Home again. My lady and I finally are home and we were so happy to see our boys. This past week was tough and will never be forgotten, but I won't drag you all through that roller coaster ride of emotions again. Promise. I so appreciate the thoughts by the way. Tremendously helpful my peeps.

I've got to get things started, mainly to provide some focus...on something else. I need to listen to T and myself and just put one foot in front of the other...one pedal stroke before the next. Have some fun and get ready to trade paint with the boys this fall. Parsing through all this mail I have received from friends, so many are asking "..so when are the Wednesday sessions going off? Soon?". HA! Man, champing at the bit, you are. Sweet. I haven't even cleaned my bikes from Belgium! Ha! I need some more of the singletrack action before I can think about 'cross training to be honest. Some of the silent in the woods stuff that got stalled unfortunately this summer given the events. Once I am satiated, I will begin again. One two three hup. One two three hup.

No goals this year. No expectations. Just bliss. OK, I actually do have goals this year: sincerely I want to get Boups to be as fluid as Sven Sven Vantourenhout through the barriers and podium in an Open race and I am going to work AC2 into the ground on intervals so he can crush it in the 3s. Get the Brothers Squire to work it hard in the 45's and make the others hurt a bit. All these guys bleed cross. It makes my hair stand on end to watch these guys get better and better and better. I am also going to bring more new members deeper into the cult of our cross church and clinic them until they see the light. Feel accomplishments and progress in themselves. Dubba and I have been conspiring on this. Yum. More Children of the Changing Leaves need to be baptized.

I need to stretch tires.
I need to re-cable.
I nedeto re-tape.
I need to think cross.
The smiles are coming.

Hup ditty hup ditty hup ditty hup ditty.

Cross is my therapy. In fact, bikes have been responsible for most of the good things in my life and thinking about it brings me to better places. So, being out here in NJ and keeping the head above water these days is made better when I think about cross.

I went for a run in an old haunt of mine yesterday, Tamaques Park in Westfield NJ. Haven't been there since high school it seems. It hasn't changed. I knew there were trails so I went and found them and instantaneously, the only thing I could think of is "WOW! This would be an awesome cross course!"

It is akin to Elk's Lodge in Boulder where we get our training on but better. It's got a WAY better open fields to train in plus a TON of sweet single track that reminded me a LOT of the course we did in Schriek Belgium in January.

So, if you are a crosser in mid NJ and want to grab your buddies together for a little mid week training workout, I'd suggest Tamaques (after you investigate with whom you need to) the allowance of bikes in that back wooded section. It's got a phenomonal start/finish area wide enough for plenty of peeps to line up with plenty of straight aways to pass safely before diving into sweet paths with logs already put in your path to hurdle.

If you all set up a course in there Jersey-ite crossers, send some pics! I'd love to see how this turns out.