New Video: Vlog, Thoughts on Training Sick and On the Road
I posted a video this week with some footage from my business trip last week to Texas and also some thoughts on training when not feeling 100% and training on the road. I am easing into my first real travel vlog type video, which I think will happen in a few weeks when I head to Miami for a conference. Hope you enjoy the video, stay tuned for more.
Two things I want to share this week and they both are around getting the work in even when you feel like you might now be 100% physically or when you have a hectic travel schedule. Neither of those are excuses. You can always get something done.
Training Sick
Early this week, especially on my Monday workout, I was sick with a pretty heavy cold. I was feeling sore all over and was sneezing quite a bit. My sleep wasn’t great. So I just made sure I focused more on auto-regulating the weight on the bar based on my strength that day vs hitting a weight that showed progress from the prior week. It was a deadlift day and I worked up to my heavy single of 375 as opposed to 395 or 400. 375 is still a decent number for a single at 8.
So the message when sick is to be cautious on the loading and obviously make sure you get enough sleep as the top priority, because that’s going to have the biggest impact on improving your health. But if you can get a session in, then the focus becomes on getting some work in without pressuring yourself on the numbers on the bar.
Two Types of Business Travel
This week I traveled for business. I do two types of business travel as a fund manager: first, I go to conferences to meet with executives of publicly traded companies in my sector. They happen in the same places and the same times each year. One is coming up in Miami in two weeks, but others happen in New York, Las Vegas, Dallas, and a few other places.
The other type of travel is marketing travel, where I am going to meet with various institutions or individuals to convince them to invest in our fund or strategy. Much different because it pops up on short notice and can be anywhere on the globe, from Japan or Australia to Jefferson City, Missouri. That’s the type of travel I did this week. On these trips I will travel with another guy from the office, from the marketing team. Sometimes if the meeting is important enough, others from my team will join too.
D-Town, Then H-Town
This trip was just me and another guy for one night two days and two separate cities in Texas, for 4 separate meetings. I took an early morning flight Wednesday to Dallas, but we didn’t get a full meeting schedule Wednesday, so there was a big gap in time between when we arrived and when we had to meet. I used that time to get a lift in. The guy I was with isn’t into lifting weights. So, it was going to be on my own and he’d go hang in a coffee shop.
Went with my carry on in a Lyft over to D-Town CrossFit, which I had researched ahead of time. I’ve been to Dallas a few times for business, so I know this particular gym and I like it. It has a lot of space and the back room isn’t crowded at all. So I got in there, got my work in, it was beltless squats, slingshot bench press and incline bench. The workout took an hour and a half or so, then I rushed to shower and get my suit on. Then it was a meeting and then off to the airport to head to Houston.
The next morning I had arranged to meet up with a buddy and go to his club for a CrossFit workout. We had been texting for a week or two leading up to that day, and it was really seamless. He picked me up at 5:30, we went over there and nailed the workout, then he dropped me off at like 7:30 and I was showered and ready for my first meeting by 8:15. I even had a chance to respond to a media request with some quick comments on a news story.
You Can Do It
This marketing trip was unusual because it was to Texas, my home state. But I’ve been able to figure out places to get barbell training in when in Tokyo, Seattle, Cincinnati, Miami, basically all over.
With the internet and the proliferation of CrossFit and barbell gyms all over the place, there isn’t a place in the world where you can go where there are not barbells or at least a place to get some work in.
One final note, I have been reflecting on the voice for the content I produce (videos, blog posts, etc.) and thinking about the target audience. I want the channel to be for dads who lift and are busy professionals too. Basically, I want other people like me to like the content. Seems simple enough, hard to execute, otherwise we’d all be internet famous.
