First Time at Boot Camp (or Church)

Last week I attended a boot camp fitness class after a co-worker invited me and pointed out a free trial week offer. I'd heard of it from a number of people, was curious, and I'll try almost anything once. The workout was pretty intense and caused almost every muscle group to be sore at some point during the week.

The more that I thought about it, I realized that the experience had some parallels to inviting someone to church who doesn't normally go. The first day, my friend was not able to make it so I decided not to go. "You should come to my church. It's great but I won't be there this Sunday." 

When I did attend there was the uncertainty of going somewhere new for the first time. (Not to mention that it was dark, raining, on the cool side of the thermometer, and I'm not a morning person) "Where do I park at the church? What do I wear? Where do I sit? Where’s someone I know?" Nevertheless, I found the meeting spot and got down to business with the other worker-outers. 

Then there was the terminology. Words like Tabata, AMRAP, Plank, Burpee. "Baptism, tithe, sermon, discipleship, apologetics, communion" Being the new guy, it helps to have encouragement both from the coach and if others are friendly. (i.e. pastor is friendly, others at church are welcoming) 

When you grow up in church you just natively understand certain terminology and how things work. It can be easy to forget what it’s like to be the new person or even to try something completely new and all the uncertainty that comes along with it.

Next time someone invites you to do something you’ve never done before, don’t be afraid to try it out. It might even give you a better perspective on what it’s like to go to church for the first time.

In pursuit of His best,

Andrew

San Diego: Torrey Pines, Padres, Historic Gaslamp District

This past week I took a trip to San Diego and while there got to visit the Torrey Pines nature preserve along the Pacific Ocean as well as go to a Padres vs. Cardinals game and checkout the historic gaslamp district. Here are a few photos:

Runners be not jealous, I got to do a mile repeat speed workout along this stretch.

This guy was hanging out around my hotel along with a few of his buddies.

Drew Brees Interview

Here's a great interview with Drew Brees, quarterback of the New Orleans Saints, sharing about his faith in Christ. It's awesome to see athletes of this caliber sharing publicly about their relationship with God.

Once A Runner

Once A Runner by John L. Parker.

For several years, I'd heard of Once a Runner and it's cult following in the running subculture. Being a runner for many years myself, I was excited when I learned that the novel would be released again.

The novel follows a protagonist named Quentin Cassidy during his running career in the 1970s at the fictional Southeastern University in Kernsville, Florida. (Based loosely on the University of Florida in Gainesville) Cassidy is one of the top milers in the nation with race times around 4:00 flat. In addition to his running adventures, we also follow his humorous escapades as a college student and ring leader of various mischief.

As a result of Cassidy's leadership role in an athlete uprising against unreasonable administration rules, he is banned from the track team and decides to drop out of school to pursue training exclusively while living in a cabin in the woods. During this training he further refines his mental and physical abilities to finely honed race condition. This training culminates in a race against the fastest miler in the world.

The book captures with extreme accuracy the many aspects of life as a competitive distance runner. It goes through the components of training including long runs, speed work, training logs, eating, sleeping, stretching, and race preparations among others. It additionally touches on the social nuances that runners experience in the football centric American sports culture. I found the pre-race rituals and description of nervousness as well as feelings and thoughts during the actual race to be right on target.

The book alternates between rambunctious tomfoolery college scenes and the more reflective passages of both group and individual training. The flow parallels running quite well. At times a runner will interact with the hustle and bustle of the non-running world and at times he or she will enter the separate world of running and introspective thinking.

The plot is exciting throughout with varying components of humor, drama, and heart pounding racing. Once A Runner will entertain and strike a nerve especially with the competitive runner. It's a great read for the casual runner or the person simply interested in a good sports story.

If you found this review helpful, please let Amazon know at this link.

When March Went Mad

When March Went Mad by Seth Davis

Seth Davis has written an in depth account of the breakout 1979 NCAA championship basketball game centered around the 2 superstars: Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. The book follows the very different but parallel stories of Bird and Johnson throughout their childhood into high school their high profile recruitment, college careers, the climactic championship game, and then a small portion of their NBA careers.

Johnson was the gregarious extrovert, Bird the quiet and at times reclusive introvert but both were outstanding on the basketball court. Johnson grew up in Lansing, Michigan the same city as Michigan State while bird grew up in French Lick, Indiana. Bird's sometimes rough around the edges persona resulted in the moniker "The Hick From French Lick." Johnson earned his nick name "Magic" from a newspaper reporter during high school.

While Michigan State was a relatively major basketball program, Indiana State, where Bird played, did not compete with the same caliber programs and was comparatively little known as a basketball power. Each of these athletes led their teams to success throughout their college sports careers. Academically, Bird actually completed his degree in education prior to going to the NBA while Johnson left school after his sophomore season to join the pros.

