Thoughts and reflections about the past week or so from my own financial independence campaign.
Progress on my goals
Boat life
I had a “team building”/ free beer day with work on Friday, so I’d booked in with Lady SierraWhiskyMike for a chilled hangover day on Saturday.
Suffice to say that I spent Saturday using power tools to chisel out a stripped screw because that minor leak we had just had to be investigated right now.
It didn’t, we’ve been living with it for a couple of weeks trying to track it. Definitely could have waited. Not that I’m bitter, but after spending a Friday afternoon drinking bitter in the sun you really don’t want to be using drills and oscillating cutters in confined warm spaces.
Well, we got the job done. Hooray! Aaand now we suspect that the right answer all along is to tear out and replace the freshwater tank.
That sounds dramatic – and will be, because nothing is quick and easy with boats – but conceptually it’s a simple repair. We can get an MDPE one made up for about £300, the connections are fairly straightforward, and we have some legacy pipe work from a failed water maker that we want to strip out anyway, so the time might as well be now.
There’s no urgent rush right now for it, so we’re going to call a guy that the other Maxi Owners Association members recommended and see how we get this made to spec and shipped out to us. In the meantime, the tank is usable albeit there’s a tiny hole somewhere.
Payday!
What was potentially the first of my last three paydays from my current employer came in today.
I siphoned off the 50% I normally invest each month and put it into a cash easy access savings account for now. While my employer says they want to come up with a plan for me to stay, it’s been a month since I handed in my notice and I have to presume that in the worst case I could be unemployed for a few months.
(That’s not likely unless I choose it to be, but why take risk on it?)
If things go better than expected then that cash is getting invested ASAP.
Distractions and detours
Works trip out
We got a team outing with free beers and an escape room on Friday. Turns out we suck as a team after several free beers, but it was still pretty awesome and definitely a cheap night out. I’ll take cheap socialising any day.
So yeah, Saturday was meant to be a write-off, but the Boat Life chose me that day.
Dumbphone test – first week
Readers will remember this photo from last week:
Turns out I’m actually a lot less distracted at work with this as my primary phone, and it’s not a small difference. I reckon I’m about 60-90 minutes more productive, based on the fact that I have to record my time in billable blocks of six minutes and my average day has been quantifiable more productive in the core hours of 9-5.
To be fair: I’ve had better quality work this week, stuff that you can get into a flow state doing, so it’s possible that this is a false positive.
I’ve continued to take the iPhone to work in my backpack, and I’ll let myself check it at lunch and before I leave. It doesn’t have a SIM card in it, so when I’m walking around it’s basically a crap MP3 player and an odd camera.
I can’t quantify this, but I also think I’m a lot calmer without it being on the desk.
I still have the iPhone
For pure logistical reasons I can’t get rid of the iPhone, but it’s now primarily a WhatsApp and Signal machine. I’ll also use it to watch YouTube when I cook dinner and I let myself have it on evenings and weekends, because if I’m checking Reddit in my own time that’s my problem.
If I didn’t live in the Channel Islands, with its own not-EU-not-UK phone networks, I’d probably lock it in a drawer and use the iPad for Signal and Youtube. It’s bizarre, but the iPad doesn’t have that addictiveness that the phone does: when I use the iPad, it’s an intentional decision, it’s not a force of habit.
I guess if Apple hadn’t kicked off with Meta about WhatsApp and that was still usable on iPadOS then my iPhone wouldn’t be in the equation at all during this experiment.
Non-FIRE goals
My guitar rock god quest (AKA learning to play)
We’re still learning is The Pretender by the Foo Fighters, with a view to experimenting with appropriate solos and improvisation. It uses a different mode of the minor scale, so there are things I need to think about other than picking one scale shape and just hammering a single hand position.
Probably could have practiced more this week, but in my defence I wasn’t sober enough on Friday and we’ve spent the weekend breaking into bits of the boat looking at the water tank issue. I guess Monday night is my time..?
Fitness
Running in sandals
Went for my first run in barefoot sandals today, making the most of the good weather while Lady SierraWhiskyMike caused more havoc/ cleaned obscure parts of the boat. I think she wanted me out of the way as much as I wanted to go for the run.
One word: fantastic.
Now, this was a slow/steady state run. I don’t think I was faster than 9 minute miles for the 9-and-a-bit miles I ran on, because the point of the exercise was to try the new footwear and start upping my running volume. It’s possible that I might try to run at pace or do intervals and have a different description next week!
