Austin Murphy

But Becker, vice president of design at the fitness-tracking giant Fitbit, isnt on a mountain bike. Hes on the shockless, canary-yellow Canyon that he uses for cyclo-cross, a 30- to 60-minute race around a 1.5- to 2-mile loop filled with obstacles. You dismount your bike and carry it over logs and hurdles, a midrace challenge that the 47-year-old loves. I need a sport, he says. I think thats why I still love jumping rope and doing ladder drills. I like feeling that I can still move athletically.

Becker spends every morning reminding himself of thatand indulging what he calls his lifelong competitive streak. In addition to his daily bike commute from his home near San Franciscos Duboce Park to Fitbits Embarcadero offices, he will spin west to Golden Gate Park for intense interval work on the dirt track encircling the Polo Field. When those hot laps are done and his heart rate has returned from the red zone, he rides nearby trails to hone all those bike-handling skills.

Its a twoish-hour morning routine that takes Beckers edge off, settling him for an otherwise tame day. At home, he focuses on his wife and two daughters. On Fitbits campus, hes at his forward-thinking best, staring at stats and blueprints for new watches and device updates on a tablet screen. Its all unlike his life on his customized Canyon, which has notches on the piping so he can grip it more easily as he hurdles obstacles. This, he says, is just being in the moment.

Cyclo-cross is Beckers chance to test his athleticismand not get injured in the process. Hes dealt with injuries since his college days, when he majored in philosophy, minored in art history, and occasionally flashed an aggro side as a Cal Berkeley tennis player. After redshirting as a freshman, he eagerly awaited his sophomore season. But hed trained too hard that summer, and his shoulder basically fell apart, he says. I could no longer lift [my arm] over my head.

That ended his tennis career, but not his habit of practicing like an animal. Cyclo-cross, however, includes built-in restraints: Unlike other styles of biking,you dont need to train for hours and hours and hours, he says. You race hard, but everything before and after is pretty congenial.

So Becker rarely skips a practice session, and he did five races last year. Oh, and he had fun. Three laps into one recent five-lap event, Becker was in the lead when he accepted a shot of peppermint schnapps from a spectator. (Yes. Midway through a race.) The shot did not sit very well with his stomach, he recalls, and he slipped to third place. He didnt get upset. I still had a blast, he says proudly. When you pop endos and bunny hops on a bike every morning, its hard not to.

Can you handle Beckers hour-long speed session? Try it to improve your ability to accelerate up hills. Do this session outdoors or on a stationary bike indoors.

Spend 5 minutes warming up your lower body for the mayhem to come. Do 30 seconds of bodyweight squats, followed by 30 seconds of walking lunges and 30 seconds of planks. Repeat 3 times without stopping, then rest for 30 seconds.

Get on your bike and start pedaling at a relaxed pace; make sure its relaxed enough that you can have a conversation. Do this for 10 minutes. Then, for the final 5 minutes, alternate between 30-second intervals of hard pedaling (you shouldnt be able to talk) and relaxed-pace pedaling.

Alternate vigorous efforts with 2-minute recovery sequences. Battle through the program below.

<ul><li> 2 Minutes Hard Effort, 2 Minutes Recovery </li><li> 3 Minutes Hard Effort, 2 Minutes Recovery </li><li> 4 Minutes Hard Effort, 2 Minutes Recovery </li><li> 5 Minutes Hard Effort, 2 Minutes Recovery </li><li> 4 Minutes Hard Effort, 2 Minutes Recovery </li><li> 3 Minutes Hard Effort, 2 Minutes Recovery </li><li> 2 Minutes Hard Effort, 2 Minutes Recovery </li></ul>

How This Fitbit Exec Keeps His Competitive Edge

There's not really another word for it. Jonah Becker is playing on his bike this morning, bunny-hopping logs alongside a trail in San Franciscos Golden Gate Park, executing borderline-balletic dismounts and remounts and hucking up his back wheel, a move that mountain bikers call an endo or nose wheelie.

