Monthly Archives: May 2022

Caught COVID Part One

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Came down with COVID last Tuesday and my network has been great.

LINK to BMJ

At the same time as I was dealing with the fever, my O-sats were getting hammered and that made my thinking REALLY slow, also meant I stopped driving until they rebounded.

I was negative before I was positive – didn’t feel right Tuesday afternoon, tested negative.

Woke Wednesday with a big fever and tanking wellness metrics – clearly positive. If you don’t feel right, then it might take 12-24 hours to see test confirmation of what you feel going on.

I kept hydrating like I was training, put a large glass of water beside my desk and bed (create availability for my O2 deprived brain).

Checking my o-sats has kept me in check! I ordered this pulse ox meter on Amazon

Laying around, with the fever, resulted in back pain – hip flexor stretches offered quick relief

Best Decision: immediately, and publicly, pulling the pin on my May Training

Reminder: just like post-marathon/Ironman…

You are going to FEEL better, before you ARE better.

Sunday Summary 29 May 2022

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Top 5 Threads

  1. Training Nutrition Guide
    1. Basics
    2. Workouts
    3. Advanced Workouts
  2. SuperVet Fitness
  3. Got COVID, published May’s training
  4. Split endurance sessions before seeking to stack
  5. BIG thread on sprint training

Working Out

High Performance Habits

What To Do When You’ve Made A Bunch of Money Part One

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There are similar issues at retirement.

++

The realization I was spending on things that didn’t make me happy drove positive changes in my life.

In Private Equity, I was surrounded by rich people who struggled to apply their financial wealth towards improving their lives.

My climb up the ladder saw me scale consumption and reinforce my ego.

Until one evening, recently divorced, sitting alone in a fancy townhouse…

I realized the only thing left inside my current path was “more money”

What To Do?

++

Consider Declaring Victory

More money will not be making your life any better. In fact, you’re now in danger of being able to ramp consumption in a way that makes your life more complicated.

If you don’t believe me then think about your most recent financial loss. The loss hurts, it’s a distraction, you find yourself wanting more and more…

…but you already have more than your younger self thought they needed?

To think clearly, you need to get out of your environment.

In the summer of 2000, I took a two month leave of absence and trained for triathlon in the hills above Boulder, Colorado.

I journaled, while training to quality for Ironman Hawaii.

Got a bucket list? Go do something on it. Do another. And another.

In my case, I kept on the same thing=> faster, and faster, and faster…

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WHILE LIVING THE DREAM…

Do You Have A Committed Long-Term Relationship?

I didn’t. You might.

This person is your most valuable asset.

Live your dream WITH THEM.

High achievers, quite often, are short-sighted about the value of relationships vs completing “the mission.”

++

Don’t have a relationship?

Consider moving to a location where there are a lot of people who share your values & culture.

Once there, focus on making YOURSELF into the person you’d like to attract. It’s took me five years to meet my wife, be patient.

My values:

  • an active outdoor life
  • surrounded by nature
  • athletic
  • kind & reliable

Yours?

Write it down.

++

Do You Have Kids?

Your future self would like you to get to know them, very well.

Why?

If you blow off (the difficulty of toddlers) then you’ll end up with a regret you can’t fix!

You don’t need to become a preschool teacher.

When they were little, I could only handle a few hours a day with my crew…

…but they were very useful hours.

I was able to train my kids to become my partners in exploring the world. I trained our little ones during 1-on-1 trips. They have a lot of very happy memories.

There has been a HUGE payoff. From the time they were 7 years old, my kids have been able to do really cool stuff with me.

Know your best environment – teach them there – 1-on-1

Remember this => don’t let your adult agenda derail the child’s joy in simply being there.

Fill your child with pleasant memories of doing stuff with you.

Part One of SuperVet Fitness

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Step One is improving low-end aerobic function by adding cycling volume under LT1

My return to “proper” endurance training will offer me a chance to demonstrate some things.

It’s whole lot easier to hit modest fitness targets if you have sufficient muscle mass for your goals (Link to Big Slow Day Article)

A lot of athletes see their size as a hinderance to their goals.

I don’t.

If you want to rip bumps in your 60s, sustain impact, run the risk of the occasional crash… a bit of size, combined with a lot strength, will serve you well.

So I’ve moved to my strongest-training weight – which is ~5 lbs above my low-volume sustainable weight.

On my old protocol (outlined here) – being a bit light is fine. However, when my goals require the capacity to fuel meaningful output, my “light weight” slows my recovery.

Let’s be clear: endurance athletes have a “light is right” bias.

Smart athletes know it is better to match your body composition to your goals.

My #1 goal is faster recovery, so:

  • Each week at least two back-to-back recovery days
  • Run my body composition a little heavier
  • Ditch my alarm
  • Use morning HRV to check in before loading
  • Bring back training nutrition

Making The Most of My Time

Many athletes seek to optimize their time by boosting average workout intensity (Sweet Spot, Heavy Domain, Tempo).

I’ve seen it, and I’ve seen it work.

Doesn’t work for me.

