Summer in the City

Tuesday on the levee, dodging the rain

It was the last week of June, and although there was no shortage of comments about the heat and humidity, the locals know that that month is just the appetizer ahead of July and August. Still, I rolled out into the dim pre-sunrise glow most mornings with temperatures still in the low 80s and humidity at saturation levels. The glasses fog up the minute you stop, and if you drop your head halfway into the ride, the inside of the lens is quickly sprayed with sweat. Situation normal, of course. Meanwhile, it seems like everyone with a bike is out riding, often in little ad hoc groups, sometimes quite early in attempts to avoid the heat that really produce a little comfort that is more psychological than thermal.

Front part of the Friendly Friday group

Monday night I fought with the new "no tools needed" inline water filter that I was installing for the new regrigerator's ice maker (which I also had to install myself). I'd been short one compression nut for one of the other connections (the original one had left with the old refrigerator), and so had ridden over to the old hardward store in the French Quarter to pick one up at lunch. It took me multiple tries and much cursing to finally get the "no tools needed" connections to work without leaking dramatically, but eventually everything was water-tight and functional.

Before dawn on Tuesday some big loud thunderstorms rolled through the area. One particular lightning strike must have been just a few blocks from the house because there was no delay between the flash and the thunder. I never did find out what it hit, but it definitely woke me up. By 5:30 am the rain was coming to an end, but I knew nobody would be at the 6 am ride. Studying the weather radar, I figured there was a little opportunity available, so a little after 6 I headed over to the levee on the 'cross bike to minimize the chances of flats on the still-wet streets and bike path. That worked out OK. The bike path was reasonably dry, I didn't flat, and logged a fairly casual 26 miles. 

Wednesday's WeMoRi was uncharactistically moderate for some reason, but I wasn't complaining. We had a visiting rider, Luca Mazzetti, who is Italian and will be moving here from Rio de Janeiro around mid-July. He had no problems with the pace. 

Thursday - Charles, Will, and Jeff

Thursday was a pretty normal long ride, with three or four of us doing the full out-and-back to Williams Blvd. The Bonnebel boat launch was already packed with motor homes and trailers and big racing powerboats for the upcoming weekend's races.

As it has been for the past few weeks, the Friendly Friday ride was well-attended. I'd guess there were 20-25 riders. Of course, than means that it will eventually get fast, which it did, but only for short stretches in the usual places. 

Although the shoulder joint is still causing me some significant discomfort, I guess it would be accurate to say that it is slowly improving. I use the term "slowly" the same way you would use it to describe the movement of a glacier. While I am still a little hesitant to jump off the saddle to sprint, it is now at least something I am occasionally willing to do. I usually take some Naproxin before the longer weekend rides to alleviate a bit of the usual aches and pains in my neck and/or back, and lately also shoulder. It does help a little, although sometimes those last then miles are still pretty painful for one reason or another. Sucks getting old.

Boyd's kit

So on Saturday I rode out to Starbucks a bit early for my usual coffee prior to the Giro Ride. A couple of people had already parked in the neutral ground parking lot and were on their way to the SaMoRi that has lately been starting at 6:15 am. A number of the usual Giro riders have switched to that ride in an effort to avoid some of the heat, which is likely making it faster than usual, and concurrently reducing the size of the Giro group. A visiting rider, Buddy Baudoin, who lived here at one time had contacted me earlier and decided to join in, despite the fact that he hadn't brought his regular riding shoes, and was on his Tri bike. Fortunately, it was a fairly steady pace, a bit below the usual speed, so he was fine. I had sent him a recent Strava link for the ride, so he knew what he was getting into. It's always hard to know what to tell visiting riders unless I can see that they are active bike racers. He stayed safely at the back for most of the ride, and I think dropped off on the last stretch along Hayne Blvd. 

