The Aram Chronic: August 2009

Has been a dud.

At least as far as bike racing is concerned, and by association, this blog. Also the advent of twitters and facebooks and all kinds of other distractions really make it a bummer that I haven't written in this space for that long. It actually feels very foreign and strange to be typing up something this freely in this space. Weird, but enjoyable.

Usually after a lapse in writing I try to fill in the gap to make the racing stories more seamless. Well, the last race I did was.......[been a long while]......it was the CBR race in long beach. Might have been the first week of July, which would be my first July in Los Angeles since 2004. The story I've been telling people is this: I had good form going after a nice base and build period in the winter. February rolled around and I was flying. Finished 4th in that crit on February 8th. Then, two days later, that car smashed me up, off the bike for 6 weeks. Unlucky. Somehow though, I rode back into killer form and finished 17th ($450) at the Dana Point NRC. Swell. After that things got awry, at least in hindsight. I didn't know it at the time. The day before San Luis Rey was the Bario Logan Crit. I attacked and attacked, missed the break, tried and tried to bridge to the break, but failed. Money was 20 deep, and 8 were up the road. I was confident in getting 9th out of the group. Followed Chris Demarchi all through the final lap, and he gave me a picture-perfect leadout to easily get first out of the group. I finished 19th. In 200 meters, 10 people passed me. That's never happened to me in a sprint, in any category, in any race. No matter how spent I was. I chalked it up as an anomaly.

Next day was the San Luis Rey RR. Finished 13th I think. Felt swell. Wheel was broken, no sweat. After that it wasn't the same. Sprint legs were absent, even in group rides. Lost the will to ride. External factors contributed as well, but it felt like it was a physical thing. I skipped rose bowls, and morning group rides. Bleh. Raced though. Got my clock cleaned at long beach. Managed to get into one break with Ivan Dominguez and got dropped....out of the breakaway (never happened either)...and was pack fodder at the end. Ouch. Did another LB crit two weeks later, and same thing. Took a week off the bike. No motivation to return.

So that's the story. I really don't know what to pin it on. Too old? No motivation? Amazing girlfriend that I happily spend lots of time with? Did I try to regain form too quickly after the accident? There's really no way to know. For now, though, I'm enjoying the bike and have some semblance of form and might do that final CBR on the first week of September. I'll try to bring the A-game to that one. I did a 180k ride yesterday, felt like mush at the end, but I was happy to get out there. Also, I think I've lost weight since I've let off the training for a bit. Odd. Appetite has gone down considerably.

Ok, I realize this isn't much of an entry, but it'll hopefully get the ball rolling. To anyone who's still reading, thanks for checking up....and some blog-exclusive photos: