New Beginnings

It has been a few weeks since I last posted something and I apologize to those who have asked for a post and I have not delivered. The past 2.5 weeks have been a blessing in itself as my wife and I welcomed into our family our third princess. She has been nothing but amazing and although I haven't slept well in awhile now I wouldn't change it for the world.

She is the main reason for the topic of this post this time around. New Beginnings are not something that come around to often in our life but when you step back and analyze how powerful your life is then you will realize that it can happen more than not.

I believe that each day we wake up and are able to take a deep breath is a New Beginning. Its a chance to put aside anything that may have happened negative in the past and build towards the positive. Its one of the few opportunities in this life to literally operate on a clean slate. What was done in the past is exactly that....in the past!!! Take the opportunity of being presented with a new day to make something out of your future. The change may be small but I promise you that the smallest changes lead to huge payouts down the line. For example....small dietary changes (i.e. eliminating excess sugar) can lead to improved health benefits in 5, 10, 15 years....doing one kind gesture to a stranger may open their eyes to a world that may be caving in on them....telling a loved one how much they mean to you in case you never get the opportunity again.

I am fresh off of seeing the blessing of life and all its wonders but I have already made promises to my family to always be there for them no matter what. It is not always easy and some sacrifices need to be made but at the end of the day its these small sacrifices that lead to a life of greatness.

One of my main goals for as long as I can remember has been to someday race the Hawaii Ironman. The passion I have for that race goes deep and not a day goes bye that I don't envision myself flying down the Queen K on my bike. Since having our third princess born though I have had to re-evaluate my goals this year towards trying to qualify for Hawaii at Ironman Lake Placid this summer. I have had a tremendous year of training up until May and would the race have been today I have no doubt that I may have been in the running. At the end of the day though being there for my family and making sure that I am a part of every developmental stage is more important to me than any race. My day will come when the sun glistens on me in Kona but today my focus is family.

On this memorial day I say thank you to all the troops that have fought for our country over the years. Without your dedication to our country many of use would not have the luxury of waking up everyday to an amazing new world and creating the New Beginnings that make it a life worth living.

Dig Deep!!!

Hard to believe that today is May 1st the year seems to be flying by in the blink of an eye. I hope that everyone has been maximizing their year knowing that everyone has the potential to be great. 

Being a sports specific chiropractor I have noticed a common theme with many of my runners, triathletes, cyclists and cross fitters recently....tired and losing some focus on their training. Most of this applies to the many patients I have competing in an Ironman this summer. They have been at training for awhile now and although most are enjoying the challenge many of them seem to be burning out. 

In my mind Ironman training is similar to every other goal or dream you have in your life. You have to put in the effort both mentally as well as physically to succeed and accomplish your dream. There will be some days when you wake up and say why am I pushing myself this hard, why do I always smell like chlorine, why can't I just sleep in instead of being up before the birds and the list goes on and on. 

You  just have to DIG DEEP and push yourself to the next level then the reward in the end will be absolutely amazing. The day to day consistency that goes into long course triathlon racing can be tough at times but the reward of crossing that finish line at your race and either qualifying for a world championship or just hearing the announcer say "INSERT NAME HERE" you are an Ironman...is an amazing feeling and something that pushes me everyday. I also push myself a little deeper each day as I was given the gift to be able to do this sport. I love to wake up each day and push myself to the limit and see how I will respond physically and mentally. There is a matter of DIGGING DEEP that is another challenge which is the ability to allow yourself to rest/recover. We also have to be able to incorporate recovery strategies that allow you to be able to push yourself on those hard days. I would say this is probably more of a strategy of mental control knowing that backing off in training helps just as much. The reason most people come into my clinic is they didn't incorporate enough recovery into their schedule. 

This summer at Ironman Lake Placid I will have to dig deeper than I ever have in a race before knowing what my times need to be to qualify for Ironman Hawaii. The thing is the pain won't be anywhere close to what Jimmy had to go through in his bout with cancer and this will push me to dig deeper while not complaining of the pain. I will be racing with the idea of constantly pushing the envelope and not giving up due to a little pain but knowing that I am racing for something bigger than me.

So when things seem hard or you are feeling defeated I ask you to take a deep breath and give it that extra effort knowing that you have the ability to accomplish anything you put your mind to.

Make it count!!!!