Late Rising

I slept last night in half-hour increments, it seemed. With a couple of windows open, it may have been simply the noise coming from the streets, but for whatever reason I didn't feel all that rested when I finally gave up and got out of bed early this morning. I'm still pretty grumpy. The temperature has been rising lately, but I pulled on the arm-warmers anyway and headed out toward the levee once again. It was still quite dark, thanks to the extra week's delay in making the time switch, but we ended up with a group of ten or so anyway. Elliott was back after his run-in with a car. The group arrived at the turnaround just about at sunrise, and so we had a nice view looking east over the Mississippi. If only those huge power poles weren't there spoiling the picture! John Egan and his daughter are still battling leukemia and she is at Children's for a bone marrow transplant right now. They have a website and there's also a report on the news website. We're all hoping everything goes well, as it has been a very long road for them thus far.

Perfect Timing

Here we go again. Short days, chilly temps, and a clear conspiracy by the weather gods. After wimping out on yesterday's training ride, I was ready to get back in the groove this morning as I pulled on the arm-warmers. I even took a couple of minutes to clamp the bell back onto my handlebars since I'd removed it for last weekend's race. I'd noticed that the sky looked cloudy, but of course it was dark so it was hard to say for sure. I opened the basement door and stepped out onto the sidewalk. A light mist was falling. I stood there for a full minute considering my options as the feathery droplets slowly grew larger. Another minute and the mist had turned to rain. I unlocked the door and retreated. I clearly remembered the "10% chance of rain" that had been predicted for today, so I went upstairs and fired up the computer to check the radar. Well, the bottom line was that the rain had been perfectly timed to coincide ONLY with my riding time. I drove the car over to Starbucks and settled in with a cup of coffee and cranberry scone, watching the light rain as it continued unabated. By the time I got back to the house it was time to decide whether to ride the bike to work or give in and take the car. The rain promptly stopped just in time for me to hop on the bike and make the commute to work, splashing through the puddles of water the whole way. With an upcoming conference in D.C. that will have me off the bike from Sunday through Wednesday, I'd been hoping to make a nice deposit in the mileage bank this week. Oh well, such is life...

Things seem to be stacking up pretty tightly lately. A little neighborhood Halloween porch party at the house tomorrow night (feel free to stop by!), a capital outlay request to submit by the end of the week, a videoconference to coordinate, lobbying reports to submit, an analysis of the 3-year rolling average of Tulane's position relative to the AAU membership criteria, a memorandum of understanding to, well, "move along," a trip to DC on Sunday, and probably a few things I've conveniently forgotten.

One of Those

I knew something was out of sync when I woke up early this morning. I might have, indeed should have, rolled over and gone back to sleep, but didn't. So I ended up down in the basement cleaning the dirt off the Open Pros under a single bare light bulb and waiting for the first hint of dawn to peek over the horizon. Finally, I rolled the bike out the door, turned on both blinky lights and pedaled off down the street in the direction of the levee. It felt colder than it should have, and I could feel the weekend's strong wind still blowing in my face. I was tired of that wind. Something was amiss.

I got to the levee and of course I was the only one there. It was still pretty dark, and with my motivation lagging, I rode easily out to the bridge and decided to call it a day early. I was already thinking about a hot cup of coffee, and beating this dead horse was not going to get me anywhere anyway. Sometimes, it's just One of Those Days, and you have to roll with the punches. Today was one of those. The Wife has been so stressed out at work that she's taking the week off. Last week my co-worker announced he was leaving in a few weeks to take a better offer. I have a few deadlines looming, the LAMBRA meeting coming up, two long trips in November, and all I want to do is escape it all for a while. Just to twist the knife, I'm already detecting the threat of Christmas in the air.

As life goes, this time feels like the last quarter mile of a very long climb in a very hard race. Stop pedaling now and you'll quickly come to a stop and fall over, so you may as well girt your teeth and hammer your way over the top and hope there's a downhill on the other side, eh?

Back to Back

Saturday

Charlie and I headed over to the old capital of Louisiana, Mobile, AL Saturday morning for the Breakers Criterium. This year the event was being held in downtown Mobile on a course adjacent to a nice little park. The course was a long block-wide rectangle that featured some challenging pavement and a roofing crew with a big vat of smoking asphalt. Since it was a very late-season race, it wasn't too surprising that the turnout was fairly low, and when I signed up for the Masters 35+ race an hour and a half before the start, I was the second name on the list. We ended up with about ten riders by the time we started, though, so that was OK.

Although the temperature was practically perfect and there wasn't a cloud in the sky, the wind on this inner-city course was strong and gusty, making an otherwise straightforward course a lot harder. Despite the small group, the race turned out to be fairly fast - at least it felt that way to me. There was a lot of action in the early going, and after a couple of primes Charlie and another rider opened a big gap. I took a deep breath and took off in pursuit. It took me a whole lap, completely flat-out, to close it, and by the time I could focus again I saw that the pack had split, leaving us with a five-rider break about half-way through the 45 minute race. GW was there, along with one of the Jeep guys and the guy with the disk wheel. The last few laps didn't exactly go according to my plan, however. With about three laps to go they disk wheel rider launched a strong attack, flying down the leeward edge of the road. I was on the rivet again, chasing in the gutter trying to catch a bit of draft in the crosswind. Soon after I caught GW launched a perfectly timed attack and got cleanly away with just over a lap left. So now we were sprinting for 2nd place and I thought I was in a good spot, but things got kind of squirrely as we went past the asphalt truck and I ended up 4th.

I hadn't been planning on doing back-to-back races, but after doing a cool-down lap I figured I'd take a shot at it since the 2nd race was only $10. I added my name to the bottom of the list, and went straight to the starting line. My heart rate still hadn't settled back down from the sprint. GW, and the disk wheel guy (I know he's been racing a long time, but I can't remember his name) were also riding back-to-back races. This race started out in a much more civilized manner, but once again the group split following a prime sprint and we ended up with a group of four off the front. Since everyone in this group, except perhaps one, had just finished the 35+ race, the pace stayed fairly steady until we neared the end. There was a prime with just a few laps to go and the disk wheel guy went for it and never looked back. I was certain he'd blow up, but he didn't, so once again I found myself sprinting for 2nd. This time my line through the last two turns was cleaner and I finished 2nd, so that was a nice way to end my 2007 season.

