Nationals...Rest and Freaking Out

I must admit that I'm not a big fan of having 2 days "off" between races. It gives me too much time to over think things and freak out. Of course, it does not help when fellow racers are freaking out around me. One of the things I learned at the TT last Friday was that I should warm up with my iPod more often. It prevented me from listening to everyone stress out around me. No one's anxieties could play with my head. It was a great barrier. I'm thinking that I should listen to my iPod when I'm outside here accessing the internet. Enough people have seen me out here enough times that they now come up and talk to me. Usually, that's a good thing. Many of the people here are nice and as normal as cyclists can be I guess. But, every once in awhile, if we talk for more than a couple of minutes, their anxieties come out. The conversation turns to the 19% grades on the road race course and trips to Pittsburgh to get a cassette with a 29 on it. Or the previous results of competitors come up. This happened big time today. One guy managed to freak me out enough about the road race that I had to call Bob and verify/hear that it was not in fact a good idea to spend ~$600 to get a 29 on my bike. Yes, $600 with new rear derailleur, cassette and chain. For one race? I don't think so. That's over the top, even for me. Besides, the only thing a 29 would do is get me home. Unless it's Mt. Washington or something, races aren't won in a 29. Even if you disagree, humor me for now and then feel free to argue all you want AFTER my race on Wednesday. :)

There's not much going on here in Somerset. My friend Curt tried to Google something for me to do today, but found nothing. The only thing listed under things to do in Somerset was to visit the Flight 93 memorial which at this point I think is merely an office space on Main Street. Yeah. The closest movie theater is a 40 minute drive which wouldn't be too bad, but none of them are playing Sicko. I watched Oceans 12 on my laptop today. Is Oceans 13 out yet? I had a nice ride this morning and the legs are feeling good. My hip seems to be OK. It was bothering me on the road race course on Saturday, but Sunday's crit hardly stressed it. In fact, I think it loosened it up. So, maybe there is a silver lining to that "race." Ah, who am I kidding, I'm still annoyed. I'm increasingly becoming annoyed with myself. If ever I find myself in that situation again, I'm just going to keep attacking until I win or I blow up. As Julie , the Terry team director, said, you can't win if you're not willing to lose.

So, tomorrow is another "day off" but I will go out and get a good ride in in the morning. I'm not sure what I will do to entertain myself tomorrow afternoon, but I'm thinking of taking the camera to document some of the oddities around here. Oh, and one sign that just really seems odd to me is the Speed Limit 14 sign. Why 14? It doesn't even work out to something normal in the metric system. 15 is too fast? I don't get it. See, like I said, too much time to think about things. Of course, it's never about things of relevance or importance. Just stupid things like 14 mph. Oh well. At least I'm on sabbatical so I can't feel guilty about not doing work. :)

Thanks for reading and thanks to everyone for all the kind words and well wishes. I will do my best to give you something to cheer about Wednesday evening.