February 7, 2009 by john.

According to the training sites I’ve found, a good plan for training is alternating running days with rest days. Today I am living proof that the muscles really do need a rest the day after running.

It’s Saturday so I didn’t have to go into the office, but I did spend most of the day sitting in my home office working. The peace of the office was shattered by a strange moaning every once in a while, usually followed by a faint snicker in the distance. The moaning was found to be coming from me every time I went to stand back up after sitting for a while and the snickering was coming from an unnamed source, seeming to originate from the family room where quilting was in progress. I stretched my leg muscles out every so often, which seemed to help. Then I walked to the mailbox this evening to give the legs a light workout - Oh, yeah - did I mention that the mailbox is at the end of the drive….. 1/4 mile away….. uphill both ways (well, that’s not true but it sounded good!) - making it a 1/2 mile round trip walk to loosen up the muscles a bit.

As I headed out for my short walk, the baby guinea saw me and came running. They just KNEW that I was our there just to throw out corn for them. (Check out Debbie’s blog, Farmer Woman, to see the story of the guinea and some pictures.) Seems like I have this mistaken thought that Debbie and I are the head honchos on the farm, while the rest of the Beulah Land residents are convinced that we are merely the custodians here to attend to their needs. Hmmm…… maybe we’re actually all on the same page.

We provide their daily feed. We give them shelter from the elements. We confine the does and the chickens at night to protect them from predators. We take care of them when they are sick. This all seems to remind me of how God must feel about us.

He provides our daily bread. He provides our shelter. At times he even places boundaries in place to protect us from predators. He cares for us when we’re sick. And instead of treating Him like the head honcho he REALLY is, the residents of this world treat Him so often like He is merely the custodian here to attend to our needs.

And just like Debbie and I are busy behind the scenes taking care of things around the homestead to help take care of the animals, God is often busy behind the scenes preparing things in advance so they will be at the right place at the right time in our lives. Yet because what we are doing isn’t visible to the animals they really aren’t aware of the preparations taking place. And how often do we think that God is ignoring us when He is really busy behind the scenes making the preparations we will need.

Sound like there may be something to think about in that. What do you think?

Thanks for stopping by!

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February 7, 2009 by john.

Today I started training for my first 5K run. And today I’m writing my first blog entry. Both are so far off the radar screen of the expectations in my life that they really are worthy of note - at least to me!

First, a brief history leading up to the 5K. In the 52+ years that I have spent on good old Terra Firma, I have never been the athletic type. OK, so maybe that’s a bit of an understatement.  I was the nerdy, bookish guy, skinny (oh, the memories of that!) and great at school work - all except gym.  Several years ago, I ran into a friend that I hadn’t seen in some time who mentioned that he had taken up running and was doing marathons. My only thought was “Why?”  I may be running now, but that doesn’t mean I understand it any more for me than I did for him.

Last year we had a weight loss contest at work and, since I had about 15 or 20 pounds to lose I thought I’d give it a try.  One of the activities in the contest was a lunch talk by the owner of the local Nautilus center. At the end, she passed out coupons for free week at the gym. So I grabbed one, tried it out and found that I enjoyed (that might be just a bit too strong of a term) going to the gym in the morning before work. So I started on the treadmill and then learned to workout on the eliptical. I won’t bore you with any more details right now, but will let you know that in the 14 weeks of the contest, I actually lost 12.5 pounds overall, and lost 4.5 inches off my waist. Most of that is still gone. More details of the newbie nerd in the gym will be coming in future posts.

Back to today: I got on the treadmill, found a program for a 5K Fun Run, and I was off…. at a nice brisk walk. Once I got warmed up, I decided it was time to try running on the treadmill. First a nice jog (Oh, good - I didn’t trip over my feet or fall off and look like an idiot in the midst of the jocks… Some old fears from high school just never go away…).  Then a nice slow down while my heart rate steadied out.  Then after catching my breath for several minutes, try to actually run. Watch the clock… make it for a full minute at 6mph….. grunt, grunt, puff, puff….. ok…. maybe 45 seconds is enough.  Back to 4 and get the heart rate back down.  Boy, I REALLY need to keep this training up if I’m going to even finish the 5K.  Ok, let’s try running again. Hey - I’m keeping pace with the fireman two stations down. How neat is that!  Of course he’s been doing that pace for 20 minutes and I made it for a full 60 seconds. Finally “goal attained” - 45 minutes, 4.1mph avg, went 5K.  Now see if I can crawl back to the shower….

This was Day 1 of training.  If anybody cares, I’ll keep you posted how it goes.

Now to the blog. I still can’t believe I sitting here writing this. I’ve often admired the way columnists in the newspaper can come with a column of something interesting to read that just seems to jump out of their mind. That’s never been me. I pushed hard to get my essays done as I was completing my Associates Degree a couple of years ago. I always dreaded having to take the English, Literature, and Social Studies classes that focused on writing assignments.  When it comes to creative writing, my mind usually just goes blank. But I knew that I needed to chronicle the leadup to my first race, if nothing else just to have a journal to help me understand why I’m even doing this.

So, forgive me as I ramble through my journey. If anyone cares to follow along, welcome! I’ll try to be at least somewhat interesting and will most likely throw in various thoughts on working as a programmer, being married to my wonderful and beautiful bride “Farmer Woman” (check out her blog here), living a blessed life as a son of the King of Kings, enjoying life on the homestead and bragging about my grandkids.

The title of the blog is “Who, Me?”  Running a race? Writing my thoughts down? Yup….. Who? Me?

Thanks for visiting!

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