The Best Part of Waking Up.........

Man I have been dedicated this week!  Summertime is just around the corner which means it is time to trim off that winter weight so that I can strut around proudly at the pool and lake.  I pre-made all of my lunches and breakfasts for the week and I have amped up my weight lifting routine.  My goal is to get my cardio workout complete before work, hit the gym for weights at lunch on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and then do Body Pump classes on Tuesday and Thursday.  The weekend is still reserved for my long run and bike.    

Ok, ok, ok – maybe I got a little inspiration after I reviewed some old spring break pictures when I was writing my blog last week.  Now I know what you’re thinking; “The Spring Break pictures didn’t make it into the blog because they were not safe for public viewing.”  Actually, it is that all my college pictures are pre-digital camera and I had no desire to scan them in.  Anyway – I found that I no longer have the abs of a 20 year old and I refuse to admit that I am a complete grown up. 

Monday morning was a swim; Tuesday morning was a run and today was a bike ride.  The ride was awesome.  I bought some lights for our bikes last fall so we could safely ride in the dark and it has really paid off because it lets us leave earlier or stay out later.  We hit the road around 6 am and rode out of town heading west.  I am not much for the traditional on your knees hands together type prayer so a lot of times, I spend my time with God when I am running or biking.  It also adds another dimension to it for me when I am in nature with the feeling of wind on my face and the air on my skin.  This morning was a great time for it. 

There was a tranquil serenity about the ride this morning.  When we began, it was still pitch black and we chased the moon in the western sky for the first half of the ride.  Once my eyes adjusted to the blackness, my light served as more of a tool for cars to see me rather than for me to see.  I was riding to the light of the early morning moon, just basking in the gentle white light and feeling the cold air on my face.  When we turned around, we got to see the slow transition of the sky from pitch black, to a soft pink, until it was finally red like a nuclear ray and the sun began to peek over the horizon.  We pulled into our driveway to finish the ride just as the darkness completely slipped away and the new day was born. 

People often wonder why we do what we do.  Why do we get up so early and up our bodies through such misery when we could be sleeping in?  Sure, there is a little vanity involved and the weight control is certainly welcome.  However, the truth is that it is mornings like this that keep me coming back and make running, biking, swimming , whatever , an obsession.  Feeling the endorphins brought on by physical exertion while being close to God, next to family or friends, and one with nature is something that words can’t do justice explaining.  The feeling of cold sweat in winter or the dried residue of salt on my face on a hot morning is the best fuel to get through any day. 

Where the Wind Comes Sweeping Down the Plains

Sometimes it is fun to go home.  There is always a sense of nostalgia when I get to go back to my roots and experience the sights, sounds, and places that were there during my childhood.  I am a sucker for reliving old memories and sometimes going home during certain times of year really causes those memories to come flooding back. 

I grew up in Fairview, Oklahoma which is a small town of about 2,500 people.   Fairview is a mix of the town from Footloose and Pleasantville.  There is not a lot to do there; people love to gossip, and acceptance of anything out of the norm is low.  Being a rock n’ roll loving kid with a rebellious spirit made it challenging to grow up there at times, but I don’t think I would choose to have grown up anywhere else.  It is a quaint place that has a charm which makes it seem like it is frozen in time. 

I had many motives for going home last weekend.  My wife will call me sneaky for this, but one of the reasons was so that I could use all of my dad’s tools and cleaning supplies to give my Tahoe a good cleaning.  I also planned on and succeeded in getting my parents and Rachel to help me do the cleaning.  Rachel was surprised and had no idea that this was our task until we got there, but my mom sniffed out my motives a week earlier and knew exactly what I was up to.  I guess she has been a part of way to many of my schemes and plans to be fooled.  Hopefully Rachel never gets wise to my ways of manipulation! 

Getting the car clean wasn’t the only motive though.  I was just as excited about the act of cleaning the car as I was the result.  I have a lot of good memories as a teenager spending hours cleaning my car so that I would have the sleekest machine in town.  Many times my mom and dad would help me and it was always fun to spend that time with them.  There is something about working together to get a project complete that brings about good conversation and good times.  It really was nice and I enjoyed stirring up the old memories. 

Any time I go home, I love to take the time to walk around the yard remembering events from days gone by.  I look at the tree that we planted when my Grandpa died, the pipe I used to have to balance on to walk across the creek, the bridge where built forts and the graves of so many four legged childhood friends with whom I grew up.  I like to walk over the hill where I used to ramp my three wheeler and dirt bikes and gaze with amazement at how much smaller it seems now than when I was 12.   It is always fun and it is always a nice reminder that no matter how much we grow or how much we change, some things always stay the same. 

