Thursday, April 25, 2013

Lift Your Head 4 Air


This morning I headed out on another 10 mile bike ride this distance is getting easy for me so it’s time to jump the plan a little and expand the distance. I am glad it’s easy because the first few races I plan on doing are 12.5 bike portions so the easier the better off I am before I fail in my runs…Hard!

I am trying to stick with the Zone 2 training plan I started with and I sometimes find it hard to remain patient and go easy without pushing myself too hard. The Garmin is great for my cycling training and it is really motivating me to get up early each day and get out there to chew up the road.

I enjoy swimming, always have and I am learning a few things about myself and my swim stroke each day that I do my swim training. Yesterday for the first time in my life I swallowed a big gulp of water in mid stroke as I came up for a breath, seriously I have never done this before, and Oh My God! That is horrible. I thought I was going to throw up right in the pool, and it hurt too! My arms were fatiguing and I guess I did not get up high enough to catch air and you can guess the rest of the story there. I will never let that happen again.

I can’t seem to get the Garmin to record my laps successfully yet in the pool and this is starting to annoy me. I have read the booklet over a few times and I can’t seem to figure out what it is I am missing. I guess I will need to start wearing a swim cap and put the watch under my cap on my head to get a more accurate reading because it looks like a big zig-zag some kid drew on my map when I am finished when it’s on my wrist. I swam yesterday morning and then again tonight and my time is improving and my breathing is stronger and I can feel my heart rate is coming down. (Heart Rate Monitors don’t work in the water) at least mine does not unless I am missing that too?

Last is the run, last in my heart and last in the race. I wish I could finish with any one of the other two this way I would have something to look forward during the run portion on race day, instead I will just look forward to not having to run anymore and making it to the end of the course. I have not really yet had to push myself in my run training so I guess I should not complain so much this early in the program but I am just not ever going to be excited about running. 

Sunday, April 7, 2013

Who is Packing Your Parachute?


Charles Plumb, a US Naval Academy graduate, was a jet pilot in Vietnam. After 75 combat missions, his plane was destroyed by a surface-to-air missile. Plumb ejected and parachuted into enemy lands. He was captured and spent 6 years in a communist Vietnamese prison. He survived the ordeal and now lectures on lessons learned from that experience.

One day, when Plumb and his wife were sitting in a restaurant, a man at another table came up and said, "You're Plumb! You flew jet fighters in Vietnam from the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk. You were shot down!" "How in the world did you know that?" asked Plumb. "I packed your parachute," the man replied. Plumb gasped in surprise and gratitude. The man pumped his hand and said, "I guess it worked!" Plumb assured him, "It sure did. If your chute hadn't worked, I wouldn't be here today."

Plumb couldn't sleep that night, thinking about that man. Plumb says, "I kept wondering what he might have looked like in a Navy uniform: A white hat, a bib in the back, and bell bottom trousers. I wonder how many times I might have seen him and not even said good morning, how are you or anything because, you see, I was a fighter pilot, and he was just a sailor." Plumb thought of the many hours the sailor had spent on a long wooden table in the bowels of the ship, carefully weaving the shrouds and folding the silks of each chute, holding in his hands each time the fate of someone he didn't know.

Now, Plumb asks his audience, "Who's packing your parachute?" Everyone has someone who provides what they need to make it through the day. Plumb also points out that he needed many kinds of parachutes when his plane was shot down over enemy territory - he needed his physical parachute, his mental parachute, his emotional parachute, and his spiritual parachute. He called on all these supports before reaching safety. His experience reminds us all to prepare ourselves to weather whatever storms lie ahead. As you go through this week, this month, this year ... recognize people who pack your parachute!