Do Something You're Afraid Of

That phrase struck a symphonic chord and wound it’s way around my heartstrings.  There are moments in each day when our inner voice hops up on the podium and speaks to us and invites us to take action.  The built in excuse maker takes his stage hook and pulls the legs right out from under our feet of clay.  Mr. Didactic had me motivated from that moment on in this an 8:30 AM version of the Svengali Woodbury Monday. I was determined to make a fearless and moral inventory and do just that.  

Zen in a bottle is delivered right to my magnetic flywheel each time I clip in. We pay  a significant premium for the price of an Equinox membership, but for me it’s chump change for the diamonds and pearls in this jewelry box house of fitness.  I make this my third space. There’s home and work to occupy the first and second space of my life but the experiential part of my life lies right here in my third space, Equinox Woodbury.  Do I sound like I work here? No it’s much better than that I get to come here and not only workout but write and talk to some of my friends that I have grown to love and respect. I have been working out in gyms for half a lifetime but none compares to this place. Virtually everyone knows my name and if I just want to come in for a protein drink or take a look at the new spin room I always find a waiting ear or someone that needs mine.  

A few days away from the Master Motivator and his face was a welcome sight even though most of the weekend was filled spinning with the other two stars I love Kristen, The Evil Woman and Carolyn Mellace, The Blue Sapphire.  But I luxuriate getting amped up with the trance inducer and his brand of keeping us spellbound.  And just take a look that Samson like hairdo is returning little by slowly.   He talked about unconditional love today and that’s what I want in my life, from my friends here in the CS no explanations just unconditional love. (ULO)

Eccentric and Charismatic

I opened an email from a peripherally close friend of mine last night and I was struck by his salutation and comment: Good night my eccentric and charismatic friend. I thought for a moment and realized this was not throw away dialogue. He has known me for over 15 years and has observed and interacted with me on a deeply consistent basis and he knows all too well my strengths and frailties.

Eccentric and charismatic, these two words more than most, if one was restricted to two words to describe me, probably embody my personality better than any other two words chosen with exacting care. Charisma, I have always thought I was blessed with that gift, but just like the word deserve, I am hesitant to use that semantic when I am describing myself. I would prefer to leave that assessment to come from the mouths of significant others that know me more intimately.

Growing up I always thought of myself as shy and withdrawn, but by the 5th grade whenever I danced the twist, I had a huge circle around me, taking in my translation of the dance craze that had swept the nation. The ability to ‘dance’ must have been inherited from my maternal grandfather, because his nickname was ‘crazy legs’. This secret charisma did not appear in my consciousness again until I was 30 years old and could be found dancing the night away at my favorite disco haunts, where I put on my one man show on a parquet dance floor. Dance was the lead in that gave me the present day ability to speak to virtually any stranger in proximity. Instinctively I can enter a person’s world and can engage them in short and lasting confabs as if they were scripted from a handcrafted teleplay. That in essence displays my charisma, except maybe for the energy I bring to the proceedings in any group exercise or at least if I am to believe what I am told by many.

The word eccentric however, is a much more esoteric but nonetheless deeply embedded character trait that runs like an estuary in my circulation. Not something I was readily admitting to myself let alone anyone else. However, as I examine the statement my friend made, I have to admit that it is true. For example, I rarely keep my head where my feet are. That was a phrase I often heard in AA but ignored and continue to ignore no matter how much overt attention I pay to it. The word eccentric by definition says that when it comes to a character trait, it means that a person engages in odd and unconventional behavior. Was there ever a definition that suited me better than that description? I don’t think so! I tend to over think most situations and lend my idiosyncratic thought process to others that never have an inkling to what my mind can conjure up. Eccentric means that I never know where I put things. Some might say that is merely forgetful. Oh no. Why it is eccentric is because no matter how many times I misplace things, and admonish myself about it, I continue to do the same thing expecting different results. This is also a definition of insanity, but I don’t think I have crossed that threshold not yet anyway. I make plans on my social calendar and forget the ones I have made on my business calendar. I cannot seem reconcile that time is time, whether I am engaged in fun or trying to make a living. Eccentric is also what gives me the ability to be charismatic because if I didn’t stand out I wouldn’t be eccentric and vice versa.