Sunday

My legs were a little stiff as I headed out into a stiff north wind Sunday morning. I figured the Giro ride would be fairly small today thanks to the wind, and I was right. There were nonetheless three or four of the Riders Who Must Be First pushing the pace even before we were halfway down Lakeshore Drive, and I found myself halfway between them and the rest of the group when I tried to up the group's pace a bit. I was soon joined by Chad. Neither of us was interested in closing that gap, and then, as we climbed the Seabrook bridge we saw the drawbridge gate come down right in front of them. Karma? So everyone had a chance to catch up as we waited for a nice sailboat to cruise from Lake Pontchartrain into the Industrial Canal, probably headed for the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet to avoid the choppy waters of the lake. It wasn't long after we were on our way again that the same group was off the front again. There was no attempt to chase and they disappeared down Hayne Blvd. The rest of the day's ride was a battle with the wind and a rather dysfunctional paceline. The pace stayed mostly reasonable, though, so it was a pretty nice October ride under clear blue skies - pretty much the definition of a Fall training ride.

New Orleans Mountain Sunrise

It might have been a few degrees warmer this morning than last, but it still felt pretty cold to me. The wind, in particular, seemed stronger, and the clouds to the east made it even darker than usual. There were only four or five of us when we started, and we waited a few extra minutes, all of us looking desperately down the bike path, hoping to see more riders approaching. We eventually gave up, though, and headed out into the wind, picking up a few more riders along the way. The group was doing well to hold 22 mph, considering the wind, and once the sun started to rise 45 minutes after we'd left, I checked my watch, wondering if we'd be back on time. A few of us were scheduled to meet a cameraman in Audubon Park for 8:15.

After we turned around, I tried to get the group going right away so that we wouldn't lose too much time. With a tailwind most of the way, we were soon rolling along easily at 25 mph, so I knew we'd be OK. Up ahead, there was a long bank of dark clouds stretching all along the horizon. With the sun coming up behind it, it looked a lot like a mountain range. The photo doesn't really do it justice.

So anyway, here's the story on the photo-shoot this morning. Yesterday evening Guy called from Cox Communications. They are sponsoring the Tour de Jefferson bike ride on November 10, and were up against a sudden deadline to put together a little promotional PSA. So they needed a few bike riders right away. I sent out an email to the NOBC list around 5 pm and hoped for the best. Of course, most people don't have much flexibility after 8 am, and when I arrived at the meeting spot promptly at 8:15 it was just Vivian, Kurt and me. After a while Margaret showed up, so we recruited her too. We rode up and down for a little while so they could shoot images of wheels going by, and then they shot people putting on helmets, getting on bikes, etc. It took only 40 minutes or so, but by the time we were done I was absolutely freezing as the combination of damp sweaty clothes and the relative lack of activity took its toll.

Later, after a nice hot shower, I stopped on the Broad St. overpass to take a shot of the "Wanted" billboard that's been up there for the last month or so. They had added a second "Arrested" sticker to it. So I guess that's progress, although I'm wondering if they will also add a "Released" sticker when our DA sends them back out on the street. I also wonder if other cities have resorted to putting up billboards to catch criminals...

Instant Winter

The cold dry wind felt unfamiliar on my face as I started down the road this morning. Although yesterday we'd leapfrogged all the way from summer to Fall within 24 hours, today it seemed like it was suddenly Winter. I'm sure the morning temperature, which was somewhere around 50F down here on the southshore, will feel relatively warm by December, the sudden transition from 80s to 50s certainly felt quite harsh enough to my unacclimatized fingers and toes. Of course, I knew it would, and those who live in colder climates would surely get a chuckle over the multiple layers I piled on this morning. I even slipped on the cotton shoe-covers, and no, I never regretted it. Anyway, the levee was really quiet this morning, and although we had a predictably small group, the ride was nice despite my nagging feelings of guilt for having missed two day in a row. It's been getting noticeably darker each day, it seems, and today we kept the pace under 20 for a while until the visibility improved. Tomorrow's 6:15 start will be pitch black for sure, so I hope common sense prevails and the pace doesn't get dangerous before sunrise.

When we got out to the turnaround, the sun was still lingering near the horizon and there was a picture-perfect sunrise photo-op that would have made for an awesome picture, but of course it's just impossible to capture that sort of thing while you're riding with a little pocket camera in one hand. I did what I could, though, and we'll just have to rely on memory to fill in the depth of the orange and the way it reflected off the ripples in the Mississippi. As we started our ride back down the river, I thought I'd take advantage of David L's presence to ask a bird question. You see, on last weekend's Giro ride we had passed a huge flock of white birds that was congregated in a big shallow pond along Chef Highway. It was really a beautiful sight, but the really surprising thing was that when they all suddenly took to flight, a few of them were pink. Yes, the color of a plastic flamingo. Most of the birds looked like White Ibis to me, and I had never heard of there being pink ones, so I was wondering if it was a different species or some sort of seasonal variation. It turns out that they were most likely Roseate Spoonbills that were mixed in with the Ibis. The picture that I linked to was taken on the Audubon Park golf course. Learn something new every day.....

Quite a Change

After a night of continuing rain that totalled over 7 inches in my area of town, the cold front finally shuffled its way through here in the early morning hours, dropping temperatures rather dramatically. The wet streets this morning and the fact that I stayed up way too late the night before affected my judgement and I ended up sleeping an extra hour instead of riding. My ride in to work was lovely, though, with a nice west wind helping me along and the temperature down around 60F. For the first time since Spring, I could do my commute without needing to change shirts after I arrived! Right now it's a cool 59F, and tonight's low is supposed to be around 52, so I'm sure tomorrow's morning ride will feel a bit chilly. Hopefully we'll finally get some sunshine, because it's been cloudy all day today.

When I walked in to the little "kitchen" at our office this morning I found a huge puddle of water on the floor. Water was still dripping from the ceiling and running down the wall. Why we never saw any leakage yesterday when it was pouring down rain all day is rather a mystery. So is the reason they didn't fix this leak the last three or four times this happened.

