Traveling – Page 3 – My Thought Spot

Latest Fortune Cookies

Here are the cookies from yesterday. These came from the same place that we got the “Oops… Wrong cookie” from last month. We don’t put much faith in the writers of such clever sayings, but these recent ones have been interesting food for thought.

Get Moving! My fortune: What are you waiting for? Start moving now.

I have been somewhat discouraged by my laziness in exercising and staying in shape. While I am doing much better than most, I definitely know I am not where I should be, nor where I want to be. My fortune yesterday was appropriate in that it gave me a little kick in the pants to get motivated and moving. The last 5 years I have harped on the fact that if you will simply get up and move a little bit more today than you did yesterday, you are taking a step in the right direction to get in shape and be healthier. While I still believe that, I have had trouble motivating myself to stay aggressive in my movement. Maybe this is just what I needed.

Fortune: Reduce the complicated to the simple My wife’s fortune: Genius is the ability to reduce the complicated to the simple.

As an interpreter (of many things), I am constantly involved in the struggle of making sure something in one language (concept, culture, story) is completely understood in the other language with the same intent and feeling as it had originally. While I don’t know that it takes a genius to transmit information from one medium to another, it certainly is taxing on the mental capacities. When you can take something that is not understood by one person or group and interpret it in such a way that they “get it” then you are displaying an ability that many others do not have.

Money given to missionaries

This is something I was thinking about a few months ago. This has to do with missionaries raising money for needs other than immediate ministry needs. The example I use is a retirement account.

As a missionary, if you feel guilty about putting money into an account for retirement then you are showing you are dependent on the donor and not on God. As a donor, if you are angered by missionaries putting money into savings, then you are demonstrating that you are giving to the missionary and not to God.

Our giving and receiving should be vertical; from me to God, or from God to me. Giving should not be horizontal; from giver to receiver. As soon as the donor thinks that he is giving to the missionary as opposed to giving to God then he starts to feel like he should control how the money is used. When a missionary begins to think that the money he has comes from individuals and not from God, then he becomes dependent on people and not on God.

Keep your giving and receiving vertical and not horizontal. By doing this then you don’t allow bad attitudes to creep in.

I understand that, as a donor, I want to know that my money is properly used, but if I feel God wants me to give it, I should give. Then whatever happens to the money is no longer in my control. It is up to God to take care of His money. As a receiver I should be very careful of how I use the money given, but not because I am concerned about what people think of how I use the money. I should be careful to be accountable to God for how I use His money.

Two churches

This last weekend we visited a church local to our home. I had met the pastor before and since we did not have a meeting to be in a particular church, we decided to give this church a visit. The church was a class act from the very start.

When we arrived at the church a man met us at the door and noted that we were visitors. He looked on his paper to find out where the Sunday School classes were for our kids. He then grabbed a couple of people walking by and had them walk us to the different classrooms. He also suggested an adult class for my wife and I to attend.

Because the church is in the town where we went to Bible college, there were a few people there whom we knew. I don’t think this had anything to do with the reception we felt as visitors. Everyone was friendly and kind. But not the gushy kind that makes you think someone paid them to be that way. It is just the way they were.

After church we were invited to a short reception in an area that they set up for welcoming visitors. The pastor and a few of the church staff members met us there. We were the only visitors that day, but they were prepared with enough homemade muffins and drinks for probably 10 visitors. We had a good talk with the pastor and no one seemed like they were in a hurry to leave; however, they also did not try to monopolize our time and make us stay.

When we left they gave us each a coffee cup and a friendly smile.

That was not the end though. The next night, Monday, a couple from the church stopped by the house with a loaf of homemade pumpkin bread. They stayed just long enough to thank us for visiting the church and extend an invitation to return.

We felt special.

Contrast that with another church we visited several weeks ago. It was a similar situation in that I had previously met the pastor. We were in his town without a meeting for that Sunday morning service. It was a good opportunity to just stop by.

The reception at the church was cold. The only person who came up to us other than to shake our hand briefly and walk off was the visiting preacher. He came over and chatted and acted interested in us. If the pastor came by before Sunday School or church, I don’t really remember it.

After church we hung around a short time just so that the crowd could thin and I could thank the pastor for teaching a class I was in a couple of months before. He acted like he was in a hurry and did not have time to chit-chat at the back of the church even though there was no one waiting to speak with him.

The church, while full of visitors that day, felt dead. They had a special push to bring visitors to hear the guest speaker. I think there were 20 or more visitors for that service, but none of us were made to feel welcome by the church as a whole. I would hope that those who brought friends did a better job in thanking their friends for being there.

Of course I don’t expect that church to visit in my home since I live about 10 hours away, but I doubt they would have visited if I lived 2 blocks away. It just seemed like they were not interested in adding anyone new to their congregation.

I spoke with a friend who had also visited in that church and he felt the same thing.

Two churches, two very different atmospheres. What are you and your church doing to make visitors feel like they are welcome?

Marathon Training: Week 7 and 8

Week 7
Monday
2.02 miles run. Easy run. Nothing special.

Wednesday
6 mile tempo run. That was really supposed to be a 4 mile tempo with a mile warm up and cool down. That is basically the way it played out. Not quite the total 6 miles, but it was close enough.

Found loot on run This was a Eureka! day. Not because anything super special was discovered in my mind, but I found loot on my run. I have rarely found things. And almost never anything of value. But that day I found 2 hitch pins and a toy lizard.Â The first hitch pin I saw I just took note of it in my mind and thought it was curious. The second one caused me to stop and think that maybe I had a collection started. I picked the second one up and then turned around to get the first one.

After rounding the corner on my way back to the house I saw a little toy lizard. I was not convinced it was a toy at first, so I was careful when trying to grab it. Since we had just started a meeting in a church with a group of friends, I determined right off that the lizard was going to go to church with me and be used to scare some ladies. What fun!

