Time for Change...

If you asked me how I'm feeling right now I wouldn't even know where to start. I feel everything. excited. nervous. scared. hopeful. optimistic. determined. inspired. fired up. calm. crazy. and basically so far out of my comfort zone it ain't even funny. And I think that's what is most important--that I'm not comfortable and that I am okay with it because something tells me I'm headed down the right path. I feel it in my gut. Granted, it is a somewhat scary and slightly unknown path, but that's kind of what makes it so awesome. I am choosing the road less traveled and taking a risk and I am proud of myself for doing so, because it is only with great risk that you reap great rewards.

Let's back up…

I'm sitting in a hotel room in Daytona Beach, Florida with a rental car parked out front packed full of suitcases filled with my most important belongings. Basically this means all my track stuff and far too many pairs of shoes I won't ever wear. Lord willing, I will find a more permanent residence for me and my shoes in the next few days, and then I will live in Daytona Beach for the remainder of the season and train here under a new coach. It's a move that many would call crazy, and they might be right. But sometimes crazy is good. And sometimes crazy is necessary.

I started off this season with a very specific goal in mind and the attitude that I would do everything in my power to achieve it. So here I am, taking a leap of faith in a totally different direction and believing that it is the right thing for me personally to do. Change isn't always easy. There was a part of me that wanted to continue to fight for what I knew and for what felt comfortable, but the more insistent part of me dared myself to go all in. The deep part of my soul that knows how badly I want to be my very best self this summer forced me to get uncomfortable and to make changes that I believe in my heart will be best for me.

I love California. I love training at the Olympic Training Center. I love the people I worked with on a daily basis and being near all my friends and family. But there was a key component I knew I was missing and it was up to me to finally go find it. My reason for being out here is simple: To be fully committed to what I am doing and have complete faith in everything I do. I feel that I am in a place where I can do that and I know that this shakeup is what I needed to make that happen. I have had so much change over the course of my career and have learned to become a healthy critic of everything I do, but now is not the time to doubt anything but to put all my eggs in one basket and just go for it. And so I am.