Eric Hansen Memorial Indoor Triathlon

Tomorrow morning I have my first official Triathlon. Its an indoor tri, and is time based, so I wont have the same feeling as if it were outdoor and I was actually running in the pack.

The Tri is setup to have you run each event for 15 minutes, with 5 minute transition times between the swim/bike and the bike/run. While that is a LOT of time, I am unsure how it will work.

I plan to post my final numbers when I get them.

-Layne

Gone to the Dogs

Recently, there have been many things in my life that have been talking about dogs. Malcolm Gladwell (my favorite author) has a new book out called, "What the Dog Saw", also in a running book I am reading, they mention a dogs desire to run... anytime, anywhere. Lastly, my wife shared with me a very interesting fact about dogs the other day, about how they show interest in us.

Did you know that Dogs are one of the only animals that have in interest in human behavior? It's a very interesting piece of information when you consider all the other animals. If you point at something, your dog will be interested in what your pointing at, and may go over to check it out. My own dogs will search out an entire area if I show interest meanwhile, my cats will just stare at me with a blank face.

While sitting with my tea this morning, I was struck with a new thought on the topic, or combination of topics really. Dogs are a mans best friend, they respect their human owner, without ever being given a reason why. They are forgiving, they are loving, they can defend you, and they could save your life too.

What stuck out to me on this topic, was how the relationship that a dog has with the human, is the same kind of relationship that God wants to have with us. Interesting that Dogs are mans best friend, when Man should have the same feelings to be God's best friend.

Sounds kind of offensive right? After all, we are talking about filthy scavengers that are domesticated.

God created the dog, and I believe that in each creature that He created, He intertwined characteristics of Himself in their personalities. Dogs are forgiving, and care what we do. They always want your attention, I mean, when has a dog ever turned you down to a game of catch, or a walk outside? If you show interest in a dog, in any positive fashion, they will react in want of more attention.

I believe that we can take a lesson from the dogs mentality, and apply it to our own life, that we ought to seek interest in God, that when He calls on us, we should always answer in the affirmative, and that we should care more about His desires for us, than our own. It interests me that God put an animal so close to me, and I have never noticed that these characteristics that I love so much in my animals, happen to be the same that He wants in me.

My Life - An Update

I haven't posted on here in some time, so I figured I ought to put something up here. Here it is:

Last year I decided that this year, I would compete in a triathlon. I started training last year over the summer and continued training into the fall. I was forced to take a break when I was run over by a friend and his bicycle.

The accident: Timm and I trained together as often as our schedules allowed, this was one of those days. We met up at Hawk Island Park, in Lansing, for a bike ride, run and a swim. We started with the bike ride, and went into East Lansing, where some of the bridges on the path are made of wood. It had rained that morning, and we were riding road/triathlon bikes (which means our tires are the thin tiny tires, unlike mountain bike tires).

While much of the path is paved and a fairly nice ride, some of the bridges, most of the bridges have pot holes at the base of them. I was attempting to dodge one of these pot holes by performing a very small wheelie, when my wheel landed, it hit the wet wooden bridge and my back tired slide out from under me. I stuck out my left arm to try to brace the impact (I would normally use my foot, but it was clipped onto my pedal) but still crashed and slide a few yards.

Timm, who was right behind me, did not have much time to react, and came cruising over my body, specifically the back of my head and my arm, then continued to crash his own bike. He graciously apologized for something I still dont blame him for, after all, I was the one who caused the crash.

So we get up, brush ourselves off, and keep going. The adrenaline really covered up most of the pains, however it did catch up to me later. We continued back to the park, and ran our 3 miles, then swam for a bit as well.

I had some nice bruising on my head and my arm, some scratches.. all over the place, and later found out I had broke a rib or two (while I didnt go to the doctor to verify this, my chiropractor agrees with me).

Training was put off while I healed. Every so often I would attempt to go outside and run, but to no avail. School started up in the fall semester as well, and I graduated in December, so that also took priority over training.

At the beginning of January, my wife and I decided to get gym memberships at our local YMCA. Its been wonderful. I have started my training back up, and have changed my eating habits to follow "The Warrior Diet". I have been on the diet for a couple of weeks now, and have been training for 5 weeks as well.

I did keep a log book of all my training and diet last year, and I was pleased to see that my performance and endurance returned after only 2 weeks of training. I have lost 13 lbs so far, and continue to drop weight and gain muscle.

I have applied to another school to carry on my education, and hope to hear back from them soon so that I may start taking classes again.

My first triathlon will be on June 6th, at the Hawk Island Triathlon, its a sprint distance tri, and is known to be very beginner friendly. I am also looking at competing in the Grand Haven Triathlon, and the Sherman Lake YMCA "Sherminator" Triathlon.