I’m at the end of a 4-week block of training and racing and I need a break. Good thing next week is a rest week (seriously, have you seen the weather report?). I was planning to race Turkey Hill yesterday, but bagged it in favor of napping. Being that I’m feeling a little stale at this point, I went to the Hop with no expectations. However, much to my surprise, about 15 laps into the race, I knew that I had some good legs. Everything was comfortable and I felt smooth. Halfway through there was a good attack by a Bike Doctor and I followed and we ended up with a group of 5, including a Bike Rack, a Coppi, and someone else. It was a good move for my good legs, except about 10 minutes into the break I got a terrible cramp in my abdomen. I know where that came from: I’m in the Army and I have to take the PT test 2x a year, which I never practice for and therefore always end up sore a week after the test. Revenge of the sit-ups today. I tried to tough it out for another lap, hoping the cramp would go away, but when I couldn’t take a good deep breath I was done. I called it. Hated to do it since I was feeling good, but there wasn’t anything I could do. There’ll be other races.