Data Pipelines and Dead Ends

The adrenaline of the London 3 Day eventually wore off, and my body forced the crash I had been trying to outrun. I spent the entirety of November severely ill. The physical toll of racing while my system was redlining had finally caught up with me.

While my athletic life ground to a halt, my professional life was ramping up. I was wrapping up the final semester of my Master of Science in Data Analytics. Shortly after, I secured a role as a data analyst intern at a hedge fund based in NYC. I was learning new things, building new skills and tapping into the finance industry. I was making progress in my professional life and stalling as a track sprinter.

Training without track access

The training environment only amplified the problem. Our local track closed, leaving me scrambling to find other facilities to train at. During this time, coaching access also became more difficult. I was trying to manage a high performance athletic campaign in a complete vacuum, trying to merge my professional transition with a fractured training plan.

UCI CL1 in Grenchen

This culminated at the UCI Class 1 event in Grenchen, Switzerland, in December. This would mark my first individual UCI Competition in Europe of my career. Racing at that level requires precision, speed, and sharp form. I had none of those. Coming off a month of illness with zero meaningful track time, the results were predictably poor. The data did not lie. I was unprepared. The only redeeming part of the trip was seeing Switzerland the few days after racing, but on the track, it was a harsh reality check. The gap between where I was and where I needed to be was widening, and my attempts to catch up were about to push me further into the red.

Views in Switzerland