For Grey

I've been trying to write this for a while, and it's been tough. Today seemed like a good day.

On July 20, 2013, one of my best friends in the world passed away. Grey Liston was on his latest of many adventures, climbing Mount Olympus, when he fell and lost his life. I've known Grey since we were freshman in college swimming for UNCW. Grey was my roommate, teammate, fellow WB lifeguard, but most importantly, a loyal friend. Truly great friends are hard to come by these days, and I'm just glad to have known Grey while he was on this earth.

One of the great things that Grey and I shared was our love of open water swimming. Whether it was a pier to pier swim with the team or a horizon swim with the lifeguard squad, we both craved the challenge and adventure. Last weekend, I competed in the Pier2Pier race at Wrightsville Beach. This is an event Grey dominated on numerous occasions. While I didn't have the greatest result, getting the chance to honor Grey's memory (as well as another former Seahawk, Ryan Young) was comforting. Seeing former teammates and lifeguards who knew Grey was a great experience.

Today, I competed in another race that Grey enjoyed, the Wilmington YMCA Triathlon at Wrightsville Beach. True to form, Grey would absolutely annihilate the swim portion of this race, swimming so fast that one year he finished the swim before they even had the timing matts out. It was a bit nasty today, as it rained all morning long. I was feeling a bit sluggish warming up, and started to doubt my form a bit. I thought about what Grey would do. He'd charge the swim so hard that no one would have a chance to stay with him. He wouldn't think about how tired he felt or bonking later on; just start hammering right out of the gates. So that's what I did. I went out hard and didn't look back. When I thought about backing off, I could hear Grey telling me to quit being a bitch and go! Even when victory was all but certain, I continued to drive on, turning myself inside out. That's what Grey would have done. No mercy, just charge it. Crossing the line, I knew I had done Grey proud.

Grey meant so much to so many people. Those of you who knew him can surely attest to his fun loving attitude and genuine nature. His passing came too soon, but his legacy will continue to inspire friends and family to never take one day for granted. There's so much more that I can't even put into words. In the end, I miss my friend, but we'll meet again some time.

I've been combing through old photos, trying to pick a good one. I think this sums it up well. Love ya Greyman.

Full tilt at Park Ave, keep charging Grey

White Lake International Triathlon (no, it's not the one with Al Trautwig in Hawaii, it's different, you see there are many different distances...aw screw it, who cares)

It seems like only yesterday that I was racing the quintessential spring classic that is White Lake Sprint. Fast forward to today, and were back at White Lake for the fall'ish international distance race. I have a history with this course of going very hard on the bike and subsequently imploding on the run. However, today I am happy to say that I was able to contain my excitement, and take the victory with a very well balanced and dosed effort. I biked almost a minute slower than last year, but ran just about 4 minutes faster. I'd say thats a fair trade. It was still a hard fought win, with James Haycraft breathing down my neck as he laid down an impressive bike run combo. And the reward for such a demanding effort? Well, as we all know, rural Bladen County is steeped in a rich Japanese heritage. So it was only fitting that the winners today received traditional miso soup bowls and spoons.

Miso happy I won

Unfortunately, as you can see in the photo, I had an accident. While the bowl managed to avoid certain peril when I drove away with it on top of my car, it was not so lucky when I got home. As any true man would, I was attempting to carry every single triathlon play thingy in my car all at once, when I dropped the bowl, breaking one of the handles off. While I am deeply saddened by that my actions resulted in this unfortunate accident, I have no regrets, and will continue to refuse to take more than one trip to carry in my belongings. yolo

In other news, for those of you that don't know, I have been training under the guidance of Tom Clifford (Without Limits Coaching) for the past 6-7 weeks. Tom is big on the use of Compu-Trainers (computer controlled resistance bike trainer) for very focused and effective bike workouts. Shameless plug: the damn thing works. I've been doing all of my quality work on the Compu-Trainer at the Without Limits Compu-Trainer Studio over the past month and a half, and I am amazed how fast I was able to regain my fitness after being in an overtraining slump for most of the year.

Lot's of ride options, including multi-rider so you can train side-by-side with friends, regardless of ability 

Analyze your pedaling efficiency in real time

As you can see from the photos above, there's a lot more going on with than just riding your bike without going anywhere. Coming from a guy who typically hates riding the trainer (I think I rode indoors three times this winter), the constant stream of data keeps you engaged, and makes workouts go by fast.

Currently, I'm training at the lowest volume I have in years, but I'm performing at or above previous results. Take today for instance. I'm probably no fitter than I was last year at this time, but I was able to settle into my threshold pace and stay there for the whole race. Last year, I was spiking my power all over the place, and struggled to find a rhythm, which resulted in a sub-par run. Being able to set the trainer right at your calculated threshold in a way "programs" your body so that when you race, you're able to maintain a high and consistent output without even thinking about it. Click here, or just ask me if you want to learn more about this highly effective training tool. Whether your time crunched, or just want to get faster in less time, you need to check this out.

So what's next you ask? Only the single most important race on the international calendar. Of course I am referring to the Wrightsville Beach World Championships (aka Wilmington YMCA Triathlon). This is not to be confused with the Azalea Festival World Championships held earlier this year. Every year, over 1000 athletes put it on the line in hopes of winning the coveted...well, you never quite know what there gonna hand out, but chances are it might get "lost" in all the excitement.

Circa 2007 throwback victory, rockin the jammer, what a kook