Lonely Day

Although my legs were a little sore yesterday evening as a result of Sunday's long ride, I was happy to find them in a very cooperative mood this morning. I had planned on an easy spin, and wasn't too surprised to find the usual levee-top meeting spot empty when I arrived. The skies were grey and there was an occasional light drizzle falling - not even enough to make the streets wet, but certainly something to think about - and of course it was a Monday. Since I had intended to do an easy ride, I hadn't spared the clothes and was toasty warm.

The parking lot at Jefferson Playground was also deserted this morning as I rode past, spinning easily in the 39x15. In fact, there was practically nobody up on the levee bike path at all. For a while, I fiddled with the bike computer, trying to get it to register my speed, but never got a single mph out of the thing. Yesterday, it had worked fine for 77 miles, and then this morning it was, what?, on strike or something?? Bike computers can certainly be finicky. I happen to have a replacement wire and pickup for the speed sensor, so I'll put that on this evening and see if it solves the problem. I'd hate to have to retire the computer when its so close to hitting the 40,000 mile mark. It always seems that I start to bond with inanimate objects like cars and computers when they start to show their age. It's almost like I feel sorry for them and don't want to see them go.

After I turned around, I ran into Joe F., who turned around to ride back with me. There was a strong headwind all the way back, and Joe chatted for a minute or two and then said he was going to drop back and get on my wheel, so I was pretty much back to riding by myself again. Without the benefit of the speedometer, I switched to cadence mode and just held an easy 80-85 rpm all the way back. Anyway, I'm pleased that my legs felt good. The weather forecast for the next few days is looking damned wet and nasty, but at least it won't be too cold.

It's around 2 p.m. right now and looking out my 25th floor window it looks like about 2 miles of visibility with a grey fog shrouding everything. It sure would be nice to see the sun again.

"Ain't no sunshine . . ."

Training Ride Well Done

Miles: 77
Powerbars: 1
Starbucks Coffees: 1
Coke: 1L
Fun: 1 ton

It was time for the real training rides to start, and for today's ride I had mapped out a 77 mi. route that I knew would put a little jolt into everyone's program. Our nine-man group started out with 30 miles or so of flat paceline, taking us from Abita Springs through Bush and Sun and back West toward Enon. Then the fun began. We turned North away from the Bouge Chitto river and into the low rolling hills and at the same time picked up the pace a notch or so. Though much of our ride was on smooth asphalt, we also blasted through Sie Jenkins Rd. and Moore Rd., the latter qualifying as a road only on a technicality. For some reason, I love that slightly out-of-control feeling of riding down this stretch of curvy, battered macadam as a faster-than-recommended speed. The group was riding strong today, and someone attacked almost every climb and sprinted for every town sign.

By the time we stopped in Enon, just past 50 miles, I could feel the burning in my quads. The Enon store was closed, with a sign taped to the door that said "closed because of cold weather." It was around 55F. We didn't hang around very long and started out on the last 25 mile leg with a nice little tailwind. As usual, things kind of came apart on the climb up the watchtower hill as a couple of riders were starting to feel the effects of the hills and pace.

I felt good about this ride, and although I'll probably be a little sore tomorrow, it was definitely worth it.

As I got back into town there were already crowds of people staking out their spots along Veterans Blvd. in anticipation of the afternoon's Mardi Gras parade, and shortly after I got home a long line of floats went past on its way to line up for tonight's parades on St. Charles Ave.

Looks like it's Mardi Gras Time!

A Wet Dreary Giro

"Yeech," I thought as I rode out to the Giro ride this morning in a damp, cold fog on wet and gritty streets. The temperature was in the upper 50s, but it felt colder despite the vest and DeFeet shoe-covers I had on. Of course, by the time I got out there my clear-lens Oakleys were all misted-over. I had to take them off three or four times during the ride to rinse them off so I could (almost) see through them. Toward the end, I finally gave up and stuck them in my helmet for the duration.

The group was a bit smaller than usual this morning, as one would expect, and nobody was really in the mood to inflict much pain, although the pace was fast on the way out, it mostly stayed together. It definitely helps to have a couple of the strong guys riding Power Cranks! I was considering taking a shot at the sprint on Chef Highway today (the one on the return trip), and had just latched onto The Howard's wheel when he stood on it and promptly unclipped his right foot. For a second I thought he was going down for sure, but he kept it upright so all was well. I ended up riding back uptown with Tim and Charlie, taking the long way 'round down Canal St. and then along the river on Tchoupitoulas. Traffic was pretty bad, though; a combination of early Mardi Gras people and the huge NADA convention currently in town. About halfway through the ride today my old but fancy-dancy Campi Egrobrain computer has some sort of neurological event, probably a result of something getting wet, and stopped showing me my speed except when it felt like it. Cadence still worked, though, so I switched to that mode so I wouldn't surge too much when I came to the front. Still, it's amazing how you get to be so dependent on the speedometer, or for that matter the gear indicator. You don't even realize how much you use that information until the thing stops working, and then it's kind of disconcerting to glance down and see a big fat "0" where the "30mph" should be. (Ever notice how you never seem to check your speedo when you're going slow?)

Finally, in the afternoon, the skies cleared and my hopes for tomorrow's long ride out in the country improved tremendously. Gina was nice enough to give me a call to let me know they had made it to Arizona. Just afterward I was reading Jason Sager's blog and discovered that he had recently arrived there as well, having written up a short report of the local group hammer session.

Off Day

We met Kenny and Gina and Gina's mom last night for a nice dinner in an interesting little spot called Adolpho's, right across the street from Bicycle Michael's in Faubourg Marigny. Actually, we met across the street at DBA where I had a great glass of Rouge Mocha Porter (a tough call, since they also had the Hazlenut Brown Nectar and Dead Guy Ale, but the Porter was on tap!). The food was great and the place has the same atmosphere as a typical 3-room upstairs apartment, which I'm sure it once was. Casual is an overstatement for this little spot, but the waiter speaks with a thick Italian accent and the cook must know his stuff.

Early this morning I was awakened by cellphone noises as the power went out, then back on, then out, then back on again. It was around when I normally get up to ride, but since we had Gina's mom staying at the house I decided to skip my usual easy Friday ride and instead fire up the coffee maker. A couple of hours later Givo and mom headed West on I-10, destined for Tucson, AZ.

I think I felt a "great disturbance in The Force" as they left. Or maybe it was just that I had to go to work instead of on a road trip!

The city is now all socked in with fog and mist ahead of a line of rain heading this way, but I think we'll probably have decent riding weather for tomorrow's Giro and even better weather for Sunday's winter training ride across the lake.

The Daughter is heading to Des Moines for their meet with 10th-ranked Iowa State tonight. We'll try and follow it via the Live Scoring website.

