Turnabout

Sunday morning - the legs felt good, the sky was clear, and the temperature was on the rise. It was looking like it would be a great day for the Northshore winter training ride. Pat and I loaded our bikes into, and onto, Vivian's car, and drove across the causeway to see who would show up at the Lee Road Middle School. As usual, the temperature had dropped a few degrees during the trip and it felt chilly standing there in the parking lot staring into by the abyss that is my gear bag. What to wear? At the moment, it was clearly knee-warmer weather, but there was no doubt that in an hour the south wind and clear sky would be pushing the temperature into the mid-60s. Well, I went with the warm stuff, knowing I'd be unzipping things pretty quickly.

As late November rides go, this one was pretty typical except that we somehow lost Cindy, and her husband who was following on his scooter, within the first ten miles. The pace hadn't been particularly fast, and so as we were nearing the Watchtower I looked back. I couldn't see either of them. Probably some sort of mechanical problem, I thought. They had a map, so nothing to worry about. The group sailed through Enon and continued up Lee Road and Tullos Road with a light tailwind, but after turning east on 1072 some gaps started to open up. Nobody was turning the screws, but the fact of group riding this time of year, particularly right after Thanksgiving, is that riders' goals and fitness levels are pretty much all over the map. Later, way up at the northern end of the route, we stopped briefly to regroup. As I often do, rather than wait, I turned around and rode back to pick up the riders who were off the back and ride with them back to the group. This is a nice way to get in a few extra miles, avoid standing around doing nothing, and keep the group together. Later in the year when the rides get more competitive, this is a far less attractive option, but after the prior day's long ride it was just what I needed.

I ended up doing this three or four times over the course of the 65 mile ride. When we picked up a little tail-crosswind coming back on 1072, Viv got gapped off on the hills. I dropped back so we could take the Dummyline Road shortcut and it worked out perfectly as we met back up with the group right at the Enon town sign.

Next was the climb up to the watchtower from the Bogue Chitto river, and I thought I'd see if I could ride tempo at the front to limit the damage that I knew it would inflict on some of the more tired legs. Unfortunately, one man's tempo is another man's surge, I guess, and by the time the small front group got to Tung Road there was a long string of solo riders stretched out over a couple of miles of highway, so I turned back one last time and rode back up the road to pick up the last rider and make sure everyone got through the final intersection without getting lost. Then, for the last seven miles or so I time-trialed in passing a few of the solo riders along the way. I ended up with something like 66 miles, so all that turning around made up for the lost mileage from the shortcut. Worked out pretty nicely! Back in the parking lot, we were just about to head home when we saw Jorge about to drive out of the parking lot in the wrong direction. He rolled down his car window and told us that Cindy had actually continued on the full route but that they had missed the turn at Sie Jenkins Road and ended up in Bogalousa where they had called him for directions. He had told them how to get back to Enon and was going to go pick them up there.

Later in the afternoon we walked over to Palmer Park to wander around the monthly crafts fair for a while since the weather was so nice. I took a cellphone photo of these "Bead Bikes" that were locked up at the park. Things will be going downhill in that regard for the next day or two, however. I got in a nice 25 mile recovery ride this morning, but by 10:30 or so it was raining. Right now, it looks like we should be able to get in tomorrow's morning ride before conditions start to deteriorate ahead of the next batch of rain scheduled for Tuesday evening and Wednesday. By Thursday the next little cold front should arrive, but it doesn't look like it will stick around long.

Ride to the Rigolets

I was ready for a long ride, and when there was a mid-week email about extending the Saturday Giro out to Fort Pike and the Rigolets bridge, I was happy to throw my name into the hat. But the morning started off overcast and chilly, and the first thing I thought as I rode away from the house was, "maybe I should have worn the long tights." It's one thing to be cold at the start of a ride on a sunny day; quite another when the sky is uniformly grey. On the plus side, at least I'd gotten the central heat fixed after if failed to fire up Thursday night - the very first time we ever turned it on. It turned out that back in June when it had been installed they had wired it up with the polarity reversed. It was rather amazing that the A/C had worked. So anyway, when I got out to the lakefront I stuffed my vest into my pocket and merged in with the large Giro group that included a number of triathletes.

