I just nailed down my weekend plans, though there is some potential felxibility needed.

Our racing season blasts off this weekend: UofA crit in Tucson tomorrow, and the first of a crit series in Avondale (West of Phoenix) on Sunday. A number of my teammates are doing Avondale, and they will be taking it easy and doing the B ride for base tomorrow morning. Assuming there are folks who want to ride A (and I believe there will be), I'll do that for a RR simulation type ride, then add a couple of hours of base for 4-5 total hours. Sunday I'll do a long base ride, probably out to Avondale to watch some crit. If there is nobody that wants to (as coach puts it) "throwdown" tomorrow, I'll do the B ride, then ride to Avondale Sunday and not just watch. But she prefers a get that extended mix of intensities on Saturday, rather than 35 minutes of crit on Sunday.

And a question. I'm prepping the Madone for the racing season. I have a complete set of ceramic bearings on the way to me (both sets of wheels, BB, and pulleys), and I'm comfortable putting them in and giving everything a good once-over. I also need to replace a tubie tire. I'm really busy right now, and might just have the shop do it, and get a spoke check/true-up at the same time, even though I just bought a truing stand. How much of a PITA is the gluing? Can you get it right the first time without too much swearing and wasted time involved? I'm remodeling a bathroom, so any time I take for bike maintenance is "high-visibility".