Tonight was cross-training night for the Marathon training.  The past 2 Friday’s I have come to hate the bike.  Not sure why but it just seems like an hour on the bike is like 8 hours in the dentist chair.  Plus, when I’m done my legs feel like jello.

Today when I arrived at the fitness center I was surprised to find a new bike.  This bike has a screen on it that displays a course that you ride through while tracking all the normal stats like RPM, distance, etc.  It is produced by a company called Expresso Fitness.

I rode it for about 35 minutes and it did not feel nearly as long and boring.  There is visual piece to keep you interested and I set myself a goal of lapping one of the other bikers on the course… and I did.

Now if they could just do something about my legs feeling like jello when I am done.

At Freedom Church our pastor is always casting the vision of being a church that has a huge impact on the community around it. In our case this community is a little suburb of Atlanta called Acworth. But why stop there? Can one church in one community have an affect on the whole country? Why not!

A few weeks ago we did a series called Debt Free Acworth. Today I read that in the last quarter the consumer debt level in the United States fell by 0.8%. Big deal right? When you consider that this has never happened in the 50 years since they started tracking consumer debt I would say it is a HUGE DEAL!

Can Freedom Church take credit? Not all of it. I am sure Dave Ramsey will need to take more than his fair share of the credit as well. But, it is fun to think that one church in one community could have such a profound affect on the whole nation.

I had to run 4 miles last night as part of my marathon training.  It was a nice night and I was able to wear shorts and a t-shirt.  There was a slight misty rain in the air to help keep things cool still though.  Anyway, I think those 4 miles were harder than the 7 miles I ran last Saturday.  I’m sure it was the hills that I have in my subdivision that made it seem so hard.  All I know is that I wanted to quit serveral times during the run.  I still managed 9:28 miles though (including walking up the monster hill that you would have to see in order to appreciate).  Now its on to a 3 miler tomorrow and a 5 miler on Saturday.

There are many times that I drive by a church and just shake my head at the hokey saying they have put out there for the world to enjoy.  I have started a page on my blog listed under “Static Pages” that I will update from time-to-time when I see hokey church signs.  Enjoy!

Today was long run day.  It was 7 miles and the longest single run that I have ever done in my life.  I was lucky to have 3 other people running with me for today’s run.  (There was was supposed to be 4 others but one of them backed out at 1:20 am.)  We set out about 8:00 in 27 degree weather.  The run really was not too bad.  Here are our times:

• Me: 1:05:15 (9:19 per mile average)
• JR & Steph: 1:09:00 (9:51 per mile average)
• Todd: 1:18:40 (11:14 per mile average)

Everyone did a great job to finish the run and we all did it in a faster time that we had expected.  I guess those weekday runs are helping with that.  Next week is *only* a 5 miler.  Should be a breeze.  I have updated the training schedule with my progess to-date.