woke up at 4.30 thinking weird thoughts, i was up for the day. i kept going over in my head palindromic phrases, one in particular:

a man, a plan, a canal, panama

i don't get it. over and over forward and back, with punctuation, without punctuation, odd. and blue water, on my mind for the 10 minutes i tried to fall back asleep. couldn't do it, fast awake. too cold for the knickers today, i needed full legs and the first lobster paw sighting of the season, cold, dark too. needed the lights and the flasher, it's here. maybe i'll see the octopus' work next week, try to get out and enjoy it, maybe a night ride if the snow melts a bit. not counting on it at this point. bleak thought; winter from now until may. if that's the case we will certainly get out of town more than once for a beach break. mexico in january? mmmmmm that warms me already.

back

cold and snowy return home. no road bike today for the commute, cross machine glided across the ice patches. b was great on the plane, no troubles, he's happy to be home, it must be hard to leave familiar surroundings and get thrown into a new setting. he was ready to be home.

tiles

it seems like a predictable stretch of road, a mosaic of colors and textures that mimic the lines on the faces that mark the sides of the road. or is it the other way around? i like not knowing, the comfort i feel in my knees as i walk past the sculptures, the blur, blend and morph of one to the next, really cool to look back and see it all as one.

number one rolls on, number two is here, he seems quite the charger, not really stepping out of the way as much as making his own. i'm still taking my hits, maybe return a few this weekend, yeah i think it's my turn to throw in a few, no more complacency, time. i like the way it feels, bigger they are... good few days off, break is over seven weeks out, seven weeks to the big one, yeah the time is here. ready?

nonesuch

i was happy to at least check out the race, nothing too bad, i think i would have gone well, not to say i would beat the locals but it would have been a fun course, muddy, fast, and turny, my alley, for sure. the motivation grows to get it back together, season is on when i want it to be. challenge. fast guys here in the mud, good to wind it up and churn, mmmmm butter.

our leader on a mission from god

not to get off on a tangent here but what did the red states do to us? wtf? he heard from god that he should invade? i love religion. the next thing you know we are going to march across europe killing everybody who disagrees with us. oh wait, that was done already, the crusades.

odin

i took my hits over the weekend. it'll come. fresh snow last night, cold trip in today, it's on. tim was faster than all in the b race sunday, no surprise there. the tour did him right. new bike for the next race, yeah, life is good.

lichen

little pre-dinner loop on the flumes last night, pretty good stuff, the legs had just about nothing, was nice to cruise the trails without haste. amazing how much there is to see at slower speeds, texture on rocks, lichen growing where tires can't knock it off. trees losing their leaves onto the trail. simple riding on a simple machine.

relax

i just don't get it sometimes it all works out pretty well and others for the reasons i can't grab it just falls into a whole pile 'o poo. taught a little clinic on saturday with tim and then did the twilight race saturday night, great course, fun, modest field, and really fast stretches. got away in group and let one guy off the front, not thinking he would hold it through the full hour. my mistake. held strong in a group the varied b/t three and five riders for most of the race, knowing there was good money on the line i made sure not to mess it up further. with four to go i started thinking of making deals, asked the other driver in the group if he wanted to pool the cash and he refused, i attacked, easily got away and drilled it for a lap, not much else to do, finished about 10 seconds behind the winner, my mistake. i was relaxed on saturday b/c i was tired from the clinic and the drive (three hours over three passes) sunday i was stressed b/c i had a mechanical warming up and my head just wasn't into it. not relaxed, shit effort with shit legs. bummer. i need to separate the crap from the cream. no relax no good race.

http://news.yahoo.com/sandcastles

castles made of sand. good reading, or maybe boring depending on how much time you have spent building sand castles.