Country Roads and Weird Racing

Went to WV two weekends ago. It was a good trip, though I'm certainly not used to hot, hot humidity at all. I went for a run at 8am one day and practically melted during it (got in ~8 miles the one day, 6 another). I got in a decent bike ride, probably the most climbing I've done since attempting IVRR way back in April or whenever. I saw quite a few friends from back home, which is always fun. It's been really cool to see all of us turn into the people we are now. My 10th high school reunion is next month, but at this point I've made the decision not to go. I really like finding out what people are up to, but the idea of flying across the country to go to a high school football game and a bar just doesn't seem really exciting.
While riding in WV, I always remember how beautiful areas of that state are. I mean, the PNW is gorgeous and volcanoes are really damn cool, but I can't get over the summer hills in WV. I love the rolling hills and how soft they look because of the generally deciduous bushy trees, versus our conifer-rific PNW hills. This probably doesn't make sense to anyone but me, but whatever.
Once I got back home from that, it was back to the end of the racing season. I did my own personal stage race this past weekend, racing track on Friday, Carnation circuit race on Saturday, and Seward Park crit on Sunday. I didn't do as well in any of these races as I wanted to, however. I wasn't really playing it smart for any of them; I guess my head just wasn't there. Some teammates at the circuit race and crit made some beautiful lead outs for me, but I just didn't take advantage of them at all. The road races were a bit weird because groups got off the front pretty early in both of them, with representation from most of the teams. It was just social riding for a lot of the race, just weird. Strategies were all strange, too, because so many people were concerned about various series points and weren't necessarily going for the race win as much as not wanting someone specific to win. I think the Women's Series have done a lot for participation in women's racing, but I wish they didn't encompass so many races. I'd love to have more races just for the races sake, where whoever is feeling strongest should be the person to work for instead. The series sometimes just lead to weird, negative racing that has been a huge part of the reason that I've really taken a step back from road racing recently. But this is a rant for another time. It was still a generally good weekend of racing, with decent weather and bigger fields than normally exist at this time of year. And soon cross shall be upon us...