Running Your Life Race

Have you ever been stuck? This morning it happened to me! I took the past two days off from running and blogging, simply because I had a few late nights that led to later wake-up times. I wasn't able to run or blog those mornings because of these all day events. These are my excuses, which are straight up baloney. I could have run in the afternoons and honestly blogged anytime during the day. I'm not sure when I lost that motivation, but it happened. Last night I went to be super early in hopes for a great re-start to an early morning run and blog. Then it happened...I got stuck. I got stuck inside my house because it was raining uncontrollably outside! Ahhhhhh!!!! I just wanted to go run to get back in rhythm with my week to week schedule and I couldn't. The rain wasn't the only obstacle, it was also full blown thunderstorm out. I sat on the couch defeated, wondering if I should go back to bed or figure this thing out. After a few minutes of contemplating...

Do you love music? I looooove music! It started around 5 years old for me. I used to put records on my little tykes record player that my parents had in their basement and just sit there listening to music for hours. Almost 30 years later I still have a passion for music. I play a little guitar and love to sing. I'm not that great but love to do it nonetheless. Music has always been something I've found to be a passion and inspiration. Music to me has a way of speaking with or without words. I love music with a powerful message and believe music even without words has an ability to do that. I listen to all different types of music. I love country and rap for the lyrics, and jazz, classical and EDM for the diversity. There are all types of music and I think each has it's special way of feeding the soul. Whenever I started working out I choose music that was hype and moved quickly. When I run on the treadmill I use music with a consistent beat and rhythm that help...

Planning is the process of making plans for something. Alan Lakein said, "Planning is bringing the future into the present so you can do something about it now."  When is the last time you planned something? What was it? (Comment Below) Planning has become a much greater part of my life this year and I have already seen the fruit of so much of that labor. Planning isn't easy, but it's necessary in accomplishing the greater things in life. It's really good in accomplishing pretty much anything.  What planning does is allow you to vision and look forward towards your goal. It allows you to put the necessary pieces in place to accomplish that goal. Planning is essentially a month to month, day to day, goal outline that will allow you to stay focused and maintain an solid rhythm towards accomplishing your goal.  My goal at the beginning of the year was to participate in a Spartan Race. It was my goal last year as well, however I didn't h...

10 Years...Wow!!! 10 yeas ago today I married my best friend! Love you babe! This blogs for you!!! I got up early and went running as I usually do, however this morning was a little different. As I was going down the final hill towards my house I had this great idea. I thought why not run a 10k this morning to honor the 10 years I've been married to my beautiful wife? Sounded like a good idea to me so I ran right by the house and back out for another 3.1 miles. As I was running I thought about the past 10 years and the journey it has been. Marriage is a lot like running. There are ups and downs, days you want to do it and days you don't. There are times you'll hurt and times you'll really thrive. You'll fight up some hills and coast down some as well. You'll experience beautiful things at the top of the mountain and muck through the puddles at the bottom. Marriage isn't easy, but nothing worth fighting for ever is. I believe marriage only gets bet...

This week has been seemed to go by a little slower then the others... Maybe it's because it's been raining on and off all week or because it's the summer and that's just how it is. I haven't had a whole lot to do at work and for the most part my house has stayed clean. The normal things I do every week are done, so now what do I do? Prepare...but prepare for what? If you have set your goals and are pursuing them, you can start there and begin to prepare to accomplish those things. One of my GOALS for this year is to run in a Spartan Race , so on Fathers Day I "bit the bullet" and  signed up. I was planning on signing up for the sprint race (4-6 miles), however the coupon I had only covered the full race (8-10 miles). These races aren't cheap so I figured why not go for it and just prepare a little harder. Good thing it isn't until October 21st and I have a good bit of time to prepare ! What are you preparing for? If you have a goal ...

Fuel is what keeps a car moving. It is what is burned to create energy and power so that can turn our lights on and enjoy the hot summer in our air conditioned homes. Fuel literally helps the world keep moving forward. I'm not going to advocate for cleaner fuel options or anything like that here, my point is simply that fuel is what keeps things moving.  What keeps you moving forward? Not literally moving forward, but metaphorically moving forward? What jump starts your day? What do you put into your head, body and soul that pushes you to greatness?  For me there are a few things that give me the fuel I need to get my day started right, however I'm only going to really share about one here.  Everyday I receive in my inbox and email from Susie Larson . Susie is a talk radio host, speaker and author. I found out about her from a short radio segment that came on right before I got to work in the mornings and fell in love with how inspiring her words were. Her mor...