In case you happen to be laboring under the delusion that you're a tough bike racer who has been training hard all season and deserves a break, Jill's recent decision to enter the Iditarod 350 mile bike race should put things nicely back into perspective for you. And you thought Rouge-Roubaix was a challenge?

Waiting it Out

The Wife plopped back into bed at 6am mumbling "it just started raining," and I drifted back to sleep thinking about whether I'd have a cranberry scone or danish on the way to work. As predicted, the weather today has been truly bleak, and so I'm just going to wait it out, looking forward to the clear skies that I know lurk somewhere behind the slow-moving cool front. Looking out the window, I see nothing but grey. The tops of the taller buildings are in the low-hanging clouds. As the wind shifts, rain periodically taps on my window, and in the distance I hear the low rumble of thunder. There is nothing to suggest the situation will change. In fact, the forecast on the radio today was for "100%" chance of rain. They practically never say "100%." There will be no cycling for me today.

I got a copy of some of the proposed USA Cycling legislation that the Board will consider at its upcoming meeting. (It has been sent to all of the LAMBRA club representatives, BTW.) As usual, there is a proposal to change the junior gear limit restriction, this time to go back to allowing them to ride regular gearing when they're not in Junior races. There are a few proposals to mess with Stage Race timing, one of which would break ties on GC based first on fractions of a second in the time trial stage(s). This one must have been authored by a time-trialist who can't sprint and doesn't have a clue how smaller events are handled. Just in case you are laboring under the delusion that your TT time in your favorite local stage race is accurate to within a tenth of a second, allow me to set you straight. In real life, there's one person at the finish line with a stopwatch and as you come flying past he or she just glances down and reads the minutes and seconds to another person with a clipboard. At the Tour de La, we have a backup person also recording times, but we rely on the times recorded by the first person in all cases except where there is a problem (usually caused by bad handwriting or human error). There are not three timers who average their times, for example, and when we have two different people timing the same person we often see differences of a tenth of a second, so unless there are a few thousand dollars available for some very fancy electronic timing, differences of a tenth of a second are not significant. I don't even want to get into what happens when, as often happens in a short TT, three people come across the line almost, but not quite, together. Of course, breaking a tie on GC in favor of a rider whose TT time was a tenth of a second faster seems unfair to me if, for example, he simply finished at the back of the pack in the non-TT races while the rider with whom he was tied had a slower time trial but placed, for example, first in every hot spot and first in every other stage.

Change is Good

So yesterday Louisiana did something kind of unusual. We elected a new governor who is a short, skinny, young guy of Indian descent with better than average academic credentials and experience in Washington. There are a few things about him that make me nervous, but I can't argue with the positive message it sends to the rest of the country, so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt -- for a while. It remains to be seen how well he will be able to work with the rest of the state legislature, but at this point almost any change would be good, and at any rate it's better than another "Bubba" governor.

It was another day in good-weather paradise today, and the Giro Ride was noticeably calmer and easier than usual. Once again I was more interested in enjoying the ride than enhancing my competitive edge, and spent most of the time safely tucked in near the back of the group. Yesterday's accident on I-10 that forced us to alter our usual route ended up closing I-10 for almost twelve hours, and in this morning's Times-Picayune I was pleased to see one of Steve's awesome photos. Today, everything was back to normal and we had a nice ride. After a fast stretch back down Chef Highway and the service road, I heard Charlie say, "Hey Randy, are you going to say in your blog that you didn't take a single pull today?" Well, here it is. I didn't take a single pull all the way back down Chef Highway. Guilty as charged. Sometimes the Master Plan just calls for sitting in, and who am I to question the Master Plan? Just to sweeten the deal, I took a picture.

Soon after returning home the weather started to deteriorate. Right now, around 5 pm, there are dark clouds to the southeast, the wind is gusty and the forecast for the next 48 hours is looking pretty dismal. Once this weather passes, though, we should get our first taste of sub-60 weather. As much as I hate riding during the cold months of the year, I can't help but look forward to the change. People always say that "change is hard," but sometimes change is also good.

Opened Floodgates

The weather for the first Saturday of the official LAMBRA "off season" was nothing less than spectacular. Truth be known, it would be nice if we had a 'Cross season to tide us over through the relatively mild winters we have, but for now I guess we will make do with the winter training rides on the northshore that should be starting in November. There's a reason that I'm thinking of cyclocross today, however.

The Giro Ride group was a little bit smaller than usual today, and it was clear that almost everyone was looking forward to a relatively easy and conversational pace. We went all the way down Hayne Blvd. and probably didn't crack 25 mph the whole time.

Just after we started Steve Martin, who lives just over the border in Mississippi, told me he'd been delayed on I-10 by a big truck fire involving 250 cylinders of acetylene. (Moral: When driving a truck full of acetylene, drive very carefully!) As usual, he had his camera with him and snapped this photo. I didn't think much about it until we turned onto Chef Highway, aka U.S. 90. After a few blocks I noticed that traffic seemed particularly heavy. I soon realized that all of the interstate traffic was being diverted onto Highway 90. It was as if someone had opened the floodgates! After a couple of miles the group suddenly turned off onto Michoud Blvd, heading back the other way. The back of the group, however, hadn't received that memo in time, so there was a little confusion about what was going on. A few of us decided that rather than turn back we'd just ride the nice wide shoulder on Chef Highway. It didn't take long before we realized that the shoulder was full of all sorts of debris - gravel, rocks, tree branches, and unfortunately, bricks. It felt kind of like riding Rouge-Roubaix, with rocks flying out from under your wheels and occasional sandy patches. Well, it was one of those bricks that caused the crash. Luckily it was just one guy, injuries were minimal, and he got out of the road before the frustrated, speeding interstate travellers turned him into roadkill. Well, at that point we finally figured out that it would just be more of the same if we continued, so we turned around and took Michoud Blvd. to Almonaster where it meets the Industrial Canal, turning along the canal and riding down bumpy little Jordan Rd. across a couple of treacherous railroad crossings to the lake. Way down at the end of Jordan Rd. the road makes a sharp right-hand turn and goes through a floodgate before meeting up with Morrison Road. That curve always seems to have standing water in it, and this morning was no exception. This time, though, it looked particularly deep, so I carefully plunged in as the rest of the group unclipped and waited to see if I'd survive. Halfway across the puddle I dropped into a nice pothole, but I don't guess it was ever deeper than about a foot, so I made it across and through the rocks where the pavement used to be, and waited for the rest of the group to come across. It was kind of fun, actually, and a nice change from the usual Giro.

