Happy St. Patty's Day!

This is going to be a little shorter than usual, and after seeing what I have scheduled it might help explain my lack of posting. I have finally set my race schedule through the end of June. By far this is the most racing I have done this early in the season. It will be interesting to see how I hold up. I might not be faster, but I am definitely going to be tougher. So many things are still going on that are pulling me away from training, but that is also what life is all about. I was reminded recently, by a good friend, that regardless of how much I race I still have to keep active. It is that training time that I have to myself that I can get in touch with the spiritual side of my life. Thinking all of that through (and being talked into an early race) I decided to push myself here at the start to see what happens. We will see how good I am at scheduling over the next few months :)

Drum roll............

Tall Texan Half Ironman - 3/24/13

Willie McCool 13.1 - 4/6/13

Marble Falls HITS Half Ironman - 4/27/13

Buffman and Squeaky Olympic Distance Triathlon - 5/5/13

Buffalo Springs 70.3 Triathlon - 6/30/13

Starting next weekend Jerred and I will be getting up early to drive down to Boerne on Saturday then race Sunday only to hop in the truck and drive back right after. Should be fun!

Below are some pics to prove that a family with two active racing adults can have some fun outside of races.

Some fine hotel dining

The Buried Cadillacs

They love spray painting stuff!

 Pretty good Juvenile Delinquents!

 

Drama on the trails

 
 

It was a lot harder getting down!

Lizzy handled it better than the rest of us.

Hot!

Relief getting back to the car.

Fun Day

Finally celebrating St. Patty's Day with a Guiness soaked Pork Loin

There is a first time for everything

This last week I did something that I haven't done in over seven years. I called Tim (my coach) to tell him that the other parts of my life were going crazy and I needed to step back from my workouts for a few days. Since I did my first 70.3 race in Oceanside in 2009 I have gotten very good at scheduling all the things in my life to meet all  needs. Life has a way of looking at your schedule and laughing while it throws it into the blender. This last week I finally had to say "uncle!"

Normally my workouts are what keeps the rest of my world sane, but lately they have just been adding to the stress of a way over scheduled life. Now this doesn't mean I am just sitting around. I am still trying to fit in some kind of activity, but it just doesn't have a specific purpose for my upcoming races.

Saturday I had to force myself to go on a scheduled trail run that was supposed to be somewhere between 40 - 90 minutes. I did what all of us do, and worked through every reason why I shouldn't be going. Finally, I knew I needed it and decided that if I just got in 30 minutes it would be good. I started from one end of the my normal trail and just went. The first 30-40 minutes my mind was racing with all of the stuff that I have going on in my life. Then I realized that I had set myself up to be running the toughest sections of the trails last. It was one of those moments where you should complain, but you know it won't make any difference. You still have to travel the path your on to get back no matter how hard it will be to make it. The funny thing is that the harder it got the less I could hear the other junk in my head. My focus had to be going forward. An hour and a half later and never running on the same trail finally put me in the right frame of mind.

That evening I was reading some other blogs that made me start thinking we all have our issues, and to each of us those things can be enormous. Sometimes instead of thinking of all the things that are crazy in our lives we just have to focus on going forward. Life isn't just a sprint from one point to another, but instead it is more of of a long training session that you slowly develop yourself to get across that final finish line. Sometimes it is our bodies that need to be healed and made better, sometimes it is our minds that need that help, and other times it is your faith (whatever that might be for you). When one of these is out of whack then they are all out of whack.

This next week I am going to really try on getting my balance back in order, and if not I will just keep going forward each day the best I can. Most of the things going in my world I really have no control over the outcome, and am just stressing out over it. I know that there is so much more serious stuff then just trying to handle our daily lives, and I will just keep reminded myself of those blessings that I see everyday in my family.

Remember your blessings and keep fighting!

Keebler

2 Timothy 4:7 (New International Version)

⁷ I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

Keebler & Gu

As you get into longer and longer distance races and training one really important factor you have to consider is your nutrition. It is not only about when you are racing or training, a key component is trying to recover faster to keep up the workouts.

When I started 7 years ago I rarely if ever thought about nutrition. In reality my nutrition if I worked out was to reward myself with beer, pizza, cheese fries, or wings. I think you get the point. Anyway with shorter distances you really can make it on very little calories, and a lot of us take in more than we need so I really didn't feel I needed to worry about it.

When I started training longer distances I started to try some of the products my friends were using, and nothing seemed to work just right for me. Then I went to the 70.3 World Championships in Florida, and was prepared to have the race of my life. Not only was I racing the biggest race to date for me, but I was using it to raise money for Covenant Hospital to name the Cath Lab waiting room in honor of my Dad. So to say the least I had a lot of expectations for myself and from outside. The short story is that I had a great race going until my stomach started giving me problems on the run. Instantly my race goes from good to nothing short of torture. It was so bad at the end for me that I really wondered if I could race this distance.

A few months later I was in Dallas running a 13.1 race, and at the expo I get to talking to the Gu booth rep and explained to him what happened. Right off he tells me the sugars in the products I was using was probably what caused my problems. He asked me to try some of their products to see the difference. Even being skeptical of another sales pitch I was willing to try anything. So I started with Gu gels and electrolyte mix and everything felt good stomach wise and my energy stayed good. This last season I started using the Gu Roctane and the Gu Recovery mix, and really could see a difference in how I felt during and after workouts and racing. If you feel better you will race better.

So at the end of this last season I was ordering some more stuff from GU and noticed they had a sponsorship application that was due that week. So I decided why not? The worst they can say is no! In a few weeks I get the email that says that they can't offer me a full sponsorship, but because of my passion they want me to be part of their 2013 Pro Program.