Something that has not changed is the wind.  It is always really bad! Yes, the wind can be rough anywhere in Oklahoma, but it is always blowing in Fairview.  The area is very flat, and there are not a lot of trees.  We got to experience the joys of the wind first hand on Sunday when we went on our weekly bike ride.  We knew we would be facing wind (we always do when we ride there) so we thought we would get a move on the ride earlier than normal. 

It did not matter; I don’t think I have ever ridden in wind like that.  It felt like I was peddling in pudding and it was completely demoralizing to work and work yet not feel like you are making any progress.  Much like running a marathon, there was a significant amount of mental anguish that outweighed the physical difficulty.  Getting started is always the worst.  There seems to be this bleak feeling that you will never reach the desired destination.  Fortunately, Rachel had insisted that we fight against the wind on the way out so that we would have the wind at our backs on the way back to the house.  That was an awesome call.  The thing that kept me going through the brow beating violence of the head wind was knowing that a sweet reward of speed and easy peddling awaited me on the way back.  As we approached the final mile of the ride, my attitude completely changed and I wanted to fight the wind just a little bit more so that I could have that extra time with the wind at my back. 

As soon as I turned around, the ride changed.  It felt like I was shot out of a sling shot and propelled back into Fairview with a rocket on my back.  When I got back into downtown, I was thrilled to learn that I was actually breaking the speed limit.  I wonder if you can get a ticket on a bike. My average pace more than doubled on the way back.  I am sure there is a lesson in there somewhere about the rewards of hard work, but I am not smart enough to figure it out. 

Spring Break or Bust

One of the things that I quickly learned after I got out of college and entered the professional world  is that spring break doesn’t really mean anything anymore.  It really came as a shock to me.  I guess I was expecting the same rules of the universe that applied in school to apply in real life.  I mean, why wouldn’t every business or agency shut down for a week to allow their employees to go spend time at a beach or ski resort? 

Since it is spring break right now and I will be spending my days sitting through legal depositions and looking at utility rates and debt service payments, I thought I would reflect on some of my favorite spring break memories so that I can relive the glory days of freedom and low responsibility.   I thought about trying to rank these in some kind of countdown, but I don’t know that I can put them in any kind of order since they all have some kind of special meaning. 

1995 - I went to Breckenridge, Colorado with my parents.  We piled in the family mini-van and made the long trip.  My sister flew into Denver and then met us there.  We had a really neat condo for the week.  I remember listening to a lot of Pearl Jam, Van Halen and playing my guitar for hours on end.  I took my effects pedal and plugged my headphones into it so that I could rock out without keeping everyone up.  This was also the first time that I ever tried snowboarding.  Breckenridge was an awesome place and somewhere I really would like to go again.  It had a really cool vibe with good restaurants, ice cream parlors cafes, and record stores. 

1996 - I went with a group of friends from high school to Taos, New Mexico on a ski trip.  At dinner one night, I sat between two pillars of art that had a price tag of 2 or 3 thousand bucks a piece.  Anytime I would move my chair during the meal, the pillars would sway; I wonder how I would have paid for that?  One of the attendees was the Romanian foreign exchange student – I think that she had beaten up every one of the guys by the time the trip was over.  She was really mean!

1997 –We went to Red River this year.  I had a girlfriend, but there was another girl that I was trying to date.   I was really encouraging the other girl to go but to make a long story short – my girlfriend and the other girl went both went.  Strange week J

1998 – This was kind of a last minute decision by my best pal and me to load up and drive to Colorado and stay with my cousin.  No one really had plans that year, but we felt we needed to do something since it was our senior year.  Like many of the adventures that he and I shared, the road trip was the best part of the trip.  We listened to a ton of AC/DC and the Refreshments and drove all night to get there.  He had a blue Chevrolet step side pickup and we would take that thing everywhere.  I don’t know how, but that regular cab truck could comfortably seat six. 

1999 – Ah, my first college spring break!  I was a college freshman and fraternity pledge at this point.  My big brother in the fraternity organized a group trip to Panama City Beach, Florida.  There were about 25 that went and we all crowded into one house.  I secured myself a nice area in the back bedroom with just enough space between four other guys to layout my sleeping bag and keep a watch on my suitcase.  21 of us packed into an 18 person passenger van and took off for the 20 hour drive with a luggage trailer in tow.  This trip was the first time that I ever went to a club and it didn’t take me long to realize that clubs are not the place for me.  I hate to dance, I am not tall, and I don’t like paying cover charges.  A small group of us found other things to do for the week.  On the strip, there was a shaved ice stand located right next to one of those slingshot reverse bungee jump rides.  We had a pretty sweet deal going – we made friends with the ride operator, so when there was no one on the ride, he would let us ride it over and over to garner interest from the passersby.  I think we rode that thing at least 15 times that night.  As the week started drawing to an end, we started to dread the ride back in the van from hell.  Fortunately, we met some girls from Muskogee who had driven their car from Oklahoma and we convinced them to give us a ride back to avoid the van. 

