Monday, September 12, 2011

Last Day Of Summer?

We hit 86 degrees today in West Bend and you had better believe I hopped on the bike after work.  Today should have been a rest day but I couldn’t say no to the warmth and sunshine.  I could lament the high winds, but without them bringing heat from the southwest this would have been a very different day.  Tomorrow will be a very different day: the wind will shift to the northwest and we probably won’t hit 70.  On Wednesday and Thursday we will be lucky to hit 60!

Autumn is cyclocross season and if I am going to race then I had better learn how to dismount and remount quickly for barriers and run-ups.  Today when the high winds started to frustrate me, I ducked into Sandy Knoll County Park and practiced my dismount/remount technique.  I worried that I wouldn’t be able to unclip on the left side after swinging my right leg around the back of the bike, but the dismount really wasn’t too hard.  My remount, however, needs some work!  I didn’t expect to look graceful, so today I found a grassy field at the northern end of the park where I would not be observed.  I never fell over, and that’s about the extent of the good news.  I think I need to slow it down—to walk before I try to run, literally.

Autumn is also football season but with each passing year I care less about that.  I can’t tell you the last time I watched a football game—college or pro—in its entirety.  Later in the season when I get back on the bike trainer I will watch a little football while I spin, but it will be no different than hockey, boxing or college basketball: just a distraction.  I have given my soul to cycling and that was never more obvious than on Sunday, when I frittered away the early part of the day until the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal webcast began.  Then I watched with rapt attention one of the least important and least interesting races of the pro calendar.  That’s how sick I am.

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