Way of the Master

A few months ago, I was flipping channels on the television and came across a familiar face. It was Kirk Cameron, the young actor from the 1980s, who was on the hit sit-com Growing Pains. Remember him? I was in my teens and totally had a crush on him as did all of my friends. Ha! He was on a Christian Network and was talking about the Lord. It was so awesome, his boldness and sincere concern for the unsaved.

Since then I've been doing a lot of research into evolution, and proof that supports a creator, and Jesus as God's son, who was risen from the dead. There's a ton of evidence, and not only given by Christians, either, but by scientists. It's pretty cool.

I just now visited Kirk Cameron's website, The Way of the Master, and listened to Kirk's testimony, about how he became a follower of God and Jesus. I've listened to it before, and it's pretty funny the way he describes it, but smart. Basically, he said that he owed it to himself to at least investigate.

Brian and I have noticed these days, that most Americans are actually Agnostics. It's easy to be one, Brian and I once were Agnostics. Agnostics are people who simply don't care, don't want to be bothered by Jesus, don't want to put forth any effort into discovering truth or making an educated decision, don't want to take time out their busy schedule to think about and dwell on the idea that maybe what the Bible says is true, simply put, just don't really care one way or the other. If the Bible is true, which Brian and I believe is the case, then this life on earth is extremely short. What happens next? Eternity is a loooong time.

Breakthroughs

Another week of breakthroughs… It seems like it can be a while between improvements with the leg, but then will come a big jump. This week was that jump.

I flew solo again. Usually not a big deal as that’s the way we fly typically, but this was the first time in over a year. Everything came back and I felt very comfortable with the jet, the procedures, and the radios. Then today I had my check ride, and as of today I am again a fully-qualified F-16 pilot!

Cycling has been going well, but last weekend I tried my hand at a 40k TT. It was 100 degrees when we started and around 105 at the finish, but even through that I was able to push a big gear. I averaged over 250 watts and, although not a record, I was very happy with it for being on the bike for only a few months.

(The new Cannondale Carbon Slice was amazing as well. This bike is F-A-S-T fast! There is no flex in the bottom bracket or in the Si SL cranks. I picked up a set of Easton Attack TT bars and Fizik gel pads from Trisports.com; with my PowerTap rear nothing-fancy wheel and my Reynolds DV46 front it weighs in at under 17lbs! Next race I should have my Reynolds SDV66 with PowerTap hub and a Wheelbuilder.com disk cover. I also tried out my new Diadora Infinity Carbon tri shoes and Rudy Project Syton Supercomp helmet and Sportmasks. Ohh, very nice.)

Then last night I went to the local aquathlon. There’s a series here in Tucson that’s very fun and brings out a lot of the local triathletes and my friends. Last time, my 5k time was slower than my best overall time there… This time, three weeks later, I took over 2 minutes off the run…PER MILE!! I ran a 20:20 5k for an average of 6:35 miles. It was a complete surprise, and I felt great!

So, based on this, I have updated my racing plan. Look for me to race in the Snow Valley XTERRA in Snow Valley, CA, in August and to follow that up with the XTERRA Mountain Championships in Ogden, UT. Then, if things continue to go well, I’ll be going to Tahoe for the XTERRA USA championship in October, then the Soma Triathlon in Tempe. Ideally, I’d like to do the 70.3 distance, but I think I’ll settle for the Quarterman.

GREAT JOB!

I just want to say an overall ‘GREAT JOB” to all of the GEC athletes! Racing is going very well for most everyone.

- Brian B is rocking the XTERRA world with top finishes at the Desert Xtreme XTERRA and Deuces Wild (overall win), as well as at the XTERRA Regional races in Temecula, Pelham, AL, and Richmond (age group win)!

- Brad did awesome in Ironman Arizona with a PR by an hour and a half, then smoked it at Wildflower!

- Kathy has been extremely successful in over 16 races so far this year, including road racing, and finally culminating as AZ’s representative for Best of the US!

- Polita just had her first sprint triathlon of the year where she improved her time from last year by 6 minutes and finished first in her age group for the first time! Her husband Owen took 6 minutes off his time as well!

- Scott is rocking the Xterra world as well up in New England!

- Caryn just wiped up an overall win at one of the Tucson aquathlons…including the guys!

- Matt won his age group in the Tempe International Tri and had a phenomenal race at Wildflower! Watch for him at IM Coeur d’Alene

- Rebecca took an age group win the Tempe Int’l Sprint as well as Deuces Wild XTERRA!

This is just mentioning a few athletes. Again, nice work everyone and keep it up! And a special good luck to those GEC athletes and campers racing at either IM CDA or IM France this weekend—Dan, Mike, Matt, Greg, Scott, Jim, Heather, Chris, Brian C, Karen, Bill, and Lisa.

