Em's Brief Bio

I am a bit late on the ball here, but I thought I would also introduce myself. I grew up in a non-athletic family that allowed me to go to swim practice after school in replacement of daycare every night (I think someone's parents also told mine that my grades would go up if I swam...no wonder they endorsed my participation). I pleaded to do other sports that required more lateral movement, like basketball and soccer, but noooooooo. I think at some point when I was really young I even thought it would be great to do Karate, maybe I was seeking my roots. Needless to say I was isolated to the lifesaving sports like swimming and running. In retrospect I think my parents were wise, I probably would have had more trips to the hospital than I did as a child if I participated in contact sports.

Anyhow, swimming this much from the early age of 8 to the end of high school eventually made me better (it took a long time, I was never a natural at this one), and I did it unquestioningly with blind obedience. I managed to get to college on a swim scholarship at the University of Illinois and actually started to love the sport. Developing a competitive mind set and goal oriented work ethic greatly improved things for me in regards to my swimming and even school (go figure, those other parents were right).

Afterwards, my post collegiate swimming days gave me two options in my exercise habits. Either continue on with moderation or quit entirely. Having a 5-7am and 330-6pm daily workout regimen beat into me for nearly a decade by my early 20s, I could only imagine what quitting all exercise my do to my body since my appetite had not subsided. I would probably expand massively and really miss the endorphine highs.

So I continued on, but this time with another sport! Having endless sums of student loan money to spend, I figured I would use it on books, supplies, food, and a NEW BICYCLE!!! Later I discovered that a heavy wool jacket would have been sensible to save for in Boston winters, but that is ok, next years loan money would be rolling around in September. So naturally I explored New England by bike and did a little racing as well. All in all, it made sense for me to get involved with triathlon. With some encouragement from some swimming friends, I participated in my first triathlon in 2002, and within that same year did my first 70.3 in New Hampshire. It all went quite well and I was encouraged to do more, but finishing architecture grad school was a bit too consuming in time and financing for me graduate student lifestyle to afford.

When I did finally finish school in 2005, I headed to sunny LA with my bicycle and other gear, thinking I would pick up triathlon racing again...but for some reason, the sun got to my head and my discipline was lost. In all honesty, I picked up a new love, surfing in sunrise and sunset. So no more swim pools when you have the beach and ocean, and cycling in LA is close to suicide. If you don't get hit by a car, the smog will eventually take you down. But I would make the exception to continue running under the condition that it be along the beach!

Ah so what bring me to this point? What has retched me from this sunny surfing-zen being that I was transforming into? Well, quite simply, moving to a crappy climated, dim, and ugly place where you have to force yourself to go outside and pretend to enjoy the weather. Ok that is a joke, or rather a slight exaggeration. 6 months ago, I relocated to London for a new job and a faster pace of life (well I move slower by foot rather than car, but you know what I mean). Being in London, with less access to training, somehow encouraged and challenged me to find that sport again. I would have continued surfing if I could have, trust me I tried, but mid November was my limit as the North Sea would not have me, nor I it...I felt only tingling in my brain after that surf session. So boards away and other gear has come out. Time to play!

As for logging workouts, I was deathly ill with food poisoning earlier this week, so Yi Shun said to count it as lots of ab workouts. Gross. But I felt much better today, and did a whopping 5000 meters in the pool.