Night before the first race of the season

I can't write much because access is limited and I should be lying on a couch or something right now, but tomorrow is the big day. We arrived an hour late and got to our condo at 11:30pm, or 2:30 in the morning according to our internal clocks. I opted to skip dinner and go to bed instead. I guess that worked out ok, although I hardly slept a wink anyway. Not a good start. But I had a great breakfast with some pancakes, which are one of my favorite things so I can't complain. We checked out the expo, and although the merchandise tent seems to have tripled in size, the freebies are pretty much nonexistent. Remember when they used to give away samples of everything? Now they give samples of nothing. It started out cloudy and even a few drops of rain, but once the sun came out it was gorgeous and warm, so very nice way to spend the day.

After registering and some lunch, I just wanted to take my bike out for a quick spin to make sure it was working right. It only took one pedal revolution to know I was in trouble. It sounded like the chain was grinding against something, only it wasn't. It's a problem I had been having only when climbing in my smallest gears, but now it seemed to be happening all the time. I was not happy given that first of all, the race was in 15 hours, and second of all, I had just brought my bike in to get tuned up and you'd think my mechanic would've noticed something wasn't right. It took a closer look to see that the chain was not taut against the chain ring. So I had to ride back to the expo in my normal clothes and my aero helmet, which was a comical sight for sure, and the guy told me that performance wise, since it wasn't skipping, I could get through the race. Well, I didn't want to do it that way, I wanted a smooth ride. So he told me I'd need the new chain and probably a new cassette. But then they had no 10-speed chains left, so I had to ride a mile or 2 down the road to another shop, buy a chain, and come back so they could put it all back together. Not a great way to spend the final hours before the race, but I was surprisingly calm through the whole thing. And my bike hasn't been so smooth in a long time.

For a minute I was trying to think about another race I knew I had some fairly major repairs done last-minute, and wondered if maybe it was a good omen. But then I remembered it was Lake Placid in 2007 when I got my shifters replaced two days before the race, and then I scraped up my new shifter when I flipped over the handlebars halfway through the bike. Let's hope that is not the case for tomorrow.

So maybe now I can relax and get some rest. I really don't know what to expect for tomorrow. I was excited before I left, but now I'm just kind of feeling like although I've improved a lot from where I was in the fall, I'm still just nowhere near good enough yet. Definitely tired of mediocre performances, and I'm afraid that might be all I can do. I guess we'll just have to wait and see. I'd like to remind myself that it's only April, but I'm sick of making stupid excuses. Still just have to do what I can. Now to get in a last bit of food and hopefully finally get some sleep!