A Clear Path To Race Day

The "Man" has been on me lately about spending more off my bike and family time with him. I came home from last weekend's whirlwind international trip, had one day off then went down to Louisville for the day. I had Wednesday off then back to Louisville yesterday. No complaining here though. My job is not like real work. I have to say it does take a lot out of the tank at times what with getting up early, (4am), and trying to bag a nap or two to make up for several days of sleep deprivation.

My trip for today cancelled which is propelling me into a week long vacation that officially starts tonight. This makes for a pretty good on-ramp to Sunday's 40K. My bike is configured with clip-on bars and 175mm cranks. I lowered the handlebars a few mm's to get myself lower. DMO has offered me the use of his wheel cover which I haven't worked out yet. (BTW, if you read this DMO, give me a shout so I can try and get to AA and pick it up. If it is too late that's okay.) The start list is out but on a second attempt to call it up we couldn't. Bikeboy is all over it so I know he'll get it printed up for me by day's end. I did notice the 1-2's are going early for a change. That means I won't be getting passed up all day long. I don't know if that is good or bad. I credit Jon Card for helping me to finish my last 5K with gusto at Willow. He passed me up on his first lap as I was heading into my last and I just tried to match his pace which really helped. I took an awful beating because of it but it got the job done. Passing people can be helpful to one's attitude but maybe it is just fooling yourself.

Josh and I flew together yesterday and had a great time. We were messing around with the flight attendant's announcements. After every announcement, I would get on the PA and let out a sigh. They flew up to the cockpit every time to chew us out. By the end of the day we were laughing hysterically. Josh really hammered the airplane in landing back at Detroit. The winds were whipping pretty good and it was a direct crosswind which made a smooth landing difficult. It was time for the flight attendant's revenge. They got on the PA and welcomed the passengers to Detroit and ripped us up for the lousy landing. Something like, "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Detroit. Please remain seated until the captain taxis the wreckage to the gate and turns off the fasten seat belt sign. Please exercise caution when opening the overhead bins as you can darn well be sure that your stuff has shifted all over the place after a landing like that."

No riding yesterday. I was scheduled for 3 hours but this trip popped up after I wrote my plan. Today, I will look to get in 2 hours and then go for 1 tomorrow. I am going to focus on being in peak form for Sunday morning. I think I can place well but if I can go sub-60 that will be good enough.