Through the Fog, Smoothly

Today's ride felt almost like a repeat of yesterday, except that the group was missing a few of Tuesday's hammer-heads and the fog on the levee was a bit lighter. Elsewhere in the city there was again little hint of fog. In fact, at the spot where we meet to begin the ride, there was hardly any fog at all. I knew we'd hit a fog bank as we went around the big curve in the river near Ochsner Hospital, but I was fully expecting to pop out the other side into the sunshine. Not so! The fog stayed with us all the way out, and it wasn't until we were well on our way back that I finally turned off my headlight. As is typical for a Wednesday, we had a nice group of ten or twelve up on the levee today, and the pace stayed pretty steady at 22-23 mph with most people taking long even pulls at the front. I was glad to feel my legs returning to what passes for normal nowadays, although they still tended to "load up" rather quickly when I'd be at the front.

On the way home I stopped at the corner of Willow and Short streets. There were a couple of guys there digging a big hole in front of a large old home that had been badly damaged by the tornado. This big three-floor home was built around the turn of the century, I think, on typical brick piers about two feet off the ground. The tornado had pushed the entire structure a couple of feet to the left, toppling all of the piers and dropping the entire building down onto the ground. It's amazing that the thing didn't completely collapse, and looking at it from the front you can see that it is leaning a few degrees to the left, leaving only a foot or two between it and neighbor's home. (If I were the neighbor, I would be very nervous!) Anyway, the guys in front said they were disconnecting the gas line because the house was going to have to be demolished. Sad. The owners had been completely renovating the house (it had a few apartments in it) for at least five years and it had survived the hurricane with minimal damage. In fact, I think it still had it's original slate roof. That is, until the tornado ripped it off.

So we found a couple of last-minute tickets up to Moline for this weekend. That means that instead of driving, we'll be flying to Moline and renting a car for the hour's drive to Iowa City. At $550 for two round-trip tickets, I guess it is worth saving 24 hours of driving, especially considering the forcast that calls for rain and snow.

The Unexpected

I was none too happy crawling out of bed this morning when I felt the soreness in my legs. They were obviously still unrecovered from the weekend, and now I was about to subject them to the long Tuesday ride. Of course my coach would tell me to skip the group ride today, but luckily I don't have one of those. It is still a little on the dark side at 6 am, so I clipped on my tail light, but left the headlight on the table since I was running a little late and it's kind of a pain to clamp it onto the bars.

Heading out to the levee, it was fairly warm and windless, and as I turned onto Freret St. and hopped the streetcar tracks I was looking forward to the ride and thinking we'd have a pretty good group. Way down the road, though, something looked wrong. It was fog and it was completely unexpected, at least by me. There had been not a trace of fog at my house, but by the time I hit the levee it was really thick. My glasses were immediately rendered useless and spent the rest of the morning in my pocket, and by the time we were a mile down the road my arms and legs were wet and there was a steady drip coming from the front of my helmet. I was already wishing I had taken the time to put the headlight on the bike. Luckily, there were a lot of riders today, many of whom had lights, but few were willing to ride very fast given the lack of visibility. I was pretty sure the unexpected fog was going to force us to cut the ride short because our reduced speed would get us back too late. Somewhere past the Country Club -- I don't know exactly where because it was so foggy -- Big Richard suddenly dropped back mumbling something about his crankarm coming loose. By the time the riders in the back of the paceline got up to the front to tell the riders up there to slow down, Richard was already lost back in the fog. We couldn't tell if he had stopped, turned around, or just slowed down. Robin had a multi-tool, so he turned around to find Richard and quickly disappeared into the mist as well. The group waited there on the levee for maybe three or four minutes, and then decided to ride and let them catch us on the way back. Eventually the fog started to lift and the pace picked up, but most of the group turned around at the first 'dip' and headed back.

When we met back up with Robin and the other rider who had gone with him, we found out that they had never found Richard. I guess he was still able to pedal reasonably well and had just booked it on home on a "crankarm and a prayer." Anyway, most of the way back there were just a few of us rotating at the front and then a bunch of people tagging along behind. I didn't look back but I wouldn't be surprised if The Donald was back there pulling the group while staying four or five bike-lengths back. He does that, you know.

So I get to work after making stops at the bank ATM machine and the Post Office, and after a while I hear the sound of a really big and low helicopter. I look out the window to see a huge 'copter with "United States of America" on it, flanked by two other Army-green ones. The news had said that the President was supposed to be down here around Thursday, but who knows? This helicopter made a loop over the city and then headed over to the area where the tornado had touched down, so maybe the prez was making an unexpected early visit?

Suddenly Spring?

Of course I know it cannot last. It's still only February and even here in the deep south there is yet ample time for the inevitable return of winter. The stormy forecast for last night, however, pretty much missed the mark, and for once the weather gods smiled on the Sunday northshore training ride. I stepped out the door around 6 a.m. into the pleasantly warm air, loaded up the car, and headed for the 7:30 training ride some 35 or 40 miles to the north. After a brief stop for coffee at Puccino's, I swung by the Morning Call to verify my suspicion that I'd be the only southshore rider on the northshore ride. I wonder how so many riders can pass on the opportunity do these rides. Certainly they cannot believe another hammer session out to Slidell and back to be even remotely comparable.

So we had seven riders and a plan to ride 85 miles today. At the start, the temperature was probably around 60F. I knew my arm-warmers and knee-warmers would be coming back in the pockets as the sky cleared and the pace quickened. Every surge up a hill reminded me that my legs were still sore from yesterday's Giro Ride, and I tried to ignore the burn I felt every time I pushed hard on the pedals. Jay was having some kind of issue with his shifters today, but the group wasn't too inclined to stop for a repair session. The route took us way up around Pine, Mississippi where the terrain is hilly, the roads are smooth, and there's an intersection about every half-mile. I was completely lost after the tenth turn, but took some comfort in the fact that the route was mostly marked with painted arrows from a previous ride. We fought a strong but variable wind all day long, and with 30 miles still to go my legs were really starting to complain. I shifted into conservation mode, taking shorter pulls and avoiding sudden accelerations. After a stop on Tung Road to pump a little more air into Jorge's leaking rear tire, I finally arrived back at the start with 85 miles on the odometer and a layer of salt on my face. Damn, I like riding when it's warm!

