A long time ago I was “The Bike Nerd.” I mean, I owned the domain name, even. I got rid of all my stuff, left my apartment in NYC in 2010, and biked around the country (via bus, too) and visited friends while also trying to do remote work (which dried up and woo boy, that’s a whole other post).
So when Jason Kottke posted this morning that he got rid of all his stuff (including his car), and flew to Japan. It’s a beautiful post.
The ending is what got me, though.
“For now, I’m going to pack my computer up and walk to find something tasty for lunch — I’ve so missed being able to easily do that.”
I used to do this all the time in those days. Work, write, post, upload, then duck out and find somewhere to eat. Day in and day out, without knowing where I was gonna be living one week to the next. Oh, what a time.
One of the things I talk about with Social Media Escape Club is that time I save by not being on the major social media platforms (Twitter, Facebook, IG, LinkedIn), I can put somewhere else, and these days that’s meant 3+ hours a day walking.
That effort made the thinking about entering a 12 hour loop race seem feasible. Like, hey, I walk 3+ hours a day anyways… maybe I could do four? Five?
And while I only managed 7.5 hours (WTF), I found that I loved being at the event. The planning, the packing, arriving before the sun came up to figure out a good place to park. The camaradier with a bunch of sweaty and smelly and muddy people eating grilled cheese and downing Cokes before going out on another five mile loop.
I just never got that with the local 5K races, which are usually over and done with in an hour. This was a 12 hour timed event, and I wish I could have stayed til the end but I don’t think I’d stay awake for the entire drive home!
So just thinking about how we allocate our time, and where that time can lead.
So I signed up for the Labor Pain 12 hour endurance trail run a week ago, and here I am with the follow up.
It took just less than 7.5 hours, but I got in 25 miles on the 5 mile course. That’s the most I’ve ever run. Went out way too fast. Didn’t rest enough in between laps. Flamed out on that last lap.
1:16:10 lap 1 1:10:29 lap 2 1:21:05 lap 3 1:32:07 lap 4 2:06:45 lap 5 Total time was 7:26:33
I got two shirts out of the deal, all the grilled cheese and coke and cookies I could ever eat, had so many great conversations with people, and even got paced by a puppy on my last lap.
I really wanted to hit 30 miles, buy my feet had other plans. Next time I really need to rest like 10-15 minutes after each lap. Put my feet up. Recover more.
When I signed up for this race, I already had “a cough,” but didn’t think much of it. Eh, it’ll go away, right? Well, it was still there on Sunday, but I powered through. It really didn’t affect my breathing, except when I was coughing, which wasn’t too often. And really, I figured if I got in 25 miles (holy crap), it must not be that bad.
Well, finally I went to urgent care, and it turns out I have bronchitis. Oops.
“Bronchitis is inflammation of the bronchi (large and medium-sized airways) in the lungs that causes coughing. Bronchitis usually begins as an infection in the nose, ears, throat, or sinuses. The infection then makes its way down to the bronchi. Symptoms include coughing up sputum, wheezing, shortness of breath, and chest pain.”
Again, I didn’t have a sore throat. The coughing didn’t keep me up at night (I slept 10 hours straight after the run). I was fine!
But yeah, I ran 25 miles with bronchitis. If it gets worse, it can turn into pneumonia, which is not ideal.
All that to say, I am still able to walk 10+ miles per day, I feel good, and now I’m on medication to take of the bronchitis.
This butterfly would not leave me alone. First it landed on my shoe. Then it somehow landed on my finger, twice. I went inside, and when I came back it was on my chair waiting for me.
My sister said it’s mom paying a visit, which make me tear up. Miss ya, mom.
Three hours a day on our phone is 21 hours a week, so I figured why not just go for a walk instead? I mean, I do look at my phone of course, but.. hey… 20+ extra hours not looking at the phone is nice, too.
The thing about “doing a thing” for so many hours per week is you don’t really know where it might lead. I can imagine someone practicing guitar for three hours a day might get really good in a few months time.
It’s like the Kobe Bryant thing, where he practiced multiple times per day, when everyone else was just practicing once a day. Do that over multiple years, and you’re miles ahead of the other players.
I’m not trying to win this 12 hour endurance trail run, but I’m excited to see what I can do from walking 10+ miles per day for 100 days.
Well, I’ve been walking at least 10+ miles everyday for nearly 100 days, and I’ve been running a few more of those miles in recent weeks. I walked 17 miles last Friday. I ran a fast trail loop last night. Sooo let’s see what happens at my first 12 hour endurance trail run.
Not saying I’m gonna crush this, but let’s see what happens, right?
Also in the logistical planning stage right now, as this will take more than some gatorade and Clif bars. Borrowing a cooler from someone. Got a grocery list cooking.
I said to a few friends along the way: this film is a line in the sand for the work I make next. To work within a tight set of parameters means saying no to a range of other inputs. And importantly, I want to work with dance, choreography and actors — and bridge my own literal and conceptual thinking.
Docs and Sheets might well be impossible, or at least the trade-offs might be too great. I’m not entirely sure what I’ll do there yet.
I’ve been experimenting with Proton Drive, which has its own version of Docs and Sheets. I’m using it for my own projects at the moment, and I like how it’s worked so far. The sharing and normal collaboration seems to work just fine. Sure, not everything feels as familiar as the tools we’ve been using for the last 10+ years, but I’m giving it a chance.
Then there’s infomaniak, which is a wild name, but I’ve been talking to someone who moved their whole operation away from Google Workspace and it’s working out nicely for them. They seem to have a Docs / Sheets / PowerPoint offering of their own (kDrive), but I haven’t played around with it yet.
Also… being as I extracted 20 years of photos from Apple’s “Photos”, I’ve been looking for an organizational solution, and ente has been recommended as well, and it looks pretty solid.
As I tell most folks (I’ve hosted a few Break Up With Google Zoom calls in recent months with my Social Media Escape Club folks), just sign up for some of these sorts of things and feel ’em out.
The biggest tech guru YouTuber (or I) could tell you which one is the “best,” but if you log in and hate it, it won’t matter. All of these platforms and services are something you really need to get into and test drive for yourself.
I’m losing my zeal for pro sports and finally cancelled NFL Redzone, figuring there’s got to be a better way to spend seven hours every Sunday. So I started the “RUN OVER REDZONE” club on Strava.
Just go for a run from 1-8pm EST on football Sundays. Run a mile. Run a mile every hour. Run for seven hours, whatever.
After watching more backyard ultra stuff, and walking 10+ miles per day for almost 100 days, I dunno… just sounds like something fun to try and do during the football season.