I was expecting rubbing at the straps, but I’m delighted to report that this wasn’t the case. I’ve gotten some hot spots and little blisters in odd parts of my feet though, so I can’t tell if that’s because there’s genuine movement that requires me to adjust the straps again or because I don’t wear socks with these and my feet need to toughen up and adapt over time.
For a first-time run in new footwear, this is a roaring success. You always get little niggles when you try new footwear styles.
I’d say that compared to the Vivobarefoot shoes I have been using for the last 7 years (might be 9 years? Honestly, I forget when I started) the Luna Mono sandals are more forgiving and softer on the feet. You have better grip on rocks and more technical trails, but the thicker sole takes away some of the proprioception benefits that barefoot and minimalist runners sometimes get in a twist about. I’m less fussed: I just want to keep running without the knee pains I’d started to develop in conventional trainers, back when 50 miles a week wasn’t an issue for me.
What I really liked though is how light and exposed to the elements your feet feel. It adds a new dimension to the run that isn’t just “try hard, get it done”. I’m never going to be an elite athlete at anything, so now I’m just keen to have exercise that feels a bit more playful than the hard thrash I got used to to keep fit for my military job.
You make time for things you enjoy, and it’s my time that so much stuff is competing for.
Possible training plan
I’ve always said fitness was important, and regular readers will recall that this has been a theme of some of my earlier posts. But, to be fair, I’ve been fairly aimless for the last few years, jumping from one form of exercise to another.
This isn’t a bad thing and I don’t regret it. You don’t need to have particular fitness to gain benefits, you just need to be generally fit and active and the body will look after itself.
However, inspired by finishing the book Born to Run, I’m considering putting my name down for my local marathon in April 2025. I reckon that’s a lot of time to build up the distance and it’s not something that is too far out of my reach now (albeit I’d probably suffer with my soft low-mileage footwear and crap nutritional discipline!).
I’m going to hold off booking for now and see if I can get the volume/distance built up on my legs. If I condition as well as I’d like without any serious injuries over the next couple of weeks, I’ll put my name in for a spot.
Zone 2 running..?
This inspired my run today.
Normally, 9-minute miles isn’t something I’d be willing to admit to; but a lot of internet research has told me that to build volume I need to get used to “Zone 2” cardio running instead of pushing it and adding in anaerobic power.
The logic is that you get the body running, get it used to running for a long time, then use other shorter runs to get your legs and heart used to the idea that they can operate just as efficiently at faster paces. This then should make my “Zone 2” heart rate pace faster until it’s a more reasonable time.
Typically an 8-minute mile is a slow day for me, but I’d be done after 6 miles. This long-distance thing is very a different style of running and I need to build up to it, so I’ll go with the established wisdom over my usual approach.
I didn’t really understand what “Zone 2” was, but it turns out that’s a heart rate range where you can just about have a chat if someone runs with you. My problem is that I run alone – not because I’m a lone wolf or some kind of badass, but because I like to listen to music when I run and the most embarrassing stuff in my collection comes out when there’s no-one else around to hear it.
So, to help me with this, I’ve ordered a Fitbit Charge for the princely sum of £80 on Amazon. I was hoping that these would be cheaper on eBay, but they’ve recently been reduced from £120 and the second hand market was basically priced the same as buying one new after you factor in postage to the Channel Islands.
I’m hoping this will help with stats and performance tracking. Lady SierraWhiskyMike has gotten a lot of value out of hers, so it seemed reasonable to try out.
Final thoughts
While there’s a lot on this post that might make for gloomy reading, I’m actually really happy! I’ve got stuff to focus on that isn’t work, I’m (currently) financially secure, the future looks hopeful!
It’s irritating that I have to replace the freshwater tank on the boat, but it’s well within our skill set to do and that’s just a chore rather than an emergency or a massive financial problem.
It’s nice to be paid and it’s nice to get taken out for beers, but ultimately I need to reduce the base level of stress in my life and find a bit more time for things I actually want to do with it. Yes, that includes sailing, fitness and guitar, but also to do things like actually spend time with my wife that isn’t talking about work because I’ve got nothing else to talk about.
That’s depressing, and it’s not really living. I have lots of potential options that improve my situation, so I’m holding my ground and leaving in September unless this can somehow be managed by my firm.
The dumbphone experiment shows initial promise. To be fair if that improves things at work, I could possibly free up more time for the other stuff by just getting home earlier.
The big fitness push is a bit new. I’m a little skeptical about finding time to do it, but I’m already doing a fair bit of exercise anyway so it should be a case of swapping one thing out for another. And, if it doesn’t fit, I guess I won’t wear it! No-one is getting let down because I decide not to enter an endurance race, so it’s a pretty chill ambition to have.
My financial independence campaign continues!