2000 – I learned my lesson from the year before with van, so this year I was insistent on taking my own car.  This year, the trip was to South Padre Island.  It was another trip where there were many more people than there were comfortable accommodations.  We reserved a block of rooms at a hotel, but it still meant about five or six people per room.   I was on a strict budget this week.  Unfortunately, my first stop was at a surf shop and a cool white surfboard caught my eye.  I ended up spending 90% of my money on the first day buying that board.  The good thing was that it kept me out f trouble as I spent all day every day surfing rather than causing mischief, but the bad thing was that I was afraid I was going to starve.  Fortunately, we were just a few miles away from Matamoros, Mexico and we found a place called Bigatones where we went and ate every night.  We were able to feast on fajitas for about five dollars per night.  It was a great week – the crisp feeling of the water in the early morning surf was great! 

2001 – This was my first spring break with Rachel, and it was an epic one.  It really seems like it was three trips in one.    We started off the week by driving to Durango, Colorado to stay the night because I was going ice climbing in Ouray the next morning.  Ouray has a really cool ice park and it was a beautiful experience. After a day of climbing, we went to my cousin’s house near Wolf Creek and went skiing.  It was Rachel’s first time to ski and she had a few temper tantrums after getting stuck in snow drifts before she really got the hang of it.  After a few days of skiing, we came back to Oklahoma, stayed one night, then re-packed and went to Austin.  This was really the first time I got to experience Austin.    My favorite memory of the Austin portion of the trip was seeing Junior Brown at a free concert in the park. 

2002 – This was a big family trip to Florida.  We started off the trip at Disney World and then went to Coco Beach.  The house on the beach was awesome.  My sister has always had access to remarkable vacation housing because of her Air Force career.  If I had to rank spring break experiences, this one would probably be at the top.  We really had an amazing time.  We surfed, played in the ocean, ate lots of great food and spent quality time with family.  I think this was the last trip that we went on where almost everyone was there.  One of the most significant events in my life took place on this trip as it was when I asked Rachel to marry me. 

I had been planning the event for months.  I had discretely bought the ring and I had secretly asked both her Dad and Mom for her hand in marriage.  Rachel had no idea that I was going to pop the question, so the whole thing was a big secret.  Fortunately, I had my parents to help conspire with me with regard to how we were going to sneak the ring through airport security and all that good stuff.  My original plan was to set up something elaborate on the beach and ask her there but I quickly figured out that the beach at night would not be the ideal setting for her.  Rachel was deathly afraid of the little crabs that ran around and wouldn’t relax a bit.  I improvised and came up with a new plan that I hoped would seal the deal. 

At Disney World, I noticed that she was really excited about all the princess stuff and  she was really fascinated with the throne in Cinderella’s castle.  I again enlisted the help of my mom to help me. She went and made arrangements with the Cinderella’s Castle staff so that Rachel and I might have the room where the throne was located alone for a few minutes.  At the time, Rachel was also collecting snow globes.  I found a snow globe with the Castle in it and bought it before we got to the restaurant.  I put the plan in action as soon as we were finished with dinner.  Rachel went to the rest room and when she came back, everyone had cleared out of the room.  I told her that I had arranged for her to be able to sit in the throne, which she did.  When she sat down I got the snow globe out and gave it to her.  She was appreciative and said something like ‘ah, you didn’t have to do that.”  Then I nervously (more like scared out of my mind) said something like “I wanted to get it for you because you are my princess and I always want you to remember where you were when I asked you to be my queen.”  I then got down on my knee, pulled out the ring and ask her to marry me.  It seemed like an uncomfortably long time before she finally said yes, but fortunately, she did say yes.  As soon as I got her answer and gave her a kiss, I heard a commotion behind me.  Turns out the entire staff of the Castle and my family had been eavesdropping and peaking around the corner.  Thank goodness I didn’t know that I had an audience, or I would have been really afraid. 

So that’s pretty much it! It was hard to top that last one, so I haven’t had a spring break adventure ever since.  I assume that spring break will mean something once again if I ever have a kid, but until then, it will just be the week that half of my staff is out of the office.  Who knows, maybe I can talk Rachel into reliving the memories later this week.  We could sit around the house in our swimming suits and eat Mexican food or something!

