Let Me Explain

Hi. Allow me to explain myself. I’m Dana Feiss.

I don't normally do formal introductions, but it seems necessary. I'm new to Blog Land and trying to figure everything out. All of my setup directions are in Spanish at the moment, so it's trickier than what I'm guessing is normal. My apologies. But yes, let me explain. 

I’m an American track sprint cyclist, but I wasn’t always like this – a track cyclist, I mean. I began racing at age 18 at the Lehigh Valley Velodrome in Trexlertown, Pennsylvania – now the Valley Preferred Cycling Center. I had always ridden on the road as a kid with my parents, but this banked-track-no-brakes deal was totally new. After a few clinics, I was hooked. 

That was a little over three years ago. I’m now a member of the U.S. national sprint program and presently representing my country at the 2011 PanAmerican Championships in Medellin, Colombia. It’s been a very fast three years, with a lot happening all at once, and I’ve just now decided to start talking/writing/blogging about it. I’m just a baby by cycling’s standards of training, skills, and experience. My thinking is that my foray into the international track cycling realm (and hopeful progress) has the potential to be decent blog fodder.

But, see, I’m also a writer.

I’ve spent the last three years at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania getting my Bachelor of Arts in Professional Writing – I graduate this May. I’m highly trained in collecting thoughts and ideas and putting them into coherent written messages, specifically for magazine and travel writing. It’s the Navy SEALs of creative nonfiction. Plenty of people blog; half of my hits from the Google Gods are people yammering about a select topic. I’d like to take this blog as a way of meshing my two loves, cycling and writing, and turning it into a worthwhile and readable chunk of cyberspace. 

This will be a platform from which to share my personal experiences as a cyclist and reach out to others. Or maybe it will be source of entertainment for audiences to observe as I clamber across the international stage. I suppose I’ll leave the intellectual and entertainment value of all of this to the individual reader’s discretion.

If you like bikes, I like you. Nice to meet you, too.