I guess I’m driving up to Des Moines and doing a criterium in front of the Capitol Building at 7 tonight. I was thinking about going to Elk Grove, but I sort of hate the course and you do it two days in a row. Plus, there is a UCI PRO only race going on for 10X the 1/2 prize list, so I wouldn’t be racing the race I want to anyway, so I’m just gonna skip it. (I say that now, but I can always drive there after tonight’s race.)

The East Village Criterium has a pretty good climb in it, so it is a good course for me. I’m not sure how I’m riding. I’ve been doing a bunch of manual labor the last couple days along with riding during the heat.

Yesterday I moved a bunch of concrete and then replaced the brakes on the back axle of my van. I heard a slight noise and thought I should check them out before I travel. One of the pads on the drivers side was metal on metal. I don’t have any idea how I let it get that far along. I need to start keeping a log in each car and note when I do repairs on each. It is confusing.

It’s only 3 1/2 hours up to Des Moines from Topeka. I’ll see who I can drag along.

New brakes look are so nice.

I have no idea how I let these get to this state.

It’s amazing how much you can do in 24 hours. I’ve been out of Topeka for just about that long and it seems like I’ve done a ton. I’ll write about the race tomorrow. I’m kind of in a time crunch today.

I will say that it is very important to show up at each and every race with the right mindset. By this I mean that you need to be able to adapt your mind to whatever your physical ability is going to be that day. That is a very important part of bicycle racing. Yesterday I forgot that and now I have a bad taste.

It’s nice to be out of the hot temperatures. But it is muggy here in Iowa. It rained a ton yesterday morning.

I’m on my way up to Cable to MTB ride for a few days. Bromont is going to be very happy when he realizes the final destination. I’ll post more later.

This is the funnest thing I saw yesterday. I was waiting in drive through at McDonalds for a cone yesterday and the car in front of me let their dog out to pee and the dog jumped onto the roof of their car and started barking. The owner lady said that the dog was so excited he was going to get a cheeseburger he couldn’t stand it. Excellent.