Working at the Back of the Pack

The arrival of a little cold front this morning brought with it a stiff North wind that was blowing the levee group around all morning. It was one of those days when it seemed like you were always riding into the wind and never with it. Things started out nicely enough, but five or six miles out some of the big dogs got to the front and the pace started to ramp up. Ordinarily, that wouldn't have been too much of a problem, but this morning the crosswind made it just about as hard to ride at the back as the front.

At some point I dropped back after taking a little pull - all the way back - and when I arrived found little in the way of shelter. So, for most of the ride out to the turnaround I was stuck on Carey's wheel, scrounging around for a bit of draft, hugging the three inches or so of asphalt to the left of his rear wheel. To make matters worse, somebody a few riders up was short-circuiting the paceline, so we weren't in the rotation any more. The pace was fast enough that the idea of riding up the windward side of the paceline to get in nearer the front wasn't really an attractive option, so I was basically stuck at the back battling both the wind and the edge. Not fun.

Kenny, who had missed the group, had time trialed up to us, catching right about the time things picked up, and Givo, who had already seen her patients at the hospital and was squeezing in a ride before her exam, was up there in the rotation with the big dogs who were hammering into the wind at a rather uncivilized pace. After a while I saw her dropping back behind me and I knew she was in for a rude surprise. It may have looked like "the back," but once you got there you quickly realized that there was no "back." At least not in the "sit in the draft at the back" kind of way. The next time I looked back, she was OTB along with some other victims of the crosswind.

We picked everyone back up on the return trip, though, and even though it was still a crosswind battle it was a little easier. I suppose it was partially due to a little bit of occasional tailwind and partially due to the fact that some of the guys who had been pulling all morning were starting to feel it. I did a lot more work on the way back, so I got my money's worth of training out of the ride anyway.

As I rode home from the levee I noticed that it had gotten quite a bit colder than when I had started. I think the temperature had dropped around eight degrees in the two hours that I was riding.

The worst thing about these cold fronts is really my commute to work, which has me headed in a mostly Northward direction. I was definitely feeling my quads as I climbed the overpass, standing on the pedals in my Bass loafers, button-down shirt and tie, and with my messenger bag over my shoulder loaded with a thermos of real coffee and all the other usual junk that I haul back and forth to work every day.

Rising Tide Ride

The Mississippi is really starting to rise around here and there is official talk about opening the Spillway. While there are normally a few hundred yards of batture between the levee and the water, right now the river laps loudly against the concrete levee apron in some places. Looking the other way it's easy to see that the water level is higher than the ceilings in most of the homes along River Road. Farther out you can see the partially submerged willow trees that normally line the river bank. It's definitely a Rising Tide (which is also an interesting book), and they are saying that it won't crest for another week or two. Looks like there might be some whitewater in the spillway soon.

It was much warmer this morning - around 60F - and there were probably a dozen or so riders out on the levee, including Rob and Donald and GiVo (who will be heading back to AZ on Friday). Kenny was supposed to meet us, but he must have been up all night reading LAMBRA e-mails about the Cat. 3 controversy!!

Rob apparently had a meeting this morning and wasn't willing to settle for much less than 23-24 mph. Well of course that didn't last very long and it kind of turned into a race for a while. The group kind of split with I think Rob, GiVo and I rotating in front. The return trip, as usual, was a little more tame, but with a light tailwind we were still going 24-25 most of the time. Right after we turned around Rob took off at a decent pace, but a whole bunch of the group didn't go with him so I guess four or five of us rode just a little bit off the front for a while until everyone caught up. After that, most of the group was sitting in and three or four of us were pulling at a pretty steady pace until we got near the Bridge when Carey started doing his impersonation of The Howard. Naturally, Rob latched onto his wheel, and I onto Rob's while Carey pulled us up to 31 at one point. I was OK with that, but definitely not inclined to come around!

I was really not feeling too quick today for some reason - don't really know why - but it was a good workout anyway. Since we got back a little earlier than usual, I rode down to the park and back with GiVo before heading home. I almost made it, but with only one bumpy block of Pine Street left to go my rear tire went flat. I may have to put a couple of new tires into the budget soon.

Lots of volunteer website work is stacking up. The Brother sent me some updates for his daughter's rowing team's site that I haven't been able to get to yet, and I need to go through the NOBC event calendar and update it according to the results of last weekend's LAMBRA meeting. Somewhere in there I also need to do some actual work around here to see how the university can respond to the most recent BAA from the Department of Homeland Security.

Wardrobe Malfunction

Man, it was hard to get out of bed this morning! Don't really know why, except that I was up kind of late last night and kept going back for just a little bit more wine.

The temp this morning was about 40 F, but at the last minute I put on my light Pearl vest to cut the wind for the first few miles, planning on stuffing it in a pocket before the group ride stated. You have to understand that this is kind of an old vest and the zipper has seen better days. In fact the tab that you hold onto is missing altogether. It's usually not much of a problem, but this morning I got some fabric caught in it as I was stepping out the door into the darkness. Just then, I heard a familiar voice. It was GiVo, who had stopped by on her way to work to pick up some stuff she had left at the house. She pulled some fabric out of the zipper (it was up around my neck so I couldn't see what I was doing) and I thought I had it cleared, but when I got out to the levee and tried to unzip, I couldn't get the damned thing to budge a single millimeter. Almost tore the zipper right out trying to wrestle with it up around my neck where I couldn't see. It was just partially open, so I tried pulling it off over my head, but my head was too big (as I've heard many times). Eventually, the ride started and , considering the clear skies, I resigned myself to a very warm ride. All I can say is I'm glad I've never had this happen with the zipper on a pair of pants at an inopportune time after having a couple of beers!

Once again, Rob had already ridden off down the road by the time we started (a few minutes late), and once again he looped back and met up with us around Jefferson Playground. There was a fair amount of horsepower in the group today, and as usual The Howard was there, surging up into the high 20s when he would come to the front.

I wasn't feeling too sharp, but I stayed in the paceline all the way out, taking my pulls but not lingering at the front very long. The ride back was pretty fast too, but a bit more cohesive, and I think some of the riders who had hammered on the way out were looking for a little recovery time on the return trip. I skipped a few pulls myself on the way back and there were a number of times when the lead rider would pull off and nobody was there to come through. Still, the pace stayed around 24-25 most of the way back.

Back at work after two missed days, I was greeted by a ton of e-mail, much of it having to do with the proposed changes in the LAMBRA categories and the LCCS points series, and I really haven't had time to sift through all of it yet. Not that it stopped me from putting in my $0.02 of course. Somehow, requiring promoters to have a separate Cat. 1,2 race in a 2-state district with a total of 29 Cat. 1 or 2 riders seems a little optimistic to me. I'm sympathetic to the plight of the Cat. 3s, but I really think that most of the 75 Cat. 3s in the 2-state area should be able to compete with the Cat. 1,2 riders. It would be great to have some separate Cat. 3 races, of course, but I think that making it a requirement is a bit premature.