Lakeshore Drive's Water Feature - Sunday

On our way out, after turning onto Chef Highway, we saw the SaMoRi group going the other way, and a bit later a little group on the side of the road fixing a flat. The latter group was the lucky one. Shortly after we passed the main group they had a big crash caused, once again, by one of those asphalt bumps just before the turn onto the interstate. Boyd took an ambulance ride, and from what I heard six or seven went down. Fortunately, Boyd didn't break anything, but there were a few bikes that got damaged. I think Bo had to get someone to come pick him up. Later that afternoon someone went out there and painted those bumps with orange paint.

Crusising back home along Marconi after the Sunday Giro

Sunday's Giro group was fairly small, but that did not make it any easier. Sometimes it's much easier to sit near the back end of a 40-rider group than it is to be hanging onto a 12-rider paceline. Anyway, although I didn't spend any significant time on the front, I was feeling reasonably good. Lately, for the longer rides I've been putting Gatorade into one of my bottles, as much to provide electrolytes as to provide sugar. Combined with the four packets of sugar that I put into my morning coffee, and then the can of ginger ale I've sometimes been getting when the uptown group stops at the gas station in the way home, I'm at least not in much of a caloric deficit. 

This morning's Mellow Monday ride was true to form, which is to say it was reasonably mellow with just a couple of fast segments leading up to the inevitable sprint at Marconi and then at the top of the Wisner overpass. I did not indulge in either, as I was still feeling my legs from the weekend.

Long Road

WeMoRi Sunrise

Our summer solstice was last Friday, as if we needed any further confirmation it was mid-summer. The weather here has been dominated mainly by high humidity and widely scattered rain, typical for this time of year. Fortunately, most of the rain is in the afternoons, so the morning rides have been affected only by the perpetual Lakeshore Drive pond and runoff from the rain-saturated lakefront levee. I've logged four consecutive weeks above 270 miles, and although the shoulder is still achy enough that I am a little reluctant to pull hard on the handlebar, it's been at least tolerable.

Theoretically back where I started

I recently took a look at Strava's "fitness and freshness" chart, and although I don't usually give it a lot of credibility, it does seem to have done a reasonably good job of tracking my long road back to whatever qualifies as "fitness," at least for me. I've always found that I don't start to feel like I'm in decent shape until and unless I have a few 250 mi.+ weeks under my belt, at least in the absence of regular racing opportunities. I have been feeling a little less concerned about getting shelled on group rides lately, so I guess that qualifies as some kind of improvement.

I recently subscribed to VeloViewer to replace an older Chrome plug-in that I'd been using for years to compare annual mileages and things like that. That plug-in stopped being supported when Strava tightened up its API a while back, which I assume required services that pull data from Strava to pay for it and conform to whatever security requirements Strava required. Anyway, VeloViewer is pretty cheap, and allows for the same annual mileage comparisons, plus it has a number of other kind of fun features. I'll see how it goes for a while. It can create lots of interesting charts related to segments and distances across variable timeframes (I have at least ten year of Strava data), so it's kind of fun even though I never pay much attention to Strava segments. 

Last Tuesday the group refused to ford the Lakeshore Drive flood and turned back at the Elysian Fields traffic circle, but at least there were a few of us who were able to do the full ride out to Williams Blvd. and back. Wednesday's WeMoRi was civilized enough to keep me from being dropped or killed, despite the group making a couple of questionable decisions regarding traffic signals.

No caption needed

On Thursday the water level at the Lakeshore Drive pond was low enough that the group at least didn't turn back, so that was good. Later, out on the lake trail, however, there was a lot of runoff from the levee, resulting in lots of wheel spray and, not unsurprisingly, a flat tire for Jeff that took a couple of tries to repair. As a result, the ride was a few miles shorter.

Friendly Friday Group

Friendly Friday has been getting some pretty significant turnouts lately, and last Friday was no exception. Dylan and Jess were both on hand, along with most of the regulars. I'd guess we had 20-25 riders at one point. Thanks to rain the day before, the Lakeshore Drive pond was deep enough that the group didn't want to ride through it, so we instead added another little loop between the two traffic circles to make up for the lost mileage. As usual when there are a lot of riders, there were a couple of faster segments, but nothing very long or extreme, so things remained pretty friendly.

