Unsettled

It's that time of year again. Days are getting just a little bit shorter and suddenly, almost unexpectedly, another racing season is sputtering to an end. I always feel kind of unsettled in September, as does the weather. One day it's hot and humid and feels every bit like summer, and then the next morning there's this cool dry air and those long morning shadows, and I want to ride easy and enjoy the breeze. So it was this week. Tuesday's training ride was fast and hard on the way out, and a little easier on the way back, as per usual, and Wednesday's was the traditional long, long 24 mph pulls in a steady paceline. Then there was today.

The humidity was back, but there was still just the slightest remnant of Tuesday's cool morning in the air. As often happens for the 6:15 am ride this time of year, the group seemed a little reluctant to lift their elbows up off of their handlebars and actually start the ride. By the time we hit the playground the group was getting pretty large. I'd guess we had close to twenty this morning, and even though Woody was taking it easy today we ended up in a long paceline at around 27 mph. I'd dropped back after taking a pull early in the ride and after a few miles noticed that nobody was coming back. I guess someone was short-circuiting the rotation somewhere ahead of me, but we were nonetheless going fast enough that I wasn't too inclined to try to move up. Eventually the guys who had been stuck up front started getting tired and trickling back down the paceline, which finally allowed the back half of the group to find the front and take over the pace-making duties. Thanks to a light tailwind the effort level never went too far into the red, except for a few brief times when there was a big surge at the front. After the turnaround, however, we could really start to feel the wind, which was now mostly in our faces, so the pace eased up a bit. The net result was a fairly decent workout and arrival back at the house a few minutes later than usual.

So earlier today I registered for the upcoming stage race in Pensacola. It's a good thing I finally took the time to read the flyer because as it turns out they are requiring pre-registration. That's pretty brave this time of year. That fact, by the way, is not mentioned on the main event website page and it's not mentioned on the race flyer that's linked to that page. It's only mentioned way at the bottom of the BikeReg site. Could be an issue for some people, I suspect. Anyway, the $70 entry fee plus gas, two hotel nights, etc. kind of stings right now. Even so, those guys deserve to have a good turnout since they've been so supportive of our races all year. The Cat. 5 race is being handled as an omnium and the road race is already about ten riders over the 50-rider limit, so I'm not sure how they plan on handling that.

It's looking like I'll be making the trip alone since I have to bring some of the LAMBRA race equipment with me (one of our officials is officiating and the promoter will be paying LAMBRA a small per-rider fee). I think this will be a fun race, but I have to admit to feeling a little demotivated right now. I think it's just the time of year. We'll be making the annual pilgrimage up to Georgia for Six Gap the following weekend, and after that, well, we'll see. Right now it's looking like we will have some track races at the Baton Rouge Velodrome in October, and there's some serious talk about a Cyclocross series as well. Hopefully all of that will happen. Somewhere along the way I will need to make arrangements for the annual USAC meeting, a business trip (probably two), the LAMBRA annual meeting, a trip to Iowa, and who know what else. I'm already tired.