Feel free to write an update to your profile or submit a race report.

--Brian

Airborne Again!

This week I resumed my flying duties with the Guard. It seemed an excessively long and difficult process to get my medical waiver to fly after the leg incident, but again “slipped the surly bonds of earth and danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings!” from High Flight, John Gillespie Magee, Jr.

After a couple of weeks of academics to make sure I still knew the F-16 and a few “dial-a-death” emergency simulators to make sure I still knew what I was doing in the case that something went wrong, I flew. I took off, another instructor in “6-foot trail” (in my back seat), and gave a little “woo-hoo!” upon takeoff. Off we went to the working area to experience the handling qualities of the aircraft (wring it out and pull some Gs), then over to the auxiliary airfield for some landings and instrument patterns, and then back to home plate for a trip around the flagpole before landing. Things came back quickly.

In an hour and a half I traveled over 450 miles, pulled 6 Gs, dropped simulated bombs, shot 3 airborne targets (again, simulated), performed 4 instrument approaches simulating flying in bad weather, did 3 simulated emergency landings, did 7 touch-and-gos, and managed not to get violated by ATC! All in a day’s work!

It’s good to be flying again!

Mt. Lemmon--Oh yeah!

Brian and me climbing up Mt. Lemmon

Mt. Lemmon and cookies. Yes, climbing Mt. Lemmon used to be about getting the pie, but the little pie place has been replaced with the Cookie Cabin.

Kathy Rakel, who has been staying with us for the past week, has been in Tucson for the year while attending grad school at the University of Arizona. She's never ridden to the top of Mt. Lemmon. She and I rode up to about mile 16 last year, but turned around because there were ice patches on the road. Not today, the weather was supposed to be beautiful as always in June.

I got a head start on Kathy and Brian, who decided to ride from home. I drove to about a mile from the base and started there because knew since I'm haven't gotten my fitness back totally from being injured, that I'd need a head start. Although I started the climb at 6:15, it was already hot to be climbing. Oh well, in an hour, the temperature would be perfect since I'd be at 5,000 feet elevation.

Brian and Kathy caught up at mile post 7. We then took turns taking pics and being goofy. Once past milepost 16, we went into the trees and it was actually a little chilly! We continued to climb and finally got to the downhill at about mile 20. It was one of the fastest descents I've ever done, and definitely some of the fastest cornering. It was very windy and we had a tailwind going down--fun, but a little scary, and if you know how I ride, I rarely get scared on downhills---mountain or road. We all survived and finally got to the ski hill turn-off. The road got steep for a couple of miles, but the pavement was still great. Once we had climbed to the bottom of the ski hill, we knew we had more work ahead. The glass-like road turned into a pot-hole, patched mess. 1.5 miles of this took us to the very top of Mt. Lemmon---Steward Observatory. We took the usual pics, then headed to Summerhaven where Kathy enjoyed her hard labor with a cookie from the Cookie Cabin.

Ahhh...something about beginning your ride in Saguaros and Prickly Pear at 1500 feet and ending in Pine trees at 9000 feet. What a great ride!!

The above pic is of Brian and Kathy about a mile past Windy Point.

John Woolf, PT

John Woolf, physical therapist and friend, from this point forward be posting articles directly to the home page of www.graskyendurance.com concerning athlete injuries. He has tons of knowledge to offer so check out his articles soon to come!

New Addition to the Blog

I am very excited to have been invited to contribute to this great organization. I have worked with many injured athletes in the past. I can honestly say that I have seldom worked with athletes like Jill and Brian who are as dedicated to understanding the opporutnities that an injury provides. Nobody wants an injury, but anytime you have athletes pushing their bodies and minds to the limits, there will be something that hurts. Its not that you won't have an injury at some point in your career, its what you do with it that will make the difference.


My background is in sports medicine. I was the Director of Sports Medicine for the University of Arizona Athletics Department. I am a certified athletic trainer (ATC) and certified in orthopedic manual therapy (COMT) from the International Academy of Orthopedic Medicine - United States. I have taught in the Sports Medicine Fellowship Program at the University of Arizona and lecture at professional meetings on the topic of diagnosis and management of injuries. I have served as a medical crew chief for a RAAM rider and have worked with hundreds of runners, cyclists and swimmers over the past 20 years. I am the owner of ProActive Physical Therapy in Tucson, AZ.


I am also a cyclist. Although I am a complete hack, I love to race and have learned enough to survive the community events available in Tucson.


Over the coming weeks and months I will be writing about some the of the common injuries that we all encounter. I will provide some insight on how to manage some of these injuries and how to be ProActive about injury prevention. Cheers!