Wednesday Workout

After a good morning ride with the levee group, I was determined to make it out to the lakefront after work for an additional little hammer session. As usual, though, I wasn't keeping particularly good track of the time and by the time I checked my watch it was already after 5:00. I dropped everything, headed for the door, and a couple of minutes later I was tooling up Pine Street toward home. As I left work, I went past three TV station news crews setting up in front of the Tulane clinic for the evening news. Apparently they had seen a child earlier in the day who they suspected might have Swine Flu.

The ride out to the lakefront from my house is about 20 minutes, maybe a few minutes more if there's a headwind or lots of traffic, so I was going to be cutting it kind of close. I knew that the Orbea's chain was skipping on three of my favorite cogs, but there wasn't really time to switch everything over to the Cervelo and besides, I would have had to wear my old Sidi shoes that hurt my toes, so I hopped on the Orbea anyway end was out the door by 5:40. Traffic, of course, was heavy on Carrollton, and by the time I hit Lakeshore Drive I knew I'd be a few minutes late. As I rounded the curve at the outfall canal I could see the group just getting started. Missed them by about 60 seconds.

So I kept riding with the plan to turn around as soon as I saw them coming back. I didn't know for sure if they were doing the long loop or the short one, though. Well, it turned out they were doing six laps of the short loop, but unfortunately I had met up with them at the worst possible time and couldn't turn around in time, so I time trialed all the way down to the other end of the short 3-mile loop, turned around early and finally got in just as they were starting the second lap. We had a good group of at least 15 and the pace was already pretty fast. Luckily there was little wind, so I was able to sit on at the back for a lap or so to adjust to the speed, which was staying in the 27 - 29 mph range. There were a few times when the pace eased up, especially after the pack caught a break that had been off the front for a while. Somewhere before the start of the last lap a 3-rider break got off the front and the pack seemed content to just hold the gap steady. I hadn't been doing much work. My legs were feeling the morning's ride a bit. That's when Brady dropped back alongside me and asked if I was going to sprint. I hesitated, thinking to myself, "well, not if the first three riders are 20 seconds ahead of us." Then he said, "Do you want me to close the gap?" So I said, "Yeah, let's see if we can close it." I rolled up to the front and took a pull. Brandon came through with another pull, and then Brady. We were closing the gap slowly, but it was definitely unclear if we'd be able to make the catch before the finish. Finally, Brady took a long fast pull and got us withing striking distance, or so I thought. I came through but there didn't seem to be anybody on my wheel, so I just kept pushing. I was kind of stuck in a gear that was a little lower than I'd like. I kept trying to use the 15 and 16 cogs, but at that speed and with that much pressure on the pedals the chain would skip constantly. I was dying and about to pack it in when Carey came past, so I latched onto his wheel as he started closing the gap even more. We were probably only a mile and a half from the finish and the gap was down to maybe ten seconds. Carey was over near the right side of the road (the wind was coming from the left), so when he started to fade I told him I was on his right as I came through. It was do-or-die time, so I dumped it into the 12 or 13, which didn't seem to be skipping, and made a final long effort. Carey later complained that I'd blasted past him so he couldn't get my wheel. Sorry 'bout that, Carey. I wasn't trying to keep you from getting my wheel, I was just focused on making that catch before it was too late. I finally made contact just before we rounded the fountain, probably in the 53 x 12, but I was pretty much toasted by then and when the sprint started shortly thereafter there was nothing left and I just coasted across. Anyway, it was a great Wednesday workout, probably a bit over 60 miles with an average speed somewhere above 21 mph, and I'm definitely planning to do the evening training race again next week.

As you might imagine, my legs were a little tired Thursday morning for the long levee ride. On the plus side, I'd bolted an old set of "0ld Look" cleats onto the new pair of Nike Poggios I'd gotten for cheap recently, so at least I could ride the Cervelo with relatively comfortable toes. The Tuesday ride turned out to be a really fast one, especially on the way out to the turnaround. Thanks to the light wind, which was mostly at our backs on the way out, most of the group stayed together anyway. After the turnaround, though, the group was happy to spin along at a relatively easy pace for a long time before things started ramping up again. By the end, of course, we were going pretty hard. On my way home I stopped in at Zotz on Oak Street for an iced coffee, mainly to see how work was going on the street repaving and to give them a little business. I don't know how the shops there are surviving since the street has been completely blocked off for weeks not. I noticed that the curbs are now in place, and they're grading the street, so perhaps some new pavement isn't too far off at this point.