The Work Is Waiting

I've been at this for a minute now. There's a version of preparation that feels exactly like progress.

The goal right now is 18.5 mph.

I'm currently sitting at 18 on the Woodway Curve — it's harder than a standard treadmill because you have to make it move. The gap is half a mile per hour and it's taken a minute to close in on it. I hit Nordic curls because your hamstrings have to handle force in a lengthened position before you ask them to produce it at full sprint. Hip work with bands and weight because durability comes before output.

Most people train the thing they want. I'm training what makes the thing possible.

Speed is downstream of structure. You can't outrun what you haven't built.

Annahstasia's Tether is my parachute after a gym session.

There's a version of training that leaves you wound tight if you don't give yourself a way out. Tether has been that for me. It's like it lifts you out of your body and sets you somewhere quieter.

Session ends. Album starts.

I tried Cadence this week. The hydration brand I've been watching for a while.

The taste was exactly what I expected. But what stuck with me was Ross Mackay's YouTube. Watching him build the business in public, share the learnings, bring other founders along — I bought because I trusted the person before I touched the product.

Earlier this year I did a Function Health panel. Some of my cardiovascular markers came back elevated. I work out regularly. My diet is clean. I keep sweets and fried food to a minimum. A close friend ran his numbers too, similar story. Fit, active, eating right, and still flagged.

That's why I've been deep in research on cardiovascular health. The risk factors. The supplement landscape. The gaps in what exist for men most at risk earlier in life.

But research has a ceiling. At some point you have to have the conversation — with founders, with people living the problem, with people who've already built something in this space.

The next move isn't more reading. It's the first call.