Long Drive, Long Race, Long Day

I woke up even before the 4 am alarm went off and shuffled around, half-asleep, collecting what I'd need for the long drive up to Meridian, MS for the Cuba Road Race. I stood there in the kitchen for a second, a couple of powerbars in one hand and a bottle of HammerGel in the other, and watched the pre-programmed coffeemaker to click on at 4:00. By 4:15 I was on the road to Cuba, Alabama, just across the line and a little northeast of Meridian, for an 83-mile road race that advertised "6,600 feet of climbing."

The drive went smoothly for me and The Doors, and Super Chikan, and whatever CDs I could find in the car, and I arrived a bit early as the first of the riders began to filter in. That left me a few minutes to sit on the tailgate of the car and try to wrap my head around the $3.10 per gallon I'd just pumped into the Volvo.

For this race, the Masters, Cat. 1,2s and Cat. 3s would all be starting together. While this sort of arrangement almost always messes with the race itself, I was glad to have the larger field of almost 40 riders. I wasn't planning on spending much time in the wind, and the more wheels available to shelter behind the better. Well, things started out quite fast for the first of the four-lap race and I was wondering if I was getting in over my head -- again. I knew that the only way I was going to survive this one would be to conserve, conserve, conserve, because the last lap would probably be the hardest. That was my plan and I was sticking to it. Nonetheless, there were a number of attacks and breakaways, so I was trying to stay close to the front in case things started to disassemble early. Usually, though, the pack would respond to the breaks before they got too dangerous and they would be pulled back.

I guess it was about mid-way through the second lap that David Hyde and David Lacek attacked and started to pull away. Both were racing Masters, and when Mark Graffagnini realized it, he took off and quickly made the bridge to the duo that was hovering around 15 seconds up the road. Me? Well, according to plan, I was about mid-pack and couldn't tell who the two riders were. When I saw Mark make the bridge I figured that looked like a good move, but I was too far back to do much except hope that the guys in front would pull it back like they had done with everything else. The problem was that I was thinking that the Herring rider up there, Dave, was actually one of the Cat. 1,2 guys, so I wasn't surprised when the Herring guys in the pack didn't respond. Well, that 3-man group kind of hovered out there for a long time around 20 seconds up, but as we got into the third lap they started to pull away and must have gotten at least a minute. They were far enough up the road to be out of sight most of the time and when I realized that David Hyde was missing from our group, I realized that I was probably racing for third or forth now.

Half-way though the third lap I sat up a little and looked behind me to see how many riders there were back there. I had though I was sitting just past the middle of the pack, and was rather shocked to find that I was actually only a few riders from the tail end of it. The group was already down to maybe half its original size. Less than that, if you went by body weight! Debbie Milne was riding as a master in this race and I think maybe there were a few riders who dug a little deeper to keep from being dropped by her! So anyway, as we neared the end of the third lap we started to see the break again. There had been a number of attacks and chases in our group, and although nothing had stuck, it had kept the pace fairly brisk. Still, I was surprised at how quickly we seemed to be closing on the break. As we went through the feed zone at the start of the last lap I moved up to the front to keep things moving. The break hovered for a long time about 15 seconds up and then finally the group sealed the deal and it was gruppo compacto again with about twenty miles remaining.

By the time we were halfway through the last lap, my legs were starting to feel the strain. The course itself offered little in the way of recovery, and although the pace had slowed down a notch, there were a lot of surges and attacks on the climbs that, "put me in a bit of difficulty." Surprisingly, my right calf that had been giving me trouble, was doing fine, but my left one was starting to show signs of cramping on hard efforts. Likewise, a couple of muscles in my right leg were also starting to cause problems. I guess we were six or seven miles from the finish when Frank Moak attacked and got cleanly away. It was still a long way to the finish line, and there didn't seem to be much of a response. There was no other team in the race with significant numbers, and so when the Herring guys went to the front and rode tempo, Frank's gap gradually grew. When it finally reached a minute or so, the Herring guys flipped the "attack" switch and for a while where was attack after attack. This was one of the most difficult points of the race for me, and I had to dig pretty deeply on a number of occasions to stay in contact. Amazingly, they were all chased down quickly and we approched the final 3-mile stretch all together with first place already out of reach. I saw Mark move up toward the front and the pack bunched up in anticipation of the final surge. We climbed an overpass at around 1k to go and soon the pace started to explode. I knew it was too early for me, so I stayed on the wheels that were moving forward, waiting for the final uphill at the 200M mark. By then, everyone was in full sprint mode and I found myself on Mark's wheel. I traded a little rubber with his rear tire halfway up the hill and then as my legs started to cramp I panicked and dumped it into the 12. What was I thinking? Anyway, I couldn't come around him and settled for 2nd in the masters race, which was probably 6th or 7th overall. It was a really fun race, actually, and I was glad to have finished respectably. I was also glad to have cruise-control on the car because the bottom of my right foot was on fire until I was halfway home!

Mark Delaney finished up after the pack, and was my only teammate in the race. Bob Bell got tangled up with someone after the feed zone on the second lap and went flying off the road and way, way down into the ditch. Looked like a mountain bike crash! Brooks Abel finished 9th in the large Cat. 4 race and Rolan Jamarillo was 6th in the Cat. 5s.

Easy at the Back

The weather down here was spectacular today, and I'm sure the people at Jazz Fest made the most of it. I saw a number of groups of festival-goers riding dusty bikes in the direction of the Fairgrounds.

I left a little early this morning for the trip out to the lakefront to meet the Giro ride. Since I'm planning on doing a fairly long road race tomorrow morning, the plan today was to enjoy the ride and keep the intensity down. So I rode to meet the group at an easy pace and latched onto the back along Lakeshore Drive where the pace is always slow and conversational. The temperature was perfect, the wind was light and the sky was blue, and naturally the pace started to ramp up once we got over the Industrial Canal. I was being careful to stay protected today, and was surprised more than once to look down and find that we were rolling along at 27-29 mph. It is so easy at the back!! I have to admit, it was sometimes hard to resist the urge to get in on the action at the front, but I kept being reminded by a sore right calf to take it easy. It was kind of strange to finish the Giro ride and not feel wasted. I rode back home with Brady having been unsuccessful at finding anybody to come with me up to Meridian tomorrow for the race. I guess I'll be getting up at 4 am tomorrow so I can be there without breaking too many traffic laws.

