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Back in town now, feeling rested from the big trip and have a few races in the legs. The first races this yr have felt... better than normal. Saying the first race of year is a shock to the systems would be a huge understatement. But this year despite a very tough field at wells ave last weekend the legs handled the stop and go chaos of a bike race rather well. I can only imagine that this is due to the changes I made in my training. The changes of... ohh, sorry, the secret training can’t be reviled in detail. There is always the factor that it’s another year. Another year of races, adaptation, more training, more endurance, being smarter, but still. 3 races so far and I feel I am ahead from last year. So I am pretty happy. Most of all I am happy with the fact that I am racing again after a long winter and still loving everything there is to the sport. I have seen many athletes fight there way to the top but during there battle they forgot what they were fighting for. I was one of them. You start saying things like, "I have to do those intervals this afternoon." with a sigh, a frown and monotone. Rather than," yo! are you training this after noon? what are you doin? Because I am doing that killer interval workout and need some company to remind me what my name is after I sweat off 3 lb's of water!" almost yelling, and hands flailing like an angry Italian mother. I guess I am saying is its important to remember why we do the sports and activities we do. We don't need to understand why we do them, or feel the way we do about them. But as long as we still fell "that way" after the intervals we'll be doing the sports we love for a long time. And that's what it takes. Longevity. Back to the races. Johncake training race. I started a move which looked real good. After 7 miles or so the "pack" came back (only 30 strong now from 60). which set up the break of the race to go. Joe moody shot out of the pack to connect with Robbie King formally kenda/raleigh teammate. And they were gone. Only 10 miles into the 63 mile race they continued to put time in on the chase for the rest of the race. Joe in the end settled for second but a great showing for the team and for 140! Marblehead was, as expected, a barnburner. Fast from the gun and it never really let up. Even if it did there is a false flat with a cross wind, a 180 degree turn to sprint out of and 30 mile per hour head wind section and a 8% 30 second hill to put the nail in your legs. Throw in a few strong teams, big Mark attacking and you've got 90 minutes of pure hell. I felt good trying to bridge to the break following one of Marks attacks and patrolling the front for much of the race. In the end it was to much as the last 8 miles came I was unable to move up and relegated my self to the back. It was now Eric's job (my teammate) to see what he could do at the finish. 7th! And we were all pretty happy. Improvements to be made, yes, but 7th was a good result for a team with no pure sprinter. Back to some training. thanks for checking in.