race prep

racing is life. anything before or after is just waiting

as the first race day of 2008 approaches how am i spending my waiting time?

there is that awkward portfolio thing i need to finish for work. but my university email isn't working so i'm not going to engage with them as a mark of protest. i've always found that last minute is more than enough time for the university types. though i was flattered to be asked to consider teaching earlier this week even if the thought makes me want to carve out my own eyes. and who in their right head would put me in front of a group of students after all these years? it was bad enough first time round when they had minders in the room, partly because they too wanted entertainment, but mainly in case i went off on some florid flight of fancy. no, it'll be a gentle retirement for me, something along the lines of larkin's at grass

then there's the shopping. which in cycling terms, and certainly if you and your local bike shop owner are involved in the same races, means extended blethering in the shop. mt shop excelled himself today but abandoning the guy who'd come in to buy some bike or other to engage himself in selling and talking about tyres to me. not unwisely i thought as our chosen surface this weekend should be some sort of ice and mud quicksand liberally dosed with snow and rain with just a hint of gales on the horizon

and then there's the internet. no-one should miss a dose of the ascerbic blogging of bikesnobnyc, especially when he's so right. but we have to face facts, that not everyone likes the cyclists, and maybe, just maybe, some of us are to blame. why haven't the bbc released more monkey dust!!!! mummy,my legs are hot

but what am i actually doing? this fine afternoon? going to work. on my day off. something about being needed. oh god,how did it come to this?