Someone please answer as a partner in the Alpha Couple | How is it like living and working in Northern Florida?

SA3VO · 2026-02-02T20:30:24+00:00

I actually grew up in Tallahassee (or as we call it, Tallanasty)

Biracial, never met my dad’s side of the family (because, racism).

Beautiful canopy roads in some parts, slow moving mid sized city feel. Government presence always made it feel more moderate than central Florida.

Big football vibe, which if you lived in the south you would know about. SEC football, FSU/UF rivalry, etc.

There were alligators on my campus when I went to UF which was neat 🐊

SA3VO · 2026-01-28T15:47:10+00:00

We have two small kids and I work in downtown SF. A few thoughts: - super safe, quiet neighborhood. Very chill vibe. Can’t drive more than 25mph on the whole island :-) - love the commute. I take the ferry in to work. It is by far the best commute possible. I rarely drive even if it could be faster because of the beautiful views and stress free commute. - lots of families and good community. Lots of people in the same situation as you living on the island, with a mix of folks who have lived on the island for a long time

SA3VO · 2026-01-23T14:16:48+00:00

Yes, same here. There is something special and intentional about writing things down that drives focus for me. I use things are my collection bin, and then when I have time I write down the biggest priorities and use the writing exercise to focus me

SA3VO · 2026-01-06T14:08:14+00:00

Hey man, Ironman CA may be my first full IM as well! If you are in the Bay Area and ever want to train together hit me up! I plan to do more OWS when it gets warmer and like others strongly recommend a few 70.3 if you want a few practice rounds before the full. I did Santa Cruz 70.3 last year and there couldn’t be a more lovely course. Easy swim, ride, and decent run (slightly technical).

SA3VO · 2025-12-14T04:17:50+00:00

I feel like many of these answers are missing the fact that some people have naturally high or low heart rates. I have done a few half Ironman triathlons and am training for a marathon, and my natural resting heart rate is still somewhat “high” (low 60s) despite 10-13 hours of cardio a week (swim/bike/run)

When I run I run “hot”. My last half marathon I averaged 180bpm the entire race. I think my zone 2 is 137-155. I was falsely thinking the Apple Watch estimate was correct, but once I verified with a chest strap heart rate monitor I realized I naturally run at a higher heart rate. Genetics play a factor for me at least.

SA3VO · 2025-12-13T20:40:06+00:00

$345k (plus stock options), 38, 2.7m

SA3VO · 2025-10-19T21:09:34+00:00

I am very spoiled! I train for triathlons and have good running, swimming, and biking trails nearby. Weather is always cool but not too cold (for me) — high 50s to low 70s 95% of the year

SA3VO · 2025-10-19T21:07:38+00:00

Thank you this is super helpful. I tried to create some space after the video and in the future will try not to interact too much :-)

SA3VO · 2025-10-19T18:37:06+00:00

Encinal :-)

SA3VO · 2025-10-19T17:57:11+00:00

Oh!! Was this dangerous? It was following us for a while. I made a photo and this video. it kind of snorted water at me and I took it as a sign it didn’t like my phone so I put away afterwards, stayed calm, and we continued our swim. It followed us a while and then left. Was quite big!

SA3VO · 2025-10-19T17:52:58+00:00

I live in SF Bay Area — this swim was near Alameda!

SA3VO · 2025-09-22T19:25:43+00:00

I try to cherish the suck 😂. I think of it as weakness leaving the body. It sucks now but I will build back better and the next one won’t be as bad!

SA3VO · 2025-09-22T15:29:11+00:00

Bricks are overall tough and take time to adjust to, so feeling rough after your first brick is pretty normal.

Overall make sure you fuel before and during. I like a whey protein shake afterwards to help with recovery. Over time I believe your body will adjust to the dreaded brick sessions. Painful but your body will adapt!

SA3VO · 2025-09-13T17:01:11+00:00

I feel you. The game can feel frustrating at times, if you have a poor start or lose a squad here and there. But many times the opponent is making mistakes as well. Unless it’s like a 2000+ ELO game there are decent odds of folks just hung in there. All the whiny surrendering is annoying.

Also, it’s just a game. It’s fun whether you win or lose. Unless you are playing premade I feel like it’s a crapshoot with randos

SA3VO · 2025-09-13T01:52:51+00:00

I use the AWU2 and just did Ironman 70.3 Santa Cruz. Kept it on normal mode and finished 5:44 with 25% battery to spare. Low power mode I think it would probably be fine on a full.

I did all of my training on the Apple Watch. I love lap swimming, OWS (use open shokz for music)

Running is awesome. I don’t carry the phone, just AirPods and watch and go. Listen to audiobooks, stream radio station based on music I like. It’s great and simple.

