U23 Nationals

What a long summer it has been. I've returned from the desert and am back in Vancouver for a night before heading home for a bit! I was in Bend, OR for a couple of weeks, watching my teammates race the Cascade Classic while I prepared for U23 Nationals. It was definitely tough to watch such a great race without being able to participate, but I just couldn't risk being too tired to win a jersey.

The short version of the road race: 192 km, brutal course, 100+ degree heat, melting pavement. Needless to say, the field of 140 riders was quickly diminishing, and by 60 km there were about 60 guys left. Unfortunately that is when one of them decided to dive inside of my handlebars through a round-a-bout, putting me into the bushes and ending my race. Coincidentally, my teammate Carson crashed on the same corner just 1 lap later. He went down when his front wheel dug into the melting, 130 degree road. His crash eventually ended his racing for the rest of the week, a pretty devastating blow.

The only good thing about the time trial 2 days later is that Pierre from Nike got some good shots for his documentary on the team. He does all of the promotional video work with Nike athletes(i.e. commercials). Other than that, it was a pretty terrible day. It started when I put my disc wheel on and realized that I could only shift into the 13 because my cable/housing was frayed. With only 20 minutes left before my start, I was pretty much freaking out. Fortunately the Shimano mechanic was amazing and was able to replace everything and get it working perfectly in about 10 minutes. Within of first 5 minutes of the race I knew something was wrong when I couldn't control my breathing. I backed off the pace a little bit, but was still completely anaerobic. I eventually came out of the aero bars for extended periods, as my heart rate was so high that I was having pretty bad chest pains. This continued for the rest of the 48 minute time trial, and it was obviously not the ride that I had planned on having as I crossed the line in 17th.

After going over everything in my head a million times and discussing it with my coach, I realized that I had had an anxiety attack. When I race time trials, even local ones, my heart rate averages 196 bpm for the entire race(abnormally high). After placing 2nd in last years TT nationals, I was putting a lot of pressure on myself to better my performance this year. Between that pressure, lots of caffiene, adrenaline, cable problems, and me purposely trying to psyche myself up, my heart was racing. Even when I was out of the aero bars my heart rate was well over 203 bpm, and I started to hyperventilate. I definitely learned something from this race, and now know that being too pumped up can actually be a bad thing for me!

Two days of depression followed my TT performance, but I tried to stay focused on the criterium. I went into the race totally calm, with no expectations for myself and nothing on my mind other than riding in circles. The course was shortened to just 1 km, so I knew that teams like Garmin and Trek-Livestrong would try for a breakaway to lap the field. I attacked with Alex Howes(Garmin), Danny Summerhill(Garmin) and Bjorn Selander(Trek-Livestrong) just 1 lap into the 60 lap race. We quickly gained 10 seconds, at which point Garmin decided to send Summerhill back to the peloton. The three of us worked well together and the gap grew to 25 seconds. At this rate I figured we would lap the field within 30 minutes and then go from there, but that wasn't the case. Our gap ranged from 15-25 seconds throughout the entire race, and we were full gas the whole time. With 3 laps to go it was down to 12 seconds. I took my turn at the front and rotated off just as Selander attacked up the opposite side of the road. Howes jumped on his wheel and I was able to come back as well. We continued to rotate with 2 to go, the gap still at 12 seconds. I pulled off the front and was attacked once again, but this time by Howes. I waited for Selander to come off my wheel and go after him but it didn't happen. Howes had a 10m advantage, and Selander jumped. I got on his wheel, waited 10 seconds, and then made a last effort bid to get across to Howes. With a half lap remaining it was Howes off the front, me 10m behind him, Selander 10m behind me, and the field closing fast. We all rode to the finish completely maxed out, and I just didn't have what it took to bring him back, crossing the line for 2nd.

Don't get me wrong, I was happy with 2nd, but it wasn't what I was there for. I wanted that jersey more than anything, and to come so close for the second year in a row was pretty heart breaking. Following the podium was a 2 hour wait with USADA while I tried to go to the bathroom. When I was finally able to, the guy was pretty shocked at the specific gravity of my urine(they check to make sure it is within an acceptable range for testing). It was the highest he had seen all week, meaning I was the most dehydrated rider out there. I'm not sure how that happened, as I consciously carried a bottle with me at all times and tried to drink as much as possible.

