Running is different from Swimming

Ok many of you may know Crystal and i are training for a triathlon that is to happen at the end of July. we have been training now from a little over 3 months and I must say I think it is going really really well. Crystal could not run for more than 5 minutes when we started and now she is up to running 25 minutes, riding 45 minutes and swimming 20 strait. These are all big steps for her especially seening that she never has done any true cardio training in her life. She was a cheerleader in high school but they didn't do a lot of Cardio training like the way I did when I swam up to college. So I am extremly proud of where we are and if we both just finish the tri-athlon that will be a huge huge step or both of us. The tri-athlon is a .6 mile swim, 12 mile bike, 3.1 mile run so it is considered a sprint but that is still a lot of stuff.

Anyways this post was not about that. This was about my learning that running is different from swimming. When I was a swimmer I was a distance swimmer. This basically ment that my body, heart, and lungs break down a lot slower in a race than a sprinter. This also means that I am no 100 dash kind of guy. I am short, stumpy, and not loaded with big honkin muscles for great amounts of power. So I signed up for a 5K (3.1 mile) run with my church this past weekend. I thought it would be a good test to see how good of shape I was in seeing that I had only been working out 3 months I was not expecting to much. Well in distance it is important to build to your race speed not to start out there. This means the 3rd mile should be your fastest mile or atleast no slower than your 2nd and 1st mile. Well I took this race out like a mad man, died on the 2nd mile and got my 2nd wind for the third mile. I did pretty well though I finished 24th overall out of about 200 and won my age group of 20-24. I ran 3.1 miles in 24:36. Not to shabby but if I had ran my own race, like I used to swim them, I would have been faster...just another learning expierence.

Man I am tired of being busy

Ok one of the things I wished I had known before I got married, and this is not a bad thing or me saying I don't love being married because I absolutly 110% love my wife and being married to her, is te fact that when you are a young married you are hardly ever not busy on the weekends. I mean is college the weekends where the downtime. Now we are always on the go or doing something or being somewhere. It is crazy! Let me just give you a heads up on our schedule for the next few weeks and months
Last weekend - Brother-in-law's graduationg
This weekend - Church 5K run and Dave Ramsey Totle money makeover live event
next weekend - My parents are coming to town for a visit
then we actually have a few weekends home but I am sure I will have yardwork, building work, or something to keep me freom being lazy. this is the norm of the married young working adult. Can I be a kid again?

HOWDYYY!

I just had to get in really quick on the Presidents address to the nation last night. For the most part I agree with his points on the way to handle the aliens in this country. I like the idea of them having to pay their taxes and go to the back of the line to receive citizenship. I think the people how have come her the right way and those who are trying should b given first right of passage. But let me just say one thing.....Does anyone else feel like they where watching a robot or a puppet during that speech. I mean to quote Robin Williams(althought he was talking about Reagan)"Don't you feel like you are watching a MUPPET!!! I was seriously afraid that there was some idiot behind the camera going, 'move the arm'." I mean I can't say anything about the way I speak because I am a redneck and my language and speech prove it everyday but I AM NOT PRESIDENT!!! My wife always says we, as Americans, got spoiled because Bill Clinton was probably one the the greatest speaking president ever. I am not going to go off on the war, the fact that nothing has happened to social security, and the fact that I really feel like our president should not come from TEXAS ever again. But come on at least someone in that White House could teach this man the art of public speaking or at least maybe a class in college could do it.!!!
** this has been a rambling moment brought to you from the mind of .......ME!

Obedience

I heard a hard to receive message this weekend at church. It was about obedience! This is not always an easy subject to hear about because I can always justify my actions that I take in my own mind. I used to justify my use of alcohol because everyone I hung out with drank. But everytime I got drunk I said to Jesus that I do not love you. I may have not meant it that way but that is what I was saying. I am going to paraphrase the story that Cameron Mills told this weekend at church and let all my 2 reader, ok maybe 3, sit on it for a little while.

"What is high school all about, what do all high school aged kids want to do/be? Cool. It may not be that exact term anymore but basically that is what they all want. Cool just mean popular, which just means in with the crowd. Well after I won my second national championship ring(He was a University of Kentucky Basketball player from 96'-99')I wanted to go back to my old high school and brag. It was my moment, or so I thought, to enjoy the glory I had. I walked to walk around and just show off that ring. But I most of all wanted to see my old high school basketball coach because he invested so much in to me that I wanted him to be proud. As I walked in to the gym I noticed that the students where doing their most hated part of PE, Square Dancing. Lets face it square dancing is the opposite of cool. But as I looked out on the crowd of students on the floor I saw this one little girl out there who was not pretty, not popular, not smart, and was generally the opposite of the high school definition of what it takes to be popular. I saw this girl with tears running down her face because no boy wanted to dance with her. As I looked at this girl God spoke and said, 'Get up and go dance with her'. This was not what I wanted to do at all. It was my moment to be the popular guy, to be the guy everyone wanted to be and God was crashing my party. So i started to visualize how this would go, I would get up and walk over to the girl, lift her head and say, 'I will dance with you.' And the tear would no longer flow and all the boys would realize how selfish they where. So after my visual I got up and ran out the gym door as quickly as I could. God did not ask me if I would consider dancing with her, He told me to dance with her. Sure I could justify it but in the end I was selfish and disobedient. I said 'Jesus I don't love you enough to obey you.'

Cameron Mills

Now even thought he said to Jesus that he didn't love him, Cameron went on to say but God whispered back, "yeah but I still love you". That moment changed his life. How many times has God ask you to do something and you said no. I have done it a number of times and all that is plain disobedience. Don't be this way. Remember what Christ has done for you.....Imagine if he got to the cross and said, "nah I don't feel like it."