Perspective

1 Timothy 4:8 "For physical training is of some value, but Godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come."

My little brother (but big brother, solid muscle type) reminded me of this the other day after Longhorn, and I appreciated it a lot. Both of us have become very active in the past few years, and would probably both say that our sports are "addictive" in a good way. It is easy to get completely consumed by them and forget that it is a momentary thing and not the most important thing. We must do things beyond it, and if possible, integrate it into what we do so that we do our sports with a purpose. What we do in life and how we approach life, from family, to job, to hobbies, to speech, to decisions, basically everything should have a purpose and reflect who we are as individuals. We should be genuine. I want to be genuine...I am not perfect, far from it. Pride is always an issue I've dealt with, especially when God blesses you with success beyond what you could imagine. One thing I'm passionate about is leadership, and in that, I don't mean the dictatorial level of leadership, but rather servant leadership...leadership in a way that leaves a legacy, builds others, challenges others, and encourages them to do the same. Yes, I train, I do triathlon, I run, but I do it not for my glory, but because I have been given a gift: work ethic, athletic ability (more grown than totally natural), and the opportunity to interact with a variety of people. When I swim, bike, and run I do it, in a sense, as a way to worship--to say this is what I've been given, I will use it, and encourage others to do it because it does make the body better, it does open up doors for a variety of opportunities. This may sound funky to some of you, but that is the beauty of being an American. I won't ever force it on someone, but I will live it and do my best, with His help, to live it as is supposed to be, to crush the hypocritical stereotype that plagues Christians. I won't be perfect, but I'll own up to my mess ups and change and grow up with it.

I train because I've been given a gift...it is not the end all to be all, but it is a blessing.
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PS- On a wholly UNRELATED note...this is my 101st blog post! :)

Life is...

Life is moving quickly, as always. This past week FLEW by...and thankfully ended with a wonderful 4-day weekend. I took a much needed recovery week this past week. I did nothing on Monday; Tuesday was some general strength exercises at unit PT--nothing crazy; Wed was a slow 3 mile run; Thursday I walked the dogs; Friday I rode my bike for 45 minutes; Saturday I rode for 1.5 hours at a good clip; Sunday I ran for an hour...none of it pushed me hard except for the Saturday ride, but that was good and I didn't have any soreness from it. I'm putting together my plan for maintaining up till the San Antonio 1/2 Marathon...then in DEC I'm going to start working with a coach to get through the 2009 season. Lots I could say on that, but I'll leave it for another time.

Now that it is the "off season" I am focusing on nutrition. BT has a nutrition log, so I'm logging calories. I can get faster by trimming down, and I'm going to do my best to be diligent with that. It's difficult to lose fat during heavy training cause you have to eat to keep up your energy...so now is the time to do this. So, there is one off-season goal.

I am also reading some more. Of big importance, back in Aug/Sept I finally found a church to call my church home and it does have a singles group that seems to get it...so I finally have some people to hang out with here locally that don't think throwing back the bottle is the best way to spend a weekend.

So, nothing exciting to report really. Had a good, relaxing weekend. Thankfully, it's a 4-day work week. Right now I'm just VERY excited about going to volunteer at Ironman Florida at the end of the month and get a little taste of what next year will hold...