Swim Practice & A Busted Wheel!

Last night was my usual swim practice that, for this particular session, wasn't too hard for me. That's because Coach Ashley had all of us doing sprints and that's the particular area of swimming I seem to excel in. That's not much help when you're training for triathlons and supposedly doing long distance stuff. At any rate, I battled through some cramping in my feet and calves but managed to make it the whole practice without just dying as I normally do. I felt good. The practice consisted of:

20 Minute Warm Up
6 x 75- breathing pattern 3-5-7 by 25's 1:30
8 x 50--Slow/medium pace :50, 1:00,
8 x 50--Medium/fast :50, 1:00,
8 x 100--Freestyle (descend in sets of 2) 1:30, 1:45, 2:00,
8 x 100--75 build, rest 10 seconds, then 25 sprint 1:45, 2:00, 2:15,
8 x 50--25 medium, rest 10 seconds, 25 sprint (1:10 interval) 1:00, 1:10
Total Group 1- 3250 yards + Warm Up / Warm Down

Today after working on film and video stuff for the office, I decided to take a nice run in the great weather. I wanted to take advantage of it because, knowing my luck, it won't be very good tomorrow since we have the day off. Tomorrow would be a perfect day for training all day, but I believe we're expecting bad weather during the day. Go figure!

The run was nice and relaxing and I am starting to learn to keep it at a comfortable zone 2 pace. It's a slow learning process that I wish I could be faster at learning, but I'm getting there thanks to Triswami. And speaking of the "Coach," he's unfortunately suffering through a broken toe that he acquired during a training session (you can read about it here). I guess that means that I have some lag time to be able to catch up to his fitness and running level. I think I'm gonna go for it! :-)

Lastly, my devotion for today hit me pretty hard. It was, "Consider it not hard labor, but serve strangers and smile. Accommodate your neighbor, journey with him that extra mile."
Matthew 5:41

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!