Busy City

It was cooler this morning! That's something to savor right now as the city moves from its brief Spring into its long, languishing Summer. By "cooler" I mean it was below 70F -- just barely. I wore two jerseys just to keep the chill off for those first couple of miles. We had a pretty significant group today, especially considering that it's Friday. I think that yesterday morning's wash-out kept a lot of people in bed, so they were trying to make up for lost saddle time today. Indeed, the pace was a little faster than usual for a Friday, although perhaps it was just the perfect weather that had people fired up. Anyway, I noticed Scott was pushing the pace a bit this morning, and of course John and Bob and pretty much everyone else were kind of sucked into it too, which was good, really, because it kept us at a respectible 22-24 mph instead of the default recovery ride speed of 19-20! So yesterday I finally broke down and got a new set of clip-on aero bars. Nothing fancy, of course, just the standard Profile T2 aluminum clip-ons, but since I stripped out one of the bolt holes on my old ones, it was time. The ones I'd been using the last few years were old-style triathlete type clip-ons, which put the arm rests up way above the handlebars, but I kept using them because (a) they were free, (b) I hate having to spend money on stuff I only use a few times a year, under duress, or (c) both a and b. Maybe I'll replace my old skinsuit next month. Who knows? Miracles happen. Speaking of cycling clothing, I got my official '07 NOBC team shorts yesterday (thanks, Laura!). They are a little bit shorter and smaller than standard, which actually works out pretty well for me, although I think some tan-line adjustment may be required.

Sunday there's the Cuba Road Race up near Meridian, MS. Actually it's nearer the town of Cuba, AL (population 363). It's a good three-hour drive from here, so the question is whether to get up at 4 am Sunday morning or go up Saturday night instead. As usual, I haven't made any plans! Hopefully I can find a teammate or two who is going. This race will have all of the Cat. 1,2,3 and Master 35+ riders riding together in an 83-mile road race. That should prove to be rather confusing since there will be separate prizelists for Cat. 1/2, Cat. 3, and Masters. Anyway, I hope I will be able to find my way up there. Last time I rode that course it was fairly hard and we were doing one or two lap fewer, so that's something to think about.

Meanwhile, back in the Crescent City, things are pretty busy lately. This is the first weekend of the Jazz Fest, which means that there will be a lot of faculty and staff out "sick" this afternoon. You can't really blame them, though. You don't get too many single-ticket chances to catch Rod Stewart, Steely Dan, ZZ Top, Norah Jones, Allen Toussaint, Dr. John, Bonnie Raitt, Irma Thomas, Harry Connick Jr., Jerry Lee Lewis, Better than Ezra, etc., all within an easy bike ride from home. Since the weather will be spectacular this weekend, it should be huge this year.

Mid-Week Grumbling

How can it possibly be Thursday already? Well, at least we had some nice training rides on Tuesday and Wednesday. Tuesday's long ride was actually pretty fast, although I think that I wasn't the only one still feeling the effects of the prior weekend's race. Yesterday we had a nice little group for the mid-week ride. The pace never really got out of hand as it tends to do on Tuesday, but I wouldn't say it was particularly slow either. I got an email from Quentin, who was one of the guys who crashed in the Cat. 5 Road Race last Saturday. He said that the crash, which happened only about eight minutes into the race, was pretty expensive for him. His frame was "tweaked," which is a nice way of saying "bent," so he's had to order a new frame. It will probably be another week before he's got it all back together again. It's probably just as well, since it will allow some time for the road rash to heal now that he's picked all of the gravel out of his ass. Mike, who was also in that same crash, along with Andrew, said "In an interesting irony (perhaps) I ran over Quentin and Andrew ran over me. After I counted, I think 9 or 10 went down total out of 31." Hey, at least the team sticks together! Early this morning it was pouring down rain, but when I got up around 6:00 and checked the radar, I found that that nasty long line of red, green and yellow radar images had just cleared the city. The streets were still very wet, so I went out on the full-fender Pennine and got in a good solid hour plus.

So I finally got around to submitting the USAC event permit for the 36th annual Tour de Louisiane. All of the road use permissions are in hand, so to speak, and I think the only big thing we're waiting on is permission from the church on the road race course to use their property for parking. After using Active.com for many years as our online registration provider, I switched this year to BikeReg.com. Active is charging a fee of around $4.25 on a $50 entry, while BikeReg is almost a dollar lower, and Active has done basically nothing to improve their service in the past few years, despite promising me that they were "working on" a couple of the most irritating problems. So I guess we'll give BikeReg a try. Neither of them has bothered to set up a system for handling one-day licenses, although it would be easy, so this year I set up separate "categories" for non-USCF riders for the Cat. 5, Masters, Women and Juniors, so that people who need one-day licenses can pay for them when the register online. That way I can require USCF numbers for the riders who have licenses, which is good because BikeReg cross-checks them with the USAC database during registration, so I know they will all be correct. Hopefully, it won't cause too much confusion. On the down-side, I will have to keep track of the number of Cat. 5 entries myself, since there's no way to set up a 50-rider limit across the two (Regular and 1-day) categories. I'll also have to transfer the registration data over to the 1-day entry/release forms, since the ones that BikeReg provides will all be on the standard entry/release forms. The one-day licenses cause the most registration-day problems, so the more of them we can get taken care of ahead of time the better.

Back at work I'm busy procrastinating on a couple of tedious and unrewarding tasks, one of which is submitting our semiannual lobbying reports to Congress and providing lobbying expense data to our accounting folks for the institution's IRS filing. Whoo Boy, that's some fun stuff, let me tell ya.' I wasted all of yesterday afternoon at a Board of Regents session that turned out to be one of those damned facilitated workshops deisgned to provide expensive consultants with the illusion of progress and the participants with the illusion of participation. Since we just recently got royally used and screwed by the Board of Regents on the Post-Katrina Support Fund Initiative, where only one of our eight proposals was selected as a finalist while LSU Health Sciences Center - N.O. got 3 out of 3 and LSUHSC-Shreveport got 1 out of one, etc., etc. Something very fishy is going on here, and don't even get me started on why institutions in Shreveport and Monroe are even eligible for this program in the first place since the funds were originally set aside to help the universities affected by the hurricane recover. The fact that it's taken them NINETEEN months just to get to this point makes it all that much worse. For comparison, the big three LSU campuses (LSU-BR, LSUHSC-NO, LSUHSC-S) submitted 8 proposals -- the same number that Tulane/TUHSC submitted -- and got 5 of them forwarded to the panel, while we got only one. There were only three other proposals that were forwarded to the final review panel, so in other words, LSU proposals will constitute 5 out of the 9 being reviewed. So yeah, I'm a little pissed off about it because of all the work we did on this whole program going back all the way to October of 2005.

As I Rode It

MISSISSIPPI GRAN PRIX STAGE RACE

Logistics

As usual, Friday rolled around and I still didn't quite have the logistics down for the trip up to Brookhaven for the Mississippi Gran Prix Stage Race. After a number of emails and phone calls, I finally cancelled the hotel room I had reserved after Ed K. told me he already had a room and Francis and I were welcome to crash there Saturday night. Since Francis is up at LSU, we planned on meeting in Hammond to consolidate everything into my car for the fairly short drive up to Brookhaven. Some of these logistics were finalized via cellphone while I was having dinner at Iris with the neighbors who were repaying us for watching their dogs. While that was quite nice, it also meant that I wouldn't be home until late. So of course I was up kind of late getting my stuff together for an early morning departure. We needed to be up in Brookhaven by around 8 am. so that meant a 5 am wake-up call for me.

