Duped on the Run

It's Saturday rivalry week in NCAA college football. Outside, it's overcast and rainy, cold, and dreary. A perfect day to stay inside and watch tv and do nothing. However, I forced myself to get in a medium length run that I originally thought was a nice easy short run. The above video explains how I got duped!

Lately, I've been really intrigued with how the spiritual and physical go hand-in-hand and the older I get the more obvious it is that they are closely connected. Therefore, I've been casually searching for some things on this subject in the bible. Here's what I found and thought that the translation from The Message was quite interesting. I love this verse and how it talks about the Lord taking care of the birds of the air and how we as His children count more to Him than they do. It's something I often think about when I'm at the beach in Florida at the parents' house watching the many beautiful sea birds around the water.

The verse is: Matthew 6:25-26

If you decide for God, living a life of God-worship, it follows that you don't fuss about what's on the table at mealtimes or whether the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There is far more to your life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body. Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God. And you count far more to him than birds.

Monday begins the off-season program for Troy and myself. I hope he's ready!

A Cold Day's Ride

Doing a yoga workout is certainly no joke! I knew it would be tough and really good for you, but I never realized that it would make me this sore from doing slow moving body movements! I thought, even with a month training layoff, I was in pretty decent shape and able to do just about any workout without much trouble. Well yoga is a different story. It's stretching, slow movements, breathing, and concentration - and it's tough! I can see it being a great addition to the triathlon training that Troy and I are embarking on for next season.

I did a 45 minute yoga workout yesterday and this morning woke up extremely sore. . . again! Because of the soreness and lactic acid build up in my legs, I decided to go for a short 11 mile bike ride. It was my first one in a month, and it was a little tough but enjoyable. The tough part was due to me being out of cycling shape and the bitter cold. I hate riding in the cold! However, it was good for me and I'm glad that I did it. It was one of those days that I didn't feel like doing anything and had to force myself to be active outside. It's certainly a good feeling once you're done.

Attached is the link to the route that I took.
Today's cold ride!

Yoga/Run Combination

Today was the first day back from about a month layoff from any kind of training outside of some occasional swimming. Today was a bit unusual. First of all, I owed my friend Scott Brickell a call back from yesterday that I needed to return. I called him, we chatted, then he convinced me to come out to his place to run instead of me running my “normal” route here at my house. Once I got there, he talked me in to doing this P90X workout that consists of a bunch of home fitness DVD workouts. I chose the yoga workout because I've always wanted to do a legit yoga workout but have never had the opportunity. Now was my chance! WOW! Out of the 1 hour and 30 minutes that it should've taken to do the entire workout, I could only do 35 minutes. It was extremely tough and intense and I loved it! I'm definitely doing it again considering it's a wonderful workout for endurance athletes. At any rate, I've found a new "thing" so I'm pumped.

I later got in a run for the first time in a while as well and it felt wonderful. I slipped into that spiritual zone again and things really seemed to level out. I can tell it's the Lord's way of communicating with me as I get older.

It's the day before Thanksgiving and I have much to be thankful for. Thank you Lord for my life - both the good and the bad, because through the bad you make it into good for your glory!

God is good all the time, and all the time God is good.

Sunday With the Girls

Today was a day of hangin' out with all 3 of the girls because Ashley had something to do today. I certainly didn't mind because I love going to church with all of my little ladies. I get such a fulfilling feeling on these types of Sundays. 

The service was geared toward the whole family. Therefore, I got to sit with the twins in the service and listen to Steve speak about the effects of our culture on us as Christians. He spoke from Revelation chapter 2 and it was one of those messages that hit close enough to home to spark some dialog amongst the girls and myself on our way back home after church. They seemed to really soak it in and understand what was conveyed and agreed with the message from the pastor. That made me feel good and proud in a since that God has His hand on my children and speaks to them in small ways. I pray for them daily and earnestly, and I pray that they will be leaders for Christ in a world of insecure followers.

Today I had the intention of swimming with the triathlon class but it didn't work out exactly how I had planned. I was enjoying being with the girls too much to break away and go do my own thing. There will be other days that I'll be alone and able to train intensely. Today was a day that I wanted to soak in and enjoy before all three of my princesses go away for a week on Thanksgiving break. Today was my Thanksgiving day. I had many reasons to be thankful and I felt compelled to take in every possible minute.