The group was particularly lackadaisical today. Some of that can probably be attributed to the cool weather and holidays, but I think a little credit might have to go to the tri shorts some of the girls were wearing. A little while after we got onto Hayne Blvd., Mike W. rode off the front of the slow-moving bunch. I picked up the pace a bit and next thing I knew I was alone. VJ was up the road with Mike by then, so I eased up to get back into the group, but then Jay and Mark rode up to me and said that nobody was interested in going fast and they wanted to at least get in a workout. So the three of us rode a nice paceline at a moderate speed eventually catching up with Mike and VJ. By the time we got going on Chef Highway, the group was out of sight and it was just Mark, Jay, Mike and me. I was figuring we'd ride together out to Venetian Isles and I'd wait up there for the small group that was planning on continuing on to Fort Pike. Then an oncoming big tractor trailer made a fast turn right in front of us and when I sat up and eased over onto the shoulder, I punctured. Jay and Mark stopped with me to change the flat, and unfortunately the first tube I put in went flat also, so by the time we got going again, the group had not only caught up with us, it was a good two minutes up the road.

Luckily the others who were going to Ft. Pike waited for me, so we had a pretty nice ride out to the bridge, interrupted only by occasional moments of terror when speeding convoys of mud-hauling trucks would speed past us blasting their horns. By the time I got home, after a quick stop at Starbucks, it was about noon, I had well over 80 miles on the odometer, and the sun was finally shining. Hopefully my legs will still be OK for tomorrow's northshore ride.

Turkey Day

It was just a touch under 50° when I pulled on the long tights and headed over to the levee for the 7 am Thanksgiving ride. I didn't really have a plan in mind for this ride, other than to be back home early enough to help get thing in order for a mid-afternoon Thanksgiving Day dinner. The weather was chilly but otherwise beautiful as we rode up the river trying to catch up with Scott who seemed determined to keep us from getting too lazy. With a light head-crosswind we were limited to the low-20s for much of the outward bound ride, but Scott was spending a lot of time up on the front and he wasn't getting any complaints about it, so it was good. Then we caught up with Donald who took over the Mother Duck duties. He ended up pulling the whole string of a dozen riders for the next ten miles, all the way to the turnaround.

The return trip was a little faster, thanks to the increasing tailwind, but I was still surprised when three or four of us ended up off the front. We were going around 23-24 mph, so there really wasn't any reason we should have opened a gap unless the rest of the group just wasn't interested. Anyway, we stayed out there for a long time riding paceline until, somewhere around the Country Club, I sat up and said, "I'm going to wait up for the group." I thought it would be nice to wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving before they all headed home. The rest of our group did the same, so we all came back together before the Playground.

With family and friends scheduled to come to the house around 2:30, I spent quite a while polishing silver as the 20-pound turkey cooked and The Wife made pies and all the other stuff necessary to make a thanksgiving dinner for twelve. Luckily my plywood extension to our little dining room table held up to the strain. I'm still not sure if my stomach did.

After everyone left and the outside temperature started to drop I decided it might be time to fire up the heater. It hadn't been turned on since it had been installed in the early summer. Well, naturally it didn't fire up, so now I'll have to call them up and get them out here to see what the problem is. Luckily it's not really very cold and the old gas heater in the fireplace can keep the temperature under control.

Sounds like we'll be doing a later-than-normal 7:00 am ride again tomorrow. That should work out just fine.....

Just Another Tuesday on the Levee

It was another Tuesday morning training ride on the levee today. The weather lately has been pretty good and so even at 6:15 am there was a big group ready to go. The only issue today was the light ground fog. By the time we'd gone two or three miles my glasses were already too fogged up to see through and I spent the next fifteen or twenty miles looking over the tops of them. We must have had a little tailwind, though, because the speed was brisk with a few inexplicable surges. When we got to the turnaround out by Ormond, it looked to me like everyone was ready for a little break. Indeed, the group started back at a conversational pace, and for a long time there was no hint that it would ever pick up again.

We were somewhere around the dip when I looked over at the guy riding next to me and commented, "They sure are being civilized so far. I'm just waiting for the next shoe to fall." A little while later, a couple of guys surged off the front and a big gap opened right away. I couldn't really tell if the group was just going to let them go or decide to mount a chase. Suddenly, one rider jumped clear on the right and started to bridge, then another, and another. I knew it was time to go, but I was still thinking that the group could catch, and for a minute or two we started to close, but then the chase completely fell apart. I took a long pull thinking it might stabilize things so we could get a paceline going again, but when I went to pull over I discovered I was alone. I guess that's the trouble with the training rides this time of year. Everyone seems to have a different take on 'winter training' so while, on any given day, some might think it's a great idea to hammer away for fifteen miles at a stretch, others are fully invested in the LSD concept. Add to the mix a couple of riders who are determined to stay in the small ring and work on form and it can get pretty hard to organize a chase group.

Up ahead I could see that the chasers had caught the leaders and now there was a strong group of at least six up the road. I wasn't losing too much time on them, and when Chip came up to help I figured we had a shot at making the bridge. We worked together for a long time and at one point got pretty close, but we just didn't have enough horsepower close the deal, and the group up ahead was showing no signs of slowing down. For some reason they had decided to really put the hammer down today. When we came around the curve at the Country Club and the road turned into the wind we knew it was over, so we backed down a notch for the last few miles back. Oh well. It was a good workout anyway.

