Thoughts of Shane Kenny

I decided to do something big this year… I took Chad, my 9 year old son, snowboarding.  The “I” here means just me and him, no mom or brother around for 6 whole days!  The great news is that the trip is over and both of us survived.  The better news is that I think both of us would do it again.

This was one of those ideas that just popped into my head one day and everyone I talked to about it said that it was a good idea.  After weeks of deliberation I finally settled on Beaver Creek in Colorado as our destination.  I had skied there before and had heard that they have one of the best ski schools in the world.

Both Chad and I decided to give snowboarding a shot so I booked both of us in a one day beginner lesson to get us started.  The instructors were great, and by the end of the first day both of us were able to do the easy runs without killing ourselves.  The second day we tried to do some of the harder easy runs on the mountain, but Chad was not quite ready so we spent most of the day practicing on the beginner slope.  By the end of the day, Chad had that slope mastered and you would think he was Shaun White with how he strutted around and talked about how he was such a better snowboarder that I am.

Thankfully I escaped without major injury.  I smashed my tailbone pretty good on one fall, but it is healing nicely and I can almost sit down now without it hurting.  Overall the trip was great, and I think I enjoy snowboarding more that I do skiing.   I’m sure Chad is still not tired of telling his friends about the 1040 reverse double upside down McTwist that he pulled on his snowboard.  He just won’t tell them that he did it in an out-of-control crash… not in the halfpipe!

As I struggled to finish the Georgia Half Marathon a few weeks ago I told myself, “The only way I will run a marathon this year is if I win a spot in the New York City Marathon.”  It’s funny how things happen sometimes.  This past Thursday I was greeted with an email that said, “Welcome to the New York City Marathon class of 2010″.  It was one of those moments where I felt excitement and “oh crap!” at the same time.

As a quick primer.  This marathon has room for 38,000 runners and it is estimated that over 100,000 people enter for a spot.  For $11 you get to enter the lottery and try and be one of those 38,000 spots.  After 3 years, if you still have not won a spot you automatically get in.  I figured, “What the heck” and entered.

So, in mid July, training will begin.  I think I might actually be looking forward to this.

After 8 weeks of training I ran the ING Georgia Half Marathon today.  In case you didn’t know, 13.1 miles is a long way!  My goal was under 2 hours.  Here are the mile splits:

My official time was 2:00:24.  I was not happy to say the least.  To miss the goal is one thing.  To miss it by only 25 seconds after 2 hours of running is another.  It is a PR though, with my previous half marathon time being 2:06:54.  My running goals for this year were to run 600 miles, and to PR the 5k, 10k, half, and full marathon distances.  I am at nearly 300 miles so far this year and have a PR in the half marathon.  Not too shabby with 9 months to go.

Unless you live on some other planet you have the same 24 hours each day to eat, sleep, work, spend time with family, pursue hobbies, etc as I do.  This means that the time I have allotted to each of these activities needs to managed as best as I possibly can.

I recently came to the realization that in today’s Internet-connected world it is possible to be too connected.  Sure, those 25 Google Alerts that fed me information on my company’s market each day sometimes provided great information, but most of the time are just a waste of time.  The same held true when I reviewed the “news” that I was following in Google Reader each day.  Sure, lolcats are funny, but does that really help me grow my company or provide any real value other than some humor?  Do I really care what the competition is doing since I already know they are doing it wrong anyway?  And, we all know that Jimmie Johnson will win his 5th NASCAR championship this year so is there any point in reading about it every week?

This past Monday I starting removing the things that waste my time and divert my focus away from what really matters.  Almost all of my Google Alerts are gone, and I am down to reading just the blogs that really add value to my life.

If you were to step back and look at your day, what things are you wasting valuable time on each day?  What “simple” things could you remove that would be a huge productivity improvement?