Back at home, it suddenly looked a lot like spring. Standing on the front porch, awash in the smell of the big Sweet Olive tree, I could see the azalea and camellia blossoms ready to emerge on the foliage down below. Above, the season's new leaves were already budding from the Oak Tree. I fired up the laptop and enjoyed the sketchy but free live video coverage of the final stage of the Tour of California. The website is pretty impressive, although I think they probably grossly underestimated their bandwidth needs. It was nice to see Levi go start to finish in yellow despite a concerted effort by CSC to upset the Discovery applecart. It was upsetting, however, to find that George H had broken his radius in yesterday's crash and will be out of commission for a month or so. Anyway, the Disco boys rode well and delivered the goods, although I think they may be feeling a little wiped out around now.

The contrast with The Daughter's situation up in Iowa was striking. After a Saturday afternoon meet in Minneapolis, they were forced to stay overnight because of a big ice storm before taking their bus ride back early this morning. When she arrived back in Iowa City, the power was still out from the ice storm and the windshield on her Jeep had cracked all the way across, presumably from the cold or ice or hail or something. Down here, it looks like we will at least have a few more days of this spring-like weather, and I'm not complaining about that one bit.

Baby Blues at the Giro Ride

The temperature was actually in the 60s this morning, and it felt like quite a treat to be able to ride in summer gear today. Somehow I always feel faster when I'm not fully encased in multiple layers of lycra. Although the temperature was great, it was accompanied by a strong southeast wind, and the combination resulted in a fairly fast Giro Ride. Also adding to the speed this morning was, no doubt, the NBO guys in their brand new "baby blue" team kits. They look like they're the same color as last year's Gerolsteiner kits - very visible, f'sure. I think our own new team kits are supposed to arrive in a couple of weeks. Also on hand today was a rider from Maine who is in town for a conference and has only ridden outside a couple of times so far this year. Although he flatted at some point, he did fine.

Once we crossed the bridges on the way out the pace very gradually started to ramp up, and eventually we were staying in the upper 20s riding into a pretty brisk wind. Things never really slowed down much at all, and at times it really started to feel like it was a race. We got a brief break after the turnaround, but it wasn't long before we were back up to speed. After the Chef Highway sprint, there again wasn't much of a break and I ended up chasing most of the way down the service road. There were lots of splits like that today. I was happy to find my legs feeling pretty good, though, and thoroughly enjoyed the ride even though I didn't have much left by the time we finally hit the bridges again.

After the ride I rode downtown with Jack Beaudoin from Maine, finally arriving back home with something over 70 mi. on the odometer.

Lots of work to do this weekend for LAMBRA: I need to fill out some forms for the IRS and Secretary of State related to LAMBRA's "corporate" status; the website needs to be updated with the revised 2007 Bylaws and LCCS Rules and Regulations; I need to move the 2006 LCCS results to the website's archive, and then set up the pages for the 2007 results and get the results from the recent track meets scored for the LCCS. Still need to apply for the permit for the 2-Man Time Trial and Tour de La, and update those event announcements and get the online registration set up for those. Might not be able to get to all of that this weekend!

Oh Yeah, It's Coming

When they think of Spring, most people imagine flowers and butterflies and soft green grass. These people do not live underneath Live Oak trees. Those of us who do, think about piles of stiff brown leaves on the ground and buck moth caterpillars. This morning the streets around the house were covered with leaves, which we all know is a sure sign of Spring around here. For some reason, these old Oaks always seem to drop more leaves in the Spring than in the fall. With exquisite timing, the neighborhood buck moth caterpillar spray coordinator had stuck the annual sign-up sheet in my mailbox yesterday. Although the annual ritual of the Spraying of the Oaks is organized through the city's Department of Parks and Parkways, it still costs ME the sum of $65 per tree to treat THE CITY'S trees. Now, being the frustrated researcher that I am, I have for the past ten or fifteen years had only the tree in front of the house sprayed, leaving the one in the back to fend for itself against the hungry lepidopteran larvae. Frankly, I can discern no difference whatsoever between the health of the two trees despite the fact that the leaves of one of them are ravaged each year.

The weather today was a bit warmer, and although I chose knee-warmers and two jerseys, it would have been quite feasible to go with shorts, jersey and arm-warmers today. Even better than the warmer air was the increasingly early sunrise. That makes it so much easier to get out of bed and on the road. Not surprisingly, there was a fairly big group today, especially for a Friday ride. As we headed out, we saw Joe F on his way in. There is a little article about Joe in the Newspaper today, by the way, entitled "The Best Revenge." I haven't had a chance to find an actual paper copy of the "paper" so I don't know if they included a photo or not. If any of us are still going out at age 77 to meet the morning training rides, we'll be lucky! Another sign that Spring is coming is the sudden journalistic interest in local cycling by freelance authors. Yesterday I spoke with a local writer who is doing a story on the levee bike path, and just a minute ago I was speaking with someone from Bicycling who is doing a story on traditional city group training rides (i.e. the Giro Ride).

The ride today was a bit faster than a typical Friday ride, but it was still quite nice. The prospects for Sunday, weather-wise, are not too good at the moment, so it's good that today's ride wasn't too easy. Hopefully we'll get enough of a break Sunday morning to allow us to get in a long ride. You never know about the weather around here.

Hints of Spring

I hate the 50s. When the temperature is in the 40s I know what to wear, and when it's in the 60s I likewise know what to wear, but the 50s are tough. As you may have guessed, it was in the 50s this morning when the 5:45 alarm sounded. I debated what to wear, or not wear, for a while and finally settled on a summer jersey underneath my Pearlizumi Kodiak. It was a little chilly at the start, and a little warm at the end.

