Nationals... Part 0

OK, so I'm here in Pennsylvania for Masters Nationals. I'm not entirely sure what I was thinking (or what I may have been on) when I registered for this. But, whatever the reason, I am here. Sitting outside my hotel room with my laptop, next to the PA turnpike. Lots of diesel. That can't be too great for me. Oh well.

The trip down was uneventful. I highly recommend travelling on the 4th of July. There was no traffic. :) With one stop, it took 7.5 hours to reach scenic Somerset, PA. I have to say that no only do I appreciate the great riding in the Pioneer Valley, I appreciate the relative ease of the driving. I-91 is 65 mph. It slows a little in Springfield and briefly in Hartford but otherwise, it's 65. So nice. New Jersey and Pennsylvania - not so much. Good freaking grief. Oooohh, a town is coming up in 10 miles, we need you to slow to 55 mph NOW. Surprisingly to those who know my driving habits and penchant for getting stopped, I stayed within 10 mph of the speed limit the entire way. For real. I'm saving my speed for tomorrow's TT. Yeah. That's it.

Today was my first full day here in PA. I set out to do some recon, get some groceries and pick up my numbers. I had hoped to pre-ride the TT course, but it's on a highway closed to bicycles. It's illegal to ride on it and we were warned that we would be held accountable to the "fullest extent of the law" should we choose to ignore said law and pre-ride the course. So, I pre-drove the course and it's a highway alright. Long, very gradual uphills, downhills, a little flat... We do a 6k section of the road 4 times. Yup, 3 turn arounds. Yippee. My start time is 13:43 so I won't have to get up too early. :) I did ride my TT bike out on Route 31 which seemed to have similar terrain. I felt pretty darned good and hopefully this race into fitness thing is working (I sure as hell didn't have it at Fitchburg!) Oh, and to add to my day, it poured on me and then I had to clean the bike... that wasn't such a bad thing until the bike fell and landed on the rear derailleur. Owies. I think it's OK. I ran it through the gears and it seems to work. I'll have the Shimano dudes check it out in the AM.

As for the rest of my recon work...groceries... holy crap. I don't think I have enough battery life to get going on this. I wanted skim milk. I go to the dairy case. No skim milk. I ask one of the employees if they have some in the back or something. "We don't carry skim, ma'am." What? At least he didn't call me sir. "No, no we don't have that." OK, but, if you are in search of whole or 2%, you are in for a treat. Whenever you open the door, the cooler moos at you. Yep, the milk "is so fresh, the cows are in the cooler." Just don't ask for skim. I did eventually find skim milk at another grocery store. They even had my favorite Stoneyfield Farm Organic skim milk. :) No Stoneyfield yogurt though. That was a bit disappointing. Can you tell yet that I'm bored? I'm writing about freaking dairy products. I will try to be more entertaining tomorrow. Hopefully I'll have some results to talk about in a favorable fashion. Lots of cyclists at this hotel. A bunch were at the restaurant where I dined as well... They're all so uptight. You'd think this was a national championship or something.