Quality Results

Not cycling results – 401(k) results. I had almost a 16% return in the 1st quarter. The key was a strong position in energy funds. I dumped as much into that bet as I could possibly justify, which in this case turned out to be the vast majority of what we’ve got. I’ve abandoned the textbook diversification/allocation principles. Without any strong reasons to move into anything else, I’m going to stand pat. There’s a pretty good risk that oil prices will fall severely (a risk that most would love to see come true), since a huge part of the run up in prices is more to do with currency fluctuations than anything else, but all energy is not oil.

I’d hoped/planned to make the 8:30 ride on Sunday morning as a reentry after my rest week. This plan was always at risk because of plans to meet friends at Old Europe for dinner on Saturday night. These particular friends are no strangers to a good party and things went according to script – great dinner accompanied by several beers (the Kostritzer is my favorite on their menu), followed by more beers and a relaxing dip in the hot tub. Getting home at 2 am pretty well put paid to any shot I had at the 8:30 ride, but I did make it to the 10:00, hoping for a better turn out than last week. No such. Started the ride alone, detoured up the Mormon hill, then ran into two guys at the CT Ave light and we went from there.

Being particularly hungover and coming off of a week of absolutely nothing, I had no idea what to expect from myself. Sometimes I felt like a million dollars, sometimes like loose change, with no transition between. On the Glen rollers I decided to give it a shot and see what I had, which was enough to drop one guy and make the other sweat, but no kind of decisive blow by any means. We regrouped at Travilah and rolled on. We became a permanent group of two on River and rolled pretty aggressively in from there for a great ride.

Now it’s time to get my act back together in order to be on form for the late June races. I’ll probably have some unpredictable peaks and valleys in the next few weeks, but the plan is to do some solid build period type stuff for 4 weeks and be ready for Tour of Washington County and Reston, with Murad thrown in the middle there as kind of a wild card. TT practice, some trips to Skyline, Greenbelts, all the good stuff.

I'm pretty predictable about how and why I get my head full of grit, which is what happened preceding last week. It's nothing to do with the actual mechanical riding or training. In general, I'm generous to a fault with my time and resources - organizing stuff, hooking people up with rides, etc. I've got an older brother, I know all about waiting for my turn. But then the "to a fault" part of generosity comes in, you realize that maybe everyone isn't willing or able to complement or repay your inputs, and things go badly. A week of keping my finger on the 'reset' button and recalibrating my priorities and responsibilities feels like it's put my head back where it needs to be.

The lady's taking me to the opera tonight. Handel. Maybe that will displace the Rush song ("Closer to the Heart") that's been stuck in my head for the past week.