HOLA! Long Time no See

Racing

Raced in Ponte Vedra called Beaches and Fine Arts Triathlon series this weekend and had a great time ... in fact a PR for sprint distance .25 mile Swim - 11.5 Bike - 3.1 Run in about 1:03. My run is still suffering because of my knees especially the ITB in the right. I've just learned to live with it .... Its like an old friend at this point. I'm thinking I should give it a name. The killer part about this race was the shirt. A sleeveless jersey with a custom design that I thought was pretty hot so score! I really like jerseys and if I had the dough I'd collect them but most are in the $70 range so you won't find me buying them therefore I've only got a couple.

This is another series that's within driving distance of the house so I'll definitely be going back for the rest of the series in June and July.

Foxe's Book of Martyrs - John Foxe - Wiki

I recently began reading this book and it is powerful. Powerful is not typically a word I use to describe a book but this one just stirs much emotion in me. It was first published in 1563 (of course what I'm reading was published in early 2001) it begins with Stephen and early Christian martyrs and is kind of a one by one historical account. You can read it online here. The copy I have has been slightly edited from the original to make it easier to read as the original was obviously old english. Its hard to read it without first getting a sick feeling in your stomach and then wanting to cry while at the same time rejoice for those whose faith was so strong that they were willing to die for what they believed. Of the more shocking that I've read so far are of Nero who used Christians to light his garden parties. Not for the faint of heart this book is going on my must read list.

Gardening

In my old apartment back in the day (all of 4 years ago) I had a great little rose garden. Roses were just my thing. When I got married we bought a house and then spent most the 4 years of our marriage paying off debt. The landscape budget was needless to say nil so my yard is in pretty bad shape. The split has been a pilgrimage of sorts sending me back to the dirt and I gotta say it has become a great distraction. Its given me something else to get my mind on and being that a garden is LIVING there really is no end of things to do. It creates a great peace of mind when I'm in it. Although I have had some problems with the deer. This reminds me of a Married with Children episode where the doctor tells Al he has too much stress he should start a garden so he does and it works and he loves it only to have a rabbit destroy his crops at which point he destroys the neighborhood trying to kill the rabbit without success. Like Elmer Fudd.

On my absence

Obviously I've not been around in a while this however was by design. I was feeling pretty hot headed for a while and I've since settled down. There are good days and bad days. You know, kind of like life in general! The longer it goes on the more good days that seem to get strung together until you finally get to a point where you cease to be a hermit and start having lunch with your friends again. Amongst other activities the rest of society tends to enjoy that seem so incredibly impossible towards the beginning of the nightmare. I'm doing better.

What's Coming

Because Maddie is going back and forth every 3 days it makes it really hard to nail down consistent training. In fact most my cardio these days is coming in the form of P90X. [Note: P90X is a little expensive but it kicks my butt. Worth every penny. Although I'm missing some of the results I could be achieving because I'm just such a slacker with my diet]. I really believe P90X has helped my various knee problems by correcting muscle imbalances and a consistent stretching routine. I digress. I'm kind of half entertaining the idea of doing the Great Floridian again this year with the goal of taking nearly 2 hours off of my time. Just gotta work on the routine and this time around I'll have a lot more time to train on the bike in Clermont.

PS

I recently took "The Beast" to the Jacksonville Zoo and posted some pictures in a Jacksonville Zoo Gallery. Funny, the other day I said something like 'come over here Bear' and she responded..."I'm not a Bear I'm a Beast". Doll baby.