Wine, Angels and Song

Although yesterday started out routinely, by late afternoon it was looking significantly more interesting. The Wife asked me to join a meeting with some folks who were in town doing a site visit in preparation for an upcoming Psychiatry convention, and for reasons I don't really understand she thought I could provide some useful insight from the "local" perspective on some of the "activities" that they were considering. I might have backed out of such a meeting except that the meeting was going to be at the Wyndham hotel and there was likely to be wine involved. So I skipped out a little early and by 4:00 was sitting at a table sipping a glass of Merlot and talking about cemetery tours and funky restaurants. It was kind of fun, actually.

I admit I was a little bit surprised that they were definitely planning on organizing a group to take the "Katrina disaster" bus tour. In fact, I guess I was even a little surprised that they were still being done. As it turns out, though, they are still going strong and are popular with visitors. Like everyone, I have mixed feelings about things like that. On the one hand, you want to put the disaster behind you and move on, while on the other you realize that most people can't really comprehend the whole thing unless they actually see it. The mere fact that there is still more than enough damage over two years later to support these tours is a little troubling all by itself.

So anyway, we had to finish up the meeting by 5:00 so that we could rush home and meet a few friends in time to go out to City Park for the "Reds, Whites, and the Blues" evening, which is a benefit consisting mainly of a big wine-tasting with food from a bunch of local restaurants and a local jazz/blues singer. We were determined not to be too late this year because by the time we'd arrived last year much of the food was already gone! This year's event was quite nice despite the rain-soaked grounds, and we did a copious amount of "tasting," eventually accumulating more wine glasses than our little table out in the garden could handle. I was surprised to find a girl with angel wings that looked a lot like the ones that the Specialized angel wears. She was with a table that was promoting some kind of vodka (the Bloody Mary was merely OK and if you can tell the difference between brands of vodka in a bloody mary, you're a whole lot better than I). The event wrapped up around 9 pm, so we all headed back to the house where we sat out on the front porch and went through a couple of bottles of wine, this time with full glasses. By 11 I was pretty well zonked out and ready for either bed or dancing, and since there was no dancing to be had, I called it a night.

This morning the weather was 100% better. A little cool front had come through overnight, lowering both the temperature and humidity. Apparently the nice early morning weather wasn't enough to get folks out to the levee, though. I didn't see any of the regular riders out there the whole time I was riding. Oh well, I guess that's OK for a Friday in October.

Extra Points

Rolled out of bed at 5:45 as usual, pulled on the shorts and shirt, and stumbled down the stairs to the basement. Something about the sound of the cars on the street outside made me crack open the door. The streets were soaked; rain still dripping from the roof; puddles in the street. Back upstairs to check the radar. Scattered rain with a capital "S," but it was all moving fast and the temperature was warm. So I transferred the lights and seat bag to the ol' full-fender Pennine and pointed it toward the levee, knowing I'd get rained on a bit, but figuring I could get in a reasonably pleasant twenty miles or so before things started to get uncomfortable. As I rode through the neighborhood in a light misting drizzle I couldn't help but think of Jill, Up in Alaska, where she's been riding in the cold rain pretty much every day for the last month. By comparison, a wet ride on the bike path in 75 degree weather is a walk in the park.

I was surprised to see a rider waiting at the meeting spot, and even more surprised when we picked up three or four more before we'd even passed the playground. So along with Keith and Jeff and Mignon and John and I think one or two others we started out up the river on wet asphalt and through occasional sprinkles of rain. As the raindrops got larger, Jeff went faster. He was a parked out by Williams Blvd. and it was becoming clear that the weather was getting worse the farther upriver we went. Somewhere before the pumping station the drizzle turned to rain and we decided that would be a good place to turn back, so we left Jeff to finish off his last mile in the rain and made a u-turn. I was happy to have the full fenders keeping my feet relatively dry, and as we made our way back down the river into town I commented that even though we didn't put in the usual mileage today, we all qualified for extra points just for showing up. Toward the end of the ride I heard my cellphone telling me that a text message had arrived. It was the NOLAReady warning system notifying me that a tornado warning had been issued somewhere out to the east of the city. I was almost home by then, and half an hour later I was in the car driving to work with The Wife, a huge cup of coffee in hand. Then, when I stepped into the office up on the roof, the first thing I saw was a bright complete rainbow. Nice.

Firing up the email, I saw a nice article on Bob Garry about test kits for hemorrhagic fever that he's been working on. Bob's one of our researchers who lives a couple of blocks from me on Pine Street and whose daughter was in the same class as mine in high school. The guy is really the definition of a scientist's scientist. Or maybe a professor's professor. He has a little touch of that "absent-minded professor" demeanor that hides a thinly veiled passionate genius for his work. We need more of those!

Garbage Day

Although I'd gone to bed rather early Tuesday night, it seemed to take a little extra determination to get the feet on the floor this morning. My internal clock just keeps insisting that the day doesn't start until the sun comes up. So naturally I was running a little bit late when I finally opened the door. Then it struck me. It was Garbage Day. Damn. I rushed back upstairs and yanked the plastic bags out of the kitchen garbage cans, hauled them down to the basement, threw them into that huge garbage can that the city insists I need to use, and rolled the monstrosity out to the curb. I hate that big suburban garbage can!

I headed out to the levee, and along the way, as I passed underneath a street light, I glanced at my watch. I was going to be a couple of minutes late -- three, in fact. As luck would have it, the group had departed on time today, and when I arrived atop the levee I could see one little red blinkey light far off in the distance. I asked myself just how hard I was willing to chase. The answer was a resounding "not very hard." So off I went at a "not very hard" pace as the sun slowly rose behind me. For the next ten miles I could see the small group about a minute or so up the road, but I never really closed the gap very much, mainly because I was going "not very hard," I assume. Out near Kenner I overtook Bob Perrin, so I slowed down and chatted with him a while as he was wondering where he could get a little bell like the one I've been using lately to keep the morning levee walkers in check.

