Ups and downs

I saw this picture several days ago and had to laugh given my experience with lines like this. Unfortunately, until this morning I don't think that I truly understood its meaning. It made me think of what we do throughout our entire lives and what keeps us going. Life is one long journey, and there are many ups and downs. The great thing about the "ups" is that when you are on top you can see where you are going, where you have been, and what your goals are. When you are climbing up, however, you can't see the top, nor anything around you. If you've ever climbed to the top of a really high hill or mountain you know what I mean. The view at the top is not just breathtaking but awe-inspiring. However, we don't stay up there long, or we never get to our final destination.

Right now I'm climbing. The problem with that is not so much the effort, but that I forgot what I had seen and lost the vision of where I was going. It's not that it's a steep climb, but that more has been put in my bag and the weight is getting me down.

That was, at least, until I remembered where I was going and why I was climbing in the first place. Faith is so powerful. It helps me to believe in the path I am taking, even though I can't see the end. Some experiences throughout my life strengthen my faith, like being at the top of the hill and being able to see so much. During the "downs" and the climb I have to rely on that faith to get me through the journey.

I don't know why I felt like sharing this thought, but I hope that it helps someone. Just remember: when in doubt, keep the faith.

I am on fire!

At least my legs feel like they are burning. Today was the start of week 3 of the 8 week training and, as part of it, I had two-three minute runs I had to complete. This was basically twice as long as any previous segment. My legs were crying for oxygen, but I made it through. As a matter of fact, I finally felt the "runner's high" that I was missing from the last time I did this training. The ironic thing was that I felt it while I was walking, not running, during my cool down. I'm glad I finally had that feeling of euphoria, because the last two weeks of training have felt like torture.

Miles to go before I sleep

The first week of the "Cross Country" is done. I did 36.02 miles this week. Not quite up to where I'd like, but it was a start. I wouldn't have gotten even this far without Alyssa pushing me to go.

So here's where I am:

Not exactly sure where this is, but it says it's just outside of Tanner, Washington. I'm sure my sister knows the place. Hey, at least I got out of the city!

As for the memory I will share this week, I must confess that it didn't happen in Tanner, Washington. I wasn't planning on memories from each town I'm "in", just the state. I believe it was the same time as the last memory I shared. I went with my friend, Ben, to one of his friend's house to watch a movie. Now, when you go to a friends house and pop in a DVD, that's not really watching a movie, that's just watching moving pictures on your TV. This friend of Ben's had a downstairs movie theatre, not an entertainment room. There was a little lobby area decked out with movie posters in those lit-up frames. They had a concession stand complete with a full size popcorn machine. They even had a ticket booth! You go through the double swinging doors (with little round windows) into a slanted room with a projector and screen. The only difference here was that instead of those uncomfortable movie seats they had Lay-Z-Boy leather chairs. What made it even better was that this was a time before DVD's, you know we still popped in those rectangular plastic nuisances to watch a show. But even here they one-upped anything I had done: they had laser-disc! Of course this must have been within the 6 months that laser-discs were considered cool. For those who don't know what those are they look like DVD's but are the size of old records (like 12 inches across). They even had the illuminated lines on the ground so you knew how to get to the exit. Now that was a theater experience.

As you can see I still have a ways before I'm out of Washington, but don't worry, there are plenty more memories to come. As for the big picture, well, here it is:

Still a ways to go...but one step at a time.

With a little help from my friend

I was laying in bed dreading the run when I heard this voice coming from the doorway: "Daddy, are we going running today?" The girl is a machine, I swear!

We tried out the Junior High track today, which went pretty well. I forgot to start the app on my phone, so we ended up going a little longer than planned. Oh well, more exercise.

I have to confess that I went over budget on my calories today. Not by much, but it was the first time in two weeks. Luckily my wife really wanted to go walking so we went for a couple of miles down our road. That made all the difference!

One step ahead

I really thought that I would be up and ready before Alyssa this time. But, just as I open my bedroom door, there she was about to put her shoes on!
Today's run was hard for me, my lower legs are really hurting and the outside of my right knee feels overstretched. I'm not sure how to fix that, but it sure is slowing me down.
I was foolish enough to give Alyssa more than one choice of venue, I didn't realize that track tag can only be played at the indoor track!

