Where is spring? It wasn't anywhere to be found on the ride in to work this morning. Temperatures were hovering around freezing and I was riding into a strong headwind the entire way. Because of the wind, I did a lot of spinning, which is good for this time of the week. Right now, I think I'll be riding in tomorrow and Friday since the race is Sunday. Saturday I'm planning on doing a short spin around the Jeff Cup course.

I'm getting pretty good sleep lately it seems, but I'm not as perky as I'd like to be during the day. I've been getting tired before 9p and then slowly retreating to bed
by 10p, waking up at 6a. That's eight hours of sleep, which is about the most I can hope for. People keep saying I look tired all the time, so it makes me worry I'm training too much, but I think it's just because riding makes the area around my eyes look so puffed up and tired.

I woke up this morning from a rather odd dream. I was racing in a stage race and doing really well. But when it came time to start the next stage, I couldn't find the right shoes. I had several pairs of cycling shoes, but none with the right cleats and as I was scrambling around desperately trying to find the right pair, the race left without me. Thankfully, that's when I woke up.

On the ride home, Will joined me and we took full advantage of the tailwind to really crank. We didn't take kindly to a guy riding out in front, so we dusted him and never looked back. I had the idea to get in some intervals, so we tried to do some of that starting just after Herndon. The first interval was four minutes on and then two minutes off. We intended to repeat that, but too many intersections made us wait for the Powerhouse. During the four minute interval, we traded the lead by feel and kept the pace very high. During the next segment, we rode at a high pace, switching the lead every thirty seconds. We hope this will be good practice for a killer breakaway in a race.

After Will turned around at the Community Center just past the Depot, I chilled out and rode easier, but the tailwind ensured that the pace wouldn't suffer. Just check the average speeds from my two commutes today. I felt very strong in the PM and enjoyed being on my bike. Days like today are terrific.

Looking ahead to Sunday . . . from the startlist, the only people I recognize as strong riders are Ken Young, who won a Quicksilver, the Southside Speedway Crit, and the President's Crit at UMD, and Blake Walker, who trains on the UVA cycling team and rides with Owen Hassig, one of Coppi's former juniors. I'm sure a few more of the collegiate entries have the potential to be strong, so I'll be eyeing them during the race. With the field only being fifty, I'm sure I'll be on or at the front the entire race.

Dist / Time / Avg / Max / Odo
23.59 / 1:29:23 / 15.8 / 30.6 / 454.6
24.22 / 1:14:38 / 19.4 / 32.5 / 508.9