Saturday's Giro Ride didn't have a very big group, but it was plenty big enough. There was a nice rotation at the front with six or seven riders pulling at a nice even pace, with the rest of us sitting in. It was still fast enough for a good workout, even toward the back. On the way back down Chef, between the stop light and the Goodyear sprint, there was a totally unexpected crash near the front of the group. Steven had hit one of the nearly invisible heat buckles in the asphalt while holding a water bottle in one hand. Somehow, nobody else went down, and fortunately he jumped up without too much skin missing or broken collarbones. At the time I was totally focused on tracking the erratic roll of his water bottle so I could plot a safe route around it. After he got back rolling he basically rolled right off the front of the still-reassembling group with Matt. They were joined by a couple of others, but the rest of the group didn't mount a chase, so that was the last we saw of them. By then, everyone was feeling the rising temperature for sure.

Somewhere in MS

On Sunday, there was 67 mile ride out of West Harrison Ballpark over in Mississippi. I figured it was about time I did a ride that wasn't dead flat, so I made the decision to do it. I picked up Dylan for the one-hour drive. I think we had seven riders for this one. The air felt nice and cool, relatively speaking, for the first hour or so, which was nice. Steve Martin's routes are always quite circuitous, but this one put some of the others to shame. I was glad I had loaded the route onto my Garmin. As usual, this ride was all just nice steady paceline with most people taking long pulls. The roads were nice and traffic was light, and we stopped two times along the way at gas stations, so it was pretty much all Zone 2, which was fine with me.

When I got home, however, I was greeted with, "the refrigerator isn't working." This was the refrigerator that we had gotten after Katrina, so it was just shy of twenty years old. It was obvious that it had died quite a while earlier, perhaps some time on Saturday, so things were beginning to defrost. We have this little old refrigerator down in the basement that we had liberated from one of my father's apartments immediately following Katrina when we were waiting for our new one (everything was backordered for months, of course). That thing must be 40 years old, but still runs, so we use if mostly just for beer and cold drinks. It was of course immediately pressed into emergency service and its little freezer is now crammed full. I could have spent a day or two diagnosing the problem and ordering a new start capacitor or whatever else might we worth trying, but under the circumstances, and considering the age of the unit, we headed over to Lowes and found a replacement with the right dimensions that could be delivered on Monday. It's just a basic refrigerator plus an icemaker kit, but will still set me back by about a grand. As a result, I'm stuck at home waiting for it to be delivered today.

Mileage Back, Fitness Not Quite

A week ago Monday was Memorial Day, which of course meant a Holiday Giro. There was a pretty good group on hand for this one, and as Holiday Giros go, it was good, which is to say it wasn't too slow, and it wasn't too fast, and there were enough wheels available for drafting, which I definitely appreciated. The shoulder is still pretty achy, especially in certain orientations under load, and of course the lost fitness is coming back at a snail's pace. I've been doing a few little theraband exercises for the past week that I suppose are better than nothing, but it is impossible to attribute any improvement to them.

Tuesday's long ride turned out to be unexpectedly short. As usual, a lot of the group turned off at the end of Lakeshore Drive, leaving just Will T and me. The pace had been pretty fast, so I was already planning to turn around early on the lake trail - maybe at Causeway, or at the next outfall canal, but my plans were interrupted when I came down over the curb turning onto Hammond Hwy and managed to pinch-flat. As I was pumping up the tire after changing the tube I felt a sting on my ankle and realized I'd been standing in a little red ant pile. I brushed away as many as I could, but five or six of them managed to sting me anyway. At that point I just took it as a sign and headed back home.