There was a pretty big group this morning for the long Thursday levee ride, and somewhere in there were a few hints of spring. For example, Robin was there today. Of course, the big hint that spring might be coming was the warmer weather and the larger turnout that included a few guys like Brady who we don't see too regularly. Even Realdo showed up toward the end of the ride. Realdo will be moving to Mauritus some time around mid-summer. Should be interesting!

Despite the healthy turnout, though, the pace wasn't particulary fast, and a bunch of guys turned around early. The rest of the group kept up a nice brisk pace all the way out to the turnaround through a steadily increasing fog. By the time we started back my glasses were clouded with water and the fog was just getting thicker and thicker. I suppose that must have been one reason that we went back so slowly. For sure I shouldn't be complaining. I'm still not feeling quite back in the groove, training-wise, so it was probably a good thing that the pace remained moderate today. Actually, I enjoyed the ride today despite the fog, and I'm hoping I can somehow maintain some reasonable level of fitness with this one-week-on / one-week-off training program I seem to be stuck with this year.

After being off of work Monday and Tuesday, I'm surprised that tomorrow it will already be Friday. What a short work week! I ended up spending a lot of time today dealing with various LAMBRA issues. The Association needs to get registered with the state, and we need to finally straighten out the name change that happened a few years ago when we went from being the Louisiana Bicycle Racing Association to being the Louisiana-Mississippi Bicycle Racing Association. Not quite sure exactly how we are going to deal with that yet. To the IRS, we're LABRA, and to the bank we're LAMBRA, the state doesn't know about us yet, and USA Cycling knows us as LAMBRA but our W-9 says LABRA. It's kind of messy, but I'm sure we'll get it all straightened out soon.

Ash Wednesday in NOLA

At midnight last night the police, followed by the street-cleaners, came down Bourbon and cleared the streets, both literally and figuratively. At least that's what is supposed to happen, and I assume it did. Perhaps one day I'll stay long enough to witness that. Today is Ash Wednesday, and befitting a day that reminds one of the inevitible, it started out gloomy, dark and rainy. So once again I skipped the morning ride and headed in to work early through a light rain. How depressing is that? At my age, I hardly need more than a look in the mirror to be reminded that I am well on my way to ashes! I can only imagine what I would have felt like this morning had I done the whole Mardi Gras thing down in the Quarter. Then again, maybe it would have been worth it......

By noon, though, the wind had shifted and the sky had cleared and I was left wishing I was out on the bike rather than looking out the window. The temperatures are supposed to stay a bit on the warm side for a while now with highs around 70, and I'm pretty happy about that. I desperately need a solid week of riding at this point as I have had to resort to calorie restriction the last couple of weeks to keep from getting fat! Meanwhile, The Wife's desktop computer at work finally crashed big-time and she had to go home to work on her laptop. That was right after I fixed my flaky cellphone.

Over the past week, my cellphone has started acting up. I would go to make a call, or receive one, and could not hear anything. After some experimentation, I discovered that everything seemed to work fine when it was in speakerphone mode, so I guessed that the problem must be with the earpiece speaker itself. Surgery was called for. It was a little bit of a pain removing the tiny Torx-head screws with my Leatherman needle-nosed pliers, but once I got the circuit board out I saw that the connection to the speaker depended on a couple of spring-loaded contacts. Hmmm. That's never a good thing. In fact, I've found it to be a common cause of bike computer problems as well. Cleaning those off with a piece of paper towel seems to have solved the problem, although I suspect that the phone's dying battery has had a role in the problem too. Anyway, that's likely to be my biggest success of the day. I think that if the phone continues to work properly for a few more days, I'll spring for a replacement battery.

Fat Tuesday

Monday was the long 14 hour drive back to NOLA from IC. From 8 am until around 5 pm we fought a strong wind that cut about 6 mpg from the mileage and made it difficult to relax. Along the way the temperature gradually rose from around 20F up to nearly 70F. On the plus side, it was looking like it would definitely not be a cold Mardi Gras.

Tuesday morning I got in a quick 30 miles on the levee. By the time I got home, the parade trucks were already lining up along South Claiborne Avenue and the Mardi Gras music was already blaring. I loaded up a messenger bag (which was a mistake), we jumped on the bikes, and headed down to Napoleon Ave., arriving just in time to see Rex. After the parade, we walked all the way down to the French Quarter where I spent an hour or so taking pictures on Bourbon and Royal streets. I was kind of disappointed this year. I guess it was still a little early (around 3 pm) so the crowds weren't as thick or lively as they are later in the evening. It's around 10:30 right now, and I guess things are pretty interesting about now. Anyway, you can take a look at my Mardi Gras photos. The earlier ones are from the Rex parade, and the latter ones are from the French Quarter.

Results

We were at the gym before 10:30 for a 2:00 meet against Oklahoma today. Luckily there was a little informal get-together for the team parents who were in town, so we hung around until about 12:30 when they let us into the competition gym at the U. Iowa Fieldhouse. We weren't expecting to win this one (we didn't), but the goal was to post another high team score and put in a good, solid performance. The team got results on both counts with their second-highest score of the season. I have to admit that hanging around a gym for something like seven hours can get a bit tedious. Luckily they had a "mobile" wireless network running so that they could update the live scoring website, so those of us "in the know" were able to connect and do important things like check our Sunday email. One thing I was able to do while the meet was going on was to check out the results of the Sustina 100 Up in Alaska. Jill spent 21 hours riding a mountain bike over 100 miles in weather that most of us wouldn't drive to the grocery store in. Not impressed? Her boyfriend Geoff set a new (unofficial) course record by *running* the 102 miles in 21:40. Nearly 21 hours running, off-road, on snow, much of it in the dark. I dunno. I'm impressed. The results of the Prologue stage of the Tour of California were also worth checking out this evening, and I see Levi rocketed up Telegraph hill at a pace that would challenge normal bike racers on the flat. Even more impressive? How about Colorado rider Jason Donald, who was only one second behind Levi's time? I'll have to get back to work on some LAMBRA things on Tuesday or Wednesday - need to wrap up the new Track LCCS rules, and see if there's anything I can do to help Shane sort out LAMBRA's annual financial report to USA Cycling. Recordkeeping and bookeeping was apparently not so good with LAMBRA the last few years, but I think Shane can get it all straightened out pretty soon so we can get the rest of our funds from USAC and be better prepared to submit the necessary reports next year.

