After finally getting to sleep around 1 a.m. last night, I was looking forward to being able to ride again this morning. I headed out a few minutes early, went about two blocks, and fired the retro rockets so I could go back and put on a pair of tights. The skies were grey, the temperature was just above 50 F, and there was a strong wind blowing out of the West. At 6:40 a.m. there was nobody in sight at the pumping station, so I rolled along into the wind by myself until Rob and John came up from behind with "Young Dan" showing up shortly thereafter. Rob and I pulled side-by-side for a while, but I was having motivational issues stemming, no doubt, from my dashed expectations of warm sunny weather, and dropped back behind John for a while to contemplate his rear wheel. Rob continued to plug away at the front for a long time, pulling us through the headwind at a blistering pace of maybe 20 - 21 mph. After the turn-around, though, we were soon spinning along at 27-28 and after a while we picked up Robin. It seemed like kind of a hard ride to me, though.
After four days off the bike I was feeling none too sharp today, but I know it'll pass. Robin stopped by and dropped off an armfull of used tires collected from Todd's shop and elsewhere, so hopefully there are a few in there that I can squeeze some more mileage out of. Even better, the Easter Bunny stopped by while I was out of town and dropped off some goodies on her way to NC, including a bottle of Cabernet that may well get opened tonight! Thanks Easter Bunny! I'm feeling particularly dragged-out today and would seriously like to go home and take a long nap, but it's not looking like I'll be out of here before 7 pm.
Meanwhile, Charlie called looking for teammated to go over to the ColdSpring road race in Houston on Sunday. Looks like a possibility if I can do it without taking the whole weekend. Houston is about 5.5 hrs each way, so it's possible. There's also more discussion about moving the training races to Wednesdays, which is fine. The problem comes in when they start talking about charging an entry fee and having prizes, at which point somebody is in charge and liability issues start to present themselves. If somebody wanted to promote a weekday series like that, and he had a little sponsorship to cover prizes, he could probably make a few bucks. At any rate, I wouldn't want even the appearance of being responsible for such an event unless I had at least a USCF event permit and everyone was signing the release form. There's just on "in-between" any more when it comes to putting on bike races. Either you do the whole shebang with insurance and officials and follow cars and communications and all that stuff, or you just don't do it.
Arrangements for the NCAA gymnastics regional championships in Salt Lake City the weekend of April 9th are moving along quickly. The Wife has determined that she has sufficient frequent flyer points to cover one airfare, and her boss has offered to use some of his to cover the other. One of the team moms has a relative with a condo in Park City that we can apparently use for the weekend for something like $100, and if we split that maybe four ways, that will be a very sweet deal. So it would basically come down to car rental and food which MIGHT put it within my budget.
The good news? It doesn't conflict with Tour LeFleur this year!! Now I'll just have to see if I can find some kind and short soul in Park City or Salt Lake who can lend me a bike for a couple of days.
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