I’m going Nordic

  • Swedish 5:2 (see below)
  • Norwegian 80:20 (>80% Stamina Focus)

Swedish Periodization (5 days on, 2 days off) means radical recovery and compressed loading:

  • If I finish Day 5 by Noon, then I have ~65 hours until I train again
    • Every week has space for Real Life => sustainable
    • I get a weekly reset
    • My digestion gets a rest – training uptake is fatiguing
  • My Stamina focus is a 2-for-1
    • Train energy uptake (ideas for you)
    • Improve function of my mitochondria
  • My “intense” allocation (<20% total loading) includes my strength training – strength is where I preserve my long-term edge (strength, muscle mass)

Most everybody wants to get faster.

That would be nice… …and I expect it to happen

However, what I actually want is… the capacity to hold my existing submax fitness longer

Which implies…

  • 90% => bottom-up metabolic fitness & train my gut
  • 10% => strength & muscle mass

I’ll keep working and report back

Sunday Summary 22 May 2022

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Top 5 by Engagement

  1. SuperVet Fitness – blog tomorrow
  2. Things to try before swimming harder
  3. Training Nutrition
  4. Ditch your alarm, with AC
  5. Train the payoff – also with Jené at Triathlete

Workouts and Working Out

High Performance in the Real World

Supply of Money and Interest Rate Transmission Mechanisms

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BoCo in May

Feels like I’m getting to the end of my Thursday finance series!

Things I’ve noticed in May 2022:

  • Stablecoin instability
  • Pain at the retail level
  • Step-down price adjustments of stable businesses with mkt cap >$1 billion (disappearance of margin trade on reliable dividends, perhaps)
  • Buyer of my sale was 95% debt financed with a payment of 3x the gross rent I was receiving
  • Market down 19%, as I write

What I haven’t seen:

  • Widespread pain
  • Institutional capital destruction
  • Anything, anywhere, that looks cheap

Given the money creation of this cycle, those are key words to watch:

  • Pain
  • Capital Destruction
  • Cheap

Until those arrive, I’m going to be patient and live my life.

A reminder.

The Great Recession of 2008/2009 first got my attention with trouble in the interbank lending market (Early Summer 2008), this was after ~20% market decline.

There was a long way for the bear market to go, and its effect on real asset prices had years to run.

Great deals were available 2010-2012 => the equivalent of 2-4 years from “now”

Same thing in the UK Recession of 1990, my first out of school.

  • If we’re in a blip then rebalancing will be just fine
  • If we’re in for something more serious then it takes time to develop AND it takes years for price expectations to adjust

Live a life where you don’t need to be right.

How To Build An Online Community

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I’ll send this out a little differently on Twitter here’s my profile over there.

I’ve built online communities 4x and it gets easier each time. Probably, because some of you have been reading me for 20+ years.

Thank you!

KNOW YOUR WHY – most the advice I see is about ramping up follows and seeking to convert attention to cash.

Pay attention and you might find that cash-for-attention isn’t what you seek.

Know your goal and write it down – if you’re successful then the crowd will nudge you in unexpected ways.

My reasons:

Establish Expert Credentials – doing 100s of case studies in public will let you “get your story straight” and build a network of successful students who’ve applied your best advice.

Where this gets really exciting is when you see someone take your lessons and improve upon them. My current project of getting-back-in-shape is using techniques taught to me by coaches who studied my approach. Cool!

Connect/Engage – I live in a narrow niche and have a set of values outside the norm. Toss me on Twitter and there are a million like-minded folks. I get a kick out of engaging from Finland to Switzerland to Brazil.

Take time to unsubscribe from vibes you don’t want.

My feed is positive and WAY better than reading the news.

MUTE AND MOVE ON

A fact of the internet => Yahoo-encounters scale faster than reach

I recommend a one strike and you’re out policy.

It’s never been easier to mute and move on.

My “why” does not require helping everyone, being universally liked or getting wrapped up in drama.

PICK A TOPIC YOU KNOW WELL

Lots of people know more than me, nobody knows my story better than me

…and it’s an interesting story because I…

DO INTERESTING STUFF THEN WRITE ABOUT IT

  • Taking a leave of absence, qualifying for World Champs and winning Ultraman Hawaii…
  • Being absolutely miserable then figuring out a way to get better…
  • Handing back a Private Equity partnership because I wanted to live an outdoor life…
  • Changing myself so I could attract a wonderful woman…
  • Learning to be an expert skier, late in life…
  • Write a book, then another…
  • Going from the couch to running a 35-minute 10K…
  • Giving comfort to the dying…

Be willing to fail – failure makes for great copy.

…and if you don’t fail… even better copy!

HELP STRANGERS

Ten years ago, I didn’t know my kids. So glad I made a choice towards family. We only get one chance to know a kid then they’re grown up.

  • Before I had my kids, I had my team.
  • Before my team, my readers.
  • Before my readers, fellow athletes trying to figure out sport.

While you are doing work… leverage yourself. Create systems to capture your best ideas – it might be as simple as a bedside notebook and a Notes App.

Pay attention to everyone who responds positively to your message.

Dial down those with a negative bias – this is very tough with the rich & famous – you do not want to “catch” a negative bias.