So anyway, we'll be back on the road bright and early tomorrow for the return trip to NOLA. Since Tuesday is Mardi Gras, we're off from work 'till Wednesday, so that makes it a little easier. Still, I am expecting to spend Mardi Gras out and about taking in the sights and snapping a few photos. It's looking like the weather should be pretty good this year.

The car is an absolute mess from driving through all of the dirty slush in the streets around here. Since the temperature still hasn't gotten above freezing, as far as I can tell, it's just not possible to do things that you would ordinarily take for granted -- like wash the car or use the automatic windshield washer that's been frozen up since Friday. Maybe we'll find a gas station carwash on the road down south where water exists in its liquid form. I did discover various brands of windshield de-icer stuff at the local drugstore. Interesting. It's mostly a mixture of methanol and ethylene glycol.

Routine?

I have to admit that as much as I like to travel and do new things, deep at heart I am a creature of habit. There is something to be said for having a comfortable routine that minimizes stress and makes efficient use of time. My visits to Iowa City have their own routines. The only trouble is that I never seem to know what they are.

First thing this morning, The Wife wanted to go get some coffee down the street at Java House. I looked out the window at the snow-covered and unplowed street, the steep driveway, and the snow encrusted car and though "this is going to be fun!" Actually, this sort of thing was a lot more fun back in rear wheel drive days. Front wheel drive really takes all the challenge out of driving on ice. Around 11:00 I was able to get in an hour on one of the exercise bikes at one of the university's "fitness lofts." I always wonder "why am I the only one here dripping sweat?" I don't know what these people are doing on the treadmills and elliptical machines, but if they aren't even sweating, it must not be too much. Anyway, such was the highlight of the day. There were two trips to the mall, which I hate, dinner at HuHot, and then a visit to the coach's new house, which was quite nice.

Right now I'm having trouble holding my eyes open. I should probably get some sleep.....

A Car Day

When we left New Orleans at 5:30 a.m. this morning, it was 34F. After driving North around 950 miles, that was the highest temperature the thermometer recorded for the day. The weather was pretty good until we left St. Louis, at which point the clouds started to move in. Just after dusk it started to snow. We were driving up Highway 61 and until the salt trucks got the situation under control, it was pretty hard to see where the road ended and the cow pasture started, so I spent a long time following a semi. The farther we got from St. Louis, the more snow we saw on the ground. Iowa City hasn't seen a temperature above freezing in over two weeks, so there's a lot of snow on the ground and even more falling as I write. Saw one guy riding a mountain bike in IC as we drove in.

Once Again, Only Colder

Yesterday's strong gusty wind was still with us this morning, and when I noticed that the temperature was about nine degrees colder I almost stayed under the covers. But with a long weekend of snow and sub-freezing temperatures awaiting me in Iowa City, I just put on an extra layer, slapped on the chap-stick, and headed out. I have come to be quite fond of the cozy warm knee-warmers I picked up a few months ago, and whenever I wear them underneath my long tights, my legs stay nice a warm even when it's windy like today.

As you might have guessed, there were only a few people for today's ride. In fact, when I arrived at the usual upriver meeting spot (a bit late), it was deserted. I peered down the bike path searching for blinky red lights, but saw none, so I resigned myself to a long, lonely and hard ride. You know I was glad a mile later when I came across Jeff, Donald and Keith at the playground. Three people to battle today's winds made all the difference, especially since the long straight stretch from the playground to the country club was practically straight into the wind.

I think that Donald must have artificial knees or something. Here I am with two layers over most of my legs and still quite comfortable, and Donald is out there in shorts. Go figure. It certainly wasn't slowing him down any. Somewhere along the way Howard joined in for a while, but eventually he and Jeff headed off for home leaving the three of us to make the final run in to the playground. After that I was on my own. This morning I took a little detour to check out some of the tornado damage on Zimple and Freret Streets. The worst spots were still inaccessible because of trucks and debris blocking the roads. I snapped a few photos from the corner. Numerous large houses had just been cleanly de-roofed. There was nothing left above the ceiling joists. I looked at the photos later, and they just don't even begin to compare with what it looks like in person. These were solid overbuilt houses built between 1860 and 1920, for the most part, and I suppose that's the only reason that they weren't completely obliterated. It's both incredible and scary, because there's no feasible way to build a house to withstand that sort of thing.

The forecast for Friday in IC is calling for warmer temperatures (i.e. into the 20s), but with snow starting around nightfall. I don't suppose ice will be a problem since it hasn't been above freezing up there since we visited a couple of weeks ago. If you think you're tough about the cold and need to be brought back to reality, you can follow Jill's 100 mile ride at the Sustina 100 website this weekend. Granted, this sort of thing is just one step short of complete insanity, but it's impressive nonetheless.

So Much Colder

"Damn, I should have worn my windstopper jersey," said Donald. He was riding alongside me, inexplicably wearing shorts, as we pedaled into a gusting north wind at the start of the Wednesday morning ride. Perhaps I was just a bit overdressed, but I was wearing shorts plus long tights, shoe covers, a base layer of an old jersey, a long-sleeved jersey over that, a windstopper "bib", and Pealizumi Kodiak jersey over that, plus a skullcap and long gloves. Even so, my arms and feet were cold by the time I got back home. The temperature had dropped fairly significantly since Tuesday and the wind was strong and gusty, so I hadn't skimped on the clothes this morning. There was only a handful of us on this grey overcast day - Donald, Jeff, John, Keith. Much of the ride was in a crosswind, and there were times where staying in the sweet spot of the draft meant having my front wheel in front the pedals of the guy in ahead of me. It required a fair amount of concentration as the wind occasionally blew riders off their lines. At one point near the turnaround I was riding alongside Donald chatting and suddenly found myself too close to the edge. Rather than try and save it (which almost never works), I just bailed and took a little cross-country ride down the levee for a bit before I could safely get back up onto the asphalt.

