Not Quite Yet

The long ride on Tuesday morning was a little different. Instead of the usual race out to Destrehan, the group was happily cruising along at a relatively steady and sustainable speed. I could feel a dull ache in my legs, no doubt left over from Sunday's ride in Cuba, so I was not inclined to do anything to rock the boat. Big Richard looked over at me and said something like, "this must be the first day of the end of the season." End of the season? Already? Well, not quite yet. As we approach the four-year anniversary of Katrina I remember how that disaster put a quick end to the 2005 race calendar. Even last year we ended up having to cancel one race and reschedule another because of a hurricane. So this year all of those races got moved up on the calendar so that we have our Time Trial championship this coming weekend. After that, there's only the Road Championships in September and then Rocktoberfest in October, with the 6-Gap Century, for which I just registered, sandwiched in-between. Even the Pepper Place criterium up in B'ham, which I've enjoyed going to the last couple of years, got cancelled. Even so, I doubt that too many riders will be easing up on their training until after the Road Championship, at the earliest.

So after narrowly evading the sequestered jury bullet on Monday, I found myself back in the Jury Lounge on Wednesday morning, having skipped my morning ride in order to get there on time. Out front, there were a couple of TV crews setting up their cameras to report on the start of the murder trial. By mid-morning I had been called again, along with 74 others, and we filed upstairs to stand in the non-air-conditioned hallway for a while until they sent us all back down to the jury lounge (I guess someone copped a plea at the last minute). I ended up being stuck there until nearly 3 pm. I got back to the office for a while, but then headed out a bit after 5 to ride out to the lakefront. The weather around here has been extremely unpredictable lately, with little thunderstorms just popping up randomly, but despite the somewhat threatening sky, I really needed to ride.

The group out on Lakeshore Drive was a bit late in coming together, and we rode about a lap and a half before things really got started. A couple of the usual suspects were absent, so the pace was relatively controlled. For some reason I was feeling really sluggish and lazy, occasionally dropping to the back, getting gapped off, and then having to chase back on. I was satisfied to have gotten in some miles, but really, my heart wasn't in it. Sometimes you just have to do the training rides on auto-pilot while you're waiting for the enthusiasm to reappear.

This morning's long ride probably wasn't nearly as fast or as hard as it felt, at least to me. The air was thick and humid, and I was hurting. I remember at one point there was a big surge and a gap opened in front of me. I stood up and gripped the bars tightly, and as I did sweat started pouring out of my gloves as it was squeezed out of the padding. We were already nearing the turnaround and the supply of riders willing to pull through was running pretty low. I myself had already taken a couple of rest breaks back behind the rotation. Fortunately, the group was inexplicably large today, so there was always some place to hide.

I'm signed up for the 40 km Time Trial on Sunday, but to complicate matters, I also have to bring all of the LAMBRA race equipment out there. I also need to set up the start list and results spreadsheet once I can download the registered riders on Friday. By then I'll know how many medals I'll need to put together. For the time trial we offer all of the USAC 5-year age groups for men and women, in addition to the regular skill-based categories. If there were three riders in every age group/category on offer, which of course there won't be, that would work out to over 100 medals. I'll also be helping with the results after I finish, so it will be a busy morning for sure. For some reason, I think that, assuming good weather, we are going to see some fast times this year -- just not from me.