Pierre was at the crit as well, and got some cool video from the race as well as some interviews with us. He will be with us at the Tour of Utah and I'm excited to see the final product.

I'm heading home tomorrow morning before going out to Salt Lake City on the 16th. The best part is that the last stage of Utah is on the 23rd, and I have school beginning on the morning of the 24th. That should be fun!

Phase 3

The Tour of Delta kicked off phase 3 of racing this summer, which also includes the Cascade Classic, U23 Nationals, Tour of Utah, and USPRO. First things first, a quick race report from Delta.

Friday was a rectangular 3k prologue to kick things off. I honestly didn't expect anything going to Delta, as I had to take a full recovery week leading up to it in preparation for nationals. The only real trick to the prologue was the round-a-bout in the middle of the 2nd straight. Fortunately, Evan realized that it was low enough to bunny hop straight over as opposed to trying to swing around it in the aero bars at 35 mph. Pretty uneventful other than that, and finished up in 8th place 6 seconds behind the winner Will Routley.

Stage 2 was a fast 4 corner crit on Saturday night. The team covered every move, but nothing seemed to have the horse power to get away. With 12 laps to go I jumped on a move including Dominique Rollin, Zach Bell, and Routley. Those guys were commited and the field was being split to pieces, and I was sure this would be the move. I was shocked when we came back after only 2 laps, and the field began to prepare itself for the famed gamblers prime that comes at the end of this crit each year. With 2 to go, they rang the bell for a 2500 dollar prime. Riders went nuts. Roman and I were towards the front but couldn't find the position to contest the sprint, which went to Andrew Pinfold of the Ouch squad. Focus then shifted to leading out Mike for the sprint, but a crash in the top 20 guys took me, Jim, and Aaron out of the picture. Only Evan was able to help him out, but Mike still managed 4th in the sprint with the rest of us rolling in for same time.

Before the start of the last stage I found out that two of the U23 riders in front of me had been dropped the night before, allowing me to wear the white jersey for the day. Ryan Anderson from KBS, the previoud night's winner, was U23, but he was busy wearing the leaders jersey. The road race started with 4 circuits around town, a ride over to another town, and then 10 circuits there. We were represented in a few breaks in the early circuits but it was all together as we began the ride to the next town. We hit a block 20 mph headwind on one stretch when Evan came over the radio to say, "in 1k we turn right, these cross winds will be the race, move up." It was in his usual stone cold Evan voice, and new it would be serious! I sat about 20th wheel in the middle of the field, and felt like I was in good position. If I could do it again, I would've follwed Aaron through the ditch and up to the very front. We took the right turn and the echelon was about 12 riders, with everyone else in the gutter. Gaps instantly began to open, including one right in front of me. The front group of about 15 guys rolled away, and I settled into a second group of 30, thinking that it might just come back together. The gap remained at about 25 seconds for the next 20 minutes. As we started the 1k climb on the 2nd of the final 10 circuits, Will Routley decided it was time to jump across the gap. Five of us jump on his wheel and dug deep, realizing that this was the only way across. Will kicked again over the top and I came unraveled. I went back to group 2, and everyone sat up. Knowing the race was over, I rode the last 50k for training, eventually losing 10 minutes. Not all was lost though, as Jim, Evan, and Aaron were up there. Jim was off the front in a small group for the majority of those circuits, eventually winning the KOM competition, Evan came in 7th on the stage, and Aaron wound up 10th overall.

I had to keep telling myself that I had just come off an easy week and wasn't meant to be on good form, so that kept me from being too dissapointed in my performace. Now, onto some more exciting topics, the dinners that we ate while in Delta. David's host house was owned by this elderly German couple who were exceedingly nice. The guy used to be a chef somewhere, and wanted to cook dinners for the team every night. I expected the normal pasta, chicken, salad, boring meals. It was anything but. We went downstairs and found a dinner table and dessert table, both fully laid out with everything you could imagine.


The dinners included the greatest chicken ever, salad, potatos, rice, pasta, beans/carrots, pork loin, and a bunch of stuff I can't even remember. One thing that stood out was the fact that the bacon bits for the salad were made of actual bacon that had been diced.


The dessert/accesory table, including cheeses, ice cream, assorted fruit, assorted granola bars, drinks, mixed nuts, assorted cookies, apple pie... amazing.

