How to take a break.

I had been trying to get into a decent form, however family always comes first. So, after the Tysons Corner Circuit, I left on vacation with my family to China for three weeks. I didn't get on a bike the whole time and gained about 10 pounds from eating three to sometimes 4 meals a day. My body is totally out of whack now as I am trying to acclimate to the time difference. There's nothing like going being 12 hours difference. You're supposed to be sleeping when you're supposed to be totally awake half way around the world.

Well, China....I'll have some pictures to post later on.
The air in China was very polluted. Many of the days, all we could see was a layer of smog. Of course the fog/light rain/humidity didn't help either.

So, I'm finally back from China after a 34 hour trip back from Shanghai to Beijing, to JFK Airport to a family friend's house on Long Island, then drive back to DC.

The weather here seems to be looking really good for a ride this weekend, however, other family things are scheduled including two dinners with the wife for fund raising activities and of course other children's activities. I hope to get out for a long ride one of the days this weekend. Of course, I'll be suffering from three weeks off of the bike and from breathing in polluted air in China. Not to mention that many of the men there smoke heavily. It really amazed me to see how many people smoked in China. By the way.. their economy is growing at 8% or more. They are now the largest market for automobiles. It seems like Volkswagon, Saab, and BMW are doing decently there. Of course Honda and Toyota are plentiful as they have joint ventures there. I saw a few Buicks and one or two Fords there. It doesn't bode well for the American car companies. Chrysler, Pontiac, and Chevy were missing in action. By the way, if you go there, I don't recommend driving as it's crazy to understand how to navigate traffic. Everyone in the large cities just drive around 25-30 miles an hour, disregarding traffic lanes, traffic lights, even the police officers directing traffic. Pedestrians do not have right of way and many times are trapped between the flow of traffic with only a foot of clearance beteen them and the other cars, busses, trucks, scooters, bikes, motorcycles. They seem to have a death wish. Cars, bikes, many times drive on the opposite side of the road to try to pass, even when there are cars coming the opposite direction. I would not recommmend riding a bike there for fun (training), as you'll never get enough speed going and you risk always getting cut off. I actually saw a few riders (in their kits and helmets) riding on the highway of all places. I guess that's when you can really get a good training session going, however dangerous it is being passed by trucks, buses and moto scooters.

My family had a good time there and was definitely an experience. I'll blog more about the trip later on.

I'm glad to be back in the US again, cleaner air, more space and I can ride my bike again. China definetly is not a Communist society anymore, they are so much like the US as they totally understand capitalism. Money, investments, productivity, selling and buying goods and services, REAL ESTATE, are all very much alive and well there. I think the only thing keeping them a socialist economy is the fact that they still need to support all of their people in the more rural areas who don't have access to money as easily as the population in the major cities. The other thing is the one child per couple law... They understand that it is necessary to prevent over population, however deep in their heart they want to have the freedom of choice of having more if they can afford it. The rich do have that ability as they can go out side of the country to have their births which don't count against them. Anyway, their country is continuing to grow even in the world ression and they actually said that they believe they've seen the bottom and are now going to trend upwards again. Good for them as hopefully this can help the US economy more (even if it is indirectly through global trade)

TTFN.

You got Dropped, Tour of Walkersville.

Yep... I saw Lance Lacy this morning and laughed about the You got Dropped blog. Well, I was looking for a photographer, to give him the thumbs up sign to say I was Lance today. That's all I could think about chuckling as I got dropped only because my head wasn't in it. I was the Lantern Rouge for the 4th and 5th lap. I was getting cramps in my right side and had no power to move forward. The wind was my enemy! All I could think about was, why am I not protected within the pack. I guess after the crash by a Coppi rider, I had to sprint to catch back on to the back. That was after I already made a substantia effort to close down the gap on the two riders ahead. My fingers were cramping... I've got to reposition my brake hoods I think as it happens every once in a while. Being in the back (traded positions with Rayman this weekend), I suffered even more as I couldn't find a draft and I was constantly trying to close a gap caused by others. One of my fellow riders made an impressive move closing a gap which I could not close. I have to thank him!... however it wasn't any good for me as my head wasn't in the race because of the wind. I was pingged at 203bpm on my heart rate monitor... That's my max heartrate and recently I haven't ever gotten that high, so I was toast. I eased up and let the pack ride away knowing that I would be cutting it short to go home and pack for my vacation and to attend a big dinner for a family friend who turned 90 today. Well, maybe I'll see my picture on the You Got Dropped blog.. It will be funny. See you tomorrow at Tysons and I hope I'll be able to do something.

The worst part of this... I got dropped by a bunch of 50+ racers. They are definitely hardcore. I guess not riding except once this week is a good excuse.. Maybe I'll have to ride with the Trasher ride again.