I bet you have lived through periods when your life was filled with amazing activity, important events, and remarkable developments that took supreme focus. 

These periods are like ocean waves hitting a sandy beach, one after another, coming ashore while out into the horizon a new wave is slowly gaining momentum.  These waves are not simple busyness we all must attend, but rather one significant wave after another demanding your best.  If your attention becomes diverted then you will not be your best in that moment, and if you are not careful you'll fall off and be overtaken by the wave.  Since the last race of the criterium series in August this best describes my life.

None of us can afford to take our eyes off the prize.  Distractions, obstacles, frustrations, fatigue - all these things must be avoided or the prize will be forever elusive.  We are never assured we will reach our goals, but we owe it to ourselves to remove items on the table that are not positively contributing to the acquisition of those goals.  Life is filled with ebb and flow, and what matters most is how we respond to those changes.  Try to force your will within a crashing wave and you might find yourself in need of resuscitation.

While this website is a priority I had to allow it collect a little dust.  I am the worst literal duster, but this blog’s figurative dusting is refreshing for me.

Between Labor Day and today quite a few things have transpired.  The beginning of September marked the end of my road season at the Gateway Cup in St. Louis.  It was there I achieved one of my proudest racing accomplishments yet – I raced 8 criteriums in 4 days.  Each day began with a 50 minute Masters race with 75 to 90 guys followed by a 90 minute Pro/1/2 race with 140+ racers.  I not only completed all 8 races, but I did achieve a bit of success.  I plan to share this as a separate story soon, but as you can imagine it was an incredible challenge.

While most road racers were physically and mentally whipped from a long season I continued a hurried pace throughout September.  Our mountain bike season at Cumberland University kicked off before Labor Day and continued each week through mid-October.  Wedged in between was our trip to Indianapolis for collegiate track nationals at the Major Taylor Velodrome.  Since the end of the criterium series in August I can count on one hand how many weekends I have stayed home.  Our racing schedule at Cumberland has taken us to Johnson City, Banner Elk, Gainesville, Atlanta, Clemson, Bristol and Lake Tahoe!  We are not done yet as we have another trip to Johnson City before making the journey to Bend, Oregon for cyclocross nationals.

Our squad at Cumberland has grown and solidified this past year.  The incoming class of freshmen and transfer students has been the boost we have needed to tackle the goals I have set for the program.  Recruiting kids with the necessary equipment and ability is a tremendous year round job, and because of our amazing success this fall recruiting for fall 2011 is well ahead of this time last year.  However, since this momentum has been built we must continue to build upon that wave.

So where do we stand today?  Amazingly, the Cumberland University cycling team is ranked # 1 in Division 2 of collegiate cycling!  We earned this ranking due to our success at track nationals where we earned 4^th best team, combined with our 14^th place at mountain bike nationals in Lake Tahoe.  In case you are not aware, I have been the head cycling coach at Cumberland since the fall of 2005.  Within the past 18 months I made the decision and laid the administrative groundwork to enable our program to compete in all four disciplines of collegiate cycling – mountain bike, track, cyclocross and road.  Prior to this fall we only raced mountain and road, but for my program to be in the upper echelon of teams in Division 2 it required a greater commitment from everyone involved. 

It has taken considerable time and energy to put all the pieces of this puzzle together, and we are still a long ways from establishing the long term consistency I seek.  National success has arrived much sooner than I expected, but I believe we will dip down a little before rising to stronger prominence.  We lack one critical piece of the puzzle right now to get us over the hump – female collegiate cyclists.  I am working to change this and am determined to no longer allow it to hold our program back.  The fun, the challenge and beauty of my job is the odyssey of building this complex yet simple puzzle. 

Our program is still dominated by road riders, but half the squad is racing the other three disciplines.  Our experience at track nationals was one of the most rewarding championships we’ve ever enjoyed at Cumberland.  Sure, it’s great to finish 4^th, but we all lacked knowledge on what we were up against.  The equipment needs, rules and events at the track became a huge mental challenge along with the uncertainty of how we’d perform.  Several weeks before our trip I told the kids it was possible one of them could win a medal, and their response was laughter – “Come on Tim, do you really believe that?”  I told them anything is possible, and I meant it.

