All posts filed under: Fitness

Three Things I Learned About Mentoring From a Squash Pro

Published by Colin Nanka

You learn from those above you, beside you and below you. In my earlier professional days, when I had more time on my hands, a group of work friends would end most days with a workout or squash match at the gym. Sometimes we would get in lunch games to break up the day. We would get a good sweat in and get fired up for the afternoon. When I took my first lesson, the local squash pro said to me “play once a week with someone equal to you, once a week with someone behind you and once a week with someone better than you.” The reasoning he really didn’t have to expand on. I thought about it that evening, the types of people I had played with recently. Equal to you drives competitiveness Behind you drive teaching, mentorship, and mastery Ahead of you stretches your capability to provide growth and wisdom It’s a lesson I never forgot and accelerating my growth. I’ve been fortunate to have many mentors and collaborators. I often learn …

I’m Inflexible!

Published by Colin Nanka

Photo by Alberto Restifo on Unsplash My backwards flexibility is a 2/10…and I’m excited.  I’ve moved on from working the physio on the ankle now to my mid spine. The ankle is healed, I’m running! Time to work on the next foundational part of my game.  If discovery is the foundation of sales, functional mobility is the foundation of running.  My back has always given me problems in past races. Severe back spasms. Cause: weak core, lack of flexibility in the spine, over extension and over use.  I’m excited to know I’ve been able to make it through many desert runs with weak hip flexers, poor posture and weak core! My yoga instructor told me so over the year many times. I didn’t disagree, I just didn’t know how or wasn’t ready to put focus on it everyday.  Two lacrosse balls (tied into a sport sock!) in the mid back 10 min a day + some other posture routines.  If I can open up the spine, I open up the lungs, stability in the core and new possibilities for …

Why I didn’t run in Africa

Published by Colin Nanka

I took my nutritionist’s advice and did some Push Ups on the Pool Deck while I was away on my honeymoon. Frankly, we were on the go every single day and up between 5-6am for tours and Safari and by the end of the day exhausted.  A good exhausted! My main opportunity to run was really in Cape Town. An incredible city on the southern most tip of Africa and the Southern Hemisphere. I did get one awesome run in before we transitioned to the Safari along the Ocean. The views were amazing! Why didn’t I run while on safari, while in some of the most interesting and beautiful landscape in the world? In the words of our safari guide: “Every animal here is a far faster runner than you!” I would have loved to, however, because of all of the great game in the park, we were encourage to stay within the property. The property is really a group of small huts and a main eating lodge in the middle of the open plains! …

5 Years ago I ate the best peking duck in Beijing

Published by Colin Nanka

It was five years ago this week!  In 2012 after finishing a 7 day adventure race in western China we returned to Beijing for a celebratory dinner. This was the first race I finished and I was over the moon. The year before I quit in the middle of the Sahara desert, exhausted, dehydrated, defeated. At the end of the week our trip leader took everyone out for dinner on the Nile river in Cairo. It was a great evening but the sting of defeat was deep. I had the opportunity to return the favor and take a fellow runner, who was a jail guard in the U.K. out for dinner. He was a very prideful individual and had scrounged just to save for the entry fee. I shared with him the story of the last race, how my friend paid it forward to me and I wanted to do the same for him. It was an honor. He was a fine runner and had great spirit. We called ahead and that duck was marinated …

Next level lean

Published by Colin Nanka

I have known my friend Tania Kowalski for 20 years! We had our first sales job together. She has gone on to a successful health and wellness career and currently lives in Bermuda with her family. Here is one of her recent blog posts: First off, remember that what you see in pictures are what people WANT you to see and those images can easily be enhanced or photoshopped.  The folks that do get super lean may do it for a competition but other than a month or so around that competition they typically are not that lean.  Getting chiseled not only takes some serious commitment but it also isn’t healthy for  the long term.  In order to get cut you make some serious sacrifices.  Your social life will definitely suffer, you may be tired and not a lot of fun to be around, your libido drops,  and you  can send your hormones out of whack.  In order for female hormones to be balanced and to have a healthy menstrual cycle we women do need some body fat like it or not. …

