The Thoughts of a Graduate

Unlike 99% of my entries thus far this particular one is not about any race. I have not raced since cycling nats and instead have enjoyed my time graduating from college, hanging with friends, and being with family. The past couple years of my life have been consumed by racing and training and I must say, it has felt pretty good to not have any particular race that I am training for.

The past couple years I have learned some valuable lessons. One of the biggest is the importance of moderation. Oddly enough, this year in philosophy of Kinesiology class we were split into groups to examine and argue the importance of a particular Socratic virtue. My group got moderation. One of my best friends in my group, Darcy Hayes, and I laughed at the irony of us receiving such a word. To be quite honest I have never been one to practice moderation. Anything worth doing, for me is worth doing to excess. If running 50 miles makes you fast, why not run 80? If biking at 200 watts for 1.5 hours is a good workout why not try to do 225? Famous runner Steve Prefontaine has a famous quote that says "to give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift." What it has taken me so long to grasp, and I am still working on grasping is the importance of balance. This is something I have still yet to fully grasp, BUT, I have finally realized.

This is not to say that I have been sitting on my ass for the past couple of weeks. Last week Savage, Joa and I logged a good 4.5 hours on the bike. I have also been able to knock out some half way decent hour long runs. Hell, yesterday I, Gregory James Grosicki, dragged my ass to the gym to lift weights and swim (god it sucked).

I have also taken a few days off. I have taken the time to do "real people things" like work on car insurance, set up a bank account, fill out I-9's and W-4's. I have even memorized my address in North Carolina next year! On top of that I have gotten to visit with old friends and hang out with some friends from Williamsburg before we depart our separate ways for a while. I was able to travel to Annapolis to visit and reminisce with my good friend Charlie, a junior at the US Naval Academy. It really is incredible how he has matured since high school when he would skip the warm up laps on track to running marathons for fun. Now he is even trying to get me to do marathons and half-ironmans with him and I look forward to my first, Patriots Half in September with him! (Side note: this time of no racing has given me ALOT of time to think about racing and I am excited to get into half-ironmans and more endurance races in the future. I will be doing some racing in Colorado, and I dont just mean racing Kyle to the New Belgium Brewery, but have yet to find anything in particular.)

Exactly a week from today I will be sleeping in a tent as my best buddy Kyle Grimsley and I make our way to Fort Collins, Colorado for a summer of steam monitoring. Im not sure what exactly that entails, but Im guessing Ill figure out soon enough when Kyle throws me into his research project head first (just make sure the water is deep enough)=P

So now comes the part that you all expected. Now is the part where I thank everyone who has supported me over the past 22 years of my life. My parents and grandparents, my brother and sister, the rest of my family, my friends, my coaches. The members of the cycling club at William and Mary. I am incredibly fortunate to be privileged to have the support system throughout my life that I have had. It is your support that has kept me afloat and I am very grateful for it. I am excited about this summer in Fort Collins, and I will be posting pictures and keeping this blog updated with tales of our adventures!As always, thanks for reading and have a good night.