Blog catch-up

I shouldn't be blogging right now. There are many other blog posts which have been written but I haven't felt like publishing to the general public. Forgive me for wanting to take the blog in a direction other than a what-am-I-up-to blog...and then finding that everything goes right back to what I'm thinking or doing so I choose not to publish the article. It's the trick of making a semi-personal journal online instead of taking pen to paper like the good ol' days.

Because I can't sleep and I have a whole bunch of other things to get done, I will write, again about racing. Because I'm not publishing the posts previously mentioned, here's a quick summary of what they are all about:

1 - Current Progress of the Great Test Riding. After taking a bunch of bikes out for test rides, I have determined that titanium is the sweetest material known to man for a bike frame. The other half of this is I'd like my dream ti Seven bike, but figuring out if it should be painted or remain unpainted is holding me back from making a decision.

2 - There are numerous posts about how I've been searching for a good project. It was really starting to bug me that I wasn't getting my hands dirty with anything. Well, somehow it came to be - I found it in the form of a whole new life focus & job change, more details forthcoming once it's in place.

3 - Visit with my aunt, uncle and cousins in upstate NY a few weekends ago. Just the absolutely best time with everyone and a true vacation. Was so neat to drive to NY in just a few short hours and magically be there. Still used to things being so far away, but here, everything is always closer than they appear.

4 - Raced weekend before last with the A/B (combined fields) men, 60 total racers, two other women. Took home a $30 prime and a serious race-high from being able to hang with the average 27 mph field, as well as attempting to get in a break, causing the bike to go 35-40 mph for 3/4 of a lap. Fastest race of my life. Finished in the top 1/3rd and enjoyed meeting guy teammates, too. Racing with the men is far more to my liking than the women, even though the women here are very nice from what I've seen so far.

5 - Birthday weekend this past week with uncle and bro. Seriously good time, a little of everything to give them both a great sample of life here near Boston.

6 - Raced tonight with a solid group of fast women. Due to very challenging work/sleep/other schedule lately, decided there would be no way to do the race, but would be best to just watch the men's race. Somehow got talked into it and was very happy to be out there. It's Wed, so did the 6 am training ride this morning for two hours. Also, got to the race with just enough time to change out cassette to proper race wheels. Long story short, it was a fun race where I tried playing near the front while staying safe most of the race and I came in 9th...basically, racing is so much more fun than I ever remember it being in the past, though I'd tell you in the past that it was fun (how could it have been? I was always in the back of the pack suffering like a dog.)

That's all folks!