Jeremy Howlett - My journeys and adventures

6 Weeks

Jeremy — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 05:21:26 +0000

Six weeks remain until I will be a marathon finisher. This will be my first ever marathon and it is looming closer and closer. There are still things that I need to fit in before the big event happens mid May, but I am getting more and more ready as we continue to count down.

I have a goal to finish it under 4 hours. This I believe is very doable, however my last half marathon, San Diego a few weeks ago, was only a 1:57. I am yet to complete a run longer than 18 miles, and I am probably 20lbs above where I wish that I was for race day. All of this I still have time to improve upon and hope to do so over the next 4 weeks since my last two will be tapering down for race day. I know that I can accomplish this if I have a regimen and disciplined weekly schedule. Also, I need to ramp up my eating healthy.

I have an amazing coach who stands by me and helps me know what workouts I need to do and when. The past couple of weeks I have been battling a sore quad and she has been supportive and informative on what to do and when to push it and when to lay off. It is great. I love my wife!

As I continue to push forward I know that I will continue to push myself and I will find the will to accomplish it. I hope to hit my goal, but even if I do not I will still cross that finish line as a marathoner!

Happy Easter Sabbath

Jeremy — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 16:25:20 +0000

As we take this sacred opportunity to reflect not only on the resurrection of The Savior, but on his life and ministry and the ability for each of us to be redeemed, we can find peace. I have taken the opportunity this morning to relax with the family and enjoy the joys of Easter. Not only have we focused on the fun and candy, but before all of that we focused on the most important topic of the day and frankly our lives, The Savior Jesus Christ and his sacrifice and resurrection.

Today is truly a day of rejoicing. It is a day of commemoration and peace. It is the day that man triumphed over death, hell and the devil. It is the day that all things pertaining to this great Plan of Happiness were fulfilled. It is the day that it was truly “finished”. It is the day that Christ rose from the dead and unlocked the chains of death.

As the feast of the passover culminated Christ shared the last supper with his fellow disciples, thus introducing the Sacrament and it’s meaning. As he then departed to the Garden of Gethsemane, or place of the press, he departed afar off from his brethren to commune with his father. In his own words through modern revelation he records,

For behold, I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent;
But if they would not repent they must suffer even as I;
Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit—and would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink—
Nevertheless, glory be to the Father, and I partook and finished my preparations unto the children of men. (Doctrine and Covenants 19:16-19)

He suffered for each of us that we may be free from the wrath of God and able to then abide in his presence. Christ then was crucified and laid in a sepulcher’s tomb. He but only spent a brief period time in the tomb as His spirit was then reunited with his body to never again depart.

He Lives! He Is Risen. Let us sing it out.

He then spent time among his disciples in the old world until he ascended to then descend to spend time among the Nephites in the new world. He stated in John,

And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd. (John 10:16)

Among the Nephites he taught them as he did during his ministry in the old world. He then ascended from them to see the others of the tribes of Israel to teach and minister to them.

Nearly two millennia later he returned to restore His church through the prophet Joseph Smith in 1820 with His Father. Through Joseph all the keys and authorities were restored to again govern the Kingdom of God of on the earth. This kingdom is here to stay until Christ comes to reign on earth as King through the great Millennium talked about by the prophets of old and of today.

Let us look to Christ as our King, our Savior, our God. It is only through him that we can rise triumphant over death and hell. He has given us the power over death. As we hold to him and follow His example we too may rise to be with God again.

Happy Easter to all!

My Place in Altra

Jeremy — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 18:25:28 +0000

Often I wonder why I got so blessed to be a part of Altra Zero Drop Footwear. I understand my knowledge of business and marketing, but it is often overwhelming to work with a group of guys that sleep walk faster than I run. I look at the company I keep, Golden with all of his records, Brian as a top 3 finisher at many ultra marathons and then Seth with his marathon course records. With this company I feel inferior and think how I can possibly fit in.
As I think upon these things thou I find that I am the perfect fit. Altra is not a company for just the elite. Sure it is a running shoe brand built by dedicated runners, and I do consider myself such. The core behind what we do as a company is

Run Better. Run Healthier. Run Alta.

Through this mantra we are out to help the average middle of the pack runner, of which I am at the heart of. I am able to communicate with this group, understand what they deal with on a first hand basis, and provide a level of communication that is directly at each of us. My time is spent among the elites so I know how you think, but I am in the middle of the pack so I know what we deal with and desire. We just want to get out and run more and enjoy it!

Spending time with the kids

Jeremy — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 01:26:35 +0000

Finally stepping away from work for a little. It has been a very challenging thing to do as of late. I wish I had the ability to do it a little more, but it is great to be with my kids and hear their cute little thoughts. Tonight mamma needed to study for a test and I took the kids out for a puppet show and dinner at Chick-Fil-A.

On the way to he puppet show I was told by my 7year old that the Tooth Fairy and Santa are not real. It wasn’t like the upset type experience I expected, but more like a 14 year old just explaining to me how it all works. It was a different twist. Really made me see how mature my little girl really is. She is growing too fast for me. I need my babies to stay my babies!

Nice to be out with them and hang with them. I need more time talking with my sweet kids!

16 Miles!

Jeremy — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 02:10:03 +0000

Almost two years ago I started a journey to get fit and lose some unwanted poundage. That was then. Now I am on a journey to be adventurous! My gorgeous wife has put up with me being out of shape and unmotivated for over 6 years. I turned that corner and now am training for my first Marathon and first long distance trail race. I found Zero Drop and worked to start Altra Footwear with Golden and Brian and that has provided me the ability to improve my form and avoid knee pain and running injury that I dealt with for years prior.

