Sunday, January 4, 2009

Catching Up



After the Polar Bear Plunge on Thursday, I got up early on Friday and met Scott Ostrem, former Tulsa Area Triathlete President, for a swim at the Downtown YMCA. I have never swam at the Downtown YMCA and was a little apprehensive about going. I am not that great a swimmer, but I am learning, and I knew I needed to get some help to see what I was doing wrong. The downtown YMCA only had lap lanes and one end is 9 foot deep. Scott was able to give me some valuable tips to help me and I am sure that over time I can get better and compete in a full triathlon. After the swim I went upstairs and spent 45 minutes lifting weights. After spending the rest of the day with the kids, Julie and I went to the track and I eeked out 5 miles at a very slow pace. I was still pretty tired from the day before and ran real slow. Scott had me meet him at the YMCA at 7 am, so I got up pretty early and was still dragging. The day was good day overall.

On Saturday, we got up late and went to Turkey Mountain in West Tulsa and I ran about 9 miles on the trail, while the rest of the family hiked and ran a little over 4 miles. After that, my daughter Shannon and my youngest son Wyatt, unloaded their bikes off the Jeep and went on their first ever mountain bike ride. There is a little 3/4 of a mile loop that I thought would be perfect for them. They rode and I ran. It was some of the best entertainment I have had in a long time. Between my daughter shrieking like she was on a roller coaster and my son laughing and complaining about the bumps on his egg rolls, it was truly entertaining. Wyatt crashed once and just laughed through the whole thing. They both said that they wanted to do it again. I am not for sure what was going on at Turkey, but I have never seen the parking lot so full for other than a race. Either there was a lot of New Years Resolutions going on or it was just too nice to stay in.

We spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning up the yard and working on the house. Temperatures climbed to about 75 degrees and it was a great day. After exhausting ourselves with housework. I was able to get on the bike trainer and spin easy for an hour.

Today was a change in the weather. 75 yesterday, 27 this morning. Nothing like about a 50 degree swing. We went this morning to the one and only GUTS church where Pastor Bill preached about having Peace in this new year. The church has also started a fast this month based upon Jentzen Franklin's book on fasting. I haven't had a chance to read it yet, but I am sure it is good. We went to the YMCA this afternoon and I swam for an hour and a half working on my freestyle stroke. It went a lot easier, but it is going to take some time. I need to get it better as I signed up for the St. John Indoor Tri on 1/24. This has a 500 yard swim and I do not want to be last or at least be able to finish it it. My one and only sprint triathlon last fall was not pretty and I though I was going to drown in open water. I ended up doing the breaststroke the entire time. My arms were never so tired. I truly felt like Columbus when he was finally able to stand on dry ground. Except, I still had to bike and run.

We went back to church tonight and on the way out after picking the kids from kids church, I saw some money on the ground. I looked at it and thought maybe it was a dollar and picked it up. I looked at it some more in my haste to get to the car and saw some more zeros. The kids were bugging about it by this time and I just put into my coat pocket thinking it was a Benjamin. I started to think to myself that it is probably one of those fake money deals that people leave laying around and are just witnessing tracts, so I didn't think much about it. I got to the car and got it out and sure enough it was a Benjamin. My wife then told me that she was praying for us to have the money to go back to Illinois this week as my mom is having part of her colon removed on Wed. I know, TMI, TMI. My Mom has really wanted us there for the surgery and God has provided it for us. God is so good! We came home and I did a powerful one hour workout on the trainer and was sweating buckets. Tomorrow is Monday and it is back to work. I have been on vacation for a week and it always tough to go back. Oh well, at least I have a job!

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