Countdown to Triathlon - 276 Days, 39.5 weeks to Race Day (See Installment 13 of "The Journey", 220 mile bike ride, below)

                                                                         
                                                                   THOUGHT FOR THE DAY



              When we long for life without difficulties,
              remind us that oaks grow strong in contrary
              winds and diamonds are made under  pressure.

                       Peter Marshall 

                       

I really need the above quote today as I had an especially hard day yesterday.  After dinner I could hardly get up from the chair as my knees were so stiff and my shin bones were hurting.  So, according the the quote, Peter Marshall had it right that we need to be reminded when difficulties arise that it is for our good in the long run.  Not that I think I'll turn into a diamond if I go through enough trials. Ha!


However,  I may have to back off a little on my training, but not quit entirely.  I saw a commercial tonight on television which  made me think about what I am doing in my training.  It seems that just when I need a message, the Lord sends one my way even through a television commercial.  It showed a man about my age sitting on a porch swing.  The gist of what the announcer said was that an object not in motion will continue that way unless some force causes it to move. Likewise, an object in motion will continue at the same velocity until some force causes its speed or direction to change.  In other words, it is harder to get off that porch swing and takes more effort than if you are already moving.  If I will keep exercising it will be much easier to continue than if I allow myself to stop entirely and have to make the extreme,  maximum effort to start up again.  Oh, the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak!


By the way, I checked this theory out on the Internet and found it to be Newton's Law of Motion.  Hooray for Newton!  So, in other words I need to realize that the difficulties are for my good and I need to keep moving!!!  I need all the encouragement I can get.




The Journey - Installment Thirteen

            It was a marvel to me that God had once again provided for me.  He provided Neva to ride with me in Riverbank.  After having ridden that ride, I know that if I had been alone, I probably would have called my husband to come and pick me up and take me home.  We rode way out in the country where we saw no people or moving cars and there is no doubt in my mind that I would have been frightened to be out there all alone in a new and strange area. Also, since I had never been in a bike ride before, I wasn't sure how to read the directions for the route.  Even Neva and I with both of our brains at work had a difficult time keeping on the trail.   Our loving and merciful God provided Neva as a rider before I even asked Him because He knew I would need someone to ride with me.   I constantly thought of the song, Great is Thy Faithfulness while I rode.   One line of the song reads, “…all I have needed Thy hand hath provided.”  God had provided everything that I had needed for that ride and in all the months to come, up to and including the actual bike ride in June of 2002.  I entered the following in my journal that day, “Now I am almost one third of the way to my century ride. The next step is to get a bike of my own.”

            As an explanation to those readers who do not know what a century ride is, it is riding 100 miles in one day.  I was told by other bike riders, that if I could ride 75 miles in a day, I could ride 100 miles on a bike ride in one day.  That certainly didn’t compute in my mind since 75 miles is a long ways from 100 miles.  However, it is a similar thing that marathon runners are told:  if they can run 18 or 19 miles at a time, they would be able to complete a marathon run of  26.2  miles.