It is great to be able to go out and be active with my beautiful bride. She has certainly challenged me. Last year I did two half marathons, one with her, and three Triathlons. It certainly adds a great element to our marriage to be able to do these things together. It is somewhat challenging still with 3 young children that need care when we do these things. Sometimes we resort to the Chariot, but with 3 that can be a certain challenge.

Tonight we were able to leave them with my little brother and head out on a 16 mile canal run. My longest run to date was 14. Hers, well, she has done a few marathons, so not much new to her. She was certainly there to encourage me however. It is great to be out with my wife and do something together that we both love, something I love now and she has loved for years. Hitting 16 came with a few struggles, but for the most part it felt good, and feels even better to have accomplished it!

Hitting 16 to me is an incredible accomplishment! Going beyond that barrier at 15 has a lot to play in mentally and physically. I am grateful for such a supportive wife and a great company that keep me motivated to excel. Zero Drop Shoes and Altra Footwear have given me a running life back.

Complete Altra Funding

Jeremy — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 01:10:44 +0000

After starting this journey now known as Altra Footwear back in the summer of 2009 we had an array of dreams, hopes, and desires. We have now culminated all of that to a legitimate, funded company. While discussing this in Golden’s house on his birthday we had our ideas of what we would accomplish, what we would bring to the market and how we would do it. We had no real direction as to exactly how it would happen, just that we would figure out how to make it happen. We had a vision of a product and we went out and made it happen.

The great pursuit has now brought us to this point now today. Over the past 9 months we have been in conversations with Icon Health & Fitness, the owners of NordicTrack, about a purchase agreement of our company. Well after a very up and down 9 months we signed paperwork today and they will finalize it tomorrow! The deal brings about the backing of a very large fitness and wellness corporation that is used to marketing and bringing products to big box retailers. We now give them a niche into the small, specialty retailer as well as a unique shoe concept that can be marketing into the next style of running shoes. We are really excited about this opportunity and look forward to making a lot of shoes for many years to come!!

Facebook Making Changes – Again

Jeremy — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 15:46:42 +0000

Well the guys at that big global power we know as Facebook are at it again. They have announced further changes to business pages. This time I don’t have to go in and redesign my landing page, just get to have some new and awesome features available at my disposal!

Pictures Atop the Pages

Facebook has now added the images feature on business pages that they had on personal profiles. Here you can click an X to eliminate a picture from the screen. Your most recent pictures will show up random images, with a preference given to the most recent images.

You can now comment and “like” as yourself

This is personally my favorite new feature. Facebook had always had it that the admins commented as the page, and recently made a change to where when you as the admin “liked” a comment it showed up as the page instead of yourself. Well, they have now made it so you can check a box in the settings to turn that off and now you can comment and “like” as yourself on the page you are admin on. LOVE THIS!! I can now make my Facebook pages much more personal as well as business discussion! Do beware that when you have this turned off and are not in page mode then you will not get to post updates as the page and they will not show up in your fans’ news stream.

Post as Your Page

You can now post updates, comments, “likes” etc throughout facebook as your page. So you have control to comment on friends, like their status, surf through Facebook as your business page. Just click the new button to the right.

There are some great new features here with this Facebook update. I would check em out, take the tour, and consider switching over. Everyone will be converted in March now anyways. Happy Social Networking!

Ahh Snowshoeing!

Jeremy — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 04:40:58 +0000

Well we have had snow for a number of weeks now, but with all the projects I have had I couldn’t justify the time to take advantage of it. Well this evening I finally did. I needed to relieve some stress and get back up in the mountains. I took off towards Desolation lake. It was gorgeous! The sky was cloudy with snow mist the entire 90 minutes I was out.
Half way out it started to darken and there was just enough moon peaking through the clouds to illuminate the trail. It sure added to the peaceful winter field. I was the only one out on the trail tonight and it was fantastic! I love being out and about in the mountains.

Social Storefront

Jeremy — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 05:14:31 +0000

In his book, “Socialnomics”, Erik Qualman brings up a very intriguing concept that I would term the “Social Storefront”. This would be Facebook, LinkedIn or some other social platform providing a business on their business profile page to sell product.
Facebook is rapidly becoming the mini-web and this component would only quicken that process. By adding the ability for a small business to set up shop online on Facebook for a small piece of profits (as Qualman suggests, .005%) then any company could take on the opportunity to compete with larger corporations without having to spend thousands of dollars on an e-commerce solution.
They would get to market faster, cheaper, and easier. Just as they can establish an online presence with fan pages and business profiles they would be able to sell product online in a simple manner as well. Many companies in a brick and mortar situation that are struggling would be able to extend their reach.
This could then get really detailed if there was the offering, but not required, ability to customize similar to FBML and other custom platform markups.
Google could really get into this as well with the Youtube platform by allowing a company to post a video of a product and then have the ability to purchase it right from the video. Youtube could offer this at a vastly reduced overhead and make a lot of money through this. Twitter likewise could use microblogging to do the same thing right from their platforms. This could be extremely valuable of taken to the mobile platform as well. It goes beyond comparable shopping, but I could be in the store and search Facebook and find a vendor I follow on FB has it for 20% less and then I could buy oit from there.

Hiking with Headphones?

Jeremy — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 17:16:37 +0000

So I understand rocking out in the car, sporting the earbuds on a road run or even a bike ride, catching a bit of the playlist while walking around town, but seriously on a hike? Yesterday while out on a trail run, which I love to do for the benefits of nature, I saw a guy (maybe college age) hiking up with earbuds in. To me that comes off as a very oxymoron.