Hi Ho Hi ho.. its off to Church we go...

Spring is officially here, as our family biked to Church for the first time this year. What was fun is that E1 road his "3rd wheel" bike. So E1 was attached to Papa's bike, and E2 was pulled in the Chariot behind Mama's bike.

It was tiring, just ask Mama. But the boys had fun. With our weekly coffee house trip, it added some extra miles onto the ride. So by the time we got home, Mama was really pooped from the 15 mile ride.

What a great way to spend some family time on a Sunday... We hope you all had a great day as well.

Peace

FORE!

The day has come. To be frank, I was not sure that it ever would (not that I was really waiting on it). I pulled the Golf clubs out of the attic of the garage. And just as I expected, they have about 3+ years of dust and garage attic grime on them.

With a Golf outing with my Dad and Brother coming up, I thought it best to get out to a driving range to swing the sticks. Don't want to hurt myself you know (physically). Pride (from lack of golfing skills? naw.. not a factor). I cannot say its exactly the same as learning how to ride a bike. I could still swing, but well... I guess its a good thing its a best ball tourney.

It was a great sunny day. I actually had a bit more fun than I thought. I'll probably get out one last time this week. They way I figured it, today was to shake out the cobwebs and get all the uglies out. The 2nd trip would be to actually try to control the ball a bit. Should be a fun time next weekend, if for nothing else, then to spend some quality time with my Dad and Brother.

Peace

26.2 for Africa

It has begun (officially) the fund-raising for this years Team World Vision "26.2 for Africa" campaign. The first weekend of May our family held a garage sale and Bake sale. The results are in and together we raised $300. All of those proceeds will go towards our Team World Vision fund. You can find that page at http://www.firstgiving.com/twollnik2009

The economy stinks, and times are tough, but we are still amongst the most blessed people on the planet. Our easy access to clean water, superb health care, grocery stores and restaurants on most commercial street corners. Things are very tough out there I know that, they are tough within my own home as well. However, if you feel moved, we would love to have your support. We can say with absolute certainty that every contribution leads to live giving aid. We've witnessed this aid.

Peace

3 days, 4 days, 5 days.. OH MY!

Its a busy world. Jobs. Kids. Household chores. Who's got time for 5 or 4 training days a week? I know it hard for me to get 5 runs in a week. Through in triathlon training, and now you need to add in swimming and biking to the mix. So who really has 6 or 7 days a week. Certainly not me.

I'm working on a shift to the 3 day marathon training programs. That leaves 4 days to get in cross training, swimming, biking, or just plain rest. 3 days a week for marathon training? I like the sound of that. I've updated the links section of the blog, you can find out more here as well.

http://www.halhigdon.com/marathon/novice3intro.htm

or

http://www.furman.edu/first/fmtp.htm

6142 and Counting..

We've crossed the 6k mark towards Destination Addis Ababa. Only 1421 miles more to go. That's still a large number, but I'm close to 100 miles per week in training with the bike training. I joked with J that we can't adopt somewhere so far next time, else I'll spend the rest of my life trying to reach that sorta mileage.

Facebook or Blogging

There's been an undercurrent in the household the past months. Friends have been urging "you should get a face book account" or "you should setup a page". Etc Etc. So if i did it correctly there should be a poll on the blog right now asking who's got a facebook page, and would you still be interested in following along with these musing if there were there instead? Why would I switch? I guess because I could only allow people I know "in" and as such I could post pictures, and start using real names rather than pseudonym's

So if "Tri for Hope, Sacrifice with purpose" moved in some fashion to facebook would you still
follow along? How many of you have facebook pages?

Its just keeps flying by...

How is your spring going? In our house, its just been flying by. Even with all the great ideas about doing this, or doing that. Seeing these people or those people. Starting this project or Finishing that project. The weeks just keep screaming by.

Busy doesn't describe what work has been like for me. Don't get me wrong. I'm quite happy were I'm at, an especially to be employed. So I'm not complaining. But there's only so many days and weeks you can go with 2-4 hours of sleep a night before needs a longer "recharge". Fortunately I've had those recharge times.

Hopefully in the coming days, I'll post some more. I've got new news on Team World Visions sponsorship this year. I've got new news on "Destination Addis Ababa". And some other stuff that's been floating around my noggin

To Slim or Not to Fast...

An idea or concept has been percolating in my noggin lately. Partially inspired by Lenten fasting. Partially inspired by trying to drop that 7 pounds during Lent. Partially inspired by my dwindling interest in my standard oatmeal and raisin breakfast.

How can I eat healthier, stop the grazing that I'm becoming more prone to, feel good about my weight, and add something more meaningful into my routine. Meaningful in terms of something like a fast. Reasons for fasting or self denial is a whole other topic.

So I've not come up with anything yet. Maybe switch out some meals with a slim fast. Maybe try adding 1 fast day in a month (is doing 1 a week to aggressive a goal?) Not sure how many "readers" I've got out there. What's worked for you? what ideas, however off the wall, do you have?

6000 and counting

Destination Addis is about to turn a major milestone. At 5969, I'm less than 1 weeks average mileage from turning over to 6000. That would leave only 1563 more miles to go! No problem eh? I guess with some triathlons on the docket this year, it might not take to long to reach that mileage with all the extra biking miles. Its tough to rack up mileage running and swimming.

Stay tuned..

Great Western Half Marathon

Its been a while since there has been a post. Quite a bit to post about. So look for some more updates.

First things first. about the 7 pounds in the 40 days of lent. I never posted the results. With just a wisker of time left, I came in... well close enough. Were gonna call it a success.

Next, today was the first event of the season. The Great Western Half Marathon. My 3rd year running this. Having just came back from vacation, it was going to be just a plain training run. I didnt train that well, I had a prolonged break from training with the vacation, and to top it off, I've felt pretty bad the past few days. So I entered the day with PR (Personal Record) banished from the head.

I finished in 1:47:53:53. About 10 minutes slower than last year. But that perfectly OK. If I ever wanted to run a 1/2 marathon with a some bad training, after a 10+ day absence of running, while grazing to much during all the 2400 miles of driving while on vacation, while battling a wicked cold. Hey, I can say I did it now.

But more importantly, I went out and helped another runner. You see at about mile 12 I passed a running on the ground. I stopped to see if he was fine. I guess he had some bad hip pain. I got him up, and jogged with him. He stopped a number of times, but I kept trying to motivate him. Mustapha was his name. It didn't much matter to me that my last mile was at 10 minutes rather than 8 minutes. What made the day worth while was later when he came up and said that without my help he wouldn't have finished. So in the end it was a great day.