As I Rode the Road Race

Francis and I arrived at the road race earlier than expected, which meant that we got (a) a good parking spot, and (b) to use the bathroom before they ran out of toilet paper. The turnout looked quite good and as registration closed and I looked around I could see that the Masters race would be good and competitive. For various reasons, I would be racing without any teammates, but it seemed that a number of other teams were there in force. The New Orleans area NBO and Midsouth Masters teams had five and eight riders respectively, Herring had four, Alabama Masters had five, and there were riders from Mobile Velo and Memphis. Even Lonnie Kennedy was there from St. Louis. All of these clubs had strong and experienced riders, so I knew the road race would be an interesting 50 miles. Indeed, things started out fast and pretty much stayed that way. There were constant attacks and counter-attacks, especially during the first of the two 25-mile laps. Since I was racing solo, I really had only two options. I could sit in the back with the sprinters and hope that the teams would all chase down each other's breaks, or I could stay at the front, go with everything, and hope for a small break with representatives from each of the bigger teams. So I chose the latter. As a result, of course, I did a fair amount of work. That included working with a couple of promising breaks that were nonetheless caught. So about halfway through the last lap I was starting to think that nothing was going to get away from this pack. I dropped back a little bit and tried to rest up as best as I could without losing my ability to respond if something did happen up front.

There was one long climb on the course, and then in the last 5k or so there were a couple of good hills, including one at the finish, of course. I guess we were around 5 miles from the finish when David Hyde rolled off the front. He told me later that it was really accidental at first. The front of the pack didn't react. We were close to the finish and by now everyone was thinking this would be a big field sprint for sure. I remember sitting there on the right side of the road near the front of the pack and looking around, wondering why the big teams with hot sprinters were letting someone who is a well-known time trialist and solo breakaway rider get away with this. Iknew one thing for sure, I wasn't about to tow all those teams across the gap just so they could smoke me in the sprint! My legs were already pretty tired. So David, realizing he had an opportunity, started pouring on the coals while the pack squiggled around behind in a nervous clump watching him ride off into the distance. By the time we hit the 1k to go sign, first place was gone and things were heating up for the pack sprint where there were still three bonuses up for grabs, not to mention the substantial stage finish prizes.

When we hit the 500M mark, the long uphill sprint started. It always starts early on this course, and although I've done this course a number of times, I still can't seem to get it right. I thought I was in a good spot, but somehow I got myself stuck over on the right side of the road as a big group went flying by on the left. I got free and passed a couple of people in the last 100 meters, but finished a disappointing 8th, feeling a little frustrated. Mark from Midsouth won the pack sprint, followed by Jim Brock from Alabama Masters and two of his teammates. NBO's Eddie Corcoran took 6th. The stage was set.

The Race of Truth

The truth is, I don't really enjoy time trials very much. In fact, I seriously question the mental health of those who do. Well, it seemed there were a whole lot of mentally unstable riders in the Masters race. Francis, Ed, Judith and I spent as much time as we could at the hotel clamping on aero bars, pinning on numbers, and basically killing time before the Time Trial. After the Road Race I had discovered a big slash in my rear tire through which the tube was bulging. I was lucky to have finished that race without a flat. Then I managed to strip one of the clamp bolts on my old aero bars. Somehow I got them clamped on adequately anyway, but I guess I'm in the market for a new set now. We arrived at the TT in plenty of time and I was pleased to find that they had already posted a complete start list. I did a decent warmup, but was really having some motivational problems with this stage. I was pretty confident that there were at least ten guys who could easily beat my TT time. Also, this particular stage race had a separate prizelist for each stage, so somewhere in the back of my head I was thinking it might be best to save my legs for the next morning's criterium.

The 4 mile course had a couple of long gradual climbs in the first half, and I just couldn't get myself to go more than about 80% effort. My legs were still feeling the morning's road race and I was just basically feeling unmotivated. The second half of the course was flatter and I felt a lot better there and was able to push myself a bit more. I was glad they had put up mile markers because at the start I had pushed the wrong button on my computer so otherwise I wouldn't have known where I was. Anyway, although I didn't know my time, I knew it would be substantially sub-par.

Circuiterium

Sunday's race was either a short Circuit Race or a long Criterium. It was basically a fast and exceptionally smooth course through a community college that featured a nice steep little climb just before the start/finish. I checked the results when Francis and I arrived and found that although my Time Trial time was dead-center mid-pack, I was still in the money for one of the GC places. That was at least a little motivation. Looking at the other results, I figured it would be a battle for bonus points for a lot of the top riders. David had a solid lead, but the next five places or so were all separated by one or two seconds, so I was thinking that some of the teams would be going for the hot spot and finish bonuses. That might leave open an opportunity for a breakaway, so I decided to stay at the front and try to get in on something. Indeed there were a lot of attacks and counter-attacks, mostly by the Alabama guys. I went with a couple of breaks (and chased down some others), but to be honest I didn't really have the horsepower to contribute very much when I was in them. Jay and Jason seemed to spend a fair amount of time up front, and in the last few laps when a pack sprint was imminent he took some long steady pulls that probably discouraged some last-minute attacks. There was a hot spot at mid-race, and I was determined to go for it since I could move up a place or two if I could get some of the bonuses. I ended up going about 100% for it but came across in 3rd spot, which basically got me nothing but sore legs. There was a little counter-attack immediately afterward, and I went with that too hoping the chain might snap, but we were caught pretty quickly. After the hot spot, a 2-man break got a good gap that was starting to look dangerous. Lonnie Kennedy must have thought so too, because he jumped out of the pack and made the bridge up to it. When I saw that, I got concerned. I mean, I might be willing, under the circumstances, to give up two places, but three were just too much. David must have gotten a little worried too when their gap started to exceed his GC lead, so ultimately the two of us put in some work and pulled that one back just to be on the safe side.

So things came down to the last lap and I was pretty well positioned up near the front. Just before the second-to-last turn, Eddie jumped early down the right side and I had to dig really deep to catch his wheel. I wasn't too happy to be second wheel with such a long way to go before the finish, but that's the way it goes sometimes. So we come flying into the turn really fast and as soon as Eddie gets through he lights the afterburner and goes hammering down the downhill leading to the last curve and uphill finish. When he did that, it gapped me off by a couple of bike lengths, so when I came through the turn the headwind hit me really hard. I felt like a piece of tissue paper in a hurricane, but whether I liked it or not, I was committed, so I went as hard as I could down the hill trying in vain to catch a bit of Eddie's draft. Meanwhile, Eddie was going so hard he rode off the road on a little curve, blasting through the gravel but hardly slowing down. I felt like I was in trouble before I even got to the start of the finish climb, and when I heard riders coming up from behind, I knew it. As I started the climb four of five riders came streaming past me on the left as I jumped out of the saddle and pounded my way up the steepest part of the hill. The best I could do was 5th. Naturally, the bonus points went only 4 deep. So I ended up 11th overall, but with the stage placing prizes I was pretty happy, winning almost enough to replace the clip-on aero bars and the slashed tire. Any time you break even on a stage race, it's a good weekend, eh?