Back in the group and on the way back, the pace was pretty smooth with everyone taking longish pulls into the moderate headwind. This time of year, there are a couple of sections of the return trip that are just directly into the rising sun. I often find myself positioning my head so that the head of the person in front of me blocks out the sun. Otherwise, it's really pretty hard to see what's coming.

Finally put the LCCS rankings up on the website, and within a couple of hours Charlie had called to tell me that the team points on one page didn't match those on another. He was right. I hadn't uploaded the final spreadsheet that shows the details. Gary emailed me that the new LCCS championship jerseys are ready and that he should receive them in a week or two, so that's good. I still need to order the awards, then we can finally settle up both the 2006 and 2007 LCCS awards and jerseys.

So Much Darker

The weather has reverted to its normal level of humidity and temperature now. As I got ready to ride today I took a look out the window because if felt so humid that I though it might have actually rained. Although the streets were dry, I couldn't help but notice that it looked so much darker than it did just a week ago. I'm sure that was due in part to the scattered clouds that were visible only because of the reflection of the city's lights, aka, "light pollution." I had picked up a new little red blinky light after work on Monday, and even with the "included" batteries, its seven LEDs seemed blindingly bright as I headed off for the levee. The wind out of the ESE was really strong today and I figured we'd have a pretty fast ride out to the turnaround. I was right. The only problem was that quite a bit of it was in the dark. It can get a little sketchy up on the levee when it is that dark. Oncoming riders and runners seem to appear quite suddenly, not to mention the big drilling rig that forced us down onto the grassy slope of the levee. Anyway, I didn't turn off the headlight until we were all the way out to Kenner this morning.



Rob and Chad and perhaps a few others like Max and Matt seemed to be pushing the pace pretty hard up at the front, and so as usual, half of the riders in the group were content to stay out of the rotation and hang on nearer the back. I was one of them for a while, wondering if the guys at the front fully realized that we'd be fighting a headwind all the way home. Then, somewhere around the dip, I guess, Rob and Chad and a few others disappeared and the pace settled down a little bit. Still, it was hard enough that on the return trip, what was left of the group was happy to spin along into the wind at an easy pace for the first half hour or so. The rest of the return trip was done at a good reasonable pace that was quite fast enough.



So I think I have the final Road LCCS points finished. I'll hopefully get them up on the website this evening some time. I also need to put up the final Track LCCS, which I have somewhere but haven't checked over yet. The track LCCS is always confusing because there are too few riders and too many classes, so some riders are riding in multiple classes, and then in the team events you get the same rider riding on more than one pursuit or team sprint team in the same race. How are you supposed to score that??



So anyway, since it's been too dark to take pictures, I thought I'd put up a couple from last Saturday's Giro Ride. One is of Matt showing off his nice dental work, and the other is of Chad explaining the benefits of using Mr. Tuffy's to Rob.

Under the Oaks

Rocktoberfest is kind of a special race. Started seven or eight years ago by the Lakeshore Cycling club, and later adopted by the NOBC, it typically marks the end of the regular road racing season for many riders. It is also one of the few races conducted right in the city of New Orleans. Promoting races in the city can be challenging, and with the traditional Lakeshore Drive course still not quite ready for prime time, we had decided to try for City Park. It was only through the generous sponsorship of Cox Communications that we were able to secure the old Roosevelt Mall loop for this year's event, and even with their four-digit donation, the club will likely lose a lot of money on the race itself. Still, it's a fun course and there's nothing like having a criterium right at home, especially after a long racing season full of long weekend road trips. There's also the nostalgic fact, at least for me, that this was the exact location of my first bike race back around 1971.

This year I was officiating the race along with Adam Watts, but, as I often do for this one, I was also going to be racing the Masters race. That always means a minimal warmup and isn't really the ideal situation, but for this relatively low-key race it's not too much of an issue. I had also spent much of Saturday afternoon and evening at the ER in Baton Rouge with a family medical emergency. In fact, as I was walking through the ER I heard someone say "Randy!" It was Chris Alexander, who works there. Anyway, the bottom line was that I didn't get home until around 10:00, after which I had to get all of the race equipment organized and ready to go for 5:30 the next morning. Time was short, so the only attention the bike got was removal of my little handlebar bell and headlight.

So after the Women and Juniors races ended, I had about ten minutes to get the bike down off of the car, change clothes, and get to the start line. I was rushing so much that when I put on my riding shorts in the car, I got them on backwards. Believe me, when you stand up, you notice that right away! I managed to get in one quick lap of the 1-mile loop before the start, and a few minutes later we were off. I didn't really have much of a plan for this race, but I was glad to have teammates Brian Magendie and Mark Delaney in the group. The race started off with lots of attacks and counter-attacks, accompanied by a quite a bit of "spirited" dialogue among, and perhaps between, team members of NBO and Midsouth, both of which were well represented. At one point when teammates were arguing about things, Eddie Delgado from NBO looked over and commented "looks like things might go well for you today." Actually, I had hoped that NBO and Midsouth would spend the day chasing down each other's breaks, but I wasn't going to be quite so lucky. It quickly became clear that both teams were looking to make a break stick and were willing to bring along a couple of riders from rival teams, which unfortunately left to me and a few others the task of closing numerous gaps. Mark, Brian and I, along with two or three others, were doing a lot of work trying to close gaps every time a break would go without us. Eventually, though, a 6-rider break formed that included Brian, two NBO riders, two Midsouth riders, and one Jeep rider. Back in the pack, both teams quickly started to soft-pedal, and I wasn't really too sure what to do. I didn't want to pull the group up the the break with Brian in it, but since I knew it was Brian's first race of the season (work's been busy for him this year) I wasn't sure if he'd be able to stick. So I took a few little pulls in order to keep the gap from getting too big, and then I saw Brian and another rider starting to slip off the back of the break a bit. I stepped up the pace for about a lap, but when they regained contact I was only too happy to ease up. By then I was getting pretty tired anyway, so I dropped back a bit to rest. There was never much of a chase after that, so the break started to really pull away. Brian ended up 6th, which was kind of exciting, actually. I wasn't all that motivated about sprinting for 7th place, and came through the last turn maybe five riders back, but once the sprint started I couldn't just sit back of course. I ended up 9th. It was fun racing on the old Roosevelt Mall course under the old oaks, but I guess my head just wasn't really into it this time.

