Riding Weather

As usual, I rolled out in the dark feeling somewhat cold and stiff. The thermometer hadn't looked much different than yesterday, and for that matter neither did my wardrobe, but for some reason I just felt a little colder. I knew it wouldn't last, though. The forecast was calling for a high of around 70F and sunny skies, so it was really all just a matter of time.

Today was the last 6:15 ride before we switch back to normal time, so that took a little bit of the sting out of the first twenty minutes of darkness. I think I spent the first eight or nine miles at the front, or off the front, as the rest of the group took it easy until they could see what was coming at them, but for me the nearly total absence of wind made it feel easy to roll through the blackness at, I don't know, 20 mph? It was too dark to see the speedometer, of course, but I doubt I cracked 21 before I felt the presence of the group behind me. There had been a report of an early morning explosion at one of the grain elevators in Destrehan, a couple of miles before our turnaround point, so we were not too surprised when we saw an officer running up the levee telling us we had to turn around. We'd been kind of hoping to see how bad the damage was, but they had the road blocked off well ahead of the site, so we didn't get to check it out.

So we turned around like nice lemmings and headed back down the river with the sun just coming over the horizon. We started back slowly at first, and then gradually faster and faster until finally near the end Donald took a flyer with Russell in pursuit. I was tempted to go after them myself, because by then it was almost perfect riding weather. So perfect, in fact, that an hour or so later on my way to work I couldn't resist stopping at the local Starbucks and sitting at one of the tables on the front deck where I checked my email and chatted with Big Richard who stopped by while waiting for his laundry to be ready down the street. Since I couldn't figure out a way to get away with spending the whole day sitting there on Maple Street, I finally rode the rest of the way to work.

Welcome Interruption

I think my own outdoor thermometer read 51 F this morning, but presumably it was actually a bit colder here and there in the city. Regardless, it really did feel cold this time. I broke out the knee warmers and arm-warmers and wore double jerseys and long gloves, but even so I was a little chilly at first. Up on the levee in the dark there was only Richard H., and after waiting a few extra minutes we headed off down the road as I mumbled something about turning around early. There was a pretty brisk north wind and the idea of riding the usual 42 miles with just two people didn't seem all that appealing. And did I mention it was really, really dark? Well, as luck would have it, a bunch of guys showed up before we got to the playground, so with the group numbering ten or eleven, I was no longer worried about having to cut the ride short.

So Donald and I stayed on the front for a long time, squinting into the darkness and searching the shadows for oncoming unlit riders and runners. At least there's one thing about riding up there when it's cold and dark. It certainly cuts down on the pedestrian traffic! I think we only had one or two panic moments until the sky finally started to lighten up. Just before we turned around the sun finally cleared the horizon and I commented that it was less than a week until the time change when we would have that much light for our 6:15 am start. Everything looked so beautiful once the sun came up that I reached into my pocket for the camera to take a couple of pictures, but when I turned it on, all I saw was the message "battery exhausted." When I read it out loud, the guy next to me said, "Me too." Between the cold and the wind and the dark, it almost seemed like a good idea to skip the whole week and just wait until the clocks were reset to a more reasonable hour. Anyway, after I got back home I charged it up for a little while and was able to get a picture of the little plaza at our new office. I guess that will have to suffice for today.

On the plus side, there's nothing bad I can say about the crisp clear air and deep blue skies we had all day today. In fact, I even had an unexpected interruption that allowed me to go out and experience them again when The Wife called to say she was going to an eye doctor appointment across town and probably wouldn't be able to drive back. A little while later I got a text message reading, "I'm dilated." There were only two possible explanations for that, and since one of them would have represented a miracle of reproductive biology, I hopped on the bike for the ten mile ride out to what I used to refer to as "West Jesus Land," otherwise known as East Jefferson. Even though "East" Jefferson is entirely west of the city, its misleading compass designation refers to the fact that it's on the "east" bank of the Mississippi, which happens to be mostly north of the "west" bank. Confused yet? I think this is why New Orleanians drive so slowly, and usually in the wrong lane.

Leaning on the Wind

When the alarm goes off at 4 am, it can be hard to get moving when all you have to look forward to is a long drive and officiating duty. At least I'd gotten everything ready to go Saturday night. Down in the basement the race clock and my big plastic tub of race officiating stuff was queued up at the door, along with the laptop and a few traffic cones. Ray arrived right on schedule, just as the coffee maker finished, so we were quickly on our way over to pick up Ed at his house and Rick at Lakeside Shopping Center. Even so, I had not left myself much extra time for the three and a half hour drive to the LAMBRA time trial championship site. We made good time, though, and finally arrived at the start with over an hour to spare. The temperature was pretty cool - in the low 50s or upper 40s, but there was little wind, so it didn't feel too bad. We got everything set up for the start and started handing out the pre-assigned race numbers, and I wasn't too surprised that there were a lot of no-shows. Most of those had probably registered for the original date but hadn't told me they wouldn't make this one, so they were still on the start list. Anyway, there were fewer than 30 riders, which is about par for the course at this time of year. Donald Davis had come in from Pensacola and clocked the fastest time of the day at 56:02. It was quite impressive since the course is not a flat one. Overall, it was a rather calm and relaxed little race that marked the end of the 2008 road season, and although the turnout was rather dismal, I guess we were lucky that we were able to pull off the rescheduled event at all. The weather all day was nothing short of perfect, and although I never made it out to ride, at least I got to spend a lot of the day outside. I got the results posted and uploaded to the USAC, so once I can get the final LCCS rankings updated and the post-event paperwork submitted I can start thinking about the annual LAMBRA business meeting.