The drive back from Delta wasn't as good as the dinners. It started with a 1 hour line at the border and ended with a flat tire on the trailer. We didn't know when we flatted or how long we drove on it, and only stopped because some guy in a truck told us. Looks like we could have driven it for at least another hour...


We got back to Paul's hows pretty late but it wasn't too bad. After an easy ride on Monday it was back to training and getting ready for the end of the month. Tuesday's TT workout took me down a flat river road during my threshold efforts, and then all of a sudden dead ended into a big rock pile. I slid into the rocks at 30mph, totally unexpected, but kept it upright. The coolest part was this water fall that was there, with a cool little pool that one guy was swimming in. I'll miss rides like this when I head back to Florida.


We went out to see Bruno on Monday night for Logan's birthday, but stopped off at pizza schmizza for dinner first. There was a bat-mobil there that Jim just could resist...


By the way, Bruno was the funniest movie I've seen in a while. Although, I wouldn't suggest that any homophobes see it, as it is quite graphic. I almost felt awkward walking out of it.

Leslie, Paul's girlfriend, came over on Tuesday night and brought Presly with her. Presly is a 2 yr old great dane that she is currently looking after, and it's apparently larger than a normal great dane. This thing was big enough to ride, and made the Germans look tiny. The first thing Presly did when he arrived was rest his face on my shorts and slime me with his drool, sweet.


Paul and Leslie took us out to Red Robin on Thursday night, as it would be our last night in Vancouver. As much as I miss everyone back in Florida, it was kind of sad to leave my summer home. I definitely couldn't have asked for a better set up, and I really hope I get to see all of them again. Thanks for an awesome summer Paul!

As for now, I'm resting in a Double Tree hotel here in Boise, ID. The Boise Twilight crit starts tonight at 8:30 and should be fast and furious, wish us luck!

Sorry for such a long post, I should really split these up and do more smaller posts, I'll try to keep that in mind...

Recovery, France, and Coaching

After a solid 5 or 6 weeks of traveling and racing, it was finally time for a rest. I came back to Vancouver after that long week in Bend and got some quality couch time in preparation for U23 nationals. After a week of easy riding, however, it seems inevitable that I start to fight off a cold. Like clockwork on my recovery weeks, I woke up halfway through it with a scratchy throat. Seems as though the body knows when its shutting down and allows all sorts of things to go wrong. Either way, I was able to hold it off last time and I'm going at it with the same intensity this time around. Between Zicam, Airborne, gargling salt water, Chloroseptic spray, doubled immune support vitamins, gargling Listerine, and sinus rinsing, I am hopefully doing enough to keep everything suppressed. So far it has gone to plan, training has resumed and symptoms seem to be going away after only 2 days, keep your fingers crossed.

With a ton of extra time on my hands, the Tour couldn't have come at a better time. Unfortunately the stage results don't change after the fourth showing... I am looking forward to Friday though, when we see if Astana can actually work together or if they implode drastically. Just for fun, my top 5 in Paris are: Contador, Kloden, A.Schleck, Evans, Kreuziger. You heard it here first!

In other news, I recently decided to start up a coaching business. After a few inquiries about where my training comes from, I decided it would be worth a shot. My coach, Kyle Mendenhall(formerly Kyle Smith), learned this training format through pros such as Tim Quigley, Jonathan Vaughters, Marty Nothstein, and Trent Klasna. It's evolved slightly over the years, but the basic principles are the same and proven to work. After seeing how well my current clients have responded, I decided to make it available to everyone. I'm hoping I get to work with a variety of athletes, from young racers looking to progress to local riders hoping to crush the next group ride.

That's it for now, up next is the Tour de Delta in Vancouver, Canada from July 10th-12th. Driving up there(8 hrs) on Thursday and racing the 3k prologue Friday evening, should be a blast.

Epic Fail

It is a very small world, and the cycling world is even smaller. When I first started riding at 17 years old I decided, for some reason, to race the junior national championships in Park City, Utah. My dad and I packed up and flew across the country to the Best Western race hotel. In the midst of getting dominated in the races, I met a young guy named Ian who was in the room next to mine. He had won the 13-14 yr old time trial and flatted in the road race, ruining one of his tires. We talked to him and his mom and eventually gave him a tire to race in the crit the next day, which he won. So that was pretty much the end of that and we went about our respective cycling careers.

While scanning some cycling news a while back I noticed the name Ian Boswell listed as a junior Hottubes racer, one of the premier junior programs in the country. I realized that it was the same kid from 4 years ago and it was cool to see that he was still doing well.