The book is not limited to Bird and Johnson but also delves into the players' college coaches Jud Heathcoate for Johnson and Bob King then Bill Hodges for Bird. Discussion of the coaches' styles is explored with Heathcoate being extremely intense and at times inflammatory and Hodges with a focused but quieter and at times shy style.

Interestingly, Bird was recruited by Bobby Knight at Indiana University first but after enrolling there became overwhelmed by the college atmosphere and dropped out before eventually enrolling in Indiana State.

Prior to reading the book, I did not realize that Johnson played point guard during college. He is 6 foot 8 so was a very tall point guard.

There is also discussion in the book of how NBC helped promote and make the NCAA tournament a big time sporting event. Prior to that time, there was some interest in collegiate basketball but nothing on the scale of what it is today. ESPN was just an idea at that point and broke into its infancy the following year. CBS was also a player that Davis discussed in the television market.

Davis, performed a great deal of research and interviews in writing the book and the resulting detail is excellent. It is both a biographical account of the 2 main characters as well as the season leading up to the landmark game and the supporting cast of coaches, teammates, and media. The thesis is how this championship game helped launch college basketball into the big time and though more time could be devoted to this discussion Davis is convincing in presenting it, at a minimum, as a component in the resulting success and popularity of the sport.

If you found this review helpful please let Amazon know at this link.

100 Pushups and 200 Crunches

I found these 2 sites that provide a plan which will enable you to do 100 pushups consecutively and 200 crunches(situps). The plan runs for 6 weeks so I've decided to try it out. We here at The Wisdom of Dre try to maintain fairly good conditioning as it is but believe in goal setting as an effective way to stay motivated.

At the beginning of the program, you're supposed to perform a fitness test to bench mark where you are at. I did this in the afternoon after having lifted weights in the morning but my starting point is Pushups: 40, Crunches: 90. As a point of clarification, situps can strain the back and neck so crunches are the recommended abdominal exercise.

If you would also be interested in embarking on this journey with us, we'd welcome fellow travelers along the path to muscular definition.



HundredPushups.com


200 Situps.com

Royals Fan Fest

On Saturday, I took some pictures for the Star at the Kansas City Royals Fan Fest. There were probably a few thousand people over the course of the weekend. They had skills test like batting cages, pitching speed, pop fly drills, and base running. They also had a hall of fame section which had the World Series trophy as well as some other memorabilia. Both current and former players were there signing autographs. Another highlight was player interviews conducted by fans.

Coco Crisp
David DeJesus
Catching free memorabilia thrown from the stage
World Series trophy
Playing Simon Says
John Buck
Pitching Speed test
Batting practice

For more pictures please see this Community Faces link.

Kansas Basketball

Today, I went to the University of Kansas basketball game against Jackson State at Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence, Kansas. For those who don't know, James Naismith, the father of basketball, invented basketball a few years before joining the University of Kansas as a physical education teacher and the first University of Kansas basketball coach in 1898. One of his players, Phog Allen also went on to coach the KU basketball team and became the 3rd winningest coach at the time of his retirement. While Allen was at KU, he coached legendary coaches Dean Smith and Adolph Rupp the number 1 and 2 winningest coaches prior to Bobby Knight passing Smith's record.

The Jayhawks won the game by a fairly large margin after Jackson State played them very close during the first half. When opposing players are shooting free throws, the students "wave the wheat" by holding their arms to one side then shifting them just as the player is about to shoot. They also roll the wheat. Each of these are intended to distract opposing players and I can definitely see how they would need to focus intently on the basket to keep it from distracting them.

I'm still trying to figure out exactly what a Jayhawk is and what "Rock chalk, Jayhawk" means. I gather it's something to the effect of "we wish you well in your endeavors to obliterate the opposition."

Tour of Missouri

Yesterday, I went to the finish for stage 1 of the Tour of Missouri at the Country Club Plaza in Kansas City. Professional cyclists from around the world came to compete in one of the top 3 stage races in the US. They started in St. Joseph, Missouri and after approximately 90 miles, finished with three 5 mile circuits of the Plaza and downtown area. There were hundreds of people watching at the finish. Mark Cavendish a phenomenal sprinter from the Isle of Man who won 4 stages of the Tour de France won the 1st stage in a time of 3:15:14.









See more pictures at Community Faces.

Upward Soccer

Here are some pictures from Upward Soccer at Pleasant Valley Baptist Church. The kids also got the opportunity to play on several inflatable moonwalks.












For more pictures see Community Faces.