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I'm back.  Had a quick impromptu trip back up to CT with my brother.  He's been staying with us here in Charlotte and has decided to extend his stay (which we are excited about) so we flew up to get his car.

When did they start serving peanuts on planes again??  Maybe it's just some airlines, but for the past few years I haven't seen peanuts as an option.  We flew Delta, and the peanuts were back!!  All I was missing was a pair of plastic wings!!

We had a layover in Cincinnati and man was it cold as we exited the plane!!  I haven't felt that kinda cold in a long ass time!!  We got into CT, slept, packed up the car and headed out the next day.  I drove the whole way, but it was a quick drive as traffic was just amazingly awesome.

Yesterday was a bit of a recoup day from the travels, so today I'll be back on the trainer hammering away.

Last week's race was a bit of a suck-fest for me.  I wasn't feeling the greatest when I got up in the morning, but the race format and proximity of the course made it an impossibility for me to skip, so I raced.  The course stood up fine to all the rain we had had... but the grass section was a different story.  It was a soggy mess that just sucked all energy from your wheels.  But, I can't complain, all riders faced the same conditions.  My physical condition was just shot and my performance showed it for sure.

In the first race Annie had mentioned how good I looked throughout the race... this past week she noted that you could definitely tell I was suffering.  Yeah....

Well, for all the suffering got some good pictures to show for it.

These first three are from a photographer that I saw posted up on the course.  I saw he had picked some pretty neat spots so I was curious as to what the outcome would be.  Luckily, he posted his pictures up on the local forum.

And then I was lucky enough to have a little extra cheering out there from the Mutt.  It helps to hear some positives (or even some friendly heckling) while you are out there "enjoying" the race.

Already feeling the hurt

coming back to the start/finish - time to pick it up!

courtesy of team B-43

Annie's shot - looks like I have a Ray Allen snarl going on.

This week I only hit the jump twice, as opposed to hitting it every lap but one the first week.  The first jump was when I saw Chris (Mutt) out there taking pictures.  And the next lap (or the lap after that) Annie was there to capture it.
























































So, we'll see how this week goes... I suppose it can't get any worse (fingers crossed).