We shall see.

Back in the Big Easy

Well yesterday's meet was kind of disappointing. The Daughter did great, competing on Beam despite her injured ankle, and posting the highest score. Unfortunately, the team had some real problems on Bars and ended up losing to a team that they really should have been able to beat. We camped out at The Daughter's house last night, sleeping on two old couches that were probably rescued from the thrift store. Then it was back to the airport and a couple of rather tedious flights to get back to New Orleans. The trip ended up costing a lot more than I had hoped after all of the changes we had to make, but that's just the way it goes sometimes! I learned some new things, anyway. For example, I learned that when you get an ice cream cone and then walk outside into 11 degree F weather, the water in the ice cream freezes and it gets kind of crunchy. Didn't know that!

So I've been off the bike now since Saturday - three whole days. I never could manage to drum up the enthusiasm to squeeze in a workout at the gym. I'll dive right back in tomorrow morning, though, and I'm sure the three-day layoff won't cause much of anything beyond the natural anxiety that anybody feels when all his competitors are out training and he's not.

Meanwhile, the LAMBRA meeting was last Saturday and there were a couple of somewhat controversial proposals. One is to allow separate Cat. 3 races to count for Series points. If we were consistently getting fields of, say, 50 riders for the combined Cat. 1,2,3 races, I'd say "great! go for it," but the fact is that most of the reglar races have fields of maybe 20 riders, and I just don't see splitting that up into two races. I cetainly don't see how it will help anything.

Had a nice chat with Givo this evening, which I really enjoyed - or maybe it was just the wine?

Naaaa.

Change of Plan

I was awakened shortly before dawn by a loud grating, scraping sound outside the hotel window. Even though I live in semi-tropical New Orleans, I knew immediately what it was. Snow plows. This was a bad sign. I peeked out the window and could see snow blowing everywhere. Winds were gusting at 40-50 mph. My motivation to walk over to the gym was sinking fast and the attractiveness of a cup of coffee at the local Starbucks was looking better and better. A couple of hours later, we slid over to The Daughter's place near campus (that's the view of her street to the right), and found out that the meet had been postponed until, tentatively, Sunday. After a couple of hours on the phone, The Wife got the rental car extended an extra day at the same rate, and changed our return flight to Monday for an additional fee of around $110, so we'll just camp out at The Daughter's place Sunday night after the meet so save the extra hotel night. The University of Illinois-Chicago team couldn't get here this morning because of the weather. Rumor has it that the police had closed a lot of roads to large vehicles because of the wind and limited visibility.


By afternoon the weather had improved tremendously, with temperaturesup into the 20s, although tonight we're expecting a low of -1F. I was surprised to see quite a few cyclists trying to negotiate the streets, which were covered with a layer of ice, snow and slush. The girl in the picture to the left didn't make it down that hill without putting a foot on the ground, by the way. The Wife and I took a walk along the Iowa River just before dusk and spotted a larte American Eagle fishing along the River. He dove once on a fish, but came up empty-handed. Anyway, I've decided today will be a rest day!! Perhaps tomorrow morning I will summon up the determination I need to go over to the gym and torture myself on the exercise bike.

We shall see. The meet will be at 2 p.m., if all goes as planned, although they will probably be short a couple of judges. So this little excursion will end up costing a bit more than planned, plus an extra missed training day. C'est la vie!

Shorts and Ice

Greetings from Iowa City.

I started the day with a short 6 a.m. ride on the levee wearing shorts and ended it slip-sliding on icy sidewalks from the parking garage to the hotel Iowa City, bundled up in a heavy coat, knit cap and gloves.

After a rather long delay in Cincinnati, first waiting for the airplane crew to show up (half an hour after the scheduled departure time) and then for a battery in the plane to be swapped out, we finally made it to the Quad Cities airport, rented a car, and drove the hour or so down Interstate 80 through a mixture of rain, sleet and snow, to Iowa City where The Daughter and a couple of her teammates were anxiously awaiting us. Actually, they were anxiously awaiting a free dinner. We were just sort of there to pay the bill and say dumb things that made them roll their eyes in disbelief. There's a lot of old snow piled up along the roads here and a light icy mist is falling, but the temperatures are only in the 20s, which is a lot warmer than the last time we were up here in January. I spotted a couple of students riding their bikes in town despite the weather. The on-campus hotel here has free high-speed internet (aren't universities great?), and after dinner we stopped at the local grocery store and picked up a bottle of Red Bicyclette wine, which isn't all that bad, actually. So I'm sitting here, better connected than at home, with a plastic glass of Red Bicyclette Syrah. Not too bad.

I'm hoping I can get over to the little university health club annex across the street tomorrow morning for an hour of so, since we get free passes from the hotel. After that, we'll have to make the usual grocery store run with The Daughter, after which we're supposed to be taking some of the team members over to the arena around 3 p.m. so they can get ready for the meet this evening with University of Illinois - Chicago. They will have live scoring from the meet starting a bit after 7 p.m. on Saturday. The Daughter is in the lineup for Beam, although her ankle is definitely not healed yet and so I'm not expecting her to be pushing it. She's a little nervous about it, since everybody's been wanting to get her back into the lineup, but she knows her ankle isn't there yet.

I kind of wish I had my bike with me. Even though it's pretty cold, it looks like it'll be in the teens or 20s during the day and the roads look basically OK, so it would be really nice to be able to go out for an hour or two, or at least until my toes started to freeze.

Humid and Flat(s)

It was relatively warm this morning with temperatures above 60F, and as I rode out to the levee I got just a little bit of rain. Indeed, the roads were wet and the air heavy with moisture, but thankfully the wind was minimal. A good-sized group came together for the Thursday long ride, but within the first couple of miles Rob rode off the front, never to be seen again until we were most of the way back. Along the way he picked up Carey. Meanwhile, back in the laughing section, we had a steady and quite civilized paceline for most of the ride, with The Donald pulling the train along for one of his patented long pulls. I was feeling pretty good today and was already thinking about doing a few short "catch-up" intervals off the back of the group. Just thinking about them, you understand! Luke is still out on his time trial bike doing short practice TTs, and Robin showed up on his track bike again.

The Mississippi River is getting kind of high lately. In some places the water is lapping up against the base of the levee. A few more feet and they will probably start opening parts of the spillways.

We caught Rob and Carey as we entered Jefferson Parish, but soon they were dangling off the front again. Near the end of the ride, after most of the riders had already split off, I noticed that my rear tire was nearly flat, but being ever the optimist (especially when the roads are wet and the tires are filthy), I hoped I might be able to nurse it the remaining few miles home without having to stop and change it. Well, I got most of the way down Oak Street before it started bottoming out and so I had to stop in front of the Z'otz "post-punk" coffee house and make the change, getting home fairly late.

