Did not qualify in the single. Started down on everyone else and slowly pulled back the field. With about 250 meters to go and what looked to be a dead heat, I decided to quit. It honestly took me 2 seconds to make that decision. By quitting I mean I did not burry myself cause I had other races in the afternoon that were more important to me AND AND AND, it was a VERY painful race, I had forgotten on how painful the singles could be…

So from my point of view I was in 4th the whole way, but I was actually in a qualifying spot (3rd). So the last 10 strokes I eased up and still lost the spot by only 0.5 second… I guess the other dude had a meltdown too.

Most of the races were kinda lame as there was very little competition. So 3 national titles sounds a bit pompus to me. BUT the last race of the meet was an actual racer and i will take that title to the grave. We actually had to work very hard for it, plus there was a trophy on the line, so the whole 9 yards… a full field, etc etc… We won and won pretty good, beating some big east coast boys.

All in all a good weekend. I am sorry I missed Brentwood, but I am done with crits this year.

In the morning I met with a buddy from rowing that is trying his luck in triathlons. This guy shows up with a britney spears type active top and two water bottles… We decided to ride instead of row – all boats are on the trailer on the way to nationals.

I took the TT bike down because it is TT season and I need to get the hamstrings ready. I played with the guy a little bit, but we had to keep it cool, no shooting any wads before friday

In the afternoon I met the team in training gang and once again I was on the TT bike. It was a pretty good workout. The back is starting to feel really good and things might start to come together. Average speed was 24mph including one full lap of cool down, so pretty quick. I know, I need at least 4 more clicks on the speedo or else I will be murdered come september.

Anyway, I have started working on the TT bike and that was the point of going out today. I need to save the matches for friday racing and that will be it until Fiesta Island Time Trial, I honestly can’t wait for that.

As I am sitting here writing this I am looking at the womens synchronized diving and I have decided that I need to look like them to be a really good cyclist… I promise to work on it…

I hate that course, so freaking narrow, windy and always disorganized. Well, today they got their shit together.

Left SD at 6am, got there with plenty of time to rig the boats, warm-up stretch and hit the water for a good row. First race of the day was the pair. My buddy has been looking forward to this race for a very long time. We had a pretty perfect race and ended up winning by 20 seconds, which was nice.

Second race of the day was the double. I rowed against my buddy in the pair. He is a lightweight (165lbs…., thats right, 165lbs is lightweight in rowing… that is borderline overweight in cycling, oh well). So I rowed against him with Wheeler… We have been rowing really well together and we were certain we would win this race, no way we could loose… well we did to the lightweights… bastards… lost by 0.4 seconds… but we lost. I was dying after this race.

Third race was in a Quad. I had cotton mouth on the way to the start line I was so dehydrated. The sun was roasting us out there on the water. We ended up getting third. Expected as we had never EVER rowed together and the quad it is imperative that you row together for months if you are thinking of winning. Too much can go wrong and some things did.

Fourth race was Masters 8+. We sucked. 3rd again and I blame some of the guys in the boat. Just not in shape enough.. enough said.

Fifth race was the Open 8+. We had a mix of college guys and we absolutely killed everyone. We beat the guys we lost too 3 months ago and the olympic boat AGAIN. I am not sure what they are doing, these guys are the REAL deal and they keep messign up.

Anyways, I got soem really good photos of my tan line.. scared to put the up…Mixed weekend.

I am glad it is over though. Some rest on the horizon and that itself made me feel much better already.

Wednesday I go home for vacation. CANT wait. I will be writing about the mountain bike out there… good days to come!