My natural habitat

One week and one day ago Kyle and I drove up to his house situated at the base of the Horsetooth reservoir. Arriving at the house we found ourselves famished so we proceeded to head down the road about a mile to Cheba Hut, a hippie themed sandwich shop with sandwiches such as "the dank" and "purple haze" for some grub. The sandwiches we got lived up to their names, they were quite feastable. Coming back to the house Kyle and I unpacked all of our crap before a little relaxation followed by shake-out runs from the long 28 hours of driving we had done over the course of the past 3 days. Dank though Cheba Hut may be, we both decided that it probably was not the best pre-run fuel, who'd a thunk? Either way, it was good to stretch out the legs. The altitude definitely played a factor as I just didnt feel like I was able to open up my stride as easily without getting winded. It will be interesting to see what it feels like a month from now and even more interesting to return to sea level in August!

My second day I woke up early and went for another shakeout before an afternoon ride. The afternoon ride is a fast paced lunch time ride down from one of the local shops. I knew it was going to be hard as all the guys who showed up looked legit but I didn't know exactly what I was in for. The ride started out at a leisurely warm-up and steadily ramped itself up. We hit the first hill and being me, I attacked. Three-quarters of the way up the hill I looked back to see 4 riders bridging up to me, steadily gaining...damnit greg. They passed me and put about 10ft on me by the top. Chasing back on I hung with them for another 2-3 miles before being dropped through the round-abouts. Well this was a new feeling. Sitting on corner of the sidewalk I whipped out my snazzy gps phone to find the way back to the store. No thanks, I dont want to go on I-25 (the biggest highway in the Fort). Fortunately as I tried to retrace my steps I ran into two women who had missed the start of the ride. One of them I learned was Meredith Miller, a really fast local and the 2009 womens road race champion. They were nice and let me latch on to them and ride back to the shop. Lesson #1: Dont be an idiot.

The next morning I woke up at 5am to go to FAST masters swimming at the EPIC. Best decision ever. Since I have been to every practice the masters team has and I see big improvements in my stroke already. Today we got to do long course (50m) which was great for me not being a flip-turn expert. I have learned to swim with my back instead of my shoulders which is helping tremendously as my shoulders no longer hurt so bad and I feel more comfortable in the water. Winning. We did a gutcheck 200m at the end of practice today and I came in just under 2:54. Double-winning.

The past week I have gotten in some good rides including a ride up Rist Canyon, an 11 miles 5% avg grade climb followed by a good fast descent with Sam Dannenbring, a triathlete from VA Beach that I have raced against a good bit. Sam taught me another lesson in humility as he would drop me on both the climb and the descents, riding back to fetch me.

Unfortunately Kyle and I haven't been able to get out in the field yet for research due to the massive amount of snow blocking trail ridge, BUT we have played frisbee disc golf 4 times and made many a delicious meal. Not all bad. It is amazing to me how greg-geared this place is. For the first couple of days I couldn't stop telling Kyle how much I loved it. He replied, "Ya man, its like your natural habitat!" He couldn't have been more right.

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.

Collegiate Nationals Road Race

2 weeks ago as I sit in Sociology class I got a text. Being a senior and loving any distraction from talk of globalization and development I hastily scrambled to get the phone out of my pocket. It was from my good buddy Jacob Aber, a sophomore rider at Virginia Tech. "Going to Nats homie" it read. Well this was certainly better news then learning about how Wal-Mart was quickly replacing the nation-state with its influence over a countries population so quickly I began working on plans to get to the race. This was going to be awesome I thought.

Eventually after an afternoon of annoying Ben the president of Vtech and calling James McCabe, the president of Wake I had a plan worked out. Tuesday night I would drive up to tech to stay with my buddy Jacob and Wednesday morning I would board the van with tech for a 13 hour venture up to Madison Wisconsin. The first night I would stay by myself and the next I would share a room with Wake. This quest was possible, even for a college student that is basically broke!

Arriving at tech Tuesday night a little later than expected after being stuck in Richmond for nearly an hour at a stand still Jacob and I watched Mike B., another tech rider eat a half gallon of ice cream and had a few beers. We woke up the next morning to get in the van for a long days drive. We stopped at the infamous Hooters for lunch to show Tech's Italian exchange student, Edoardo, what this great american establishment was all about. After 5 more hours in the car we got out at a Wal-Mart for a sayg ride (slow as your grandma). We then feasted on some Chinese buffet and when we were done stuffing ourselves we again got back into the van for another 6 hours with Edoardo at the helm.

