I woke up to the sun this morning and was stoked. The smog had cleared considerably and revealed new landscape I had no idea existed yesterday.

We had our first practice on the track, had some pretty fierce wind going too, but it was headwind/tailwind so it was tolerable. I had fun on the track as expected and felt pretty good the first half of practice until my lungs started burning and felt as dry as the Gobi desert itself. I kept trying to drink water but it doesn’t so much hydrate the lungs…it was a kind of burning I had never experienced. It’s not like when you are winded or out of shape, but more like my body was rejecting 90% of the air that came into my lungs and the 10% that did get through was being hampered from the junk accumulating in my lungs. I can’t imagine what it must have been like to ride yesterday.

There is a rumor swirling that the amateur race tomorrow may be canceled due to another sand storm coming in. No official word yet, but if that’s the case I won’t be leaving the hotel at all! Not that I am trying to be negative about China though… the people are so friendly and aside from them gawking at us when we walk around they have been nothing but helpful.

Interesting food item of the day: Fried Pig hands