Jess had the day off today, so I rode in to work so she could use her car. I did my best to ride 24 miles without straining myself, but that's neither easy said nor done. I felt mostly strong early on and I'm glad I took yesterday off. The cold weather and lack of light makes for lonely riding in the mornings. But today that was a blessing as I wasn't tempted to hammer anything.

With about six miles remaining to reach work, the skies opened up. I had to stop and put the iPod away and before long I was totally soaked. It was like many of the workouts we did on the track at MIT. All that was missing was Coach Taylor sitting on the side of the road in his Gore-Tex rain gear. Wet cleats made for an intersting scene walking across the marble floors in the lobby, but I was really happy to finally get to a hot shower.

All my clothes were still soaked through at 5p, so I opted to get a ride home from Eric. This was a wise decision not only because riding home in wet clothes would be awful but also because I can rest my legs that much more.

I don't have to make many adjustments to my bike tonight since I've rode to work three times this week. It's been shifting well and the rain today gave it a nice wash. I'll just pull the light off the back of the seatpost, lube the chain, and it'll be ready to ride.

I was thinking about buying some new pedals before tomorrow because I think I'm going to have lots of trouble with mud clogging my Nashbar ATB pedals the way they did in Hagerstown. I decided to save the cash and I'll probably wait till next season, but I'm also trying to decide between the Time ATAC's and Crank Brothers Egg Beaters or Candy. I'm told both of those styles will shed mud extremely well. If anyone knows better between the two, let me know.

Tomorrow is a huge race. It's the second race in the more prestigious MAC series. There are 61 pre-registered for my race and 42 for the elite race. The elite race has several professional riders and even a dude from Belgium. It should be amazing to watch. More importantly, it will be a severe test of my skill. The talent level at this race far exceeds any that I have rode in so far and I'm not sure what kind of goals to set. For a non measureable goal, I'll be happy if I feel as though I've competed. I don't want to come away feeling the way I did after Lilypons where I felt the course man-handled me. Rather I'd like to come away feeling the way I did last week where I didn't lose any spots after the first lap. My place could be horrendous, but I will know whether or not I've competed.