120!

How cool is it, that right now on the pentacrest there are at least two people praying for this campus, and how cool is it, that in an hour there will also be at least two people, and how cool is it that in 3 hours from now, all the way until Friday at 12:00 there will be numerous amounts of people every hour praying for this city, and this campus... how cool!!!

I was really challenged by Jeff's talk on Sunday morning when he talked about being luke warm Christians, which I have to admit I have been quite as of lately, I have skipped going to things, cuase I haven't just felt it, or I have not gone to serve other things becasue I have forgot, or simply been to lazy.. what in the WORLD has been going on!!

Anyway... Pat said if you can find time to eat, you can find an hour a day to pray.. he is so right, I've been praying at 1:00 everyday and I have to say that I have been so blessed by it! I thought praying for an hour would be really hard, but once your past the first 15 minutes its pretty easy, and even though its a workout, and its challengeing, its the best time in the world, you get to spend it with God. What could be better!!

Even though we are praying for the campus, I find I am learning so much through it all, My heart aches for this city, and I can not wait to see waht God is going to do here. However I have to constantly remind myself of truth as yesterday I was attacked by a gentleman saying something totally innopropriate that really made me feel like crap and it was right after praying, but thankfully God has reminded me, that now is the time when I am closest to God, the Devil will tempt me, I will be tempted, I will fail at times, but I will press on, I will grow closer to God, and I can not wait to see waht he is doing here in this city, I am so excited I can not simply express it in words!

It's been a year..

I just got back from a short run... 15 minutes not to bad! I am okay with it!

Anyway... So I am getting really nervous for next week as Waterpolo is starting up again, and we have to go through 2 dry land workouts before we can touch the water. It was about a year ago when I decided that enough was enough and I simply needed to loose weight.. something had to change!!

We were at practice and the coach had us run from the field house down to riverside across the ped bridge by the law building, then down to the place by riverside where its just grass and then straight down to dairy queen, all in all, I think it is probably way under a mile, its semi hilly, one uphil one downhill, and the rest is pretty flat, but not stable ground most of the way and located by a highway.

Anyway, this particular night he had us run to this huge hill, Problem #1 - I couldn't make it to the place where ever was running to, and in my opionion running quite fast without stopping mutlipe times, I wanted to cry, I wanted to give up.... But my attitude of most things is to not give up.. so I didnt' give up, but I probably did cry.. So anyway.. I finally make it to this place where there is a huge hill, the hill on riverside for any Iowa City folks..

Problem #2 - Because I was so slow getting there, everyone had time to rest, but as soon as I got there, he started in on drill number two, which was suicides up and down this hill, I thought he was CRAZYYY!!! - CRAZZzzzYY!! Anyway... Needless to say I could not complete most if not all of them..

Problem #3 - He said, run to the top of the hill and jog back to the feild house.. I am thinking.. hahaha your really funny.. but he was soo dead serious.. by the time I had gotten up to the top of the hill everyone had already gone in the distance, and I was sooo wiped, I was walking it.. but here I saw someone coming back in the distance.. i was like.. uhhh I better start jogging or something..

Problem #4 - My Coach had come back to make sure I was okay, or make sure I wasn't dead, and motivate me I suppose, he ran with me for a while, pushing me which I really enjoyed, I love being pushed, he pushed me to a point where I had to stop, I thoguth i was going to pass out, I coudln't breath, it was not good, he said keep walking.. I'll be back..

Anyway so why did I tell you all this? - Well thats what I guess i am expecting to happen come next tuesday night... and i am super scared!! Well not as scared as I thought I would be but scared.. I am planning on running that route tommrow, or on Saturday, and see how it goes.. I'll let you all know.. not that anyone is reading this.. LOL

but anyway.. its been a bout a year since all of this.. that night, that it happened, i Decided I NEEDED to loose weight, it wasnt' a matter of i wanted to, or i wanted to look good, but i just wasn't even healthy any more... I've also decided I need to celebrate my victory of one year.. so my friends are planning something, but I am also going to try and do something just with me and God or maybe just me I dunno.. any thoughts?

Now.. I am sitting here and 60 some odd pounds lost later wondering why I just didn't do it sooner... Wondering if I can loose all the rest of the weight I want to loose, wondering if I will be healthy enough to make it though this years workouts, wondering how I Will do it, So many wonders and so many questions and no answers..

Bike Tips 101!

I attended a bike clinic tonight put on by our local bike shop, World of Bikes

It was great to have two friendly local bikers give their professional opinion on important things such as what to take with on a ride to maintains on your bike on a day to day basis.

