Category Archives: Transparency

Nude Numbers (#15)

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For reference, here’s last week’s data. Curious what this post is about? I’m tracking my training progress for the New York Marathon. Click here.

Summary

A week of good and bad news. On the good side, I got new shoes and now I can run much faster and further without the sharp pain. I got back into the gym, and ramped up my running mileage (actually ramped up a little too much). On the bad side, I got a bone scan and confirmed I have a stress fracture and some tendonitis in my right leg. That said, provided I try to not run every day and rest well between runs, coaches and doctors still think I have a chance at a (slightly painful but) safe marathon. 5 weeks to go.

Subjective Data

On Monday I figured out that if I run slowly (<11 min mile) I can avoid the pain for short distances (2-4 miles) so I started doing that. I also saw my ortho guy again, and got set up for a bone-scan to check for stress fractures.

On Wednesday I went to a running store, and bought new shoes. I did a test run on Wednesday, one on Friday, and then a long run on Sunday.

And in the new shoes, I found I could increase my speed (up to 8.5 min miles) without the pain occurring, which is a good sign.

That said…

Objective Data

Click here for a PDF version of my dashboard.

The other piece of objective data to add is the results of my bone scan. The radiologist said he saw “nonspecific focal fusiform radionuclide activity in the distal right fibula suggestive of a stress fracture.” He didn’t see any problem with the bones in the bottom of my foot, which is good, but didn’t explain the sharp pain. However, switching shoes has made that pain go away.

Assessment

Buying a new pair of shoes was a god send. The sharp pain doesn’t show up now provided I keep good form and my speed slower than 8.5 minute miles. Awesome.

I did well sticking to last week’s plan, but ran a little more than I should have on Friday (I had a blast running with an old friend and let myself run too far). I moved my Saturday 10-mile run to Sunday to align better with some of my training partners, and that run was easy. That said I woke up this morning with a slight limp so I need to remember to ramp up slowly.

The confirmation of the stress fracture is bad news, but it’s not necessarily a marathon-killer. It just means I’ll need to do light training (try to get in 1 or 2 but no more long runs) and then try my best on November 4th. At this point I’ll be happy with finishing, really happy with less than 5 hours, and will probably kill myself if I shoot for less than four.

I kept weight room work and other activities to a minimum, and kept with my gaining weight plans.

Plan

Getting down to the final 5 weeks here. Here’s my plan for the week ahead. The basic theme is to keep cardio up through spinning and running, and save up for the long run on Saturday.

  1. Monday: Rest after 10 mile run on Sunday. Try to make the limp (pain in right heel) go away.
  2. Tuesday: Weight room and short run if pain isn’t there. If there is pain, skip the run.
  3. Wednesday: Weight room and 4-6 mile run.
  4. Thursday: Weight room, and swim.
  5. Friday: Weight room, and maybe a swim or spin.
  6. Saturday: 15 mile run.
  7. Sunday: Rest up.

Presentation Notes

No changes to data presentation this week. As with last week, data is presented in SOAP Note format.

– Art

Help me raise money for people suffering from cancer

The Rules of Naked Management

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Pop Quiz

What’s the most important thing a manager does?

Sure, a manager has to “get stuff done through a group of people”, that’s a given, but what’s really the most important thing? Is it training your team? It is hiring A+ people? Is it keeping executives informed? Is it growing your employees’ careers? It is protecting your team from the “craziness above”? Is it removing roadblocks for your team? Is it keeping morale high? ….

The First Time Manager

The first time I became a manager I asked a lot of folks that question, and read a lot of books and articles. And I got all sorts of answers back. Every one of the items above was “the most important thing” I needed to do according to some sources.

I tried to follow a lot of the advice the first time out, without really understanding WHY I should follow it, and I’ll bluntly say I wasn’t successful at it.

