I’m breaking from the typical tech posts with this one to talk a bit about how I maintain physical fitness. The topic is occasionally brought up while at conferences or chatting with colleagues so I think this would be a good time to document my process. And before I get into it, I am NOT a jacked bodybuilder or anything like that, just a lean, fast, and agile nerd.

I have always been an athlete and drawn to competition. In early years I played any sport that my various schools offered. To me (at that time), sports essentially boiled down to who had the most speed and endurance, so I naturally gravitated to track and cross country.

After running so many miles for so many years, my body was tuned for speed & distance. I decided to hang up the spikes and forgo running in college and instead, shifted my focus to gaining muscle mass (tired of being so skinny). Protein shakes, pre-workout, more protein shakes, gym every day (sometimes twice per day)… lifting was my new running (I still mixed in some miles here and there ^_^). Without getting into the specifics, I put on roughly 40 pounds of muscle over 3.5 years.

Once I re-entered the workforce full-time it was not feasible to maintain that workout regimen, so I had to make some adjustments. I joined an MMA gym where I trained 3 nights per week for a couple hours each session. On the nights that I was not training, I would do a variety of home workouts (Insanity, TRX, etc.). During this time I was meal prepping and modeling on the side which kept my motivation at a high level.

Several years down the road and a couple of kids later, I still go on runs in my area and workout in my home gym (when I can clear a space around all of the toys). Trying to keep up with technology, cyber security, and drive business can be very taxing on the mind… and being alone with my thoughts during a long run is one of the best ways to sort out my mental hurdles.