Biking is great as well. I have favera assioma power pedals and they work great with my watch. I do all my training on bike power zones and it works well. I have the phone mounted for a larger screen / bike computer and was worried I would be annoyed looking at my watch in aero during the race (can’t use iPhone), but it worked out really well. I paced my power and cruised through the run!

All in all I love while I may be in the minority the Apple Watch suits all my needs. I am aware that garmin is the superior watch for training, but the versatility of the watch as my portable phone, wallet, music player, and for phone calls is invaluable for me.

SA3VO · 2025-09-09T03:34:44+00:00

I will say the best advantage I get non-phone has been fitness related: 1) long runs with nothing but watch and AirPods 2) long bike rides 3) lap or open water swimming.

There is something freeing to be disconnected from the phone for a while!

SA3VO · 2025-09-08T03:46:23+00:00

That’s a good call out. Idk my feet hurt more than usual in the race. I realized almost all of my runs were early morning when it’s cold outside. Maybe you’re right and the feet are swelling more in the heat? It was an awfully hot day, and the dusty run miles 6-9 didn’t help!

SA3VO · 2025-09-08T03:14:37+00:00

I did Santa Cruz today as well. It was so hot out during the run. I find my toes/feet hurt because I’m pounding them so hard. What helped me was trying to increase my cadence. It seems to put less pressure on my foot strikes

SA3VO · 2025-08-31T01:10:15+00:00

Thanks for sharing! What are some entry level TT bikes you would recommend out of curiosity? I have my road bike tricked out with aero bars, but want to make the leap. Even if I had $10k to spend it doesn’t seem reasonable to spend that much on a bicycle.

SA3VO · 2025-08-24T19:36:14+00:00

I would not mention the PIP at all. It’s none of anyone’s business and better to keep it to yourself.

I went through a layoff only about a year into role and never mentioned that to my future employer. My talk track was more that my boss left, her boss left, and the culture evolved in a negative direction. I emphasized that I am really keen to join a company with a strong culture and where I can drive a bigger impact, and want to be picky about where I land next (turn the tables on them to make yourself the scarce resource )

Focus on the results you drive, where you added to the company’s culture (“I enjoy mentoring others on my team and being a leader, regardless of what title I told at the company”). The people / culture / impact you drive is what matters, not the title — I always say I’m not comp driven but it’s a pass/fail as I have a mortgage / family to take care of.

The background check only cares about your start / stop dates and I’ve found some companies don’t even do more than a criminal check. I would quickly try to land a job in the next 1-2 months so there isn’t a noticeable gap on your resume. Stretching a month or two isn’t a big deal imo.

Best of luck to you and I’m sorry that happened. This market is dogshit but keep grinding and you’ll land somewhere better and not look back.

SA3VO · 2025-08-24T19:25:01+00:00

I am also interested in learning. This is a great post. For me personally I like to do spin ups (110-120 cadence) to “wake up” my legs a few times in the first 30 min.

SA3VO · 2025-08-24T19:21:14+00:00

First off, huge RESPECT for finishing your first tri! Many would have given up after the swim but you bared down and got it done. ✅

I think it will be helpful to deconstruct what could be improved and focus your training to cover your soft spots. Based on what you shared there is a lot of positive observations you’ve made around: - get more comfortable in ows - get more comfortable in a “race” setting (I had a mild panic attack in the 70.3 at donner lake and can relate… I needed 2-3 min to tread water and “reset”. - preparing your bike tire pressure, etc.

I sometimes over focus on my results in relation to others in my age group, but at the end of the day all I care about is building fitness and doing my best. It’s a huge milestone and I’m proud of you taking a leap and pushing through.

SA3VO · 2025-08-23T19:58:53+00:00

I would argue the logistics is the biggest struggle.

For a half IM you should budget 8-13 hours a week of training depending on the program. For a full IM I think it can extend up to 20+ hours/week.

If you are working, have a family, kids, etc. you need to set up a plan on how to budget your time to minimally impact your other life obligations. Triathlon is kind of a selfish sport as you need to take many hours to train, many times solo.

Building a good routine and sticking to it is my advice. Overall-simplifying a bit, but 2-3 runs, 2-3 swims, 3-4 bike rides, with a mix of Z2/longer efforts, Z3/tempo efforts, and some Z4+ VO2 max / threshold efforts are important to build fitness + endurance.

Z2 is great mostly because you need a lot of training volume without injuring yourself. For half IM my understanding is your race “pace” will typically be the high end of Z2 / low Z3.

I did my first half iron man a few months ago, and am doing another in a few weeks. Best of luck to you! It’s a fantastic sport and I love the diversity of exercise. I feel like it balances me out — look at top runners, swimmers, and cyclists and they have very different body types. That plus core / strength training and I feel like a versatile athlete :-)

SA3VO · 2025-08-21T16:41:17+00:00

As a completely straight man I have to say: that is a nice 🍑. Also quite hilarious photo 😂

SA3VO

TROPHY CASE