The area where the tornado came through yesterday morning is still a disaster area. It is really sad to see some of the big old homes from the 1860s that have survived all of the hurricanes and floods, ripped to shreds like that. Some of them just don't look to me like they can possibly be repaired. There are homes where the entire roof and a whole wall are simply gone as if they were neatly sliced off with a knife. A quarter mile in another direction and it might have been me.

So the tooth is still rather painful and I would have gone back to the endodontist today so he could correct the bite, but The Wife had the car tied up at a meeting all day so I couldn't. Now it will probably be another week because we're supposed to be driving up to Iowa this weekend, and of course Tuesday is Mardi Gras, so nothing is going to happen until Wednesday at the earliest. Hopefully the problem is with irritation and isn't bacterial.

Tornado in the Neighborhood

Around 2 a.m. I was stirred from my slumber by an unusual number of police, ambulance and fire truck sirens out on S. Clairborne Ave. While it's normal to hear these a few times every night, last night it seemed particularly persistent. I went back to sleep. Around 6:30 a.m. the streets outside were still wet from rain, so rather than ride out to the levee I got on the trainer to put in an hour of inside torture. The Wife came in shortly afterward with news of the tornado that had struck the Carrollton area where we live. While we slept, a tornado had ripped through the area abour a quarter mile from us, doing some major damage to one of my sisters' house and minor damage to the other's. I uploaded some photos I took when we went to check on her this morning - take a look. Oh yeah, The Sister confirmed that tornados really do sound like freight trains. She's still a little shaken up and most of the neighbors are all just kind of wandering around in the street in shock.

I didn't drive through the worst-hit areas, since traffic was all tied up and lots of streets were closed off or impassable because of downed trees and power lines. It's really quite a mess. At The Sister's house, large patches of roof shingles were ripped off, a tree branch damaged the roof, and another tree branch took out two of the car windows. Around the back of the house where there is a flat roof, a number of bricks from the neighbor's chimney came through the roof and landed in the bedroom. It will be a while before they have power again in that area. There are a number of large broken-off branches lodged up in the trees (aka "widomakers), and you can see the classic tornado photos of corrugated metal roofing wrapped around telephone poles. They were already on the phone with the insurance company when we arrived, and hopefully they can get the worst of it taken care of relatively quickly.

So of course I didn't get in my usual Tuesday long ride, and 45 minutes on the trainer was about all I could get in before I had to head off to check on The Sister's place. It's a conspiracy, I tell ya.'

The Sun Rises over the West Bank

Native New Orleanians always love to take their visitors down to the French Quarter in the morning and point out that the sun rises there over the west bank of the river. Indeed, there are lots of places where that happens around New Orleans because here the river tracks more of an west-east route than a north-south one.

When I woke up this morning, I was shocked. The pain in my tooth was practically gone, thanks, I suppose, either to the effect of the antibiotic or divine intervention. Based on past experience, I'm going to have to go with the former. So I went out a little early to log some miles since the temperature was in the 50s and the forecast for Tuesday morning is not good. I rode alone for quite a while, but eventually came across Howard around where I was going to turn around, so we rode back downriver together. It felt great to be on the bike this morning, even though I had a root canal in my immediate future.

I hadn't even left for work when the dentist called, and then the endodontist, setting me up for a $950 root canal at 2:15. I continued on the antibiotic I'd been taking since Sunday morning, but the pain medicine was no longer needed. So I get to the endodontist and he starts to dig in, and he and his assistant remark that it's no surprise the tooth was painful because it was kind of nasty in there. He easily found a small abscess and went to work cutting out the nerves as I lounged in the comfort of novocaine or whatever the painkiller of choice is nowadays. It all went reasonably smoothly, and although I wasn't too happy about it, at least it confirmed my infection theory. My dentist had failed to see evidence of an abscess on Friday when he took his x-ray, but then again things didn't really go south until Saturday.

So anyway, I wrote the big check and headed back to the office relieved that it had finally been taken care of. That is, until around 4:30 when I suddenly started having severe chills, complete with shivering. Damn. Some of those bacteria from the abscess, or at least their endotoxins, must have gotten loose despite the endodontist's liberal use of what smelled for all the world like diluted Chlorox. I headed home, grabbed a warm blanket and waited. Soon, the chills turned to a fever (they always do, don't they?). I had already taken a somewhat early dose of antibiotic along with an Advil, and eventually things subsided and my appetite kicked in. I figured a big bowl of vanilla ice cream was just the Root Canal Therapy (RCT) the doctor would have ordered, if I'd been able to contact one. Jorge, the club's resident dentist, had emailed me earlier, which is how I learned the special "RCT" lingo. So hopefully this little post-surgical event is over. I'll see what the endodontist says first thing tomorrow morning.

Not Riding and Not Happy About It

Last night I spent some time down in the basement cleaning the Cervelo. Although the northshore ride scheduled for today was to include some off-road sections, the weather was sure to be cool and clear, and besides, I figured the bike-cleaning ritual might net me a little luck in the toothache department. I really wanted to ride. Alas, it was not to be. I awoke to a severely painful tooth that had now progressed to the point where anything touching it produced a sharp shock. Bad sign. On the plus side, if there is one, I can now definitively identify the specific tooth that is causing the problem.

I knew immediately that a four hour ride was out of the question, even with a large dose of a banned substances, so I found some 2nd generation cepahalosporin in the 'fridge and started on it since we're probably into the active infection stage at this point. Meanwhile, the Tylenol #3 is not quite doing the job pain-wise.

As all bike racers know, this is the time of year when riders begin to feel a sense of urgency about training, and even after all these racing seasons I am no exception. While it's one thing to miss a long training ride in December, it is quite another when it happens in February. To add to my frustration, this would have been the first really solid week of training I'd had in quite a while. I swear, it seems like there is some sort of cosmic conspiracy going on to keep me from getting in shape this year. Next weekend we're scheduled to drive up to Iowa for a gymnastics meet. That will mean at least two full weekend days spent sitting down watching the scenery go by.

