The first half of 2026 was intense. I worked a lot, ran a lot, traveled, started flying a drone, and somehow reached July feeling energized rather than completely exhausted.
The second half should not simply be more of everything.
I want it to be intentional. I want a few clear commitments that make daily life healthier, more social, and more adventurous without turning every weekend into another optimization project.
This is the plan.
Make Strava Public Again
I kept my Strava activities hidden for a while.
There is something peaceful about running without broadcasting every mile. Not every activity needs an audience, and not every easy run needs to become a performance.
But I also know myself. Public activities give me more motivation. Seeing friends run encourages me to get outside, and sharing my own consistency creates a small amount of useful accountability.
So I want to make Strava visible again.
The goal is not to impress anyone with pace, distance, or weekly totals. It is to make running feel connected to a community again. A public log is a reminder that other people are also getting up early, squeezing miles between work and life, and choosing to keep moving.
I still want to run a ton. That part has not changed.
Read One KeyTakes Summary Every Day
I built KeyTakes to make books easier to return to.
It would be slightly ridiculous to build an app for book summaries and then not use it consistently myself.
For the rest of the year, I want to read one KeyTakes summary per day. That should be very doable. One summary is small enough to fit into almost any day, but repeated daily it becomes a meaningful amount of reading.
I also want to make the process more social. I want to ask friends, coworkers, and interesting people what books shaped how they think. Recommendations are often better when they come with a story: why someone read the book, what they took from it, and what changed afterward.
The objective is not to collect completed summaries. It is to keep encountering useful ideas and then follow the best ones into the full books.
A Summer and Fall in the Mountains
The Pacific Northwest is too beautiful to spend the entire second half of the year indoors.
I have a fantastic list of hiking and backpacking adventures that I want to work through. The dates are tentative and will depend on permits, weather, trail conditions, and the people joining, but this is the current roadmap:
| Adventure | Tentative dates |
|---|---|
| The Brothers | July 11-13, 2026 |
| Wonderland Trail | July 25-27, 2026 |
| Sahale Glacier | August 23-25, 2026 |
| Pacific Crest Trail | September 18-20, 2026 |
| The Enchantments | September 26-28, 2026 |
This is an ambitious list. It includes long days, difficult terrain, logistics, and the usual uncertainty that comes with mountain plans.
That is also why I like it.
These trips give the summer and early fall a shape. They create something to prepare for and look forward to. Running builds the fitness, planning makes the adventures possible, and the actual days outside make all of the preparation worthwhile.
There are already more ideas waiting beyond this year: Mount Storm King, Hawaii, Alaska, and Banff. Those can remain future plans, probably for 2027. I do not need to fit every beautiful place into the next six months.
Return to Cowgill Run Club
I want to start joining Cowgill Run Club again on Thursday mornings.
Running alone is convenient, especially with a busy work schedule. I can leave whenever I want, choose the route, and fit the miles around the rest of the day.
But convenience is not the only thing that matters.
A regular run club creates rhythm and community. It puts familiar people into the week and makes running about more than a number in an app. Thursday morning is specific enough to become a real habit rather than a vague intention to join again someday.
Making Strava public and returning to the run club support the same goal: keeping running social even when work is intense.
Get Into Table Tennis
I also want to get into table tennis.
It is social, technical, competitive, and completely different from running. There is always another part of the game to improve: movement, timing, spin, placement, patience, and the ability to read what another person is about to do.
It is also a good indoor activity for the Pacific Northwest. When the days become darker and the weather makes mountain plans less predictable, table tennis can provide another reason to meet people, move, and learn something new.
I do not need to become great immediately. The first goal is simply to play regularly enough to improve and find people who enjoy the game.
Return to Yoga Twice a Week
I want to return to practicing yoga consistently twice per week.
Thursday at 7:30 p.m. will be the fixed session. Putting a specific time on the calendar makes it a commitment rather than something I will do whenever the week becomes less busy. The second weekly session can remain flexible enough to fit around work, running, and mountain trips.
Yoga is a useful counterbalance to all of the running. It gives me time to work on mobility, strength, balance, and recovery without turning the session into another race or mileage target.
The important part is consistency. Two sessions every week will be more valuable than occasionally doing a lot of yoga and then forgetting about it for another month.
Row Three Times a Week
I also want to row for 20 minutes every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 6:30 a.m.
The simplicity is intentional. I do not need a complicated rowing program. Three short, scheduled sessions are enough to build consistency, support cardiovascular fitness, and add some full-body work without creating more impact for my legs.