Two Whole Days

My schedule was packed with meetings and other work both Thursday and Friday, and both days found me heading to work early too early to squeeze in a ride. On the plus side, I spent much of the time on the uptown campus enjoying the marvelous weather. So basically I spent two whole days completely off the bike, which I suppose wasn't such a bad thing. The cool front that came through brought a Saturday morning temperature of about 60F, which felt positively chilly to me as I headed out to the lakefront wearing arm-warmers for the first time since Spring.

With a race tomorrow morning, most of the guys on the Giro ride were taking it pretty easy. I, for one, spent most of my time near the back and out of trouble. I was just glad to be getting back into my routine and was looking forward to getting everything sorted out and ready to go for tomorrow's Rocktoberfest where I'll be racing and officiating. The best part of the ride was when Rob "if you had Tuffys you wouldn't get a flat" Konrad flatted and had to endure a few comments from the peanut gallery because at it turned out, he didn't have Mr. Tuffys in the tire that flatted! I took a picture, in fact, but of course it's in New Orleans and I'm not. On the way home I rode once around the City Park course to check out all of the road repairs that Robin had made. While he was at it, he also made some repairs to Hayne Blvd and the Service Road for the Giro Ride. So once I got home I finished updating the LCCS rankings and posted them on the LAMBRA website, downloaded and printed out all of the release forms for the pre-registered riders, built the results spreadsheet for the race, made a few calls, etc. Then I plugged the radios into the charger and was just about to kick back and relax a bit when the phone rang.

The Wife's mother was at the Emergency Room in Baton Rouge, presumably with a serious UTI and who knows what else. Being an Alzheimer's patient, it's hard to figure out exactly what's going on, but she seemed to be pretty unresponsive as well. So anyway, I'm sitting here in the ER at OLOL waiting room right now (it's 7:30 pm already) where they actually have free internet! The last hour of so was the most surreal emergency room experience I've ever had, and it didn't have anything to do with the patients. It was the last quarter of an LSU football game and they had it up on the big LCD screen in the waiting room. Once the game went into overtime, the whole room was focused on the game. Presumably they all had sick relatives here, or were themselves sick, but you wouldn't have known it. They were cheering and talking loudly and generally acting like they were down at the local pub. Anyway, it was kind of strange. So anyway, the regular doctor still hasn't shown up, but we're sure the mother-in-law is going to be admitted, so I'll be heading back to New Orleans soon solo, leaving The Wife here with her sister for the night. I'll need to be at the race by 6:30 am, since the first start is at 7:30 (sunrise is at 7:00 -- what were were we thinking?

Strange Bedfellows

A bit of cooler, less humid air has finally wandered down this way, and everyone is all excited about the prospect of a few days of clear blue skies and lows in the 60s. Hopefully it will hold out through Sunday's Rocktoberfest race here in New Orleans. As usual there have been lots of emails back and forth this morning working out some of the usual race-day details, but the fact is that although this year's race will be expensive, the actual organizational needs are fairly easily met by our more experienced club members, so as long as we get a good turnout of both riders and volunteers, all should go pretty smoothly.

The morning levee ride had a nice turnout this morning and once we got past the bridge the pace picked up quickly. That cool north wind was largely behind us until we hit the bend in the river at the country club, followed by a little cross-country to circumvent a drilling rig (I thought they were finished, but I guess not). The rest of the way out was mostly crosswind and we lost a few riders along the way. For the return trip Chad organized a circular paceline that took a long time to stabililze. Different people were wanting to go different speeds, but eventually the group settled on a consensus speed and everybody figured out which riders were going to be in the rotation and which were going to be taking it easy at the back. I wouldn't say it was the smoothest paceline I've ever been in, but it could have been worse.

So after arriving at work I was noticing the great diversity of bikes that are in the bike room. There's a nice Bianchi Pista that I haven't seen much lately, along with a sweet Specialized Langster that I really like. In fact, I talked briefly with the Langster's owner the other day because it's one of the Public Health students and she was at a desk in the hallway selling tickets or something with her bike leaning on the wall behind her. I thought it was kind of funny to see those two bikes right next to a Wal-Mart "Next" bike. Strange bedfellows indeed.

Darker and Darker

With sunrise already after 7am the 6:15 ride is just getting darker and darker. Getting up in the dark is not something I do easily, either, and this morning it seemed a particular struggle. I suppose that was at least partly due to the fact that I didn't get to sleep until around 1 am last night, thanks no doubt to the rather large overdose of caffeine I'd imbibed over the course of the day. I guess the two glasses of wine after dinner proved an inadequate antidote. I did, nonetheless, make it out the door and to the levee, all the while acutely congnizant of the fact that I was lacking my trusty red blinky light. I needen't have worried, though, because not a single car passed me from behind. Apparently drivers don't like getting up in the dark either.

When I arrived at the meeting spot the stars were still out, and even though we started a few minutes late, it was really a bit too dark to go very fast for the first few miles. The pace did finally get going pretty good, but as usual when Howard tried to force the pace the paceline suffered. A couple of times I just let him ride off the front rather than try to sustain an unsustainable pace. Nothing was ever able to stay off the front for long anyway. There was still one drilling rig up on the levee, and going around it on the wet grass of the levee slope I could tell the bike was close to slipping out from under me. Anyway, by the time we were halfway back I was feeling really tired. In fact, I still am. I think I am just suffering from an accumulated lack of sleep, though. It will no doubt be a struggle to stay awake through my dentist appointment this afternoon.