Pivot and Shift

Published by Colin Nanka

We had the good fortune of spending an evening last year with our KOA club members at a Gala Dinner celebrating 10 years at Salesforce.com in San Francisco. It felt like a high school reunion of sorts and getting to see people from all over the world that you started early in your career with and how they have grown both in career and family was amazing. In addition, we had a senior officer from the company sitting at every table. We have some incredible leaders. To be able to hear their perspective and see their genuine interest in each person’s career and life was special. At our table our CFO shared a trip he took to Asia. Over the course of three days he held an important quarterly earnings call, flew to Japan to run the Tokyo Marathon with his son and return to speak in front of 1,000 people at an investor forum. I asked him how he prepares for a week like that? He said I “Pivot and Shift”. I compartmentalize and …

6 ways to grow through immersion

Published by Colin Nanka

I went for a visit to my physio therapist last week.  I’m still working on the ankle rehab from an injury I sustained prior to my Antartica adventure. The good news is, it’s much better and I have started running a couple times per week.  There is no pain while running, but in the morning it still feels stiff. I see a great Physical therapist named Shawn for treatment for the first half-hour and in the second half-hour I work with a functional movement expert named James on strength. We focus on healing the ankle, and strengthening hips, glutes, hamstrings, quads and calves.  Often injury comes from a weakness in one of these areas, so we are trying to be proactive. James is a teacher and has a great method of training. He tells me the area we are going to focus on and why. He models the exercise and breaks it down to its basic components He creates a goal in each set, and has me focus on feeling and firing a specific muscle …

I am changing the way I eat

Published by Colin Nanka

Well, changing when I eat to be precise. I have been focused on getting to bed early and getting a full night’s sleep. I am trying to leverage that early morning time to get ahead of the day. That has been the one small improvement I have been focused on for the last couple months. I am noticing, that although sleep hours are up (and solid amounts of Vitamin C and D), I am not waking up with as much energy as I used too.  Am I getting old?   Yes, and…. I also know that I am finishing my last meal of the day too late. Sometimes as late as 9pm!! From working with nutritionists over many years I know that you can get a lot of sleep but if your body needs to focus its limited energy on digestion (which can be up to 80% of energy), its not focusing on recovery. Target for me is last meal complete by 730pm.   I finished eating an hour earlier than usual last night, felt …

Best of May – 4 Critical Themes of Leadership

Published by Colin Nanka

In this recap of May the theme is what makes a great leader.     Two articles and two podcasts that highlight four areas crucial to being a leader.   Emotional intelligence Building Trust Living with passion, risk and chance Understanding your audience and how to talk to them   Sounds like worth the intake?   1. 10 Habits of Likable Leaders – If you want to be a leader whom people follow with absolute conviction, you have to be a likeable leader.    2. What being a trusted advisor means to leaders – The Seven skills explaining what that actually means.   3. Tim Ferris – Phil Keoghan Episode – The Magic of Bucket Lists from the host of the Amazing Race.   4. Donald Miller Story Brand Podcast – Ian Cron—Can the Enneagram Make You a More Effective Leader.  Understanding how people think.     Whether May served you well or not, June is a brand new month.   Dig in.    

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5 Peak Moments

Published by Colin Nanka

A mentor recently shared with me, the 5 peak moments in your life will show you what you care about.  It helps identify the commonalities for your purpose.  Mine in chronological order are: Climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro / Safari / Raising Money (2009) – Giving back, Gratitude, Belief Wondering through desert in China (2012) – Acceptance, Accountability, Learning A 13 hour run through desert in Chile (2015) – Capacity, Belief, Pay it Forward Adventuring in Antarctica (2016) – Reset, Refocus Getting Married to Blake (2017) – Love, Passion and Partnership What have all these these peak moments shown me? We each have much more access to skills, capability and “gears” we didn’t know exist. I would estimate we have at least 40-50% more capacity than we are currently operating with. How do we find it?  By leaning into uncomfort and opportunities that stretch our capabilities. Once stretched, they don’t go back. What will you do today to start leveraging those extra % points?