Wednesday's WeMoRi went as it has been going for me lately. Fortunately is wasn't super-fast that day and I more or less survived, at least until the sprint started at which point I eased up and cruised in the rest of the way. The forecast for Thursday was not looking good, so I wasn't surprised to find wet streets when I awoke. I watched the weather radar for about half an hour and it looked like I might be able to squeeze in 15 miles on the levee around 6 am, so I headed out on the Cyclocross bike since it's much less prone to flats. Well, that didn't work out. The minute I got to the levee I felt the first raindrops, and looking to the west all I could see were dark black clouds, so I turned around and started riding toward Audubon Park, just barely ahead of the worst of the rain. Well, until I actually got to the park. At that point the sky opened up above and I limped back home in the pouring rain down various torn-up Carrollton streets. At least I tried, but I don't know if the 6.5 miles I logged were worth it.

By Friday the weather was much better and not surprisingly we had a pretty decent turnout for Friendly Friday. Saturday felt a little cooler and for some reason we had a really big turnout for the Giro. That, of course, meant that it was going to be a fast one. In addition to the usual instigators like Connor, Dustin, Jaden, Pirmin, Brett, TJ, etc., we also had Dan Bennet who was in town for a few days, and a pretty strong rider on a e-gravel bike that had a cassette cog that looked considerably larger than my 'cross bike's large chainring. There was a bit of a northeast wind which kept things together on the way out on Hayne Blvd., but somewhere along Paris Road, where we picked up more of a tailwind, the group split. At one point I found myself behind the rider on the e-bike as the speed crept up over 28 mph, and I started to worry that he would exceed the bike's assist limit, but somehow he gutted it out on that 40-pound bike with an impossibly low gear and flat pedals.

The return trip started with a nice bit of recovery pace until we got to the Hwy 11 intersection, after with it ramped back up to normal. With a bit of a tailwind, we averaged around 29 mph to the Interstate. Then, after turning onto Hayne Blvd. all bets were off and whoever was on the front put the hammer down. I think we averaged a bit over 30 mph to the overpass, after which the group kind of shattered with a fast group off the front between the bridges. Although there was no chance of catching, I did make a decent enough effort there, and then we were saved by the drawbridge being up, so everybody was back together for the cool-down along Lakeshore Drive. It was a pretty hard ride for me.

Sunday's Giro featured less wind and slightly fewer riders, so the pace was relatively tame, at least by the prior day's standard. That put me at 277 miles for the week, thanks to that long Monday ride, and despite the rain day and the shortened Thrusday ride. I was pretty happy with that since it was the first week I've had with relatively normal mileage and intensity in seven weeks. I feel like I'm still in a bit of a fitness hole, as some of those rides felt harder than they should have, but at least it's progress.

Dan was still in town for the Mellow Monday ride, which had a pretty big turnout and at a nice revocery ride pace, at least until the last bit. When we turned onto Wisner near the end, Dan launched off the front, forcing almost everyone to chase. Almost everyone but me. I felt like I really needed the recovery, so I didn't even make an effort.

On Tuesday there were three of us who continued out to the lake trail. Earlier, when we did a lap of Lakeshore Drive, the lake had been just pancake smooth, but as we headed west we started to pick up a significant tailwind. Without too much effort we cruised out to Williams Blvd. at around 24 mph, and then of course plodded our way back at more like 19. It was actually a significant workout.

This morning I woke up around 5 am and realized I'd forgotten to put out the garbage. With once a week pickup, and warm summer temperatures, you don't want to miss a garbage day around here, so I rushed down stairs and dragged the bin out to the street. Since I was already up, I went ahead and rode out to the lakefront earlier than usual, hitting Lakeshore Drive probably three minutes ahead of the WeMoRi group. I cruised east and made it around the Seabrook loop before being swept up by the pack that was relentlessly pushing 27-30 mph. Fortunately there were wheels available, so I hung on all the way down Lakeshore as my physiology caught up with my legs. At the turn onto Touissaint, though, there was a car that kind of split the group, forcing those of us at the back to chase back on. Unfortunately, when the rider in front of me blew up, I just couldn't close it the rest of the way, so it was just VJ and me on Wisner. We cut across the park on Zachary Taylor to Marconi and ultimately merged back into what was left of the group just before Lakeshore Drive. At that point, two riders were already off the front, a situation that did not change for the rest of the ride. Again, that was some badly needed intensity for me, even though I was in the draft throughout. 

