Bromont has taken after me to a certain extent and ripped his leg open on one of his 2 hour outings in the woods. I stitched it up once and did a touch up the next day, but he kept swimming in the lake and licking the stitches out. Yesterday, we finally took him to the vet and the vet wanted to put him under general anesthesia to suture him back up. I’m not so big on that, so got some antibiotics and left. He did have a very good idea of him wearing a t-shirt over his legs so he didn’t lick his wound. Way better than one of those stupid plastic collars. Anyway, I let him go for another couple hour run in the woods and one final swim and last night I stitched up his cut once again. This time I had some super glue to put on the sutures and help close the wound. He was such a good boy. So, no more running in the North Woods for Bromont for the next week or so. That’s gonna drive him nuts. He’s getting an itch to get to a bike race. That is his second favorite weekend activity to running free in the woods. Might have to head down to Chicago for the Glencoe Criterium on Saturday.

Bromont in his new Hayward longsleeve.

Huge gash.

Not my best suturing job, but it will do.

Bromont's new Hayward Athletic Dept. long sleeve.

He is pretty cute after he got back from his leashed walk in the woods.

Okay. I’ve decided to drive to Chicago today and race tomorrow. In the back of my mind, I thought I might go up to Michigan and ride Ore to Shore, but that isn’t happening. For two reasons – I don’t have the fitness for it and I don’t have the mindset to get my equipment ready for it. I don’t do well at a MTB race unless I have everything set up perfect (my opinion of perfect) and my bikes are far from perfect right now. My bike might not be ready to race for awhile with my energy level.

Another reason for heading to Chicago is that it isn’t fair to make Bromont walk in the woods on a leash when he was romping 30+ miles a day before on his own. Oh, and it’s Trudi’s birthday and it is more than right that her family gets to see her for that.

So, the race is going to be a afterthought. At least I’m looking at it that way right now. I’m sure that will change later. It’s not like I am racing the PRO race there. I’d be mildly excited if that was the case, even with my pitiful form.

Next weekend there are some choices of different races. Then we’re going down to Hotter’N Hell in Wichita Falls Texas. It’s a 3 race affair. Two super hot criteriums and a way too early start, long road race. A sleep deprivation race for sure.

I’m thinking about going to the Iowa State Fair next week in Des Moines. Ames is flooded right now and I-35 is closed going South, but State Fairs in the Midwest are a very fun time and should not be missed.

Okay, this has nothing to do with anything, but it bugs me. I bought this book to read on the flight to Europe. I guess I didn’t read the fine print. It wasn’t written by Robert Ludlum. I knew Robert Ludlum died, but must of spaced it out. It seems like false advertising. The book isn’t good. Not even close to the Ludlum Bourne Books. I checked it out on google and there have been 12 books published under the Bourne name since he died. Seems just wrong. Especially since they put the real authors name in such small print.