We got to the hotel at about 1am and I was told they had given my room away and would be putting me in the parlor with a roll-away. Sure I told them, as long as I get a discount. Overhearing the conversation Ben laughed that I was getting a closet. After being informed that she could not provide me a discount and asking me if this was acceptable I replied no thanks. Upgraded to governors palace. Place didnt suck. In the words of Jacob Aber (Jaber) the sheets were no bs Egyptian cotton, mad high thread count dawg. Dont ask why he slept in the bed with me and not his teamates. Were cool like that.

The next day we ventured off to the trek factory for a tour. #manynewpairsofpantsneeded. It was awesome. Saw mad cool bikes. Touched Lance's saddle, almost as good as touching his ass? Saw Contadors bike, I think I saw some contaminated steak in the bento box. After the tour we went to the course to ride. Unfortunately it was quite rainy so we decided driving would be better. Saw a few riders on the course and we were pretty glad we chose to take the day off. That night we went out to dinner at this wierd design your own pasta joint. It was good. The cheesy bread Ben and I split was awesome and totally unnecessary. After dinner we made our way to an ice cream joint where we found some pretty cute scoop girls. After harassing them with inquiries to their favorite flavors and being rejected we went to the liquor store to find Edoardo some grapa which he said would "aid in digestion" #shitsucks

The morning of the road race the sun was coming up and the riders waited anxiously. I got on the second line. That was sweet in a huge race. The neutral roll out was far from neutral as we made our way down the finishing 1.5 mile climb the smell of break pads filled the air...beautiful. The beginning of the race was loko. 1.5 miles downhill, 50mph, bumping #nothanks. Saw a guy from Denver eat mad shit as he went flying across the grass then nailing a tree. Guy in the D1 race hit the same tree, broken pelvis and punctured rib...fun. At the bottom of the hill I thought, 4 more times own that...SHIT. The difference between this race and all the others I had done was the pace. No let up. First lap I wanted a gu but waited till the second. The 1.5 mile climb at the end of each lap was my saving grace. I always finished in the top 20. Thats ok though as about 30 people would pass me on the downhill #ineedbiggerballs.

On the third lap of the race negative thoughts began finding their way into my mind. Quickly I jammed down a honey stinger waffle and then some accelerade that I got from a duke rider. I think the waffle stayed down. The accelerade...not so much. Throwing up blue is something usually you would go to the ER for. But the culprit in this case was clear. Im never drinking that vile liquid again. At the end of the third lap about 15 guys and I got away up the climb, unfortunately 14 stayed in a pack down the descent and I was not one of them fuck my descending skills. Luckily I was swept up by a chase that would end up catching them about 3 miles from the finish. About 30 of us were in a pack at the final climb with 1 rider off of the front. About 1 mile up the climb i went to shift into my lowest gear and dropped the chain. This is the worst feeling EVER. I tried to get it to catch but to no avail. I got off my bike and put the chain back on and began hammering up towards the riders ahead. I have put myself through alot but I speak the truth when I say I have never hurt this bad in my life. Never.

Final result: 24th in the nation. Feeling: pleased. Time to go to sleep. Crit tomorrow and I DID NOT DRIVE 18 hours to get pulled tomorrow. Im stoked. Go hard or go home.

A lesson in humility

As you know this past weekend I was fortunate enough to get to race with the best young triathletes in the nation. I have been competing in triathlon for about 2 years now but I have yet to compete against such a group of competitors. It was evident after arriving at the site of the race Friday morning that this was no Virginia Tri Series Event. The athleticism that surrounded us was amazing. You could feel the excitement and the nerves in the athletes as they embarked on their pre-race workouts, shaking out the nerves and the cobwebs. After being at the race site for approximately 2 hours, picking up my race numbers, going to meetings for the Mid Atlantic conference, and getting in a swim in the ice cold Black Warrior River, Evan and I decided it would be best to stick to the cool air conditioned car to scope out the bike course and then head back to the room for dinner before we psyched ourselves out by over analyzing. That night we met my family for dinner and in typical Greg fashion, had quite the delicious feast with good conversation. Heading back to the hotel room I watched a few youtube videos before nodding off to sleep.

