Man, the little cool front that came through last night made such a difference this morning. It wasn't by any means chilly, but the humidity was noticably lower and the temperature was probably in the upper 60s, so it felt really nice except for one thing. Yeah, you guessed it. The wind was blowing pretty hard. I guess I wasn't really paying attention to the time this morning, and when I looked at my watch en route to the levee I was surprised to see that I had only five minutes left. I stepped up my pace, but it still took me seven minutes. Luckily, the group was waiting for me and so I never even had to put a foot down when I got there.
Looking at the group and considering the brisk wind, I figured we'd have a fairly easy ride today, and as usual I was sadly mistaken. There were a few of the guys who were intent on setting a pretty good pace all the way out, and that, together with the crosswinds and general paceline skill "diversity" made for a rather hard ride. The paceline kept fracturing with gaps opening every few minutes so that the speed kept fluctuating. It wasn't terrible, just occasionally annoying. Along the way we met up with Tim who had been out since 5 a.m. when, judging by his long-sleeved jersey, it must have been snowing or something!
It wasn't really that cold, but Tim is definitely one of those riders who doesn't like being cold. We also picked up Mark G. on his TT bike, so along with Chad and a few others, there was always someone to keep the pace fast. As we approached the St. Charles Parish line, I heard some loud voices coming from the back of the group. It was Ronnie screaming something, but we couldn't quite make out what it was, so everyone stopped pedaling for a while. It turned out that he was saying "pull through" because some of the guys were staying on the front for a long time, leaving the back of the group without much of a draft in the crosswind.
Toward the end it got even faster and as usual a number of the guys dropped off to soft-pedal the remaining mile to the turnaround. I was already feeling kind of spent myself even though I hadn't been spending a whole lot of time up front. We probably weren't half-way back when a little gap opened and I heard someone say "let them go." So naturally I went around and bridged up to Mark G. and another rider on a TT bike. They were pushing pretty hard and I was getting a nice little workout just trying to stay in the draft behind them. I took an occasional pull, but of course mine were the short little pulls you take when you're in a breakaway, not the mile-long pulls that guys on TT bikes like to take. The other guy dropped off pretty soon, leaving just Mark and me to negotiate the mostly headwind return trip. At one point Mark dropped back and I took a pull that was about 2 mph slower and so Mark came around, ramped the pace back up, and just stayed there for miles and miles until he finally split off to go home just before the Country Club.
Keep going or sit up? I knew that the whole stretch from the other side of the Country Club to town would be directly into the wind, so I had to think a little bit before deciding to keep going solo rather than wait up for the group that was a minute or two behind. It was good that I spent the time riding into the wind alone. I should probably do more of that, even though I wasn't going very fast.
Yesterday I discovered that Charlie D., whose wife just had their first child, was at the same hospital as my dad, so I dropped in for a little visit while I was there. All was well and Charlie was sitting on the couch with a baby bottle while his sister-in-law (I think) was trying to keep track of how much the baby was eating.
As I rode back home through the Carrollton neighborhood I checked the cumulative odometer on my computer. It was getting really close to 65,000 miles, but I didn't think it would roll over by the time I finished. It got almost there, but when I stopped it read 64,999, and I'm just not quite obsessive enough to ride around in circles for that one additional mile. Tomorrow...
Looking at the group and considering the brisk wind, I figured we'd have a fairly easy ride today, and as usual I was sadly mistaken. There were a few of the guys who were intent on setting a pretty good pace all the way out, and that, together with the crosswinds and general paceline skill "diversity" made for a rather hard ride. The paceline kept fracturing with gaps opening every few minutes so that the speed kept fluctuating. It wasn't terrible, just occasionally annoying. Along the way we met up with Tim who had been out since 5 a.m. when, judging by his long-sleeved jersey, it must have been snowing or something!
It wasn't really that cold, but Tim is definitely one of those riders who doesn't like being cold. We also picked up Mark G. on his TT bike, so along with Chad and a few others, there was always someone to keep the pace fast. As we approached the St. Charles Parish line, I heard some loud voices coming from the back of the group. It was Ronnie screaming something, but we couldn't quite make out what it was, so everyone stopped pedaling for a while. It turned out that he was saying "pull through" because some of the guys were staying on the front for a long time, leaving the back of the group without much of a draft in the crosswind.Toward the end it got even faster and as usual a number of the guys dropped off to soft-pedal the remaining mile to the turnaround. I was already feeling kind of spent myself even though I hadn't been spending a whole lot of time up front. We probably weren't half-way back when a little gap opened and I heard someone say "let them go." So naturally I went around and bridged up to Mark G. and another rider on a TT bike. They were pushing pretty hard and I was getting a nice little workout just trying to stay in the draft behind them. I took an occasional pull, but of course mine were the short little pulls you take when you're in a breakaway, not the mile-long pulls that guys on TT bikes like to take. The other guy dropped off pretty soon, leaving just Mark and me to negotiate the mostly headwind return trip. At one point Mark dropped back and I took a pull that was about 2 mph slower and so Mark came around, ramped the pace back up, and just stayed there for miles and miles until he finally split off to go home just before the Country Club.
Keep going or sit up? I knew that the whole stretch from the other side of the Country Club to town would be directly into the wind, so I had to think a little bit before deciding to keep going solo rather than wait up for the group that was a minute or two behind. It was good that I spent the time riding into the wind alone. I should probably do more of that, even though I wasn't going very fast.Yesterday I discovered that Charlie D., whose wife just had their first child, was at the same hospital as my dad, so I dropped in for a little visit while I was there. All was well and Charlie was sitting on the couch with a baby bottle while his sister-in-law (I think) was trying to keep track of how much the baby was eating.
As I rode back home through the Carrollton neighborhood I checked the cumulative odometer on my computer. It was getting really close to 65,000 miles, but I didn't think it would roll over by the time I finished. It got almost there, but when I stopped it read 64,999, and I'm just not quite obsessive enough to ride around in circles for that one additional mile. Tomorrow... It looks like my dad may be released from the hospital on Saturday, so he was kind of excited to be almost done with the hospital. Earlier in the day the PT folks had him getting in and out of a car that they keep up on the 8th floor of the hospital for just that purpose. He's a little bit concerned about going home where he won't have a nursing staff readily available, but I think we will be arranging for some sort of home care for a while anyway, so not to worry.
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