I graduated from Dickinson College in May 2010 as a three-time All-American in Track and Field in the 5000 meters and Steeplechase and a degree in International Business and Management. I moved out to Los Angeles to work for NBC, and running became a recreational sport on the side. After a little while, I decided to try and balance work with an increased running load and found The Santa Monica Track Club to train with in Santa Monica, CA.

In July of 2011, I stopped working and pursued a professional running career full time after posting some personal best times.

Since resuming my training in August 2011, I have found myself getting stronger and faster while trying to treat my body right, recovering appropriately, and staying healthy. Although this took up a large amount of my day (4-7 hours/day of total training), I wanted to make sure that I was doing it for the right reasons. After talking with some classmates from Dickinson and discussing some ideas regarding We Are One 365, we decided that it would be a cool aspect of the website to have my training information, blog, advice, record, whatever you want to call it apart of the collaborative mission. I want to show those who are interested what I am doing each day to fulfill my pledge and prepare myself for a national level of competition.

I will be making my training, daily running routines, workout details, and racing results available to anyone who visits this site. In addition, depending on the feedback from other members, I will provide other information that can be of use to you and your training. Whether its light cardio, hitting the gym twice a week, wanting to lose some weight, get stronger in a particular area, increase running mileage, time, or technique, recovery tips, form and stride suggestions, stretching, muscle fatigue issues, or just other drills and exercises that you want to learn about, I want to be an easily accessible resource for you to reach out to.

Obviously, I am not a doctor, a physiologist, a nutritionist, or a personal trainer (yet), but I have been running for over 10 years, and I am also an avid sports player in general. I have experience with being in shape, being injured, recovering from injuries, training weeks or months for a particular goal or race, eating what is best at the right time (post workout, morning breakfast, race day, etc), and would love to at least try and give you suggestions for whatever your activity or goal is. All of my information is empirical, so I know a lot about what does work and just as much about what doesn’t work.

Approaching a road race, spinning class, or morning wake-up work out routine can be exhausting and the antithesis of motivational if you don’t have someone helping your through when frustrating times or days come your way. Especially because those days always come. Trust me. I have days when I complete a workout and feel like I can do it all over again with ease, and then want to quit the sport completely the next day. But talking with teammates, coaches, friends, and people who are pushing themselves to their limits is what makes me get right back on the track the next day.

And remember, knowing that what you are doing is for a great cause can be that underlying, motivational factor. Being more informed—through this organization and through the people who made this pledge with you—about our troops and the sacrifices they make every day will give you a much more purposeful drive during that final sprint, the 30-seconds left, the last rep. You will always benefit from a healthier lifestyle even if it’s as simple as working out for 30 more minutes a week. And the best part is, you have now allowed many other Americans to benefit from your workouts as well. So if you’re interested in what my training is like, let me know what yours is like. I would love to help. Because at the end of the day, We Are One 365.