Has it really been that long?

I am coming up on yet another anniversary...Hell, I think if we kept track of enough events...every day could be seen as a bench mark.

I don't have the exact day...but this is just about the time last year that I started looking at Zia as a place to train.  How do I know?  I looked back at this silly blog...I started it at the end of April last year. I went back in my notes on Facebook and at the blog listings for Undisputed....It was interesting, I found a blog dated April 4th in which I wrote about thinking about quitting CrossFit and changing gyms.

I remember the search I went on to find a place that would train me for the Scottish Games. I really didn't know what I was looking for at that point.  I was super frustrated and confused. I still am baffled by training in many ways.  It was only about a month later that I wrote on this blog for the first time...and a couple weeks after that first blog I wrote about how uncomfortable I was trying out Zia.

I think that is kinda funny now.

So....what is it that I have learned in the last year at Zia?

Well...I could go into all sorts of details about form~about how my weight lifting PR's jumped with these guys~about how I learned to climb a rope...blah blah blah....

The big thing?

BJ and Will made me look at myself in a new way...they do not treat me like a consumer of fitness and health.  They challenged me to take responsibility for myself as an athlete in a way that I did not know was possible.  I am not always successful in that responsibility, but I am learning. Now....this does not mean that these guys have left me in a corner to figure things out on my own.  That was the problem that led me to Zia in the first place. BJ has really looked at what I do and come up with specialized programing.  We check in all the time to see how it's working. Which leads me to the fact that these guys, this gym, has never "patted me on the head" about my sport. I know it's odd, fun, maybe goofy to some people, hell to many trainers...and it is those things~that fit me~but I also want to do well.  Both BJ and Will respect that. They have never been patronizing and I love them for that.  Don't tell them...but it is also their respect for my interest in this sport that helps to drive my desire to be better.

Funny how that works.

The last thing I wanna say?  I feel like I contribute to the Zia community as well...and that, while it sounds odd, feels really important to me.

Zia

 Thanks to everyone at Zia...it has been quite a year.