The alarm came early the day of the race. 5:15 never feels as early though when you are about to compete so Evan and I both jumped out of bed. My nerves were quite apparent as my hands begin to shake with everything I do when I get nervous. We got to the race course at around 6:10, thinking wed have plenty of time to check in our bikes before the race. HA, wrong. The line to get the bikes into the transition was awful. The worst thing about this was I knew it would be critical to get the bike into the transition area in enough time to get in the water before the swim wave went off or I would not have time to acclimitize to the water. Fortunately after waiting for nearly an hour we got into the transition area at about 6:55 (swim w/up was from 7-7:20)

After quickly setting up my transition area I ran over to the area to put on my wet suit. Like a dumb ass I brought my backpack so after taking my wetsuit and goggles out I had to sprint back over to the tent area to throw my stuff under a random tent since the W&M club is not funded at all as of yet, something we will be working on. Running back I put on my wetsuit and got in water. With my mind on the race the 59 degree water did not feel nearly as bad as it had the past day. After realizing that I may actually make it through the swim (thanks Bert so much for the wetsuit!) I got out and congregated with the athletes of the first wave. After being called we made our way down the dock the camera in our face, the athletes from all the schools screaming loudly. I jumped up and down a few times to help relax myself and keep myself calm. Jumping in the water I was focused and successful in creating my own place, serene and with only my thoughts before the horn went off.

The beginning of the race was a RUDE awakening. I surged forward off the dock and was nailed in the junk by a swimmer in front of me. Arms flew like clubs as we battled to get off the crowded wall. Trying not to panic I tried to find a hole and get in it. Having to resort to doggie paddle to get the river out of my mouth I finally was able to stretch out and begin my swim. As the swim went on I surged from group to group, this is proof to me that I am probably better than the time I swam. About 150m from the end the 2nd wave began catching me. One dick-wad decided it would be cool to hurdle me so after being dunked underneath him and through his legs I resurfaced. Fun. To bad I cant try to knock him off the bike gladiator style, maybe contact should be instituted as part of the bike leg. Getting out of the water in 23:45 I remembered my plan to really put the hurt on people in the transition. Unfortunately my plan to run hard to my bike was not about to happen. I thought for sure I was going to vomit as I ran to my bike, whydoidothistomyself?!?!?!

I put my shoes on in the transition area this week instead of opting for the flying mount and ran to the bike start. Immediately I passed about 10 idiots struggling to get their shoes on. If you are good at putting your shoes on while on the bike Im sure it is faster, but most of you are not and should just take the 5 secs in transition instead of struggling for the first 5 miles of the bike. On the bike I caught a good number of dudes. 4 people got penalties for drafting off me. 1 was on a Trek Speed concept with a disc and two others were on cervelo p3's, HA, fearmyroadbikebitchzzzz. I am interested to know the damage I could do if I were on a TT bike and my goal is to try to find one. Such a mission is about as rough as any James Bond has ever encountered however because I only have about 200 bucks ilovebeinginkollege!

Getting off the bike it was running time. Time to hurt. At the beginning of the run 2 guys passed me. Jesus your kidding me right? I dont mean to sound cocky but I NEVER get passed on the run. They had to be going to hard right? Fortunately they were. My strongest asset is my understanding of my body and the pace that I can run. I dont know how but I have gotten incredibly good at finding a pace I can maintain and sticking to it. The first mile was uphill and i hit it in just under 6. The second was mostly uphill, 5:55 and by now I had caught the Oregon State guy who had passed me in addition to about 10 other people. The third mile 5:51, 10 more passed dudes. God I love being a runner. The next miles went by about the same as they flattened out, passing about 5-7 guys per mile, to bad I cant dunk guys as I pass them on the run ay? In mile 5 someone went by me pretty quickly wearing an orange Saucony loose jersey. I figured out after the race that he would go on to run one of the fastest spilts a 34 mid and was an ex-UF runner who now ran for Saucony. The last 200meters I saw a VERY familiar site of tech's Grayson Cobb. Grayson and I have been friends since this summer and were immediately bonded by your intense passion for competition. We have very similar overall times as he is stronger on the bike and the swim but my run balances me out. Catching him with about 100m left he surged ahead and cross the finish line 2 seconds infront of me. Crossing the line he collapsed and I felt like I was going to. The intense heat (approx 86 degrees) made the run extremely rough as we had not had heat like that all year.

