last week, i felt like i knew what i was doing; last night, just hit a big flat spot after the big effort of the first 3 or 4 laps, and i'm watching all these guys go by. let me tell ya, 25 years is a long time- and i feel like i am starting totally over at the beginning. in general, at a cognitive level i know what needs to happen, but deploying that in a race at 25 mph with a bunch of hard charging young animals all around is something else entirely...

and thanks for your comments, merlin...