This Fitbit Exec Stays in Shape by Cycling Through Obstacles

Considering its small population, Hawaii has long been overrepresented in the NFL and college football. Part of that has to do with chromosomes: Many islanders are large, powerfully built men with low centers of gravity. Part of it has to do with culture: A number of these guys are members of Polynesian families in which selflessness and respect for elders are emphasized. Theyre good teammates. For decades, the best players from this state tended to be leviathan linemen and headhunting linebackers. But lately, Hawaii has turned into an unlikely cradle of quarterbacks.

In the spring of 2015, I went to Honolulu for a story on Marcus Mariota, whod won the Heisman Trophy and would be selected second overall in the NFL draft. While watching a practice at his alma mater, St. Louis School, I saw a sturdily built sophomore uncorking one beautiful throw after another into the wind. Two and a half years later, as a freshman at Alabama, Tua Tagovailoa came off the bench in the national championship game and threw a walk-off 41-yard touchdown pass.

Tagovailoa is the latest in a chain of superb Crusaders quarterbacks, including Mariota, Jason Gesser, and Timmy Chang. All have been mentored by the quarterback-whispering Passas, renowned for his sublime blend of instruction on mechanics (he insists on a high release point) and leadership (its okay to be soft-spoken, if your play speaks for you).

The championship-clinching strike thrown by Tagovailoa was a play identical to one he practiced ten times a day at St. Louis. He had been working with Passas since he was nine. The coach is especially adept at distilling into bite-size lessons the tenets of the Crusaders run-and-shoot offense, which requires receivers to adjust their routes after the ball is snapped, depending on the defense they see. The run-and-shoot has spread to all corners of the island. A week before Tagovailoa introduced himself to the nation, upstart Central Florida capped a 130 season, led by McKenzie Milton, a product of Oahus Mililani High.

The tradition continues. Dillon Gabriel, who broke many of Miltons records at Mililani, signed with Central Florida. Sol-Jay Maiava, from Kahuku High on the North Shore, has committed to BYU. All of these talents were mentored by Passas, playing for him at St. Louis or attending his Get Better clinic. It is thanks to him that Hawaiian youth who want to play quarterback now have role models from their state at the highest reaches of the game.

These kids now have the wind at their backs.

The Honolulu High School Coach Shaping Football

The wind comes diving down the cliffs of the Koolau Range, funneling through the Palolo Valley and over the football field of Honolulus St. Louis School, winner of Hawaiis last three state championships. During practice, quarterback coach Vinny Passas prefers that his charges throw into the teeth of that wind.

This Honolulu Football Coach Guided Tua Tagovailoa and Marcus Mariota — and Is Shaping Football

For his third Gulf outing, he decided to head out alone and fish for sharks off the shore of Galveston, Texas. Undeterred by high winds and rough seas, Field paddled out and hooked a 6-foot black tip, which towed him a mile and a half before he reeled it in.

After releasing the shark, Field began the paddle back to shore, scanning the increasingly turbulent water for the float attached to the anchor hed released when the shark started running. He was leaning in one direction when a rogue wave hit the other side of the kayak, ejecting him and upending the cooler of chum everywhere. Thus did Field find himself thrashing in this pool of mullet blood in the sharkiest waters in the Gulf.

He tried repeatedly, and in vain, to flip his capsized vessel while keeping his knees tucked up against his body. By shrinking his profile, he hoped the sharks would be less likely to notice him. A tropical storm was brewing, Field later learned, and the water was pulling him into one of the inlets dividing the barrier island near Gilchrist. The current in those passes is crazy, he says. Im hanging on to a $2,500 kayak with all this gear on it, but I thought, Fuck it, I dont want to die. And I started swimming to shore.

Fifty feet from the kayak, and about a quarter mile from land, he had a change of heart and turned back. With one final surge of adrenaline, Field threw himself over the middle of the 12-foot boat, grabbed the opposite gunwale, hucked his weight backward, and flipped it right side up. Upon returning safely to shore, he was approached by a pair of coastguardsmen. Through binoculars, a woman had been watching Field struggle from her sea shell shop on the beach and called for help. I apologized for wasting their time, he recalls, and they were super cool about it.

