1st one for the year

Today it felt like my head was being held underwater for the whole hour. In a hot tub. I had enough air for a few laps then the efforts cost more and more, not on form not on task not on focus-whatever it was I paid for early confidence with a thorough lack of power and instead it became a training ride with race efforts. Not good but it gave me a chance to learn drifting the new bike (2018 Boone 9) with new tires (Challenge Baby Limus for dry courses).
The heat crept up on me, the ice sock on my upper back didn't do all I needed it to, I should've sat in the nearby pond for a half hour before the start. The heat was the antagonist today, as soon as it got me my system went into the survival mode and I tried and tried to cool, not today. It was good to open the account, to give my legs and lungs a taste of the next 4 months. It's here.

Open Space

I went thru one of the most open spaces I think I have ever been today. It had to be 10 miles in any direction before there was a substantial break to the topography, kind of like Kansas but with mountains rimming the expanse. Warm and exposed, quietly hiding in my own space as I passed through. It was beautiful, I felt insignificant, comfortable.

Ready

I'm ready to break dishes, the snap will return and the accelerations will come easy. Ready to go, I know that the season is long and there is still lots to do, giving up a workout so one more wheelset can be readied and one less half finished project to make the prep for important races less stressful.

Obvious

There's an innate beauty in repetition, our OCDs as athletes that keep us on the outside of the doctors office and on the perimeter of everyday life. We operate in plain sight, not hiding just functioning in our own way and ticking off the boxes that come with a set of good efforts. When the good ones are outnumbered by the bad we start to reconsider what we're doing, is a tweak in order? Or, will we come out of this hole better, stronger, wiser for being in it. This comes to mind as summer becomes CX Season. It's here and I'm not sure I've done enough. But if I felt good about it why would I even race? That's the reason we line up, if it was a foregone conclusion the racing would lack every single appealing characteristic.