The Year of the Bear

Finally, some time in the saddle; and by “some time” I mean my sit-bones are screamin’! (That's the polite way of saying my butt hurts...)

I've given you the skinny on most of what I'm about; time to talk about writing. It's what my bachelors degree is in; and it's what I've been doing since I was 8, when I first wrote a story about a leprechaun who learned forgiveness and generosity after his stash of four leaf clovers was stolen. Then, 15 years ago, I started writing fantasy - as most teenagers do, these days.

So, I'm moving Training Update to Tuesday where I meant for it to be originally (that's why it's TUTu!), but my schedule got thrown off a little bit last week with it being the first week of the blog and all that. So the rain did come last weekend - looked like it was going to hold off enough for a bike ride Sunday morning, but no. BUT! Erin and I did our first official 5k of the year (Lake Band 5k supporting Lake High School Band). I came in 2nd in my age group, and 44th overall, which isn't terrible; she was also 2nd in her age group and something like 47th overall - only about 12-13 seconds behind me.

One of the things you learn, if you're around it long enough and look into it deep enough, is that blogs are supposed to be focused - if you're writing a cooking blog, stick to cooking stuff; if you're writing a fitness blog, stick to stuff about fitness. I get that, but... SQUIRREL!

I debated for a brief second whether or not to label this with “healthy eating,” then looked at what I was planning on eating and thought, naahh, not yet. We’ll see how it goes, first.

Well, it's been just under a week since I kicked this whole thing off: time to see how I've been doing in the Training sector.

I’m going to level with you guys: fitness coaches and health professionals probably won’t like what I have to say on a lot of topics. I’m very moderate: I’m not preaching radical lifestyle changes, advocating specific diets, telling you that you have to act this way, believe this thing, and live this life. And there’s a very simple reason for this. I’m not training for the Olympics.

“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? Run that you may obtain it…But I discipline my body and keep it under control.” 1 Corinthians 9:24, 26 “Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.” Hebrews 12:1 So what does running and mountain biking have to do with Christ? Directly? Nothing. As far as I know, Jesus never ran or rode a mountain bike. Indirectly? Everything.

At some point in my relationship with my fiancee, I had the bizarre idea to call each other “[adjective] bear” – like, when you’re ready for bed, you’re "sleepy bear," or "tired bear;" if you don’t understand something, you’re “confused bear”; when you know what you should do but don’t want to, you’re “ornery bear” – you get the idea. Now I’m thinking, when we get married and buy a house, we’ll get a giant carved wooden bear for the end of our driveway. I’ve taken on this identity of the bear. Funny how things happen, sometimes.