D3: What is your athletic background?

Adam: I played all the main sports growing up but Hockey and basketball were my two main sports. I started running my freshman year of college, but not competitively or anything. I did a few running races that summer and continued to run more but I was not fast at all.

D3: How did you get started with the C.U. Tri Team?

Adam: My junior year, I had a friend try out a practice and I decided to go with her to the next one. She quit and I kept up with it. I was the person at the swim in board shorts and no goggles doing the doggy paddle for the first week, pretty embarrassing.

D3: What are you currently studying?

Adam: Molecular, Cellular, Developmental Biology, I am graduating this semester and I start med school at Emory School of Medicine in the fall.

D3: How do you juggle training with studying and a social life?

Adam: You have to make priorities, like this semester I didn’t take very many classes so I could train a lot. Last spring though when I was studying for the MCAT, the studying took precedent. At the same time, working out is a big part of my life to keep me sane so even if I am really busy I will get in workouts.

D3: Do you miss out on some of the late night college fun due to fatigue or having an early morning workout?

Adam: Yes and no, I am really bad about rallying myself to go out if I have had workouts that day. At the same time, I usually have so much fun at practices that a lot of times I feel as though I do not need to go out. The tri team has a lot of fun though, we usually plan our events on days that we get to sleep in a little or that are longer runs in the morning because those are easier to not be feeling great for opposed to a track workout.

D3: The C.U. Team has so many great athletes, what is the chemistry like?

Adam: Everyone is competitive but at the same time very supportive of each other. Within our team everyone has different strengths and weaknesses which allows us to complement the strengths and help the weaknesses. Its really cool when the great swimmers will stay after practice and help out the slow swimmers like me with swimming form. As a team, we cannot get enough of each other,we always go to breakfast or lunch after weekend practices and every monday after swim we study together at the library.

D3: The team recently won another National title, how does that feel?

Adam: Greatest feeling ever! It capped off a fantastic season in terms of training and emphasized how much of a family the team had become.

D3: You were just named the C.U. Club Male Athlete of the Year, was that a surprise to you?

Adam: I had no idea I was getting the award. I knew I had to go to the banquet but I thought that I was being forced to go because I was an officer on the team. When I saw my parents there I was surprised and figured that something was up but I didn’t fathom that I had won athlete of the year award.

I see the award as a testament to our team and how exceptional everyone is because triathlon is inherently an individual sport and it is truly amazing that we came together as a close knit team in the way that we did. I think that allowed me to stand out among all of the individuals from the other teams.

D3: How has Coach Mike influenced you as an athlete?

Adam: Mike brought the lifestyle of triathlon to me. In my past sports, coaches have always focused on the moment and when you are at practice you are focused on that sport but after practice, you are done. Mike stresses nutrition, sleep, rest, academics and fun; all of which can contribute to performance.

D3: Last, which of Coach Mike’s many hard workouts is the toughest?

Adam: It was easily the 8×100 test set followed by another 8×100 test set. We thought we only had to do one set so when coach said we are doing it again, we just figured that he was saying that we would do it again before nationals. NO, he gave us 3mins rest before we had to go into another test set. The second hardest workout was a double brick on a day that was so windy that it was almost scary to ride. Mentally it was the toughest for me because I had just gotten back from Japan and I was still recovering from jet leg and the altitude. My legs felt like bricks on the run and I couldn’t make any power on the bike.