He was humbled, scared, embarrassed . . . and exhilarated, which helps explain the decision he made a few years later to upend his life.

This Man Left Corporate America for the Wild

The saying "Many men go fishing all their lives without knowing that its not fish they are after has been famously misattributed to Thoreau. But another (and actual) Thoreau quote best captures Fields frame of mind in his 20s: The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. Field went to college with the expectation that hed follow in the footsteps of his father, a successful oil and gas engineer. But after five semesters at Texas A&amp;M, he switched his major to psychology, with a minor in business. I couldnt stand engineering, Field says. I kept thinking, I dont want to work with these people for the rest of my life.

He went to work as the marketing director for a financial-advisory firm after college, attending night and weekend classes for his masters in finance. But he spent nearly every waking hour daydreaming about being on the water. He had discovered kayak fishing in 2013, following a breakup with his girlfriend. I had a lot more free time, he says. I wanted to do something outside, something that could help me stay fit, something adventurous. He stumbled upon a video shot by Drew Gregory, an established angler with a signature line of Jackson kayaks and a web series called Hooked on Wild Waters.

In this particular episode, Gregory chronicled his journey down the Devils River. Hes out there on the TexasMexico border, theres rattlesnakes, hes catching bass, and Im like, I want to do that.

Following unapologetically in Gregorys wake, Field undertook an expedition down the Devils. His documentary of that adventure, distilled from 80 hours of video to 38 taut minutes, won Online Video of the Year in Kayak Angler magazines 2014 Choice Awards, and he was on his way. For two-plus years, he juggled a full-time job, his time-consuming hobby, grad school, and his girlfriend, once they got back together. Then came the week when it all fell apart.

The universe wasnt out to get me. It was trying to tell me something.

In a span of five days in December 2016, Fields girlfriend broke up with him again, instructing him to clear his ass out of their apartment; he lost his job as vice president of a start-up fishing-rod company; and his favorite uncle, an exaircraft mechanic and military buff, walked into a park on Pearl Harbor Day and shot himself.

For a few days, I sat around, felt sorry for myself, probably drank more than I should have, says Field, a contemplative 30-year-old redhead. With the help of friend and fellow fisherman Rex Guzman, he realized the universe wasnt out to get me. It was trying to tell me something.

That message: Burn your neckties and live your dream. He decided to turn his avocation into his vocation. And what better time to try? You have no dependents, Guzman pointed out. So if you go broke, youre the only one who starves!

Field devoted himself to filming, producing, editing, and starring in Field Trips, his heart-pounding, white-knuckle YouTube fishing show, which reaches tens of thousands of viewers weekly. In 2018 he doubled down on his bold decision, moving out of his south Florida home and into a 22-foot Grey Wolf trailer that he refers to as his toy hauler. Hes now on a quest to catch a fish in all 49 continental states, an epic journey that combines elements of Homers Odyssey, Hemingways The Old Man and the Sea, and Kerouacs On the Road.

I didnt want to spend my life chasing money, building a bank account so I can be happy when Im 65, he says. Id rather be broke and wake up every day stoked about what Im about to do.

Fishing's great appeal, to hear Field tell it, is that it engages all his brain: "It forces you to become an amateur biologist, understanding the fish and why theyre doing what theyre doing; to be a botanist, under-standing how the plants in the water affect what the fish are doing. You have to be an amateur geologist-rocks and the layout of the earth around the water, that all matters.

Fishing enforces a meditative connection to nature thats at the heart of its timeless appeal. It explains why Norman Maclean discerned no clear line between religion and fly fishing in A River Runs Through It, and why Sir Izaak Waltons The Compleat Angler, or the Contemplative Mans Recreation has ranked third, since its publication in 1653, as the most printed text in the English language (behind the Holy Bible, which has some epic fishing scenes, and Shakespeare).

Its also why fishing has been shown to ease symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. Operation WetVet, based in Miami, is a nonprofit founded by former Marine Osvaldo Martinez, who takes PTSD-scarred veterans fishing to help them recognize good adrenaline rushes from bad ones, according to a recent story in Anglers Journal. I want to replace the nightmare of the roadside bomb with catching a sailfish, Martinez told AJ.

