There aren’t many people who lived as fully or as deliberately as Theodore Roosevelt. He wasn’t someone who waited for perfect conditions. Whether it was politics, the military, or pushing himself physically, he had a reputation for stepping into things as they were and making the most of them.
That’s part of why this idea still lands. Most of us don’t have ideal circumstances. We’re balancing work, training, family, and everything else life throws at us. Waiting for the perfect setup usually means not starting at all.
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Not everything you carry belongs to you. Old expectations. Past mistakes. Someone else’s timeline. Unnecessary weight slows you down more than missed workouts ever could.
Take inventory. Ask what is helping and what is simply heavy. Let go of what no longer serves your growth. Release the pressure that is not productive.
Training improves when you travel light. Life does too. Carry only what strengthens you, and move forward unburdened.
Show up! Put in the work! Regroup! Put in the work! Don't quit! Believe in yourself! Develop your skills! Process > outcome! Be okay with uncomfortable! Compete!
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A few weeks ago I wrote about “good enough.” Not settling, but recognizing when something works. The harder part is knowing when to leave it alone and when to go back in.
The H340 kit has been “good enough” for a while. It’s been through races, long training days, bad weather, days where everything clicks and days where nothing does. It’s done what it’s supposed to do. And for most people, that’s where it would stop. But I kept coming back to it.
Not because anything was broken, but because I knew it could feel better. Move better. Disappear a little more when you’re out there. So over the past several months, I started pulling at threads. A new chamois. Different bib straps. Free cut legs. A completely reworked jersey pattern with lighter materials, free cut sleeves, and small details like reflective piping on the back that you don’t really notice until you need it.
None of this shows up on a spec sheet in a way that really matters. What matters is how it feels at mile 60, or two hours into a ride when you’ve stopped thinking about what you’re wearing. That’s kind of the point.
Right now, all I have are the studio shots. Clean and controlled. They look good, but they don’t tell the whole story.
In about two weeks, we’ll have these out on the road, on riders, in motion, where this stuff actually matters. That’s when you’ll really see it.
For now, this is just part of the process. Not a big launch. Not a reveal. Just a step closer.
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A few weeks ago I took a coconut cream pie to the man who leads my son’s discipleship group at church. While I was there, the young guy who helps out, Kobe, mentioned his birthday was coming up. He asked if I could make him something special.
He wanted my finest Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo.
Problem is… I don’t really make Alfredo.
Mostly because every time I’ve had it at a restaurant, the pasta is sitting in what feels like a bowl of cream. Heavy, bland, and just… too much. It always felt like something I should like more than I actually do.
But it was his birthday, so I went to work.
What I found was interesting. Traditional versions call for poached chicken, which is a polite way of saying boiled chicken. That wasn’t happening. Grilled is more common, but I came across a version that used fried chicken, almost like a chicken parm approach, and that got my attention.
Even better, the sauce wasn’t a soup. It was reduced down so it actually coated the pasta instead of drowning it. A little garlic, some red pepper flake, parsley… now you’ve got something with some life to it.
Before I packed it up to take to Kobe, I made a plate for my bride.
She was blown away.
In fact, the last thing I heard as I was walking out the door to deliver his birthday dinner was, “I’m going to regret this later… but I’m having seconds.”
Here’s the version I used:
Ingredients
Pasta
Chicken
- 2 chicken breasts (halved and flattened into thin, even cutlets)
- 1/2 cup flour
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 1 cup panko breadcrumbs (seasoned with salt and black pepper)
- Neutral oil (for frying)
Alfredo Sauce
- 1 tbsp oil
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 2 tbsp vermouth
- Pinch chili flakes
- 1 cup grated Parmesan
- 1 tbsp parsley (plus more for finishing)
Garlic Bread
- 1/2 stick butter, softened
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tbsp parsley
- Pinch kosher salt
- 2 tbsp Parmesan
- Olive oil
- Bread
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 200°F. This will be used to hold the chicken as it finishes.
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, but don’t add the pasta yet. Timing matters here.
- Set up your breading station. Dredge chicken in flour, dip in egg, then coat in panko that has been seasoned with salt and pepper.
- Heat oil over medium. Cook the chicken in batches, about 3–4 minutes per side, until golden and cooked through. Because the cutlets are thin, they cook quickly, so don’t overcook them. As each batch finishes, place it in the oven to stay warm while you finish the rest.
- While the first batch of chicken is cooking, start the sauce. Heat oil in a pan, add garlic, and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
- Add cream and chili flakes. Let it simmer and begin reducing. Add the vermouth partway through and continue reducing. Once the sauce has reduced and thickened, stir in the parsley. Take your time here, you want the sauce to concentrate, not stay loose.
- While the sauce is reducing and you’re finishing the last batch of chicken, drop the pasta into the boiling water. Cook until just al dente so it finishes at the same time as everything else.
- Lower the heat and stir in Parmesan until smooth.
- Transfer the pasta directly from the pot into the sauce, letting some pasta water come with it. Toss until the noodles are fully coated and the sauce clings to them.
- While everything else is finishing, heat a flat top or skillet and toast the bread with a little olive oil until golden. While the bread is toasting, mix together the softened butter, garlic, parsley, kosher salt, and Parmesan. Spread that mixture over the toasted bread.
- Slice the chicken. It should be well rested but still warm from the oven.
- Plate the pasta, top with sliced chicken, and finish with more parsley and shaved Parmesan. Serve with the garlic bread on the side.
Pro Tip:
To flatten the chicken, place each breast in a large ziplock bag with a light coating of olive oil on both sides. Use a heavy cutting board or similar flat surface to pound it out. The goal isn’t just to make it thin, but to make it an even thickness so it cooks consistently.
This one takes a little more effort. But as we learned last week "it never gets easier, it just taste better".
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As you’d probably expect, my feeds are full of food. Recipes, people cooking, all of that. But there’s also a steady stream of running and endurance stuff mixed in.
That’s how I came across this video of humanoid robots “running” a half marathon in Beijing.
What caught my attention wasn’t just the video, it was the context. Last year, the fastest one covered the distance in around two hours and forty minutes. This year, the top performer was under 54 minutes.
That’s a big jump in a short amount of time.
It got me thinking about something I’ve heard over the years. Ten or fifteen years ago, a lot of people were saying college degrees didn’t matter. Skip it. Just learn to code.
Now some of those same voices are saying something different. Skip coding and formal education. Go into the trades. Become an electrician, a plumber, a welder. AI can’t do those jobs.
Maybe they’re right. Maybe they’re wrong.
But watching that video, seeing how quickly this stuff is improving, it makes you pause a bit. What feels untouchable today might not stay that way as long as we think.
I don’t know exactly what it looks like, but it’s not that hard to imagine a future where an autonomous vehicle pulls up to your house, a humanoid steps out, knocks on your door, figures out what’s wrong with your plumbing, fixes it, and heads to the next stop.
We’re not there yet.
But we might not be as far off as we think.
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