A Thought On Compound Interests…

Next week I fly out to Portland to try to summit Mt. Hood. Last year it was cancelled because a storm blew in the night before, so I’m really hopeful this time works out! But I also wanted to take this chance to talk about compound interest a little.

From a financial context, this is the interest you see on your interest. I want to take it in a bit of a psychological direction, though.

My goals as of the last few months have been much more endurance focused. My main focus right now is Mt. Hood but after that I’ve decided to try out a triathlon.

If you knew me when I was younger, you’d also know that I hated running. I was not very good at it and after I stopped playing soccer, I pretty much told myself I’d never run again.

The irony of it is not lost on me that now my goals and interests require this of me.

I still don’t love it and I’m definitely not good at it, but I am much more interested in it. I also see the larger purpose and application.

I’m interested in it because my interests require it. My interests in other things require me to be and to have an interest in running.

Need another example?

Because of my increased running and interest in running or performing well, I’m also now forced to have a greater interest in what it takes for that to happen. I can’t just expect to show up and things will get better. Showing up is only part of it.

With this increased running I have to make sure my hydration and nutrition is on point, I have to be set up for possible blisters, I have to keep taking care of my knees and hips, and I have to ensure I’m sleeping well, among other things.

What I’m getting at is that because of my interest in climbing and triathlons, I now have other interests too.

The tricky part is implementing action to make everything come together but this concept of compound interest can also tie into that of reasonable action (we make decisions and do things that seem reasonable).

While that might be a bit much to dive into for this newsletter, I’ll leave you with a little info on how I’m improving my hydration to help with my runs. With the weather warming up, it might be useful to some of you too!

Morning: 32oz water + pre/probiotic before food. Ideally I’d do this before any caffeine too, but that’s a work in progress :) this helps me get my digestion started off on a positive note and also sets me up best to continue drinking water throughout the day.

Late morning: depending on the day, this is either when I run or when I’m wrapping up a morning of clients. If I’m with clients, I’m having another 32oz of water.

Post run/early afternoon: 32oz water with LMNT citrus hydration stick. This is a sodium packet that has 1000mg of sodium, 200mg potassium, and 60mg magnesium. This helps me replenish at least some of the sodium I’ve lost during a run or workout.

Evening: 32oz water.

It’s a pretty simple approach and the benefit of staying hydrated is tenfold (recovery, performance, mental clarity, cramp relief, etc). Almost every new client I have needs to work on this at first, so if you need a goal, aim for half of your bodyweight in ounces of water to get started!

That’s it for this week!