\"When people ask me what my favorite species of fish is, I tell them: something I\'e never caught before.\"

Operation WetVets anglers were among the more than 51 million Americans to wet a hook last year. Where does Field, in terms of expertise, fall on that continuum? Near, but not at, the top. I dont pretend to be the best out there, he says. Some guys are bass fishermen, and thats what they do. Some guys go after red fish. They've mastered that, and I've got a ton of respect for them. When people ask me what my favorite species of fish is, I tell them: something I'e never caught before."

No matter the species, there might not be a purer way to fish than from a kayak. When youre blazing down the lake 60 mph in a boat, Field says, youre not exactly stopping to smell the roses. Youre also scaring off a lot of wildlife. Dolphins and sea turtles have swum right up to his vessel, and wild mustangs met him on the banks during a trip down the Pecos River in west Texas, where he spent a week sleep-ing amidst cacti and scorpions as he traveled down 60-odd miles of the river.

And when it comes to the actual fishing, kayaks can reach remote and shallow waters that larger boats cant, meaning you have a better chance of landing fish that havent been harassed by other anglers. All the while youre building muscle, burning calories, and getting a hell of a core work-out. It doesnt take a 6-foot shark to pull you around on a so-called Nantucket sleigh ride, but the amount of fun is often proportion-al to the size of the fish. When I hook in to a 100-pound alligator gar, Field says, I dont have the upper hand.

While a typical day of angling is eight hours, Field often finds himself on the water for 12 to 14, trying to catch enough fish for a video. Every so often, he says, I have to remind myself not to let the pressure of making a living take away my whole reason for doing this in the first place."

Income for food, gas, bait, and sundries comes from a variety of sponsors, including NRS (technical apparel), AccentPaddles, Railblaza (kayak accessories), YakGear (kayak rigging), and Fishbrain (a fishing social app). He earns revenue from YouTube, which pays on a per-thou-sand-views basis, and he holds out hope for the kind of major sponsor, like a truck or a travel-trailer company, that he says would be life-changing.

A new episode of Field Trips goes up every Tuesday at 6:00 p.m. Eastern, with behind-the-scenes episodes, or vlogs, airing some Thursdays at the same time. For those vlogs, hell spend time hiking and backcountry camping in national parks and monuments. He does not miss those neck ties.

And yes, Field makes occasional use of a dating site as he ranges across the republic, leading a friend of his to remark, over a recent lunch, Dont come knockin if the Grey Wolfs rockin...

An embrace of the unknown is the ethos underlying Fields journey. This is about a lot more than just the fish, he says. So may people feel like they're stuck in life, but that's usually not the case. A lot of people are scared because theyre afraid of failure. Everyone says Im living the dream, but this is much harder than 8-to-5 ever was. Theres more to it than sunshine and hook-sets, but this is my idea of success.

Although not prosperous-he still eats ramen and makes frequent use of Boondockerswelcome.com to find free RV parking-Field is happier than hes ever been. His videos are full of what Walt Whitman would have called barbaric yawps-Whoa! Woohoo! What?!-unleashed when a sturgeon or roosterfish or bull shark hits his line and sends adrenaline coursing through his body. If those joyful noises count as a kind of currency, he isnt just happy. Hes rich.

Robert Field had owned a kayak for all of five months and paddled it into the open ocean just twice. Both times he had tagged along with more experienced anglers and ventured 4 miles out into the Gulf of Mexico, where the water was as flat as a millpond and the fish practically jumped into his boat. King, mackerel, red snapper-they were bitin like crazy, Field says. And Im thinking, This offshore stuff, everyone acts like its hard. Clearly, Im a natural.

This Man Left Corporate America for a Career in the Wild

When youre CEO of a fitness technology company, opportunities to exercise are part of the job, thanks to regular group workouts. Chances to think clearly? Not so much. Most days, Quarles slogs through meetings, demo sessions, and too much computer screen time during his workday. A Wednesday company workout breaks things up but offers no quiet time. He ends days in full Family Man mode, focusing on his wife, Shelly, and their three children.