The first day of a long journey

As promised I have restarted my "trek" from coast to coast. I know that the location tag for this post lists Seattle, WA, but I just did that for "poetic license". I will geo-tag each update for this part of the blog based on where I am along with the updated picture above.

I did make a few changes to this route since I wanted to "spend more time" in Idaho given that so many important things in my life have happened there (don't worry my New Mexico friends, when I am done with this "journey" I will do another one in the southwest states). This did make the overall trip a little longer and is now a total of 3,137 miles. That is a ton. Again, my goal is to make it there in a year, maybe a little less.

Alyssa and I did start off the week well with a trip to the park. It's the first of three runs in our second week of the Couch to 5K program. My legs were still pretty sore from a weekend of hiking, but it went pretty well. It was nice to have a change of venue; I think Alyssa did much better. She said she wants to warm up a little more before we start by doing pushups! That girl is amazing. She even wanted to do "track tag" again; I don't know where she gets her energy.

I also promised to share a memory each week based on the location I am in for the Cross Country "Run". I have only visited Washington a handful of times, but it has almost always been for some big event. The main one I remember was when my older sister, Heidi, got married; I was 15. I had seen the Pacific Ocean before, but that was in San Diego. The ocean water in Seattle is just a little bit colder. What was so memorable about this particular event was when we were on a ferry ride to one of the main islands in the bay. It was very windy and our wind-breakers filled up with air giving us the illusion of being Mr. Universe. Down in the water, though, we saw something that I had never seen before in real life: dolphins! They were amazing. I didn't have my own camera, otherwise the picture below would have been of the dolphins we saw. Instead you get to see the amazing buffness brought on by raging wind power! (I'm the one in the maroon and navy blue jacket, sorry you can't see my face)

A new view on the world

This weekend we had a family reunion for my mom's side of the family. The last time I went to this reunion was 13 years ago just after I had graduated from high school. Interestingly my wife also went to that reunion with me and we had basically decided then that we were going to get married. Now, 13 years later I went on a mission to Peru, we got married in the Idaho Falls temple, we have 4 kids, three degrees between the two of us, a house fire and a flood, various surgeries, house ownership, and six years of our life spent in New Mexico. So much has happened in such a short time.

Saturday was supposed to he the day I did the third part of my run for the week. Instead I climbed to the top of this hill, twice. The first time we went up from the right side along a game trail to the lower hill and then up to the upper hill. That was nuts. After searching more to the left of the hill we found a real trail that took us back to camp. Needless to say the second time we went up and down that trail.

It's a mile to the top with about a 1200 foot rise in elevation. It was quite a tough climb, but the view was worth it.

A change of pace

This morning was supposed to be our third run of the week, but Alyssa and I both decided that we needed to take it a bit easier since we had just run yesterday. So we switched our schedule and did a brisk 5k walk in just under 1 hour.

I was a little worried about Alyssa's stamina since she wanted to take a lot of breaks. I think that part of the problem is the monotony of walking around a track 16 times. In the last mile we kind of made up a little game that we decided to call "track tag". That actually gave her more motivation to stick with it, and turned a brisk walk into a periodic sprint trying to get away from her poking!

We made the 5k in just under 1 hour, which was right where I was hoping, mostly because it gives us a goal. I'm not sure if Alyssa is old enough, but we both decided to work toward doing the Graffiti Me 5K run at Ogden in October. I think this will be good for her since part of the fun of this is that people along the way will throw color at you (you wear a white shirt) and you end up with a sort of tie-dyed shirt by the end.

Alyssa and I also decided that we are going to restart the "Cross Country" run. She's going to help with a little geography information based on where I am while I provide the memories I have of the states that I pass through. We plan to start that next week, so our first entry on Monday will be about our starting point: Seattle, WA.

Wish us luck in our endeavors!

Day 2 - what almost wasn't

It definitely is a good thing that Alyssa decided that she wants to run with me. I almost didn't go today except that when I woke up she was lacing up her shoes and ready to go! What a little trooper. Hopefully she'll stay motivated so that she will help me keep going.

We tried the indoor track today, which was nice since it wasn't as hot or bright as being out in the sun. The track felt better to run on as well. We did a total of two miles, still at a slow pace, but we'll get there!

First official run

I have to say that this was the first official run since I actually went running yesterday. Unfortunately that was cut short by the quick development of some nasty blisters.

