I am and always will be a Wiggle Worm - Part 1

What can i say...I was drawn to triathlon for a reason. I don't like to "be still". Never have and I don't see myself ever becoming complacent with being a couch potato. My parents had a term for me when i was younger and I am sure it still applies. I am and forever will be a Wiggle Worm. Haha, they tell me that I used to go to bed at one end of the bed and then somehow I would end up completely turned around come the morning. I don't know how to explain it but I am guessing that the triathlon training is one Contributing factor to why I don't toss and turn like that anymore. So the reason I say this is because when I wrote this last night I was just about to begin yoga, which is taught by Coach Mary at Breath in Pittsford. As this is a nice little recovery week for me the yoga was something that I figured I could fit in to stretch out the body, mainly the legs as those seem to be quite the point of focus for me lately. I feel like the luckiest kid in the world now that my work hours have become somewhat normalized and I am beginning to get out when most other people are. I am now having time to see friends, go to dinner, go to yoga, read books/magazines. I mean when it's busy in the fall/winter I literally eat, sleep, train, work and repeat. As long as I get to train I am a happy boy but it's just a whole other ballgame when i feel good about life, and this comes from having a bit more balance. Being able to spend time with friends and just hang...it's very nice, and it's been refreshing. Rejuvenation is another word that comes to mind. I amm now in a rejuvenation phase where I will try to harness the drive and the determination I will need to tackle LP in July. I don't really like to talk about races, or my training, or times out loud to people. I am kind of superstitious and I don't ever wanna be that guy who brags about himself or is constantly talking about himself because that is just not cool, plus I am not even close to being at a level where me bragging about my times, etc would be justified. That can be saved for later when and if I ever toe the line with mr lieto or mr potts. (alright I just woke up from that dream).