Sure, the individuals who reported to me got all the stuff done my managers wanted done, but my victims employees had to put up with a lot of mistakes as I learned what being a manager was actually about. Certainly at no point did we have a team working to achieve the same goals. In reality I was just an individual contributor checking in on other individual contributors, playing at being a manager, and usually just getting in the way (see pigeon management). Two of my employees ended up quitting, and another (high performer) transferred to another group to avoid me.

In retrospect I realized it was because I didn’t have my own answer to what’s the most important thing a manager needs to do. So for my second big outing as a direct manager, I tried a different approach: I figured out what’s the most important thing I needed to do as a manager, and then I did that. I didn’t worry about any of the other crap unless it directly helped the most important thing.

And I got more successful.

So, what is that “most important thing”?

The Rules of Naked Management

Well, that’s what the next series of articles is about. Some folks have asked me to write a little more about the concept of naked teams, and how to be a first time manager, so here goes. In this series, I will talk about:

  1. The Most Important Thing A Manager Does;
  2. The Rules for Running Naked Teams;
  3. The Rules for Growing Naked Teams;
  4. The Rules for Growing Individuals;
  5. and The Rules for Keeping Your Sanity

My apologies to anyone who has been through this before, as this series of posts is based on some training programs I developed for first time managers. But if you’re a first time manager, think you want to manage people, or have been managed by someone and you wish would be a “naked manager”, then hopefully this series will be useful.

As usual, there’ll be at least one update per week.

The Rules for Rules

This series will be laid out in a series of rules, with reasons why the rules are the way they are. You’ll see there are quite a few rules to follow. To help guide you in how to follow the rules here’s the two most important rules.

If you take NOTHING else from this series of articles, just remember these two rules and you’ll be well served:

#1) Rules should be followed

I’m not claiming I came up with these rules myself. They are based on my experience (yes) which I’ve now reapplied successfully many times. But they are also based on studying at a lot of effective managers at companies I’ve worked at, and at effective people in other companies. They’ve been tested on thousands of employees. And in general they just work. If you see a rule, and you’re doing the opposite, you owe it to yourself to ask, “why am I not following this rule?” Usually you’ll find you become a better manager by following the rule.

Still think you shouldn’t be following the rules? Swallow your pride. Put your ego aside. Shut up and realize you’re no different than anyone else. Seriously! That “special circumstances” bullshit doesn’t fly here. You’re not really different. Follow the goddamn rules!

Still think you shouldn’t be following the rules, and you have “good reasons” why you shouldn’t? Well, enter rule #2:

#2) Rules must be broken

Management is an art, not a science. If we could break it down into a series of rules that are followed 100% of the time, then some smart person would write a computer program to be a manager and I for one would welcome our new management overlords.

But management is an art, and as with all art, requires judgment to be effective. If you’ve tried to follow rule #1 above, really put your ego aside, and still think you should not follow one of the rules, then break the rule. Truly great managers, like truly great artists, don’t follow the rules. However, like truly great artists, they KNOW the rules (e.g. Picasso learned classical painting first), KNOW when they break the rules, and KNOW how they break the rules.

Trust Yourself

Put another way, rules are no substitute for judgment, and over time you’ll find your own way through this mess. So please read and learn these rules, but ultimately you’re going to have to learn to trust your own judgment and discard the crap (mine included) that folks tell you about management if it doesn’t work for you.

I’m just sorry I had to experiment on Jim, Nolan, Craig, David, Aileen and Scott to figure that one out (sorry guys).

– Art

Help me raise money for people suffering from cancer

Nude Numbers (#14)

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For reference, here’s last week’s data. Curious what this post is about? I’m tracking my training progress for the New York Marathon. Click here.

Summary

This was a bad week for my training as my right foot developed a sharp pain immediately upon returning to running. I let the depressing thought of not running the marathon weigh me down all week.

Thankfully part of the reason for “Running Naked” is to force myself to admit to folks when I stumble, and I woke up this morning more determined as a result (thanks everyone, even if you don’t believe you actually did anything!). I got an x-ray done this afternoon (no obvious breaks in foot), scheduled a few more specialist visits this week, got back into the weight room and I may have found a way to run at least short distances that keeps the pain away (I ran across the Queensboro bridge).

