Grad School-California-

Have you ever completely put yourself out there to the universe? Have you ever taken the plunge into something you thought was "jumping into the deep end"? Well, thats how I roll.When it comes to racing in my first pro/1/2/3 road race, or randomly decideing to ride my bicycle across Asia, I try not to get in my head, I try not to think myself out of it, I simply commit myself 100% and dive in.
Elephant journal writer, Karl Saliter just wrote this piece about me. Iraq to Cambodia

I recently applied to graduate schools. I know my dharma (calling) is to help people and do meaningful work in this world. One of my goals is to design and implement mind/body/spirit programs in the VA system to help veterans (like myself) treat and recover from PTSD. Anyways, I applied to the two spectrums of graduate school. Smith, and Westfield state. I kind of applied to Smith on a whim, I knew it was the BEST masters of social work program in the US and I knew that my grades would not get me in :-). I pretty much wrote it off. My application was late and they had to give me an extention to get all my material in. I was sitting around doing school work last week and I saw the mailman make his daily delivery. I casually walked outside and grabbed the mail. Seeing a packet from Smith, I immediately thought it would be that letter saying "I regret to inform you". My roommate Maryann was in the kitchen when I opened it and tears came to my eyes. Not only did I get accepted to the school for social work at Smith, I recieved a full scholarship, including tuition, housing, and meals for the full two year program!!!! I was high, I freaked out and started calling all my friends and family that have helped me throughout the years. I graduate from Burlington College with a degree in Psychology May 24th and then go straight into grad school a week later! Smith is a 10 week academic summer intensive followed by 9 months of field placements/internships for two years.

I work in the cafe at Kripalu and recently we started carrying a new nutrition bar, Thunderbird Energetica /THUNDERBIRD. They are 100% raw bars with the best ingredients sourced from the best sources out there. This is the only bar on the market that has nothing processed. It's the cleanest  fuel out there. Even the so called "raw organic" bars out there use agave and rice syrup which are two highly processed sweeteners. Katie, Taylor, Leslie, and Kirk run the show. They're a small artisan company focused on bringing the best quality product to the market. Each bar is hand-made with tons of love! Check them out and buy a box online, mention me and get free shipping!!  I was so excited about having these bars for long base rides. I normally go through 4-5 bars per ride when I'm out there for 4 hours a day. That adds up to a LOT of calories consumed on the bike. I like to source my energy on the bike in the purest way possible. So I contacted Thunderbird in Austin Texas and they immediately recruited me as their east coast brand ambassador. I am stoked to say they're flying me to California on March 6th to meet the team and attend a natural foods expo in Anaheim. We'll be promoting and spreading the word of this amazing product.

On another front, it's almost racing season!!! The days are getting progressively warmer (kind of) and I've been riding big base miles every week, between writing a 50 page thesis! I am so stoked to be riding for JAM fund this year. This is a huge opportunity for me to take my racing to a whole new level. This will be my first year of racing in the Pro/1/2 field in New England. I am feeling very strong from a good cyclocross season and will be in good shape from doing a ton of yoga/gym work/base miles these last couple months. I'm hoping to peg some really good results when I can find time to race between grad school and life.
I'm basically taking my brothers place on the team. He signed a big boy pro road contract with Optum Pro Cycling Presented By Kelly Benefit Strategies.Optum He's in California at a team camp right now. I'm so proud of him for following his dreams and now being legit, well knows top US rider!!! Check out his website! Jeremy Durrin

Here's a super goofy picture of us when I first started racing bike!!HAHAHAHAHA This was Jeremys second year I believe.