While all of this was going on, Francis was having a much better race. Finishing 5th, 4th, and 2nd in the three stages, he came out 4th overall in the Cat. 4 race which was a great result. Ed Kendrick and Brooks Abel also rode the Cat. 4 race, although Brooks didn't ride the criterium for some reason. In the Cat. 5 race, we had 4 riders, three of whom went down in the same crash about three miles into the road race. Quentin, who was riding in his first ever mass-start road race, had bike damage as well as road rash and wasn't able to continue. Mike Rivault and Andrew Folse also went down but were at least able to continue. Ed Jones avoided the crash and finished with the pack. On GC, Ed ended up in 14th, with Mike and Andrew in 16th and 19th respectively.

Back From Brookhaven

Finally have a chance to sit down and check email after returning from the Mississippi Gran Prix stage race this afternoon. The masters races were pretty good, although my own results left a bit to be desired. I think this race deserves a proper write-up, so I'll try and put something together tomorrow. I was glad to see a good New Orleans area turnout, especially for the masters race, even though I was the sole NOBC representative. For now, though, I need to get some sleep!

Gran Prix

The morning ride was a bit warmer today and indeed it was also a bit faster than usual. We had four or five riders, depending on when you took the tally, and a couple of the guys were keeping the pace up a little higher than usual for a Friday. By afternoon, I was ignoring my work trying to keep up with the Tour de Georgia. The "tour tracker" website was great, but as usual it wasn't working very well. There was no audio all day, and although we finally got live video toward the end, it died right about when things started to get interesting on Brasstown Bald. It seems that although the website itself and the servers were all in great shape, the infrastructure up on top of the mountain was somewhat lacking. The combination of a huge demand and a teeny tiny pipe clogged the system up pretty badly. So after following the race all the way there, we had no video of the key attacks near the end. Frustrating indeed, but then again I guess you get what you pay for!

I just finished throwing some clothes and stuff into a bag for my trip up to Brookhaven tomorrow morning for the Mississippi Gran Prix. To say that I'm not feeling very confident about this one would be a gross understatement. I'll be meeting Francis up in Hammond and then we'll go up the rest of the way together. Ed has offered us floor space in his hotel room, so that should be fun. This stage race starts with a road race in the morning followed by a 4-mile time trial that evening. As usual, I'm more worried about the time trial than the road race. The area is reasonably hilly, and so the TT starts out with a couple of good climbs. It's hard to keep from blowing up in those first couple of miles. The criterium on Sunday is fairly fast and non-technical, which is not exactly my cup of tea. Should be fun, though. The Cat. 1,2,3 field has a criterium tonight, but the rest of us don't start until Saturday.

Thursday Already?

It's already Thursday. How did that happen? My usual routine has been rather disheveled lately because of the rain and work and stuff, and somehow it comes as a surprise that the weekend is suddenly so close, although it's not really enough to pull me out of this strange blue funk I've been in. I'm planning on riding the MS Gran Prix stage race this weekend up in Brookhaven, but as usual haven't given any thought to how I'll get there and where I'll stay when I do. I was going to go up with Mark, but he said he's getting sick and won't be able to make it. Hopefully I'll remember to register some time today before pre-reg closes.

The morning group was steady and fast today, at least for the most part. Personally, I felt pretty much like a tub of lard for some reason. We had a decent group, most of which did the long ride. The pace got a little erratic on the way back. I don't really know why. The wind wasn't very strong and there was some disagreement as to which way we should be pulling off. I figure if it's not obvious which direction the wind is coming from, it doesn't really matter too much. Of course, Howard was there, and Matt, so there were a few unexpected accelerations here and there, and then we picked up a few more riders who had started later and turned around to get into the paceline around Williams Blvd., so I guess that had something to do with it. Brady was there looking pretty strong. Unfortunately he's heading to Ambergris Cay this weekend for a wedding and won't be racing.

The Midsouth Masters guys, who are promoting the LAMBRA Criterium Championship this year, appear to have gotten the OK to have the race at City Park in New Orleans around the museum. I think the course will be a little strange there, but I don't know exactly what roads they're planning on using, so we'll see. Meanwhile, I went to submit the Tour de La USAC event permit application online the other day, but they are still running on a backup server and at some point in the process I got a screen full of SQL code or something instead of what I was supposed to get, so now I am showing two non-completed permit applications and am waiting for them to fix the system before I try again.

Tired Tuesday

It might have been the tragedy at Virginia Tech. It might have been the big check I had to write to the IRS. Maybe I'm fighting off a little bug. Surely it can't be the lingering soreness from last Sunday's time trial. Most likely it was because I was up so late last night. Some time after 1 am I was finally ready to hit the sack when an email arrived from The Daughter asking me to look over a Psychology paper she was writing. By the time I got done with that it was 2:00, so apparently when the alarm went off at 5:45 I hit the infinite snooze button. I say "apparently" because all I know is that when I woke up it was already after 6:00 and there was no chance I was going to make the morning levee group. It was just as well, I think, because I was feeling pretty tired and unmotivated. So I went out a good fifteen minutes late and cruised down the levee at a decidedly leisurely pace out to Kenner until I saw the group on its way back. There was a good-sized group, so I turned around ahead of them and slipped into the paceline. For some reason, though, I never felt quite "right" today. Oh well. Maybe tomorrow. Anyway, I guess my fitness forecast for this weekend's Mississippi Gran Prix stage race is looking kind of bleak right now.

So while I was feeling tired and sluggish at work, despite large dosages of caffeine, I thought I'd check out the Tour de Georgia. They are using the same live coverage service that the Tour of California used. The website looks great. If only it worked! The video and audio didn't even start until the race was within the last 60km or so, and by the time it did, it was really sketchy. So here I am trying to watch this "live" coverage (via a really, really high-speed connection, I might add) and I realize that the live audio commentary doesn't match up with the video feed. The video was at least ten minutes behind "live." At least. I was actually much less frustrating to just read the text updates on the VeloNews site.

Against the Wind

I made the drive up to Baton Rouge early this morning for a little 21-mile time trial. On the way, of course, I stopped at the Starbuck's at Lakeside Shopping Center. I was almost awake by the time I got to the race an hour or so later. Although the chilly 50-degree temperature was surprising, the northwest wind was positively shocking. I waited as long as I could to start what passes for my warm-up, then returned to the car at the last minute to strip off the knee-warmers and extra jersey. By then it was a bit warmer but the wind was, if anything, increasing in strength. We were doing two laps of a loop that runs mostly along a big bend in the Mississippi River, so the apparent wind direction is constantly changing. Since the distance was only 21 miles, give or take, we were started at 30-second intervals, which makes your start time come up surprisingly quickly. To complicate things a bit, the start order was in order of registration across all categories, which means you end up passing some people who are much slower than yourself and likewise you get passed by faster people the whole time. The only real problem with that is that you don't always have a rider ahead of you to chase and provide that extra motivation.

