Published in The Shadow·PinnedMember-onlyThe Most Important Life Lesson I Learned from Working as a Cook“Mise-en-place” is one of the fundamental steps of the cooking process. It’s a basic tenet of professional cooking and is, thanks to the explosion of food media over the last two decades or so, a term many home cooks know as well. A conjugation of the French mettre en place…Life Lessons5 min read
Published in UX Collective·PinnedMember-onlyDon’t call them users: The rules of people-first writingMy colleagues are incredible technologists who know their products inside and out. Technology companies are all filled with people like this, and that’s why there are so many great products and services in the tech space. …Technology5 min read
Published in Runner's Life·Mar 12, 2021Member-onlyMunicipal Goats, or: Is Running Driving Me Mad?Imagine this scenario: You’re close to two hours into a long run, approaching your turnaround point. It’s hot. Beyond hot, really. Scorching: dry, pounding heat, the sort that turns clay into dust. …Running4 min read
Published in Runner's Life·Jan 19, 2021Member-onlyWhy I’m Quitting Strava in 2021Revisiting my habits in the pursuit of autonomy — Strava is a useful tool, allowing athletes to record their activities and connect to others. Its dual role as both activity tracker and social network has helped it become enormously popular. I’ve used it for years. Through 2020, Strava was one of three apps I use to track my activities…Running5 min read
Published in Runner's Life·Aug 7, 2020Member-onlyThe Best Way to Do Heart Rate TrainingHeart rate training can be valuable. Knowing your target heart rates for different types of runs can help you make sure you’re not working too hard on easy runs — or too easy on hard runs. Since most of your running should be easy, it’s important to know that you’re…Running4 min read
Published in Runner's Life·Aug 4, 2020Member-onlyNothing Gets Me More Excited to Run Than This 15-Second Beer Commercial about SurfingTelevision has never been a big part of my life, at least not since my high school days obsessively watching The O.C. But that changed recently. Somehow, running has made me watch more TV than ever these days. And somehow, watching TV gets me even more excited to run. Or…Running4 min read
Published in Runner's Life·Aug 3, 2020Member-onlyHow to Avoid Pooping Yourself on a RunOh, the joys of being a runner with a sensitive stomach. Gastrointestinal issues run in my family. I, however, am the only one of us foolish enough to pick a sport where GI problems are so common there’s a universally-accepted euphemism for them. …Running5 min read
Published in Runner's Life·Jul 26, 2020Member-onlyThe Garmin Outage Is Good for RunnersData is fun but not necessary — Garmin is down. As of this writing, it’s been down for nearly three days. The company was hit by a ransomware attack on July 23, and its services like Garmin Connect have been unavailable since that time. This sucks. It sucks for Garmin above all — they’re a company that…Running4 min read
Published in Runner's Life·Jul 21, 2020Member-onlyThe Beauty of the Simplest WorkoutThere’s beauty in simplicity. That thought often pops into my head when I’m running, because this is the simplest sport of all. In our sport, all you need to do to practice is step out your front door and start running. You only need one piece of equipment — shoes…Running4 min read
Published in Runner's Life·Jul 20, 2020Member-onlyHow to Use a Pace CalculatorIt can be hard to know how fast you should run. If you’re in your base phase, the answer is easy: Run easy and have fun with it. But if you’re training for a race or even just working towards certain fitness goals, sometimes it’s hard to know what paces…Running4 min read