“It was not long after participating in my first track meet in junior high that I became interested in human motion.  There was something exciting about running faster than the guy in the lane next to you, something intriguing about how to do it.  Sport, after all, is engaging.  I slowly became interested in the “science” of sports and exercise, in a crude sort of way.  After all, as a teenager, it was not as if I was studying lactate threshold or running kinematics.  This romantic notion of how the human body’s performance may be improved by perfecting its physiology has led me to places I probably never would have been to otherwise, including a small, rural, college town in Pennsylvania named State College, an Olympic city in Canada, a railroad and limestone town in Indiana, and the high desert of Albuquerque, New Mexico.” 

"Do not stop to think about the reasons for what you are doing, about why you are questioning.  Curiosity has its own reason for existence.  One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity of life, of the marvelous structure of reality.  It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery each day.  Never lose a holy curiosity."
                                                                                        - Albert Einstein

My research has been recognized by the following media outlets:

Newspapers:

Herald-Times (Bloomington, IN, 8/1/04, 8/22/04, & 12/16/04)         

Chicago Tribune (10/31/04)                                                       

Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY, 11/25/04)                                    

Indiana Daily Student (Indiana University, 12/7/04)         

The News-Sentinel (Fort Wayne, IN, 12/14/04)                                        

The Cardinal Tales (Redwood Valley (MN) High School, 12/17/04)

Times Record News (Wichita Falls, TX, 12/18/04) 

The Press-Enterprise (Riverside, CA, 12/19/04)

The Buffalo News (Buffalo, NY, 12/26/04)

Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel (12/26/04)

FSView (Florida State University, 1/5/05)

Contra Costa Times (Contra Costa, CA, 1/6/05)

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (10/5/05)

Magazines:

Runner’s World (10/04 & 9/06)

Men’s Fitness (10/04)

Midwest Running (1/05)

Television:

WRTV Channel 6 (Indianapolis, 7/04)

NBC4-TV (Indianapolis, 7/04)

KCRA-TV (Sacramento, 7/04)

KOMOTV (Seattle, 9/22/05)

Radio:

COX Radio (Louisville, KY)

Internet:

Medscape.com

Earthlink

Macleans.ca

FitnessMagazine.com

WebMD

RollerNews.com

Coaching Science Abstracts

AMonline.com

About.com

milkdelivers.org

Whymilk.com

Other Organizations:

University of Nebraska Medical Center

Apria Healthcare

Florida Dairy Industry  

My research interests include:

• Altitude physiology and endurance performance

• Glycogen resynthesis and endurance performance

• Nutritional strategies for optimal recovery

• Central and peripheral limitations to maximal oxygen consumption

• Relationship between breathing and stride rate in distance runners

• Cardiovascular physiology of distance runners

• Exercise-induced hypoxemia in elite endurance athletes

• Effects of training on carbohydrate and fat metabolism

• Metabolic causes of muscle fatigue

• Training VO₂max, lactate threshold, and running economy

• Mechanisms of fatigue

• Sex differences in metabolism during exercise

• Genetics and athletic performance

Entrainment of Breathing to Locomotion in Highly-Trained Distance Runners

My doctoral dissertation examined the entrainment (coordination) of  the breathing rhythm to stride rate in highly trained distance runners while running at different intensities.  This research was presented at the American College of Sports Medicine conference in May, 2009.

Training Characteristics of Qualifiers for the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials 

My research examined the training characteristics of the 2004 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials qualifiers, with comparisons between men and women and elite and national-class athletes.  This research was presented at the American College of Sports Medicine conference in June, 2005 and the American Society of Exercise Physiologists conference in March, 2006.  To download the full scientific article, published in International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance, click here.

Chocolate Milk as a Post-Exercise Recovery Aid

Past research has compared the ingestion of chocolate milk to a fluid replacement drink (Gatorade) and a carbohydrate replacement drink (Endurox) between workouts on endurance cycling performance, and was presented at the American College of Sports Medicine conference in June, 2004.  To download the full scientific article, published in International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, click here.