Scalping Internet in Hood River

(and swatting at mosquitoes - talk about instant kharma I guess but I need some wireless, I really do!)

Anyway, on to the day's post, which is really entitled:

So Far This Week I Have Learned

-More is not always better... 2 chewable mint-flavoured melatonin tablets taken at bedtime are tasty yet evil because such a dosage gave me run-for-your-life nightmares and then made me need naps all day. 1 tablet is plenty.

-Making my own drink mix bottles and marking them "Court - (mix/water/recovery/don't touch)" every day during a stage race when everyone else is using bottles that Lisa makes up for them every night, bottles that she gathers and washes and refills after the stages mind you, means that by day 4 every bottle in the cooler says "Court - (somethingorother)" and thus I have no guarantee of actually getting my desired bottle at the start. Must devise better system, maybe for tomorrow I will start putting "Ivan Dominguez - Rocket Fuel" on my bottles. I like this idea.

-Having a boyfriend who is 6'5" means that if he says he bought black beans and put them on the third shelf in the pantry, and if I cursorily look up at the above-my-5'4"-eye-level 3rd shelf and try to say he didn't, chances are I am wrong and will get a photographic text message advising me thusly upon his return to the apartment!

-If you see Lisa walking around with a big bag of what you expect to be potato chips, be prepared to see green leafy things, instead of yellow crispy things, getting shoved from said bag into her mouth. She's chomping on spinach.

-Likelihood of me liking the Cyclingnews or Velonews photos with me in them is inversely proportional to amount of time I spend feeling like I look photogenic during the race, or to the amount of times I see people taking photos in my general direction, or to the amount of times I check these websites for flattering photos... More bluntly, likelihood of me liking photographic representations of myself on the internet is pretty darn low. So I am not hyperlinking to the latest examples. I'll let you do the legwork ;)

-Incidentally, two years ago when I came to this race, I got on Cyclingnews! Here I am in all my mustard-yellow and forest green finery, at my first ever Cat. 2 race. Oh my.

So far, today's 18 mile TT has been my favourite stage of this race. With a fairly reliable headwind (since we were heading west along the river the whole time, and the wind always comes from the west along the river gorge), 2000' of climbing, temperatures in the 90's, and a G.C. position about a half hour down from the leaders, my expectations were low. Rolled around easily for twenty minutes, still a little groggy from my melatonin mistake, started in my little ring and gradually ramped it up, and before I knew it I had a smile on my face and a sensation of speed in my 110 rpm legs. Must have been the whoosh-whoosh sound of my wheels that made me feel fast. Results have not yet been posted but regardless, I am happy with the day.

Now that I have been eaten alive I am going to trudge back over to my host house, take not-2 sleeping aids, and have sweet dreams of tomorrow.