Live from New Haven

Neglected this blog (too busy watching Tina Fey) but it lives. GMSR-preventing events have settled and everyone is well, but when a race is just for training it did not make sense. I even got to see the brother unexpectedly, who arrived from Alaska where he reports on state politics on the day of the Palin pick. He said he had not ridden a road bike in 8 months, just spent 3 weeks with legs cooped up in a kayak, and there he was on my hard day, challenging on the hills on my time trial bike! I was really hoping he was fit... Also in the department of unexpected positives, I attended a friend's annual birthday party that I've missed a number of times since the inaugural one 26 years ago. School started in a frenzy, reminding me of the blessing and curse of having an effective overdrive mode. The pace is a stark contrast to my recovery existence, but energizing. On the bike, after training in a vacuum, I returned to the Yale ride to find myself feeling significantly more like a bike rider, the baby kangaroo jump growing. I am looking to cross with optimism and trepidation in maybe equal parts. Wednesday I will try it out in a training race (this is not the year to repeat my first-time-on-cross-bike-as-race habit). The doubleheader of Suckerbrook and Portsmouth Crit that the promoters magnificently arranged so it's possible to race both in a single day bonanza is going to be too much for me this year, regrettably. No world record attempts, in fact I'll be "racing sick," guarding those matches like never before. Less is more this year, with travel and training, quality over quantity, that is the plan!