First of April

The forecast was still kind of up in the air yesterday, but we got in the usual Wednesday ride without a problem. Back at work things went from predictably funny to laugh-out-loud hilarious by mid-afternoon. The April Fools Day spoof article in Cyclingnews about the UCI banning sunglasses somehow got morphed into a USAT rule and went out to the local triathlete mailing list (http://www.gnotri.com/) with spectacular results. Along the way it was embellished with a ban on walking during the run and a ban on using aerobars. People fell for it hook, line and sinker. I was still getting "is it true" emails this morning. Now, just so everyone knows, every year VeloNews and Cyclingnews publish a few April Fools articles. Last year VeloNews got in some hot water with the gullible religious right when they published a spoof article about cloning athletes. (In retrospect, after Taylor Phinney's recent successes they might not have been too far off.) This year I liked the one about Lance having taken the opportunity, since he needed collarbone surgery anyway, to have both collarbones shortened in order to make himself more aerodynamic. There was another one about him becoming a track sprinter. But locally, fueled by the practically hysterical pre-half-Ironman fever leading up to the big triathlon this weekend, the story about the new sunglass rule really took on a life of its own. So anyway, that was fun.

Had a nice dinner over at Cafe' Degas last night and learned that what I thought was going to be a weekend in Iowa City has now morphed into five days in Iowa City. So although two full days of sitting in the car are already in the cards, somehow I'm going to have to find a way to get in some quality training while I'm there since the Mississippi Gran Prix will be two days after I return.

This morning it was raining when I awoke. I reached over and lit up the room with the little Palm Pilot screen to check the radar. A big line of rain was over us but it looked relatively clear to the west of it, so I waited half an hour for most of the rain to stop and climbed onto the old Pennine rain bike for a quick ride on wet roads. I knew I'd be on the road all day Friday, so there was no way I was going to skip riding today. Luckily the rain had pretty much stopped completely by the time I got to the levee bike path, although there was a strong gusty wind blowing out of the south. Twenty some-odd miles later I was back home with fairly dry feet and the feeling that I'd somehow out-smarted the rain gods. Right now in Iowa City it's 36F with "rain and snow" and the forecast doesn't look very nice. The highest temperature between now and Wednesday is supposed to be 54F (one day it's only 36), and the lowest will be 25F. I thought it was supposed to be Spring. Right now in New Orleans its 78F and about to rain again.