Week 5 of 15

Week 5 of my 15 week Olympic Distance Triathlon Training Plan was tough, and I scored myself 5.5/6, but before that... please allow me to take detour thru the "Hill of Foreskins". Yup, that's Gibeath Haaraloth, where Joshua circumcised all the Israelites with flint knives - ouch! (Joshua 5:3). ;-D

Sometimes when I read a Scripture passage, it seems to jump up at me and shows me an immediate application or area of sin/rebellion in my heart. Other times, it just sticks in my mind for weeks/months... This is one of the latter. The situation is this: God has just stopped the Jordan river mid-flow and brought His people over the river into the promised land (Joshua 3:15-17). Only problem is that the promised land was still inhabited with its native population who are not thrilled that a whole army has crossed over to take their land. So imagine the entire Israelite population dressed for battle and hyped up about their God stopping the entire river to bring them over. Victory has been promised, the natives of the land are trembling with fear (Joshua 2:8-11) and the Israelites are ready to kick ass. But then, God reminds them that the entire generation of Israelites has not yet been circumcised! Talk about a let down. Talk about being vulnerable. The people had to literally lay down their armour and arms, and get themselves circumcised - I would imagine that movement alone would be tough for a few days, let alone defending themselves against any sort of attacking forces or wild animals (Exodus 23:29) now that they are literally behind enemy lines.

Has that happened to you before? All ready to go and then there's this soft, persistent voice at the back of your head reminding you that perhaps you might have missed something even more important? It's happened to me too many times now. After a long day of work/family/training, I am all ready for my 8 hours of recovery sleep, only to remember that I had forgotten about my QT (Quiet Time with the Lord) - so what's it to be? Trust in the recovery from 8 hours in bed, or trust God to honour my QT? Another one I face pretty often goes something like this: Back from a week of business travels and missed work-outs, can't wait to head out the door for my run, and R1/R2 says "Can you play with me Papa?". I still struggle with these sort of decisions, but one thing for sure is that AFTER the Israelites were circumcised behind enemy lines, nothing came to attack them, until they have re-committed themselves to the Lord, and we all know that they then went on to capture much of the promised land. Praise God!

Okay, back to week 5:

• Mon: Rest (Just too much going on at work, and the office gym is closed for a month due to the merger and re-locations) :-(
• Tues: 12km Run - Dark clouds started forming from the point that I left the house for my morning run. As I ran, I was praying hard that God will hold back the rain so I can finish the run. And you know what? God has a sense of hunour - the rain started coming down at exactly the mid-point, where I had no choice but to run all the way back. This was not a drizzle, this was a tropical storm, where the rain goes side ways. It was the first time that I ever felt cold running in Singapore, and I think it helped speed me up, as I was running harder just to get warm!. :-)
• Wed: Swim Intervals - 550m warm up, 6 X (110m sprint, 30s recovery), 550m cool down
• Thurs: Another unscheduled rest day - work is really getting busy.
• Fri: Run Intervals - 15 mins warm up, 3 X (3 mins sprint, 3 mins active recovery), 15 mins cool down
  Strength Training - Squats, Seated Row, Bent Elbow Lat Pull-down, Push-ups, Bicycle (Abs).
• Sat: 50 km Bike / 6 km Run (Brick). I bonked on the run - had lunch too early and got hungry in the run. Probably pushed too hard on Fri too. Had to walk/run a bit after 4km or so. Terrible cramps when I finally got back. Felt better after I stuffed myself with raisins, almonds and peanuts.
• Sun: 1.9km swim.

The sliver lining is that the parent teacher meeting confirmed that R1 is doing well at school (that's my boy the Star Student on the right). He has also discovered some new found interest in sports this week - football (soccer) & badminton, which is encouraging, as I have been starting to worry that he may be a bit too much of a "home body". :-)

Next week I go to Indonesia again, so again the training plan requires some tweaking. Until next time, train safe and God Speed!