So this morning I was pretty surprised to find the wind just howling through the oak trees at 6:30 am. I guess another little cool front had come through overnight, because it was quite chilly. Despite the crystal clear sky, it was still dark when I hit the levee, and I wasn't surprised to find I was the only one up there. I don't think I saw another rider for half an hour as I battled the strong gusty crosswind. There were times when I could feel myself leaning heavily on the wind just to keep the bike in a straight line. Along one stretch on the way back, where I had the wind fully behind me, I was rolling along with little effort at 26 mph and still couldn't feel very much wind in my face.


NOLA.COM had a nice little article on the official opening of the Wisner bike path this morning. I had to laugh when I saw the photo, however, because it really shows how ridiculous they got when they laid the thing out. I mean, the oak trees are all in a neat straight row, but the bike path curves around like a poorly drawn snake. What were they thinking?? Maybe someone thought that if they made it curvy enough it would keep the riders down to walking speed. All it will really do is increase the chances of collisions and, even worse, of inexperienced riders dropping wheels off the edge and crashing on their heads. Still, aside from its extravagant curvaceousness, the path is definitely a step in the right direction and if I were commuting out to or from the lakefront every day I'd certainly be glad to have it.

Great Riding Weather

So I got up in the dark Friday morning, pulled on the riding clothes, grabbed the bike, opened the door, and --- "What the ___? The streets are wet!" It wasn't supposed to be like that. A little cool front had come through and I was fully expecting a nice cool crisp morning ride. Instead, there was a chilly clammy mist falling. I decided to wait another half hour and then go out for a quick 10 miler before work. Half an hour later there's at least some light in the sky, so I pull the old Pennine down, since it has full fenders, and as it hits the concrete I hear the "thud" of a flat tire. Crap. Now, if that wasn't a sign from the gods, I don't know what is. So I bagged it and went to Plan B, which was to ride the commuter downtown early so I could absentee vote since I'll be out of town on election day. I get all the way downtown and go to lock my bike at City Hall and realize I've forgotten the key to the lock. Crap. So I ride over to the Tidewater building and put my bike in the bike room, and walk back to City Hall. So now I'm half an hour later than I'd planned and the line is already nearly all the way down the hallway, which is about a city block long. Crap. Over TWO HOURS later, I finally log in my vote, pick up something to eat, and head back uptown to the office. Totally screwed up my day, and I don't even want to discuss the woman behind me in line (for TWO HOURS) who talked nonstop. After listening to her bragging about how she'd gotten unemployment benefits even though she'd quit her job, it was almost enough to make you want to vote for McCain. So, that was Friday.

Saturday, though, dawned clear and crisp and, surprisingly, not very windy. The Giro Ride crowd was kind of small, probably because it was dark half an hour before the start. This late change back to Standard Time has GOT to go! On the plus side, it was just spectacular great riding weather today. There were precious few horses in the pack today, so for the most part the pace never got really fast. At one point the whole group actually stopped for a red light. I should have taken a picture of that because it probably won't happen again for months, if ever.

I'll be on the road by 4:30 am tomorrow en route to Rocky Springs, MS for the LAMBRA Time Trial Championships. I won't be riding, but will be officiating. Since it's so late in the season (the race was rescheduled due to the hurricane) the turnout will be really slim. There were only 39 registered and there's no race-day registration. I expect a few of those won't show up, since some registered for the original date. Anyway, I thought we just had to have a TT championship, even if the turnout was thin. Since there's no race-day registration, I've already got the start list posted and all of the race numbers have been assigned, and the results spreadsheet is just waiting for times to be entered. Other than the fact that it will likely be freezing cold up there in the middle of nowhere on the Natchez Trace, it should be a very easy and low-key officiating gig. That's assuming, of course, that I actually get up there in time. I have to pick up a few riders here in town, and if any of them is late I'll be cutting it pretty close.

Borderline Conditions

When I went to sleep Wednesday night I knew the chances were slim. A seventy percent chance of rain for Thursday was not very encouraging. It was, as it turned out, quite accurate. By 6 am the streets were wet, but it wasn't actually raining. The radar looked threatening, but it was impossible to tell when, or where, it would rain. At least it wasn't too cold. I thought about riding. Riding wasn't really out of the question, but to me, at that time of the morning, the conditions seemed borderline. Ultimately I decided to err on the side of dry feet and skip riding today. Instead, I left for work early and stopped off at the Maple Street Starbucks long enough to have a cup of Verona, check my email, work on the results spreadsheet for this weekend's Time Trial, and watch all the beautiful people order up their favorite complicated beverages.

I had packed a change of clothes, and indeed I arrived at work a bit damp, but a quick change of shirt and slacks put everything in order and aside from the wet cap drying on my desk the rest of the office was none the wiser. It looks like a cool front will push through overnight, so tomorrow should be much nicer. That's good because I'm planning on riding downtown so I can vote early since I'll be up in D.C. on election day. I think this might be my fifth presidential election for which I've been at the NCURA meeting watching the returns on the television in the hospitality suite in between glasses of hotel wine.

So right now I'm watching the end of "2001, A Space Odyssey" on a tiny black and white tv next to the computer, which somehow seems appropriate. The first time I saw the movie, the special effects were amazing, 2001 seemed like an impossibly long thirty-three years in the future, and it wasn't all that unreasonable that by then there might actually be a facility on the moon and a shuttle going routinely back and forth. I even had the sound track on 8-track tape. Here we are in 2008 and we haven't been to the moon in decades, much less Jupiter, and the shuttle, which never went beyond low earth orbit, is almost ready for mothballs. I find that all quite disappointing.

