Weekend Rest

Friday I overdid it... big time. On Friday morning, Cindy and I ran 8 km together. In the afternoon, I was scoping out a prospective triathlon course and did 40 km cycling on some CRAZY hills. (That is not the course we'll use.) I was a hurting puppy by Friday night.

This weekend was about rest and recovery. Cindy and I did Tae Bo on Saturday AM, which is a great aerobic workout that I've found works well for me when I need to recover. Saturday and Sunday we went up to Huai Khum resort, about an hour north of Chiang Rai. We did some walking at the resort and I got some writing done.

This morning, we had the owner of the resort take some family pictures for us. Here's one of the family this morning.

Record Run Together!

Today, Cindy and I went for a walk/run together for 8 km. I had run a longer distance individually, but this was the longest Cindy had run and the longest we'd run together. We took this picture on our return home. While Cindy's just starting running, she's faster than me and makes me pick up the pace. I'm thinking that running together is going to help me quite a bit in training for October's Olympic distance triathlon.

It looks like a Chiang Rai International Triathlon is going to happen at the end of May. There's some building interest and our school's mission club is considering sponsoring the event. I'm pretty excited about it and will work on the logistics of it, as well as run it. The Chiang Rai Triathlon will be a sprint, which will be wonderful prep for the Olympic distance.

This afternoon, I went out for a bike ride to scout a possible route for the triathlon. It was rough and tough! I'm thinking that will not be our course. It was lots of steep grade hills, roads with gates across them, and a few off-roading spots. I'm thinking that our first triathlon here needs to be more of a flat course to help all of us beginners, me included!

Law Laew!

Yesterday afternoon, a friend wrote to say what an encouragement I'm being to him in his weight loss journey. I'm so thrilled to be able to help some others start this process or encourage them on the way. For me, it's a real sense of accomplishment, that I've learned enough along the way to help others. I really sense that God has a plan for these lessons I'm learning.

Last night Cindy and I were going over to the YWAM Base for worship and a talk by this week's DTS speaker. On the way we stopped at a local place where students often eat. The food's inexpensive and we know that they do a great "Pad Paak Ruam Sai Gai", which is sauteed vegetables with chicken.

One thing I like about this food stand is that she's always got a smile for me when I'm out on the bike or going for a run. She's seen me throughout this process drop the weight, and gain health. After we ate, we got talking and she asked how much I'd lost. I told her 41 kilos (91 lbs) and she smiled and started almost jumping up and down. "Law Laew! Law Laew! Law Laew!" It means you're already handsome!

After the worship meeting, several girls from a local group home all came over and were asking about the kilo's lost and how I felt. Several of them said they hadn't initially recognized me :-)

The day was filled with a great sense of acknowledgement for a job well done.

A Long Day

Sometimes you feel on top of the world, strong and powerful. Other days are tough. Today was more tough, but I was happy to see that I had a great workout by the end of the day.

I had trouble sleeping last night, just mindracing about work issues, and I got to sleep about 3 am and woke up about 5:30 am. Not a lot of sleep for a guy in training!

But, contrary to old patterns, I jumped on my bike and went to and from work (21 kms) then went for a walk/jog with Cindy in the afternoon (about 3.5 kms). Nothing like the massive effort on Saturday, but a respectable workout and something to be proud of.

I realized today that I'm probably exercising around 9-10 hours a week, on average over the past few months. That's pretty sweet and I can't imagine going back to much else.

Another thing that was cool today is that Cindy mentioned that I had gone for my first run in September, before my trip to the states. That run was to the head of our block and back. About 1 km! It's amazing what a few months of consistent effort will do for the body and mind!

Leapin' Lizards!

Today on the way home from the base, a lizard like this one ran alongside my bike. He was trying to race but I won!

Feelin' Strong

This morning I had a wonderful run with my wife, Cindy. She's starting the "Slow Burn" level 1 running program and I'll be running with her on Mondays and Fridays. We walked the first 15 minutes, then ran 15, then walked 15 at the end. It was really nice and we covered about 3 km or so.

After I got home and grabbed some breakfast, dropped the mountain bike rims/tires back on the bike and took off for work. We had some prayer time at the base this morning and it was really encouraging. After the prayer time, a staff meeting, and some accounting, it was back off on the bike for lunch at home. About 20 kms in total... Not bad.

Some days I feel really strong and today was one of them. I do find that after a rest day, I'm likely to feel quite strong. I'm thinking the day off yesterday was part of it.

I'm looking forward to Paul and Tim's race reports! Paul mentioned that he felt great after the race and had finished the last 5 km strong! How cool is that?

I'm going to do a bit on weights this afternoon, then off to a meeting at the school. Driving the car this time :-)

Some New Firsts!

Today was a day of some new firsts! In celebration of Paul and Tim's 1/2 marathons 1/2 a world away, I ran my first olympic distance triathlon. I did a 1.5 km swim, a 40 km bike, and a 10 km run. I'd been wanting to do this for awhile, and finally felt my endurance was up for it.

The run, I actually did first and then had a cup of coffee with Cindy. It was a 30 minute transition time :-) Then it was onto the bike for a 13 km ride up to a great 50 meter pool that's in the next town. It's 30 baht for the swim (about $1). One of the big accomplishments for the day was swimming the 1500 meters. I have never swum that far in my life and let me tell you, it isn't easy! Ouch! That is a LONG way in water. It took 56 minutes to do the swim. I'm gonna be workin' on that time!

After the swim, I got back on the bike to finish the rest of the 40 km. At the 29 km mark on the bike, I had another first! A blow out! Cindy came to rescue me and I was able to switch out to my mountain bike tire rims and finish the remaining kms of the 40! Below is a picture of the infamous kilometer #29 tire blowout. It was loud and spectacular!




My first olympic distance triathlon wasn't fast, but it was fun! I said several prayers for Paul and Tim during the run and bike portions. During the swim I couldn't think!

Lots of cheers for you guys from Chiang Rai!