For Quarles, 43, his morning run is his only guaranteed peace. Quarles began running in his mid-20s, some-thing he picked up from his dad, Tom, whod entered a handful of marathons. He never completed any of them, struggling with fatigue, but his son always admired the attempts. They inspired me, Quarles says. By 2016, when he was a VP of Instagram, running had become his sporadic morning workout.

Then last year, Quarles stepped up his habit when a friend bought him an entry into the 2018 New York City Marathon. At first, Quarles was slightly annoyed. But he embraced the challenge, finding a training program from famed running guru Hal Higdon on the Internet and sticking to it for 18 weeks of prep. It was then that he realized the beauty of the predawn workout. I was waking up consistently at 5:00 a.m., he says. When I got back, my family was still asleep, often, and the sun was not up... I did not miss a single day.

The practice paid off in the Big Apple. Quarles finished in 3:34, despite feeling like I had three people on my back by the time he was looping through Central Park.

Hes thinking about participating in his first triathlon now, but his most important fitness goals are professional.When youre looking at a 5:00 a.m. start, he says, youre in bed by 9:00, 9:30. And when youre up early every morning, you learn to use the time productively. Im able to look at problems and topics from a different perspective, he says. (His first problem every morning: getting out of the house without waking Shelly or the kids.)

Quarles makes his favorite post-run snack, a superfood-packed smoothie.

Quarles recalls one run last September when he was struggling to craft a U.S. marketing strategy for Strava. The service had a strong international following, but Quarles believed there was massive room for growth stateside. He just wasnt sure how to get there.

Then, as the sun was rising, he remembered a map his analytics team had given him a few weeks earlier that showed plenty of coastal Strava users. I took a big bet on more local resources in places like L.A. and N.Y.C., he says. Much of that thinking came from those runs."

<h1> Take on Your Own Morning Mileage </h1>

One of Quarless favorite group runs is called #downandtotheright, and its not for the faint of heart. Grab a few friends and tackle the hour-long ladder workout.

2. Six Minutes of Hell

<ul><li> Run the next 4 minutes at your half-marathon pace.(For Quarles, thats around an 8-minute mile.) Then go back down to a jog for 2 minutes of recovery. </li></ul>

3. The Five-Minute Gut Check

<ul><li> Take on the next 3 minutes at your 10K pace, which should be slightly faster than your half-marathon pace. (Quarles aims for a 7:30 mile here.) Then jog for 90 seconds to recover. </li></ul>

4. Your Three-Minute Miracle

<ul><li> Speed up some more, using your 5K pace for the next 2 minutes. (For Quarles, thats a 7-minute mile.) Then jog for 1 minute of recovery. </li></ul>

5. Sprint to the Finish!

<ul><li> Ignore the fatigue youre feeling and do the next minute at your 1-mile pace (5:30 for Quarles). Then jog for 3 minutes. </li></ul>

6. The Hardest Part

<ul><li> Repeat the entire sequence, starting at Six Minutes of Hell. </li></ul>

7. The True End

<ul><li> Jog for 10 minutes to cool down. </li></ul>

James Quarles's workout is more than just an eight-mile run through San Francisco. Its his first meeting of the day-even if its just a meeting with himself. He solves problems and hatches business plans for <a href="https://www.strava.com/" id="15bf1c26-3186-3937-a366-e3429f75e86c"> Strava </a> , the 40-million-strong social network for runners and cyclists that hes run for two years. I use my workout for free space, creative thinking, and being inspired, he says.

How the CEO of Your Favorite Running App Starts His Day

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Austin Murphy

Articles written by the author

This Fitbit Exec Stays in Shape by Cycling Through Obstacles

This Honolulu Football Coach Guided Tua Tagovailoa and Marcus Mariota — and Is Shaping Football

This Man Left Corporate America for a Career in the Wild

How the CEO of Your Favorite Running App Starts His Day