Time Off

A rare vacation happened last week. We loaded up the car on Sunday morning, clamped the bike to the roof, and headed for the beach. Well, actually we were headed for the Pensacola airport where we were to pick up Danielle and Shannon. Naturally, their flight was delayed, which led to a long wait at the airport for us. Pensacola's airport is a pretty simple one, so there wasn't really anything to do but sit and wait for an hour or so. From there I took the shorter, slower, but more scenic route along Highway 98 through Ft. Walton and Destin, and then down "30A" out past Grayton Beach to the Seaside development where we were renting a little two-bedroom. The weather forecast for the week was looking great, with surprisingly cool mornings.

My plan for riding, if there even was one, was basically just to get out early. 30A is a simple 2-lane road without a shoulder that nowadays is lined with condos and hotels and such except around the state parks. Fortunately, there is also a separate bike lane the entire way. Unfortunately, the bike lane is full of pedestrians and dog-walkers and such, and crosses about a thousand driveways, so it's not really a comfortable place to be going fast. I was starting my rides at around 6:30 or so, and for the first hour traffic was very light, so riding on the road was fine. By my second day there I had settled on a plan of riding east first, then back west past Seaside and out to little parking lot at highway 393. The first day I had gone west to the end of 30A and run in to school traffic, so this was a better option. 

The ride east to the end of 30A and then back to Seaside, early in the morning, was great. There was practically no traffic, the air was still a little cool, and the road was fine. The speed limit varies from 25 to 45, and drivers were pretty considerate, so it wasn't much of a problem. The shoulder is still hurting, by the way. I had hoped it would be all better by the time we took this trip, but no such luck. There's something going in there, because the broken bones are definitely healed by now. Anyway, once past Seaside, I would switch to the bike path for the rest of the way out. After turning around, though, there was a little bit of shoulder along the eastbound road, so I could ride a few miles on the road there, which was much better than the bike path which was, by then, starting to pick up pedestrians, beach cruisers, and dog-walkers. None of the riding I did could be properly termed "training," of course, but at least I got in some decent saddle time.

Seaside itself is nice enough, as those kinds of developments go. The pastel colored houses are crammed together pretty tightly, but there a nice shady walkways, a couple of pools, and of course a whole shopping area that includes a little grocery and a line of faux food trucks. Not surprisingly, everything is expensive. There were hundreds of beach cruisers, many electric, along with lots of electric vehicles that look like golf carts but seat about eight and are mostly road-legal. All of that clogs up that section of the bike path and roadway.

Of course I eventually went out to the beach. There was a pretty good south wind most of the time, so it was mostly yellow or red flags. I was surprised that there were no jet skis or boats in sight. What was in sight were hundreds of beach umbrellas. Various beach chair companies have monopolies on stretches of beach, so if you bring your own, you have to set up kind of in-between developments, which was actually pretty nice. I usually dread sitting on a beach in the sun, but there was always a nice breeze, so it wasn't too bad. I did manage to get sunburn on the tops of my feet, probably because they have not seen the sun in about then years.

Barrett and Frank - We should probably add an 80+ age group now, or maybe a vintage bike category.

We had the LAMBRA time trial championship scheduled for Sunday morning, so I stayed up until registration closed on Friday night to set up the start list and results workbook and send out the start times to everyone. I guess I got to bed around 12:30 am.

The drive back on Saturday was just the reverse of the drive out, so we dropped the girls off at the airport and got back home around mid-afternoon, well before they landed in Seattle, and an even longer time before their luggage arrived.