This week is all about figuring out what is wrong without getting annoying or depressed at the hand of cards I’m playing with.

Subjective Data

I rested on Monday after the ride, and then tried to run on Tuesday. Even though I had absolutely no foot pain during the ride, I got a half-mile into my Tuesday run and the same pain I had two weeks ago in the top of the foot returned. It’s was a very sharp pain, and not runnable-through.

The next day my scale broke.

And in general, I let myself feel a little depressed and annoyed at my body, and the things around me, breaking down. This led to me being very (relatively) inactive this week. I stopped going to the weight room. By Friday I convinced myself to try a short run (still painful) and did a low-key bike-ride supporting a long training run on Saturday. On Sunday I just hung out with friends.

But all week, I was annoyed at myself for being annoyed at myself. Sigh.

Objective Data

Click here for a PDF version of my dashboard.

Assessment

I went from a high to a real low when I couldn’t even run a half-mile without collapsing in pain. And I let the disappointment at that take me completely off my training track. Last week sucked, but in retrospect (as I write this) I know I’m going to have those weeks. For some reason the thought of publishing my “laziness” last week spurred me on today to resume my training, so thanks in advance to everyone for at least viewing this blog and giving me encouragement.

That said, I’m still shooting to win The Six Pack Charity Challenge, and finish the NYC Marathon. So I’m going to focus everything on the Marathon until told otherwise (by my body or a doctor).

As usual, if you have suggestions, leave a comment, or reach me at “art (at) abclarke.com”.

Plan

The big thing is remember to keep smiling, and that I’m doing this for charity. I’m going to slowly ramp up mileage as I test out the foot and try to find a way to run without pain, but where the marathon was “at risk” before, it’s now a long shot. But I’m also going to let everything else take a back seat to running and not worry if I don’t spend every spare moment at the gym. So:

  1. Short runs on Monday, Wednesday and Friday (no more than 6 miles on any run)
  2. Leg permitting, perhaps a long run (10+ miles) on Saturday.
  3. Swim if I feel like it, but don’t sweat it if I don’t.
  4. Keep the weight room work going, but again, only as I feel like it.
  5. Keep eating sensibly but continue gaining some weight.

Presentation Notes

No changes to data presentation this week. As with last week, data is presented in SOAP Note format.

– Art

Help me raise money for people suffering from cancer

Nude Numbers (#13)

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For reference, here’s last week’s data. Curious what this post is about? Click here

Summary

I successfully completed the New York to Providence bike ride to raise money for the Jack Brown Appeal. And I met Jack, who was so cool! I’ll write about it in a separate post.

I am sore from 3 days in the saddle, but seem to have emerged injury free and ready to switch to running. I also gained 1-2 pounds without adding a lot of fat, which is cool. Now, 7 weeks to go until the marathon, and time to get back to running.

Subjective Data

  1. Completed the NYC-Providence 180+ mile bike ride without any injuries. And had a blast doing it.
  2. Weight lifting was good this week, but admittedly it was stupid to do heavy leg lifting two days before the ride started.
  3. I ate whatever I wanted this week, but after spending over 25 hours in a bike, I’m not too worried.

Objective Data

Click here for a PDF version of my dashboard.

Assessment

The ride was a blast, I rode very well (for me), and I’ll write about it separately. My leg injury didn’t even play in, even the foot bruise I got last Saturday, and although I am sore today, it’s the good kind of sore. That’s one of the two major events out of the way (just the November marathon remains), which is awesome.

I will post photos later (we’re still gathering them together).

On the sad side, it likely means my bike goes into storage for the winter season. I’ll miss it.

I cut back on the swimming this week because of time pressure, but my form was good when I did get time and my speed is improving. My weight control was on track. I gained 1-2 pounds without a major increase in body fat.

I’m still shooting to win The Six Pack Charity Challenge, and finish the NYC Marathon.

As usual, if you have suggestions, leave a comment, or reach me at “art (at) abclarke.com”.