The cool thing about this run was that my oldest daughter, Alyssa, decided to go with me. She is just 9 years old, but she did way better than I did. At times she was sprinting and jumping while I was behind her huffing and puffing like the big bad wolf! She helped me stay motivated and said that she wanted to continue running with me so that she can be ready for gymnastics, which we just signed her up for yesterday. It was great to spend some time with her even though I couldn't do much talking!

All in all we did about two miles and my feet didn't get any more blisters (thanks to the help of a couple of big bandaids).

We're on the road again...

After a summer of so many ups and downs, uncertainties and changes I am ready to start again. I don't want this to seem like making excuses by explaining how hectic the last several months have been, but I think that it helps me to realize that starting my fitness goals again will actually be easier than what has happened this summer.

In April I finished my 130+ page Master's project and had my presentation in Socorro. I passed with flying colors! And, not to make things any easier, my committee told me that I needed to publish my work and then get into a PhD program! Not that I had anything else on my mind.

In May, after 3 years of hard work while working full time, I graduated from New Mexico Tech with a Masters in Science Teaching. My kids and wife were there with me, which was a special treat since they have been so supportive and patient. As the recession song the played the "Imperial March" from Star Wars! My kids seriously thought they did it just for me :)

In June we had a couple of weeks of downtime, though I tried (and failed miserably) at redoing the lawn in the back yard. In the middle of the month we went to Idaho for a family reunion. We went up a little earlier than planned and as a present were rewarded with a flooded house back home. The swamp cooler as overflowed into the walls and ducting and caused over $15,000 in damage! Ah the joys of home ownership. Needless to say we did what we could from 700 miles away but eventually had to go back down to take care of a few matters regarding the repairs. While we were gone Kaylie decided to go for a ride on her sister's new Razor Scooter and break her forearm! Luckily, I guess, it was her left arm. When we got back I got word from the Junior High in Rexburg, Idaho that they were offering me a job to teach science in the fall. So, what started out as a vacation ended up in a permanent move!

July has been the month of paperwork and moving since I had to take a test to guarantee my job and fill out countless pages to re-certify in the state (my Idaho license had expired last year). This is the first week that Shannon and I will actually be home the whole week; what to do! (Actually I get to prepare my online courses as well as all five of the classes I will be teaching this year at the Junior High; thus the need for some physical activity).

So, after a mentally and spiritually trying summer I am ready to relieve a lot of that stress through seeing some results from physical exercise. I am not sure if I will start up the "Cross Country" run, but I do hope to soon. For now I am just going to follow the "Couch to 5K" program and slowly work up to something more.

Wish me luck!

Map of Route

Here is the route I will be taking. I plan to start my journey on Monday. The plan is to share my progress each week on the map, share a story about the state I am currently in, and see if I can find a picture that relates to or is about my story (that's going to be the tough part, but I want to make this a visual thing).

The total mileage on this route is 2826, for those that want to know.

"Cross Country" Run

The other day I stepped on the scale and it read a number it had never shown before: 310 lbs. It did make me a bit depressed at first. I realize that I have done nothing to counteract this effect, but it still does not lift the spirits to reach such a milestone.

I decided that I needed something to get me back on the road to where I need to be before it became too late. Then it struck me, a "road trip" that could symbolize the journey that I want to take. Of course, it wouldn't be a real road trip, but one in which I would track my progress on the "road" with the number of miles that I walk or run in a day. And, you can't get much bigger than a trip from coast to coast. Since I have a sister who lives in Seattle, Washington and a brother that lives near Washington, D.C. I decided that would be my route. It also dawned on me that many times I have been through each of the states that I would "cross" on this journey and I have many memories of family trips and places that I have lived in each of these states.

So...here is the plan: each week I will keep track of my mileage by showing on a map where I would be in my trip. In addition, I will talk about some of the memories I have about the place where I am currently "located" in my journey. It will be slow going at first since I will be limited to the number of miles that I can actually run, but I hope to eventually average about 10 miles per day (both from walking throughout the day and running) so that I can go from Washington to Washington in a year.

I also recently watched the "Live and Let Diet" episode of Good Eats where Alton Brown talks about what he did to be able to lose 50 pounds in 9 months. I am going to take a page from his book and work on monitoring my "way of life" in such a way as to lose weight and remain healthy. His ideas go along with what I have written on this blog before about "diets" actually needing to be a "way of life" rather than a fad.

I am gunning for success this time, and will be including pictures to show my progress.

Wish me luck :)