We were both proven wrong because the team did not win one medal, no, instead they won two!  I cannot recall the last time in my life when someone laughed at what I thought was possible or said could not be done.  Our success made it all the more rewarding knowing these kids obviously set their personal bar too low.  As the event ended and they received their second bronze medal I reminded them of my belief and their disbelief.  It was as if a switch had flipped because their wide eyed smiling faces would not stop talking about how they could perform better next year.  There is no disputing the truth.

We followed up that performance by finishing our mountain bike season in Truckee, California at the Northstar Tahoe ski resort.  My job takes me to some incredible venues!  Who needs a vacation when your job takes you to a ski resort or velodrome or mountain range on a regular basis?  To make this trip more interesting I drove all the way out and back.  Yes, you read that right – roughly 2300 miles one way!  I had never driven across the country and wanted the experience.  Plus, it was a more convenient and less costly method to get all our bikes and equipment there.  I was able to see parts of Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and Nevada that I’d never seen before.  On my way back was able to visit with good friend and former teammate Torsten Lyon in Golden, CO.  He and his wife Michelle took me on road and mountain bike rides that were beautiful and very challenging. 

Now that we have wrapped up two seasons we are currently deep into our cyclocross season.  We are competing not only within our conference schedule but also at some locally promoted events.  Our addition of cyclocross at Cumberland encouraged me to invest in a cyclocross bike for myself, so I am now the proud owner of a Blue Norcross EX!  Our collegiate events partner with other established events like MSG in East Tennessee, so since I’m already there why not race too?  After completing 8 races total thus far I can officially say I have the CX bug.  Not only am I racing, but I am enjoying it (surprisingly kind of good at it) and doubling up every chance I get – shocker huh.  My strength in criteriums has helped while my handling, dismounting and remounting is improving.  Since we are going to be in Bend for cyclocross nationals I am also going to race the Masters division there.  I even have plans to do a few more CX races after nationals, which I do not believe will negatively impact my 2011 training for road.  If I’m going to dive in I may as well go head first right?

All throughout this time it’s not always about the cycling.  Imagine having 13 kids you are responsible for and having to keep up with their progress in all areas of being a student-athlete.  You would likely be surprised at how little cycling is involved and how much life in general is the theme.  We spend considerable time discussing how to win friends and influence people, but doing so with sincerity and humbleness.  Demonstrate to others that you care, act out your words, and people will step up to help pull you through the fire.  Most of our discussions are done on an individual basis because each kid’s needs are unique, but I do use team meetings to open their eyes to a vision of life I am confident will lead them to success.  I enjoy helping them to maneuver through the land mines of college life, and if you’re a college graduate then you know the pathway is filled with destructive obstacles.  Becoming a better decision maker is what college is really all about, and my job is to shine a light on the right way.

This doesn’t cover how I’ve spent all of the last three months, but it does hit the high points.  I have poured my heart and soul into all of the above, but here’s the thing – not only am I not done, we are far from where I want us to be.  Therefore, I have to step it up even more.  Somebody somewhere has and is outworking me.  What we have done to this point has taken us this far, but it’s not enough to take us where we really want to go. 

Another aspect of my life taking me through new and raw experiences is my relationship with God.  There’s not enough text on this page to share His workings on me for the last few months.  This work-in-progress of my life has orange signs all around saying slow down, watch for construction, as the weight of His words have been bearing down on me more fiercely than ever before.  Through it all He has revealed a lot to me and shed some light on what is to come…..

Yes, it all happens in a blink.

Just yesterday I was a freshman listening to baseball coach Woody Hunt talk about how time will fly, and each time he said this he would snap his fingers.  “It’s gonna fly by fellas,” coach would say.  He would add we had better make the most of our time, don’t take anything for granted, because soon it’ll all be over and you want to reflect with satisfaction.  Here we are 22 years later and I am telling my kids the same thing.  God I pray they are listening.