Steve Miller’s Training Blog

‘Help! Help! My kids are pinned in there!’ This is probably the saddest story I have read in recent memory. As the parent of a six year old, this story really hits me hard in the heart. Hats off to Michelle Malkin for publishing the information for fund for the family. If you can help this family please do. If you can’t offer any other assitance, please pray for this family.

A fund has been established for donations to the family in memory of Joshua. Donors should write a check to “Joshua Woods benefit” and mail it to Centier Bank, 1276 N. Main St., Crown Point, IN 46307.

Call the bank at (219) 663-7804 for more information.

I just posted on my Personal Blog a profile of me in case you are interested.

I thought I would write this just to give a little more background about who I am.

• I belive that Jesus Christ was cruicified in payment of the debt of my sins.
• I am male.
• I am married.
• I have one child.
• I attend church.
• I attend Bible Study Fellowship every Monday evening
• I work in the Information Technology Industry.
• My customer is in the Automotive Industry.
• I enjoy sports of all kinds.
• I started Mountain Bike Racing at age 38.
• I am a Conservative because everthing I understand makes sense when I run it through the conservative filter.
• I am a Rush Limbaugh fan
• I listen to Contemporary Christian and Country Music.
• I own a Minivan and an SUV.
• I enjoy searching through the woods for white balls, I mean playing golf.
• I am a sinner.
• I think people should earn respect by giving respect to others, not by expecting it from them first.
• I like talk radio.
• I think the War on Terror including Afganistan and Iraq are both necessary.
• I do my Christmas shopping after December 20th.
• I could not function without my wife.
• I would die for my wife and my daughter.
• I think it is more important to be nice than to be right.
• I support capitol punishment.
• I am pro-life.
• I believe that pro-life and supporting capitol punishment are not contratictory.
• I drink insane amounts of regular coffee (black).
• I am a morning person.
• I have a goal of working out in some way 6 days a week.
• I am not easily offended.
• I think the most important thing a child needs is to be loved by their mother and father.
• I am addicted to Survivor.
• I think TiVo is a great invention.
• I do not believe that anyone but the creator of the earth can destory the earth.
• I think global warming is a political issue, not scientific fact.
• I think it is OK for a business to make a profit.
• I think Walmart is good for America.
• I love doughnuts.
• I love pizza.
• I am a meat and potatoes guy.
• We put up a real christmans tree every year.
• I played Division 2 College Football my freshman year of college but was too small to play my position at that level.
• I have a B.S. Degree with a major in Mathematics and a minor in Physics.

Last night I had the awesome opportunity to ring the bells for the Salvation Army. I really think that it is unfair, because I got way more out of it than the Salvation Army got in money. My 6 year old daughter and I were outside a local grocery store from 5 pm to 6 pm. It was 23 degrees outside so we had to dress warm but we were really kept warm by the awesome generosity of all different kinds of people. There was the mom with two small children who made sure that both her kids could put something in the bucket. There were the senior citizens who went out of there way to make sure they put something in the bucket. Even the young (early 20′s) men were willing contributors. I have no idea how much money was put in the bucket but the really amazing thing was that very few people were putting in change, most people were putting in bills. I was not looking at how much, the only reason I noticed the bills was because we had to use a paint stirrer to stuff the bills into bucket so people could put more in.

I highly recommend ringing the bells if you want to restore your faith in people. You could see that some people felt guilty walking by and not contributing. I hope that I didn’t make them feel that way. I was only there to ring the bell so that people would know the bucket was available. People saying Hi as they walked by was more than enough.

The point of having my 6 year old daughter there was the opportunity to show her what God can do through people. That God puts on people’s hearts that they should help people in need, even people who don’t believe in God. That is the really cool thing about the Salvation Army. They are recognized for the really good things they do without people getting tangled up in the religious side of it. No one saw the Salvation Army complaining about where the could put their buckets. The Salvation Army is tremendously faithful and knows that God will provide.

So next time you pass a bell ringer, even if you are not contributing, just say a friendly hello. It is a big reward for the bell ringer.

I rode in the last Cyclocross race in the Tailwind Cyclocross Series. It was also the Michigan State Cyclocross Championship. I was surprised at how fun it was and a great lesson in how far I have to go as a cyclist. It was 26 degrees with 3 inches of fresh snow at race time. I managed to guess right on the clothes and was comfortable for the whole race. According to my Heart Rate Monitor I had an average heart rate of 174 for the 31 minute race. I did manage to cross the finish line ahead of a woman competitor who had passed me in the 2 other race. She still beat me on time because she started a minute behind me, but this was the first time she didn’t make up that difference. All in all, I’d say I was pleased with my performance.

I think that the first thing I learned is that as long as I am pushing around 30 or 40 extra pounds, I have no chance of being competitve. No matter how good my conditioning gets, the extra weight is just too much to overcome.

The second thing I learned is that I still have a long way to go in my conditioning. I am in much better condition this year than I was last but I do believe that it takes multiple years to build up cycling conditioning.

The third thing that I learned is that no matter where I place, racing is a lot of fun. I know that given the limitations of the first 2 lessons, I won’t be competitive but I can race the people around me. Perhaps next year hopefully I will be able to bridge the gap.

Now it is a winter of basement riding on the trainer.

While the human part of me thinks this is a great idea – THE WAR ON CHRISTMAS: MUSCLEHEADS FIGHT BACK! – my heart is telling me that there is something wrong with this. Flooding someones mailbox does not seem like a good christian witness to me. Think about how you would feel if they flooded your mailbox with Planned Parenthood brochures. Would that draw you closer to the Pro-Choice position? Our job as Christians is to bring people closer to Christ and I just don’t see how a campaign like this will do that. I urge anyone considering sending the card to examine your motivations for sending the card. Is is really from your Christ-like love of the people at the ACLU or is it from a more human motive?

I think this is a great inside the family joke that really should not go outside the family. Let’s not get dragged into being “Stuck on Stupid” because that is certainly not what loving Christ is about.