Plan

Time to switch over to running. I’ll do a short 1.7 mile run on Tuesday, and then work with my trainers to come up with a short-time plan to ramp up for the marathon. More details next week. I’ll also keep lifting, do some swimming, and eat around 2,875-3,125 calories a day to gain some weight.

Presentation Notes

No changes to data presentation this week. As with last week, data is presented in SOAP Note format.

– Art

Help me raise money for people suffering from cancer

Nude Numbers (#12)

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For reference, here’s last week’s data. Curious what this post is about? Click here

Summary

I may have reinjured myself slightly running, so I’m resting my leg just in case (yes Susan, you were right L ). My 200 mile bike ride starts this Friday so that’s the focus this week. Separately, given the consistent feedback on my CA trip that I was scary thin, I got professionally measured for body fat percentage this week. I’m actually around 9% body-fat when measured correctly. That means, my goal of 10-12% by November has been hit, and it’s time to start increasing calories and adding more muscle.

Speaking of goals, we passed $11,000 in fundraising this week. Thanks to everyone who has donated so far. You guys are awesome! But let’s keep going – anyone up for $15,000?

As promised J and I are matching the first $10,000 in donations with a $2,500 donation of our own.

Subjective Data

  1. Back to swimming and lifting after my rest week. My swimming form continues to improve. My lifting continues to be fun.
  2. The bad news is I did another run on Saturday, but wore the wrong pair of shoes (I have two pairs that look the same, one of which I meant to throw out). I appear to have bruised the top of my right foot, but hopefully that recovers in time for Friday’s ride.
  3. I was traveling in California for most of the week, and saw a lot of people I hadn’t seen in over a year. The consistent feedback I got was that I’m too thin.

Objective Data

Click here for a PDF version of my dashboard.

Assessment

Last week’s rest did me good, and most of my (non-leg) aches and pains are gone. I returned to the weight room as planned. Due to traveling in California, I didn’t get any bike rides in. My swimming was on track though, and my balance and kicking has improved a lot. My running is still problematic, and even though I ramped back to just 5 miles this week, I may have reinjured myself. We’ll see, but I’m staying off my feet until Friday (I’ll do a test ride on Wednesday to make sure my foot is ok). Friday is the start of my 200 mile ride to Providence, RI.

My trip to California was eye-opening. Everyone was shocked by how much weight I lost, and their perspective was valuable. J and I (and our NY friends) have seen the change gradually, so the shock value wasn’t as high for us, but I was at 155 this week from 185 when I left CA. Still, the comments of folks in California convinced me to get professionally measured for body-fat %, instead of relying on my scale. The result is I’m at 9% body fat, when my goal was 10-12% by November.

So I’m switching my diet to “maintain and gain” from “lose” mode. I’m starting to eat more, which means I need to make sure I do good work in the weight room to really take advantage of the extra calories. Nice to have the “feed bag” on again though J

This may mean I’m blowing my chances to win The Six Pack Charity Challenge, but I’m still optimistic.

As usual, if you have suggestions, leave a comment, or reach me at “art (at) abclarke.com”.

Plan

This week is all about making the ride to Providence. There is a slight chance I’ll be visible on the CBS Morning Show this Thursday morning (around 7-7:30am EST) if you want to see the group of us doing the Jack Brown Appeal ride (we’re doing a little PR to try to raise extra money). I’ll be riding with 40 British Cops for the appeal J

  1. Stay off leg until Friday except for test ride on Wednesday. Do 80 mile bike ride on Friday, 80 mile bike ride on Saturday, 40 mile bike ride on Sunday, and collapse as an exhausted heap on Sunday afternoon.
  2. Increase swimming to keep pressure off the leg.
  3. Increase calories to 2,875-3,125 calories a day. Keep lifting to take advantage of this.
  4. Keep smiling.

Presentation Notes

No changes to data presentation this week. As with last week, data is presented in SOAP Note format.

– Art

Help me raise money for people suffering from cancer