Sunday morning we were up early to load up the car with race equipment and head over to LaPlace to put on the time trial. This year I had decided to get a new megaphone and leave the big PA system and generator at home, relying only on my little Jackery battery to power the computer and printer. Setting up, I discovered that I had forgotten to bring my USB adapter. The printer cable has the older USB connector, but the new laptop just has USB-A. Fortunately, Ty was able to make a quick run over to the LaPlace WalMart to pick up an adapter.

We had 45 registered this year, which was less than half of the turnout we used to have, but was actually a few more than last year. Everything went smoothly, which is to say nobody went to the hospital and nobody was arrested. I guess we were back home by 11:00. There was a significant breeze mostly out of the south, but we still had a couple of  times in the 53 minute range. Not bad, but still pretty far from the 49:32 course record.

Monday was Memorial Day, so we did a holiday Giro Ride. There was a decent turnout for that, considering many people were either out of town or had other plans. It felt like a fairly hard ride for me, but of course that was because I haven't had much intensity for the past seven months. I was just glad I survived it. The temperatures around here are getting pretty high - it's that time of year when I start routinely putting some sort of electrolyte mix in my water bottles. This morning I went out to the WeMoRi, jumping in at my usual spot. I was happy to hang onto the group the whole way, considering. I arrived back home hungry and soaked with sweat. It must be summer.

Easing Back In

 

It'll be six weeks on Wednesday and, yeah, the shoulder still aches, especially when my right hand is on the bars. Last week I cautiously joined a few of my regular group rides anyway. I mean, at this point you just have to do as much as you can tolerate - and maybe just a bit more. On Monday I went out and met the Mellow Monday ride for the first time in over a month. There was a bit of an easterly wind blowing, so once the group made the loop at the armory and the speed picked up, I dropped off the back, eventually rejoining them on the way back from the lakefront. The legs felt fine. The shoulder, not so much. No surprise.

On Tuesday I opted for a solo levee ride, not wanting to get sucked into anything faster than I was ready for on the lakefront. Wednesday morning was rained out, not that I had any intention of doing the WeMoRi. I was kind of stuck at home because of the weather and a meeting uptown, which worked out well because around 4:45 pm the rain stopped and I was therefore able to sneak out on the 'cross bike for a few levee miles. Then on Thursday I decided to go out and meet the 6 am group. That went nicely except that Lakeshore Drive was still flooded just east of Elysian Fields where it's always flooded because of the clogged up storm drains. The group decided not to wade across the pond, and so that shortened the ride considerably for most. On the plus side, I was able to get in a few miles of faster riding that I really needed. I ended up riding solo out along the fairly wet Lake Trail just to log some miles and quite predictably flatted thanks to the wet bike path.

I'd have liked to try Friendly Friday, but unfortunately Friday was rained out, and by rained out I mean it rained pretty much nonstop all day and into the night. 

Hope springs eternal

So on Saturday I went out to Starbucks to meet the Giro. I was still pretty unsure about my fitness, and not yet willing to endure the steady ache of the shoulder, so the plan was to drop off the back when the pace picked up on Hayne. I took the Bullard shortcut to Chef, and almost, but not quite, met up with the group again. I saw them turning onto Chef just before I got there. A few miles later I found the whole group stopped on the sholder fixing a flat, so at least I was able to ride with them the rest of the way to Venetian Isles. Somewhere along the way, Kenny B appeared in the group. Christian L was there from Oxford as well. When the speed ramped up about a kilometer before the Goodyear Sign sprint, I backed off, and a minute later passed Kenny who had pulled over onto the shoulder. I didn't know it was he as I asked, "you ok?" Anyway, the rest of the way was a rather long solo ride for me. Lakeshore Drive was still flooded in the usual spot (we had bypassed it on the way out), but since I was alone and I hate riding on Leon C. Simon, I took Lakeshore Drive anyway. As I slowly ride though the flooded part, which was about a foot deep, I saw two of those big vacuum trucks that they use to clean out storm drains. Spoiler Alert!  It was still flooded on Sunday. Also, after my Sunday ride, I pulled both tires off and drained a significant amount of water out of the rims.

