Tweet I went running today. But not because I wanted to. Honestly, I don’t know anyone who wants to go running when the humidity is at 90% and the heat index is equally as high. I went because I needed to run. Yes I just used the word need and run in the same sentence, an idea probably foreign to most of you. But earlier I had organized and cleaned my classroom for the umpteenth time, wrote out minute-by-minute lesson plans for next week, made all the copies needed for four ESL classes, and wrote guidelines for three classes of computer projects. (I am going to be gone next week…
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Xterra Saipan 2011
Tweet Status: Finished. I did it.I swam, biked, and ran my way to the end of my first triathlon. In Saipan. An event called by Triathlete magazine “the crown jewel of Xterra.” This Xterra event also drew the #1 male and female Xterra athletes, a former reigning world champ, and a whole lot of other top athletes. So cool. This is how the morning played out. Get up at 3:45am.Talk to parents for one final pep talk and checklist. Eat breakfast. Get dressed and double check transition bag. Head to check in at 5am. Get marked, set up bike, and lay out transition items. Chat with other athletes and try not…
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Xterra Training Log Week 3
Tweet Motivation: The reason one has for acting or behaving in a certain way Work, tutor, coach, swim, run, sleep, repeat. That has been my schedule for the past three weeks. My weekends have included nothing by running, biking, and swimming. I even ran to the ocean and swam on a 45 minute break I had one day this week. I haven’t slept past 5:00am in a long time. Needless to say, I am anxious to sleep until at least 7 on Saturdays, but the sacrifice has been well worth it. In exactly one week, I will attempt and, hopefully, successfully complete my first triathlon. That is why for the…
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Xterra Training Log Week 2
Tweet Saturday marked two weeks until the triathlon. It is coming quickly and I still have a steep hill to climb to be as prepared as I would like to be. I have no doubt at this point that I will finish the race and that is my only goal, however, if I could finish it in a decent time that would be kinda nice too!:) Overall it was a good week. I was able to swim almost everyday, biked three days, and ran four. I am most concerned about the swim as that is my weakest area. And the tide was low all week so it was a bit…
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Xterra Training Log Week 1
Tweet One week down..19 days to go! I spent most of this week questioning my decision to enter, but nevertheless pushed forward with training. On Monday, I could swim for 3 minutes straight. Pathetic and so far from where I needed to be or need to be. But I swam and ran everyday but Wednesday. Wednesdays are my bike day because I don’t have much after school so I can get in a decent ride before dark. Thankfully it has been staying light till closer to 7 these days so I have an extra hour or so of time to train. Friday I hit a breakthrough. I swam for 15…
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Xterra Saipan
Tweet After my successful finish in the bike race this morning, I have decided I am going to enter into the Xterra Saipan Sport Triathlon. I have been talking about it and sorta training for it and dreaming about it, I just finally decided I needed to do it. I know if I don’t, I will regret it. So the plan for the next 30 days looks roughly like this: Eat, work, coach/tutor, swim, run, and bike, eat, sleep. Repeat. Don’t worry, I won’t swim, run, and bike all in the same day. Except for March 12th which is when the actual event takes place. And the course is short,…
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Coach basketball?
Tweet Sure! Why not? No one else is ever going to ask me to coach a sport, which is perhaps wise-but while I am here, I might as well take the opportunity! I really like coaching. Its so much fun to work with students in an environment where they have chosen to be there vs. a classroom setting where they are forced to be there. So the fourth grade teacher and I are helping coach the junior high girls basketball team. I should say, she is coaching, I am helping and together we sorta have some knowledge on the sport. I can’t play it, but I understand somewhat how it…
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My Newest Endeavor
Tweet I John 4:18 says, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out all fear.” John 10:10b says, “I have come that they may have life and have it abundantly.” Fear and abundant life do not mix. I can tell you this from experience. I have spent a lot of my life living out of fear. So I decided that moving half-way around the world would be a good chance to work on getting over some of my fears. I have come to be intimately acquainted with Christ’s perfect love and through that have done many things this year that I normally would have too afraid to…
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Check That Off My List!
Tweet Hell of the Marianas-Toughest Bike Race in Micronesia. Done and Done! Andrea and I finished the race in five hours and 20 minutes. 62 miles total, 31 miles each up and down almost every hill on my small island. We made our first cutoff time with 30 minutes to spare. Andrea finished the first leg in a little over an hour and I finished my second leg in under two hours. I was so excited! I had a very tough leg and rode it faster than I had at any point during training. At that point, it was all smooth sailing. Andrea finished the third leg in under two…
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Training for "Hell"
Tweet This blog post comes with a qualifier. Up until about 6 weeks ago, I had not ridden a bike in almost ten years. Therefore, my friend Andrea and I decided it was only normal that we decide to participate in a 100k bike race. I am so thankful to find someone equally as crazy as I am. We talked about it one night and it was like, “You want to do it? Yeah sure. Ok!” We are entering as a team so we both only have to bike 50k. For those of you in the US, that is 31 miles each roughly. 31 miles is not that long of…