So my turn comes up and I see that there isn't a holder, which is unusual for an individual TT, but anyway the starter counts me down from 5 and I'm off. There's a strong tailwind for the first quarter mile or so until the road curves to the right, so I accelerated quickly. The first time I looked down at my computer I was going 34 mph. Since that's an entirely unsustainable speed, even with a tailwind, for mere mortals like me, I immediately backed off a little bit and narrowly avoided going deeply into oxygen debt. That start line adrenalin can be dangerous sometimes, especially in time trials. Anyway, I settled down and was rolling along pretty quickly with a tail/cross wind and came up on the first right-hand turn right away. Suddenly I realized that the police officer who is controlling traffic at the intersection has his car parked on the inside of the turn and is standing beside his patrol car in the street. As a result, I overshot the turn pretty badly and nearly ran out of road on the outside causing me to tap the brakes and skip my rear wheel a bit. So rather than zipping through the turn into the headwind stretch with some good momentum, I ended up coming out of it going something like 22 mph and then had to accelerate again to get back up to speed. Anyway, for the next five or six miles I mostly fought against the wind, concentrating on keeping my form and pedaling smoothly. The direct headwind stretch wasn't quite as bad as I'd feared, and I felt satisfied with my speed. I guess the lowest gear I was in was the 53 x 14 or 15 on the first lap. I probably spent most of my time in the 13 today. Toward the end of the lap I was spinning the 13 at 29 mph or so for a little while. In the back of my head I knew there would be some guys going 34 mph along that stretch.

The second lap seemed a whole lot harder than the first, and everyone seemed to agree that the wind had picked up significantly. At one point I hit a short headwind stretch that brought me down to 20 mph for a while. It was hard to get into a rhythm because the road was constantly curving and the wind was being affected by the levee on one side and the trees, houses and fields on the other. I passed a whole bunch of people, and one person passed me like I was standing still, but by the end it felt like a worthy effort with an average speed of around 25.5. Considering the wind, I figured that my time of 49:34 was respectable but not particularly memorable. The fastest of the day was Frank Moak with a 45:02, and there were a bunch of times in the 48 and 49-minute range, and as usual the masters riders turned in most of the top fifteen or so. I ended up 17th overall, which was only good for 6th in the 45+ age group. Those old guys can time trial!! After the race there was lots of Raising Cane's chicken and a big bottle of wine, which made for a nice post-race lunch!

We had a couple of riders from the club who were kind of new to time trials and did it on their standard road bikes -- no aero bars, no TT helmet, etc. On a windy day like today, that must have made it a lot harder, but it was also probably a valuable learning experience! After the race my quads got really sore and tight, so I guess I over-did the big gears today.

Not So Terrible

As expected, the streets were wet this morning at 6 am, but the severe thunderstorms that had been predicted never materialized. Nonetheless, I decided not to make the wet trip out to the lakefront and instead took a shower and then spent a leisurely hour or so at the local Starbucks reading the newspaper, surreptitiously checking out the girls, and sipping a tall Cafe' Verona. By 10:00, though, I was convinced we weren't going to get any really bad weather, so I headed home and pumped up the tires on the old Pennine so I could take advantage of its nice full-coverage fenders. Although there was a very light drizzle falling off-and-on, it was really not so terrible and I quickly decided I could get in a couple of hours on the bike. Just as I got to the levee, I ran into Realdo and Sam on their way back. They had done the Giro ride this morning and were getting in a few extra miles. Apparently there were six or seven riders who showed up despite the weather. I rode with them back to Audubon Park and we rode a couple of laps before they headed home and I headed back to the levee for another hour or so. Naturally, when I was about five miles from home on my way back the light drizzle turned into rain. The temperature was warm and I was well warmed up myself, so it wasn't a problem thanks to the fenders keeping the spray off of my feet and back -- until I heard the train whistle! Sure enough, I had to stop and wait for a train at Oak Street, but it wasn't too long, so I didn't get too cold.

So tomorrow I'll head up to Baton Rouge for a little time trial. It seems like a lot of people are going to skip this one and opt for a long training ride in the hills instead. I'm kind of committed to going to the TT, though, since I have the check to pay for the NOBC members' entry fees! The weather is supposed to be nice except for one little thing. They're predicting winds of around 20 mph. Yikes!

Friday (the 13th!)

Although we're expecting seriously nasty weather tonight and tomorrow -- bad enough that Saturday's time trial in Baton Rouge has been postponed until Sunday -- the weather this morning was really pleasant. With a soft southerly breeze and clear skies, it was a nice morning for an easy ride. Donald was the only one there when I arrived, and we headed up the river together with the assistance of a nice little tailwind. At one of the roads that crosses the levee to the big riversand operation, one of the dump trucks stopped for us as we approached. I glanced up just in time to see the driver reach for his horn and hear him start screaming from his window something about those crazy bike riders blocking the road. It turned out to be Noel P. who was having some fun with us. Apparently he's in the trucking business now! I must have missed the memo. So anyway, we had a nice ride out to the turnaround, picking up one other rider along the way. After we turned around, though, Donald got on the front and stepped up the pace a bit into the headwind, but it was good. My legs felt none the worse for wear after yesterday's long ride, and I was rather enjoying the chance to look at the scenery a bit. The river always looks nice on a clear sunny day like this.

Yesterday I had been called over to Coliseum St. to take some photos of a house that my mother is listing (she's a real estate agent). It's a nice old Garden District house with lots of 'character.' Actually, the downstairs had been renovated quite nicely. The upstairs wasn't quite as nice, but anyway there was a nice little courtyard in back and ample parking, which made it rather attractive. So I wandered around snapping all of the usual photos for the real estate listing. It's harder than you'd think to get decent photos of the interior of a house for this sort of thing. I'd need a wide-angle lens to do it right. As it is, I always end up pressing myself up into a corner in order to try to get enough of the room into the photo.

Today is the start of the city's annual French Quarter Festival. I guess the weather tomorrow will dampen things a bit, but I may make it downtown tomorrow evening since The Wife is working a meeting downtown all weekend and has a room at one of the hotels. Meanwhile, I'm stuck walking the neighbor's dogs!

So the folks in Baton Rouge sent out an email yesterday afternoon saying that they were postponing the Time Trial until Sunday. I figure that ought to about guarantee that we won't get the bad weather that was predicted -- at least not on Saturday! It's just as well, I guess. I still need to do my taxes and a gloomy and stormy backdrop seems quite appropriate.