So now I'm rushing around so I can get to work at a reasonable time and I go downstairs to get on the commuter and, of course, it has a flat! Great. I check my watch and it's about 9:50 - just enough time to walk the six blocks down to catch the Tulane downtown shuttle.

With Washington D.C. essentially shut down today because of the inauguration, I still can't reach a human at the Department of Homeland Security to tell them they have screwed up and put the wrong link on the website announcing their most recent Broad Agency Announcement for Centers of Excellence. I've left three voicemails and one e-mail since yesterday with no response. I guess they are all lurking around in dark sunglasses on D.C. rooftops today protecting the homeland.

We're off to Iowa City tomorrow morning and I'm thinking I might be able to sneak in a short ride early in the morning before leaving for the airport, because I'm definitely not going to be doing any riding up in the land of frozen corn. Still don't know if The Daughter will be able to compete, so we might be making a nice $800 trip into the "wintery mix" weather without being able to cheer for our own. The forecast for our drive from the Quad Cities airport to I.C. is not looking particularly encouraging:

"Periods of freezing drizzle early...changing to a wintry mix by afternoon. High near 30F. Winds ESE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of precip 60%."

Should be interesting.

Status Quo

It was a routine Wednesday training ride this morning, and I was happy to find that the wind has finally died down. Of course, that meant slightly warmer temperatures and a bit more humidity, but hey, I'll take it! I had a nice steady aerobic ride, largely at 21-22 mph, with a group of I guess about ten. A few of the guys seem to be recoverng from colds and have wisely been trying to stay off the front until they feel stronger, so there were really only about five riders in the rotation at the front.

The club has picked up another sponsor, I hear, and I'm really wondering how they are all going to fit on the jersey.

Keith is going to the annual LAMBRA meeting this weekend and will get us two additional race dates so that we can promote a 2-man Time Trial in the Spring and either a Criterium or Road Race in late Summer when the schedule is usually pretty thin. I'm thinking we can do these as fairly low-key events that won't stress us out too much but will be fun and will add some good racing to the calendar. I hear from Josie's e-mail today that someone has proposed more changes to the Masters LCCS points competition. This seems to come up every year. Personally I prefer to have fewer, rather than more, age categories unless we start seeing larger field sizes for the regular 35+ races. Of course one might argue that the sizes are small because the older masters aren't entering because they get blown away by the younger guys. Who knows? Masters Nationals is up in Utah again this year, which means that the combination of the high cost and high altitude and high hills will make it pretty difficult for those of us who live below sea level and rarely climb anything higher than an overpass.

The USCF has sent out a summary of rule changes. Most aren't particulary relevant to routine racing, but a couple may be. The rules now make pulling lapped riders in criteriums the default state, so that promoters have to say in their event announcements that they won't be pulling lapped riders. All riders who are pulled out after the mid-point of the race are still to be placed. This is guaranteed to cause confusion and makes it hard on the officials to calculate placings for pulled riders. Sometimes, depending on how the race progresses, pulled riders could end up with placings higher than finishing riders who are almost, but not quite, lapped. Not good. Of course, that can't apply to Stage Race criteriums, since everyone who doesn't quit needs to get a place and finish time. On the plus side, they have apparently increased the distances for Masters championship road races, which was badly needed for some age groups in order to keep everything from coming down to a huge pack sprint.

More Gloves and Booties

Miles: 42
Gloves: 2 pair

A late decision last night to go out to eat, accompanied by a bottle of Turbo Dog, on top of a couple of small glasses of merlot at home, had its usual effect. Around 2 a.m. I woke up, thirsty, and couldn't get back to sleep for the longest time. So it was with some difficulty that I dragged myself out of bed for the early Tuesday ride. It was still pretty cold, around mid-30s I guess, and windy - much like yesterday in fact - and when I got to the levee meeting spot there was nobody there. I checked my watch and it was 6:15, so I waited around only another minute (hey, it was freezing up there in the wind) and headed out, already figuring on doing a shorter ride. I soon spotted a couple of flashing headlights coming my way and was joined by two of the guys. We were still contemplating shortening the ride if that's all that showed up, but Jeff mentioned that Rob was somewhere down the road. Well, soon we saw Rob coming at us out of the darkness (he never has a light), to which Jeff responded with "uh oh...." Right about that time a couple more riders came up from behind and a few more from ahead, so right away we went from two to about seven. The other thing that happened right away was that Rob went straight to the front and upped the pace by a few mph, which was fine except that we had a tailwind. I was a little cautious about pushing too hard on the way out knowing that we would be jousting with a healthy headwind for much of the return trip. The pace was hard enough, though, that pretty soon there were just three of us off the front. I was pretty tired by the time we hit the turnaround, so it was nice that we rode pretty easy for a while, eventually picking up the group again, which had turned around a mile or two early. Eventually the pace picked up again with four or five of us rotating at the front. My legs were not feeling too good and I was taking shorter than normal pulls. Every time I would pull off to drop back it felt like the headwind would just bring the bike to a standstill and I'd have to keep pedalling, sometimes pretty hard, in order to slot back into the paceline.

We were just about back when my phone rang. Now normally I wouldn't even check to see who had called until I got home, but this morning I had a meeting and I suspected I'd better check it right away so I dropped off the back of the group with Jeff. With a double layer of gloves on and frozen fingers it must have taken me three or four full minutes to get my phone out of my pocket. I probably should have stopped. Indeed it was about the meeting and I ended up making and answering a couple more calls before I got home.

Feeling Like Winter

Miles: 27
Layers: 4

It really felt like winter this morning. With the temperature around 34F and a strong North wind, I wasn't expecting any company for my planned easy spin along the levee this morning. As I climbed up to the bike path I was surprised to see a solitary figure waiting at the pump hump. I knew who it was. Joe was glad to have some company to help ease the headwind sections. If someone in his 70s can show up on a morning like this, there's hope for all of us!

You know how your mother would try to get you to eat your peas by telling you that there were starving children in some far-away land who would give anything for them? That's kind of how I feel sometimes about riding in the Winter around here. I was thinking today of those poor cyclists in Minnesota who were looking out their frost-encrusted windows just wishing for a morning where the temperature was above freezing so they could go out for a nice road ride. In fact, I checked the weather in Iowa City, where I'll be next Friday, just a minute ago. It's 1F right now at 10 a.m. What's funny about it is that below the actual temperature on Weather.com, it says "Feels like - 1F." No kidding??

