Humans of Lolo – Mike Davies

In this week’s Humans of Lolo Special, we have interviewed our amazing new joiner Mike Davies, who moved to Victoria from the UK only a few weeks ago. It is really moving to listen to his story. It’s the perfect example of how saying yes regardless of knowing the outcome can lead to amazing adventures!

Tell us about your fitness journey: Humans of Lolo mike davies 

That’s a weirdly hard question. I joined CrossFit for a stupid reason – a girl (laughs). From then I loved the community side of it and then decided to set up some goals, I got fitter and it made my life better.
It’s so embarrassing, I met this girl but she was moving away soon and I thought if I joined CrossFit it would make us have more in common. She moved away but the CrossFit stuck with me.

Do you have another goal now, Mike?

One goal I have is that I would like to get ring muscle ups and a free standing handstand and link wall balls together consistently – more than 10.

In two years, I’m a completely different person, more confident, fitter, taking care of myself. It’s pervaded every aspect of my life, really.

The decision to move here started with a pros and cons list. I massively overthought it to the point where I had people’s names on it and I thought this is getting ridiculous so I threw it away and focused on three big things: Family vs. Finance and Career. That sounds really bad cause it looks like I chose money over my family – don’t write that cause that’s not really what happened. The undertone for the whole reasoning was freedom and adventure.

What is the happiest moment of your life?

It’s kind of a weird one, I did a leaving party about 10 weeks ago when I moved to Canada recently. I would describe myself as socially needy. I booked a place for about 12 people and 30 people turned up. This was so humbling and overwhelmed and exciting to see these people turn up for me. I was also very drunk.
I felt very happy but also sad since I was leaving.

What is the saddest moment?

A year and a half ago, my dad went into intensive care for a time. He is fine but I lived far, about 300 miles away and going back to see him was sad because we all thought he may not make it. Making a decision to move here with that on my mind made the decision to move to Canada very hard.

Are you afraid of anything?

I’m pretty scared of loneliness. I had quite a big social network and then I made this reckless decision to move to a new country not knowing anyone. Now that I’m in my 30s, it feels harder to meet people. At some point in my life I would like to settle down and do the kid thing.

What are you most excited about? Humans of Lolo Mike Davies

On the flip side, I’m in a new city with new opportunities to do stuff. I’m a big outdoors guy so I’ve planned a few big outdoor adventures including the west coast trail, Della Falls which is Canada’s tallest waterfall and you can only get at it across this lake and I think it will take me 10 hours to paddle board there.
Also I want to do a long weekend skiing and biking just cause that’s funny (laughs).
Also of course being at LoLo, this gym is cool. I’ve already progressed since coming here with the attentiveness of the coaching, especially with the Olympic lifting technique. I suggest to everyone to try these classes!

Who has the biggest influence on you?

I don’t know. One day this new girl shows up at my CrossFit gym. I thought she was beautiful so obviously I didn’t talk to her because that’s my style (laughs).
We became friends and she told me about her adventures travelling the world and it inspired me to pursue an adventure. I’ve always wanted to see the world and to take action. And that’s what brought me to Canada…