This is Better

Our little uninvited winter-in-April has finally retreated back north and so this morning's weather featured our more typical warm and humid conditions. I was awakened well before the alarm sounded today by the non-stop ship foghorns out on the river. Although it's practically a mile away, the sound of the ships' horns carries far on these foggy mornings. As soon as I hit the floor, the neighbor's two little dogs, who are temporarily staying at our house, started yapping and I was only too glad to get out the door to the relative peacefulness of the predawn city. These dogs were abandoned out by the levee a few months after Katrina and the neighbors ended up catching and adopting them. Our best guess is that they are half dachshund and half chihuahua. As I climbed up to the levee, I could hear the the high-voltage power lines that span the Mississippi River crackling in the fog overhead. It's so loud that when you look up you expect to see sparks or something.


It was really a shame that we had to deal with fog the entire ride, because the temperature was good and there was a pretty big group. As it was, I had my headlight on the whole time. It was a pretty decent ride, although the fog did keep the pace down just a tad. That was probably a good thing, because I couldn't see very well through the water droplets coating my clear glasses, and I was reluctant to take them off because one eye was still red and irritated from something that had gotten stuck under my eyelid last night. Anyway, once the fog lifted, the sun came out and things around here started feeling a lot better. Coincidentally, I was just reading about a study in Cell about skin tanning and melanin production where the researchers found that in the process of making the hormone that stimulates melanin production, which happens when we're exposed to sunlight, we also handily produce an endorphin. No wonder I'm happier in the sun...

Got a TM from The Daughter this afternoon saying that it had been snowing and sleeting all day up in Iowa City. Brrrr. I've had 'bout enough of that.

Skirting the Weather

It was amazing to wake up this morning and find the streets dry. After the consistently bleak forecasts I had been left with a solid expectation of total washout for today, but of course I still left the alarm on for the usual time, just in case. Well, the case turned out to be that it had not rained all night, so I fired up the laptop to have a quick look at the radar. Indeed, it looked pretty bad to the south and west, but it also looked like there was a window of an hour or two before anything significant would arrive in town. Naturally, I was already running late by the time I had checked the radar and found my blinky lights, so I knew I'd missed the group. Pretty soon, though, I caught up with Joe who told me there were only four riders up the road. Now as you know, today was a "long ride" day, but considering the impending rain and the small turnout, I knew they would be turning around early. Still, I was rather surprised to see the four of them heading back long before I had gotten anywhere close to Williams Blvd., so I just continued on. Somewhere between Williams and the parish line I started to feel a little drizzle, so that's where we turned around. Up ahead the sky initially looked dark, but as we rode it got lighter and lighter, and I arrived back home having successfully skirted the rain. Now the question was whether I'd be able to make it in to work without getting wet.

Stepping out of the shower I could already hear the sound of wet tires on the street outside, but it didn't look like it was raining very much, so I packed a dry shirt and headed downtown. As always seems to happen, there was more rain the closer I got, but it was never enough to get me really wet, so somehow I had again dodged the weather. An hour later it started raining in earnest, and it has only gotten worse since then. The sky is dark and foggy, and the top floors of the taller buildings are hidden in the low-hanging clouds. Oh well. At least I got in a good hour's training ride and my feet are still dry!

And a Little More of the Same

The good news this morning was that there was enough light when I left the house to leave the blinky lights behind. The bad news was that the weather was just more of the same thing we had yesterday, minus the rain. It was knee-warmers and double jerseys today for an easy ride with three others up on the levee. When Eddie showed up we sped up a little bit, which was probably a good thing, but I don't think we ever saw anything much higher than 21 mph. The wind was blowing more from the east and wasn't quite as bad as yesterday, but regardless I was more than happy to head back to the house when we were done. I've pretty much felt cold since yesterday and this kind of weather is just plain depressing. I know it's not really all that cold, so I guess it's just something about the sudden change and the dampness. Whatever it is, it makes me want to eat hot food and hibernate. Speaking of which, The Wife has implemented her annual plan for making me fat and precipitating coronary heart disease by scattering chocolate Easter candy in strategic locations throughout the house.

For the commute to work I wore a sweater with a vest over it and never once felt like unzipping. I'm still wearing the sweater and it's almost 2 pm. At least it's better than the US Open riders had last weekend.

It's looking like we'll have some rain tomorrow, and then temperatures should return to seasonal normal, which will be about twenty degrees higher than they are right now. Looking forward to it...

Dreary Cold

Sadly, the forecasters were dead-on today. I awoke a few times between 5:30 and 7 am, always to the same sound of wet tires on wet asphalt on the street outside. So I didn't even get out of bed until after 9 am, which was practically a whole new experience. The combination of chilly temperatures and damp humid air made for a dreary and uninviting kind of cold. It was all very non-Easter like. I spent some time looking at photos from the Rocky Mount stage race, but by 1 pm, after eating some Heavenly Hash and various forms of chocolate, I was starting to feel the need for a bike ride. By then, the rain had stopped and the streets were mostly dry, so I went out for an hour or so on the levee. It was cold and dreary and lonely up there, but there were periods when the riding felt pretty good anyway. Mostly, those were the tailwind sections. I can't wait for summer to come back.

No Race? No Problem.

The cold front that came through yesterday left us with a chilly and windy morning for the Saturday Giro Ride. I had been up very late last night with some sort of intentinal bug, and finally rolled out of bed rather late. When I stepped out into the 40-something air, the gusty north wind immediately caught my attention. You see, in order to get out to the Giro ride, I have a seven-mile ride that's practically due north, and I was definitely running late. I hate it when I have to time-trial out to the lakefront ten minutes after getting out of bed!

Riding a gear or two lower than usual, I wasn't exactly making great time as I made my way up Carrollton Avenue to City Park, and as I climbed the overpass on Wisner I glanced down to see an uninspiring 10 mph showing on the computer. Somehow, I made it to Lakeshore Drive before the group got there, followed shortly by Brett R., and within a few minutes I was in the surprisingly large pack. We rode alongside a very choppy Lake Pontchartrain with most of the group already hugging the right-hand edge of the road. I looked around and took attendance. Hmmmm. There was a lot of horsepower in the group today. Kenny, Tim, Realdo, Kenny and Frank were there from Herring. I wondered if they were feeling guilty about not being able to go to Sea Otter with Bain and Scott and were planning on taking their frustrations out on the group. Keith, Jay, Jaro, Courtney and a few others were there from the Northshore, and most of the NBO guys were there as well. Sam, who's been looking stronger and stronger lately, was on hand, along with all of the usual Giro Ride suspects. Since there was no race nearby this weekend, it looked a lot like this ride was going to become the substitute. The question wasn't IF things would get fast, it was just WHEN. I was looking forward to a good hard Giro today anyway, so other than the wind, this was not a bad thing.

It didn't take too long for the pace to ramp up once we hit Hayne Blvd. where there was a strong and gusty quartering headwind that had people, including me, hugging the right-hand gutter. As was the case most of the way out, there were twelve or fifteen guys up front rotating in a paceline, with the rest basically hanging on for dear life. I spent some time in the lead group, but would periodically drop back behind the rotation for a little recovery time. The crosswind component was significant, but thanks to the levee it wasn't so bad you couldn't get a draft. Toward the end of Hayne Rob K. came up on the paceline on the left and then cut right across the whole thing to the right side of the road. That elicited a number of angry comments, including one from me, that I'm sure never made it past his earphones.

