Qwickness and site changes

Hello all, I've made some changes to the site here. Doran Bosso and I have launched a new blog, Qwickness.com. Any posts on running, triathlon, nutrition, or other endurance-sport related matter will be posted there.

My main site will now be simply frederickcook.com, and it will have a new format as well.

Thanks for checking in, and enjoy the new resources.

Fred

VTS Gear, Rungame, and 5 Cold Weather Running Tips

First, for getting fourth overall in 2009 in the Virginia Triathlon Series, Setup Events sent along some sweet schwag: a jacket (with my name monogrammed on the back of the collar), a cap, and some arm warmers, all with VTS logos. Thanks, VTS, you guys do great events!

Next, with Rungame, I have done 11 runs in the first 12 days of 2010, putting me one run behind. (Last Saturday, I was at Wisp in western Maryland, and it snowed for two days straight before we got there, so I skied for 8 hours that day and didn't get a run in.) One day this week will have to be a double. So far though, I have run for 8 hours 35 minutes in the last 12 days. I haven't kept track of distance, but if I had to guess, somewhere between 55 and 60 miles total. Not huge, but I'm quite happy with that for this time of the year and these conditions.

Now, a few Cold Weather Running Tips I have picked up over the last few days:

1. Good socks are key. You can always put more layers on your top, or a pair of sweatpants on over your running tights, but because most running shoes are designed to be "ventilated," socks are incredibly important. Bonus tip: if it is above freezing and raining or wet out, put sandwich bags over your socks before you put your shoes on. Once your toes get wet, your run goes downhill quick. Bonus tip two: if you don't have good gloves, just pull your sleeves over your hands. All the pros do it.

2. Hold yourself accountable by telling others. I am a huge believer in publicly stating goals. I told all my readers that I was going to do these runs, so if I don't, I'm accountable to you. If I hadn't done that, it would have been very difficult to get out the door. Tell someone whose opinion you value that you are going to run X number of times this week, and ask them to check back with you.

3. Short and consistent trumps less longer runs. The boost to your metabolism that you will get from doing something on a regular basis outweighs the fitness you may gain from pushing yourself to run longer. Also, with shorter runs, you obviously won't have as much time to get cold.

4. Take it easy. Remember that there is a huge range of heart rates between resting (sitting at a desk) and huffing and puffing. Especially this time of the year, the fitness to be gained by going hard is likely not worth the risk of injury. You have more to gain by staying in your lower-intensity fat burning zone. Bring your body to a pace where you are just about to start breathing hard, then back off a tiny bit. Bonus tip: running on busy streets or trails creates pressure to push harder because of the perception that people are watching and judging you. Find less crowded areas. (But stay safe.)

5. Enjoy yourself. Leave the iPod at home, and take in the crisp, cold, fresh air. There are too few times in the modern American lifestyle that a person will allow them self to be alone in their own head. Embrace it. I'll write a whole post about this sometime soon.

Now get out there.

Diet Tips for the New Year

I was talking to a friend last night who was disappointed with himself over putting on some weight over the last year or so. This got me thinking about what strategies I have used to find a sustainable place with my body weight.

In November, after finishing Ironman Florida I started focusing on finishing my thesis, and went from about 10 or so workouts per week to about 3-4. However, because of some simple diet strategies, this reduction in workouts hasn't caused me to gain more than a pound or two. Here's how:

Learn to say no. It is absolutely impossible to be in control of your diet if you eat everything that is put in front of you. Visiting friends, at the office, wherever, there is always food available, and until you start saying no to certain foods, your diet will be controlled by your circumstances.

Plan your meals. I'm not saying to schedule on your calendar what you are going to eat each day, or even that you have to cook for yourself. If you leave the house to go to the office in the morning and haven't thought through where your next meal is coming from, you are much more likely to get fast food or eat whatever is convenient, which is much more likely to be an unhealthy option. Even if you don't bring something, make some kind of plan for finding a healthy meal.

Consistency counts. Going to a friend's house to watch football and eating chips and dip and having a couple of beers isn't what is going to make you fat. What you eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner those other five days of the week is. You don't have to order a salad every time you go out to lunch with friends, but when you're by yourself, make sure healthier options are available.

Make your diet a priority in your life. You don't have to obsess over it, just keep it in mind. You know you are going to be hungry every few hours. Make sure that there are healthy options available, or you are a slave to food that is convenient.

Rungame: 30 runs in 30 days in January

Since Ironman Florida on Nov. 7, I have done a ton of yoga, about four runs, and two swims. Most of November and all of December was spent finishing my masters thesis, which I defend on January 4.

To get back into training shape and to kick off the new year, I will be taking part in a game devised by some folks at Endurance Corner (Gordo's group). One of their guys, Dr. Jeff Shilt, describes the game here.

Basically, starting today, Jan. 1, participants run 30 times in the next 30 days. Not long runs or hard runs, though I am setting myself a minimum of 40 minutes. I can "bank" a day by doing two runs, though they have to be in two different sessions. Gordo set up a Google Documents page to record the runs.