I never expected to get any sponsorship, but to get a chance to be part of their Pro Program is a great honor for me. Those of us regular people that do this sport rarely if ever get any help, and nutrition is one of the things that is the first to go when things get tight. Then the fact that I can still remember the guy that was 50-60 lbs overweight, who smoked, and could barely run a block now has a company that wants to help me be better. The reality is even if this wouldn't have happened I would still be using and ordering everything Gu. To have this help I can't express my appreciation to Gu, and especially to you Debbie for giving me a chance.  You won't regret it!



Sincerely,
Keebler

Gu Energy

2013 The Year of the Keebler?

I'm back! I know that it has been a while since I really posted anything, but the last few weeks have been stupid busy. The funny thing is that for once the busy has been from all of the normal things in life instead of workouts and racing.

The reality for me during this time of the year is that going through my birthday, and the anniversary of my Dad passing always gets me a little down. I know that would really piss him off, but it is also during this time that I really remember how much has changed since he has been gone.

I will never know if my path was always meant to be speaking about fighting for your health, but it is one of the things that drives me to keep trying to find more people and groups to share my testimony.

I haven't been completely ignoring the Keebler blog over the last few weeks, but with everything  going on it has been hard to motivate myself to finish posts. So that means there are a lot of half finished posts for me to roll out over the next few weeks.

Here are some of the highlights from the last few weeks good and bad (in no certain order):

1. The girls got a very cool new puppy

2. Stayed consistent on training even if I haven't really been driven to do it, and still trying to figure out this years race schedule.

3. Finally brewed some beer that had been sitting around for awhile.

4. First time to ever ruin beer in 10 years. Turns out yeast goes bad, but I still let my beer visiting beer apprentices think it was their fault :)

5. First time in my life I understand why people nap. My belief that you go until you collapse might be wrong.

6. After a long break in speaking engagements I have  3 groups on the books, and another 2 in the works. This really has helped me start to feel inspired again that I have a chance to make a difference.

7. Applied with a great nutrition company for their Pro Program and was accepted. Much more on this later.

8. Started feeling recharged again after a busy year.

9. Remembered again why I started speaking to groups and started this blog.

10. Haven't made it to Church as much as I have wanted, but have done a lot to keep working on my faith.

11. We have had a lot of family time.

12. Another visit with the Cardiologist, and had to schedule another visit in 6 months.

13. We were reminded how fragile our health really is after a few of our friends had health scares.

I guess that is enough for now, but I am glad to be back and I hope that 2013 will be the year of the Keebler.

Keep fighting,
Keebler

The girls with their new dog Lizzy.

Lizzy wondering what family she has joined!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas from the Keebler clan, and we hope that you all have a blessed and happy 2013!

Funny Conversations

The other day as I was walking Anna into school we had the funniest conversation that really kept ringing in my ears for the rest of the day.

Anna:
Dad, you talk funny like PawPaw used to talk funny. You know he made me laugh, because he was a funny man. I miss him.

Me:
Yea he was funny, and I miss him to. He got called home so Jesus and him could have some laughs.

Anna:
Your the funny man now Dad. Love you.

Me:
Love you to Anna.

My passion is helping others find the motivation to want to be healthier, but like everyone else that passion has to be shared with a million other things. Since a lot of times a passion doesn't pay the bills, and what time or energy left over isn't much. After looking back over my life up to this point I know that too many things have happened to me for me not to be here to help others, but even as optimistic as I can be I get tired.

I wonder if I am really helping anyone?

Then I have this simple conversation with Anna, and it reminds me that the core of who I am is to try to be the best husband and dad I can be for my family. I know that I am blessed with bad genetics, and if I don't do the things I do my chances to see my girls grow up has a strong possibility to be very limited. My time with my family will always be less than I want it to be, but doing what I do I know I am at least giving myself a chance.

Life is going to be rough, tiresome, unknown, and even tragic. It is also going to be happy, funny, wonderfully unknown, and blissful. I want to have the years to see all of these things. If along that way a few words on a blog can help others to look at their years differently, and they find a reason to be healthier while they can then so be it. We never know how much we impact others with our words, but we need to always remember that words are a powerful gift that can easily hurt or harm others. I just want to try my best to do as little harm as possible, and cause a few more folks to smile.

Anna thanks for reminding me to be the funny man!

Peace,
Keebler

Happy Thanksgiving!

Since the last race of the season for me I have stepped back and taken some time to recharge. It has been nice to not think about my workout schedule, and to factor in some family time. I do my best to not let training affect our family much, but we are both wanting to be healthy and fit. To do that, other things have to give. So other hobbies and hanging out with friends usually gets dropped first. Here are some of the things that has happened over the last few weeks:

1. A few workouts
2.  Played guitar some
3. Ate a lot of food
4. Caught up on depleting my beer collection
5. Started using myfitnesspal.com to track what I eat - Translation: I eat a lot of crap and drink a lot of beer
6. Went out with friends which turned out staying up to late - Translation: drank too much
7. Friday night hurt turned into Saturday night stomach virus
8. Two days later finally over that nonsense
9. Two days sick meant I caught up on all of the DVR crap that we never end up watching
10. Found out we as a family love Duck Dynasty (maybe a triathlete can still retain some redneck capabilities :)
11. Took my nephews out shooting guns, cue the redneck side of me.

Now Susan and I are going to head out on our yearly long run through Snyder, and then our second Thanksgiving meal this evening. We wish all of you the best Thanksgiving, and if you can't think of at least one thing to be thankful for remember to be thankful for your health!

                                                           Sam and Trey (The Nephews)


Keebler