When we hit the end of Hayne and turned south with the tailwind the pace picked up immediately. Cruising along in the pack at 30 mph wasn't too hard and things stayed together despite the speed. Then, when we hit the last stretch of service road before Chef Highway, somebody up front put the hammer down and the speed just started going up and up and up. I clicked down to the 14, and then to the 13, glancing down down to see 36 mph on the computer. No sprint, no downhill, just a strong tailwind and, probably, Howard on the front. That nice tailwind wasn't so nice when we hit Chef Highway and it turned into a serious head/crosswind. Again, we had twelve of fifteen guys at the front rotating with the rest of the pack strung out in the gutter. The crosswind component here was a lot worse than it had been on Hayne and a couple of guys went off the front. A long chase ensued and they were finally caught, and although the speed didn't drop very much, a lot of riders at the back did. All this time I was working pretty hard - sometimes in the front paceline and other times just trying to hold on in the pack. I remember at one point seeing a gap open up in front of Courtney, probably for the tenth time, and this time she sat up and said something like "this is ridiculous." Coming into the sprint at the turnaround it got even faster and there were a few attacks. At one point VJ took off at some crazy speed and I made the effort to catch his wheel. He finally blew up a long way before the end and when he did I eased up too because it was still way too far for me to go it alone. Well unfortunately a gap had opened behind us, so as I was slowing down, they were still chasing, so next thing I know there are riders blasting past on my right. Oh well. Game over. I just cruised in the rest of the way to the turnaround with the group.

It was a little less intense on the way back, but that headwind still made it hard. Coming down Chef Highway, I think half of the group was probably in the left lane trying to get a little draft. Luckily, traffic was fairly light. Adding to my own personal misery today was a sore back. I still can't figure out what I did, but I must have pulled something in the right side of my back last weekend and it is still causing me a lot of pain when I try to do anything out of the saddle. So needless to say, I was staying in the saddle today. The only problem with that is that all those in-the-saddle accelerations were doing a number on my hamstring, so now one of my hamstrings is sore too. Oh well.

So tomorrow's weather is not looking too good, which I'm sure is one reason why everyone was willing to go so hard this morning. The temps here south of the lake probably won't get below 42F or so, but the chance of rain is high. Normal morning temperatures this time of year are more like 60-65F, so this is definitely wierd. As I was driving to the bookstore this afternoon there was even a little flurry of sleet falling. Don't really know what I'm going to do about tomorrow. I guess I'll just have to play it by ear and check the weather radar first thing in the morning.

Throwback

So this morning I decided to ride at the usual morning time, even though I didn't have to go to work today. At 6:30 am it was in the low 50s and there was a strong and gusty wind blowing out of the North. I was all ready for summer a few days ago, and now we get this bizarre winter throwback. I guess I shouldn't complain too loudly since a lot of places farther north are really feeling it this weekend. Even down here, though, the low Saturday night is supposed to be in the 30s. The 30s!!! In April?? What's that about. Mother Nature must have had enough of Al Gore already. But I digress...

So out I went to the good 'ol levee, wearing knee-warmers and two jerseys and full-finger gloves and not very happy about it at all. The turnout was pretty low as expected, considering the weather and the holiday and all, but we had a nice little group that rode out to the usual turnaround at a moderate Friday pace. On the way back we saw Tim and Reo coming the other way, so Mark and I turned around and rode with them out to the "first dip," and them turned around again into the headwind for home. A little while later we came across the rest of our original group which had apparently turned around when they ran into John, so anyway we had a little help for the long headwind ride. Tomorrow will be chilly again with a 7 am temperature prediction of 48F. Unfortunately, the forecast for Sunday is looking pretty bleak right now: temps in the 30s with a high probability of rain and possibly sleet. May as well be in Michigan! I turned the gas to the furnace pilot light off two weeks ago for heaven's sake. So I guess I'll just have to play it by ear for Sunday, especially since it's easter.

I noticed on the Pez Cycling website that Gina's Kenda Tire team got a big article pitching their fundraising calendar. Pretty good free publicity, eh? We did a LAMBRA calendar like that one year, but I don't think it was such a hit.

All I Got

Wednesday's training ride on the levee was the usual Wednesday training ride on the levee, although I guess a few of us were still feeling the effects of Tuesday's hammerfest. It was a bit foggy here and there, but otherwise a nice but unremarkable training ride. So I get home, shower, change, eat, etc., and open the basement door to ride downtown to work and ... the street is wet. Damn. Back upstairs to pack my "nice" shirt into the messenger bag and change into an expendable T-shirt for the ride. It wasn't exactly "raining." At least not by New Orleans standards anyway, but there was a very light drizzle falling. Sort of like when you stand under one of those mist things that they have at Disneyworld in the summer that always make me think about Legionella. I decided that it wasn't bad enough to merit rain protection, or even an extra pair of dry socks, so I headed out for the three or four mile commute. The closer I got to downtown, the more water there was on the street and the heavier the drizzle. It seems that a pretty good rain shower had missed my house but had not missed downtown. Luckily, I was just catching up with the trailing edge of it and didn't get very wet.

After staying up way too late last night fooling with websites and trying to metabolize leftover caffeine, it was hard to get out of bed this morning when the alarm clock went off at 5:45. Actually, my feet didn't hit the floor until almost 6:00, by which time I was definitely running late. I glanced at the outdoor thermometer, but somehow the 50-something temperature didn't really register. I pulled on an extra jersey and arm-warmers and rushed out the door into the darkness only to be greeted by a really, really strong north wind. What happened to summer?? It was summer yesterday. It's been summer for two weeks. Where did this come from? I wasn't a block down the road before I started to feel cold. I could hear the wind blowing through the canopy of oak trees above the street. I was tired, underdressed, and unmotivated. When I hit the end of my street my bike made a U-turn and took me back home. Yes, it was all in my head, but sometimes, every now and then, I try to listen to my head. My sincere apologies to all those riders who live in places where it's still freezing cold in the morning. Oh, wait. I take that back. There's lots of "handyman special" property down here in New Orleans where it's easy for anyone with a lick of sense to excel at almost anything, so I guess if you live up there where water falls from the sky in solid form you must like it. Maybe I'll come for a visit. Yeah, in the summer.

Tomorrow I'll be able to deal with the cool air and wind. Maybe even this evening, but this morning all I wanted was a nice cup of coffee.

That's all I got.

Tuesday Morning Machine

I reach out from under the covers, feeling for the little flashlight that lives on the nightstand. The numbers on the outdoor thermometer start with a "7." Nice. Jersey, shorts and socks. Grab a granola bar in the kitchen and then down the old stairs to the basement for shoes, helmet and bike. The air in the basement is musty from the warm damp air. It will stay that way now until late Fall. Ten minutes later I'm on top of the levee.

