Dynamic Balance

Now that I have officially announced my intention to pursue a professional triathlon career beginning in 2018 (click here for the announcement if you haven't seen it already), an interesting question remains. This all happened so quickly - how did I even get here? How does one become a professional triathlete? There are many answers to this question, but my road to a professional triathlon career was quite unconventional. I wasn't introduced to the sport by parents or relatives earlier in life, nor was I recruited by USAT by virtue of being an excellent collegiate swimmer or runner. In fact, my collegiate athletic career - particularly on the running side - was quite underwhelming (more on that later). Until August 2016, I hadn't touched a bike since age 13. And for goodness' sake, I didn't even know that most bike tires have tubes in them until I bought my first TT bike. So really, how did I even get here? To begin answering this question, we must travel ba...

In August 2016, I entered CU Boulder as a burned out Applied Math PhD student looking for a change in direction. After seven months spent in limbo between graduate programs, I received my official offer of admission from the Mechanical Engineering PhD program in March 2017. I felt like I had finally found my place in a new program with a new advisor (He Who Must Not Be Named) and I accepted the offer immediately. Although I was a bit nervous to join an engineering department because I've never considered myself an engineer (I'm a mathematician!), I was excited to begin studies in a more focused environment where I could work on problems with direct, tangible, real-world applications. I began research with You Know Who (hereafter YKW) over the summer and everything went well. After a brief adjustment period in which all I did was lit review (which is never much fun for me), I was motivated, enjoying the project, and produced enough work to become first author of a journal arti...

There's always something. After ending my collegiate running career with back-to-back-to-back stress fractures and a temporary allergy to running (yes, this is actually a thing - Google "exercise-induced anaphylaxis"), I thought my string of bad luck was over. I was finally healthy, training and racing on my own terms, in a way that I knew would keep my body happy and injury-free. Then (only a week after deciding to pick up triathlon in August 2016) I fell off my bike and fractured my wrist. Okay, now my string of bad luck must finally  be over. Right? Wrong. So very wrong. Busts knee open on a rock while trail running, requiring several stitches and forcing time off from swimming (ouch) Mysterious hip injury spontaneously appears a few days prior to Age Group Nationals and evades diagnosis, forcing time off from running (whyyyy) Excruciatingly painful ear infection strikes a week before the NCAA Championships (okay, you've got to be kidding me) Etc. (You get t...