I didn't know that you could race your bike until after college. I didn't know anything about cycling except that I rode my bike from class to class or to my friend's house. But here I am an athlete, I ran, I played soccer, I swam and people are riding their bikes and racing them? I had never seen a bike race.

I think, as most of us do, I put such high expectations on myself that this spills over onto other people. And not everyone is wired this way. Some people can shrug expectations off their shoulders like a cardigan, remaining cool and breezy. Others wear them like a parka with a stuck zipper, hot and stifling.

I think I run my strongest when I run with joy, with gratitude, with focus, with grace. With that strategy in place I can push myself for pleasure, not punishment. Maybe you can only really go when you let go.

I think that with some education there are real possibilities at the high school and college level, but more so at the college level, to bring people into cycling.

I love the sport, I haven't made millions off of it so maybe that's why I just feel like a normal person, I just feel regular, so that when I walk out of my house now with people requesting autographs in the middle of Albertson's aisles. I realize that I did go to the Olympics and did come back with a gold medal, but this is all strange. Somebody pinch me please, because I'm just here on my couch at night watching the Olympics now like everyone else in the world.

To me, there is no greater way to achieve clarity than to run alone, or share miles with a trusted friend.

Thank God for running. It is the ultimate detox for me, whether my poison is bubbles, a foul mood, or a bad attitude. If I combat inertia, get out, and get moving, eventually every kind of toxin works its way out.