So I'm sitting here looking out the window at a beautiful sunny day in New Orleans as the empty Carrollton Parade floats make their way down the road to the start of the parade. I just finished setting up the track bike, which I also didn't get to ride this weekend, on the trainer, and I figure I can probably tolerate an hour or so on the damned thing at some point this afternoon. At this point, I'm actually looking forward to a root canal!

Pain Management

It was much colder this morning and the steady northeast wind made my ride out to the lakefront feel long and slow. It seemed there was a big group today and a few of the guys were pushing the pace. After we turned onto Chef Highway a couple of riders rolled off the front as the rest of the group soft-pedaled. Soon, another rider went in pursuit, then another, then me. A few more bridged up to us as we started a smooth circular paceline into the wind. Tim, Realdo, Matt, and Eddie were keeping things going pretty fast, and when we hit the turnaround, Matt headed off alone to ride out to Fort Pike. I had to laugh when we slowed down at the turnaround and one of the guys was surprised to see that Courtney was still with us. Courtney could teach a course in Giro survival. She has perfected the art of not getting dropped, and in fact was in the rotation taking pulls for much of the ride, but she knows when to rest and when to close a gap and which wheel to not be on when the pace gets hot. Anyway, the pace didn't really slow down much after that and we ended up with what seemed to me like a pretty fast ride for a cold day in February. Right about the time I turned onto Canal Blvd. with Tim and Realdo to head home, the pain returned. I had taken a couple of Advil before the ride, not wanting to be under the influence of the codeine in the "tylenol #3" I had taken the night before to combat the escalating pain in my tooth. Naturally, I flatted half-way home. Anyway, I'm glad I got in a good training ride, despite the rather exquisitely painful ride home. I suppose I have a root canal waiting for me one day next week. Can't wait.

I wonder how the track meet went today in Baton Rouge. I had to drive up there after the Giro to visit The Wife's mother, so we stopped at the track around 2:00, but the skaters had already taken over the place and there wasn't a bike to be found. So I'm sitting here wondering if I should try and make the northshore ride tomorrow morning. It will be in the 30s at the start, and I will have to deal with this damned tooth pain again, but I really need to ride. Assuming I get some sleep tonight, I guess I'll just pack some Advil and hope for the best. The Tylenol with Codeine will have to wait until I'm finished driving, although I have been rather surprised that it hasn't made me feel particularly groggy thus far.

The Daughter's team had kind of a rough meet up in Alaska yesterday. Because of the different time zone, they were competing at what their brains though was around midnight. They had three falls on beam and one of the girls tore something in her arch during warmup and might be out for the season. The compete again tomorrow before returning to Iowa.

Red Sky at Morning

It is still too dark at 6 am to leave the lights at home, but the hint of dawn does make it a little bit easier to get out the door. Last night around 9:30 as I was working on the laptop I kept hearing voices outside. Since we live near a fairly busy intersection in an old house, that isn't really unusual at all, but after the odd noises continued for a while I finally got up to have a look. Surprise! The New Orleans Police Department had set up one of their night time "checkpoints" on South Claiborne Avenue behind my house. There were six or seven police cars, a big mobile police station and DWI testing trailer, etc. The whole works. As drivers would come around the bend in the road they would be funneled into the checkpoint, leaving no way to escape. In the three or four hours they were there, there was a steady stream of cars pulled off to the side getting ticketed, or worse, for some infraction or another. Typically, these things net a few people for whom there are outstanding arrest warrants, a few drunk drivers, and miscellaneous other people who don't have liability insurance or brake tags or driver's licenses. But I digress...



So it was even warmer today - the temperature on departure was above 50F - and as approached the streetcar barn on Willow I could see that there was an entire movie film crew set up there. The road was closed (of course I rode right through it all on the bike) and the catering truck was already setting up for breakfast. Those movie people really do eat well! We had a nice-sized group for the Thursday long levee ride - I guess a dozen or so - and the pace stayed pretty brisk the whole way. I think my legs were not quite recovered from the day before, because they felt heavy and sluggish whenever I would try to put a little extra pressure on the pedals.



The wind was strange today. I guess it was coming from the northeast, and with the way the river curves, the crosswind kept switching sides on us. It would always take the guy in the lead a long time to figure it out, though, and at one point Donald planted himself on the front for a few miles and everyone who was more than five riders back was lined up along the right edge of the road without any protection. In a crosswind, you are never doing the guys at the back a favor by staying on the front. All that does it keep them from getting a draft longer. Better to keep the rotation going so that the people at the back are only without a good draft for a few pulls until they move up enough to where they can eschelon. For a little while we actually set up a second eschelon, but those never seem to survive very long.



At the turnaround I just had to pull out the camera to try and get a photo of the barge on the foggy river. Then I turned around that there was this great morning sky that, of course, never really comes out right in a photo.

This ol' world must still be spinnin' around

I stepped out the door into -- light! Between the clear morning sky and the hemisphere's increasing tilt back toward the sun, it was light enough at 6:30 to see. No blinky lights needed! I immediately thought of the lyrics to an old James Taylor song (recently recorded by Sheryl Crow too), "This ol' world must still be spinnin' around." The toothache had settled down, the weather was a bit warmer, and just before sunrise all seemed right with this little corner of the world. One layer of clothes lighter, my pace out to the levee seemed a bit easier, and when I arrived I found a good group already there and ready to go. I've still not gotten back to that happy place where the Wednesday ride seems effortless, and indeed I could feel a little soreness in my legs from yesterday's ride, but that was to be expected. It's interesting how the Wednesday ride has evolved into a consistent medium-pace day-- faster than Monday, and just a touch slower than Tuesday and Thursday. The shorter distance gets me back home with a little more energy, and so my commute to work always seems a little easier.

