Episode 2. Track your stuff

I finished 2021 with 1,114 miles and 16,139 pages, up 3% in miles and 54% in pages.

Part of what I’ve enjoyed the most over the last two years is tracking what I’ve done. My goal starting out was to read more and run more and my primary tools have been Excel (no surprise if you know me at all) and graph paper, which is far simpler than any technology tool for tracking habits (did I run/read every day?). My Fitbit and Kindle have been in strong supporting roles.

One of the key decisions to make for capturing any kind of data is how much detail you want to try to keep up with. My bias is always to capture more data, but to borrow a phrase from a friend of mine, often the “juice isn’t worth the squeeze”. For my reading goal, I knew books wasn’t the right metric. My books length over the last two years has ranged from 50 pages (a BBC dramatization The Birds) to 1,008 pages (Fall of Giants by Ken Follett, not that great. It rapidly went from World War I historical fiction to a soap opera). I briefly toyed with words, but that was too too much. I quickly landed on pages. For a while I tried to track daily pages, but that was a pain, especially with audio books and more effort than it was worth. I ended up with pages by book with the start and finish date of each book and a few notes.

For running, I wanted to capture everything. Miles, pace, steps, heart rate, time, weather, route, you name it. My first tracker spreadsheet had 24 columns. Again, if you know me you probably are not surprised. I did it for a while, then ended up with two things. Miles and time. Let Excel do the rest. Pace is a no-brainer. My favorite metric is streak. I got up to 147 days until a spider bite and leg infection took me out for seven days over the summer. I recently added shoes so could keep up with the miles a pair and know when I should replace the vs. when my feet, ankles and hips told me I had to replace them.

Whatever your goals, tracking the right stuff, enough stuff, and not too much stuff is key. And make it easy enough so you can add/remove/change easily.

In lieu of a book/quote tonight, a brief comment on recent news that's been on my mind for the better part of two years. Maybe not LI appropriate. 

I’ve been running for the better part of 40 years. For that and many other reasons I’ve followed the case of Ahmaud Arbery, the 25 year old black jogger who was murdered by three white men who chased him down in a pick up truck and shot him to death. They believed, incorrectly and with no proof, that Ahmaud had been burglarizing homes under construction. The murder happened in Brunswick, GA, about six hours south of where I live in Atlanta.

They were convicted of murder just before Thanksgiving and on Friday they were all, thankfully, sentenced to life in prison. It’s good to feel like justice was finally served, but it was over two months before these men were arrested and the local police and DA initially chose not to pursue charges at all. A federal hate crimes trial is still pending. Partly in response to Ahmaud’s murder, Georgia finally passed a state hate crimes law and repealed the Citizen’s Arrest law. The law in Georgia dates to 1863 and was basically a “catch a fugitive slave” law.

Early in our marriage, Jenny and I were relocated with my job several times. In each new location we lived in a new house in a new neighborhood with plenty of homes under construction. I can’t imagine how many times I wandered through them, curious to see what was going into new houses. Occasionally I even opened a window or door after the houses had been locked up. It never occurred to me that neighborhood vigilantes would grab guns, hop in their trucks and shoot me down. We’ve made a lot of progress in the realm of justice and racial equality over my 50+ years, and I believe some of the credit goes to diversity programs at large companies like the ones I’ve been fortunate enough to work at. But we still have a long ways to go.