Roadkill and Elvis on Oak Street

Yesterday's Giro Ride started out nice and tame, and I thought it would probably stay that way. As usual, however, I was sadly mistaken. By the time we started down Chef Highway, after a frantic bit of chasing along the service road, there was one break already down the road and another little chase group bridging up to it. It was pretty windy, so I thought I'd stick with what was left of the main group and work the nice double paceline that always develops under such conditions. That paceline did, in fact, start to come together, but after Howard hit the front and surged the pace up by 5 mph it's fate was pretty much sealed. I tried to keep the rotation going at the front, but by then most of the group was afraid to pull, no doubt fearing another big surge they couldn't quite handle in the wind. So a couple of us would take out turns at the front, pull off, and then nobody would come through. At one point I was sitting there on the left behind another rider who had just pulled off and I hear Charlie behind us screaming "pull off!" I had to laugh. We were already "pulled off." The problem was that even though we were trying to drop back, the riders behind us wouldn't come around. And so, needless to say, the group up the road disappeared pretty quickly at that point. Now, after the turnaround, when we picked up a nice tailwind, suddenly everyone was superman. A few of us rolled off ahead of the main group and after a while the pace picked up with Jay sitting at the front on his TT bike towing the rest of us at around 29-30 mph. A mile or two before the Goodyear sign we're still rolling at like 30 when we suddenly get swarmed from behind by riders going about 34 mph. It felt suspiciously like an attack, and right away I was off the saddle going 36 mph just to close the gap. The pace stayed up above 30 the rest of the way to the sign sprint. Somewhere on the service road my rear tire suddenly blew up and as we rolled to a stop I heard someone behind say "thank God!" I guess there were a lot of tired legs by that point. Anyway, it turned out that some big sharp piece of glass or something had slashed my *brand new* tire, so Big Richard gave me a piece of Mr Tuffy to use as a boot and I rode it all the way back with about 50 psi just to be on the safe side. That was just one of four flats we had that day (one of which was something that went right through a tire liner). When I got home I stitched in a more permanent boot, so we'll see how long that lasts.

The Monday morning levee ride was just Arlow, Brady and me, so we kept the pace nice and moderate, maybe 20-24 mph, the whole way, taking long pulls and looking at the scenery. The boot I'd put in my rear tire seemed to work fine, so maybe I'll get a few more miles out of that new rubber. Anyway, as we came down from the levee at Oak Street I saw a chance to slot in neatly behind a car without slowing down, which was great, but of course it meant that I hit the railroad tracks at about 25 mph. Well, when I did, out of the corner of my eye I saw something bouncing along the road behind me and immediately knew what it was. My Vista tail light had unclipped itself and launched despite the rubber band I keep around it specifically to prevent that from happening (this wasn't the first time). I hit the brakes pretty fast and rushed back through the dangerous intersection, risking life and limb, to try and save it, but by the time I got there it was already roadkill. The red lens was smashed into a hundred little pieces scattered around it on the asphalt like the classic blood splatter they like to talk about so much on CSI. I picked up the carcass since the batteries probably survived, and brought it home, but after a quick autopsy it was clear that this trusty little light was not going to rise from the dead this time. After that little incident, we're riding down Oak St. and come to the intersection with Carrollton where we have to stop for the traffic signal and I look up to see a guy in an Elvis costume standing on the corner advertising the little breakfast place on Oak St. I'm confused. Elvis? 8 a.m. on a Monday? Advertising a eggs and bacon place? Somehow the connection, if any, escaped me, but hey, it was getting some attention, so I guess it was working. I always wonder who's inside those big plastic heads, though.

A Little Confused

Why I kept waking up over and over again last night I don't really know. I think the salty pizza and extra glass -- or two -- last night might have had something to do with it, though. When the alarm finally went off this morning, I was thinking that it was a Tuesday. Tuesday?? Apparently I was a little confused. Of course I quickly realized it was Saturday, but I was already awake with little chance of going back to sleep, so naturally I figured it would be a good time to lube the chain. Anyway, I eventually got out on the road where it was still rather dark at 6:30 am. As I approached my turn onto Carrollton Avenue I saw a rider streak past. I stepped up my pace, made the turn and was a little surprised to find that I wasn't gaining on the rider. I kicked it up another notch and finally started closing the gap to the rider, who, it turned out, was Dan Bennett. So it was nice to have someone with whom to ride out to the lake.

It seemed that there were riders scattered all over Lakeshore Drive in groups of two and three this morning, so we rode all the way down to the start of the Giro Ride, turning around with a small group. All the way down Lakeshore people kept asking "is this everybody?" Things get rather confused when so many riders don't wait so that everyone can start together. We heard there was yet another group behind us, so we rolled along the lake, picking up riders along the way, and eventually, near the end, the missing group merged with ours and finally everyone was together.

Still, today's ride seemed a little confused. As we battled a little headwind down Hayne I stayed tucked safely inside the pack, which itself didn't seem interested in going too hard. After the turn onto Chef Highway, though, I think a little break rolled off the front and soon the pace started to ramp up. I finally made my way up to the front of the group expecting to get into a nice smooth paceline, but what I found was mostly more confusion. For some reason things at the front just weren't coming together. Two riders would pull, then there would be nobody to come through. Then someone would surge past them all, a couple would follow, one might pull through, then things would crumble. After a few nonproductive pulls, I retreated to the back to let them work things out among themselves.

The first part of the ride back featured another small break off the front that was finally caught thanks to a nice tailwind and a long stint at 29-31 mph. Then, when we hit the service road, things got kind of confused again and the group pretty much split up. All this time Dan and Rusty were way off the front. So anyway, once the small group I was with caught back up to Dan on Lakeshore, we spent the rest of the time mostly re-telling racing stories from the 80s and battling traffic all the way back uptown.

Rain Bike Riding

Although I hadn't heard the rain, the streets this morning were wet. Peering between the slats of the window blinds I searched for the little puddles that would give away the raindrops. They were smooth and still, so I decided to take a shot at a quick 20 miles. It looked like a day for the old Pennine, aka the Rain Bike. When streets are wet, fenders rule. It had been a while since I'd ridden that bike, so I had to first pump up the tires, and once on the road I had to stop to readjust one of the fenders so it wouldn't rub on the tire. Even so, I hit the levee at the usual time, but of course I was the only one there this morning.