My friend said a mouthful, my eccentric charismatic friend. 

The New Kid All Over Town

I took a big bite of pre Holiday turkey today and decided that I would take a double dose of spin with KSC and Svengali.  If KSC weren’t enough with the Evil Woman’s new regimen of 80+ of perceived exertion, Sven would be.  As some of you know I write about both of these superstar instructors and they couldn’t be any more different than clockwise is to counter clockwise.  

Tripp and Kristen accomplish the same thing for me only different. What is the same is that I love both of their curriculums and I have often said that one is class and the other recess.  If you’re familiar with just one you know which one is which. And I think class without recess would be just like cake without ice cream, it just wouldn’t do.  

Some of you spin with both of them and most of you know that Kristen is virtually impossible to get into unless you’re willing to wait an hour plus on line for the last 10 bikes. Up until now that was only true for her. That’s all changed and the groundswell is now all about the Trance Inducer, Svengali: Tripp Doherty. I for one am glad to have watched the transition from the best class in the world to the best recess ever devised.  

Happy Thanksgiving.  And thanks for reading this blog.  Tripp, JC and I are determined to make your stops here even more entertaining in 2011 and beyond. 

Robin Arnold: Paths of Grace and Glory

Here she is atop Mount Kilimanjaro 

Tanzania 

The Mountain Top Kids 

Heart Beats 

NYC Marathon

Cycle Beats

Forgive me but it was another road trip with Tripp.  This one, a short trip via the time warp and we found ourselves in the Westchester edition of Equinox spin class.  An unusual set up, 3 rows of 6 bikes on each side facing other with a small aisle for Tripp to do his fandango. It looked like the March of the Wooden Soldiers facing off against each other.

At first I had to contain myself energetically and I couldn’t explain why.  I was for all intents, riding with strangers and they probably would not be accustomed to a boisterous Long Islander like yours truly.  I gathered my emotions and pushed the effort, as is my wont when the trance inducer, Svengali rolls in his inimitable style. What I have been noticing of late is that the hour is just not long enough, because I am enjoying this addiction way too much. I ride to write and I write to ride.   

What is nascent to me at this moment is that Frank Doherty, yes that’s his Christian name is starting to become like Almond Joy, indescribably delicious without the calories and sugar spike.  The word master in me is starting to realize that describing Tripp is getting more difficult because it is what he doesn’t say that carries the most meaning for me. Today I noticed that little trademark he does with his right index finger, as if he is writing his signature in air, putting an exclamation point on the end of a sentence. A truly eccentric and charismatic man this Tripp Doherty our Svengali. Or the artist formerly known as Mr. Mayhem.    

Living The Unlived Life

In my first attempt to bring individual stories to this blog, I found the opportunity to talk and be with a one Robin Arnold, from Scarsdale.  Tripp had been showcasing to me how so many people had touched his life in a way that was profound, provocative or everlasting. My first subject might have been all three.  

A strikingly handsome woman at first blush, her physiology fit and trim, her countenance lit by the broadest of smiles as she introduced herself.  My sense of her was she was comfortable in her own skin.  Never have I interviewed someone about life experiences except when it came to financial ones, this time I could explore both triumph and defeat garnished with distinctive personalities that brought them to where they are now. 

Robin is, and let me coin a phrase to say she is a philanthropic humanist.  She has seen death in her arms and taken that vision of life slipping away to give her the impetus to do all of the things she’s longed for. Like running the New York Marathon or standing atop Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania or spinning in the highly motivational setting of Equinox Scarsdale in the presence of her friend Tripp Doherty our own Svengali.  

She is my friends, living the unlived life. The one we wished we could have done had we not chosen the one we inhabit right now.  We could have been musicians, dancers or doctors but we chose family or other obligations that seemed at the time, well either more pressing or in life’s best case scenario being in love.

Robin is rich in love, because she shares her compassion openly and authentically with others that have incurable diseases or congenital challenges that enrich their lives, but I suspect and this is only a suspicion because I don’t know her well enough, allows her to live the unlived life.  