So, this post started on Thursday night and now its Friday morning, just to let you know. I am now at my place of peace, the 12 corners starbucks here in Brighton. I really do cherish the mornings I have here because they don't happen as often as I would like. I actually woke up around 6am this morning and being that I had no training on tap I could have stayed in bed and lounged. But instead I decided to get on up, take a shower, and head to the 'bucks. I grabbed a banana, and a scoop of protein for breakfast on my way out so I am no taking those down with my free venti that i got with my birthday postcard sent to me from Starbucks. I absolutey love being able to hang out here, peck away at my iPad and write blog posts like this, and see friends that I have seemed to have lost touch with over the past few months. It's funny because subconsciously I was hoping that I would see my friend Josh at Starbucks because I wanted to ask him if he wanted to ride tomorrow morning before he had to go to work. Since I left my iphone on my bed today I knew I wouldn't be able to receive his call on my personal cell so I was like well maybe he will show up...sure enough he did. I swear the last like 4 times I've come here I have run into him. And these have all beenn at really random times like 7am, 9am, 8:30am...great minds think alike, and drink coffee at the same times....what can I say? But that's what I do indeed love about living in Rochester, it's not always the most pleasant of places to live but it is indeed my home. Over the past year the amount of friends I have had has grown by well I'll say 95%. My cousin now lives here but Ive known him since well i was born, so that doesn't count. When I think back to where I was last year at this time my mental well being and physical for that after was not even in he same zip code. I'll address the physical state of being first since I can do that quickly, the mental state and the friendship factor will be considerably longer to discuss. But for now in terms of where I was physically, I'll just say that I had switched from being a "bodybuilding weight lifting nut" to a cross-fit nut. I guess as I look back at this it can be seen that it was kind of the natural progression that led me to where I am today because cross fit was about functional fitness. It wasn't about benching 215 of curling 45's, it was about going balls out for 25 minutes doing pushups, pull ups, sit-ups, then running a 5k. It was unlike anything I had done before. But I totally dug it. Well needless to say about 1 year ago I ran my first 5k. It was e Daniels 5k out in Webster, my cousin persuaded me to go since I had basically been a shut in for the previous year while I had been studying for the CPA exams. Up until then a 5k had really been the longest distance I had ever actuall run at one time. I was by no means un-fit, I just well had no reason to run any longer. My normal loop around mmy apartment area was about 3miles and I would usually run it at about the same pace every time i did it, which wasn't much. I would sometimes run for a week and then stop for a month, I basically did it just to get "cut up" as the weightlifters would say. I never actually was cut up...but I tried, haha many people can attest to the weirdness that came along with my weightlifting obsession..I was nuts. Why? Because like everything in my life, when i get focused on something I am going to do everything to achive and/or get what I want. This is also known as OCD, Haha. But anyway that's that. Getting back to the running story, I did my first 5K on a cold windy and snowy April day. It was really nasty, I don't remember the time, but I can tell you with certainty that I did not break any land speed records. However, since most 20-24 yr olds were nursing hangovers or something I took first in my AG and got a trophy. In my very first race I received a gosh darn trophy! I was hooked, I swore I was going to race every weekend. Well that didn't happen...initially. It always takes something else to get you going. This is where my new circle of friends comes in. I will now introduce you to Joe Crispino. I did not really know Joe last year at this time. We had however crossed paths at the gym, World Gym that is. If anyone with ties to world gym can get me a new membership let me know. I made a mistake going to midtown last year, I miss you guys...sorry! So yeah I had seen Joe at the gym, he was the (I'll say older because just about all my friends are older than me, but he's not that old) "older" guy in the weight class I was in lifting more than me, I was more flexible though, and he was the older guy kicking butt on the spin machine during the classes I took. I would try to match his intensity but I wasn't even close. I think it was during one of these classes that our instructor Corrie, who I have lost touch with over the last year too (but we emailed this week, hopefully I'll get to chat with her soon and catch up for lost time), well at one point Corrie mentions during a 1.5 hour spin class (FYI, for a kid who had never spun before and had no bike experience...this was an Eternity!) that she had trained some guys to do ironman races and that they had done some spin sessions of 3-4 hours straight. I thought this was absurd, and that the guys that could do this were both mentally insane and the coolest most bad%^* dudes in the whole world. Needless to say that when I look back at that at think about the fact that I did a 4.5 indoor trainer ride just 1 month ago in my apartment with no fan and no one to talk to...well it just blows my mind how far i've come. It's also funny to me that I have never really thought about this stuff until now, but it's neat to reflect. Alright back to Mr Crispino, well we ended uo chatting a few times and the convo led to bikes, he suggested I get one and I made a mental pact with myself that if I could make it through the whole winter, going to spin class every week that I would "earn" the opportunity to drop some money on a real road bike. I kept waking up at 6am to go to spin class(I thought this was insanely early then....in retrospect 6am doesn't hold a candle to 4am). In the end I bought my first bike, a trek 2.3 from a bike shop that was not Towpath. Sorryv Scott, I didn't know you yet. This could be another post and will most likely be another one...soley about Scott Likely and the overwhelming help, assistance, and friendship that both he and his shop workers at Towpath have given me. If by some miracle I can ever get sponsored to do the sport I love, Towpath bike will always have a spot on my jersey, or bike, or helmet, or all three. I hate talking about myself that way because it's a pipe dream of mine but what the heck, what's wrong with talking about your goals! Visualize and believe that they are obtainable and they will be. If you don't believe in yourself that you've given yourself no chance right from the get go. I'm not going to do that. I'm betting on myself to come through, to beat the odds, to take the win, place, and show. I can do it! And so can you! (man I do go on tangents sometimes, sorry bout that). Well yeah i got my first bike and started messing around on it. After a couple weeks of learning how ti ride on the road I put the clip less pedals on (which you clip into...why their called clip less is beyond me..anyone care to explain please comment below) and well all I will say is this, it was love at first pedal. I couldn't believe the difference being clipped in made. It was like going from driving a 1990 civic with 250k miles on it to a brand new Ferrari. I was in love..I instantly knew I wanted to be a bike rider. Well as the spring went on it became near the end of May, Joe and I had now forged a bit of a friendship and he had been urging me to do a local duathlon, (the spring classic, see my google doc's result page for how I did..it was pretty) I finally caved in and said what the heck it will be a good break from studying for the CPA test. (at that pot I had 3 parts passed, and only 1 remained. I ended up passing it by the smallest margin,and well that was great. I attribute my passing of the exam to the duathlon, it gave me a break and a chance to see the endurance/athletic community that rochester had. There was no way I wanted to spend another summer studying indoors all day. I wanted to ride bikes and run...and well passing those exams is what let me do it and is what allowed me to begin doing triathlon...my love..my purpose in life right now. Haha that might be a bit dramatic but in reality I live for this stuff triathlon has given me friends, given me self confidence, given me a good mind set. It's been the best thing to ever happen to me i think. But you can ask my parents about that. I'm guessing they'd agree). Well back to the first race, whew...it was a 2 mile run, 10 mile bike, 1 mile run, 10 mile bike, 2 mile run. These distances 20 miles on the bike and 5 miles running were the longest I had ever done. It was certainly an experience. At the end of the run I literally almost had to walk up a hill because for the first time ever my legs were Shot! But at the same time it was the best feeling ever. I had such an amazing time running and biking around. I began to meet these people that I was totally amazed by. I wanted to hang out with them and do the things they were doing because they were the same things I was beginning to see I had a passion for. None of the people I had previously come into contact with before were like that. I think that's why the people you surround yourself with, the people in your circle, your community are probably the most important thing in a persons life. They are what keep a person happy and motivated. Being self motivated is a key to success but having others around you to push you, to congratulate you, to be your friend...well that's just worth it's weight in gold.

Unfortunetly is 8am now and I have to get to work. This is going to be a long post but one that is really self-fulfilling. Thinking back about what has happened to me in the last year is in a way a cleansing practice for me. A way to take inventory of just how lucky I am. I will continue this later on today.

Until then...have a great day everyone. I look forward to hearing your comments and let me know what else I can add to make my posts even better. Emails are always welcome during the day. They may work go by quicker, haha.

Out for now. -MjC