is anybody here a marine biologist?!

great ride today with grant (orange) and andy (purple). they opted for the typical 45degree clothing (long base layers, knee-warmers, arm-warmers, tights) and i made the bold move to go belgian style, a light base layer, short sleeve jersey, arm-warmers, and bib shorts. when we were going over gravel roads, i felt the ancient chant of "rouuuuubaiiiiiixxxx" from deep within my soul. i am amped for harri-roubaix in 2 weekends, thats for sure.

we were hammerin. what i had planned on being a max 2 hrs with high cadence and recovery after my last study session, wound up turning into 2 hrs and 45 mins, 52 miles, with an avg speed of 18.2mph. thats including significant warm-up and cool down time. like, yoinks scoob! also, for an hour of that, we were averaging 250 watts, crankin over some fast rollers with sharp turns. good times. my legs really didnt feel that fresh but i gave it a little gas here and there to test myself out. i was able to hustle up a few climbs and keep a good rhythm up others. didn't really feel like i could get on top of my gears. i am in the process of adjusting my position on the bike, namely sliding my saddle forward so when my foot is at 9 o'clock my shin is angled more like this \ in towards the rear of the bike and less like this / which is how it looks more like now. actually its somewhere between / and right now. but you get the idea. also i want to drop my bars one spacer down to be more aerodynamic. hopefully it will be easy to get adjusted to quickly.

after making myself a large pasta dinner, the three of us +dana got together to watch "overcoming", a dvd about team csc and their race director, bjarne riis. he is a hardcore dude and seems to run quite the tight ship with his international racers. the more i learn about what these european professional cyclists put themselves through, specifically for the tour de france, the less i wish to race for a big team like that. not that i would have a chance to do so anyways, but my aspiration to do so is certainly waning. i wish cycling was a bigger deal here in the states.

tonight i should finally be able to get a good night's sleep. for some reason my biological alarm clock has been tenacious with insisting i wake at 6:45 every morning. was it the am/pm or the volume? i have been having crazy dreams lately, none of which i am interested in posting here. they are just peculiar and i guess a little definitive of my state of mind. weird how dreams can do that. i have never been one to really believe in the nuances of reading dreams or anything like that, although people i have been close to in the past have been very attached to their dreams and their meanings. in all honesty, i think its silly to use dreams as forecasting or letting them spook you, but i do think that what has happened or is happening to you can have a direct effect on what is going on with nerve firings in your brain. rem (r-something eye movement). all that jazz.

tomorrow will also be the first day in about a week where i don't have to be somewhere at 9am. wow, in saying that, i know i am going to have a rough time adjusting to work at 7:30-8 every weekday for the rest of my life. nar-nar. it is also a drag when wake up early because i usually am awoken by the strong urge to have to go potty. i have been drinking a lot more water, and i guess since i am exercising a lot more my body flushes it out of my system more quickly. its more frustrating than anything else. because you can't go back to sleep when you've gotta go. but when you get up to go, its hard to fall back asleep.

i can see the end of the week and some more races on the horizon. definitely things to look forward to.

current jam: thin line - jurassic 5