Tips!
1. When your adding grease to your chain always wait a little bit, 5 - 10 minutes and then WIPE OFF THE EXCESS GREASE, never leave excess grease on your chain... WOW, I've been missing out here, I am sure all that grime has formed all over my chain by now.. Oh well off to degreasing it tomorrow..

2. Always, Always, Always wear a helmet, this should literally be a no brainier!

3. You can adjust the derailer on your bike by simply adjusting the little nobby things on the cable (on a road bike) located by your handle bars, also known as the adjusting barrel, go to the left to make it looser and the right to make it tighter..

4. You should always carry a couple things with you on a ride... a extra tube, a bike pump of some sort, a patch kit, some money, and an id. I would also include a cell phone just incase your in desperate need of a ride home.

I also went to a picnic tonight, it was great!! It was great to see so many people there, it was a fantastic tournout!! I played some volleyball in which of course I got a little to competitive but it was all in all a fun time, but I was drenched in sweat, which was good as well.

July 30th - RAGBRAI!!!

So I participated in a day of RAGBRAI. Looking back I keep thinking that it was such a huge accomplishment for me. I can't believe all the things that my body has done lately and I wanted to make sure I finally wrote some of them down.

RAGBRAI has its own characteristics, unique charm, essentially a party on wheels. It even comes with it's own language.

I biked with two other friends, Sarah and Jonathan, we started our day in Marengo Iowa. I awoke at 5:20 to make it there on time. I was so tired, lack of sleep and as I stepped outside my sisters house I thought it was already way to hot outside. It was already probably in the 70's and the sun had just come up.

My sister dropped me off in Marengo, a short drive from Amana, and I meet up with my friends. Soon after my sister dropped me off I was sitting in the AC again talking over breakfast as my friends were still getting ready to go. Soon enough Jonathan and Sarah were ready.

Jonathan who was biking on a mountain bike made a comment, "I think we can make it in 3 hours", I laughed. I was like with your nobby times, I don't think so, I was just trying to be realistic, I thought we could make it in 4, but had no idea how hilly the course was. The course was 48 miles and I knew if it was flat it would be realistic but was still optimistic and unsure of the roads that lay ahead.

So we started out and 2 minutes 45 seconds into the ride, problem 1. Sarah has a problem with her bike tire, she didn't seem to be biking as fast as normal, and the bike tire is not turning properly, the brake is rubbing weird, and so we turn around. Thankfully we were only .66 miles out and still close to home.

We got bak to where we started and Jonathan got out the tools and starts adjusting the time, by this time I was already sweating, thinking to my self it was way to hot to do this and wondering if I should simply stay home or go home. But soon enough the tire was fixed, but then Jonathan realized that Sarah had packed everything possible in her back pack and so he began going thro it, removing most of the unnecessary items.

Okay.. So we are back on the road, I look down I'm cruising around 14 mph, not to shabby, anyway we get to the main road where thousands of bikers were going by, I kept thinking how in the world do we get on, and how are we going to stay together, as that was our plan. We finally get on, were biking in a large pack several teams pass us.

On RAGBRAI you can be on a team. I have yet to figure out what the exact purpose of having a team but I guess there are a few benefits.
1. You get to where cool, funky hot costumes, or a cool riding shirt will have the same effect.
2. You always have people to bike with as long as you can keep up with at least 1 member.
3. You always have people to party with in your campsite but you'll most likely have to camp and sleep outside if you have a big team.
4. You have someone to pick you up early on the course when your too hot and think your going to die
5. You may have a cool bus to ride in.

Anyway, so several teams passed us, it felt so weird to be going so slow, we were maybe biking at 6-8 mph. We were caught on the right which I guess as the day went on it was the last place I wanted to be. So were on the road, less than a mile on we get to a very large hill, I was like ohh.... great. I hate hills, I am horrible at hills, I was hoping that this is just the start and then it's flat. Nope.. WRONG!! We go down and then up a decent size hill, I'm cruising down at 25 and cruising ( or rather not so cruising) up at 6-8 mph, which for me is totally painful. So hill after hill after hill I think it will never end.

By this time I keep loosing Sarah and Jonathan, I go a little faster o the downhill and way slower on the uphill, (I think Sarah could kick my butt on any up hill almost any day of the week!) I'm trying to slow down to find them on the minimum flats but there are hardly any. As the day went on, I would go bike and then go slow and find Sarah and yell out a name letting them know I was there.

I saw several teams drafting, another advantage of teams. So we get about 6 miles in, I ask Sarah to pull over, we are at the top of a hill, right before we go down it, and i simply need a break, my mind is racing thinking we are only 6 miles in and already stopping, and thinking it is going to be a LOONG day, not to mention, are we even going to make it??

