My new Journey

Hello Everyone, 
 I have not been in my blogger bubble for some time now, but I figure now is as good of a time as ever for I would like to share something very special with you. As some of you may have read in earlier blogs I am an avid cyclists and runner. Recently I completed the MS150 ride to the river, if you do not know what that is, it is a 100 mile bike ride to raise money for Multiple Sclerosis. At the start I was skeptical if I'd make it the whole way but mile after mile watching so many cyclists work and push their bodies further and further for something that may or may not have directly been affecting their lives helped me realize how beautiful it all was. It was no longer just a ride and by this time I had made my way to mile 70, I had the option to quit--head to the finish line and party with all my friends and finishers or go 30 more miles to reach the 100 mile mark. A second passed and my legs were pedaling again, I was going to get those 100 miles. It was hard work I will not deny that however, those grueling last miles I had a thought circle my brain like whirlwind. I was about to complete 100 miles. Sure I run and ride almost everyday but I never intended on doing the ride at all until about a week and a half before. My friends had been training for almost a year to ready their legs and bike skills for this day and I decided to do it on a whim. 

I was honestly shocked with my ability in those moments, I felt joy, pride, and pure adrenaline shooting through my veins like nothing could touch me. It was so beautiful. It is a feeling I hope everyone of you will get to feel in your life time.  

After I crossed that finish line and greeted with hugs and pictures from my friends I wandered away to gather and slow myself down a bit after the event day of riding; as I sat on a picnic table watching cyclist come in through the finish line and others hanging with their teams and there was the thought again. We did it. All of us. Wether it be 48, 70, or 100 miles we all crossed that finish line and not only for ourselves for a wonderful cause to help end a disease in this world. 
I was able to do 100 miles on very little preparation for a cause that has not directly affected my life, I am physically able, I have my health, and I have the skills so why not keep going?
Why not exercise for a cause rather than just for my fitness obsession. 
Why not run and pedal for something that has tremendously affected my life and my families. 
Why not make it all count.
So I Have decided to dedicate  all of my physical activity to the American Heart Association. 
My Grandfather and my father have been affected by Heart disease. My grandfather is no longer with us and now my father clicks like a clock with his new mechanical valve. I am blessed to have him still but his life has drastically changed. 
We used to run together. 
Go for walks. 
Be outside for hours at a time where my mother had to yell at us several times before we came inside. 
Crawl under the House to fix pipes. 
Heavy lifting and building. 
But now due to all the medications and surgeries He can not. 

I want to do this for him and for everyone else out there that can not. I want my miles to create more smiles, create answers, create funds, inspire people, and create hope. I want to be the change I've wanted to see in the World. 

Everyone deserves a chance to feel that beautiful joyful moment I did on that ride and if I can create that moment just by doing what I love.......then at the end of the day I can truly say I have done my best.

I have started a team for the American Heart Association my mother is joining me as well on a journey to dedicate each mile we run or pedal to this cause hopefully to create a better tomorrow for Heart patients. 

Stay tuned--Check out and follow my Journey--

http://honor.americanheart.org/site/TR/FunRaiser/NAT-IFEFUNraise?px=3730499&pg=personal&fr_id=2320

22 bits of love

“Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experience.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Experience is not what happens to you. It is what you do with what happens to you.”

Aldous Huxley

“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” – Albert Einstein

“The best years of your life are the ones in which you decide your problems are your own. You do not blame them on your mother, the ecology, or the president. You realize that you control your own destiny.” – Albert Ellis

“The trouble with not having a goal is that you can spend your life running up and down the field and never score.” – Bill Copeland

“If what you’re doing is not your passion, you have nothing to lose.”

“The person who says something is impossible should not interrupt the person who is doing it.”

“It is never too late to be what you might have been.” – George Eliot

“All our dreams can come true – if we have the courage to pursue them.” – Walt Disney

“What the mind can conceive, it can achieve.” – Napoleon Hill

 “It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that things are difficult.” – Seneca 

“Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people.” ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

“Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love.” -Albert Einstein.

“If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.” -Milton Berle

“The sky has never been the limit. We are our own limits. It’s then about breaking our personal limits and outgrowing ourselves to live our best lives.”

“Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother Teresea, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.” – Life’s Little Instruction Book, compiled by H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

 “First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you win.” – Mahatma Gandhi

“When you can’t change the direction of the wind — adjust your sails.” ~ H. Jackson Brown

“Everything you want should be yours: the type of work you want; the relationships you need; the social, mental, and aesthetic stimulation that will make you happy and fulfilled; the money you require for the lifestyle that is appropriate to you; and any requirement that you may (or may not) have for achievement or service to others. If you don’t aim for it all, you’ll never get it all. To aim for it requires that you know what you want” ~ Richard Koch

“The best years of your life are the ones in which you decide your problems are your own. You do not blame them on your mother, the ecology, or the president. You realize that you control your own destiny.” – Albert Ellis

“Confidence comes not from always being right but not fearing to be wrong”

“Your time is limited, don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma, which is living the result of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinion drowned your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition, they somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” – Steve Jobs

Cycle Dog

My pup is in need of a new collar and I decided to pop online and see what kind of goodies I could get him considering I order so many bike parts a day why not something for him too. 

I have heard of people making wallets and little knick knacks out of old tubes but I was unaware there was a whole company dedicated to making products out of old tubes. 

Cycle Dog makes dog collars, leashes, and now belts for humans, out of recycled bike tubes. Snazzy feature of these products for you dog lover out there,the collars and belts come with a bottle opener. Just another reason for you to take your pup along to the park to hang with you and your friends. Cycle Dog is making a difference by helping us and our pets reduce our carbon prints.

There are over 60 million bike riders in the US. Just because they lost their training wheels doesn’t mean they don’t get flat tires. I  have had many flats in my time as a cyclist, sadly my tubes probably wound up in a landfill, but maybe not...Lanette Fidrych, founder of Cycle Dog, is collecting these tubes so they don’t harm the earth more than it already is. 

Find your local Bike shop and ask them what they do with their left over tubes. 

Cute products for a great cause. 

All about Bikes today