Then yesterday here in Bend, Carson mentioned that he was going to see a buddy named Ian that he wanted to sell his power meter to. Turns out that he lives only a few miles away, pretty funny huh? I was interested to see if Ian remember my dad and I from back in Park City so Carson mentioned it when he was over there. Not only did he remember, but he had the tire, now on his brother's bike. I got a kick out of that.

The three of us went out for an easy three hours today and it was interesting to see how our paths have crossed through cycling and mutual friends. Naturally, another topic of conversation was eating and the Boswell challenge. The local mexican eatery, the Taco Stand, held a competition a while back to see who could eat a 3.5 lb burrito the fastest. Ian won with a time of 4 min and 20 sec, and the gauntlet was thrown down for anyone who wanted to attempt the newly named Boswell challenge.

Nearly a dozen people try each week, but only 4 others have been able to finish the burrito in the time limit of 4.5 min. Next to each name is their time and what they were able to accompish after finishing. Ian put down another burrito, a normal bean and cheese one. One person ate a salad and large DIET coke, and a couple people chose to do 10 pull ups. Don't ask me why.

I went into it super confident like I always am about these things. I figured if I could eat half a cow and some sides like I did the other week, I could do this no problem. Turned out to be quite hard. After the first few bites I realized that the biggest problem wasn't the quantity, but the spicyness. This thing was covered in hot sauce and filled with peppers, making it pretty miserable to eat. I was over 2 lbs into it when I heard 2 minutes remaining, but I was fading fast and I knew it. I had only half a pound left with 30 seconds to go but just couldn't eat anymore spicy burrito. So not only did I have to pay the 9 dollars and 75 cents, but I must live with the shame of failing an eating competition. So dissapointing.

As we left I looked back at the wall of fame and noticed what the record was... 3 min 10 sec. Wow. Even worse, it was a 17 year old girl who also ate the salad and drank the diet coke. What an animal.

Here is a picture from Carson's phone, notice the blazing speed of my fork. That was before reality set in...

Heaven on Earth

After arriving in Bend, OR yesterday with Carson and getting in a long ride today, I've realized that this may be the greatest place ever. Granted, I spent 5 hours riding around in circles on the nationals road race course, but it was still amazing. This place claims to have 300 days of sunshine a year, and this week is no exception with a forecast of 75 and sunny every day. Everyone here seems to be an athlete, I must have seen 50 cyclists on the loop today. Not once did I have a car buzz by screaming for me to get off the road, and I even had a truck stop and ask if I needed assistance when I was just adjusting my seat. Bend is truly a mecca for athletes, and Carson might have to kick me out of his house to make me leave.

This is what I wake up to in the morning. The view from the patio outside of my room!


Going back to last week, I forgot to mention the trip that we took to Nike. Being a huge Steve Prefontaine fan, I was psyched to get to see the company that he and Bowerman created. Although, it's much more than a company now, it's pretty much its own city. When we arrived in the Mia Hamm parking lot(each building is named after an athlete, kind of like a theme park...) I noticed a few reserved spaces.


This particular one was in use.


Apparently Jordan is there a lot because he takes an interest in the design of his clothing. He wants to make sure its stuff that he would actually wear.

Norrene gave us a quick tour of the Lance Armstrong section before driving over to the employee store. It's on the other side of the Nike campus and would therefore take days to walk to. Pretty cool that Norrene could get us in though, everything is basically half off. I ended up getting some shorts and running shoes. And for those of you who have seen my retro 991 running shoes that I use for the gym in the winter, they were much needed.

On a totally random note, I found wild roses growing in the middle of the woods the other day. They were as big as my head, it was crazy.


Long hours on the bike for the rest of this week before some much needed rest. I'll spend most of my time here in Bend riding up and down the tt course for nationals until it haunts me in my sleep.

Elkhorn

This weekend Carson, Logan, and I packed up and headed 4 and a half hours southeast to Baker City, OR for the Elkhorn Stage Race. Three days and 4 stages, including 2 hard road races, a tt, and a crit.