And I still don't understand the ending.

Skipping a Day

So I didn't ride on Monday. Skipped a day. The weather was great, all systems were go, but I guess I just didn't feel like getting myself out the door. I turned off the alarm, rolled over, and stole an extra hour of sleep. It was good. I didn't feel guilty. Really. I didn't -- much. Got to work early, left work not too late, had a big salad and a couple glasses of wine, and went to bed early. Ten minutes later, around 11 pm, I found I wasn't really all that sleepy and wandered off to finish up the LCCS points rankings and update the LPMA website, which is another one that I do just because I'm a nice guy. Just one more LCCS event this year - the time trial on Sunday - and we'll call the LAMBRA road season a wrap. Then everyone can start dreaming up ever more complicated ways to score the races for next year in order to tilt the points in their, or their team's, favor.

It was so much simpler back in the old days when we had just road race and time trial state championships. The road race would be in the middle of the summer with a minimum distance of 110 miles and everybody would start together. There was not feed zone and no sports nutrition and thin nasty leather chamois. Typical gearing would be 52 x 45 on the front with a 14-18 5-speed freewheel. A field of 20 seemed huge. You'd start with maybe four water bottles, a pump, spare tubular, apple slices, raisins, and bananas, just hoping you could hold off your own bonk until everyone else with you had also bonked. There was usually no following car, no corner marshals, and the local police had likely not even been informed. The last fifteen miles would be down to three or four dehydrated and cramping riders barely able to maintain fifteen miles per hour. The winner would get an automatic upgrade, a medal, and one of the two spots that the state was allocated at the National Championships. Ahhh, such memories!

Tuesday, however, I was back to the usual routine. I clipped in and pushed off down the street and was a bit surprised by how chilly it was. Up on the levee, in the dark, with the stars shining down on us, I noticed a few exploratory arm-warmer wearers, and even a light vest, but I was rather surprised when we passed one guy who was wearing long tights, a long-sleeve jersey, and ear covers. Ear covers? I looked over at Donald and said, "must be colder where he came from," to which he replied, "What's he gonna do when it really gets cold?" I doubt the temperature was below 60F. Even I can survive that sort of thing with a short-sleeve jersey.

Anyway, I know I keep saying it, but it was really, really dark this morning. The group, which eventually numbered at least 15, took it pretty easy until visibility improved. The unlit runners and walkers and even cyclists just seem to pop up out of nowhere under those conditions, so going fast is really not a wise choice. We were all the way out past the airport before I finally turned off my headlight, but by then the group's consensus speed had settled on something in the 24 mph range, and even at that there was a number of riders at the back just sitting on and spinning. Even the return trip started out at a moderate pace, which was good because by then a little bit of headwind was starting to develop. After we picked up Mark G., though, the pace started to ramp up a bit, and for a little while we were pushing pretty hard into the upper 20s. Otherwise, it was just a routine training day on the levee and another 40 some odd miles in the legs.

Following Along

Well, today was the day. I broke out the arm-warmers for the first time this fall. It was even cooler this morning, and combined with the stiff wind I really wanted that little bit of extra warmth for my ride out to the lake. I was running a few minutes late, but still decided to give the new bike path another try. At 19 mph, some of those curves do get your attention. Just after I got onto the path, I looked over to my left and saw Big Richard riding down the left lane of Wisner (where the pavement is a bit less bad). Then I saw two police cars coming up from behind and though for sure they would give him trouble, but in true New Orleans Police Department fashion, they just slowed down, went around him, and carried on.

I had been thinking that today's Giro would be an easy one. My own legs were still feeling the effects of yesterday, so my plan was to just stay with the group. Well, that didn't last long. A couple of miles down Hayne Blvd. Mike W. went off the front, and when Brett and Jaro went after him, there I was following along. We hadn't been trying to get away, and indeed we weren't really even trying to stay away, but nonetheless, the group was clearly uninterested in chasing us down, so the gap grew rapidly. So there I was on a windy day in a 4-man group that included Mike on his handlebar-free TT bike with a disk wheel and Brett on his TT/Tri bike, wondering what I'd gotten myself into. Luckily, we weren't going all that hard, so I was just following along taking my pulls and wondering when we'd be caught by the group. We never were, though. The group was definitely in easy mode today. After the turnaround Jaro and I rode together talking for about five miles before the group finally came flying by in the tailwind.

Soon after I got home, The Wife and her sister wanted to take the kids to the Aquarium. I was really tired, but decided to follow along anyway. This was probably a mistake because all I wanted to do the whole time was find a nice quiet spot and take a nap. We went over to O'Henry's for a not so quick lunch, and then headed downtown to look at fish. I guess the thing about the aquarium that bugs me is that I'm so conflicted. Many of the fish are interesting, of course, but I have to admit, going there always makes me hungry for a seafood platter.

Breakfast Ride

It was a day like we often have for Rocktoberfest -- dramatically cooler and with a strong wind out of the north. This is mid-October in New Orleans. In a way, it's one of the best times of the year. A cool front had come through late yesterday, and so this morning I awoke to a crystal clear sky, a temperature in the 60s and an accompanying north wind. For the next month or so we'll ride the Fall roller-coaster of cool, crisp weather interspersed with warm muggy gulf air. It will be late November or early December before things finally settle down to what passes for winter down here. Today we had a club breakfast meeting scheduled after the Giro Ride, so since I wanted to be able to change into street clothes after riding, I drove the car out to the lakefront.

