Rest

I don't like rest weeks. The last time I took a real rest week like they tell you to do, it took 4 or 5 days for me to feel better than as bad as I've ever felt on a bike. But if I don't back off the training every once and again, I wind up slower than usual, so this week is back off week. Which means a short spin on the trainer last night and a really fun two hour mountain bike ride tonight. I could easily see the beauty of like a 39/26 or 36/24 chainring setup. I think those are what XX goes. The middle ring is where it's at, but to be able to stay in the middle ring and towards the middle of the cassette except for steep climbs would be mint. For now, I'll just enjoy how well the new cranks work. Those old ones should have died a long time ago. Now I feel like I can stand and hammer on steep stuff, and I'm laughing at sections that I used to not always get. I'm sure I will get donkey punched all over the place when I try it, but it's getting to be time to race in the dirt. I'm a heck of a lot faster than I've ever been in the dirt right now, but I know there are tons of guys who flow like lava and they waste no energy and they're fast as greased owl shit anyway, so I'll get spanked. That makes this different from the road exactly how?

Pulled maybe the best move that I've pulled in a long ass time at work today. We have the weekly meeting at 2 on Wednesdays. My days usually start between 6 and 7am, but sometimes as early as 5. 7's a sleep in day for me. Most of my counterparts in these meetings start their days considerably later than that. Well today, it got to be 4:30 and there was much idle milling about, shuffling of feet, and scratching of ass. These are all the sure signs that I will get about 18 drawing revisions tomorrow. Well, since I'm going to take it in the jaw tomorrow anyway (plus I get to work day and night tomorrow, and probably Friday as well, so in the next two days I'll have at least around 30 but probably closer to 40 hours on site, hoo-f()(king-ray), I told them to stay as long as they liked close the door behind them on the way out and peaced. Enter 2 hour mountain bike ride. When I work, I like to bust ass and get done. Milling about isn't my style.

The 10 Questions bit has been dormant for a while. There are a couple on tap, and there's one that I have to reel back in from the subject. It's a really good one, thinks me. Good subject. I think good questions. We've got something wicked cool on tap and I think people will go nuts for it. I don't get that much outlet for my random curiosity and other left brain (right brain? - whatever the weirdo side is - mine's overdeveloped and underused) stuff in my day to day, so coming up with good stuff for GJ is a good way to scratch that itch.

My virtual directeur sportif team is kicking ass in our intra-team contest. I scored 5th in the white road race with Ryder Hesjedal and 5th in M-SR with Bennatti. A few minutes after I picked Matti Breschel for E3 this Saturday, news broke that he won Doors Doors Doors today. Ain't that a bitch, now he's marked for Saturday and I'm boned. Going to have to come through big on Sunday with my G-W pick.

Don't worry, man, I still get asked like every time I race if I'm still a Cat 5. Happens to the best of us. (I heard that the subject of today's picture was asked by another person in the break, quite honestly, "hey, weren't you a Cat 4 last year?" - in case you were wondering.)