This morning's air served up a brief little reminder that August isn't always brutally hot and humid. The cool front that pushed through yesterday left us with a morning temperature in the low 70s and the kind of relative humidity that is considered normal in most other parts of the country. With my handlebars finally free of aerodynamic entanglements, I made my way in the semi-darkness out to the levee for the long Tuesday ride. Despite having skipped my usual Monday ride, thanks to Jury Duty, I could still feel a little bit of Sunday in my legs as they slowly got warmed up.

The ride out to the turnaround started picking up speed once we cleared the Huey P, and soon the numbers on the computer were staying up around 27 mph. I took a couple of pulls and then made the mistake of dropping almost all the way to the back of the paceline. I soon realized that the rotation was being short- circuited somewhere up ahead, but just didn't have the motivation to get myself back up there for a long time. It just felt so nice sitting in the draft this morning! Woody pulled off to turn back, and after that the pace eased up for a little while, but with Max, Rob, Matt and VJ up at the front, that didn't last too long. By the time we were halfway back home the pace was down to 25-26 mph and the number of guys in the rotation was dwindling. Situation normal. I had a little more left in the tank since I'd spent some time sitting in the draft on the way out, so I spent a bit more time in the front group on the return trip. Otherwise, it was a pretty typical morning ride. Whenever the weather is nice there are a lot of pedestrians, dog-walkers and slower riders up on the levee, and the closer we get to the Playground the more of them there are. That always seems to break up the group a little bit in the last few miles, since it's really not such a good idea to have a dozen riders zooming past the oblivious pedestrians at 27 mph.

I'm heading up to Baton Rouge in a little while for a meeting and kind of looking forward to some quiet time in the car. Hopefully I can keep my hands off of the BlackBerry while en route. I got an email from Dylan's father yesterday reporting on his condition after being in a head-on car accident. Dylan was in the back seat and the force of the impact, combined with his seat belt, pressed his spine into his intestines. After they took him to the Terrebone hospital they decided to MediFlight him to Ochsner for surgery since they knew he was bleeding internally. Fortunately they were able to patch up the ruptures in his intestine and he's back home after a long stay in the ICU and hospital with a feeding tube down his throat. He's expected to make a full recovery but will be off the bike for another month or so.