It was chilly out by the lake and the the unbuffered wind blowing in from across the 24-mile wide lake didn't help matters, either. I fished around in my bag and dug out my favorite piece of cycling clothing, my trusty UnDeflector. I was a little early, and as I rode slowly down the line of cars in the parking area I came upon Mignon who was wearing her new "Bolero" arm-warmers. I had assumed that they were supposed to be worn underneath a sleeveless jersey, but apparently not! Anyway, I thought it was typical Terry ingenuity to have come up with arm-warmers designed for sleeveless jerseys. Gotta hand it to them, they've somehow stood the test of time and always seem to have some different stuff.

We headed off down the lakefront kind of slowly with the wind buffeting everyone's front wheels, and we were quite a ways down Hayne Blvd. before the pace picked up. With the strong wind mostly in our faces, "fast" meant something in the 23 mph range in that direction. As you can imagine, the group spent a lot of time in a long circular paceline today, except of course for those times when we had a tailwind. Have you ever noticed how everyone is Superman when there's a tailwind? The pace gradually ramped up as we approached the Venetian Isles turnaround, but we were missing a few of the usual powerhouses today, so it never got too much out of hand.

Shortly after we got back to Hayne Blvd. on the way back, Roy went to the front and pulled a few of us all the way to the base of the Casino bridge at around 29 mph. After such a great leadout I started to sprint up the bridge, but backed off a bit because it just didn't seem right to blast past him after he'd taken such a monster pull. So I ended up waiting until the Seabrook bridge to do a little sprint up to the top.

A bunch of NOBC members got together for a very nice and productive breakfast meeting after the ride. Discussion centered mostly on 2009 club sponsorship and team-building issues, and a few of us left with homework assignments. With one of the sister-in-laws and her daughters at the house for the weekend, I was kind of glad to arrive home to an empty house and a voicemail saying that they had all gone to the French Quarter. I took the opportunity to do some fun stuff like get the oil in the car changed, trim the hedges, and investigate a little electrical problem with the porch light. I also got on the computer to research a problem we've been having with the front door speakers in the Volvo. As it turns out, this is a common problem, presumably caused by the company's environmental awareness. The nontoxic biodegradable glue that they use to hold the speaker magnets on apparently fails rather often, which explains the clunking sound I've been hearing from the suddenly nonfunctional left speaker area. I wonder how hard it is to get that door panel off.....

So Very Dark

Man, it has been so very dark at 6:15 am lately! The shift back to standard time just can't come soon enough in my opinion, although I'm sure those who do all their training in the evenings have a different take on that. Despite the darkness we had nearly twenty riders on the long levee ride today. That, combined with the darkness and unlit oncoming riders and runners, made the first ten miles rather stressful. At least the strong winds we've had all week have finally died down, so the paceline wasn't spread all the way across the bike path most of the time. Toward the end of the ride, Donald and Russell, along with VJ, started ramping up the pace as if there was a finish line coming up. At least that finally got my heart rate up a bit. I was feeling kind of unmotivated anyway. I think it's a seasonal thing because lately I've been going through a "hungry phase" and feeling generally sluggish as if I were preparing to hibernate.

The other thing that happens a lot this time of year is that riders start showing up a little late. Today we were already well under way when suddenly a bright light appeared from behind, illuminating everyone in the pack. I knew immediately it had to be Brady with his super-bright helmet light. It's so bright that when he's at the back of the group the reflection off the riders actually makes it harder to see what's up the road! Today's ride seemed kind of fast, speed-wise, but it didn't really feel all that hard. I guess the lack of wind made it easy to draft. I think I probably went ten miles at one point before I finally made it up to the front of the paceline to take a pull.

Gary, up in Jackson, is thinking about putting on some Cyclocross races this winter and has been polling the local riders to try and determine if there's enough interest. There seems to be interest not only from the LAMBRA riders, but also from Alabama and even Tennessee, so I hope he gives it a try. I suppose I could always set up the old Pennine as a 'cross bike in a pinch. I haven't done a 'cross race in at least ten years but the memory of the full-bore, lung-searing, leg-burning effort still seems pretty fresh in my mind. The other thing I remember is that I really needed longer legs to get over those damned barriers. Regardless, these things do provide some good intensity to break up the usual monotony of winter training. I'm also looking forward to getting our long winter training rides going again some time in November. I'll probably miss one or two that month, because of travel and because The Wife is planning on taking us all to the land of Micky around Thanksgiving.

So I've been gradually adjusting to the new office and new routine. My morning ride down Lowerline Street is quiet and sedate, and even at my slowest commuting speed it only takes fifteen minutes. I'm sure I could make it to work in under ten minutes if I really wanted to, which I don't. On Tuesday there is a Farmer's Market right here in the parking lot, so I got to pick up something interesting for lunch. Otherwise, though, lunch is a bit of a problem, so yesterday I rode down to Whole Foods (again) and stocked up on bread, peanut butter, tuna and cheese (we have a 'fridge at the office). That should hold me for maybe a week, although the fact that my office is directly across the hall from the refrigerator might result in some unplanned impulse eating!

Lately, after work, we've been helping the Sister-in-Law get her house in order. She's got about twice as much furniture as will actually fit, so it's been kind of difficult deciding what will work where and moving stuff around. Our neighbor gave her a big entertainment center kind of armoire which they needed to get out of their house, so guess where it is now? Yep. The Basement. One thing I've discovered is that empty space never stays empty very long and usually keeps filling up until the limit is reached. Anyway, tonight we're going out to the annual Reds, Whites and Blues event at City Park. "200 wines, 11 restaurants, and live entertainment." The only downside is that it only runs from 6 - 9 pm. That works out to more than one wine per minute, right? I'm gonna need two glasses.....