The group is larger than usual. A bright headlight illuminates the entire scene and without looking I know it's Brady and his helmet-mounted super-light. We roll out on time and start picking up more riders in the darkness as the pace starts to ramp up. A few miles out and the light is improving. We're hitting 27, 28 mph. now. Eddie, Rob and a few others are on their Time Trial bikes. There must be $30k worth of carbon-fiber up here, easy. When my turn at the front comes up I take a shorter pull than the others because I know what's going to happen.

As I drop back down the paceline I hear Ronnie saying "get in!" So the rotation is already down to five or six, with everyone else sitting on the back. There's almost no wind this morning, and although there are patches of fog, it's light enough that we don't slow down for it. When we hit the dip, a few riders turn back, but most continue on with the group. The pace slacks off for a little while, dipping down to 24 or so, but soon enough the TT bikes filter back up to the front and we're flying along at 28 mph again. I'm feeling OK and am mostly staying in the rotation at the front, but I'm careful not to eat all my cookies before the turnaround. It's a long way back and there will be a slight headwind for much of it.

There are a few miles of recovery after the turnaround and then it's back up to speed. I'm behind Rob who's on his TT bike. Tucked up a couple of inches from his rear wheel, I'm down on the drops, elbows bent, concentrating on staying in the draft as much as I can. Finally I'm starting to loosen up as the effects of four days off the bike begin to dissolve. A few miles from the playground the pace is starting to fluctuate as tired riders hit the front of the rotation. More than once I pull us back up to speed. The 40 miles go by fast. Bob and I ease up at the playground and cruise in the last couple of miles. Just before we drop down off the levee on to Oak Street, I check my average speed. 22.4 mph including the ride out to the levee and the cool down. A typical ride is more like 20.5, maybe 21. Two more miles and I'm back to reality, ironing a shirt, checking my email, and loading up the messenger bag for the little commute to work.

The ride on the commuter is precisely the opposite of the morning's training. With the temperature and humidity both rather high, and dressed for work, I cruise slowly, feeling the breeze through my hair and unbuttoned white shirt as I negotiate my way through mid-city to Banks St. Behind the old Dixie Brewery where workers are still busy trying to put the pieces back together there's a leftover sign from the Mardi Gras Marathon strapped to a light post. "Relay Transition Area." I roll the bike through the aluminum and glass doors to the Tidewater Building and swipe my ID to get into the hallway. Down at the end I swipe it again to enter the bike room. Spring break for the public health students is over and there are a lot of bikes, but they've saved me my usual spot along the wall. As I walk to the elevator I button up my shirt, roll down my sleeves, clip on the cellphone and the ID tag and hit the "24" button.

But for the light glow of sweat on my face, nobody is the wiser.

Back in Town

Well, I finally made it back to NOLA around 10:30 last night. The wife's luggage didn't, however. Basically, we were "travelling" for about 17 hours yesterday. It would have taken less time to drive. Northwest was pretty good about it all and found the bag in Dallas right away, so she had it back by 10:30 this morning. We also ended with a couple of discount vouchers because of the flight delay, so that's cool. I called The Daughter when we arrived last night and she was just getting ready to board their flight back to Iowa City after being delayed all day. I don't know what it is about travelling like that, but it always seems to wipe me out even though I spend most of the time sitting on my butt reading magazines. At least I had some time to come up with a simple little logo for the LAMBRA points series, aka the LCCS. I'd been meaning to get to that for months. It may not be too fancy but I think it'll do for a while.

So this morning I was finally back on the bike. The air was thick and humid and the sky was overcast but there were a few of us there and we did a typical Monday recovery ride, even though I had absolutely nothing from which to recover on this particular Monday. Kenny B sent some photos from the 2-Person Time Trial, so I got those up on the website this evening. It sounds like the club did a great job with the TT last Saturday. From what I heard it started out windy and then just got more and more windy as the morning went on. Since the Cat. 1,2s went off last, that makes the winning time of 52:23 all that much more impressive. I heard Frank was practically foaming at the mouth by the end just trying to hang onto Bain.

Otherwise, I felt really wasted all day today. I haven't really gotten much sleep time the last few days, so I guess that's the problem. Got the LCCS points updated this evening, but need to check on one person's license status before I can post them. Also, one of the juniors is listed as "suspended" but I think he just sent in a renewal and didn't get a signature from his parental unit. We've never had separate minimum field sizes for the team TTs in the past, but this year with the Cat. 3s and Master-45s in separate groups, it's getting to be a bit of a problem. We may want to lower the limit to two or three teams next year. As it stands, the Cat. 1,2s almost never meet the minimum field size of 5, which is kind of sad.

Big Ten Memphis Blues

The Daughter's last gymnastics meet was a tough and emotional loss. The team had been on a roll for three events, on track for one of their best meets of the season and a solid 4th place finish at the Big Ten Championships being held at Penn State. The final event was Beam, but one of their Beam workers injured her knee on the previous event and a backup was quickly substituted. They had already rallied to ovecome a bad landing on vault and an unexpected fall on bars. When it came to the beam rotation, however, it was a meltdown. The first beam routine had two falls and, as often happens in gymnastics, it seemed contagious. The Daughter's performance was good, but not quite what she was hoping for as her last competitive routine - ever. A few of the others, however, were nothing less than disasterous. In the end, the team dropped from 4th to 6th, eliminating whatever slim hope they had to qualify for the Regional Championships. It reminded me a lot of my last competitive high school swimming meet. I was team captain and we were at the state championships in Baton Rouge at the old LSU Natatorium. For the first time since I'd been on the team, we lost the state championships that day. In my own main event, the 400 free, I finished, once again, behind the same guy to whom I'd been finishing second all year. It was disappointing and frustrating, and knowing that, for me, there would be no "next year," just made it all that much worse. Game over. But a year later, I'd find myself riding 80 mile road races and trying to figure out a whole new sport.

I don't know where I heard it, but someone once said that if you give someone the experience of winning, even just once, he'll spend the rest of his life trying to get that feeling back again. So true. Still trying.....

So early this morning we drove back to the the airport for the 3-plane trip back to New Orleans. The flight was going fine until the pilot came on the loudspeaker and announced that we were in a holding pattern waiting for the weather to clear. Well, to make a long story short, we finally landed almost an hour late. So we literally ran through the Minneapolis airport in order to make our connecting flight, only to find that it had been delayed ten minutes. Then it was delayed another half-hour, then they announced there was a mechanical problem, and then, finally, they went and got another plane. By then, there was no way we were going to make our next connecting flight in Memphis, which is where I have been sitting for the last few hours waiting for the last flight to New Orleans. Ate dinner at the Blue Note cafe' in the airport. Meanwhile, The Daughter is also stranded in Pennsylvania due to weather.

As I'm typing this, they are pushing back the departure time for my flight by another half-hour. Here we go again.....

Long weekend. At least I had lots of time to post the results of the 2-Person Time Trial!