I was planning on driving to California. Mainly to take Bromont. Plus, I like to drive. Plus, I hate packing all my stuff up to fly to a stage race. But, I ran out of time and the weather sucks here in Kansas, so I bought a plane ticket and am flying at 1 pm. Get to San Diego at 3 pm. Riding on the Coast Hwy. by 4 or so. Can’t beat that.

I lost my phone in the sofa cushions for way too long yesterday. I can’t believe how dependent I’ve become on that stupid thing. Especially when I’m getting ready to leave on a trip. I have to find a better way to locate it.

Stayed up way too late watching basketball. The KU game was good. A smear. Which is good. The Ohio State/Kentucky game was great. Last second shot by Kentucky wins it. Then the VCU/Florida State game came down to the last shot in overtime. Great game. If VCU plays like they did tonight on Sunday, they are going to be creamed by Kansas. That is if Kansas plays like they have in any of the past three games. Ohio State being put out doesn’t depress me much. North Carolina looks pretty good, which is a drag. It’s collegiate basketball. Pretty exciting. Should be fun again Sunday.

I’m going to train right through Redland’s. I can’t be resting up for a race that I have little chance for success in. We’ll see though. Maybe I’ll have a miraculous plateau leap and feel great next week. They have been burning here pretty consistently this past week. That could be most of my problem. I hope at least.

I’m putting two bikes into one bag. Catherine is flying out late on Wednesday night before the TT early Thursday. She has a work thing until Wednesday afternoon. The TT is pretty hard. 5km pretty straight up. At least most of the way. Right now I have no climbing legs. At least I didn’t last weekend in Arkansas. Maybe after climbing Mt. Soledad a dozen times or so the next few days, I’ll be alright.

Okay. Back to packing and the E3-Prijs.

I kind of hate flying nowadays. I really love it, but also hate it at the same time. Southwest is the easiest airline to fly. You can get to the airport way less than an hour before, in KC and still normally have 30 minutes to spare. It’s not quite like the good old days, but it’s not stupid like LA or Chicago. I miss Bromont all ready.

I had to pay for my bike, which $50 seems like a deal now. Somehow I have no toiletries. I had a couple FSA cards in my bags, but can’t imagine them stealing them. I called Kris at home and he say there is nothing there, so it must of been taken by security. Not sure what they would of gotten in that bag.

It’s always busy here. I barely got on the ground yesterday afternoon and it had already started. Sue had gotten tickets to the Banff Adventure Festival Films in Encinitas. I put my bike together in a hurry and rode the hour up the coast and met her. The films were great, as always. If you have never had a chance to see the traveling Banff show, they you should make a point of trying to get to it. My favorite film was of this speed climber, Ueli Steck. He free climbed the Eiger in 2 hour 47 minutes. After watching the film, I don’t think he is going to have a very long life.

Okay. Nice finish by Tom Boonen today in Belgium. Should make for an interesting next two weekends. KU basketball in a couple hours. Kind of gets in the way of bike riding today, but you have to have priorities, right?

Alex and Uli speed climbing The Nose on 5.20.10 from Chris Falkenstein on Vimeo.

Here’s a little Sunday morning entertainment – Alex Honnold and Ueli Steck speed climbing The Nose of El Capitan.