Just a Monday in October

It was around 10 p.m. last night when my Outlook calendar popped up to remind me of an early Monday morning meeting. That might have been enough to convince me to skip my morning ride, but since I'd already missed riding on Sunday, that was just not an option compatible with stable mental health. So by 6 am I was already on the bike, blinky lights flashing, still doing the calculations in my head that would determine just how far I could ride without running up against the meeting. The good news was that the meeting was on the uptown campus, just a 10-minute ride from home. The bad news was that there was a particularly strong wind blowing, and I needed to iron a shirt. I ended up doing a moderate paced 20 mile time trial. That left me enough time to get myself to the meeting in presentable fashion and without undue haste. I even had time to stop off at PJ's for a fresh cup of coffee along the way. This particular meeting of the President's "cabinet" was centered around the annual research report, and I already knew that the news wasn't great. Even so, our total sponsored projects funding for FY'08 is still a bit above our pre-Katrina level. Could be worse.

So Sunday was the Rocktoberfest Criterium that our club puts on. This race is always around the very end of the season, and it's always been kind of an afterthought in that our preparation for and promotion of the event is definitely a notch or two below normal. I was really happy with the response from the club for volunteers, though. We really needed them, and then some. Although the course is in the only business park in the entire metro area that can accommodate an adequately sized circuit, it is not without its problems. Not only is there a hotel that needs one of the roads for access, there's also a fried chicken place that has an exit onto the course and a few businesses that need access on Sunday. So basically the course isn't 'quite' closed to traffic. This really had me stressed out, but I could have handled it except for one little thing. The freakin' video camera that I had carefully set up to capture video to the laptop was next to useless because for reasons still unknown, the images of the bikes crossing the finish line all looked kind of like double exposures, even at a shutter speed of 1/8000. None of us could figure out that the problem was, and of course there's no time for that on race day anyway. It was pretty frustrating. Luckily I had my handy little pocket Nikon camera that can record video, and so I handed it to Mark for the finishes while I yelled out bib numbers into the tape recorder. Somehow we got everyone placed, thanks to a strong headwind on the finish stretch and the small field sizes. Anyway, every year I think, "this race could be really big if we could just promote it better." Easy to say, but hard to do by the end of the season after the same handful of people have promoted two other races and assisted with a couple more, only to annually have our up and coming riders recruited away to the smaller invitation-only teams. Anyway, the races went off fairly well with no crashes or other drama. I had brought my bike just in case it looked like I could jump into one of the races, but I think we would have needed two or three more people at the finish line for me to have been comfortable with that.

Not Over Yet

It's after 11 p.m., I'm tired, and it has already been a long weekend, but it's not over yet. It all started early Friday morning with a nice easy recovery ride up on the levee. I was not really looking forward to going in to the new office for a day of unpacking, but that was the card I'd been dealt that day. It took until noon for them to get my telephone working, and since it uses the ethernet, it also meant I had no internet connectivity either. I spent almost the whole day unpacking and rearranging, but by 5:30 p.m. it was done and I locked the door behind me and had a rather pleasant ride back home down Pine Street. I'd been planning on spending Friday evening fooling around with the LAMBRA camera to work out how to get the laptop to capture the video directly, but instead ended up going out to eat with the neighbors. Well, a couple of bottles of wine later, the prospects for my planned finish line camera session had gone from bad to worse. As if that wasn't bad enough, I woke up at about 2 am and could not go back to sleep.

Undeterred, I took off half an hour before sunrise for the Giro Ride Saturday morning with firm plans to take it easy. On the way, I rode on the new bike path along Bayou St. John. They had just finished putting in the centerline, and otherwise it looked pretty much finished to me. Fortunately, the Giro Ride was a little thin today, perhaps because more than a few were planning on racing the Rocktoberfest Criterium tomorrow morning. On the way home I saw the work crew (only one of which was actually working) flaming down the "sharrows" for the short section between the bike path and the lake. Then, The Wife needed me to accompany her to Baton Rouge and back, which ate up much of the day. I squeezed in some time to make the registration and results spreadsheet for Rocktoberfest, download and print out the release forms for the pre-registered riders, and even managed to figure out how to do the video capture thing, which left enough time to make it out to UNO to watch the first bout of the Big Easy Rollergirls' season. We stayed long enough to see duMaine Attraction knock a few girls around, and then headed off for some dinner.

Throughout the day I'd been charging the batteries in the race clock and the radios. So now it's less than six hours before I have to get up to help set up and officiate Rocktoberfest. There's a huge pile of stuff down by the basement door waiting to be loaded into the car. Three bit water coolers, the race clock, the big LAMBRA kit with cameras, tripods, extension cords, radios, etc., along with our usual NOBC race kit, plus the big podium. It will be a tight squeeze. I can only hope it will fit. I'll probably bring my bike just in case it looks like I might be able to ride, but I'm not really expecting it to be possible. It feels like it's been a long weekend, but really, it's not over yet.