Friday's stage 1 road race started with 60 degree weather and gray skies, and it seemed to be getting warmer. After ditching all of my warmers we headed into the mountains, where it became black skies, 48 degrees and pouring rain. It was pretty terrible. Logan and Carson rode on the front for quite a ways and brought back an early break that was 3 minutes up the road, allowing me to attack on the penultimate climb of the day about 45 miles into the race. What was left of the field came back to me as we neared the top and we started descending back into town. Earlier that day when I checked out the race profile I noticed a few small bumps towards the end of the race, but nothing too serious. With about 10 or 15 miles left to race we hit the first roller and I attacked for the win. One guy came with and we had about 15 seconds on the field. The chase group, which was now about 15 riders, was giving it everything to bring us back. We hit another roller, which turned into about a 1 mile climb. Then we hit another one, and then 2 more. At this point I was dying, these climbs were only about 4% gradient but they dragged on forever, and the chase group was still right behind us. On the last rise of the day, or what I hoped was the last, Adrian Hegyvary and 1 other rider came across the gap and the 4 of us began descending to the finish. I was able to time my sprint just right and take the win, with Adrian taking 2nd and the chasers only 6 seconds back!

Stage 2 was the following morning, an 11 mile time trial with false flats and brutal wind. I had the benefit of starting last, with a 1 minute gap behind Hegyvary. I knew that this stage would most likely shape the GC and was ready to go, but unfortunately my legs weren't so ready. Hegyvary was still about a minute up on me at the turnaround, and began to pull away into the strong headwinds on the way back. I crossed the line in 3rd, 35 seconds down on the winner(who lost about 10 minutes the day before so not too big of a deal) and 31 seconds behind Adrian.

The crit that night had no time bonusus and no real chance of getting away on the fast course so my plan was to just sit in and conserve as much as possible. After 55 minutes of cruising around in the top 15 and making no efforts, I decided it wouldn't kill me if I went for it a little bit. I grabbed a premium with 3 laps to go and slotted in behind the Bob's Bicycles leadout. Coming out of the last corner in 4th I was able to start my sprint early and get the win.

Stage 4 of Elkhorn is the queen stage, 103 miles over hard climbs and a mountain top finish on Dooley Mt., an 8 mile climb at 6%. I was ready to get my 31 seconds back. We woke up that morning to black skies and 40 degree rain, awesome. We checked the radar, 32 degrees and snowing on Dooley, super awsome. After wrapping my shoes in plastic and putting on two sets of booties, we headed down to staging. Everyone was in panic mode when we got there, and there were rumors of the stage being canceled. Turns out that the officials were willing to compromise... We would roll out of town neutralized for 2 miles, ride a false flat descent for 7 miles, turn left, and climb Dooley Mt. This sucks, a 17 mile race to try to get back 31 seconds on a strong, fresh rider was going to be tough. To make it even more ridiculous, 2 guys crossed wheels while fighting for position about 5 miles in and took down like half the field. Fortunately I just missed it, but it was frustrating none the less.

We turned onto the climb and Adrian's Hagens Berman squad began setting tempo along with the Bob's Bicycles guys. Only a couple miles in a Bobs riders jumped and nobody cared to follow, so he kept pushing. My mind was set on staying comfortable at the time and getting ready to attack with everything I had to try and get time on Adrian. The tempo being set was hard enough to bring the group down to 10 guys, but the Bob's rider was about 30 seconds up the road. The climb wasn't quite as steep as I expected, and we were riding it at a good clip of about 16 mph. Each time I would try to make a move Adrian was on my wheel ready to go. There was no way to get away without a steeper pitch, he could just draft all the way to the top. The Bobs rider stayed away and I was thouroughly demoralized as I crossed the line in the group for 9th, not even opting to sprint. What made it worse was when I found out that the rider who won started the day 20 seconds behind me in 4th place, and had bumped me down to 3rd overall! I was so consumed in how I would be able to drop Hegyvary that I didn't even realize who was up the road. Obviously I should have just rode on the front to bring him back, but hindsight is always 20/20 right? That's what I get for not paying attention!

I was still really happy with the weekend. Two wins, and 3rd, and a 3rd overall was a great result for the team, especially with only 3 riders and terrible conditions. It could have definitely been worse, trust me! I saw some of the riders in other categories who went down on the slick descents and it was really ugly. Most ended up in the hospital, not fun at all.

I'm back in Portland now for a short time before heading to Bend with Carson. I'll be there all week to recon the U23 nationals courses until I see them in my sleep.

Nature Valley

I am now back in good ol' Vancouver, WA, getting back into my routine and hanging out with the Germans.

