Originally Posted by shovelhd

I'll stand up and say that I was one of your harshest critics. I have no idea what kind of stress grad school puts on people as I have a lowly undergraduate degree, however stress comes in all shapes and sizes, and if you knew the story of my life and family I think you'd agree that I understand stress well. I allow stress to be an excuse, for a limited time. But your flailing and hand wringing only made your training and racing worse. You seemed to have the talent, it was just buried under all this doodoo. I was tough on you publicly and privately, but I hoped that whatever I told you would eventually sink in. You had gotten some great advice from some great racers. Now it was up to you.

I don't know when it clicked, but you put it all together this spring. You have had a very strong early season with the results to show for it. The stress hasn't gone away, in fact it probably increased with your job search and relocation, but you figured out how to find the balance. Once you did, you became a much nicer person to deal with. We'll be in the same field at some point. I look forward to it.