So on Sunday I finally threw caution to the wind and decided to see if I could stay with the Giro the whole way. Sundays are usually just a bit slower, at least in theory. There was some significant wind, which definitely helped me, since I spent the whole time near, or on, the back of the group. I did find that I was no less uncomfortable on the drops than I was on the brake hoods. Anyway, I was happy to have stayed with the group, unless you count that segment between the bridges where I just stayed on VJ's wheel as he unsucessfully tried to close a big gap. I eventually caught back up along Leon C Simon when the front group finally eased up.

The sholder still aches whenever I have to extend my arm in front of me, as in riding the bike or even brushing my teeth, but I guess it is very slowly improving in that regard. I can still feel the broken ribs when I lie in bed, which is no surprise at all, of course. On the plus side, I think I'm OK getting back to my regular morning ride routine as long as I don't do anything crazy and am willing to tolerate a bit of discomfort.

A Week on the Road

Sunday Giro heading out on LSD

Progress has been frustratingly slow, but at least I was able to spend a full week on the road, much of which was on the road bike. I am still being very cautious, and severly limiting my time with other riders. The right shoulder muscles around the top of the scapula become quite achy when my hand is on the brake lever for any length of time. Granted, it does seem to be improving, and the pain-free range of motion is very gradually expanding, so I probably shouldn't be complaining since it's still a few days shy of five weeks. The weather, in general, has been particulary nice for riding lately, and that has definitely been contributing to my general sense of frustration.

At any rate, I did manage a full week of riding. Weekdays, except for this morning, were all on the levee, and on Wednesday I finally dusted off the road bike. There wasn't really any noticeable difference riding that as compared to the 'cross bike, at least on the levee. One thing about all these slow rides on the levee is that I've been able to enjoy watching the wildlife along the slightly flooded batture.

I've seen eagles practically every day, and of course lots of herons and ducks, and a surprising number of kildeer. There have also been a few alligators. On Friday I happened upon a rather large alligator that was "bellowing." That's a low, deep, sound they make, presumable related to mating. There was another smaller alligator cruising along right behind, so I guess it works.

Saturday morning the roads were still wet from overnight rains, so didn't go out until mid-morning. I switched back to the cyclocross bike for that. One reason was the wet streets, but the main reason was to minimize the chance of flatting on the levee bike path. Of course, by the time I was a few miles down the path the road was already drying up. It's amazing how much slower it feels on the 'cross bike compared to the road bike. Anyway, the ride was otherwise fine.

On Sunday I rode out to Starbucks to meet the Giro group, with no plans to ride farther than the end of Lakeshore Drive. Until this shoulder stops hurting I won't feel comfortable in a group at any speed that might qualify as "fast."  Hitting unexpected bumps in the road can be a little painful, and I'm not particularly confident about my bike control and braking yet. There was a big group on hand, and the weather was practically perfect, so of course I hated to turn back at the Armory. A fair number ended going out to Fort Pike that day, and it was by all accounts a really good and fast ride.

I, instead, rode out to The Wall at the west end of the lake trail and then down to I-10. I felt pretty good going out with a slight tailwind. Coming back I took it easier since thing were getting more and more achy and I was sitting up periodically to give my shoulder a break. Still, it was a great day to be out on the road, even if most of it was solo.

This morning I rode out to the Mellow Monday ride, which had a typical turnout. It was relatively cooler, like around 64 ° or so, with a significant east wind. I tagged along near the back on the way out, knowing that it would get fast once the group made the loop at the Armory and picked up the tailwind, which of course is where I dropped off the back. I am still not ready to be going 30 mph in a group, so I just cruised back to the west and picked them up on the flip side. There's rain in the forecast around mid-week. At the moment it looks like Tuesday morning might be OK, but Wednesday morning is not looking promising at all, and things won't be much better until some time on Saturday. Of course, it's a summer forecast, so we could ultimately get anything from torrential rain and floods to periods with blue skies and sunshine. Situation normal.