You've probably heard the saying "practice makes perfect" before. I used to hear this all the time and it pushed me to be better, but I always felt that something was missing. I like the concept, however it's not entirely accurate. You won't ever be perfect. Perfection is something we should all strive for, however understand we won't ever actually attain it. Athletes practice. Musicians practice. Speakers practice. Artist practice. If you want to be better at something, practice it. If you want to be a better athlete, practice. If you want to be a better musician, then practice. The list goes on and on. Practice (verb) literally means to rehearse, work on, or go over again and again. It is an action towards greatness. I have always had a desire to be able to play the electric guitar well. When I was 14 I picked up the guitar for the first time and couldn't play a single note. I tried really hard, even read through the beginners guitar book, ...

Last night was a bit rough. I'm not really sure why, however I woke up every hour starting at 1am till I finally got out out bed to go run at 4:45am. I'm a little exhausted now and trying to figure out why I couldn't sleep.  Maybe I have a lot going on that is stewing in the back of my mind. We are in the middle of the summer and I do have a lot of programming and systems to work on for this upcoming school year. I also have an important meeting this week and a few others throughout the week that need special attention. I also received my school books in the mail and the very thought of going back to school could have me restless.  Whatever it was, it caused me to have a pretty lousy night of sleep.  Have you ever had a sleepless night?  I remember when my wife and I had our first child and the many nights of 30 minute to an hour long sleep windows we had to cram in before the baby needed changing or feeding. Looking back, I'm not sure how we did it!...

I LOVE this quote by Rhonda Byrne when she says "set a goal so big that if you achieved it, it would blow your mind."  About a year ago I started running. At first I could barely run on the treadmill for 5 minutes without cramping up or getting a burning sensation in my legs. I started slowly with the goal of running a 5k a few months later. I ran my first 5k (since I was in College) and actually placed first. It wasn't the fastest time and there weren't a lot of male participants in my age bracket, however that's besides the point. (LOL)  I kept running and have come a long way. My goal is to run a half marathon this year (2017) and then a full marathon next year (2018). I also have a goal to participate in a Spartan Race  this year which I have planned for in October. I started this week off with a 10k around the neighborhood and surrounding area and ended my week with another 10k same location. This week I've put down roughly 17+ miles. I haven'...

Have you ever walked or ran early in the morning? Have you ever been the first one to walk down a trail or on a path? Have you ever walked to your car parked in the driveway or an outside parking space after work?  If so, you've probably experienced the "spiderweb in the face dilemma"? You may know the feeling...out of nowhere you're pulling those thin strings of webbing off of your body (most of the time in my case it's from my face) and frantically flailing to get whatever spider may be on you, off.  Have you ever experienced this?  When I was 19 I thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail and remember every time I woke up early to go walk, I would constantly run right into these things. I learned my lesson quickly, and so did everyone else on the trail which made for some longer mornings in the tent. (lol) As I ran this morning I probably hit at least a 5 or 6 spider webs hanging from mailboxes to trees and everywhere in between. It didn't stop me tho...

Choices...we all have them.  Some of us make better ones than others, however we are all living with the choices we've made in the past whether we like it or not. Choices can be good and choices can be bad.  I chose this morning to wake up early, run, read my bible, pray and write this blog. I feel like that was a good choice.  Reality is every day we make choices... It starts the second we wake up... Do you wake up, go back to bed, sleep for another 5 minutes, 10 minutes, hour.... I love this quote by Graham Brown which says, "Life is about choices. Some we regret, some we're proud of. Some will haunt us forever. The message: we are what we chose to be ."  "We are what we chose to be"...isn't that true!  If you sit around on the couch all day and never do anything, you're not going to all of a sudden one day wake up and run a 5k. (Side note - Couch to 5k = great app & Free!) However, if every day you walked a little and ...

You may have noticed that yesterday I "took the day off" and didn't blog. I didn't even run. I just laid in the bed feeling bad for my self. The extra hours of sleep were nice, however I still felt guilty. Why did I do it? Was it worth it? My initial intention wasn't to sleep in. My plan as always was to get up at 4:50am to run, read and blog. Unfortunately none of that happened. I simply just laid in bed asleep. Here's my excuse/non-excuse... Last week I put in nearly 30,000 steps each day overseeing 150+ middle school and high school students at our churches Vacation Bible School. On Sunday night I stayed up late to watch the Preds and Pens game (Stanley Cup Finals, Ice Hockey), which didn't go in my favor. I may have even woke up with some pretty bad back and knee pain that would have prevented me from running anyways. Again, not excuses but the reality of my week last week and why I "took the day off" yesterday. I needed to ...

