs some more time. My technique probably needs some work, but it’s a good start.

I’ve been grilling some food with Annie over the last few weeks using an old school charcoal grill. This past weekened, we did some meal prep, cooking up salmon, impossible burgers and shrimp.

You’ll also notice the fresh snow pea tips pictured above—those are from our garden!

Quick shout out to Kent and Julia for hooking us up with the fresh striped bass they caught near Martha’s Vineyard. It was fresh and tasted amazing (prepared in a a Vietnamese style).

I worked with Joel back in the days of Clearspring—he was the guy who hired me and was my boss (VP product). I haven’t come across as many people with the balance of intelligence and calmness. He was a very gentle spirit, worked hard and always brought in an optimistic sense of humor.

I had a chance to go to his funeral and catch up with some old comrades. I wish we could have all hung out under different circumstances, but it was good to see some familiar faces.

Joel is an inspiration to us of how we should laugh, love and live. His values and friendship will always be cherished by us, and his memory and positive energy will help us shape the futur. To all my comrades, let’s catch up soon. Life is too short to wait for opportunities.

To Joel, thank you for being our moral compass, teacher and friend. Rest in peace.

Ps. I wrote this blog post years ago, and Hooman and I were referring to Joel at the time.