So Joe and I had a nice easy ride, offering little resistance to the wind and happily spinning along at 14 mph sometimes. Despite the two long-sleeve winter jerseys, vest, and old summer jersey base layer, the wind was coming through my sleeves so that my arms were still pretty cold by the time I got home. As I worked my way through the uptown neighborhood on my way back, I came upon yet another movie production operation for the upcoming "Dukes of Hazzard." I'll bet Daisy Duke had a lot of goose bumps on her legs below those little hot pants today. Lots of big trucks and blocked-off streets. Gina had told me yesterday that they were filming down on Magazine street on the weekend, and somebody had said that they were supposed to be filming on St. Charles Avenue today. I like having all this stuff going on in the neighborhood. Unlike the suburbs, if they want to close off a few streets, it's not a big problem because there are lots of other streets that will get you where you're going. It's really nice to see some new business around here anyway. Of course the downside will be the perpetuation of the ridiculous Hollywood stereotype of "the South." It has always amazed me that they so steadfastly refuse to let go of the "Gone with the Wind" image. Just for the record:

• People in New Orleans don't have Georgia accents;
• People in New Orleans are not inbreeding idiots;
• The men don't wear white suits with bow ties and white hats (although it makes for a good Mardi Gras costume);
• The police chief is most definitely not a fat white moron with a Texas accent, and he does not work in an un-airconditioned office that looks like something out of the Andy Griffith show.
• Cajuns are generally considered foreigners in New Orleans, although they are generally tolerated nowadays.

With apologies to the popular image of MLK, I'm at work today trying to finish up a little presentation I have to make tomorrow for the prez and senior admin folks, summarizing the school's research funding success from last fiscal year.

An Odd Giro

Miles: 62
Powerbars: 1

The effects of the prior night's party were clearly evident when I awoke five hours later to head off to the 6:45 a.m. Giro ride. It was chilly and dark and windy, and my legs were stiff as I rode into the wind toward the lakefront. I was running late and couldn't even afford the luxuy of an easy ride out there. My phone rang just as I was leaving. Gina leaving me a wake-up call. Things started out as usual as we headed down Hayne Blvd., although it was clear that a lot of riders were not planning on going hard today. I got into the front paceline a few times, but I was thinking about doing a longer ride and so I dropped farther back to seek some shelter from the relentless wind. After the group made the turn onto Paris Road the headwind became a nice little tailwind and the pace picked up quickly, but soon someone from the back of the pack yelled something about a flat. Most people eased up and coasted, but a Brett and Rob kept going. It turned out to have been a false alarm, (amazing how much "car back" can sound like "flat"), but the damage was done. Eventually most of the pack got back together, but it wasn't long before Luke and a few others wanted to stop for a nature break on the service road. Gina were near the front and I eased up for a while, but there were some riders ahead of us who didn't and next thing we knew we were in chase mode. We were hoping they would ease up so we could catch, but no such luck. We battled the headwind, struggling to maintain a speed above 21 mph, and for a while we were gaining on the two riders ahead of us, but we couldn't sustain it and ended up in no-man's land with four riders about a minute ahead and the pack a couple of minutes behind. So we eased up a bit until the turn-around where we found that Rob and Brett had kept going to do a longer ride. The others were turning around to wait for the group. We debated doing a long ride too, but the combination of wind, sore legs, and no other riders willing to "go long" made it rather unattractive. The extra distance would have given us something like 85 miles. The ride back was pretty slow. Painfully so, if you know what I mean. By the time we got back to the service road, I was standing on the pedals to ease the pressure. Riding easy may give your legs a break, but it really takes its toll on one's nether regions. So I was glad to latch onto Matt's wheel when he appeared as we turned onto Hayne Blvd. He had started with the group, but had to turn back to deal with some sort of gastrointestinal issue, and had come back out on his track bike. It felt like I was motorpacing as I sat on his wheel and he pulled me down the road at 27 mph. Matt was riding kind of a high fixed gear and I was impressed with his power climbing the overpasses. Back on Lakeshore Drive, I eased up and waited for the remains of the group to catch, riding back uptown with Gina where I was finally able to take a good look at her brand new team-issue Fuji. She had gotten it built up a couple of days ago at Adam's with nice Shimano Dura-ace and Velomax wheels. It has those new FSA cranks and the hollow axle that goes all the way across so you can see through to the other side. Very nice stuff. Mark at Adams did a great job of getting her handlebars low enough - always a challenge for a small rider on a "compact" frame. He substituted the regular top headset piece for a much shorter one and installed a stem with a slightly negative slope, so her position looks pretty good.

I was surprised that I didn't feel better today, especially after having such a good ride yesterday. I think all that wine last night had something to do with it, though.

The Enon Eagle

Miles: 73
Wine: 1.5L

Saturday morning was crisp and clear and I was a little disappointed that none of the Southshore riders showed up for the winter training ride. I knew it would be kind of cold for the 8 a.m. ride out of Abita Springs - the thermometer in the car was reading about 38 or so - but I was up for a good long ride in the country. There were only seven of us as we headed North into the wind, and one of the guys was doing his first ride with us and was planning on turning back at some point. Still, I was surprised that I didn't feel colder. The group was steady and after the first 10 miles or so we settled down into a steady pace of 22 mph or so, punctuated by the usual sign sprints and a few nice surges. After we turned off of Tung Road, heading North toward Enon, I looked for the eagle I had seen on a previous ride. Sure enough, I spotted him just as he landed on the very top branch of the tallest pine tree at the edge of a large field. At least I think that was he. It definitely wasn't one of the millions of turkey buzzards common around here, and it didn't look like the regular of red-tail hawks I oftn see, so I'm going with the eagle thing. I think I'll call him the Enon Eagle.

We rode through Enon and after a few miles headed West, eventually looping back around to Enon. On the way back, I was still feeling kind of frisky and surged up the long watchtower hill with one other rider and we kept the pressure on pretty much all the way back to Tung Road where we all regrouped. The rest of the way back was pretty steady and quick, thanks to the (finally!) nice tailwind. I must say I really enjoyed the ride, even though I knew my legs would be complaining later in the afternoon.

Saturday night was the annual NOBC banquet. Around 6:00 Brian, Laura, Branden, Amy, Robin and Mark started arriving with ice anddrinks and all kinds of food. The guy doing the catering arrived right on time and everything was great by the time club members and their guests started arriving. Laura had the Verge fit-kit so that we could see how the new team uniforms would fit and Amy had sketches of the new uniform design. I took a quick head count at one point and I think we had 50-60 people. Much wine was consumed, along with some nice stuff like crawfish stew etouffe and king cake. I had way too much wine (as Laura said, those Austalians make some pretty good cabernet) and after cleaning up got home around 12:30.

A good time was had by all.

"It was a Blustery Day . . ."