On the Floor, Waiting for the Truck

Nicely chilled air circulated through the mesh in my shoes as I pedaled slowly in the dark out to the morning training ride. For a while, it was almost chilly. The group gathered there on the levee was fairly large, and we headed off down the bike path at a reasonable pace, considering the darkness. Brady had his ultra bright helmet light on, and I noticed that unless he was at the front, the light reflecting off of the riders ahead of him actually made it harder to see what was coming. From the start, I knew I'd be turning around early today. The movers were due to start around 9 am and I had to be at the office before that, so I turned around at the parish line. Riding back alone was surprisingly nice, and I reminded myself that I should do more of that.


Knowing that things would be sketchy all day, I slipped my laptop and charger into my messenger bag before heading off to work. I was glad I did. With a few interruptions, I ended up hanging around the "old" office until around noon. The movers were still far from finished loading up the truck, but everyone else was gone and there was nothing more I could do there, so I headed uptown to the "new" office in University Square. I arrived around 1 pm, I guess, to find the new office empty but open. There was a very weak and unreliable Tulane wireless signal, and when I plugged my ethernet cable into the wall I couldn't get it to connect. I would later find out that you have to plug you computer into the internet connected telephone in order to get it to work. Would have been nice if someone had told us about that! Anyway, by 3:30 pm I was still sitting on the floor with a sketchy internet connection waiting for the truck to show up. At least a few of the other folks from the office had appeared by then. Finally, around 4 pm they arrived, and when I left half an hour later they still had not unloaded anything. They promised it would all be unloaded and set up by tomorrow, so I headed home and called it a day.

Clouds of Allergens

Boy, today was just one of those mornings when I really didn't want to get out of bed. I have no idea why, except perhaps that it was rather late by the time I packed it in last night. Or maybe I was just depressed by all of the election bullshit and the fact that my chances of ever getting anything back from Social Security have lately been going from slim to none. I shouldn't be surprised, though. I always kind of expected to be spending my retirement years living in a cardboard box down on Camp St. anyway. So I had a bit of a battle with myself just to get out the door and on the road. A little cool front had come through overnight and although the temperature had dropped only to 71 F or so, if still felt kind of chilly to me. I briefly considered turning around and blowing it all off today, but I'm a creature of habit and the status quo prevailed today.

It seems to be getting noticeably darker day by day lately, and I dread the darkness we'll face by the end of the month before we finally let go of daylight savings time. There was a nice little breeze up on the levee, thanks to the aforementioned cool front, and on the way out I seemed to be spending an inordinate amount of time skirting the edge of the asphalt in search of a draft. The pace was pretty typical, though, despite the wind that kept shifting from one side to the other with every bend in the river.

I spent all day today in a cloud of allergens packing up files and books and stuff for our big office move tomorrow. The only thing not ready to go right now is this computer, and in another half an hour I'll shut it down, unplug everything, stuff all of the small stuff in a box, and call it a day. Tomorrow will be more of the same, except unpacking instead of packing, and then trying to squeeze everything into a smaller space than we have in our current place. Everyone's kind of unhappy because of the fact that only one of the offices has a window. Maybe I'll have to start bringing my laptop so I can sit in the conference room or outside in order to keep from going postal due to severe sunlight deprivation.

Earlier today, Kenny sent an email saying that the Six Gap people had re-posed the results with a breakdown by age groups. It looks like they tried to separate the 6-gappers from the 3-gappers, but with only limited success. Probably half of the riders are lumped into the "unknown" category, even though I think anyone who had a time for the top of Hogpen Gap could have been safely placed into the Six-Gap category. Go figure. I was saddened to learn that the rider who had been airlifted out after crashing on the descent of Hogpen passed away on Sunday or Monday, apparently the result of a severe head injury. I don't think anyone saw what happened to cause the crash.

Riding in the Spray Zone

Life in the big city. Yesterday we're leaving work in the car, with my bike stuffed in the back, and as I come to a stop at Gravier St. alongside the now defunct Charity Hospital, a car coming from the left runs the stop sign without even slowing down. The guy's entire front bumper is basically underneath the car and pieces are flying off in all directions. I immediately said, "he must be running from the cops." Sure enough, a second later an unmarked police car comes screaming through the intersection. I make my right turn and almost get creamed by another undercover police car with a teeny tiny anemic flashing blue light on his dashboard. By the time we got another two blocks down the street they already had the guy out of the car and in handcuffs. Everyone else just eased around the scene and continued on their merry ways.

A bit later in the evening we headed back downtown to the new Home Depot on Earhart at S. Claiborne, working our way through the Superdome traffic (the Saints once again pulled defeat from the jaws of victory) to help the sister-in-law make some decisions on a bathroom vanity. Some how we missed the homicide that happened around 7:30 just a few blocks away near Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. Of course the newspaper reported that as an "Uptown" murder. That's not even lower Garden District and a number of miles from anywhere I'd call uptown, but for some reason they like to call anything upriver of Canal Street "uptown."

So anyway, when I got up this morning my first thought was to look out the window because although it was dark, the forecast had been calling for rain. The street was wet, as if a shower had come through some time earlier, but there was no rain, so I fired up the computer and checked the radar. I stared at the slowly moving blobs of green and yellow for some time, trying to make a decision, as the clock ticked down toward 6:15. It looked like I'd get wet, but the temperature was warm so I pumped up the tires of the old 5-speed rain bike and hit the road.

