Home and back

Labor Day week I made a trip back to the US – mainly for a family visit but also for a couple of work events.

I was curious how it would feel to be home again. Would it feel as though I’d been gone a long time? Would it feel strange to be in the US again, hearing only English?

Surprisingly, it seemed like I’d been gone maybe 2 weeks – like I had been on a longish trip for work. I guess you can’t undo a lifetime of living in the US in just 2 months.

You can however start to pick up some new habits. Like driving. My wife said I was driving like a German: too fast, too close, and too much on the brakes. I hadn’t consciously noticed this until she pointed it out. 65mph seems very slow when 75 to 90 is the normal cruising speed.

It was great to see everyone, but in retrospect I tried to cram way too much stuff into a short period of time: 2 picnics, Taste of Cleveland event, soccer game, football game, movie, 2 bike races, work meeting, drive to Detroit for another work meeting.

The low grade headache I had from the flight home didn’t go away for 4 days. Lesson learned.

Now, about the bike racing. Sunday morning I drove out to Tamarack, PA for the Tour de Tamarack road race – a race where I’ve always done well. The radar looked clear but as I got closer, it started to rain. I was thinking about the last race in Germany, where I turned around and went home. It was strange -- I just could not do that again.

Unfortunately my legs weren’t as committed. Maybe it was the jet lag, or the low grade headache, or the rain, but I felt pretty bad the entire race. In the end I didn’t even try for a placing.

The weather turned better on Monday, and I was looking forward to the Tuesday night Westlake race. It’s only a training race but it has become a weekly ritual for something like 7 years now. And this week it turned out well. Not too long into the race, 3 teammates and I managed to break away from the field. It then turned into a team time trial. OK, the field was not so big, and most of the big guns weren’t there. But we still rode pretty damn hard, and my legs felt good. It was probably the most enjoyable race I’ve done all year. How many times do you get to finish 1^st through 4^th?

The week went by even faster than I anticipated. Fortunately the nice weather followed me back here. I got off the plane, drove home, drank some coffee then went out for a 3 hour ride under blue skies and sunshine.