The first time I climbed the Sears tower, I wound up not coming home for six months. I hated my job more each day and found it increasingly difficult to get out of bed. I lacked the motivation to pull myself out of this slump, not quite realizing that I didn’t have to do this for the rest of my life. One of my best friends was living in Hong Kong,…
What's Been Going on Since Aon LA? After Aon LA I decided to go kind of nuts on the bike. I put in some crazy high mileage weeks (for me), intentionally rode dirt for the first time, and always took the high road to take advantage of those stair climbing muscles. I kept saying that I wanted to lose some weight but I know I have trouble dropping weight while primarily riding,…
As many of you know, I've never been much of a runner. I ran in high school when I played field hockey and softball but I rarely ran outside of that. About two years ago I started hanging out with more runners and slowly got sucked into their world. I started with a 10k last October and, on the eve of heading off to Asia, I registered for a marathon. At…
As I wrap up my first stint in the corporate world, I've been doing a lot of meditating on what my next steps are and what I envision my life to be. When I left for the winter, I could feel myself physically rejecting my job. I was getting sick, lethargic yet had trouble sleeping, and gaining weight. As soon as I left, I immediately felt better and lost the weight.…
via aviaforum.ru Back in 2010, JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater made headlines with his dramatic exit from a twenty year career. This incident came just a few months after I graduated from college and a month after I started my first full time job. It got me thinking about how a person could be driven to do something so dramatic and what the consequences for those actions are. I was raised…
Follow your passion, and success will follow you. ~Terri Guillemets This is advice that my peers and I have been told all throughout our lives. Find something you love and eventually the money will follow. This makes intuitive sense; if you do what you love for a job then you are willing to commit to it and tough out the hard times. However, the reality that I see in most…
I realize that pullups are second nature to many people, but I've generally just treated pullup bars as a fun place to play. Despite having one in my kitchen, I still am unable to complete a full pullup unassisted. So, my newest goal is to complete one full unassisted pullup (any grip) by my next birthday. Definitely an attainable goal, but I need to stop simply hanging from the bar and…
I just registered for this winter's Hustle Up the Hancock race. The race is 94 flights (1632 stairs) up the Hancock building in Chicago. The race is a fundraiser for the Respiratory Health Association in Chicago. I already usually take the stairs instead of the elevator and I commute by bike so I think my base is okay, but climbing specific training starts next week. I expect to do a lot…
Although I never swam competitively, I have swum for pleasure and exercise my entire life. However, now that I moved two blocks from a pool, I just never seem to go anymore. My number one excuse is that I like how my hair is at exactly that day. A lame excuse, but completely in line with my priorities in life. So, I will set a day and time where I at…
On my vacation this past summer, I was hiking in the Cinque Terre with a Belgian retiree who asked me where were some interesting spots to visit if he were to go to the US. I initially rattled off the major eastern cities like New York and Washington, but beyond that I had no idea. I started thinking about why I seemed to vacation in Europe more often than the US.…