My overall time 2:06. Going into the race I was hoping for top 20, I got 41st. That said I am NOT disappointed. I raced hard. The competition was unbelievable and a big eye-opener for me. I was able to beat many outstanding athletes and was humbled by 40 others. It is no secret that success in this sport is determined by perseverance and work ethic. We all have set-backs and good training periods. It is dealing with these and moving on that make us successful. This past weekend I learned ALOT. I need to work on my swimming. I also need to work on my biking and running...theres always a bigger fish in the sea, the question is how many? The answer that I discovered this weekend is alot. Good to know, back to the grind. Time to get faster.

Famous Last Words

So tomorrows the big day. Im nervous as hell, it would be a lie to say otherwise. Its unfortunate that it took till my final year of my undergraduate career to participate in this event, but better late than never right?

The drive was very long. Like 13 hours long. Thankfully my teamate, Evan Fulton's parents drove us while we got to chill out in the back of the roomie Chevy Tahoe. I owe them huge. We left yesterday at about 2 and drove till a little after 11, stopping at a hotel in Tennessee over night. We got here pretty early this morning, a little before 10, just in time for the open water swim. We walked down to the water and congregated with the masses, putting on their wetsuits and joking with one another before giving their wetsuits a try. JESUS CHRIST that water was cold. As soon as I jumped in I tried to swim a few strokes but I realized I couldn't breathe deep enough to get in a full stroke with my head underwater. Finally after paddling around and attempting to get warm I was able to begin to swim. The temperature will, without a doubt, serve as intense motivation to swim fast to get out of the water.

The transition area is a huge plus for runners. After exiting the swim its probably about a 400m run to the transition area. Time to dig back into the days of the track and pull out some quarter speed. This will definitely be a good place for me to make up some time on the faster swimmers.

After the swim Evan and I rode around a bit before going for a quick, and separate shake-out jog. The bike course seems like it will be pretty fast. There are some rolling hills that go on for maybe a mile or so. They appear fairly gradual but Im still banking on them working to my benefit to slow down the bigger, stronger riders on tt bikes (assholes and rich-boys =p). Not that im jealous because I can run and will look forward to smanging them in the run.

The beginning of the run looks brutal. The first 1.5 miles go uphill. It will be extremely important to drink on the bike, which I neglected to do last week, because the weather is really hot and humid here, especially compared to Williamsburg. The rest of the run is really flat though and goes out a bike path and then back down the road.

If you had told me back when I was 12 years old, that in 10 years I would be competing among some of the most fit college athletes in the country I would have called bullshit. I was the kid who would hide behind the fence and eat dominos during pre-season soccer runs. How much I have changed. Over the past couple of weeks alot of people have asked me what my goal is...to be honest, I dont know. Would I like to win? Sure. Do I have a chance to win? You bet. But none of that matters now. What does matter, is that in 12 hours I plan on laying it all on the line. Punishing my body and asking it to dig deeper than I ever have before. If I do this, then I will have succeeded. Then i will be satisfied.

The Up-Swing

It is no longer fair for me to start off by commenting on how long it has been since I have last made a post. It seems that these monthly posts are now becoming the trend. A great deal has happened in the life of Greg since I last made a post, and the best part about it is that, for the most part, there has been a great deal of good!

Of the happenings of the past month the one that was not so good involves my wreck at our home crit. Sitting at the front of the break, I rounded turn 1 to sharply, my bike slid out from under me and I felt my body gliding across the pavement. Pavement is not ice, and your body is not supposed to slide across it. Standing up quickly I realized my bike was ok, but as the adrenaline wore off my head was in a good deal of pain and the bruises and cuts I picked up began to hurt. After a couple of sleepless nights and just feeling like a goldfish flushed down the toilet, I finally started to feel better and be able to ride my bike again. The next weekend was Navy race weekend, no big loss, and the weekend after that I would race bikes at duke, and post my best finish of the season, an 11th place finish at the road race. Yes.

