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.