Body Surfing

About 9 months ago I took my first spin class with Tripp Doherty this is the first story I wrote about this young man, and this reprint is especially for the Equinox members in Scarsdale.  

I took my spin class today; with someone else at the helm, his name was Tripp. Absent were the well choreographed scientific dance incantations that Kristen animates for me each week, but it was clear from the first few moments Tripp was and dare I say it going to be a trip.

Right out of the time tunnel of my past this angular man with a disheveled hairdo soon had me pounding my chest bringing me quickly to the anaerobic world KG had re-introduced me to. His chant “infinity on all sides” was one I had not heard before, but it resonated with me like a bell chime perfectly pitched and I was off yet again. As Tripp bounded on and off his bike dancing rhythmically nothing like Gene Kelly but nonetheless just as energetically, I knew I had found an alternative drumbeat I could cling to.

Body surfing was what came to my mind as I listened to Tripp barely audible above the music from my own adolescence. You might be familiar with this gearless beach sport in which you wade out waist deep and try to launch yourself on one of natures own thrill rides. What usually happens is you catch the wave, swallow a mouthful of salt water or get flipped over from the sheer force of the wave and end up on your back scraping the sand dazed and confused.

At the end of this ride I experienced all three. And by the time this ride was done, I was drenched in my own salt water, gasping for air and not wanting any more, at least not until next time.

Unadvertised Special

The 730 Roslyn 45 minute edition of Svengali, Tripp Doherty was over before it started and as I made that thought audible to the hypnotic one, he turned to me and said: Jack stay for the next class.  And I did, even though it was booked solid including the last ten bikes. As the class approached someone didn’t show just as Sven assured me from his third eye. I found an empty bike in front and was saddled right next to young Dana, now on her 3rd class going for 5 for the day. It was her day off, and remarkably she decided she was going spend half of it on a spin bike, all with the son of Svengali.  

There is something so unusual that happens when you exercise before you take your life outside.  I guess it’s the adrenaline or the endorphins that get pushed along in a headlong ride in the bloodstream. It awakens not only the physiology, but the brain as well. Negative thoughts cannot coexist during a strenuous spin. It’s as if they have been deprived of oxygen. They simply cannot breathe. We feed the shadow in our lives with too much sustenance and it gets fat on food for thought at the expense of what we can really be doing with our time and our lives.

In the darkened no windows Roslyn studio, the sensory deprivation of sight leaves me with barely much more than a silhouette of the trance inducer, which limits the true power of his God given gift of being able to transfer his energy with the power of WiFi. You can’t see his face and in that countenance lays the hypnotic power of Tripp Doherty. It is his unspoken word that feeds my atomic power of a neutron bomb. There is no drug that can match this altered state, and the residue stays with me for the entire day.

The unadvertised special was a bargain at any price.

