Well, We're Sure Gonna Tri

Soooo, life has been crazy lately!  My sister graduated college and we had an awesome weekend in Nashvill e with family, sooo fun!

I took a few days in Atlanta for some wedding dress shopping and other wedding-ness fun between spring semester and maymester! And yes, we found THE dress!

A few weeks later my youngest sister in law graduated high school, which was a crazy but also completely fun weekend.

Unfortunately, that weekend DJ's Aunt passed away, so he made a quick trip to Indiana for the funeral last weekend.  It was a long weekend, but completely worth the trip, a very special time with family for him.

All of this happening simultaneously with finals week for spring semester and the busy crazy intensity of maymester. All we can say is "God is good" because it was not by our own strength we were able to make it through the busy-ness unscathed and still passing classes! :P

So, needless to say we are SUPER excited to have a weekend of down/catch up time this upcoming weekend.

However, all of this craziness has not hindered us from taking on our next endeavor.

DJ bought a bike and a gym membership, and almost as simple as that, triathlon training has commenced in the Scheidt household.

I am loving it and DJ has been pleasantly surprised by how much he likes the swimming and biking. AND surprisingly enough, I'm not hating the swimming portion!

Training together has given us more time together and a cool shared interest :)

As of right now, our official training schedule begins June 24th (I already have the schedule on the fridge, I am that excited!), and plan to race an olympic distance in Anderson, SC on October 13th and are looking for a sprint to do sometime between those two dates now.

Some of my recent favories:

1. Trigear, books, blogs, and/or articles (duh!)
No Meat Athlete is my favorite reading so far
Swim Bike Mom is another one I have enjoyed (if she can do it with all she has on her plate, I definitely can!)
Run this Amazing Day and Sweat Once a Day are two others I have looked at a little bit too :)

2. Ebay is my lifeline for finding tri gear in our budget. New for half the price? Yes please! Lightly used for a quarter of the price? Works for me! :)

3. Tracy Negoshian, I have always loved her style, but recently especially have gotten a little obsessed with pretty much everything!

4. Kind of hand in hand with tri training comes fitness research.  We did a spirometer test in my cardio-pulm class a few days ago which showed my lungs were that of a 38 year old woman, which kicked me back into seriously evaluating the food I am putting my body and am currently in the process of transitioning my diet back to vegan. (I've always known my body wasn't naturally strong as far as immune system, prior illness, etc, but this test served as a good reminder to step up my intentionality.)
And after reading this you won't know what to eat!

5. Fruits that come with summertime!!

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6. Sam Moon Jewelry

Can't beat the prices and LOVE the style!
Here are some of my recent purchases (not all for me! I promise!)

7. And I just thought this was really interesting :)

Happy Friday Eve!

Racing Away From Complacency

 I have struggled like crazy lately with mediocrity and 'just getting by.' 

Yes, I want to be excellent in all that I do, but I have hit a lull.

My life has seemingly been beating to the same drum for almost two years now and mediocrity has been the result.

Somehow I still have my meltdown "I'm going to fail" days, but for the most part things are even keel.

I know I will either pass or remediate, but somehow I will move forward to the next semester.

I know when I get home Peyton will be there to give me kisses and I know at the end of everyday DJ will have the greatest hug to give.

I think this even-keel-dom has been the spark of my racing.

I want to try something new, to challenge myself on a new level, and above all I want to push myself to rely on God in a completely new way.

Mediocrity leads to complacency and a complacent person does not think they need the Lord.

The past month has been an amazing stretching experience.

So often people criticize "spreading themselves too thin."

I would argue that those are the moments the Lord does His best work.

This past month we took 2 weekend road trips to Nashville, ran 1 marathon, and both managed to survive our finals weeks with flying colors.

Was there any way we did any of those things of our own strength?

HECK NO!

Whose strength was it that spent 4 hours studying the night after running 26.2 miles? Definitely not mine!

Whose strength was it that hit the books after a day of driving and a weekend of (well worth) late nights and fun? Not DJ's!

Not to take things overly deep, but I think training for this marathon was the Lord's way of  telling me not to just shoot for "okay" because He will carry me through even my craziest of dreams.   

Not to fear living out loud. Not to fear failure.

The fear of failure leads to melt downs.  Living in joy unto the Lord may not lead to success in the world, but it will lead to success in the Lord's eyes, which is the only way to find true peace. 

Lord,

I am doing my best to live as Timothy, so one day I can stand before You and say I have:

You, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

1 Timothy 6:11-12

I love this picture. In the grand scheme of things we are so small and God is SO huge.  I am the little running dot saying "my legs hurt and I'm tired" to which He responds "I got this, give it up"
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Happy Thursday!

26.2 in the Books!

 

I did it, ran 26.2 miles to complete my first marathon!!!

 

April 27, 2013 finished in 4:53!

 

I was SO scared of failure in my first attempt, which made completing it just that much sweeter!

 

The Lord's hand was so so obvious in every step of the way too, which is just awesome!

 

Example 1:

We had planned to road trip to Nashville for the Rock n Roll Music Marathon that same weekend, but my class schedule made that nearly impossible, so we changed plans.

Thank goodness, because it POURED there, which would have made running for almost 5 hours pretty miserable!

I was so thankful to find another marathon within a 2 hour drive that same weekend.

The King's Mountain Marathon.

The hills were intense, but we had a beautiful overcast day with sprinkling in Clover, SC, which was the perfect weather!

 

Example 2:

The race I ended up signing up for was an open course, so DJ and Peyton spend the parts of the race that weren't gravel or dirt zipping around to meet me ~2 miles.  Which was HUGE around mile 22 when I needed all the encouragement I could get!  I absolutely loved having them pull up beside me, Peyton's head hanging happily out the window and DJ sitting smiliing right next to him saying "you're doing it! you got it!"  I love my husband so much!

 

Peyton was more exhausted than I was afterwards due to all of the attention he received and new things going on :)

 

Example 3:

At mile 23-24, I was hurting.  I was actually to the point that I preferred uphill runs because the eccentric muscle control required on the downhills were SO painful.  I had some awesome praise songs come on that just drove me forward.  Lots of Chris Tomlin, Kristian Stanfill, and Matt Redman! With my emotions running high, this Michael W Smith instrumental especially just recharged me!

 

 

Anyways, I have a number of friends telling me "I told you so" because in training I kept saying "what was I thinking, this is horrible, I am never doing this again"

But, it really wasn't that bad, the last 2 miles were brutal, but after and even during up to that point, I felt such a sense of accomplishment and drive. It was motivational to the point that even almost a week later, I continue with the drive not to work for mediocrity, which was a rut I have been stuck in for quite awhile.  To walk my talk and keep my eyes focused on bigger things is my ultimate goal.

 

While I am completely excited that I completed the race, it wasn't about me at all, it was about the Lord trying to reveal things that I needed to change, and He needed to stretch me that far to open my eyes.  It was an emotional race, yes, my legs carried me, but my mental and emotional strength were what got me across the finish line.  That strength is what came from the Lord.

 

I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth.

Psalm 121:1-2

 

Happy Day!