We continue to biking, and find out that it just works better for me, who hates biking slow, its just harder for me to do, to slow my natural rhythm down, so I bike ahead, listen to some jams of others bikers who have radios on their bikes and talk to a few bikers who bike next to me a so they go by. We make 1 more stop before getting to Williamsburg which was 15.8 miles. We took a couple quick pictures and a water break and then continued, from here on out I biked pretty much alone, which I was totally okay with, I finally figured out the hills, or at least most of them, I would go down around 25 and go up around 19, I was cruising and it was Great!!

The best part of my picking up speed was I was then able to take longer pit stops which I always went for the shade and then waited for Sarah and Jonathan which was truly a life saver for me. Sarah and Jonathan would get to me grab a drink of water and say okay ready, and I am thinking holy cow!! I'm wiped, and I've been resting for a good 8 minutes. So I'm so thankful I was just able to bike a little faster and take a little longer breaks.

As I mentioned earlier RAGBRAI has it's own language, it really surprised me when we first started, it reminds me of like computer feeks have their own language and these bikers had come up with a language to fit their needs perfectly!

Car Up - Was an echo of people yelling it down the line to let you know, somewhere, usually fairly soon a car was coming towards you on the left, most drivers were very cautious and slow& I was very thankful for that but I saw two cars that were zooming by at least 45 mph.. craziness!!

Car Back - Means a car is on the right side of the road (The side everyone is biking on) which is a disaster especially on hills, the cars would have bikers passing them and I am sure they were often frustrated, At one point I was behind a Semi, which was very scary, I thought if he or I made one wrong move I was toast!

Biker On & Biker Off - Self Explanitory - but used when getting off or back on the road, usually followed by a right or left.

Rumbles - when there are those rumble bars before stop signs there was an echo of rumble on the right, so you could hopefully safely avoid the very annoying rumbles. The first time I heard this, I was like.. what in the world are rumbles..

Then of course there was slowing or stopping when it simply hit massive crowds and you had to walk your bike. So the day was going fairly well, other than I was so hot, there were several times I thought I could pass out and others I was almost crying thinking I couldn't simply go any farther. We decided to take a 1/2 hour break when we reached Windham, thank goodness!!

I don't know if I could have gone much farther, we found some food and some shade and I tried taking a short nap but instead didn't get much in but thankful for the short rest.

We started back on our journey at 12:15 or so, on the road again, we get going again and thankfully we are now only about 12 - 15 miles from Coralville,. We turned the corner to go to Cosgrove and there were all these signs, saying you can do the hill, you can make it, Cosgrove just on top of the hills, Man they were insane!!

We went up the steepest hill in Iowa in the shortest idstance or so they say... Whew, I've never seen so many people jump off their bikes in the middle of a hill, including my self, I was walking it! Everyone kept saying if you had a granny gear you were okay, but I definitely did not have a granny gear. Later on in the day Sarah told me a story of a dad going up the hill hauling his daughter in a pull along up this hill and it went something like this.

Daughter - Dad, were going really slow..
Dad - Huffing and Puffing, well because your really heavy, this thing is really heavy.
Daughter - How much does this thing weigh
Dad - totally out of breath, Ohh I dunno maybe 15 pounds or so..
Daughter - Wow and I weigh like 30 or so thats like 40 pounds Dad
Dad - Huffing and Puffing - yeah..

When Sarah was explaining this story I couldn't help but think how cool it was of that dad to work so hard and let his daughter enough a ride out of Love, and how much God is like my father as well, how hard he works for me, even when I don't deserve it, how much he gives me just out of his pure love! Its amazing!

After several hills and me wanting to throw up and pass out we made it to Cosgrove, I just had to stop, I stood infront of a sprinkler for a while before collapsing under a shaded tree, thinking I was going to die from the heat. Someone happened to mention how much further it was to Iowa city, and said 10 miles, I had only traveled 2 miles!!! CRAZINESS!!

I saw several buses picking up team members, just saying it was to hot, This is where I sooo wished I had a team with a bus something, just let me ride!! Anyway about after a 15 minute rest we got up and took off a gain. I went ahead and could barely stay ahead of Jonathan and Sarah or barely catch up at times!! Jonathan because very fast, or maybe I slowed down, but man that boy was like full of energy, he was hyped! It was amazing! I only wished I had the energy to challegne him but I was toast!

We made 1 or 2 stops before we made it to Iowa city, I have never been so happy to see Iowa City before!.