The sky to the west didn't look so bad, and by the time I reached the bridge the bike path was dry. This was starting to look good! Well, when I turned around into a headwind to make the return trip I could see a lot of clouds moving in from the east. Sure enough, within a few miles a light rain started to fall. It never got much heavier than that, though, so I was pretty comfortable the whole way. That is, until a bee stung me on the inside of my upper thigh. I must have had twenty bee stings right about in that same place over the years, and despite my rubbing half a tube of cortisone cream on it, as I sit here at the office I can still feel it. I'm sure that if I dared to take a look right now there would be a four-inch diameter circle of inflammation by now. Damn. You know it's going to be a week and a half before it goes away, too. As I made my way back home from the levee I heard a little beep from my cellphone. There was a message from The Wife about half an hour earlier saying that it was pouring rain at the house and that she'd already gotten drenched while riding around Audubon Park. I guess my timing must have been pretty good, because I totally missed that little rainstorm.

So by the time I was ready to head off to work, the sky looked a little brighter. I had planned to pack in all of my clothes, but since the weather looked better I went ahead and wore my regular pants. When it started to rain as I passed the old Falstaff Brewery I was really starting to curse my bad luck, but then two blocks later the rain stopped, so I didn't get too wet. Looks like it'll be off-and-on rain all day today. Situation normal.

Rain's Reprieve

The rain started early, around 5:30 I guess, and before the alarm had gone off I'd already decided to take the day off. Actually, it's been quite a long time since a morning rain shower has offered a reprieve from the daily training ride, so I figured it was due. As almost always happens, most of the rain ended at precisely the time at which I might have squeezed out a short ride before work. It's amazing how hard it is to change plans once you've resigned yourself to a morning without a ride. In fact I was already thinking about a leisurely stop at Starbucks on the way to work, so the bottom line was a day off the bike. I suppose it's not entirely such a bad thing, but the reality is that at my age I start getting fat about five minutes after I get off the bike, so it's not really as simple as it was a couple of decades ago. It seems that life's compromises keep coming closer and closer together than they used to.

Getting to work early this morning proved to be less relaxing than I'd hoped. In fact, I really missed my relatively tranquil bike ride. So naturally when I got to work I procrastinated for a little while by putting a bunch of Team Time Trial photos up on the NOBC website. Eventually, though, I had to return to reality and the rest of the day was, well, you know, it was work. While I was working, the city council decided to raise my water bill, which as far as I can tell is about all they've accomplished this year. I'm hoping the weather is more agreeable tomorrow so I can break in the new tire I put on yesterday after yet another flat on the levee. Frankly, I think it's really just the combination of rain and darkness that contributed so much to my recent series of flats, because it always seems to peak this time of year. Anyway, I think I'll be able to line up a meeting room at Tulane for the annual LAMBRA scheduling meeting on Nov. 25. Now, if I can just get a few minutes during the day to make the arrangements.....

Into the Headlights

Slowly, tortuously, kicking and screaming, it seems that Fall is finally inching its way south. Granted, the New Orleans riders are still at least a couple of weeks away from needing to hunt for their long-lost arm-warmers, but there's a little bit of a chill in the air just before dawn right now. It will be a month or two before it starts to stick, though, and until then the morning temperatures will wander between brisk and muggy as the early northern cool fronts collide with the moist Gulf of Mexico air. Today it was just cool enough to think about zipping up the jersey on the way to meet the levee ride. Waiting up there with the group in the darkness was Dan Bennett who said he'll be in town until Saturday. I would have taken a photo, but he turned around early while it was still a bit too dark.

The ride today was not without incident, though. With official sunrise somewhere around 7 am right now, it was still fairly dark on the way out this morning, and we had to negotiate a couple of drilling rigs as has been the case for the last few days. We were rolling along at a reasonable clip when, up ahead, we could see that there was a truck stopped on the right side of the bike path. Although we were riding right into the headlights, which made it difficult to see anything else, we could tell that the left lane was clear. Of course the pace slowed down as we approached and started past on the left. Then, just as the rider ahead of me cleared the headlights, I saw a head with a safety helmet suddenly poke into our lane about a foot off the ground! Brakes were applied, warnings were issued, and I felt a big "thud" on my rear wheel. The thud turned out to be Arlow hitting the dirt. Luckily, he appeared to be uninjured and we were soon on our way again, but you know, about the last thing you expect to see is someone's head at about the level of your bottom bracket. It was actually a guy who was filling in one of the bore holes left by the drilling rig, and I guess he heard us approaching and wanted to see what was coming. Lucky for him it wasn't the last thing he ever saw.

So anyhow, we had a pretty good ride today. Now I have to go delete the fu*&^ng Spammer comment that just arrived about condos in Costa Rica!

Walking About

Sunday afternoon the scattered rains ended, the sky cleared, and with an hour or so to kill we decided it was a good day for a long walk. Our first stop was the sister-in-law's house, just half a mile away, that had just been jacked up about three feet higher than it had been when it flooded after Katrina. It's amazing how quickly this process can be completed. They are already building the new piers onto which the house will ultimately rest. I'm sure the neighbors will all be happy when this part of the rebuilding job is done because, since the house sits right up alongside the street the construction has been causing a lot of traffic and parking problems. I'm guessing that by the time the house can be occupied again, the sister-in-law will have been living in the little FEMA trailer in the front yard for well over two years.

Since I'd brought my camera along, I stopped to take a couple more "house" photos along the way as we walked down Palmer and eventually returned via the Tulane campus and Audubon Street. That first house is on the corner of Freret and Palmer and is a rather unique looking one that everyone, including me, seems to like. The other shot is of a big house on Audubon, a few blocks down from Tulane, that always seems to be very carefully maintained and landscaped. It was renovated some years back and I'm sure the job set them back a million or two.

So this morning it was nice and cool for the morning ride, although there were only two of us to do it. Scott and I did an easy spin, enjoying the cooler temperature and wondering why so few people were on the levee on such a nice morning. As for the World Championships, I say good for Bettini. Damn, I hope he's racing clean, at least this year! Well, I've got a long to-do list here at work, so I'd better get on it.