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday also create an easy rhythm to remember. The commitment is simply to get on the machine and complete the 20 minutes.
A Simple Weekly Calendar
The recurring activities need actual places on the calendar. Otherwise, they will be the first things to disappear during a busy week.
This is the weekly rhythm I want to establish:
| Day | Plan |
|---|---|
| Daily | Read one KeyTakes summary and track food in MyFitnessPal |
| Monday | 6:30 a.m. - Row for 20 minutes |
| Tuesday | 6:00 p.m. - Issy Alps Runners |
| Wednesday | 6:30 a.m. - Row for 20 minutes |
| Thursday | Morning - Cowgill Run Club 6:00 p.m. - Beer Runners 7:30 p.m. - Yoga |
| Friday | 6:30 a.m. - Row for 20 minutes |
| Saturday | Flexible - Table tennis, a long run, or a mountain adventure |
| Sunday | Flexible - Second yoga session, recovery, or time outside |
The weekends will naturally change when a backpacking trip or race takes over the schedule. The weekday anchors are more important. They create a default routine that I can return to whenever travel, work, or mountain plans interrupt it.
Travel Less, on Purpose
I also want to travel less during the second half of the year.
The first six months included a lot of airports, hotels, schedule changes, and attempts to keep working and running from unfamiliar places. The trips were fun, but constant movement makes every routine more difficult.
Traveling less does not mean doing less. The hiking roadmap already contains plenty of adventure, and most of it is close enough to reach without boarding a plane. I want to spend more weekends exploring the Pacific Northwest, more evenings at home with Joy and the cats, and more ordinary weeks following the routines in this plan.
There will still be trips worth taking. I simply want them to be deliberate rather than automatic.
Sign Up for Another 50K
I want to sign up for a 50K in September or October with my friend Travis.
Having a race on the calendar changes the quality of training. Long runs gain a purpose, difficult weekends become preparation, and consistency has somewhere to lead.
More importantly, doing it with a friend makes the whole process better. The race itself is only one day. The shared planning, training, nervousness, and anticipation become part of the experience long before the starting line.
I do not know which race it will be yet. The immediate commitment is to find one that works for both of us and register.
Count Calories Again
I also want to return to calorie tracking with MyFitnessPal.
This is not about trying to eat as little as possible. I run too much and work too hard for that to be useful. It is about awareness and setting a reasonable limit on intake.
Without tracking, it is easy for small decisions to accumulate unnoticed. A snack here, a larger portion there, and suddenly the overall pattern no longer matches what I intended.
MyFitnessPal gives that pattern visibility. The goal is not perfect data. Restaurant meals will always involve estimates, and some days will be unusual. The value comes from paying attention consistently enough to make better decisions.
Eat Meat Once Per Week
Until the end of the year, I want to eat meat only once per week.
This is a clear rule, which makes it easier to follow than an abstract goal to eat less meat. It still leaves room for a meal I genuinely enjoy while changing the default for the rest of the week.
The challenge will be planning. When life gets busy, familiar food is easy. I will need good alternatives that are filling enough for running, practical during work-heavy weeks, and enjoyable enough that the goal does not feel like punishment.
The objective is a sustainable change for six months, not a dramatic restriction that lasts for two weeks.
The Actual Strategy
Most of these goals reinforce one another.
Public Strava activities and Cowgill Run Club create accountability and community. Table tennis adds another social activity and a new skill to learn. Yoga supports mobility and recovery, while rowing adds dependable cross-training. The hiking roadmap and a fall 50K give the running direction. Calorie tracking and eating less meat make nutrition more deliberate. A daily KeyTakes summary keeps learning present even when work takes most of my attention.
None of the individual commitments is enormous:
- Share the runs.
- Read one summary.
- Show up on Thursday.
- Play table tennis regularly.
- Practice yoga twice per week, including Thursday at 7:30 p.m.
- Row for 20 minutes at 6:30 a.m. every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
- Travel less and explore more of the Pacific Northwest.
- Track the food.
- Eat meat once per week.
- Put the mountain weekends on the calendar.
- Choose a 50K with Travis and register.
The power comes from doing them repeatedly.
The first half of 2026 proved that I can do a lot. The second half should be about choosing the right things to keep doing: work that matters, miles that clear my head, books that introduce new ideas, time with people, and adventures that make living in the Pacific Northwest feel as special as it is.
That sounds like a very good way to finish the year.