Outside

River's high

Last Saturday was my first day outside, on the bike, since April 2. I knew from past experience that it would be a little uncomfortable, but by then I felt the expected level of discomfort would probably be no higher than that of another hour on the indoor trainer. The typical time everyone always gives for bones to more or less heal is six weeks. Saturday was three weeks and two days, so some compromises and adaptations were definitely in order. Top priority was to not fall down, of course, but not doing more harm than good was right up there too. Fortunately, I had the 'Cross bike, currently shod with 36 mm gravel tires, and set up for a much more upright position than the Bianchi, to fall back on. The bike currently has a Redshift "shockstop" suspension stem on it, since I'd been thinking of doing a little gravel riding if I could ever find anything nearby that was worth it. So I put about 40 psi in the tires, and stepped out the door around 6:30 am, aka sunrise, on Saturday. Under the circumstances, riding in the dark is just needlessly throwing another unknown variable into the equation, especially since I would be riding alone and didn't have to worry about meeting a group or anything like that.

Not knowing which of the local streets may have been torn up or re-paved over the past few weeks, and not knowing how my shoulder was going to respond to every little bump in the road, I decided to play it safe and take Neron to Short to St. Charles to Burdette so I could cross the railroad tracks at the Corps of Engineers entrance and avoid the unknown condition of Willow and/or Oak Streets. I probably averaged 10 mph at best. The shoulder still aches when my right arm is on the bars, and even more when I lift it off the bars, and as expected I could feel every little bump in the road despite the relatively cushy tires and upright position. Still, it wasn't really much worse than being on the indoor trainer in that regard. The weather was practically perfect, which seems to be the status quo since I was injured, of course, so I ended up riding all the way out to the upriver end of Jefferson, where the levee bike path is still closed. The river is just below flood stage this week, and they've opened a little bit of the Spillway already, but it looks like the level will drop next week. On the plus side, the flooded batture attracts a lot of wildlife. On my two rides up there, Saturday and Monday, I have seen two or three eagles, a rather big alligator, a snake swimming in water, at least three types of herons, some killdeer, and occasionally some humans.

These rides are not steady, or fast, and any actual training benefit is minimal. It's more about getting comfortable on the bike and moving my legs at this point. Interestingly, riding with my hands on the drops does not seem to hurt any more than in other positions, although I spend most of my time with my hands on the tops and probably 70% of my weight on my left hand. Every couple of miles I move my right hand to the top of my thigh, which immediately relieves the otherwise ever-present dull ache. As a result, I see my speed and heart rate kind of all over the place as I shift hand positions and, occasionally, sit up entirely with both hands off the bars. Anyway, I guess it was a successful experiment in that it confirmed that I could handle being on the bike for an hour and a half without too much of a problem.

Sunday's weather was also nearly perfect, so I decided to make my way to Starbucks for the start of the Sunday Giro. I planned to ride with the group, carefully, on the Lakeshore Drive warmup segment, and then turn back at the Armory loop. That worked out nicely, so I put in a few extra easy miles on Lakeshore Drive before heading back home. It was still early on a Sunday morning on my way back, so I didn't have much traffic to deal with.

This morning I did another easy levee ride, which felt pretty much the same as the last one. Progress at this point is really slow and hardly noticeable on a day-to-day basis. What I am noticing is the return of my more usual aches and pains in my back and neck, probably made a little worse for lack of use. My right elbow occasionally hurts, but hopefully I won't end up with epicondylitis from lack of use like I did with one of my collarbone breaks. Also, the 'Cross bike just seems so slow and heavy compared to my regular road bike. The mountain bike shoes don't help in that regard, either. So I guess I will continue with this routine for the week and see how things are feeling on Friday. 

This is always such a balancing act.