The Beach and the Big Chainring

It's no secret that I'm a huge Georgia Bulldogs fan. It's my undergrad and there are very few things I love more than supporting University of Georgia football. In fact, both of my dogs' names have something to do with Georgia football. Yes, Dooley's jersey is signed. By his namesake, Vince Dooley. It says "Go Dooley! Love, Vince Dooley" There's this motto the team has this year, and I've seen it everywhere: "Keep Chopping." After I'd heard it around for a while, I started googling what it meant. It's short for "keep chopping wood." And what the players and coaches mean when they say it is this (my paraphrase): Ignore everything else. Ignore the hype. Don't look at the rankings. Don't let the fans get you too high and don't let detractors get you too low. Don't fall prey to the temptation to compare yourself to others. Keep doing the things you know make you a better football player. Work har

I've had this thought rolling around in my head for a few years now. And after it came to me again today, I decided I wanted to put it down on "paper." It's something that I'm not sure I can articulate, but I want to try. Until about 5 years ago, I had a pretty boring life. It was (and is) a life I was proud of. I had made big strides in my young career and had great friends and a fantastic family, but if you asked about the adventure part of my life, it was severely lacking. There was rarely anything new. I wasn't traveling places that made my heart happy or taking risks that had my heart beating out of my chest. In 2012 I registered for my first triathlon, a half Ironman. That wouldn't be the first triathlon I completed (I completed a sprint and an olympic on the build to 70.3), though. And started to do things that scared me. I got a road bike and rode it on a road with cars. In my mind, that was not an activity for the faint of heart. I bought bike