Swim Day

Yesterday, I went to get a swim workout while the twins were at their own swim practice. During my workout, since I'm not able to listen to music or converse with a partner, the scripture passage from Philipians 4:13 came to mind for some reason. It states:

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

I've heard this passage since I was a kid. In fact, it's one of my favorites that I have memorized. However, the thing that I seemed to dwell on during my swim was the strengthens part. I don't believe that it's any coincidence that there's a direct correlation between the physical and spiritual aspects of training. They are both something that you have to take a lot of discipline in and there's a certain amount of suffering that you must go through to improve. This is something that is extremely interesting and intriguing to me. More on this down the road.

Lance in the Wind Tunnel

Lance Armstrong in the Wind Tunnel

Posted to Bicycling by CM on November 18, 2008

Click to Play | View Details

No Training for the Weary

Today is Thursday the 13th. It should be a really good day for me since my favorite number is 13! However, it's rainy, overcast, gloomy, and that makes for kind or a blah day. I'm ending week 2 of not really being diligent in my workouts. Even though it's been nice not to have all the exertion expended, I find that I thoroughly miss the training, the responsibility that goes along with it, and of course the spiritual aspect. I need to get back out there because I feel like I'm cheating the Lord out of our "friendship" time together. I'm looking forward to after Thanksgiving moving into a regularly scheduled routine. It'll be good for me physically, stress-wise, and most importantly spiritually. I've been battling with some depression of late and I think it's attributed to the fact that I haven't been out there beating the pavement. However, I will and I'm planning on getting in some sort of workout this weekend just to keep my body used to the muscle memory.

I miss Troy and my rides. I miss our workouts. And I miss the pain that my body goes through to become better. I think of that as a metaphor to what the Lord is allowing me to go through currently. I'm enduring a lot of pain to be stronger in the end and that's what He's shown me throughout this triathlon journey.

Tuesday & Gloomy

Okay I'll admit it, I'm in a slump training-wise. Troy, by his own admission, is in a slump too. I don't know if it's because of the season being cold, the actual weather, life circumstances, or what. But the fact of the matter is, we're slumping right now. However, I have been reading and researching a lot about taking some down time and the off-season programs. Maybe this is my subconscious forcing me to take a mental and physical break. Whatever the case, I've read that it's good for my body, my mind, my spirit, and my recovery. So I'm just passing off the fact that I feel a little guilty and unnerved by not doing much training.

I've decided (and not yet discussed this with Troy) that I'm going to continue to take a slight break until after Thanksgiving. After the holiday is when I plan to kick in to high gear for the off-season training regimen. I believe that Troy will be okay with this as he's needed this time to mentally and physically re-group. For that matter, so have I! However, I DO miss the euphoric and spiritual feeling that I get when I'm out in the out doors training on my own or with my brother. It's a special time for me and I'm already anxious to get past the winter and move into spring so I can hone in on the events I want to tackle. I'm preparing and focusing on '09 being a break out year in many respects - starting with my training. It's going to be good. I'm going to see that it's good, and I'm focusing on the fact that it will be good.

God is good - so why shouldn't next year be?

Sunday Soreness

Yesterday I woke up and almost couldn't get out of the bed. The night before (Friday night), I played football with my rec league team who happen to be comprised of some of the Franklin Police force (it's nice to have those friends and connections). At any rate, we unfortunately lost and I paid a much higher price the next morning over a loss. It's amazing to me how my body has transformed from quick-twitch muscle sports to the endurance side of things. The funny thing is, I could've gone out and run 6 miles or biked 40 and not had the residual effects that I had from playing an hour of flag football with a ton of sprints. However, that's exactly what coaches will say is good for the body in training. To always keep it guessing and not let the muscles get used to any one particular thing. That's why they say to do as much cross-training as possible. Troy and my intentions are to do just that - weight training, sprints, interval swims, etc.

It's a constant learning process and that's what I believe keeps us so intrigued. It's a very interesting thing.

Off-Season Training Program

In my research and constant looking to stay up with what's going on in the training world, I put this off-season training schedule together for Troy and myself. I figured I'd share this with the blogosphere to let you see what we're going to be up to while training.

I just sent this over to Troy and haven't yet received his word on what he thinks of the schedule. I think he'll be okay with it, or he better anyway. He doesn't have much choice in that he hasn't been doing a whole lot training-wise. I'm hoping he gets going and jumps back in as diligently has he has in the past. I know it's a bit hard for Troy because we've not yet set a date as to when we're targeting our next triathlon. He works off of clear and set goals as do I. Therefore, we really need to get together and find what we're going to shoot for.

