I Used To Ride My Bike

Over ten years ago I became an avid cyclist, although today you'd think I never rode a bike. It is certainly not because I don't have one, in fact, I have two bikes - really nice bikes actually. In 1998 I did the Boston to NY AIDS Ride with 2,800 other riders. It was a three day extremely challenging 275 miles ride through Massachusetts, Connecticut and then into Manhattan NY. I trained like crazy for that ride because I wanted to be one of the first three hundred riders to come in so I could get a massage immediately, food and a shower without waiting in any lines. I did just that, all three days, and pumped my hands high over my head when I rode into Madison Square Garden on day #3. I will never forget that feeling on that day or that entire ride. It changed my life and made me feel like an ATHLETE for the first time. I was 38 years old then and my career had been in the fitness training industry since I was 21, yet that day I felt like an athlete.

In 2000, at age 40 I completed the NEW HAVEN 20K Road Race in 2:05:26 and felt GREAT when I crossed the finish line. Before then the longest distance I had ever completed was 8 miles and that was only once. I did consistently run, but only 6 miles at a time maximum. My arms once again pumped high in the air and I felt like an Athlete. As crazy as it sounds to do an Iron Man Triathlon, I do know why individuals go out there and envelope the pain to just cross that finish line with a time that does not disqualify them. It is that feeling of being an Athlete, of tremendous physical accomplishment against all odds, that feeling of I DID IT!!! Unlike the feeling of giving birth, this "Athlete" feeling has never left me but it has faded and I have been longing to get it back. I am now going on my 49th year of life and looking ahead to age 50 next year to (maybe) once again bring that feeling out of retirement and to the surface, arms pumping and all.

You may ask "why did I fall of the Athlete wagon"? One word INJURY... which is an Athlete's death wish. I fell off the wagon because I fell off my bike. This time it was my mountain bike, in the woods....log appeared, I spaced, hit log, flew off bike over handle bars and smack down I went right on that damn log right onto my sacrum. BIG OUCH.........I yelled the "F" word so loud it bellowed throughout the woods, reverberating among the trees, they even cowered. The two guys (yes-me & two males) I was riding with, couldn't believe what just happened, and neither could I. Rising to my feet (not easily) I knew something was wrong but pretended I was OK..(couldn't let the guys see me sweat)....BIG MISTAKE. I still had to walk / ride out of the woods and it was painful. My athlete status changed in one brief moment. This happened 7 years ago and my body has never been the same. I took to a more "kinder" gentler (sort of) way of exercising which has repaired and replenished me and made my muscular and internal strength return successfully beyond what I had before. I work from the inside out and although it is a much different feeling than the endurance type exercises it is just as (if not more)important. It has helped me be fluid, mobile and strong AND keep my successful career in "fitness" (who wants a trainer that can't move!). This is PILATES...I say no more. Along with other functional types of training using balance equipment (balls, TRX straps, medicine balls, instability boards, my own body weight etc)... I realized I needed to give this the credibility and kudos it deserves. I have always used "functional" modalities while training clients BUT it wasn't until I needed it to repair and strengthen myself that I finally gave it the ULTIMATE VALUE it so deserves.

It has taken a "village" (massage, chiropractic, NRT, NET therapy etc...)in conjunction with my specific "CORE" training to keep me operational, functional and virtually pain free throughout the years. So I may just challenge myself once again, knowing my limits (of course) to regain (even for a moment) that arm pumping, crossing the line "Athlete" feeling - even though I know I have already WON!!