_SportyBrains_

"You need to talk me out of this. " I recall telling my friend Melissa over the phone as I verbalized seriously for the first time my idea of running in the Cross Nationals. She was privy to my love of the XC my desire to compete in it "one day", but this time I was more serious. "Not a chance in hell ", or something of that nature was her response to my request. What did I have to lose? After all, I had a year of solid training and was enjoying my best season in nearly a decade. Still, the idea of it thrilled and terrified me at the same time. And then after unanimous support from friends, family, and even some of my athletes- I decided to enter the race. I always ask my runners to dig deep to find their 'Why'. I ask myself the same thing and on a regular basis. I will tell you that my why for running is a fluid one; it once was all about winning races and setting PRs, to trying to return to a level I once was at (not recommended, by the way),...

This is a post that I have written a thousand times in my head before ever sitting down to put it to actual words. This is also a post that I have thought about and changed in my head probably a thousand and one times. Okay, probably neither is accurate, but nonetheless some noteworthy processes and lessons have taken place over the past 6 months that I want to share with you all-not so I can blast my running accomplishments (because there always will be someone faster and slower than I), but to both document and hopefully equip others to be able to follow a similar path. And while it’s about a racing season per se, this post contains very little racing detail. Sorry, not sorry- you guys should know by now race reports are no longer my thing. This post is about to get open and real, but I don’t think it can be conveyed any other way. So let’s get dirty.   But first, a little backstory: I’ve been blessed these past few months with some of the best training and racing in many, ...

We're gonna deviate a little bit from my usual content today. Before we begin,  I’ll provide a little background information on this post for those who don’t know; my grandfather passed away last week and this is the speech I gave at his funeral. I wanted to capture his spirit and who he was as an individual and this is what I came up with. The intention was to be light, tight, and bright without losing any seriousness.  This speech is reproduced with permission from my amazing step-grandmother to share with you all, because I think we could all take a little something from this larger-than-life character. I described him on social media as ‘an exquisite model for living a badass life’, and here’s 10 reasons why. So here we go, fellas. Hope you enjoy (and don’t try most of these at home!!*). 1.        Make the most out of your youth. For example, get your Texas A&M Corps buddies together and go steal your rival’s mascot in the middl...

Brace yourselves, fellas, it’s about to get kinda real up in here… That and I totally ripped the title from the 2012 film with Bradley Cooper. Sorry Bradley. Okay, now that you’ve been warned, let’s get dirty. This is a story about a low-key race I did recently that went both really well and not-so-well at the same time. In my opinion, these ones are really valuable to becoming mentally more resilient, because we’re left with the choice of choosing which side of the performance you want to put more of your emphasis on: the positive takeaways or the “wish I would have’s/if only’s/why couldn’t I’s”. I think you get where I’m going with this. As the above paragraph alludes, I found myself right in the middle of that dilemma after a race effort and am sharing with all you fine people not because I think I’m awesome and have superior mental strength (truth: a constant work in progress), but that I keep learning things and trying to teach the reader all the same. While I’ve...

Today we're going to get a little more real as I share some things that have been on my mind that probably has some application to you all as well. Okay, I know it does ;) So let's get dirty.  So I'll be honest, It;s been one of those seasons where I feel like my life has increasingly become an exercise of trying to fit as much activity, connection, and opportunity as possible into every week. Sometimes, it's quite fun. Other times, its quite exhausting. Part of this is intentional-as an athlete and business owner, you want to excel and make a difference, you have to put the time in. This is the part I love-taking what you have, who you're working with, and maximizing what's right in front of you  at that given time.  More is not always more.  The part I don't love is when my 'Off" switch gets jammed (I mean, don't you just hate that!?). Like many of you, I find myself so often falling into the trap that I constantly have to be 'do...

