Smarter, Not Harder

Back in February when I wrote out my six month goals, one of them was to work smarter, not harder or longer. Today at Milan- San Remo was a perfect example of putting that into action.  

This is the longest one-day race of the year and that played a major decision into how I organized my time and planned my approach. Additionally, it's probably the biggest single day for the team of the year. So my race aim was to maximize that potential and I managed to do it in the easiest way possible. To be honest, this was by far my easiest (and favorite) Milan-San Remo to date.  

In the past, I drove the many hours from Milan to San Remo. After the race, I drove again to Nice. This meant I spent probably 6-7 hours in the car driving stressful Italian roads. I was exhausted by the end and far from the sharpest me. 

This year, I split up duties and assigned tasks to other people. Basically, the thought was 'how can they support me from afar?' I simply left from the start and drove 30 minutes to a decent but basic airport hotel that had solid wifi. I was able to be productive from start to finish. No time was lost driving a car or fighting with Italian wifi and I feel I was able to achieve even more professionally.  

Little pat on my back for thinking outside of the box and figuring out ways to be smarter. And now sleep. Super early tomorrow, I'm hopping on a plane for the USA.  

No Sleep For Me

I'm not exactly sure what happened last night, but I woke up probably 15 times during the night and then was wide awake at 4:45am. I'm sure a lot had to do with the fact my hotel room was 28C (!!!!) and even with the windows open, it remained sweltering. I laid in bed until about 5:30am willing myself to go back to sleep and then I just gave up.

There is something to be said for feeling like you've already worked a full day before 11am, especially when it is a crazy week like Milan-San Remo. Instead of feeling frustrated with my lack of zzzzs, I told myself that I could nap later if I needed, but why not go ahead and get moving. I eased into the day with a little journaling, meditating and then work. I got thru a ton of emails and general work duties that had been pushed to the back burner and set an alarm for 7am. Then I stopped working and squeezed in a workout: 30-minute strength training and then a solid 45-minute walk. I think that walk ended up being the best part of my day; I got away from the hotel and actually into what resembled the country. It was foggy, still a little chilly and simply peaceful.

By 8am, I think I had gotten in what would end up being 85% of my step count. The rest of the day went by in a blur of interviews, driving around Milan center to pick up race credentials, chopping down on maybe one too many RXBars, losing my parking ticket, banking loads of video interviews and tackling even more emails and reports.

It might be St. Patty's day for some, but for me, it's Milan-San Remo eve. That means it's 9:15pm and I'm crawling into bed and hoping for a much more restful night. Tomorrow is the longest day in bike racing and I've got a new plan of attack that's different from previous years. I'm a bit excited to see how it all unfolds....

(and I never napped.)

Lost Post

There was a post today and some how it got lost. It makes me sad but oh well. We move forward and I'll have a better post tomorrow. For now, sleep.

Values and Goals

Last May, I spent time thinking and writing out my values and goals. I had reached a point where I was getting bored and didn't feel like I was pushing myself or growing. I also knew I had numerous negative influences in life but had no idea how to address them. Putting thoughts on paper gave me some direction to get through the craziness of life that was pulling me all over the place. A beacon to center things.

I remember sitting at outside at a pool at an airport hotel in California and thinking through where I wanted life to take me. I wrote out values and goals for my career, relationships, personal habits (including health) and finances. Nothing was super specific as in, I want to achieve X, Y or Z. It is more focused on intention. 

For example, the one for Financial said, “Maintain a balance between short-term fun and long-term security”. Relationships said, “Aim for symbiotic relationships that focus on mutual support, understanding, love and kindness.”

What’s been surprising is that my life has shifted and changed so vastly since I wrote down these goals. It now reflects these goals more than I ever thought possible, especially the career and personal ones. Almost like magic. 

I’m sure the fact that when I would make a decision, I would often reflect if that choice fits within these goals, played a big role in the shift. But it felt bigger than that. More powerful

Now that it’s almost been a year, I decided it was time to update my goals. And I went bigger. Instead of four goals, I went more specific, yet broader and did 10:

1. Career
2. Family
3. Growth
4. Work
5. Health
6. Financial
7. Personal
8. Relationships
9. Daily Habits
10. Future

I’m still smoothing them out into a finalized product, and then I want to try and read them on a daily basis…maybe morning and night. I’m interested to see where these bigger and broader goals lead me over the next 6 months to a year.