The cold front that came through, finally, yesterday evening brought with it a strong but erratic North wind. Some time in the early morning hours, I heard the heater kick on in the house for the first time in quite a while. It was quite a bit colder, in the mid-40sF, than what we've had the last couple of weeks, and although I was wearing long tights and a heavy LS jersey with vest on top, I was wishing I hadn't forgetten to put on some light shoe-covers. I'm sure it was mainly due to the wind that my hands and feet were feeling cold, but anyway, they were! I was surprised to find the skies still cloudy this morning, but not surprised to find only two other guys for the Friday morning ride. Actually, there was just Mark for the first few miles, but soon John rode up from behind and we got a little paceline going to ease the pain as we plodded our way out to Kenner. Mark said that a few of them had ridden yesterday morning before the rains came.

The strong wind made it easy to find the sweet spot in the draft, which often put my handlebars about even with the hips of the rider in front of me. That's what I call a crosswind! I always find it a little difficult to ride like that. Perhaps it's just that smaller riders like me tend to get blown around a bit more, particularly in crosswinds, but at any rate it makes it hard to relax when you have to constantly monitor where you are in the draft and how close you are the wheel of the guy in front, who is himself being blown around by the wind.

About half-way out, just after John joined us, Luke went sailing past on his TT bike, head down, on the aero-bars. I'm not exactly sure what his training plan is, since the first time trials on the calendar aren't until mid-February and mid-March, and they're fairly low-key events way at the other end of the state. Maybe he was just pressed for time this morning and the TT bike was handy. We were slogging along at 18-20 mph, depending on the wind direction, and watched as he slowly rode off down the road. Eventually, he sat up, we passed him, and he turned around and headed back. We also ran into Robin and, near the end of the ride, saw a few more riders on their way out. Don't know why they were starting so late, though.

I felt like I got a pretty nice little workout this morning despite the slow speed. That relentless wind and the small group added quite a bit to the effort.

Tomorrow will be a long ride across the lake (I sure hope some riders show up!), then the club banquet that night which will likely be 60 people or so. I planning on doing the Giro ride on Sunday, which I haven't gotten to do in a couple of weeks at least.

The Daughter is off for Denver with the team today, although it looks like she will again not be competing because of her twisted ankle. It's a real shame because right now she's probably in the best shape she's been in since high school. I hope the team does well at this meet because the last one was definitely not a confidence-booster.

Zzzzzzzzzzz

Damnit. I forgot to set the alarm last night and woke up late. It was supposed to be raining, so I checked the Weather Channel for the radar image and it looked pretty bad, but the rain was still maybe an hour and a half away. I debated whether I should try for a short ride, but ultimately decided that I had already been caught in the rain and had enough flat tires over the last week. As it turned out, I could have gotten in 20-25 miles without getting wet, but then last time I tried that I got soaked. It's still raining and will probably continue to do so until late this evening, at which point the temperature is supposed to start dropping. Meanwhile, it's looking like we will have a big crowd for the NOBC banquet this Saturday night with the number of RSVPs now approaching 50. Got an e-mail from one of the Baton Rouge clubs saying that they may invite a few riders from France and Mexico to come down for the Tour de La. That should shake things up a bit! The last time we had Central American riders at the Tour was in the early 80's. One of them in particular didn't seem to believe that we were serious about the centerline rule, not to mention just plain dirty riding. We ended up having to DQ the guy - en Español.

Sunshine

It felt a little strange this morning to be riding out to the training ride without the thick fog that has characterized most of the last week. In fact, I was surprised at how much light there was at 6:30 a.m. There was the usual Wednesday morning group and we did an easy ride, mostly at 20-24 mph. It was particularly nice to see and feel the sun again! It is kind of hard right now to remember that it's only mid-January. The temperature when I awoke was at least 65F, and I think the predicted high for today was around 78F. I tried to enjoy it as much as a could, because the forecast for tomorrow is calling for rain all morning ahead of a cold front that will move in tomorrow night. Reality should hit Friday morning when the temperatures will be back in the more normal mid-40s. Of course I'm still holding out some hope of getting in a little ride tomorrow, but chances are that simply the forecast is enough to kill off tomorrow's planned "long ride."

A couple of years ago I got a box of 100 Rema tube patches and a couple of large tubes of glue, but with all the flats I've been having lately from riding in the wet, the supply is just about exhausted. I'll need to make another order from the folks at biketoolsetc.com soon.

Meanwhile, we've been getting ready for the club's annual banquet this Saturday, and details are being finalized for the new jersey order, so there have been lots of e-mails flying around among club members. Amy and Laura have done a great job, getting us some great deals on the clothes. In addition, they've decided that the club can afford to give a FREE pair of shorts to everyone who buys a jersey. Suchadeal! So I'll have to check the checking account at some point and see what I can swing, which won't be much. The Wife and I still have a trip to make up to Iowa City this month, so it's going to be real tight.

Fast and Warm

It's 5:50 a.m. and the outside temperature is around 65F. I check the calendar. Yep, it's still January. I head down to the basement, already running a bit late, and find my rear tire flat as a pancake from yesterday's wet ride. I find the big piece of shell that has punctured the casing, pry it out of the tread, and slap in a new tube. It's 6:10. The ride leaves at 6:15. I'm gonna miss it.

Out the door into the semi-darkness and it's not as foggy as it's been. I hit the levee and just keep on going, figuring the group must be at least 10 minutes down the road. Up ahead in the early morning darkness, I can see a single rider moving at a pretty good clip. Must be another one of "us" who missed the start too, so I up my pace as I hit the perpetually foggy Oschner Hospital bend in the river. As I emerge from the fog on the other side, I'm surprised to see the group riding easy just ahead and within a mile I catch. They must have left pretty late this morning. I hear that Rob is somewhere off the front, and soon the pace starts to pick up a bit. A little while later, I see Rob coming back toward the group. Must have gotten lonely out there.

We have a little tailwind and the group is comfortable at about 24 mph, but Rob has apparently had one too many expressos this morning and he can't stand it. He keeps going to the front and ramping the pace up. We're up to 26 or so now and I hear Luke somewhere behind me saying "this is crazy." Every time the pace slacks off, Rob rolls to the front and picks it up again. Finally he surges a little too hard and a gap opens. I'm feeling pretty good, so I close it quickly, but we're up to 27 or 28 now. I take a quick pull and drop back, but there's nothing but air on Rob's wheel, so I latch on, thankful that I'm small enough to get a draft off of him. I'm in the 53x15 now, and we trade pulls for a few miles at around 27 mph. I never looked back, but I knew there was plenty enough horsepower behind to keep us in check. Eventually Rob eases up a bit and soon I can hear riders coming up from behind. The group starts to stream by on the left and Rob and I work our way into the line. Rob starts to roll up the right side just as Donald slides over in front of him. Rob mumbles something and pounds on his handlebars. Everything stays together for a few more miles and then as we near the turn-around it surges up to 29 and 30.

