Some Things Will Never Change

Well, I almost did it, a full year without posting. Fortunately the recent emergence of a blog by my good friend and training partner John Savage, Savage Sentiments, has inspired me to write a blog post of my own. I guess a good place to start would be to give a quick run down of the major events that have transpired between April 10th of 2012 and now:

1. Last spring and summer marked what was undoubtedly one of the most exciting bike seasons of my career. I attribute my success on the bike to a few things, possibly the largest of which, I basically stopped running. This gave my legs some much needed time to recover and got me out on the bike 6-7 times a week. Also, it is no longer possible for me to leave my door in Winston-Salem without hitting some sort of elevation change, as opposed to Williamsburg where there are two hills in a 50 mile radius. This, with the help of Mountain Khaki's famed rider Jon Hamblen and a fantastic training buddy in med student Steven Vogel, undoubtedly propelled my power up and my weight down. Among the highlights of my 2012 bike racing season were winning the Tour de Moore (Cat 3), a hilly 54 mile road race, and becoming a Cat 2 bike racer. At the end of the summer I entered a good many Pro1/2/3 races, and had some solid finishes.

2. In the Fall I was forced off the bike by an injury and started running again. After 2 years of x-rays and MRI's followed by hearing "I don't know what to tell you" by doctors and physical therapists, time seems to be working its magic. The new class of first years in the Master's program here at Wake brought me a running buddy, Carter Denne. Carter and I spent our lunch hours during the fall and winter, running through the streets of Winston, pushing each other's fitness and even getting in the occasional interval session. Our first big race of the Fall was the Mayberry Half-Marathon, in Mount Airy, NC, where we finished first and second, and both set PR's (I finished second, running a 1:14.59). About a month after I broke 16 minutes and finished 4th in the VA run turkey trot. Every day I give thanks for the fact that I was born with an engine to let me pull off these kinds of miracles.

3. Possibly the biggest thing to happen since last April is finally I have decided on a career path. Never have I been able to say with such affirmation that I know what it is I want to do with my life. Now I can say that it is my goal to be a professor and researcher at a university. To pursue my dream, next year I will be moving to Muncie, Indiana with my wonderful and patient girlfriend, Briana Paxton, and entering into the Doctorate Program of Human Bioenergetics at Ball State University. Here i shall study under Professor Scott Trappe, a world re-known exercise physiologist in the field of muscle physiology.

Currently, I am back to running and biking and even swimming a little. I continue to run with Carter and have found a triathlon training buddy in another first year, Will Combs, a swimmer in high school who started riding bikes during undergrad up at App. In just a little over a week, Will and I will be competing in the Belews Lake Triathlon. This will be my first triathlon in over two years (my last tri was Collegiate Nationals in April of 2011). I really have no expectations, and by that I mean I doubt I will be satisfied with anything much less than a win...some things will never change.

I hope to write here more frequently. It's definitely a liberating outlet. Good luck to all of my friends and fellow athletes competing this weekend and as always, thanks for reading.