The trip to the twin cities was a good one for our young team and not only did we mix it up with the best but we put them under pressure as well. Mike Northey's day long break away on stage 5 put him into the virtual leaders jersey until only a few miles to go. It was great to see our guys making Ouch and Bissell just a bit nervous. Mike did get 3rd on the day and took the lead in the best young riders classification with me sitting 2nd at 7 seconds back. It was an ideal situation going into the final days criterium and the team was motivated to keep us at the front and out of trouble in order to protect our GC spots. This was easier said that done on the infamous Stillwater course.

It's a 20 lap race on a 2 km circuit with a 200 m climb up to the finish that averages 18% and tops out at 22%. The field splits instantly almost every year, and the officials even said that if you could make it just 5 laps, even off the back, that they would pull you but still give you a finishing time. Guys were lined up at the start 30 minutes before hand, but fortunately the top 25 GC riders were getting call ups. I got in a good warmup and Mike and I started right up front for the first sprint up the hill(they make us start at the bottom of it even though the finish is at the top). The rest of our guys rode like animals and before long we had the entire team up at the front. Everything was going to plan until a crash about 4 laps into the race. Three riders went down directly in front of me and I had nowhere to go but into them. Before I could even look at my bike I had my teammate Carson by my side ready to swap wheels so that I could get back to the pit. My equipment turned out to be fine, but Carson sacrificing his own race showed me just how much the guys on this team will sacrifice for each other. A quick free lap and I was back in the mix and feeling pretty good. Mike was looking good as well, but unfortunately so was our biggest rival, Scott Stewart, only 11 seconds down on the young rider GC. With Jim off in a break with Floyd Landis we just tried to conserve as much as possible and wait for the inevitable bombshell that Rory Sutherland was bound to drop in his bid for the overall win.

That bombshell was dropped with 3 to go when Ouch went to the front and decided to rip everything apart. The diminished field of about 35 guys quickly turned into multiple groups of 3 and 4 just trying to make it to the line. Unfortunately Mike had been gapped and Scott was still looking strong, and I knew I couldn't let him get more than 4 seconds ahead. With 2 to go I found myself maxed out on the hill and losing ground to the leaders, but Scott was in difficulty as well. As fate would have it I ended up in a group that included me, Scott, and his teammate Stevie Cullinan. Fantastic. He began attacking straight away but I was able to stay right on his wheel. I was relieved as I crested the hill with 1 to go when I found that only Stevie was with me and Scott was quite a ways back. All I was doing on that last lap was trying to somehow will Mike to keep pushing to finish within 11 seconds of Scott and hold on to 2nd place. It was desparately close but Mike crossed the line 9 seconds too late and slotted into 3rd. But hey, 1st and 3rd on the young riders GC is great with the amount of talent that was there.

Here is a good video I found of Sunday's race. There were like a million people on that hill so I figured one of them would have a camera. This is probably late in the race because the field is pretty small. You can see me come by about 13 seconds in!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3ERyCWHoq0&NR=1

The final podium:


We loaded up before 5 AM the next morning to fly to Denver and then eventually to Portland. The flight to Denver was quite a trip... I had a baby sitting next to me on my left, 2 babies across the aisle on my right, and 1 baby across the aisle on my right but 1 row up. It was terrible. The lady sitting next to me was about 25 years old and not shy about tell me her life story. She was diagnosed with cervical cancer and told she would never have children. Then she went into labor. She didn't get any bigger during pregnancy than she already was(which was pretty big) and had no idea she was pregnant until LABOR! Unbelievable. Then the baby crapped itself. That was just fantastic, because guess who had to hold the dirty diaper as she was changed on the tray table. The father was not in the picture and she seemed to be a complete mess. I heard about every detail, I promise. The two girls to my right weren't too bad until one of them decided that she had to be on the ground, like right now. We were taking off and the mom couldn't let her out of the seat. Well, that just wasn't an option... You know what was an option? Kicking, screaming, and squirming down onto the floor in order to lay face down in the aisle. The battle ensued for about 20 minutes until Elmo showed up in book form and the child forgot what she was crying about.

I did make it back in one piece though, and am getting ready for the Elkhorn stage race on Friday. This last trip was great, except for 2 goals that weren't met. I didn't get a Cheesesteak in Philly, and I didn't get to go to the Mall of America. Both were devastating.