It rained all night on Friday, which had definitely NOT been predicted by the local forecasters. Bad sign. We had a 70-mile Long Slow Distance training ride planned across the lake on Saturday morning. Sometimes I think that the real reason I organize these training rides every year is to make it harder for me to blow them off when the weather looks bad.
The Wife took the car up the river to Baton Rouge on family business, so luckily Mark volunteered to give me a ride to the training ride. I got up a little early and checked the radar, which didn't look too bad, but packed riding clothes with the assumption I'd be getting wet. As we headed out for the drive across the causeway, it was cold and damp and the sky was full of low grey clouds, but as we neared the northshore, we could see the northern edge of the clouds and beyond that much friendlier looking skies.
There was hope!
We all started the ride pretty much prepared for a long, cold, sunless ride. I had shoe-covers and long gloves and a vest. I also had six Advil in my pocket in case my tooth went from bad to worse during the ride. As I expected, the result of my late dentist visit yesterday was a prescription for Tylenol #2, Ampicillin and a Root Canal. Oh boy. Next week is going to be so much fun. Anyway, the tooth wasn't bothering me too much today, so whoo hooo!
Anyway, a few miles into the ride, the skies started clearing up and before we knew it, we were riding through the countryside under clear blue skies, punctuated only occasionally by speeding gravel trucks (now I remember why I do most of the training rides on Sundays!). Soon the vest and gloves were in my pocket. Shortly afterward, I had my first flat. Last week my rear tire had blown out just as I was heading out to ride, so I had quickly slapped on an old tire that Robin had given me. As I was changing the flat today, I noticed that this tire was worn down to the casing in a couple of places. Guess I should have taken a better look at it before. I was glad I had brought two spare tubes, because I would probably need them.
Today we had a small group of nine including Bob and Stephanie on the tandem, Ray, Jaro, Mark, Courtney and Heather, along with Keith and John who were planning on turning back early.
Of course, I eventually had a second flat. No surprise there. On the way back from Enon, Jaro and I pushed the pace a little bit over the watchtower hill and kept it going until the next intersection, where I turned around to go back and pick up the riders at the back. As I went past Ray, he said that Heather has stopped about a mile past the top because of a problem with her knee. By the time I got back to her, she was pedalling with one leg. Must have been some tendonitis. She had mentioned that the cleat on that foot was loose, and I guess that and the climb up the hill had done some damage. She had already called for extraction, so I rode with her, pushing a bit to get her up the hills, to the next intersection where her friend eventually showed up. She had been riding pretty well up to that point, which was around 55 miles into the ride.
Toward the end of the ride, Ray came off the back, so I rode back and picked him up to pace him in the remaining four miles or so. All-in-all it was a pleasant LSD type of ride, although we got in about half an hour later than usual because of the flats and high level of "droppage." I was feeling pretty good today, especially considering the drugs I'm on right now. I think the mileage was about 71, although I had more like 76 on my computer because I had backtracked a couple of times. I noticed this morning that my total mileage since last February is just over 10,000 miles, so I guess it will be an 11 - 12k year.
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