In the meantime, we hope you enjoy looking at what we've got scheduled for the next 16 weeks.

Lance Armstrong Interview at Web 2.0 Summit

Very interesting and educational interview. The most open and laid back interview that I've ever seen Lance give. I'm greatly anticipating his comeback to pro racing. I believe it'll be great for the sport.

Pursuit of Truth

Nothing much to add today due to a number of reasons. If you are reading this, count your blessings daily. Make a conscious effort to choose the right path. Pursue truth or it will ultimately find you.

God is a wonderful, merciful, and restoring god. And as my sweet mother will say: "If you have to time to pray to God, God has time to listen." He will hear you and answer your prayers. You just have to wait on Him. That, to me, is the tough part.

Many blessings.

The Shine From A Different Light

Tonight I spoke to a very close friend who's been following our progress on this blog for some time now. She had some very insightful things to say about what we're doing here. After much thought and contemplation, I think she has some valid points in many respects. You see, this thing has grown to be bigger than Troy or I had ever intended or anticipated. That's not to say that we have tons of viewers; we don't. But we do have more viewers and participants than just our extended family. Therefore, what my friend had to say somehow rang true after my initial offense wore off. You see, with me doing the majority of typing entries and being "on camera," I could see how that could come across a being a bit narcissistic, which is how it has come across to some people. That is certainly not mine nor Troy's intent.

This was all brought to my attention in a very positive way. Not to degrade or demean what I'm doing, but to let us know that we have built a nice platform that could be used for so much more potential. Instead of us always tracking our training program (which is all fine - especially the progress Troy's making with his weight), we could incorporate some educational aspects, some things that involved some socially conscious organizations, maybe some nutritional information, etc. Just some things that could ultimately help people instead of everything being about us! When I think about it, it IS about us and it shouldn't be. We are called to be facilitators of helps to people. We should be giving rather than taking. We could be educating rather than nebulous journaling.

How do we do all of this? I'm not real sure yet, but with Troy's keen brain and my technical abilities, I'm sure we can come up with something. If there's any ideas out there, please write to us in the comment section and let us know. We want to do some good with what we've built here and maybe help others along the way.

Monday Junk Food

Okay, I'm going to fess up and admit that I'm in a slight slump. Am I as excited as I normally am to get out of the house and train? NO! Have I been really stringent on watching what I've been eating? Not even a little bit! Today I ate TONS of Halloween candy that was brought in by different people at the office. However, the one saving grace that I did have is the fact that I got a good workout in this morning. I swam for an intense 35 minutes then worked out on some strength training in the weight room while the twins finished up their practice. It was a good session, but I feel like I've negated everything by "comfort eating" the chocolate and candy.

Today was a bit stressful in that I had a meeting with my financial guy and as those things go, I've never known one to go well. I felt like the sky was falling in due to me not being able to afford to keep my house. I desperately need to sell it or I'm about to be foreclosed on. That is hugely stressful and the market is not letting up in the slightest. Desperate times call for desperate measures. I'm now looking into what's called a short sell on my home. I don't really know what that is, but I'm trying to find out if that may be the best way to go to salvage my credit rating and get rid of the house at the same time. I just don't know, but I'm trying not to let that completely over take and rule me. God is in control and I have to keep reminding myself that on a daily basis. I feel as if I'm getting a bit stronger by the day and that things are looking up, but it's situations like these that remind me that I'm still not out of the hole just yet.

A Message To A Mother

Mom, this one is for you! This is specifically to show you that Troy and I are fine. . . even though we didn't post anything yesterday!

Yesterday was a "chill" day. Troy nor I did anything active yesterday because we're still in the rest period. I find that I get extremely antsy when I haven't done any sort of workout during the day. Does that mean I'm addicted to the training? I don't think so, but I DO get a wonderful feeling out of the training process and I've trained my body over the last many months to respond quite favorably. However, getting to that point has been a very long journey. Troy has gotten (and continues to get) to that same place physically. His weight continues to stay down and he continues to steadily drop weight slowly - which is the best and most healthy way to do it. I feel like this time, after all of the "dieting" that he's done, the hard work will continue to pay off and he'll keep his weight down once and for all. I'm so proud of that guy! He's truly a trooper on so many levels!

Now it's time to go for a long 45 mile ride. We're slowly easing into our off-season training regimen. I'm ready and about to start honing in on our next race. Watch for the count down over to the right.

Post-ride update:

Went on a leisurely 33 mile ride in perfect weather. This was our first ride since the triathlon.