It’s hard to believe that we’re over the half-way point of 2025! As I reflect back on my goals and focus areas that I defined earlier in the year, it’s incredible to see the progress that I have made and the pivots that some aspects of my life have changed. It’s been a hell of a year so far, but I’m also really excited to share that I have been doubling-down on my key focus areas for the year and not trying to change them too much.

Family

My boys are 9 and 7 years old, respectively! It’s been a wonderful year to see them grow and complete another school year. We’re really lucky that we have been able to have some good family trips so far this year (San Diego over Spring Break, Victoria over Easter and Vancouver Island to start the summer break). We front-loaded a ton of our trips, so the remainder of the year we will be spent locally in Vancouver which is something we are looking forward to. I have been working really hard to try to spend more time with the kids off devices, whether that be playing video games, reading or getting outside with them. Engaging with growing children doesn’t come without it’s own challenges, so I’m looking forward to continuing my growth in this area.

Cycling

I’m well on my way of exceeding my goal of 365 hours of cycling this year! At time of writing, I’m about ~20h ahead of my goal which is expected during the summer months. I’m hoping to bank a number of hours this summer so that I’m not playing catch-up on Zwift during the winter. I am also proud that I completed my first ever gravel event (Goodride Gravel) and my first GranFondo (Valley GranFondo)! These events challenged me physically and mentally which I really enjoyed. Unfortunately, due to poor planning I won't have any other events this year as I won’t be attending the Whistler GranFondo. I will be planning ahead more next year for this. In the meantime, I’m excited to continue to do lots of rides to meet my time goal this year - solo rides, family rides and club rides!

Work

Finally, the most dynamic part of my life so far this year has been my work and role. Back in November of last year I took on a new opportunity that moved me back into people management and in an engineering leadership role again. While I was super excited for this role and spent an amazing ~6 months with the team, I’m proud to share that I have joined Salesforce’s newly formed Office of the Chief Architect (OCA)! This is a new function within the Technology organization and I’m responsible for bootstrapping the organization, operations, programs - basically a little bit of everything to get this new team going. I’m really excited for this opportunity and it’s breathing some fresh life back into my career at Salesforce and setting me up for success in the future.

That’s it! It’s been great to spend a bit of time writing on my blog, but now I need to get back to working towards my goals this year!

My first post of 2025! You’ll probably notice that I didn’t post a “Top Albums” list last year, which is rare for me. I just haven’t been listening to enough new music to justify a blog post. To be fair, I have added new albums to my library in the past year but not as much to make a list. I guess I’m getting old!

Over the month of January I have been working on refining my goals for 2025. I have gone back and forth as to how detailed or deep I want to go with them, but have ultimately settled on three basic areas that I plan to spend my attention on for the most of the year:

• Family - Making sure that I’m prioritizing quality time with my family this year. I have dropped a lot of external commitments to make time for them in the evenings and on weekends. I’m also getting better at limiting time on devices after school and in the evenings to focus my attention on my kids.

• Cycling - I have mapped out my race/event plan for the year which includes some aggressive goals, including 2x Gran Fondo events in Vancouver this year. I plan on doing a lot of interval training on my trainer during the “off season” (if you can call that in Vancouver) and generally improving my performance on the bike.

• Work - I recently took on a new role at work and have moved back into people management, working on the cutting-edge of generative AI and autonomous agents (amongst other cool projects!). I’m really psyched to be joining a great team and working on some new, interesting technologies, while also needing to priorities my family and hobbies above work.

These goals and focus areas will be driving a lot of my decision making throughout the year. I find that I’m going to be deprioritizing taking on new asks/initiatives in my personal life where I can, while also trying to continue to build a network and community. I’m looking forward to spring when cycling season opens and I can join some group rides more frequently!

Enjoying the Coquitlam Crunch with the kids

“Winter” gravel rides in Coquitlam

View from the Salesforce Tower in New York

It’s been quite the summer compared to last year, where I broke my arm and spent most of my time inside either watching Netflix or (eventually) getting on the indoor trainer. Back in May I wrote about being at The End of the List, which really afforded me some great time this summer to spend with my family and also upping my cycling skills.

I really challenged myself on my bike this year and I’m excited that I was able to hit a number of achievements:

• I joined the Tri-Cities Cycling Club and challenged myself to do a group ride at least once per week. I started riding in the Slow-C group and worked my way up to the Mid-B group by the end of the summer season!

• I took a week-long trip to northern Vancouver Island and rode the trail network in Cumberland as a brand new experience outside of the trails I normally ride in the Tri-Cities. I also spent the day on Mount Washington and tried downhill cycling for the first time,

• Completed by first 100k ride through the Tri-Cities in August and followed it up with another in October as part of our club season closer, beating my existing time by 4 mins!

I’m also proud to have spent a significant amount of time with the kids enjoying the summer here in Coquitlam. We didn’t travel too far during the summer but were able to do all the local activities: PNE, Waterslides, outdoor pools and more. It was really refreshing to have so much fun in our neighborhood without having to travel too far or have to spend a ton of money on a big vacation.

Of course, none of this comes without its own challenges. In particular, I have been dealing with a shoulder injury that resurfaced with the purchase of a new road bike (Madone SL 7 Gen 7). It’s a wicked bike that I love riding fast in group settings, but is definitely challenging my aging body. During the fall, I also had a bad crash on my last commute ride to work, totalling my endurance bike but thankfully walking away from the crash without any major injuries.

With that, I’m excited for the fall and winter season and a bit more cozy time with the family. I have my first proper gravel bike on order to ride through the winter, combined with some awesome training on my indoor ride to get ready for next season. I’m excited!