This morning when I walked into my office it felt like walking into an oven. The thermometer on the wall read 88F. I opened a couple of the sliding doors to the roof, but it hasn't made much of a difference. The southeast-facing wall of glass that defines our offices will be hot to the touch until early afternoon. Still, it's better than being cold.

So my brother's son, who's at the University of Florida in Tallahassee, will be bringing some friends to stay at the house the weekend before Mardi Gras while we're away in Iowa again. That weekend is always an excellent option for those who can't get away for Mardi Gras, which of course is always on Tuesday. Two of the biggest and most extravagant parades run that weekend, along with a bunch of smaller ones, and things by then are usually pretty lively down in the Quarter.

Damn, now I'm hungry for some King Cake.......

The Road Back to "Normal"

It was a long night, and I was awake even before the radio clicked on at 5:45. The pain had subsided a bit, thanks to the Ibuprofen I'd taken when it had awakened me earlier in the morning. With my head still on the pillow, I fished around on the nightstand with one hand for the combination pen/flashlight (you know, the ones that they give out at conferences) so I could read the "41F" displayed on the outdoor thermometer. That still qualifies as cold in my book, so I dressed warmly and headed for the levee. There were eight or ten guys up there today, and I was glad for it because I wasn't feeling too hot. Aside from Howard's normal surges up to 27 mph, the pace was fairly steady and I fell into a mindless training ride mode, taking short pulls, pulling off, latching back onto the end of the line. Actually, it wasn't quite the end of the line today because there were a few guys back there who were staying out of the rotation. I was riding just for the exercise today, hoping the dull toothache would remain dull, and just going along with the flow. When a little surge would open a gap in front of me, I'd just let it go and slowly reel it back in. After the turnaround, most of the group rode slowly for a few miles. I hate when they do that. The result this morning was that I started to get cold because of my now-sweaty multi-layered arctic wardrobe. Finally, the pace got back to normal, though, and I got back to the house at about the normal time.

By the time I got on the commuter for the trip to work, the temperature had already risen at least ten degrees and the air felt warm and soft as I rolled down Fontainbleau Drive toward the office. The weathermen are promising a return to normal weather, and right now it's looking pretty nice. The temperature has climbed into the 60s and a light southerly wind is bringing the humidity levels back up to normal. I didn't have much time to look out at the summer-like scenery before my tooth started to hurt again; this time rather badly. Time to call the dreaded dentist, schedule an appointment, and walk down to the drug store for some naproxen. It seems to be helping a bit, and I'm hoping I'll be able to keep it under control until my appointment on Thursday.

So I got an email today from the Aigle Rouge Sportif Club de Port-au-Prince in Haiti. It reads a bit like one of those letters you get from Nigeria, but I think it is legit. I know the club exists, anyway. We shall see. They are asking for an official invitation to the Tour de Louisiane so that they can get their expenses covered by the Haitian cycling federation. Interesting....

Plan B

Yesterday's return trip back from IC to NO was very long and tiresome. Our flight out of Moline, IL was in the late afternoon, but since we had to check out of the hotel for 1:00 and then make the hour's drive from IC to Moline, we ended up lounging around the Quad Cities airport for a bit over two hours. On the plus side, they have free wireless there. On the minus side, there's not much else. So I sat alone down at the end of the concourse, where there was an outlet to charge up the laptop's battery, catching up on work and staring out on a very quiet runway.

Our next stop was Atlanta where we had long layover, so we had a distinctly uninspiring dinner at the airport's Chili's restaurant, and then spend the next hour and a half watching the SuperBowl at Gate E-16 with a bunch of other weary travellers. At around the 2-minute warning, the person at the Delta desk walked over and asked if anyone needed tissues! The flight from ATL to NO was a typical late-night flight. The plane was full and everyone on it looked tired and grouchy. I was no exception. I was in the middle seat (we had gotten the last two seats available on that flight), and the older woman to my right looked a little eccentric. To my left was a college student adrift in iPOD land. The first thing I noticed about the woman to my right was her black and white calfskin boots. You know; the kind with the hair still on them. Soon she pulled out an Apple laptop (you knew it would have to be a Mac, right? The footwear was the clue.) and started working on some long document as if she was a writer. Eventually she shut down the computer and I waited for the inevitible. Sure enough, she looked over and asked where I was from. She was surprised that I was a "native." They always are. She told me that she had figured I was from the northeast by the way I was dressed. I wasn't sure if I should take that as a compliment or not, but anyway at least there was someone to talk to since The Wife was sandwiched between two huge people in the row ahead. As it turned out, this woman had lived in New Orleans for the past 20 years, and her husband was the author of "Breach of Faith." They have a small house in the French Quarter that they are trying to sell. So then the Katrina conversation started. They are all pretty similar. Where did you evacuate to after the storm? How was your house? What do you think about the Mayor? The Congressman? The Governor? The Corps of Engineers? Will the city recover? What about healthcare? What about the real estate market? I have to admit, it's getting tiresome. I think I may finally be coming down with "Katrina Fatigue." I was tired and uncomfortable, and I'm sure I wasn't very articulate, so I hope she forgets my name! Arrived home just after midnight. Did you notice that I didn't get to exercise? Me too.

It was really hard to get out the door this morning, which was no surprise of course, but I did it anyway. The temperature was in the low 40s, and I intentionally overdressed a bit on the assumption that I'd be going a little easier than usual. The last three or four weeks have been disasterous for what passes as my training program, or routine, or whatever it is, and the bottom line is that it will be weeks before I can get back to some reasonable level of fitness -- assuming of course that there aren't too many more interruptions. I think it's about time for Plan B. I am going to have to force myself through some evening workouts a few days a week if I am to have any hope at all of getting back to where I want to be. I guess it's time to set the track bike up on the old wind trainer.

The older I get, the more fragile my training program becomes. I'm sure that's why the only other person up on the levee at 6:40 this morning was Joe. As is typical for a Monday morning, he latched onto my wheel and stayed there the whole way. Having been off the bike so long, I was having a little trouble gauging my own effort level against the strong wind today. We passed Howard who was riding the opposite direction, but otherwise the levee was deserted today, and despite my moderate pace that ranged from 19 to 23 mph, I got home feeling sufficiently tired.

