I come from a background of competitive athletics, my high school has a great heritage of track and cross country. The Great Brent Haley was a living legend at Largo High School, 10 cross country state titles and National Coach of the Year. Though he was retired from coaching, one of his athletes came back to take up the reigns. My coach, Dave Koehler, used the same formula as Coach Haley. He taught me about training logs and a disciplined regimented training plan. He was the first person that introduced me to macro/micro cycles, V02max intervals, pacing, etc... A few times a year the team would sit in the classroom and go over the training schedule. We outlined our summer and fall goals for the Cross season. Then in January we would outline the spring track schedule. The team kept track of individual miles ran on a huge bulletin board in his classroom. We would bring in our training logs and compare results from the weekends meets. All these ideas were completely new and foreign to me at the time. By my senior year I was team captain, leading workouts and helping the younger runners figure out how to excel. I guess this was the beginning of my coaching career.
I ended up doing well in high school running but hadn't mastered some of the nuances of training required to be a top contender. Things like proper diet and nutrition, we just at a lot of pizza and pasta and junk food, like all high school kids do. Then I went to university, I was good enough to be a walk-on but not quite the level to be scholar-shipped. Paul Spangler helped me decide that The Florida State University would be a good choice for my future running career. Ironically enough he is now a star as the assistant running coach at The University of Florida, bringing them up further. On top of having Coach Spangler as a mentor, there was Bob Braman. During my time at FSU, Coach Braman was only the head cross country coach. Now he is the Head Track and Cross Country coach. With his coaching and leadership we quickly rose through the ranks and became 3-Time NCAA Track and Field Champions (albeit the next three years after I graduated). But I was there for the building years. When I started at FSU in 2000 we were 7th out of 9 in the ACC championship cross country meet not even qualifying for regionals. Four quick years later we miss out on winning the ACC by ONE point, on our home course. We qualified for regionals and took the title there and placed in the top 20 at Nationals.
As for my own accolades in college, they were not as I had planned. Though I did get a great education, and a degree in Mathematics. In my sport, I was constantly getting over-training injuries trying to keep up with the required workouts. 100+ mile weeks were not suiting my physiology, but the knowledge gained was invaluable. I certainly found my limits. A personal best of 3:51.5 at the 1500m and once broke the 2 minute mark in the 800m. That's 15miles per hour for 2minutes, it's pretty amazing reflecting back. By the end of college I was completely burnt out of athletics and I went two years without running a step. It was around that time when I decided to get back into shape, not that round wasn't a good shape, but I desired that adrenaline rush. I missed that runners high, all those endorphins kicking in at once, legs pumping heart racing. I did a few runs but the malaise set in quickly and it was all small aches and pains. I couldn't put myself through that again.
One evening I was in my bedroom, staring at my brothers mountain bike hanging on the wall. I decided maybe I should get that down and take it around the town. I was living in West Hollywood, with my older brother Brad, which was close to the beach and close to mountains. So I took it out for a few spins to dust the cobwebs off rode Mulhulland Drive through some canyons, and decided I really enjoyed the thrill of the bike. I moved to Tucson the following fall, got a job teaching Mathematics.
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