There is No Basement in the Alamo

It is that time of year when the temperatures start to warm up a little bit, the first brave plants of the year start to peek out from the ground and the smell in the air lets you know that spring is near.  Although it is technically still winter – there is an end in sight to all of the desolate days when darkness follows you to work and greets you when you get home.  It is hard not to get a little bit of the winter blues during January and February.  All of the excitement of the Holiday season has come and gone and it is when Oklahoma truly gets to experience its most barren time of year.  But now there are hints that the grass will grow, the trees will bud once again and that we will no longer exist in a perennial state of night.  Most importantly, what it means to me, is that it is time to get into triathlon mode. 

I love running – it is a huge part of my life, but by this time of year, I am ready to mix it up a little bit.  I tend to focus on running much more during the winter months, because it is a lot more flexible than cycling or swimming.  Running is easy to do in the rain, sleet, snow, cold, dark, etc. etc.  You just have to throw on some clothes and go.  Swimming and cycling take a lot more planning and coordination.  On the heels of the marathon, I am really ready to mix it up this year because I put in so many running miles in November through February.  Adding more cycling into my routine is something that I am really looking forward to. 

I have tried to keep cycling a little bit over the winter so that I didn’t have to start from scratch this year.  I even tried to make amends with my arch nemesis, the bike trainer, and rode indoors a few times.  I have been better about it than in previous years, but the outings have still been few and far between.  Well it is all changing now -  the days are getting longer and I am pumped up about the upcoming triathlon season. 

This first and most important item of the season was to get my bike cleaned.  It was covered with so much road grime, dirt, and grease that I am surprised that it would even accept me as a rider.  I am ashamed to say that I have neglected the cleaning of my trusty steed and allowed the chain and gears to get nasty. 

My bike is quiet the specimen.  It is an 18lb bike with an all carbon frame, Shimano Ultegra components and Mavic Ksyrium Elite Wheels.    It is red, black, and silver.  I have tricked it out even more by adding aero bars, red handlebar tape, and tires with red stripes in them.  My wife’s bike is similar to mine except it is purple, black, and silver.  If you throw in the matching helmets, spandex tights, and other gear that goes along with a ride – we really look MUCH faster than we truly are. 

We bought our bikes about two years ago when the government was kind enough to let us have some of our own money back in the form of a tax return.  I remember the first ride on the bike – it was so smooth and pleasant.  My previous bike was an entry level model that was much heavier, but since we had really gotten into cycling and triathlon, we felt it was time to upgrade (ok, ok, it may have had a little bit to do our buddy Andrew’s awesome new bike). 

Although my bike had gotten dirty, I had no doubt that I could return it to its former glory with just a few hours of cleaning.  I scrubbed and I washed and the grease came off.  I took her out for a spin just yesterday and found, to my delight, that a clean bike is a faster bike.  Biking prowess apparently has absolutely nothing to do with leg strength, physical fitness, or cardio level – it is all about how you look! 

I think I have found my ace in the hole for this tri season.  Each night before a race, I am going to clean my bike (while at the same time put some mud on my wife’s – that may seem low, but it sucks when she beats me).  Much like my ninja running wear propelled my through the Austin Marathon – my sparkling stallion of a bike and my matching tri suit will give me an unmatched advantage among my fellow mediocre triathletes.  I can see it now – my bike and I will be the best team since Pee Wee and Big Red.  

Who needs heroes?

Over the past year, my wife and I have become huge fans of Lance Armstrong.  I think it is a combination of experiences and interests that started the admiration.  As a cyclist and triathlete (I use those terms loosely) I respect what he is as an athlete and he is a celebrity that we hear a lot about since my wife and I like to spend time in Austin which is where he lives.  Although I have always respected and admired him, prior to this year, I was never on the bandwagon as a fan.  I didn’t buy a trendy LIVESTRONG bracelet when they first came out and I didn’t pay that much attention to the movement that he was part of.  That is different now – I do have the bracelet and plenty of other Nike apparel that is colored in yellow and black with that simple statement written on it.    I think what has really changed my outlook and drawn me in to be a huge fan is some of personal experiences that we have had with cancer this year and some of the paths that those experiences have caused us to travel down in our lives.  Earlier this year, Rachel and I lost a dear family member to the disease and one of our best friends’ parents had to go through a battle with cancer of his own.   There have also been scares in the past few years with people that we know and we have learned of old acquaintances that are either battling or have lost their battle with the disease.  