Saturday JDRF

Since Jack was unable to make Saturday’s JDRF charity ride, I will take over from here to explain what the feel of that day was like.  I would never dare try to take this away from Jack who I consider a fantastic writer but, as he explained, we cannot always be where we want to be. My Saturdays start at 6am for a drive to Scarsdale Equinox for my first class at 8am.  This group has always been very special to me because it was my first.  It is great how every class has its own feel and life, and I love that about these rooms.  After Scarsdale, I have one hour to get to the West Village and teach 2 classes at the Printing House gym.  As the manager says, “it is the last of the Mohicans” -- a 1 location operation. Getting from Scarsdale to the West Village is always an adventure and this week was no exception.  A parade shut down the west side highways for 15 minutes.  Always something!  I was 5 minutes late for class but everyone was great about it knowing I try my best.  I could only teach 1 of the 2 because I needed to get to Woodbury by noon and felt bad for the people coming to my second class that didn't know I would not be teaching.  Off I was to Woodbury with an hour and fifteen minutes to make the class.  Sometimes just getting from west to east Manhattan can be an ordeal, but today smooth sailing with a half hour to spare. Walking into Woodbury you could feel a positive energy in the gym.  As I made my way into the spin room, there was Kristen who after teaching 3 classes looked like she was ready for the marathon.  All she said to me was, “have fun”.  To me, Kristen is the gold standard in this industry and as I started my class with a stretching technique she recommended, I was once again reminded of that.  Having fun was going to be easy as the class was filled with people from all the Equinox locations on Long Island that I teach at, each of whom I feel a very strong connection with.  No longer did I feel tired or frustrated -- I was simply overjoyed.  Gift bags draped the bikes, each filled with goodies from water bottles to gift certificates, and 15 minutes into the class, the festivities really began with seemingly endless raffle prizes which took most of the class to hand out.  On that note, I would like to give unbelievable praise to Stacey who, after having this disease enter her life, organized this memorable and wonderful event – Great Job Stacey!  I played music to keep the vibe light and everyone was sending positive energy throughout the room that was infectious.  The class ended with smiles, laughter and a feeling of love that engulfed the room.  All I can say is it felt great!         I have been told that I get a little serious sometimes but that is because it is hard to shrug off all the things that happen to people.  Life can sometimes be unbelievable.  That being said, I cannot think of a better way for people to come together than in these rooms.  I never thought a gym could ever make me feel this way routinely.   It isn’t whether we want to be the next Armstrong or not.  Quite the contrary, it is about people coming together, bonding thru both good times and bad.  As Mary Blige says in One, "carry each other".    I consider it an absolute privilege to teach my classes and to share experiences with all of you.

The Caramel Apple

Intuition tells us that our first impression is usually the right one.  This week brought me away from the power of my second sight, but it couldn’t be helped. Logic dictates when you have made commitments that either cannot be broken or because significant people in your life are depending upon you to perform those duties that must be attended to, the experience of the more desired alternative is the story that goes unwritten. It goes back to the unlived life; the one you could have breathed in, had you taken a right turn instead of a left. 

This week I missed Minnewaska and by the accounts personal to me, it was one helluva ride.  The next breaking story I was absent from was the charity ride on Saturday for JDRF. Another missed opportunity to pen yet another emotional and viscerally entertaining spin. There will be others my friends and somehow I will make it up over the course of time. 

I wonder if Tripp ever figured out where that caramel apple came from?

The Ride That Wasn't

My planned trip for Minnewaska II was foiled by not having a bike rack and my contingency plan failed as well, because my friend cancelled at the last minute, which kept me from taking my racing bike in a car that just can’t accommodate it.  I wanted to write a story for the blog but I will have to rely on third party accounts. As for myself, I will try to vicariously enjoy what some of you experienced.

Inspiration Point

A letter to Tripp which we have reprinted in part, that might captivate you one and all. 

Dear Tripp,

I wanted to thank you for inspiring me and giving me sunshine on days when I am feeling really low.  When you talk about your story and other peoples stories and what they have been through it makes me want to share my experience too.  I am learning that by sharing it, it will help me heal.  It’s interesting because when you sit next to the same people day in and day out at the gym, you never know what they might be going through.  I almost feel if we could wear a T-shirt that shares our thoughts, people might be a little kinder.  Like, “I’m fragile today, my Mom passed away.”

My mom was my best buddy.  She was diagnosed with stage IV pancreatic cancer.  They asked if she smoked or drank....no.  She was kickboxing and felt a pain a day later thinking it was muscular.  Thankfully she went to check it out, but what transpired after all that has blown me, my bro, my Dad and hubby away.  My family was in the room when she slammed her hand on the Dr.’s desk to ask how much time she had.  (She didn’t remember doing that) I thought “Please do not answer”!!  He said 3-6 months.  She fought with all her might for three years exceeding their expectations.  I went with her and my Dad to bring her for treatments in the city.  At one point she asked me when we got home to shave her head.  I remember seeing the fear in her eyes and feeling so helpless that I could not take this away from her.  