A podcast I can’t get enough of nowadays is the wonderful Michael Gervais’ ‘ Finding Mastery ’. Not only does Dr. Gervais possess qualities I want to find and fine tune in myself, his interviews with his guests are always interesting and a bit unpredictable. I mean, if you’re going to eavesdrop on two people talking for an hour-plus, you want some good juice and Mike and Co. haven’t failed me yet. This post was practically written on my 90-minute drive to see family as I listened to Mike’s episode interviewing NFL Rookie Quarterback Sam Darnold. Important side note: don’t worry guys-I wrote it in my head not actually as I was driving! Anyhow, back to the ‘cast; I don’t currently work with a ton of football players but am always curious to see how athletes across sports think and view their respective worlds. A few minutes in, I was hooked on this discussion; especially after a moment when the conversation turned to surfing, of all things. Surfing apparently is Dr. Gervais’ thin...

Ok not really, but I had to recently say that to my spring racing season.  Actually, it’s been weeks since I called it quits on racing for a bit (spoiler alert: this was a good decision). I’ve been wanting to write something about this for a while; but keep scrapping ideas and haven’t really known where to go with things at risk of sounding too narcissistic (I mean who really cares about my splits and times, etc.), or worse: too ‘fluffy’ (or is it extra?? Okay moving on). I am, however, a believer in finding something useful out of any experience if at all humanly possible. So a three-race season it is! I thought I’d share with you all some lessons and observations I made along the way from a short, but moderately successful racing season. I’m always learning things as I move along, and I hope at least a thing or two that someone may find useful and/or interesting as well. So let’s get into it. The best laid plans.... Are just plans; but we need to make them anyway...

I’ll start with the somewhat-disappointing fact that I have had no more than thirty seconds of interaction with Desi Linden while working at the 2012 Olympic Trials, so I am simply writing this from an observational stand point but I feel it’s pretty accurate. Now that my lack of real street cred has been established, let's get into it- What I will say about my 30 seconds with Ms. Linden is this: she radiates a quiet, confident intensity. Even after qualifying for the Olympic Team that year, she still carried herself quietly and confidently in a businesslike manner-as if she knew she was a force to be reckoned with yet felt no need to show it; because the world will soon find that out on its own. Desi has always stricken me as the type of athlete who mostly lets her work do the talking; that or she may actually be a mythical unicorn, but I doubt it. Now to the main content of this post: how we can be more like her-according to Adrienne, at least! In case you don’t follow ...

So after a long string of solid training and racing I was due for a little injury scare last week. This post will go into a little about it but mostly stuff on accurately reading pain levels and coping actively when things go awry physically. So this wasn't my first rodeo with this injury thing and I now fancy myself pretty savvy when it comes to dealing with getting hurt. Please note, if you are unfamiliar with dealing with getting hurt or in denial about being hurt-see a medical or other qualified professional before doing anything else. Okay, got that disclaimer outta the way now let's get into it!   Even though I more or less have a process for how to go about things when unfortunate events arise, I always try and learn something from a setback. And let's get one thing out in the open right now: hurting yourself never, ever happens at a convenient time. Probably because a convenient time to get hurt doesn't actually exist, but anyway!  Long story short, ...

So, this is another post about running (I know, shocking, right!?), however, I think there are some takeaways for anybody if you read long enough, so bear with me as I stay true-to-form and long-windedly unpack everything today. Today’s thoughts are a flip-side to a previous post where I discussed some mental errors I made racing a few weeks back; one of those errors was being Hella distracted by things around me and notably the timepiece and what it said on my wrist. Full disclosure: this post was pre-planned after making some adjustments and racing again at yesterday’s Bayou City Classic 10k in Houston.   And by adjustments, let’s say I basically did the runner’s equivalent of cutting my right hand off (or at least my right thumb, that thing’s important!) and running without a watch. Yep. Completely naked from the elbow down! No GPS, no Timex, no feedback whatsoever other than mile markers on the course and feel-you know, taking a more mindful approach. And it was every...