This morning was yet another wash-out, although at least this one didn't come as a surprise. What caught me off-guard, though, was the realization that it was already Friday! This week seemed to go pretty fast. I was up past midnight trying to come up with a viable way to score the subgroups from the Rouge-Roubaix results, some of which are still in production, since at registration they somehow managed to avoid making up individual start lists and therefore there was no way to tell if, for example, a Cat. 2 rider who was over 45 intended to race as a Cat. 2, as a Master 35+, or as a Master 45+. In fact, I remember picking up my number that morning and pausing for a moment because something seemed to be missing, but I was in a rush and didn't stop to think. What was missing were start sheets! There will be a few unhappy people regardless of how we handle it, but we will have to create those groupings (which are strictly for LCCS points and bragging rights) using a method that treats everyone the same because it's not going to work to either make assumptions about individuals nor to let them chose after the race is over.
So despite the wet streets, I got up in the dark anyway this morning to peek out the window, and I could see that the actual rain was over, but just couldn't work up enough enthusiasm to get me out the door on the old Pennine for a little recovery spin. Part of the reason, I'm sure, was that my right calf was still twitching and knotted up from those cramps I was getting last Sunday. And then there was the evening training ride I had done yesterday that certainly didn't help that situation.
I was already in the parking garage when Dave called to see if we could meet to ride out to the lakefront together for the training ride/race. It sounded like a plan, but the fly in the ointment was that I was having some difficulty finding my car! I don't often drive to work, and that morning I'd decided to go up a few extra floors so I could take the front elevators (it's complicated...). So way up at the very top of the garage, on the 7th floor of the 25 floor building, I found a nice spot. The trouble was, by the time I left I couldn't remember which floor I'd parked on and ended up wandering through the parking garage maze for about ten minutes. If I'd just ridden the bike I would have been halfway home by then. Anyway, Dave arrived on schedule and we made our way down Carrollton Avenue, doing battle with the cars most of the way, and got to Lakeshore Drive right about 6 pm. This being the first Tuesday/Thursday training race of the season, and having been very quietly announced in a rather roundabout fashion, there were only four of us, but we got in a really good workout anyway thanks to the strengthening wind. The east end of Lakeshore Drive was barricaded. I suppose it's related to the ongoing work they've been doing of raising the height of the levee. I was initially disappointed that we couldn't use our regular 6-mile loop, but soon after we started I realized that this was a blessing in disguise. There was hardly any traffic! Nobody could cruise on Lakeshore Drive, and anybody who was going anywhere was forced onto Leon C. Simon or Robt. E. Lee Blvd., so we practically had the lakefront to ourselves.
I have to admit it was kind of a long ride back uptown into the wind, especially since I ended up with something in excess of 70 miles for the day. Even so, it felt great to be back on Lakeshore Drive with sweat dripping down my face, trying to get a draft off of Mike W without overlapping the wheel of death. I'm looking forward to some more of these on Tu. and Th., and will probably start turning around a little early on the morning ride on those days so I can get in to work a little earlier and therefore get out of work a little earlier. I think the training races are back! Next week, arms will be twisted and egos threatened!
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