This was the next morning after my neighbor Matt and I tried out the rental mountain bike at Nall Park. It was exciting to explore a different side of biking, riding dirt trails, rocks and roots interfering with balance, ending with a skill park that was completely outside of my comfort zone.

I’ve been riding bicycles all my life, I grew up with them. I always felt I had a keen sense of balance and always felt in control. Mountainbiking is different. There is so much information to process, the trail changing with every foot you travel, trees leaning into your path of travel, and did I mention the rocks and roots? Exhilarating!

First ride with the Action 5. I still have a lot of kinks to work out, including wind noises, random cut outs, settings, etc. But I think this was a good start. Ironically, this was the ride with the most unexpected things happening, including our first flat in two years of riding, and I ended up turning off the camera during arguably the most interesting part.

We rode most of the Indian Creek Trail in Overland Park, stopping for a beer and a snack at half way. It was the first sustained stretch of warm weather for the year and a great first ride for the season. Looking forward to many more!

My second time at Staples Center in as many months. This time the Lakers!

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Thunder @ Lakers

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My CrossFit Open 2016

I didn’t sign up for my first open until only a few minutes before the first workout was announced. I didn’t feel like I would be anywhere near in shape enough to compete with others. Heck, ten months into CrossFit, it was still something special for me to do a workout as prescribed at all! But the option to do all Open workouts in their scaled versions, to represent my gym, and also to compete with CrossFitters I know outside my box, made it appealing enough for me to do it.

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My CrossFit Travel WODs

My friend John Hawkins created WODables a little while ago, a service that sends you an email every day, with a new workout based on the equipment you have available. I’ve been using it since day one, mostly as an inspiration for workouts I can do without any equipment at all, a situation I’m frequently in when traveling.

When I’m on the road I try to stick to my workout routine as good as possible. A lot of times I’m able to drop-in at a local CrossFit boxes, but more frequently I find myself skipping workouts. Especially when I only have a hotel gym with very little equipment available. Enter WODables.

I asked John if he could extend the service to provide an interface to generate new WODs on the fly, letting you select the equipment you have right at that moment. This makes for a very tailored experience, getting you the perfect workout with optimal use of available resources. Today he let me know he finished the feature, and it’s now ready to use!

So the next time you find yourself standing in a hotel gym, your friend’s garage, a regular fitness studio, and you’re in need for an inspiration, give WODables a spin! It’s free, super easy to use, and I guarantee you it will come up with a challenging and fun WOD, just for you.

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14 of 18

On my way back from Greece I flipped through Aegean’s inflight magazine where I stumbled upon a brief Rhodes guide titled “18 Reasons to Revisit Rhodes – Discover the magic of the island of the Knights with this checklist of don’t-miss outings” (View the pdf). Don’t-miss! I wish I had discovered that on my way to the island!

The article started out with The Fort of Saint Nicholas that guards the Mandraki harbor, coincidentally the first sight I visited after I finally got my scooter. They continued with pictures of Afantou Beach and Lindos, places I went to in the second week of stay, looking for sandy beaches on the east side of the island. It went on with the waterfall of Seven Springs and the statues at The Entrance to the Port of Mandraki, which I got see at my island and sailing tours respectively, but also two places I did not visit, Kalithea and Rodini Park. The last two days of my stay were rather busy with trips to Lindos and to Rhodes’ Old Town, but they were also very rewarding, and let me check a few more of those sights off their list: Mavrikos restaurant where I had dinner in Lindos, The Palace of the Grand Master, The Medieval City, and Aleksis restaurant in Rhodes. I visited Anthony Quinn Beach during the sailing tour and The Ancient Kameiros during the island tour, leaving me only with Fourni and Prasonisi Beach that I didn’t visit.

Besides Mavrikos and Aleksis they rightfully mentioned Marco Polo, one of the best restaurants I tried, as well as Dinoris, Avantis, Perigiali, Bakis Brothers, Pigi Fasouli, and Mediterraneo, all of which I had not been to.

Going into my vacation I hadn’t really planned to do a lot of sightseeing. I was just looking forward to relaxing at the beach and going to CrossFit every day. But I could not be happier with the way it turned out, doing as much exploring of the island as I did. I covered most of the mentioned outings even without reading the guide beforehand, making it a very gratifying read on my way back to the real world.

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My CrossFit Travels

One of the things I like the most about CrossFit is its concept of Drop-Ins, the ability to join any CrossFit box on a class-by-class basis. There is hardly a month where I’m not out of town for a conference or meetup and so far I’ve always been able to find a box that was reasonably close. It is along the lines of what a “regular” fitness chains would offer where you can use any location of theirs if you’re a member. And I consider it a huge benefit.

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My CrossFit Initiation

I’ve never been overweight or obese by any means. Throughout my life I’ve stayed rather active, played youth sports, went to the gym, or played organized Soccer. But after I moved to the US, physical exercise was just not a part of my daily routine anymore. And while I never ate super unhealthy or were on a McDonald’s diet, I also never really held back or consciously chose a healthy option when it came to my eating habits. I just ate what I liked. Spending time with Michael Cain and Meredith Purdue certainly didn’t help either, letting me become more of a food snob and making great food a major part of my travel experience.

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