If you want to participate, feel free to check out the link, or just keep track of it yourself. If you're new to running, set yourself a lower minimum, like 15 or 20 minutes. Two miles a day for 30 days is a pretty good month for someone who isn't working out a lot. If anyone reads this and decides to do it, send me an email or comment, I'd love to hear about it.

Happy New Year!

Applying Minimum Viable Product to my Thesis

For the last several months, I have been planning to start a business when I finish my M.S. I have an idea, and in my spare time, I have been reading everything I could get my hands on and applying it as best I could (on paper). I am at the point where as soon as I finish my thesis, I am going to work full time on my company. The problem... finishing the thesis.

For the last two weeks, I have worked harder than I have the last two years on this document, and every time I open the file, I find something that I'm not happy with, and spend a couple of days finding more references or doing an extra experiment to make something a little stronger.

At the same time, I've been reading a lot of Eric Ries and Steve Blank, and even got the Virginia Tech library to order a copy of The Four Steps to the Epiphany so I could stop having to return it and reorder it from inter-library loan. (If you don't know what I'm talking about, check these guys out now.)

Today, it occurred to me: for the last two weeks, I have just been adding "features" to my thesis, without having any idea what the minimum viable thesis really is! My customers are the three faculty members on my committee, and there is some level for each of them for which they will say, "ok, this is good enough, you've earned it!" But I have no idea what that is.

Today, I'm going to stop adding features, and put the thing out there. It is likely that it will get torn apart by a couple members of my committee, and it is more than likely that I will "fail" and have a ton of revisions to make. Until that happens, I'm in the dark, trying to please a group of people for whom I only have assumptions about what they want and what they are willing to accept.

I'll publish a couple of papers on my work later on in the year, and refine everything for those, but for now, the minimum viable thesis is the only thing standing between me and starting a business.

Student Entrepreneurship in Blacksburg

Over the six or so years I've been a student at Virginia Tech, there have been a number of student entrepreneurship societies that have come and gone, but last night, something happened here that I haven't seen before. The newest student group, Entrepreneurship Society @ Virginia Tech got together with some local start-up guys (Ken Maready and Bob Summers) and held an elevator pitch competition, with $500 cash for the winner. I couldn't stay the whole time to see who won, but there were at least a few several sharp kids with some pretty good ideas.

Hopefully this kind of activity is a new trend here. This kind of partnership would not have been possible five years ago, but with VT KnowledgeWorks and the Virignia Tech Corporate Research Center very actively promoting entrepreneurship, there are plenty of resources for start-ups here in town.

My long-term hope is to see the establishment of some kind of center for entrepreneurship at Virginia Tech which will actively bind the start-up and student communities. (Here is an Entrepreneur Magazine article on some schools and towns that have done a great job of this.) This would not have been possible five years ago, but everything we would need is here today.

It is an exciting time to be in the start-up community in Blacksburg. Lets keep this momentum going.

Why I Use Twitter

Earlier today, a friend sent me a link to a cute graphic about coffee. She sent it via email, because she thought I would like it. I did, when I came across it about a week ago and tweeted about it. I jokingly chastised her for not being on Twitter, to which she responded, "I don't have time for Twitter."

In my opinion, the beauty of Twitter is that it is gives us the option to pay attention to neat musings such as the coffee article, or not to. When she emailed me the coffee link, the option of whether to pay attention and spend time or not to on this article was taken away from me. With Twitter, if I have time to look at cool articles or blogs that pertain to my interests (mostly triathlon and entrepreneurship), I go on Twitter and see what interesting things people have posted. If I don't want to be bothered, I'm not.

Most people say they have no use for Twitter because it is mostly useless crap about what people are doing on a daily basis, and for the most part, most of what we do is not worth reading about. However, if my friends travel to interesting places or see interesting things and take pictures of them, or meet interesting people, or read interesting blogs or articles, I like to hear about it. If people post mundane things that aren't interesting to me, I don't 'follow' them. Either way, it is my choice on who I follow, and whether I even spend time looking at what they've posted or not. (This also differentiates it from Facebook, where if I don't want someone's "status" to show up in my "feed" the easiest way is to de-friend them, which is a pretty serious social faux pas.)

The other reason I use Twitter is that it gives you a glimpse at what people in a certain industry, or especially leaders in a specific industry are spending their time doing and reading. If I want to learn, say, about Kickboxing, within a few minutes of searching I can find out who the highest regarded people in the industry are, what they spend their time doing, and what information sources they value enough to spend their time reading (blogs or articles).

So stop knocking Twitter as a waste of time, or another social networking phenomenon that will die out. Stop using email for links to things you think are humorous or interesting, because chances are, if it is something that I'm really interested in, I've already seen it on Twitter. If not, put it on Twitter yourself, and I'll look at it when I have time.