I have to admit, I was a little surprised to find anyone at all for the morning ride, but waiting up on the levee were Big Richard and Scott and Luke and eventually a couple others, so we started out about on time. The road was wet, and in some areas it was really wet. We hadn't gone more than a few miles when a light rain started, but it soon stopped, so we decided to go as far as the little dip and then turn around. I was glad to have the rain bike with its full fenders, but of course fenders don't help much when you're trying to draft in the Spray Zone. Everyone was taking long pulls, probably because it was actually much more comfortable to be pulling than it was to be drafting with spray in your face. I spent a lot of time riding a bit off to the side to lessen the amount of gritty water coming at me, but it was still mostly uncomfortable. At least the fenders kept my feet from getting too wet. I mean, they weren't exactly dry by the time I got home, but it definitely could have been worse. We were just getting close to the Country Club on the way back when I noticed that familiar sponginess indicative of a soft tire. Ordinarily I would have stopped and fixed it, but the road was wet, the tires were dirty, and the leak in the front tire was fairly slow. So I stayed at the back trying to keep the weight off of the front wheel and made it all the way to the playground before it bottomed out. Luckily Richard dropped back and gave me a good shot of CO₂ that proved to be just enough to get me home without having to get my hands dirty. As usual, the reward for riding on wet streets was grit in my face and another flat.

So on the agenda for today is a check with the contact at James Business Park to make sure things are set for our race on Sunday, then I need to call Gary in Jackson because he needs to send in a signed event permit form because we moved the TT from LA to MS, and finally I will need to start packing up my office, tagging old computers that aren't coming with us, boxing up the files, etc. I'll leave the computer and a few files unpacked through tomorrow, but by Thursday morning everything will need to be ready to go. I also need to call the Orleans Parish mortgage office to officially record the fact that the house mortgage is now fully paid off. Any trip to a city office is a painful one and just serves as a reminder of how screwed up and incompetent and antiquated our city government is. Of course, I'll get to pay them money for that experience since apparently the 50 percent of us who support the other 50 percent don't ever seem to be contributing enough to avoid having to pay a special city fee for practically everything. Who needs taxes when you have "fees?"

Letter to the Neighbors

So, about the overgrown Ligustrum hedge along the side of the house, I'm really sorry about that. I know things haven't been quite up to Neron Place standards lately. I've been meaning to trim those hedges for a couple of months now, but you see, prime hedge-trimming time always seems to coincide with both prime riding time and prime growing season. Something just had to give, you know? I know you all see The Wife out there almost every weekend cutting every bit of grass she can reach with the extension cord and then edging and sweeping. She likes that. Sometimes that worries me. I'm supposed to take care of keeping the bushes and hedges under control, but hey, there was that trip to Birmingham for the Pepper Place Criterium, and the Giro de Rankin weekend, and of course the Six Gap Century. I was going to take care of it this weekend, but that Giro Ride on Saturday kind of wiped me out and then there was the whole moving thing with the Sister-in-law, where I was less than useful anyway because I hadn't gotten my usual post-Giro recovery time. I'm getting old you know, and I need more recovery time than I did when I was a 40-something guy. Then I had to do another Giro Ride on Sunday. My legs are still kind of sore. So I promise I'll take care of it next weekend.

OK, that's a lie, but I'll think about it. Really. It could happen. Once I can just get past the Rocktoberfest race we're promoting next Sunday I'm sure I'll have some time for that. Unless we get some of that great Fall weather we usually get this time of year. I mean, you couldn't expect me to be clipping hedges when everyone else is out riding. That would be depressing and then I'd need therapy and drugs and I'd probably start running amok in a serotonin induced euphoria trimming all the hedges on the whole block like that scissorhands guy. Of course I still have that Time Trial on the Natchez Trace and I'll need to get going on organizing the annual LAMBRA meeting, and there is that trip to Washington during the election, so I'll need to do the early voting thing, and right after that there's the trip to Colorado Springs for the USAC meeting, but the rest of November should be pretty open, I think. This racing season has to wind down eventually, right?

Wish we had a cyclocross season around here .....

Bikes and Moving Trucks

Saturday started, as it often does, with the Giro Ride. I was just crossing Esplanade Avenue at the entrance to City Park when I looked down and saw that the computer had just clicked over to 80,000 miles right on schedule. That computer will be eight years old some time around next June. I sat up and snapped a photo and wondered if the flash had caught the eye of the police car coming the other way. The sun wasn't quite up yet. A mile later I noticed that the new bike path along Bayou St. John was open so I thought I'd give it a try. As I expected, though, it was pretty lame, full of crazy curves, with stop signs at the intersections where it comes in behind the traffic signals. It's a nice try, though, and I guess a step in the right direction.


So Saturday's Giro seemed pretty fast. I didn't spend much time near the front, but got a pretty good workout anyway, finally putting in a big push up the overpass at the end. The new chain and cassette were meshing nicely and the weather was about as good as it gets. I really hated to go home, because I knew what was waiting for me there.


The moving truck must have just arrived as I rode up to the house. The sister-in-law's stuff was moving out of the basement where it has been since shortly after Katrina to the newly renovated, but not quite finished house at Calhoun and Willow. We made a number of trips back and forth transporting the more fragile items and as the Fireball Movers guys unloaded the truck we were in the back yard trying to clean up the flooded furniture. A lot of the stuff came out OK, but of course anything that had relied on glue to hold it together was falling apart. The real excitement, though, came when we opened a couple of drawers from an old oak cabinet that had been in the kitchen. Someone had forgotten to empty the drawers and there had been stuff like cooking chocolate in there. After three years in my basement, the drawers were full of huge and very satisfied-looking cockroaches. I would estimate there were at least a couple hundred roaches in there. At least. So a big roach-stomping party ensued, followed by chemical warfare and a good scrubbing down with the garden hose. It was like something from a Hitchcock movie. Anyway, by the end of the day I was pretty tired and sore.