Some photos by a gastroenterologist who went to school in New Orleans and attended the Krewe de Vieux parade over the weekend are here. Consider youself warned. This Krewe always comes up with some great stuff. The theme this year was "Habitat for Insanity." You really have to keep a sense of humor about around here, you know. The themes for the various "floats" below should give you an idea:

CRUDE – CRUDE Flew into the Cuckoo’s Nest
SEEDS – Follow the Yellow Brick Road Home
CRAPS – HOME, HOME AND DERANGED
PAN – Edwards, Now More than Ever
SPERMES – SPERMES Gets Its Head Examined
INANE – Mystic INANE Asylum
COMATOSE – Habitat for Hispanics
MONDU – Chockfull of Nuts
LEWD – Post Traumatic Sex Disorder
MISHIGAS – Rebuilds the Tower of Babel
KSAL – Load to Recovery – A Cuming Event
DRIPS – D & D Gets Hammered and Nailed
UNDERWEAR - Alice in Underland
TOKIN - High Anxiety
MAMA ROUX – The Beauticians’ Village
BOURBON – Always Time for Levee-Tea

Frozen Over

An hour on an ill-fitting stationary bike is about a I can call exercise for this weekend. Since we arrived in Iowa City Friday afternoon, I think the highest temperature has been around 14F. Right now, on Sunday morning, it's 7 degrees below zero. On the plus side, it's dry! Very dry. I might have gone out for a long walk, but with wind chills in the range of -17 to -25, it's really not too comfortable, especially with my somewhat inadequate wardrobe. Amazingly, I spotted a few people riding bikes. The Iowa River, just outside the window here, is pretty much completely frozen over. A few geese congregate around a small spot of open water. I've seen a number of bald eagles on this trip, which involved an hour's drive from Moline, IL, aka the "Quad Cities" airport. We arrived about an hour late. In Atlanta we waited in a line of seventeen airplanes for our turn to take off. Then, once we had reached our cruising altitude, the pilot said that we had a 180 mph headwind that would slow us down considerably.

The Daughter's meet was fun. This was a "quad" meet, which means there were four teams competing concurrently, and the Hawkeyes did pretty well, posting their highest score of the year and sweeping the podium on all events. Granted, these weren't exactly the top teams in the country, but still they executed well and their scores were solid. Unfortunately, I left my new camera at home, so getting any decent photos from the meet was practically impossible because of the lighting. This meet was held in the "Field House" rather than the big arena, so the lighting is a challenge even to the folks with the $5,000 digital SLRs. My old Nikon Coolpix with it's ASA 100 equivalent is in way over it's head. Anyway, The Daughter had a fairly good meet, placing third on both Beam and Floor, so everyone came away in a pretty good mood. Their next meet, which is next weekend, is in Anchorage, Alaska. They're probably looking forward to the warmer weather over there! After the meet, with the temperature already around -1F, we went to eat at the Brown Bottle downtown. That involved a walk of two or three blocks from the parking garage. It is amazing how quickly you get cold under those conditions, especially when it's as windy as it was last night. I noticed that the local student population uses the "run fast" approach for getting from one bar to the next when severely underdressed. In fact, I am always surprised by how lightly some of the people who live here dress under these conditions. I guess you get used to it.

Our flight back home isn't until this afternoon, so I guess we'll be hanging around here until 1 pm or so. Maybe, if we're really lucky, there will be enough hot water to take a real shower. That would be nice. The predicted low tonight in Iowa City is -17F. Now, that's cold.

Not so Good

Since I'll be off the bike for sure from Friday through Sunday, this morning was my last chance to log some real training miles before heading off to the frozen north. So when I was awakened this morning not by the alarm but by the sound of rain, I thought "this is not so good." I lay there considering the wisdom of going out on the Pennine and how long its nice full fenders might keep my feet and legs dry. But then I had also to consider getting to work afterwards on the commuter, which would probably mean another pair of wet shoes and cold feet. It's just too damned easy to come up with these excuses while lying in bed before 6 a.m. So I conceded defeat and resigned myself to another drive in to work with The Wife, and although I felt a bit vindicated by the continuing steady rain and thickening fog, there was still that lingering twinge of anger or guilt or something. Now, sitting here in the office, gazing out the window into the fog-cloaked nothingness, I wish I had ridden anyway. I'll bet Jill would have ridden! I'll bet the average rider in Belgium would have thought this a fine day for a four-hour training ride. Ah well. It's done. Maybe I should have visited the Up in Alaska blog this morning for inspiration. (BTW, you should submit your vote(s) for the Up in Alaska since it's a finalist for the "Bloggies" Best Sports Blog award. It would be awesome if it beat out the armchair athlete blogs that it's up against.)

So Good
So last night we went out to eat at Table One with a few people who work at the Audubon Zoo. They were doing this thing where they donate a percentage of their profits to the Zoo, and you got to vote on the name of a new martini drink they had come up with. I don't remember what was in it, but it was a martini and it was kind of green. I think we all voted for something like Audubon Swamp Juice or something. Anyway, this place is down in the garden district, a few blocks from Commanders on the corner of Magazine and Washington (right across from Starbucks). The building dates from, I would guess, the vicinity of 1860, and like most old commercial buildings along Magazine it has been modified countless times. We ate upstairs in a large room overlooking Magazine St. with high ceilings and exposed brick. The food was excellent, as was the service, and I just loved the atmosphere. As it turned out, one of the people with us is a chef down at the Marriott hotel, so naturally he knew everyone there, and someone else at the table knew the owner. Good food, good conversation, good wine - what more do you need? Just to cap off the evening, the chef (the one at our table) slipped off and picked up the tab for the night! That was quite an unexpected treat. While we were there, there was a photographer taking photos for a publicity project. I couldn't resist taking the point-and-shoot Nikon out of my pocket and taking a photo of the photographer.