Finding an athletic passion...

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So, I found my sport. My thing. I live/breathe/eat/consume all things rugby. I want to learn everything about it and be as good as I can be at it. I've found that this has been beneficial to my life in many aspects, as I'm now also a runner and an overall exerciser in order to maintain my conditioning for rugby. All I want now is to be as fast and strong and agile as humanly possible. I've also found that the more I exercise and keep in shape, the better shape my head is in.

What sport did you find to change your perspective on exercise and staying healthy? What do you do to push yourself to a new limit?

before my bike-ending accident, it was pedaling a bike up and down the hills of my local neighborhood. now i will have to make do with a trike that i can't so readily be knocked off of by any maurauding deer.

For me, it's martial arts and combat sports. Becoming stronger, faster and more agile to compete better was my main motivation to lose weight and bulk up muscle. I couldn't go on without it, and it has become my raison d'être (well, one of it, anyways). Actually, it is also a main motivation for me to finally get over with college, do well and make a career, so that later in life, I can settle down and do nothing else all day. Since I also have ADD, when I do my thing and either work out or practice techniques, for those short, beautiful moments my mind is in order and my mind is clear. World turns a little slower then, and it feels good.
Great that you found your passion. It really doesn't matter what it is, if your heart beats for it, it's the right thing for you.

eep! did it charge at you while riding?

This is it, yes.

it came at me out of the corner of my vision, the last thing i remember is trying to avoid it, the bike wobbling out of control, back tire popping, and me hruled over the handlebars and going SPLAT! on the pavement in a puddle of blood.

I got hit by an ambulance on my bicycle...while I was towing someone else on a Razor Scooter. Yep. No injuries to me, my friend sorta got injured, but was walking after. Ambulance hit while trying to pass us. Lights and siren was off. Mind you I was 16 back then...

Anyway, for me, my athletic passions are figure skating and weightlifting. Figure skating started because I'd moved back to an area near the rink I did learn to skate hockey as a kid. So one day I pretty much decided to go skating just because I'd not done it since I was a kid. And I kept coming back. Circumstances sorta helped me in that regard, as my rink is only $30 a month for unlimited public ice and a full featured gym with a pool and weights. I started ice skating just in hockey skates, initially in rentals for like a month. About 3-4 months in, I bought figure skates and decided I wanted to figure skate. I got very impressed at the 100lb girls who could effortlessly fly past me while I was huffing and puffing, and in some ways it was like jealousy of their power and finesse, strange I know.

Coaching is expensive in figure skating, so I've pretty much resolved just to do the best I can without official coaching, and I can do waltz jumps and 3 turns without any official coaching. I'll probably be able to get through Adult Bronze without coaching, but after adult Bronze testing, I'll probably be at the point where I NEED a coach. A coach would have allowed me to progress faster, but I had/have issues with working and finding a suitable job to pay for coaching (it's like $50-80 an hour), so I did what I could at the time I guess. I knew a guy who worked up to double jumps without a coach, but he couldn't do good crossovers or skate very smoothly either. Plus with my neurology, it's sort of easy, as I'm constantly systemizing and thinking of things and whatnot, so I can figure out what I'm doing wrong much of the time and correct it, but a coach does help things along.

Weightlifting started from skating, actually. I figured if I can't get technique, might as well just get a ton of power so once I get technique I can apply it easily, right? And the bet sorta worked. I started initially just messing about on the leg press, then I did squats badly with a manta ray, and found out I could pile on the plates fairly well. Eventually I saw Olympic style weightlifting on youtube and thought it was totally sweet. So me being nuts like I am, I just was like "Ah I'm gonna do clean and jerks today!" and just did them, badly, at the gym. So I did a year of terrible technique Olympic lifts and deadlifts and squats and burnt myself out, I think a good deal from a bad diet and recovery. So I kinda dialed down on lifting now, and I'm working on more technique and balance instead of power power power like I was. I'm trying to learn to do overhead squats well, for example, rather than just concentrating on trying to bring up my bad power snatch. So for Olympic lifting, I need some coaching so I don't die, too.

The lifting I think has helped skating. I'm now as powerful at stroking as lots of people I know at much higher levels than me. Oddly it hasn't ruined my flexibility, either. It's probably given me more, actually. One compliment I took to heart was a lady said I have good turnout from my hips, and generally guys have terrible turnout, and I don't do much stretching. I beat myself up about my weight a bit with it, too. Skating by itself got me down from 215lbs to 180lbs, then after weightlifting I'm up to 189 (or 194 if the scale in the gym is wrong) at 17% bodyfat. I was at approx the same bodyfat at the 180, so if that's correct, I've only gained about 10lbs of muscle mass in a year. But skating is a sport where lightness is encouraged. I guess I just have to accept the fact I have a larger frame/bigger legs than average and just run with it. It's possible too that the lifting, if the time comes and I'm at a good skill level, would make me much better suited for pairs or ice dance, which I wouldn't mind at all (I'd rather pairs, though.)

Before this, in elementary school and whatnot, I always wanted to be good at sports, and I always sucked even though I tried super hard. Now I know it's due to my NVLD, but back then I didn't. I guess now knowing gives me more to work with in training, how to train myself to be better. Also, the internet's around now and I can use my NVLD to my advantage with my superior research skills. After elementary school, my parents divorced, my diet got worse due to me living with my mother, I got fat, "depressed" etc. I had a brief stint of cycling after high school, but that didn't get me in crazy good shape either, but it got me better. I moved and for 2-3 years didn't do anything after my year of so of cycling, my new place was just much too hilly. And yeah.

That's sort of my athletic journey. It's not an easy one, as I have kinda lofty ambitions, and it's gonna take a bit of time to reach them, along with some money, too. Sometimes I bum myself out about it all, and one comment that struck a nerve (on a message board) was someone said I was "pretending to be a skater", but you know, at the end of the day, it keeps me from being 300lbs and playing Fallout all day. So whatever.