Sunday's Giro started out pretty tame, which was fine with me because aside from a sore back I was suffering from headache caused, no doubt, by all of the dust and mold and roach debris I'd inhaled the day before. Robin and Tim had a long "discussion" about the pace on Hayne Blvd. that I think has something to do with not wanting to chase down Mike and his practically handlebar-free TT bike, both of which can be pretty dangerous in the group. Anyway, by the time we got rolling on Chef Highway into a headwind we had a nice long paceline going that only disintegrated toward the end when people started getting tired. I thought the return trip would be easy today, but it definitely wasn't. Three guys on TT bikes, including Brett and Mike, rolled off the front early and so eventually Tim started picking up the pace. Soon it was just Tim, me and Darren. Tim was doing most of the pulling and after a while we were up to about 30 mph, but the gap wasn't closing very fast in the tailwind. Then I heard Tim's derailleur clunk down another cog or two and I knew it was about to get serious. For the next mile or two Tim towed us at 32-34 mph until we closed the gap. Just sitting on Tim's wheel was a challenge, and I didn't envy Darren who was himself trying to draft off of my skinny ass.


There was even a sprint on the service road today, and I thought maybe that would be enough, but we ended up going pretty hard down Hayne Blvd. as well. I had a feeling that Mike was going to sprint for the top of the Casino bridge, and sure enough he took off as we started the climb just as Tim was finishing a long pull. I hesitated for a moment but couldn't resist, and went sprinting up the bridge in something like a 53 x 13, closing in on Mike. Just before the top I heard some wheels coming up on my left and saw Jaro go flying past, easily overtaking Mike by the top. That was fun.

It was a nice easy ride this morning with a little group of four or five. The weather was great, there was hardly any wind, and all was well with the world. Things kind of deteriorated after that. After a truly relaxing commute to the office, interrupted only by a speeding police car that buzzed me on the Broad Street overpass, I settled in with a cup of coffee with plans to wrap up a couple of things and then spend the afternoon preparing things for our upcoming office move. Instead, a steady stream of emails kept me jumping most of the day. Some of them involved our postponed, rescheduled, and relocated time trial championships. Gary got the OK for the course up on the Natchez Trace Parkway between Natchez and Jackson, and I ended up spending a lot of time revising the event announcement, making maps, re-opening online registration, and working with USAC on revising the event permit. I was hoping I'd be able to get an official OK before the end of the day, but it didn't happen. I'll probably send out an announcement tomorrow anyway since time is so short. In the meantime I'll need to get the race numbers from Todd, track down the stand for the LAMBRA race clock, which I think is at Bicycle World, put together a results spreadsheet, etc. With the Rocktoberfest criterium scheduled for 12th and the Time Trial for the 26th, it'll make for a long road season this year. There won't be much time to relax, though, because I'll have to work up the final LCCS results and start making preparations for the annual LAMBRA business meeting, and the first week in November I'll be in DC for a conference and then in Colorado Springs for the annual Local Associations conference.

Speaking of tomorrow, the Sister-in-law is scheduled to move into her remodeled home and out of her FEMA trailer tomorrow, which means that there will be movers at our place around 8:30 am. It's rather frightening to imagine what may be underneath all of those boxes that have been stored in our basement since Hurricane Katrina three years ago. I'm planning on doing the Giro Ride anyway, and may be swinging by the Tulane homecoming game tailgate party at City Park on the way back. Then at some point this weekend I need to break out the LAMBRA camera and see what I need in order to get the video to go straight to my laptop. Anyway, I'm tired and rampling, so I think I'll go to sleep now.....

Cooling Down

The Jet Stream seems to be taking a brief subtropical vacation here in the gulf south, and although this morning wasn't cold by anyone's standards, I could definitely feel the lower humidity. The forecast low for tonight, which is always wrong this time of year, is 59F. Here in town that probably means something more like 63, but hey, I'll take it. Fall is finally starting to inch its way into southern Louisiana, and after a long hot summer everyone's always happy to see things cooling down. October and November typically offer some of the nicest weather we get all year, and every time one of those northern cool fronts manages to push its way through we are treated to exceptionally clear and crisp air with deep blue skies and starry nights. After so many months of humid and hazy horizons, we probably appreciate days like that more than most.

For a couple of weeks prior to Six Gap I'd been holding off on installing a new chain, so last night I finally broke down and got it done, only to discover that I'd waited a bit too long. (By the way, the chip timing results are on the Buttar.com site.) Of course I didn't know for sure until I took off from the house this morning and felt the chain skipping. A couple of cogs on my training wheel's cassette were already too worn by the old and slightly "stretched" chain. While that probably explains some of the chain/shifting problems I had last weekend (worn chain on an relatively fresh "race-only" cassette), it means I'm due for a new cassette. Damn. I should have changed that chain a month ago. So in the meantime, the Orbea's 13, 14 and probably the 15 are going to be off-limits. I'll probably just ride the Cervelo for a few days.

With both the weather and the racing season cooling down, this morning's ride was pretty smooth for the most part. For the past couple of months, the Wednesday ride had been fairly fast, but today it felt more like it is during the winter. Although there was a little split after Williams Blvd. on the way out, only Jay made an effort to bridge up to the front group. Everyone else, including me since I was taking a picture at the time, just continued on at an easy pace.

A couple of people are looking into the availability of the Natchez Trace, either near Natchez or near Jackson, for the last-minute relocation of the Time Trial Championships. Hopefully one of them will work out. It's one thing to have a season without a team time trial championship, but I'd really hate to see a season end without a TT championship. Hoping for the best.....