Our friend whose father was battling cancer told us about the LIVESTRONG challenge series and let us know that she was going to raise money for it.  We learned that there was an event in Austin, which is where many of Rachel’s relatives live and as a tribute to our lost family member, we rounded up a team to participate in the event.   There were two events to choose from, a 5k race, and a bike ride.  We choose to do them both and as a result, had to raise $250 apiece.  

 I LOATH raising money!  I am not comfortable asking for it and I feel guilty putting people in a position where they feel they have to donate.  Also, because of my job, the pool of people that it is appropriate for me to ask is extremely small.  I can’t ask anyone in my organization because they work for me and I don’t want them to feel that they have to give because I am their boss and I can’t ask anyone I deal with in the community because I don’t want anyone to feel like I owe them something.  That pretty much limits it to my friends and family.  I know my parents dread any type of fundraising event that I get involved with because I always hit them up for at least half of what I am tasked with raising.  However, the LIVESTRONG fundraising webpage that came along with my registration was really cool.  I decided to post it on Facebook a couple of times to see what happened.   I was amazed by the number of people who responded.  I was humbled at the generosity that people, some of whom barely knew me, had in their hearts to support a noble cause. 

This was something that really motivated me.  From then on, the fundraising became fun.  It felt like I was a part of something important and something that would make good things happen for others.  The event that we participated in raised nearly $4 million and the overall series raised over $8 million.  Being at the event and seeing the impact of what we were a part of was very moving.  It is something that now excites me and I look forward to the experience next year.  It was at that point that I became a huge Lance Armstrong fan. 

I have recently finished his book It’s not about the Bike, and would recommend it to anyone.  He doesn’t sugar coat anything and gives a very stark  look at his upbringing, character flaws,  and most notably, his battle through cancer to become one of the world’s greatest athletes.  He has a fighter’s spirit that we can all learn from to push ourselves to the limits and not let any person, any obstacle, or anything beat us down.  He fought through what would have killed most people, went on to become a champion, and now works to make the world a better place so that people don’t have to go through what he has gone through.    Clearly, Lance is not perfect and he shares many of the traits and imperfections that make us all human.  But he is, in my opinion, a person to be admired and looked at as a hero.

Lance Armstrong is someone that can give others hope, inspire us to succeed, and serve as a role model to people who are battling through hopeless situations.  Why then is it so important to tear him down? For that matter, why is it so important to tear others like him down?  It seems that we live in a society that takes much more satisfaction in tarnishing someone and finding ways to vilify them than to focus on the positive and the good that they do.  Don’t get me wrong – if it turns out that he was doping to gain an unfair advantage, then it will be a tremendous let down.  I am not saying that we should look the other way let the ends justify the means, but I am saying that we should focus on the good rather than the witch hunt. 

He is not the only one who this applies to.  It seems that we get some sort of wicked satisfaction from getting the dirt or revealing the dark secrets that are buried away in the closet of anyone who is successful.  It seems to apply to athletes, politicians, movies stars, and other celebrities.  Many of these people have given us reason to be distrustful and I am not saying that we should condone inappropriate behavior, but I don’t know why the focus is always on the negative.   I only know one person who has lived a perfect existence and I tend to think that no one else in the history of civilization has a background that would come out squeaky clean if someone really went after them with a malicious intent.   Is it because we are jealous?  Do we really need to ruin people in order to feel better about ourselves?  Are we that insecure with our beliefs that if someone disagrees with us, they become the villain?  We have become a nation full of critics and Monday morning quarterbacks.  We are taught as young children that it is wrong to spread rumors, yet that is what we love and that is what we do.  We love to see people embarrassed, we love to see them squirm and we relish in failure more than we respect success. 

We can blame the mass media, the 24 hour news cycle, or the ever piercing eyes of social networking.    We can put the responsibility on the shoulders of the pundits, the sportscasters, or the blogosphere, but really the problem lies with the individual.  We are all guilty of it.  We are all guilty of wanting to get the “dirt.”  We have to be careful how we tear people down because the world needs heroes, the world needs role models, and the world needs hope.  We need people who have overcome adversity and triumphed in the face of certain defeat that we can look to when we face our own adverse circumstances.  We need to foster future generations of leaders who are not afraid to succeed.  We cannot discourage excellence and achievement with the fear that critics will pick it apart like buzzards picking clean the bones of their meal.  Even Lance Armstrong himself stated “A boo is a lot louder than a cheer. If you have 10 people cheering and one person booing, all you hear is the booing.” People should certainly be held accountable for their decisions and their actions, but we should also spend less time trying to find the dirty little secrets and more time encouraging the positive. 

I’ll quit preaching and go back to writing funny stories about dogs, shoes and mustaches now!