Saturday, June 14, 2008

Happy Birthday

Many of you may know today as "Flag Day," but it is because of a more important event in our US History, the Army's Birthday. So to all my fellow Soldiers and Army Veterans, Happy Birthday!
"We sleep safely at night because rough men stand ready to visit violence on those who would harm us." - George Orwell

Friday, June 13, 2008

Sleep in....

Since today I only have a 45 min. bike on the schedule, and I'd like to do it outside tonight, I "slept in" this morning. No, really, for me it felt like sleeping in. What time did I wake up, you ask? 5:50 AM. Yep, it actually felt like sleeping in. I even tried to sleep a little while longer, and just couldn't. Guess that is what this morning training has done to me! I am much more a morning person than a night person though. I wonder what makes someone a night person vs. a morning person? Some people can function at all hours, and I can do that for about 1-2 days at most, and then I just CRASH. When I was a kid and went to sleepovers where we stayed up late, I would literally get sick, fever, etc. the next day because my body just doesn't like staying up way late.

Today is a "training holiday" for the Army...but I have class. I am hoping it goes quickly, and I expect it will. I'm in need of some groceries again, so I have that on my to do list, my bike ride on my to do list, the continual "cleaning" process that is homeowning, and then getting things ready for another 100k bike ride tomorrow. This will be my last big training weekend before I start entering a taper mode for Buffalo Springs. Two weeks and two days till my first 70.3, and yes, that's 70.3 miles that my body will carry me through the water, on wheels on the road, and pounding the pavement under the hot Lubbock, TX sun. I am convinced this last deployment to Iraq pushed me over the edge into insanity when it comes to the endurance sports world...and yet I love it.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Dinner, Police Cars, Book Reading

Late night for me today--I had the pleasure of going to dinner with some friends from out of town. Had a delicious and tender steak and baked sweet potato, it was wonderful, and the conversation was great. It was really nice to see these folks, and they sought me out to let me know they were in town. In a sense you could call this guy "my recruiter" except for the Academy doesn't really have recruiters--but they do have representatives to help candidates navigate the admission/nomination process and they do weigh in with the admissions committee based upon their interaction and assessment of you. Being the ambitious high schooler I was, I linked into him my freshmen year of high school and he helped me make sure I was good to go as the years went. He is retired from the military now, but he definitely helped me a lot, stayed in contact, and really cared about my professional development as a cadet and since I have commissioned. So here, truly 14 years and countless life/Army experiences since, and he's still tracking me down to check on me. His son is an officer too and deploys really soon, so they were here to see him off. One of the components of good leadership is that the leader breeds and invests in junior leaders. This officer has done that for me since before I was even in the Army. Make leaders, be leaders. I had a great example from the very start.
Today was MINIMAL classroom time and the majority outside (which I didn't know--thus my face/neck are somewhat sunburned with nice "glasses" racoon eyes--granted, that happens with our sport anyhow, so nothing new) or in a police car that I got to whip around! We did precision backing--and that took a little bit of practice to get through the course, going backwards and not hitting cones with the front or back and within a time limit. We also did a fast serpentine (35mph...sounds slower than it is, I had the back seat passengers flying everywhere and the wheels a squeeling), a quick lane turn and quick braking, and then a backwards serpentine. No cones hit in that one!! In fact, the Soldiers thought I was fairly impressive on it! Lots of thumbs ups and high fives!
I won't hit on yesterday too much--but if I thought reading powerpoint slides to me was bad, how about a 38-page book over several hours--to include reading items in the parantheses (like acronyms). It was the most painful class I think I've ever been through....it was HORRIBLE. I did get a letter to a friend written and a couple of magazines read though. Tomorrow and Friday are more classroom classes--I pray they are good and not poor presentations because I can't take anymore of the poor stuff.

Monday, June 9, 2008

Back to the Core

With all my swimming/biking/running lately I have neglected my core workouts that I had been very diligent on when deployed. Granted, when deployed I only had a stationary bike and no pool, and there were no distractions either. But, I am going to be working on ensuring my core stays strong as that helps everything else. My runs lately have been tough, and I know that much of that is due to the heat that has descended upon here, but nonetheless, I know if my cores is strong, the rest of my events will be that much better. I didn't want to do the same routine I had been doing, as I got bored with that, but this month's Runner's World magazine (they have tons of online resources too) has a good 15 minute core workout in it's section about Marathon training for "busy people." It only requires a stability ball, which I have, a chair, and a wall. So, I'm going to do it for a while and then change things up. I tend to get stuck into routines and probably need to vary things up more. I want to incorporate my bands into my core workout too--gotta keep my good guns nice and strong!

Today's police classes were BORING. It was another day of "death by powerpoint" and someone reading me slides. Y'all already know how I feel about that, so I won't beat that dead horse--though that's what I felt like I had happen to me today.

I know the reader's of this blog are from various backgrounds, opinions, and ideas. You know, just from my "about me" blurb and some of my postings that I am a committed Christian. I personally do not like the concept of "religion" as I find it stuffy and works based, Christianity is about a personal relationship, a changed life, and really a pursuit towards eternity. Anyhow, I wanted to occassionally throw out some sites I frequent and appreciate the content. I don't always agree with them 100% at all, but I do get some good insight and ponder some questions and various Christian opinions on issues of the day, especially for the single Christian, and yeah, that's still me. So, if you want to, check out Boundless.