Long and Hard

Miles: 80
Powerbars: 2
Coffee: Grande

The Northshore ride today (I know what you were thinking!) was long and hard. As I left the Morning Call this morning, where I was the only person to show up, I passed Randazzo's bakery, which is just around the corner. Although it was only 7 a.m., there was a line of people out the door, across the parking lot, and half a block down the street waiting to pick up King Cakes. King Cakes are a Mardi Gras tradition, and are technically supposed to be baked between 12th night and Mardi Gras. Some of them are pretty good, especially for breakfast, but the best ones I've ever tasted are the rather rare original French style with almond paste, no purple, green and gold decoration, and a porcelin "baby" inside.

So I drove across the lake alone, listening to some sort of alternative music on Tulane's WTUL radio, which was the only station not running the usual Sunday morning talk show c&$p. The girl acting as the DJ sounded like she was half-asleep.

Although we started out with 5 riders, Charlie and one of the northshore guys turned back at 30 miles, leaving Jay S., Richard and me to do battle with the relentless wind. The plan had been to ride easy paceline for the first 30 miles to Enon, then to step it up a notch for the hilly 25 mile loop, and then to roll back to Abita Springs at a more moderate pace. As it turned out, we had an occasional tailwind on the way out and so of course things got a little bit out of hand now and then. By the time we arrived in Enon, our little 5-man group had averaged well over 20 mph and I was already feeling my quads. The loop North of Enon was great, though, even though a few of the climbs had us all begging for mercy, and we stuck to the plan, keeping the pace and effort level fairly high. As a reward, we had a nice tailwind for the final 7 miles from Plainview to Enon, and we didn't fail to take advantage of it, pushing the pace up to around 30 at times.

By the time we got back to Enon, the strain was definitely starting to show. We negotiated the Watchtower Hill at a steady pace, since nobody was really up to the usual contest for the top. At one point on the way back, after cresting a particularly painful little hill, Jay looked over at me and said he was about ready to concede the Abita Springs sign sprint! "Yeah, me too," I replied. Richard started falling off the back on some of the climbs at one point, and Jay and I were more than happy to ease up since we were hurting too.

The ride was really just what I had been looking for, since I had been planning on a good hard weekend.