Although this February will be two years that she passed away, it feel like yesterday.  She was 63. It just isn’t fair.  She didn’t deserve to go through that. My Dad didn’t deserve to see his High School Sweetheart crumble by this deadly silent disease.  To see what it has done to him.....speechless.  I feel he is just waiting to check out.  Scares me to say, but my bro and I see it in his eyes.  It has left us broken and we will never be the same.  But we must fight to move on as she would want us to.  

I am watching all of my friends have children and enjoy their parents with them.  They will never know what it is like.  Then to hear Dr.’s say to me regarding having children, “You know you’re forty...your clock is ticking.  Who needs that?  This is all tooooooooooooo much!  

My mom worked the desk at the dance studio that I own and everyone there even misses “KP’s smile.”  To have her there where I work was such a blessing.  Motivating my students to work hard and enjoy being able to express themselves through dance is a gift I am grateful for.  My mom was such a big part of that and will ALWAYS be!  This year will be 10 years that I own the studio and I know she would want me to celebrate and that is the theme this year...Celebration. She was a beautiful soul who was so compassionate.  I guess they needed her up in heaven.....

So when you play the songs you do and share your story of other gym members, it made me compelled to share my story and my pain.  Thank you for listening and for inspiring me to get up and look forward to your class and having a GREAT time!

Thanks again!! You rock!

DP

The Prom Queen

A dark rainy November morning, and I was compelled to rise with just 6 hours sleep because Svengali had me in a trance induced state that told me: I must spin, I must spin. And because I was in a compliant state of mind, the 7:15 seemed like a logical place to find me hypnotically spinning my wheels to the Svengali chant.  

The CS was filled yet again to capacity and recognizing young Dana, Debbie, Mary and Randi in the same boat, I floated in the sea of familiarity, content to know that I was not the only one that was spellbound by the master of mesmerism. 

One of my friends in the CS, was a former Prom Queen and I asked her for that photo from that unforgettable night and in a split second she was a blushing bride, as I must have struck a chord in her memory banks, because I was hit with a definite no, but then she vacillated just a bit and indicated I might be able to procure the image I was seeking. I venture you might never be able to guess her identity from her picture but it might be fun to imagine how much she has changed, but it’s hardly possible that she might be any more beautiful than she is already. She is above all so kind hearted and gentle, she often lends me a sympathetic ear while I wax poetic about one of my entries here.  I suppose now that I have written this, my chances of seeing this photo have just dropped from slim to nil. 

There was a moment that Svengali looked to the heavens as if he was listening to the Almighty speak to him from the beyond, and as he cocked his head, I could almost hear him say: What was that again?  Oh okay, I’ll do as you ask. Tripp is extraordinary not just because he inspires and gives us a great ride, it’s more in my opinion that  he sees life from a different lens. One that is not looking to magnify his own, rather to help bend the light for others to see out of their own darkness. 

Next Up is Lake Minnewaska November 11 Weather Permitting

Watch the blog for more updates.

The First Footsteps In The Snow

There has to be one that makes the status quo just seem too ordinary to stay with. This person looks at the world through the lens of having been here before. That person has seen interpersonal relationships go through traumatic times and lived through the ruin of those lives through no fault of their own. He, as I put the gender on it, is our own Svengali, Tripp Doherty.  I see it in his eyes every time he leads our class. His pupils look to the ceiling, and you can feel the psychic shift that has taken place in this man’s life. You don’t always know what he is saying but you can sidle up close and personal to the emotion in this man that is genuine, truly warm and unmistakably charming. He is treading in virgin snow and making a path for us to follow or to make our own footsteps, in our own chosen path. The impetus he provides us with, gives us the permission slip to take down our Walls of Jericho, that is our own self limiting mirage.

One thing that I see on the faces of the riders is their smiles. Svenagali has that affect on you. You cannot help being touched with his gesticulations, his wide eyed enthusiasm and his gift for  taking us on a ride of our lives every time he bolts in and out of the saddle. Have you noticed that his classes are booked solid? Today I got there 50 minutes before class and was 5th on the TMW. (Ten most wanted) His legend is fast becoming lore at Equinox, and those of us wanting a place in his class are finding it’s not an easy ticket to secure,  because a lot of newcomers are  just catching wind of this man’s magic.