The Blogging Bug Strikes Again

My professor asked us to write a couple of paragraphs explaining why we run, and that acted as a substitute for the final for our fitness running class. This got the creative juices flowing again, so hopefully I’ll stick around this season and update more.
Ideally, this will follow my build up to the Short Course Duathlon National Championships in Richmond in April and then Worlds in Italy in September. For now, that’s the goal, but it is subject to change of course. For example if I don’t qualify at Nationals then of course Worlds is out. Also if I qualified for USA Triathlon Nationals at one of the other races it would probably trump Worlds. If all that falls through expect me to stretch my distance legs at a 70.3 half-ironman race in the fall. Unless my speed picks up over the next two seasons or so, long course racing is where I will have to migrate to be competitive anyway.
I also plan for the blog to have more non-tri related stuff, because I know some people aren’t really into that, and to show that there is more to my life than that. Plus my parents told me they want to know what I’m thinking and I know they read this (maybe the only ones that do), so this will let them keep a sort of handle on my day-to-day mental state.
Today I went for my first 2-hour plus ride of the season. I rode out to Irondale and eschewed my normal route to get a look at the Powerman Alabama course. Powerman Alabama is one of the 3 biggest short course du’s in the US, with Nationals and Powerman Ohio being the other two. The distances are a little whack (8k/53k/8k) as opposed to the standard 10k/40k/5k, but they make it work. The roads are nice and you are shielded from any wind for the most part, but it’s very challenging. It’s very undulating and a lot of long, steady, gradual hills. I like the short and steep ones better, but of course I have the advantage of being able to train on the actual course. It stinks that this race is only a week before College Nationals, but I turned in the paperwork for the SU tri club last Thursday and I think College Nationals will full up before we get approved. So that’s why I went out there because I will probably end up doing this race, it’ll be a superb litmus test for how well I can expect to do at Duathlon Nationals, which are two weeks later.
A question I’ve been thinking on a lot lately is what to do after college. It’s only three semesters away. If anyone asks, I always say “I don’t know” or “I’ve got plenty of time to decide” but really I just don’t want to talk to them about it. Everyone has an opinion on what you should or shouldn’t be and they won’t hesitate to tell you. And since I really don’t care what those people think I’d rather not have to fake it and act like I do care, so I just make sure they don’t get the chance. I do believe I can do a lot of things, and it will pretty much decide itself with how my circumstances work out now until I graduate. Pie in the sky dream would be to train with the Olympic team, and it’s pretty simple there: if I get fast enough it will happen, and if I’m not fast enough then it won’t. If my grades stay good (or better yet improve), then graduate school in exercise physiology would defer a long term decision but would weed out pretty much everything else. It would end up either as a personal coach with triathlon or cycling or in research, like working for Gatorade or Cannondale. Auburn, Alabama, Florida, Florida State, App State, FIU, UNC, Baylor, Houston, James Madison, plus 25 or so of other schools are possibilites. One of those that has been with me the whole time has been to teach and coach in high school. I think teaching is something I naturally do well and a biology degree would pretty much let me go anywhere I want. Plus it would give me a lot of leverage to get into coaching as well. Football, basketball, baseball, track, the sport isn’t really important. A master’s would be a need, but with a science degree I could start right out teaching and get a degree on the side or a little later. I spent some time today looking at international sports missions opportunities. That is something you have to be called to go into, but it’s also something you should continually be open to and praying about, so that if that call comes you know it and are as prepared as possible. Finally, here’s the shocker Mom and Dad, I’ve looked at the military as an option too. Navy or Army. It’s something I could do well and something America needs, now more than ever. As you can see, it’s pretty far down the list, just putting it out there, because I have been thinking about it.
Sorry for the book (1 ½ pages single spaced!), but lucky for y’all it’s 10:30 and sleep beckons. Ahh, the triathlete’s life.