Futebol

I was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and moved to the US with my family when I was 3. While I loved futebol (soccer) I'm afraid soccer talent is something that's in the Brazilian water - not our blood. I'm not good at soccer. My skills are decent but I have no head for the game on the field. Still I played every chance I could since grade school, indoor, outdoor and even working as a referee. I made it as far as sophomore year of high school. I'll always remember staring at the list of ID numbers on the side door of the high school after tryouts as I came to grips with the fact that I had been cut from the team. At first I thought my life was over but I decided that my plans were going to change but I thought I would just try out again next year for JV. In the meantime my friend Sam had been cut the year before and had made me promise that I would come out and run Cross Country with him. Seemed like a good way for a soccer player to keep in shape.

I sure never thought I would end up shaving my legs...

Running

What a whirl-wind. Within a few weeks I was one of the top sophomore runners and the sophomore team captain. I quickly become hooked on this new highly competitive sport that rewarded obsession and guts. 3 years later running had become a huge part of my life. I ran almost daily, most of my closest friends were on the track and XC team and I was racing dozens of times a year. While I never made it to state I had managed to run a 16:29 XC 3M, a 4:42 1,600m (mile) and a 10:04 3,200m (2 mile) and was varsity XC captain my senior year when my teammates took 10th in state.

I was pretty upset at missing making it to the state meet by one spot in XC and then again in track season but a week later I was back at it gearing up to run club cross country and track at Wisconsin. Still at the top if my game I was feeling pretty confident that sub-4:40 mile was only a few weeks away.

Ouch.

Triathlons

Turns out I never finished that first run after my senior high school track season. I developed a persistent case of shin splints that I wouldn't resolve until my junior year of college. Undeterred I began to cross training by swimming and biking under the guidance of Elliot Bassett, a friend of mine from the team in high school and a rising star in the world of triathlon at the University of Montana.

Once at Wisconsin I quickly sought out the UW triathlon team. I was thinking I could find some training partners for swimming and biking till I got over this shin splint thing and got back to the real business of running.

Oh how history repeats itself.

Next thing I know it's May and I'm spending 80 min shaving my legs in a motel bathroom in Memphis the night before my first triathlon.  I technically knew how to swim and had borrowed a $2,000 carbon fiber bike from the team President. I hadn't swam more than 200 yd without stopping in a few months, had only ridden "clipped-in" a few times. I think I had ridden at most 18 miles and had plantar faciatis in both feet.  It was one of the hardest races of my life. Just like my 1st XC races in high school this was just me grinding my body through painful miles...except this was way longer and in 3 different sports. And I was in a speedo. Somehow I managed to finish the olympic distances race in 2:30ish thanks to the support of my UW Tri teammates and two high school teammates (Arjun and Dan) who came down to cheer me on.

I had discovered another great group of people and gotten hooked on another great sport.

I spent the next year as the VP of the team. Over the next 2 years I would do 5 more triathlons - all sprints. My best race came in the 2006 Wisconsin State Games where I took 9th overall.

Cycling

By my Junior year I was burned out in school. My double major in math and astrophysics was consuming my life, whatever times was left was spent as an RA in the dorms, TA'ing an undergraduate research class or on my own astronomy research. I was training whenever I could, usually only a couple of times a week, sometimes riding the trainer in my room in the middle of the night. I hadn't done anything for my self in a while so when spring break rolled around I decided for the first time in college I was going to go somewhere and relax for spring break. I had never done anything with the cycling team but the Tri Team trip was full so I signed up for cycling team trip to the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina 2 days before break.

It was an amazing experience. I trained for 21+ hours that week. I completely burned myself out but I had never experienced anything like that trip. The instant bond I felt with the team, the 13 mile climbs, the 50 mph descents, the gorgeous scenery. Same story, great people, great sport - hooked.

After my spring break trip I had surgery to correct what had been diagnosed as compartment syndrome in my shins. Less than 2 weeks after I could walk I raced with the cycling team at Regionals at U of I. My high school teammate Arjun who ran DI track at U of I, and who was at my first Tri, also came out to watch my first cycling race. Again, my first two races were some of the hardest races I've ever done.

My senior year was my busiest yet but I still found time to go on about half the race weekends with the cycling team and trained a few days a week when I could manage the time. My grades suffered a little bit but it was my senior year and I was finally starting to get my priorities straight.

Back to Running

In the summer after I graduated I moved out to Baltimore. Finally out of school I had time to seriously return to running and see how good I could be. This was why I had my surgery. For my training plan I turned to my good friend from high school Arjun who had also just moved to Baltimore. We both quickly fell in with the guys from Team That's What She Said and starting piling on the miles.

Finally, after about 5 months of running 50 miles a week with a weekly tempo runs and track sessions I started hitting PRs. In December I ran an 8 sec PR in the 5M with a 28:40 (5:40/mile). In February I took minutes off my 10M with a 1:00:20 (6:02/mile) over a hilly course that adds about 90 sec. Finally, in March I ran took 45 sec of my 5k PR with a 16:44 (5:23/mile) and inched closer to my mile PR with a 4:47 1,600m (converted) at the armory in NY. I had only been training hard for 5 months and was making steady improvements for the first time in 4 years.  I was very excited and set my sights high. I was vocal that my goals for the year included big PRs with a sub-4:40 1,600m and a sub-16 5k.

Ouch.

Life is not with out a sense of irony and my shins decided they were going to break down again.

Oh, how history repeats itself.

But even though I had fallen well short of my goals I had shown myself and everyone else in just a few months that my potential lay well beyond what I had accomplished in high school. For me this was enough. With demons vanquished I was finally able to "put down" running for a while without and regrets or misgivings.

Now

So that's my story. Great friends, great sports. And now I'm racing my first serious season as a focused cyclist racing as a CAT4 for Lateral Stress Velo/Kelley Benefit Stratagies.

Thanks for stopping by and come back often and see how it's going! Feel free to shoot me a line.

Peace,
a