Who is Nathan J. Nowak?
This is a candid look at me and my personal life when I'm not training, racing, teaching seminars or instructing classes.
Most people I come in contact with only see the fitness side of my life, many believe I only wear fitness apparel (its true. I recently had a client tell me he thought I only wore workout clothes, geez oh petes!) but there is another man behind the curtain. 
I thought now would be a good time to pull back the curtain and reveal a my more personal side.
This page isn't in any order. It's more of a collage of randomness, which is what I get into from time to time. My friends and I have pretty set routines from training and competition and our other responsibilities, so when we have off time anything that could happen (and caught on tape) will happen. "Because if it's not on tape, it didn't happen!"
I'd have to say my favorite place to visit is Hawaii! I've been more than a few times. Lately I try to get there at least once a year. When I owned the gym I didn't go on too many vacations unless they involved a trip to a competition. 
Now, that I have a lot more time to myself, I'm able to enjoy the places I want to go most. Hawaii, if you've never been is a very spiritual place. A combination of the volcanic lava, the rain forests and people bring a combination of peace and tranquility. The slow pace and the spirit of Aloha are visible everywhere. It's island life at its best.
On this latest trip I got to experience with my girlfriend Stefanie. She'd never been before. To see it through her facial expressions and reactions reminded me of what it was like for me my first visit. This is a picture of us at the Southernmost tip of the United States. It's really hot and dry at the south point. However, the water is as blue was the sky. Heaven on earth.
This is probably a good time to mention my two boys, Chewy and Brutus. I've had these guys since they were 13 weeks old. They are my BBF's (best buds forever) incase you couldn't figure it out. These two can really ham it up.
Here is a video of my friends and I bouldering at Wall Crawlers. We don't get to see each other much anymore so when we get together crazy things can happen. To help with the cast of "characters" Jonathan is in white, Andrew is in blue and I'm in the grey t-shirt.
We had so much fun with the first video, we added an additional one with Steven. Yes, I know this one keeps going and going... we couldn't get enough! When we get together anything can happen.
Here's a pic of me as... yep Santa! I had the honor of being Santa for an inner city children's camp. It was one of the most fun ways I got to spend the 2013 Christmas season.
For New Year's a group of us went to Banff, Canada for a snow boarding trip. This was my first time snow boarding. I've been skiing a few times, but never on a board. It was a lot of fun... standing on my head! 
Our first day out I was hit from behind by a skier. I dislocated two ribs. Ouch. It made it a little painful to breathe but wasn't too bad. I think everyone of us got hurt on that trip. Jonathan kept saying, "We've been hit harder with more painful injuries in Tae Kwon Do. Didn't really help with the pain, but I wasn't going to stop snow boarding because of it either. This was also my first trip to Canada. I found the Canadians to be extremely friendly. Well, minus the customs agents that felt the need to interrogate us thoroughly before letting us into the country. Everywhere we went the people were open and fun. New Year's Eve in downtown Banff was a party. The streets were closed and people were out everywhere celebrating the start of 2014!
This had to be one of the most painful times in my life. In 2011, not only did I tear my ACL and meniscus, I fractured my tibia, had blood clots and pneumonia. That was only the physical pain. The mental pain came after realizing I would be ending my Tae Kwon Do career on this. 
After competing for so long with one goal in sight, it was a dark and difficult time for me. I wasn't sure what I would do or what life would look like after TKD. It was the most important thing in my life. No matter what was going on, TKD was always there for me and now it was gone. Phil Wyre, my athletic trainer (seen here) is the best in the business. Dr. Letha Griffin keeps putting me back together and Phil rehabs me all the way back to the arena. After this rehab, I switched to triathlon.
Okay this was a pretty painful time too. After 5 months of training I completed the Augusta Half Ironman... with one eye. I was really excited about this race. This was a big goal for me on my bucket list. My training was going so well I set a high expectation time to finish. 
During the swim I was kicked in the face. When my goggles came off something in the water scratched my eye. It was pretty painful and slowed my swim. My first thought when coming out of the water was to stop and get it checked out, but it didn't hurt that bad. It was only uncomfortable to blink and if I kept it shut, it really didn't hurt at all. The next thought through my mind was of all the folks who drove a couple hours to see me race. That gave me the extra kick in the pants I needed to keep going. Mental toughness training at its best! I finished the race in just over 5 hours.
This is a picture of me in the E.R. having my eye pumped with saline to help rinse any particles out. It didn't feel that great, but looks worse than it felt.