DO IT EVERY DAY

Pick one format/platform: blog, Twitter, forum, FB/IG, video… set yourself a schedule and do it every day.

13 cycles of my Content Week was enough to add 1,000 people to my network.

Further, by staying positive, I like ALL these people!

Make sure you like the world you create

ANALYTICS ON

Why?

Most simply, because the author doesn’t get to choose what interests the reader.

  • Capture what interests people (One Page PDFs)
  • Reinforce your best ideas (Copy & Paste Links)
  • Spend time improving your best stuff

Finally, there is no goal

The reward is in the work, improve the world one interaction at a time.

Sunday Summary 15 May 2022

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Tweets of the Week (by engagement)

  1. Better to REMOVE one thing than chase the latest thing
  2. Our Pelotons read power -29% to +15% (nested threads)
  3. There is no hurry in Early Base (or anytime, really)
  4. What I did to get Ironman Marathon under 3-hrs
  5. Recap of my 2nd round of Swedish 5:2

Data comes from my Public Dashboard on BlackMagic.So

Family

Workouts & Working Out

High Performance Living

A public forum a lousy place for topics that require 1:1 trust

Strategic Family Capital

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Couples trip to Vail last week – we skinned to the top of Ptarmigan, two days after closing.

Back in Feb, I laid out ideas for Multigenerational Capital, it included my strategy of Sell, Buy & Hold.

Last week, I completed the Sell Goal for 2022. There are two numbers I’d like to revisit:

  • Gross Yield of 43 years, 2.3%
  • Net Yield of 64 Years, 1.6%

I gave up ~2% yield on capital to add to my Strategic Reserve.

From wsj.com 5/5/2022

Snapshot from last week:

  • 2Y to 30Y yield ~3%
  • 30-year mortgage 5.25%
  • VTSAX Dividend Yield ~1.5%

By the end of 2022, short-term margin debt is expected to cost more than index equity yields. Medium-term debt is already more expensive.

These changes mark an end to the free-money policies of the last few years. This is a big change – it is unknowable if the change will prove sticky.

So… wait and see. I did a minor rebalance this week.

The rebalance was a repeat of the “buy less” strategy I shared in Feb.

In March 2020 I increased equity allocations to 72% of my Vanguard portfolio. 

Allocating additional capital in 2022, I made a reserve for “an investment that benefits the present”…

…then rebalanced to 60% equity allocation. 

This reduced the size of the new investment and got me past decision paralysis, driven by a fear of near-term loss.

The reserve now sits at ~15 years Core Cost of Living.

Looking pro

We’ve been looking around for a place in the mountains.

Coming off a year of AirBnB skiing, I know our cost to rent implies a gross yield of 0.75 – 1.75%.

Alternatives to buying:

  1. Stick the Strategic Reserve into VTSAX, rent through AirBnB and let dividend growth hedge rental inflation
  2. Stick the Strategic Reserve into a medium term bond product (VBTLX @ 3%) and earn a margin over my cost to rent
  3. Pursue either of the above, double my discretionary spending and run the capital down between now and my wife’s 85th birthday

For now, I’m taking Door #4

  • Rebalance after large (down) moves
  • Watch the Federal Reserve increase rates
  • See what happens

A 35% market decline implies a dividend yield over 2.25%, which would let me lock in the equivalent of three-months cost of living (after tax, forever).

I tossed my idea of buying a Sprinter Van for camping. The shift towards “assets for fun” doesn’t come naturally.

Setting Up A Lifetime of Winning

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May in Boulder

Last Monday, I gave you three things to consider:

  • Face your fear of recovery
  • Consider if you have the muscle mass to achieve your goals
  • Build your capacity for One Big Slow Day

Another way to think about recovery is to invert – give yourself a protocol that you will enjoy regardless of outcome – lack of enjoyment is a sign your approach is unsustainable.

Injury and illness are socially-acceptable ways to manifest a lack of enjoyment.

Work, school, sport… bad luck is less random than it appears.

The best thing I learned about protocol was taught to me by a doctor friend:

Gordo, we don’t heal people. People heal themselves.

The magic isn’t in the protocol, supplement or dogma…

The magic ingredient is YOU!

Step back from all the noise about protocols.

How might we create a lifetime of winning?

  • Consistency
  • Enjoyment

Focus there.

What do we see in every successful person?

  1. Practice often
  2. Devote time
  3. Learn skills

Focus there.

I’ve been reading the literature around SuperElite performance. It gets me fired-up to “practice often, devote time & learn skills” 🙂

However… it strikes me as a lot of narrative wrapped around the complex system of human performance.

The literature lacks self-awareness… despite what you see in the media, you probably do not want to be a Super Elite. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.

Not our situation to solve.

For the rest of us!

The mental side is what’s going limit.

While we are consistently enjoying the journey…

  • do work
  • take correction

Parents, allocating TIME to have fun while you MODEL these skills is one of the best gifts you can give your kids.

I doesn’t need to be you (but your kids really want you involved).

Teach your kids to be the best version of themselves.

Not better than the rest,
I hope you are the best YOU can be