The return trip starts out at an easier pace as the group reassembles itself. Some riders eased up about a mile before the end to give themselves a little recovery time and so its a couple more miles before everyone is together again. There's some conversation as the group bunches up and things stay a little more steady, around 24 mph mostly, for a long time, but eventually Rob starts pushing the pace again. The second half of the return trip has six or seven riders rotating at the front with everyone else sitting on the back. Ronnie is the gatekeeper. Everytime I drop back, he opens a gap and tells me to get in. He's doing that with each rider as he drops back. The pace fluctuates a bit, from 24 to 26, but it's good. Rob is still kind of hyper, riding up alongside guys who aren't pulling fast enough and getting frustrated because The Donald is riding too far over to one side or the other. By the time we get back to Jefferson Playground it's not quite 8 a.m. yet and we've about made up all of the lost time from the late start.

Thanks, no doubt, to the warm weather, today's long levee ride was pretty fast and I really enjoyed it even though I could hear that little voice in my head telling me it's too early to be going this hard.

"Plan(s) B"

Some unexpected complications on Thursday and Friday! The Daughter's team, having been stuck in Iowa due to the snowstorm, had to activate "Plan B" and didn't arrive in Gainesville until Friday. Thursday night, The Daughter called to tell us that she wasn't going to be competing. The coaches, realizing that the team would not be in exactly the best shape mentally or physically for this one, took her out of the lineup because her ankle was still swollen and it wasn't worth risking more injury. This particular meet doesn't "count" toward the team average that determines their ability to qualify for Regionals of Nationals. We were pretty much already committed to going to Gainesville, so that didn't really change our plans. However, the car dealership called on Thursday to tell us they wanted $2,400 do fix the car. That being about $1,500 more than I was prepared to spend, we switched to "Plan B" and retreived the car after paying the $90 ransom, aka "inspection fee." I'll have to try and find a mechanic who can do this work at a (much) more reasonable rate. I guess the dealership would prefer to sell me a new car rather than work on an old one.

So we drove to Gainesville in the rented Dodge Neon, which was OK except for its lack of cruise control. I guess I can't complain about that with a $10/day car. It actually had a cassette player (didn't think they still made cars with those) so we were able to use our adapter to connect the iPOD to it, and I was therefore subjected to 18 hours of mostly soft piano-bar jazz that The Wife likes. That stuff sounds nice after a couple of glasses of wine, but it isn't exactly what I'd call travelling music.

Anyway, the gymnastics meet was fun to watch, although Iowa had a really bad meet as one might have expected. The Brother and his family drove up from Orlando to see the meet so we had a nice visit. One of his kids who is at the university in Tallahassee coaches gymnastics a few hours a week and has a girlfriend in Gainesville. Anyway, I put a few photos that I took up on my Ofoto site. http://www.ofoto.com/I.jsp?c=1wczx0e.b6of55p7&x=0&y=1ynw51

The Sunday winter training ride was pretty nice, depsite the constant fog and mist, and we had a good 65-mile ride with ten guys at a pretty steady pace. A few of us were pushing the pace ever so slightly, and after my two-day rest my legs were feeling pretty good. I got up a bit early this morning and headed out to the levee in more thick fog. As I might have expected, the levee was deserted. The only other rider I saw was a commuter on her way to work. I guess everyone else looked out the window, saw the wet streets and fog, and pulled the covers up over their heads. Anyway, I got in a nice quick 20 miles at mostly 20 mph, arriving back home in time to bring the rental car back on the way to work, which, by the way, I need to get back to . . .

Complications, Complications

Life feels rather disorganized and chaotic right now. My secure and cozy routine keeps getting disrupted, and that, combined with too much coffee this morning, has me a little jumpy. This morning I did a double-take at the thermometer, not quite believing the mid-60s predawn outside temperature. Luckily, I had noticed my front tire was flat last night, so at least I didn't have that little surprise at 6 a.m. I headed out into the thick humid darkness in just a single jersey and shorts. It seemed too good to be true for a January morning, even down here. When I arrived at the levee, there were only a few guys there and someone mentioned somethng about rain on the radar, but by the time we got past the playground there were around a dozen of us. A couple of miles later the pace started to pick up as usual, but suddenly it seemed to be getting darker. Sure enough, the raindrops started to come down. Having just been sick, I was not about to get caught in a cold rainstorm, so I eased over and coasted, preparing to turn around. One of the guys passing me asked if I had a flat, and as the words left my mouth, the skies opened up on us. Like a bunch of chickens startled by a rainstorm, everyone (I think) started making U-turns. I was already rolling pretty fast, but there was no out-running this rain and within a minute I was soaked to the skin. I kept pushing the pace a bit because I didn't want to get cold. We were almost back to the Huey P. Long bridge when the wind suddenly shifted 180 degrees, from South to North and the rain eased up a bit. The rest of the ride home was in a light drizzle, and when I got home I stripped down, dupmed everything into the washer, and headed up from the basement straight to the shower after disassembling my headlight which had already gone whacko, shuttling automatically through all four flashing modes. So at least I got a ride in to work with The Wife who had an 8:30 meeting, after which we went out to rent the car for the weekend trip to Florida ($9.99/day weekend rate - whoo hooo!) and drop the Volvo off at the dealer for exploratory surgery that will probably cost me another large sum of cash. The special rental car rate was too good to pass up, even if it meant getting the economy Dodge Neon with no CD player or cruise control. I guess The Wife can listen to her soft jazz on the iPOD and I'll end up listening to trucker country music on the radio (unless she goes out and buys the FM transmitter for the iPOD that she's been threatening to get). Meahwhile, The Daughter and her team had gotten booked on three different flights through Minneapolis instead of Chicago. They should all arrive in Gainesville some time around the end of the day today. They are already going to be up against a few teams like UCLA and Alabama with multiple ex-olympians and world champions, so this is going to make a tough meet even tougher for them. Luckily, I guess, nobody has any great expectations from them for this meet. The Wife has already made airline reservations for a trip up to Iowa at the end of the month for their first home meet, and all of this is very bed news for my checking account! Meanwhile, I have a meeting in a few minutes and then another at 4 p.m. that will need some preparation, and I've already had too much coffee.

Weather Woes in Corn Country Update

Just got off the phone with The Daughter. All flights to Chicago got cancelled this morning so the team, which is supposed to be in Florida right now, is still hunkered down in the Iowa snow. Looking at the university webcam right now, it looks like they've got quite a bit of snow still coming down. They're hoping to make it out tomorrow morning to get there in time for the meet, although they will miss the big banquet tonight and their workout time tomorrow. Meanwhile, her ankle, which she crunched pretty badly a couple of days ago doing a double pike on floor, is still not well so it's entirely possible she won't even compete.

