Job at University?/Birthday Monday

Yep, today is my birthday… and to celebrate I have a full day of classes! Great stuff.
I did get an interesting offer from the head of the English Department today though. The University has offered me some lessons there… Giving lessons this is, not getting them.
So, I might be both a student and a teacher at the University in Albi, a bit of a strange situation, but it could be an interesting one. I’m not sure I’ll take the offer, but it is something to think about, and more to the point it is very flattering to be offered something like this. I guess I’m not such a muppet in their eyes as I am in yours! :-)

Now I need to go catch up on all this work I am so behind in… (oups)

Sunday Raceday

I awoke to a wet and cold Sunday morning today. Luckily there was an Elite Open Cyclocross race in Montauban. I say luckily because if it weren’t for a Cyclocross race I wouldn’t have ridden in this weather. It’s strange to see it wet after a few weeks of really nice weather.

So I loaded the CX bike into the car, drove down to Gaillac to pick up my friend Stephane (and ex-tri-athlete) who wanted to come and watch and headed for Montauban.

It was nice to see one of the FFC (French Cycling Federation) officials there who I know. He interviewed us at a race last year and has been looking out for Evolution Cycling and has been really friendly ever since. It was lucky because I had forgotten my Foreign Permission Letter that allows me to race in France, so technically I wasn’t allowed to race. He smoothed things over for me and I headed off to warm up on the trainer.

The race hard. There were some big name there, and some Cyclocross specialists. The guy who won is aiming to be selected for the World Championships, and has finished in the top 20 of all of this year’s National Cup races. Then there were some other names like Azmaker, Estadieu, the usual local ex-pros/big guns.

Seeing as I have had this bad back for the past week, I found that I had asthma warming up and couldn’t get rid of it. I was also on the last line of the starting grid because I haven’t done many of the rounds in the series. As usual they shot off really fast from the gun. The course is boring and mainly all flat. This kind of course really kills me, I catch people up on the technical stuff, but then I suffer on the flats.

Still it was nice to get out there and race. I really felt it in my legs afterwards though. There was another reason other than my back, Asthma and bad start position for me not doing too well (sounds like I am listing off excuses doesn’t it?!) I crossed the line (having sprinted it out with another guy) with a totally flat rear tire.

It’s all good. I need to do a load more CX races to get myself back into shape and force my body to work hard. Sadly there aren’t too many left this year…

Telethon

Saturday: Today is a special day; it is a national fund raising day for charity and medical research. The Village of Cadalen organizes a bike ride that goes around the area and gives out balloons, collects money etc. I did this ride a few years ago, and there were very happy to have me join them… in fact I gather from what people have told me, that they have been talking about it ever since. 2 years ago I didn’t make it as I was racing, last year I was laid up in bed sick… so this year I showed my face. They were once again really happy that I had turned up. It’s a very slow ride, but it’s fun. We stop at every village in the area, the Maire comes out, and they put on coffee and cakes in the village hall. It was a fun group of guys, with lots of joking, and of course the inevitable questions about racing, the season etc etc. Again people where out clearing woods and yards, burdening stuff etc, so the smells were magnificent. In the morning, the smells lingered in the misty morning air, as we plodded through the vineyards, past awakening houses and into sleepy towns. After a thousand coffees, lots of cake, something like 3 hours and 40km I was back home to do some shopping and usual boring life stuff. In the evening there were some things going on in the town hall… there was a demo of country dancing… “YEEEEHAAAA”. My buddy Stephane joined us and we spend the evening drinking wine and shooting the shit over a good meal!

My body works again

Friday: A perfect night’s sleep… now that my back is better I thought I should get back on the bike. So I did an easy ride this morning before going to class, then in the afternoon and spent an hour and half on the Time Trial bike to see how my body felt under a little pressure. It was a nice day out. In was in the 50s. In fact yesterday it was 60 degrees… not back for December!!! People were out cleaning their yards before the winter, and burning wood and weeds, so the air was filled with loads of beautiful smells of all kinds of different wood…

Crack that back Yo…

Thursday: Once again I had a terrible night’s sleep, and didn’t ride at all all day as my back was bad. However I did go to the Doc today who realigned me and my back felt much better from then on. Right after that I spend the afternoon in classes.

Back to pain.

Wednesday:

My back pain is getting so back that I haven’t slept properly for a few days now. I woke up late night with a terrible back pain and asthma attack. I had to get up in the middle of the night and try to crack my back. It’s bugging me so much that I can hardly even eat. I went to classes today without eating breakfast. I will try to sit on the trainer again today, but we’ll see. My Doc appointment is tomorrow, so hopefully from then on I’ll be “back on track” and able to ride properly once more.

Paper days

Sunday and Monday: I stayed in and tried to write a paper… I sat on the trainer in the basement Sunday, but otherwise I spend my time typing.

Monday I was in class all day, and Tuesday I split my time between classes and this paper again. Once more I sat on the trainer in the basement.