A wasted weekend in the training/exercising front unless of course you count the workout for my throwing arm. I dog sat my friend’s exceptionally well behaved dog this weekend and spent a great deal of time playing fetch since he absolutely loves it and will play for hours if given the opportunity. My new favorite place is Malcolm X Park; we went there a lot and it was never too crowded so there was plenty of room for me to play with Clay and include a game with myself in seeing how far I could chuck the ball (an the follow up game of how sore I can make my arm from a game of fetch). Anyway, the weekend was amazing with Clay; he went just about every where with me and sat outside on the curb if he wasn’t allowed in.

On Saturday I went out to see my first bike race ever in person and watched the 3/4 and 1/2/3 races at the Quicksilver Winter Solstice Series before helping breakdown the tents and pack everything up. The race was fun to watch as a group of 4 riders broke from the main group within the first few laps and held the gap for the remainder of the race. A second group managed to break away as well though they never caught the lead group it was still exciting to watch. What was probably even better is this morning hearing some of the reports and discussions of race tactics being used by teams and individuals in the race.

(Edit: This picture was taken by Ed Hazelwood and can be found and copies purchased here.)

Unfortunately the Racing Union only had one guy in the race and the way things worked out there was no chance for him to accomplish much after the initial breakaway without the help of teammates but next week there will be two RU racers whom have worked together on multiple occasions and will likely be able to do some damage in the race.

On another note, our official kit order came in last week and I picked up my order at the race. There were unfortunately a number of mistakes with the printing on the jerseys and shorts which our guys spent tremendous amounts of time and energy working on but in the end we’ve decided to keep them since it would take quite a while to get another shipment in. I did really like the color the new kits came out, which was not exactly how they were supposed to since they are brighter and will be more visible in a pack. Also the “hammer man” in the background of the jersey looks awesome and stands out quite a bit more then the previous version. All in all I think I’m very satisfied with the kits, though I didn’t have much input on the changes that were worked on so hard by some of our guys. Oh yeah, another good thing about my kit is that it fits me like a dream; almost as if it was custom made for me. Now I just have to be sure not to gain any weight or I’m screwed.

Sunday I didn’t run like I had planned when I woke up with a sore throat and feeling like general crap. I’m keeping a “close eye” on this latest development but so far it is only getting worse. With my marathon in less then 2 weeks I will be taking whatever drugs and precautions necessary to get over this crud quickly…