бутылки воды

- So, no sooner due I write the post immediately below, than I fail to take my own advice and chew out idiots on the Capital Crescent and other multi-use trails. I'm riding down to the Friday Muffin Ride at about 5:50 AM, and I pass this couple who were jogging. No big deal. The trail is just about empty, so I'm cruising, doing around 25. It's a slight downhill false flat, so this is recovery pace for me, wattage-wise. About 75 yards up the trail, I notice a huge golden retriever running alongside the trail. Just then I hear the woman jogger call the dog and whistle. The dog turns, runs into the trail, sees me, and freezes. I lock up the brakes and skid to a stop, sideways. Pretty nifty on a road bike, with me riding in the drops on 700x23 tires. I hear the woman hollering up in a plaintive voice, "Oh, I'm so sorry. Oh I'm so sorry." The first thought through my mind is that if I'd hit the dog, I'd be laying there with a broken leg or worse, the dog would be dying, and she'd be on me, probably kicking me in the broken leg and screaming at me about the dog. I kind of turned around and made this really loud growling sort of noise back at her, but then went on. I figured if I stayed this was only going to end in a fistfight with the boyfriend and I didn't want that. So I didn't stop to correct the situation. Thing is, I think they may take a warning from that. Of course if they didn't, it's the Cap Crescent, and I'll see them again. When I do, if the dog is still off the leash, I'm unclipping and taking a good hard kick as I go by. Whether it's the dog, or the joggers that I kick, I haven't decided yet. But I'm leaning toward the joggers.

- Team dinner for the Coppis and prospective Coppis at Listranis tomorrow. It's the Listranis in Arlington, at 2317 Wilson Boulevard, 7:00 PM. The new kit is in so if you bought some, go get it.

- Had a nice tempo ride yesterday with the local bike shop, Family Bikes. The fitness is definitely coming but I had to burn way too many matches on the hills. We were keeping up a steady 17-18 on some of these hills I normally spin up at 12-14... Jonathan fortunately made a kinder, gentler call on the route and we headed back on sort of flat ground, rather than attempting to set the land speed record down Old Herald Harbor Road, and the Reverse Land Speed Record - that's where you see how slow I can go - going back up River Road. The paceline work was really easy, including covering Jon on a long attack then taking a pull prior to the 'townline sprint' - but the hills were brut-ile. For you power geeks, I finished with a .95 I.F., for non-power geeks that means it was a moderately hard ride for me. Nice, but way too hard for a rest week so I took today off, and have tomorrow as a regularly scheduled rest day.

- It's nice seeing the Giro di Italia under way. I really like they grand tours. They are racing, but not racing. It's clear to me that most of the ride each day isn't truly a race, unless you are going for the sprints or King of the Mountain points, or on a breakaway. The last 50 kilometers or so, that's real racing. When it gets into the serious hills, that's real racing. But, for the most part, for the men who race at this level, they are cruising along at 27 or 30 MPH fairly effortlessly for most of each day, just another day in the office. And that's the intimidating part. It's not how fast they go when the hammer drops, that is simply insane. It is how fast they go when they are just cruising along, which is warp speed. And when you see a guy drop back into the team cars, get a load of water bottles and cruise back into the pack, in a manner that looks almost effortless, you forget that he is car surfing at 35 MPH. Like the ad for the other sport says... These Guys Are Good!