I got home with the loot and showed the lizard to my 5 year old daughter and told her she could have it after I used it to scare people at church. When she prayed for breakfast the prayer was something like this: “Heavenly Father, thank you for letting my daddy find a lizard that he is going to give to me after he takes it to church and scares some people with it. Amen.” Somehow she forgot to pray for the food. The lizard was too exciting for her.

By the way, it was mostly just the older ladies who screamed at the lizard. The younger mothers seemed to be used to creatures being shoved in their faces.

Saturday
16 mile long run. This run was done completely in the rain. 3.5 hours of torrential rain. At times I had trouble seeing the cars on the road, I am sure they had trouble seeing me. The hills were a bit of a challenge (I was in east Tennessee near Gatlinburg).

The ugly truth
I think I am out for this marathon. At least for doing a good time at it. Without any warning or previous discomfort, during the long run on Saturday I felt the pain of a stress fracture in my left foot after 12 miles. I made it the rest of the way home, but my foot definitely needs to heal. I have babied it since with just shorter runs. Now, a week and a half later, the pain is almost completely gone, but I know there is damage in there.

How will I proceed from here?
I am going to limit myself to shorter runs (2 to 5 miles) for a few weeks. I am also going to ramp up my cycling. I will try and keep my endurance up with that, but cycling is no substitute for running. You can’t prepare for a marathon on a bike. The muscles used are a different set. I will do some strength training work on those important running muscles and keep running the shorter runs. My goal is to see if I can get a couple of longer runs in just a couple of weeks before the marathon and see how my foot does. I only have 7 weeks to go before marathon day. I am not out of running and I am not giving it up, but I am going to do more cycling to let my foot heal and come back stronger.

What caused it?
I suspect I know the cause of the stress fracture again. Too much too soon. Last year I had been running much more consistently when I started my marathon training. While I have been running well this year, I have mostly done shorter runs. When I looked up the cause of stress fractures in the foot I found a picture of me by the definition. Trying to run either too fast or too far without working up to the speed or distance. I just added the miles too quickly this year. I have also put on an extra 25 lbs. That added weight just adds to the stress on the feet.

Week 8
Monday
Ran 2 miles with friends. Nothing fast nor fancy.

Wednesday
Nothing.

Saturday
20 mile bike ride over into Alabama. Since I don’t listen to my iPod during bike rides I tend to meditate more on scripture. That day the verse “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help.” (Psalm 121:1) came into my head. Hills and cycling are not what I consider a great combination. At least not for someone who is biking in flat Florida.

Marathon Training: Week 5 and 6

My how time flies. In fact, it flies just a little bit faster than I can run…but not much.

Week 5
Monday
2 easy miles. This was a continuation of the previous week which was a rest week. I ran 2.02 miles in my Vibram FiveFingers shoes. This was not my first run in them. I snuck in a .88 mile run on Saturday just to test them out. No problems with this run. I kept it slow at just over 11 minutes per mile.

Wednesday
Tempo run, 6 miles. That included a 1 mile warm up and cool down. So only 4 miles at a tempo of 9:31. I did not do so well on this one. I decided to do 3 laps of a 2 mile route that I have. I am not good at loops. When I get close to home I just want to stop. I did 2.65 of the 4 miles at 9:06 pace. Too fast, but it worked.

Saturday
I took Saturday off this week since I went on a 3 day hike. We were going to cover as many as 45 miles in the three days. We were very surprised to only accomplish just under 20. We really only hiked 2 days since on the second day we walked in rain all day and ended up with blisters.

XT Week 5
I did a spin class on Tuesday and Thursday. 1 hour each class. I also ran a short time (about a mile maybe) on each of these days after class. I ran on the treadmill and worked on some running form exercises. I had been watching videos to help me learn a better stride and landing method. I think this is the key to taking care of some knee inflammation I have. It has really helped to clean up my running style. It puts more work on my muscles and less on my bones and joints.

Week 6
Monday
After the hike I was not running. I wanted to get out and do the prescribed 2 mile run on Monday, but my legs and blistered feet would have none of that.

Wednesday
7 mile interval run. That included a 1 mile warm up and 1 mile cool down. The tempo pace was a bit faster this time, 8:54. I took my Vibram FiveFingers to the treadmill and worked on my form in the process. These were 1 mile intervals with a half mile recovery. I did the 3 interval miles, but did not spend as much time on warm up and cool down as I should have. I only did a total of 5.5 miles.

At the end of the run I knew I had overdone the workout with the new shoes. These are minimalist shoes and are essentially running barefoot with no cushioning. I curled my toes under (which I apparently do in my shoes too) and ended up with blood blisters on 2 toes of my right foot. This went with the blisters I had on another toe and the ball of my foot from the weekend’s hike. Rough week for feet.

Saturday
14 mile long run. I mapped out a 13.3 mile route last night. This morning I could not find my CamelBak. I had it just last week. The gnomes hauled it off. I had to do this run without the aid of constant hydration and being able to carry all the nutrition I needed. I stopped at a convenience store about 5 miles into the run and bought me a 32 oz. electrolyte drink that I carried the rest of the run. I made a wrong turn in my route and ended back at home with only covering 11.5 miles. That was fine. It will just make the 16 mile run next week seem a little more daunting, but knowing that going into this week may help me prepare for it.

XT Week 6
I did spinning class again on 2 days this week. I also spent some time on a real bike. I know I need to work on some upper body exercises and did a little, but probably not enough to matter.

Week 7 Preview
Monday 2 miles easy. Wednesday 6 mile tempo. Saturday 16 miles long run. I will be traveling this week which will make the Wednesday run a bit more complicated, but I should be able to do the Monday and Saturday run without a problem.