It's Friday, which means it's Trash Day!  I'm very thankful for this service in the U.S. and all the men and women that make it possible. I know there are counties all around the world that don't have the infrastructure to have their trash collected. I do greatly appreciate this aspect of our country and the simplicity it brings to our lives.  With that being said, as a neighborhood runner it really stinks. It literally stinks.  On Fridays when I run I usually run a longer distance outside of the neighborhood, simply to avoid the smell of the trash. Most trashcans don't smell all that bad, however the ones that are so packed full the tops are open and trash is just oozing out, those are the bad ones. Those are the ones I have to hold my breath as I run by a little faster.  This morning I was reminded by these amazing trashcans that there are a few bags of trash in my life I need to throw out. There are things that are holding me back from livi...

Who inspires you? What are you inspired by? What is inspiration? Inspiration is the process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, especially to do something creative. (Def. of Inspiration from Google) Who inspires you to do something creative? Who are those people in your life that motivate you to do your best and work hard? Who has always pushed you to step out of your comfort zone and try something new? Who do want to model your life after? Who would you say is the one person you couldn't live without? Do you have people in your life that inspire you? If so, great! If not, you need to find them ASAP!  Let's flip the script a little bit though... Are you an inspirational person? Do you help people feel "mentally stimulated" to do something creative and great?   On a scale for 1 to 10, how would you rate your level of inspiration? How well do you inspire others? (1 not at all, 10 being an inspiration to all people) - Comment Below wit...

This morning I had to cut my run short because of....well...just look back at the title of this post. I started to think though...life is the same way. Sometimes you just have to turn around and take care of business before you go any further. This morning, that's exactly what I did. What "business" do you need to take care of before you go any further? Is it a stack of emails you've been avoiding? Could it be a tough conversation you need to have with yourself or someone else? Is it simply to take some time off to get your own life together? Whatever it is, turn around and take care of the crap that is holding you back! Reality check...it's not going away unless you do something about it! ....... I'll digress for a second and write a little bit about goals. I heard a guy say the other day they painted a door in his house with chalk-board paint and wrote goals for his kids to accomplish over the summer. The door was is his kitchen so his ...

Have you ever ran a race or taken a long drive somewhere? Have you ever started a puzzle or maybe a game of monopoly? If you've been to school you've probably written a paper or two or worked on a lengthy project. What about doing your taxes or catching up on yard work; have you ever done any of those things? If you have you probably know what it feels like to be patient and work hard. To start something with passion and determination and then over time get a little winded or burned out. Let's take doing a puzzle for example. Growing up my grandparents always had puzzles at their house. As kids we loved getting them out because the picture on the box was of an incredible landscape and the idea of trying to piece together 2000 pieces was exhilarating. (not really sure why) We would open the box eager to get going and would start by flipping all the pieces over so that you could see what they were. We started working on the outside corners and then worked our way ...

This week I have a new role in the mornings overseeing 155+ Student Volunteers. I have their room all set up, my "Hype" speech prepared, snacks ready to be eaten, scheduled printed and put on the walls, check-in and check-out procedures handled and lanyards ready to be picked up! I think I have it all covered... I've never done this particular job before, however am truly excited for the opportunity. For some overseeing 155+ Middle and High School students sounds miserable. To you I simply share this quote from Neale Donald Walsh, "Life begins at the end of your comfort zone".  I know things will need to be tweaked, but that's life. With every new opportunity, there is room for growth and failure. We've got to remember that we're going to have both. We should have both. It's ok to have both. With failure we grow and with growth, we often fail.  Henry Ford said, "Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently....

Dave Matthews Band did a song written by Gavin Harrison and Ricardo Byer called "Where are you going" back in 2002 which appeared on their Busted Stuff album. The song basically goes like this...( click here to listen ) Where are you going, with your long face pulling down? Don’t hide away, like an ocean But you can’t see, but you can smell And the sound of waves crash down I am no Superman I have no reasons for you I am no hero, oh that’s for sure But I do know one thing Is where you are, is where I belong I do know, where you go is where I wanna be Where are you going, where do you go? Are you looking for answers to questions under the stars? Well, if along the way you are growing weary, You can rest with me until a brighter day And you're okay I was a senior in high school when this song came out so naturally it stuck out to me. Where are you going, I would ask myself. What's next? The other day I found myself asking the same thing. Have ...

Have you ever wanted life to be easy? What if you could simply close your eyes and all your dreams would come true? Your life would be perfect wouldn't it? My parents used to say that life's not always easy. I'm sure you've heard that or a version of that before. So why isn't life easy? Simply put, there's sin in the world. There are evil forces (sin) that cause people to do horrible things. Life's not easy because for many of us we try to define life by our own standards and means. We have an unrealistic picture of life that is not attainable. What do I mean? I'm not saying don't have big dreams and set lofty goals. What I'm saying is; through prayer and practice, run after the one who created You in the first place! Run after God's will and the rest will fall into place. Bruce Lee said, "Do not pray for an easy life, pray for the strength to endure a difficult one." I saw this next quote somewhere and it really h...