Welcome to Average to EPIC, your guide to endurance sports and lifelong fitness. This site educates, informs, and motivates the average person to attempt epic feats of endurance.
Are you ready for some EPICness?
Dirty Kanza 200: The Real Deal
Billed as the World's Premier Gravel Grinder, Dirty Kanza is a bike race like no other. Started in 2006 with 34 riders, it has grown to over 2500 riders. It's growth has paralleled, and in some sense been responsible for, the growth in a new bike market segment: gravel bikes and racing. These bikes are... Continue Reading →
St. George 70.3: On the Comeback Trail
Billed as one of the hardest half-ironman triathlons, St. George 70.3 is held in the town of St. George, Utah. This race was my first triathlon since the disc herniation during IM Chattanooga. So this was testing, 1, 2, 3. Swim (1.2 mi/2110 yds) The 1.2 mile swim was in the cold (62º) and clear... Continue Reading →
Little River Trail Run
Knowing that I'll be doing a triathlon next summer where part of the run will be on a trail, I thought it would be good to try out a trail run. Because of my partially herniated disc from Ironman Chattanooga, from over a year ago, my left leg is still a little gimpy. It does... Continue Reading →
The Half Marathon Twofer
I have been out of endurance racing for the last year. I partially herniated a disk during Ironman Chattanooga (details here). The injury had caused significant loss of strength in my left leg, some loss of motor control, and numbness in my shin. Through weight training and doing workouts with a more upright over position... Continue Reading →
Cyclocross: A Great Break from Endurance Training
What is cyclocross? I tell folks cyclocross or CX is like steeplechase on a bike. You race around a course and navigate sharp turns, sand, and mud, as well as get off your bike to handle obstacles (running up stairs/hills or leaping over barriers). The sport started in Europe, supposedly with road cyclists taking shortcuts... Continue Reading →
Diving into the Publication Pool
Much of what we know about endurance sports originates as scientific research. This research is performed by professors at universities and published in journals. When a journal article publishes, one of the keywords or the title may pique the interest of a journalist. If the journalist has a technical background, he or she will summarize... Continue Reading →
Two New Podcast Interviews!
I was the guest on two recent podcasts: Mile Endurance with Rich Soares and 40+Fitness with Allan Misner. Check 'em out!
Why I’m (mostly) Vegan
I only have one vegan joke: I’m a vegan, not because I love animals but because I hate vegetables! Not the greatest joke but it helps break the ice when someone asks me why I don’t eat meat. But first a few terms for the uninitiated. Vegan: Vegans don’t consume any animal products (no meat,... Continue Reading →
The Adult-Onset Athlete
When writing a book, it's useful to create the ideal reader in your mind and keep referencing that reader as you develop the book. In my previous book about university startups (Research to Revenue: A Practical Guide to University Startups), the ideal reader was a university faculty member interested in starting a company. For Average... Continue Reading →
