LSD and the Guerilla Dog

It was cloudy and still a bit windy this morning, but that didn't stop a dozen of us from having a great "long, slow, distance" (LSD) winter training ride this morning. My feelings of impending holidays were strengthened by the recent appearance of Christmas tree lots and, particularly out in the country, yards full of Wal-Mart style light-up holiday lawn decorations. The holiday season is, for me, a particularly bipolar experience of fiscal dread in constant conflict with social exuberance. In other words, I have a hard time letting myself enjoy it very much, so it's always a little uncomfortable having to face the holiday pre-season icons of plastic Santas and excited sales pitches.

I had intentionally selected a rather oval route that had long stretches of east-west riding in order to minimize the effect of the predominantly North wind. As it turned out, though, the wind was never much of a factor. While the weather on the south shore of Lake Pontchartrain stayed misty and clammy, our route, which was 40-60 miles North of the city, was treated to much nicer weather, including a little bit of much-appreciated sunshine. As planned, the pace was smooth and moderate, which wasn't hard to maintain with our small group of similarly capable and experienced riders. It was really great being out on the old country roads I've come to know so well.

We were only about 10 miles from the end of our 65-mile ride when we turned onto one of the small country roads that the local Northshore guys use as part of their regular weekday training rides. As we approached a small cluster of homes set far back from the road, we spotted three dogs on an intercept trajectory for the tail end of our group. We sped up just a bit and so the chasers were only a problem for a few of us at the back of the group. As we got out of their home territory, Mike, Branden and I were looking back at the slowing dogs as Mike was calling one of them an "old fattie." At just that moment, we were ambushed by an enormous black dog who had been waiting for us in the bushes. This monster almost bounced off of Branden as we went by, catching the three of us completely by surprise. It was only Branden's mountain biking skills that kept him from becoming dog chow. This whole episode was disturbingly similar to a military operation worthy of the Army Special Services. I'm sure these dogs must have been plotting the three-dog diversionary tactic in order to maximize the effectiveness of the monster black dog hidden in the bushes!

So a great winter training ride today with lots of LSD and a few town sign 90% effort sign sprints thrown in for fun.