The week before spring break which I guess would be two weeks ago now, give or take, I received a phone call from Wake Forest informing me that I had been accepted into their graduate school program of Health and Exercise Science. My elation with this call cannot be put into words and the burden that this has lifted off of my shoulders is monumental. It is nice to no longer worry that I will be living out of a box and slicing meet in the Wegmans deli for the remainder of my life. Pretty sweet.

Spring Break was cool. I have a better than that most people that went the beach which amuses me. The tan lines I have are something of which I am proud, unfortunately the general population does not find them as cool as I, but they are missing out.Anyway, over spring break I didnt go anywhere cause the clutch in my car crapped out. Not awesome at all, and I ended up paying alot of money to replace it. Hard to see a bright side in this one, other than I guess I wont need a new clutch for a while? What I did do over spring break was enjoyable though, it basically consisted of: swimming, biking, eating, watching netflix shows, AND NOT TO BE FORGOTTEN A LATE NIGHT TRIP TO WAL-MART. Be jealous.

This week I started running again. My hip is definitely on the upswing and I put together a pretty solid run on Quarterpath Thursday morning. The Mug-a-rita from the night prior was rough on the stomach for sure, but I still came in under 49 minutes, a solid run for me. Collegiate nationals are growing close and training is getting pretty intense. My swim is finally coming around now that I am getting in the water 3-4x a week. I am starting to feel less like a drowning rat and more like a goldfish with a missing fin. Improvement for sure but a long ways to go.

This season I will be representing both Honey Stinger and Bike Stop. Both of these sponsors have generously offered to support my racing career. Im excited to work with both of them and am looking forward to the season. Oh, and the weather is getting nice to. Kewl.

Who ever knew Id learn from Candyland?

So its been over a month since I last posted anything new on here. What is really hard to believe is that I have now been a second semester senior for a month....are you sure I didnt just get back to school last week? I guess it is what it is, I have still yet to hear from graduate school or decide precisely what it is I will be doing after May. It's a work in progress however, and although I am a bit nervous about the change I am working on embracing it. I love it here at W&M, that said I will enjoy things such as not having to share a kitchen with roughly 250 other kids, and being able to go to sleep at 10 p.m. without the rest of the world around me planning on 4 more hours of being awake (which is something I have desired to do quite frequently as of late).

As you probably have guessed by now the main reason I have not been posting daily or evenly weekly blogs is because for the past month I have spent the majority of the time I have been awake either in class or training. Last year I trained by myself, trying to swim, bike and run some each week. It ended up more like riding alot, running some, and swimming one time a week. This year I have Debi Bernardes of Youcandoit coaching kicking my ass. When I found Debi I was somewhat skeptical of the benefit of having a coach, I knew most pros did, that said, who would push me harder than i pushed myself. I now wish I could put my foot in my mouth. Thanks to Debi my training now has much more structure, Im getting in the pool 3+ times a week and I am doing workouts. Although this leaves me in a great deal of pain at the end of the day and when I wake up in the morning, especially after 16 hill repeats, I am looking forward to the dividends in the future.

One thing I have learned is the amount that I can push myself is much further than I had ever thought. Killer workout in the morning? Probably going to be followed by some sort of swim in the afternoon. I am not underrating the importance of listening to my body, that said, I feel like frequently we all can do ALOT more with our bodies than we think possible. This i am learning.




Unfortunately the hardest part of the training, and something that it seems as if I will forever work on is patience. Last week I got a pretty nasty cold which took me out for a couple days. In the meantime I spent my downtime looking up results for professional races. Seeing the times I was immediately invigorated to get back to training because I feel that I can compete with these guys. That said, I am young, 22 is far from prime for a triathlete. Harnessing my energy and learning to accept that these guys would absolutely love to teach me a lesson in humility is a must. Much like Candyland, training frequently involves going forward, then landing on Lord Licorice and having to take a few steps back. Unlike the days of my younger years, I cant cheat here, there is no overshooting the evil Molasses Monster Gloppy (who was probably moving at least 1min/mile faster than me this morning) or escaping the wrath of Queen Frostine. Patience is a virtue goes the old saying. That it is, and that I am still working on.