Springtime in January

I went out to ride this morning with two summer jerseys and arm-warmers and was quite overdressed! This is January, right?? I shouldn't complain, I know. The weather was great and other than some patches of thick fog, we had a nice training ride with about a dozen guys, mostly around 22-24 mph. Just what I needed. Con N., our resident Aussie, was on his last ride with us - he's moving to San Mateo, CA this week. I often wish I could just pack up and move like that, but it would take months for me to rip up all my roots from the sticky grey clay mud of New Orleans. The Daughter is hopefully in the air right now somewhere between Chicago and Gainesville, assuming the delays out of Chicago haven't screwed up the team's flight plans. They'll be competing in the Super Six Challenge meet on Friday, and we are planning on driving over there in time for the meet after dropping the Volvo off at the mechanic and renting a car for the trip. They should have live online scoring during the meet via the U. Fla. website for those who can't be there.

Laura has sent out the first notice for the new team uniforms. We'll have a new title sponsor this year which means new colors, plus a number of other sponsor changes and a new supplier, so it should all be fun. One thing I've found about cycling teams is that there's nothing like a new batch of jerseys to spike up the level of excitement. I sent out the Evite for the annual Club Banquet, which we'll again be having on the roof of The Mom's condo near Audubon Park.

This bike racing stuff just keeps getting more expensive! I need to renew my USCF racing license and official's license ($85), my club membership ($35), buy at least a team jersey and shorts ($105), and replace the worn-out chainrings, cassettes, tires, etc. on my bike ($350 easy). Boy I sure miss the days of $10 licenses and $2 entry fees!

Fogged Up

It was dark and very foggy this morning up on the levee and I was kind of surprised how many people showed up. One thing that it looks like we won't be dealing with any time soon, however, is cold weather. You would think it was March around here lately with high temperatures from 68 to 81 predicted for the next ten days.

I rode at the front of the group, headlight flashing into the mist, for a few miles as we headed out this morning. The fog was thick enough to keep the speed down quite a bit. As the first hint of sunlight started to filter through, I dropped back and within a couple of miles two things happened. The speed started to ramp up and I got a flat. Again. It was too early in the ride to make everyone stop, so I quietly dropped off the back to fix it. As I did, Donald dropped back too and made a U-turn to go find a few riders who had mysteriously disappeared into the fog. It turned out that Luke had had some sort of chain problem and so a few of them stopped while he fixed it. A couple of minutes later they came by as I was fixing my flat, checking to make sure I had everything I needed as they passed. I took my time fixing the flat. I figured it was probably a good thing for me to avoid getting caught up in the faster riding so soon after being sick. Anyway, I fixed the tire and continued on at an easy pace, then turned around when the group came by. Ended up with around 35 miles anyway, so that was OK, and by the time I got home I was pretty warm despite my fog-dampened feet.

Still feeling a little dragged-out and as I expected the sore throat is going away and the lung congestion is beginning.

A Little Mo' Bettah

Feeling a bit better this morning, I decided at the last minute to go ahead and ride. I arrived a couple of minutes late, but could see a couple of riders about a minute down the road. I decided to stick to a reasonable aerobic pace rather than a full-out chase, though, since I don't want to invite too many of those nasty microbes into my lungs today. At 21 mph I was holding them, maybe gaining a bit now and then, and after a couple of miles they seemed to slow down. That gave me a little more motivation, so I upped the pace another notch and caught them within the next mile or two. There was a nice little tailwind, so I never had to over-stress my virus laden lungs, and I latched onto Joe's wheel and stayed there as David, blissfully unaware of my presence, pulled all the way to the turnaround. The return trip was once again into a steady headwind, but it was warm and humid and nobody was in a great hurry, so we rode easy - sometimes down to 18 mph going straight into the wind, and up to 22 when it was more of a crosswind. It was a nice ride for the first day back on the bike after being sick.

My head still feels like it's stuffed with cotton, but I guess I'm improving. Haven't taken any medicine since early last night.

Much to do at work this week after such a long winter's nap . . .

Under the Weather

Around 2:30 a.m. my cell phone rang. I figured it was probably a wrong number, but answered it anyway. It was some guy from out of town who had found Gina's cell phone and redialed the most recent number to track down the owner. He said he'd leave it at the front desk at his hotel in Metairie, which is quite close to where we were supposed to meet up in the morning to drive across the lake for the winter training ride. I felt like c&*p when I woke up, but went out to the Morning Call anyway to let 'em know I was sick and someone else would need to lead the training ride. Nobody showed up, which was probably a blessing because otherwise I might have been tempted to ride. So I wisely bailed out, stopping by the hotel to pick up the cell phone, which wasn't there. It wasn't until around 10:30 when the guy called me again apologizing for forgetting to drop off the phone. I wasn't too surprised, though, since if he had been out until 2:30 a.m., he was probably not in great shape. Anyway, I eventually retreived the phone and got in touch with Gina, who can barely talk because of her sore throat, so she could pick it up. So that was pretty much the high point of my day. I'm still feeling pretty sick, so tomorrow morning is not looking very good.

The NYD Ride

There were at least 30 riders for the first levee ride of the year, thanks largely to the civilized 9 a.m. starting time. It was difficult to drag myself out there this morning, though. My sore throat continues to progress and I was up and down all night, but I just couldn't miss the New Year's Day ride, especially since the temperature this morning was around 60F. We were treated to a brisk tailwind all the way out, and with that many riders, you can probably guess what happened. The group split about half-way out, and by the time we got to the turnaround, there were only a dozen of us in the front group and we were going 29-30 mph. I had been doing my best not to do too much work, though, since I don't want this sore throat to end up as pneumonia, and it wasn't really all that hard to sit in the paceline, taking very short pulls, and retreating to the luxury of the back.

As nice as the outbound trip was, the return trip a bit of a mess. The road had been wet much of the way due to an early-morning rain shower, and in addition to a serious headwind, the group had at least five flats on the way back. The last one was mine. It was one of those slow leaks. I had noticed it was a little soft at the turnaround, but was thinking I could probably make it home before it bottomed out. No such luck, though. My regular rear training wheel is out of comission right now. It was feeling loose yesterday and when I checked it out I found that the plastic bearing retainer had cracked, so basically it was impossible to keep the bearings in adjustment. I don't know why Campagnolo would use plastic for such a thing, especially since the Record and Chorus models both use aluminum retainers. Anyway, I'll have to order a replacement, so in the meantime I'm riding my Rolf Sestriere that I usually reserve for racing only.

Back at home with a runny nose and sore throat, I'm looking forward to a day filled with pseudofed and chicken soup. Everything feels achy and the pseudoephedrine makes my hands and feet feel cold. I hope I'm better in time for tomorrow's training ride on the Northshore.