NOLA November

November is a busy and unpredictable month around here. The weather can be positively spectacular one day, and then the next can be a drippy chilly mess. I always take the weather forecast with a grain or two of salt this time of year. The cold fronts come down in our direction but often as not they slow down and stall out, only to back up and suck a bunch of moisture out of the Gulf of Mexico. This was one of those weekends.

It started on Saturday morning. The forecast was for rain, and lots of it. At 5:45 I looked out the window at the street below and could see it was still fairly dry. I got up and turned on the TV to check the weather radar. It looked really bad. In fact, it looked to me like it should have been raining at that very moment. Everything to the west was green and yellow. Fifteen minutes of contemplation later, I threw in the towel and went back to bed. The Wife and some of the Psych folks were signed up for the Heart Walk charity event in Audubon Park, so I figured I go too and hang around in the drizzle just for kicks. The rain really put a damper on the event, so after standing around in a light drizzle for a few hours, I headed home in search of dry clothes and some plywood. I needed to add about four feet to the dining room table since a lot of family was supposed to be coming over to the house for Thanksgiving. So now the table is ten feet long, which pretty much fills the entire room. The weather remained rather dismal all day, but I was hoping for an improvement in time for the Sunday northshore ride.

Unfortunately, Sunday morning arrived in a cold damp mist. We drove across the lake and, in spite of the weather, had a nice group of fifteen or so for the 65 mile ride. The first ten miles were fairly wet, but eventually the streets dried up a little bit. The ride itself turned out to be pretty good. A bit faster than last week, and including a few fast stretches. The pack split a few times, so I got in some bonus miles by backtracking to pick up the stragglers. Various small groups split off along the way to take shortcuts, so our group kept getting smaller and smaller. On the way back the Watchtower hill split the pack for the final time, so as the others went ahead, I turned around and picked up the next few riders for the last five miles. Overall, I was feeling fairly good.

Less than an hour after getting home, I was showered and on my way to the local Po-Boy festival on Oak Street. Man, it was packed. There was a stage with a band at each end of the street. All along the street were tents of various local restaurants offering their specialty po-boys. You could send in your vote for the winning sandwich by sending a text with the number of the tent where you'd gotten the po-boy. After sampling a couple of them I was getting thirsty, but not quite thirsty enough to spend actual cash for a Miller Lite, so I made my way over to the Maple Leaf thinking I could at least get a decent beer there. Well, I walked into the place about three minutes before the end of the Saints game and couldn't even get close to the bar, so after the Saints won, I bailed. Just after we crossed Carrollton on the way home I heard someone call my name and found Mignon at the St. Andrews school where they were selling food and drinks. Since they were offering Abita Amber for $3 a cup (about half of what it was a block away), I went for it. Better yet, she paid for it since I'd picked up the Causeway toll that morning.

It's been a busy weekend and I have to get up early tomorrow so I can drive to Baton Rouge for a meeting, so I'm officially blowing off all of the things on my list tonight and going to sleep early.

Short Shorts and Long Tights

The wind was gone, the sky was clear, and the temperature was 48ºF when I left the house this morning. Nice. Very nice. Since I'd rather be hot than cold any day of the week, I pulled on the long tights this morning, along with the skullcap and toe-covers. I knew it would warm up quickly, but between pockets and zippers I figured I could adjust. In fact, the first thing I did when I got to the levee where the 6:30 a.m. sun was already over the horizon was stuff the skullcap into my pocket. When Jeff rolled up a moment later he said something to the effect of, "The girls are coming." This development was clearly cause for excitement among the group of regulars who were clearly starving for something - anything - new. I'd have to say that having four attractive women on the morning ride qualified.

The group finally headed out about on time sporting a diverse assemblage of clothing styles ranging from short triathlon shorts to long tights and shoe-covers. Wardrobe selection is a real challenge this time of year and there's rarely a consensus unless the thermometer promises to stay well below 50º for the whole ride. Anyway, the ride itself was quite good today, as most Wednesday rides tend to be. The pace was fairly steady at 21-23 mph with riders taking long smooth pulls at the front. It's amazing how much smoother a ride feels when there's not much wind. It looks like this cool weather will stick around one more day before things start to warm up a bit, but it is clear that we are working our way into our Southern winter now. The ten-day forecast isn't showing anything above 71º and not much in the way of rain until Saturday. If you like riding your bike, this is not the time to be sitting on the couch! We're already talking about next Sunday's northshore ride.

Mother Duck

It was even colder this morning. The temperature again dipped down below 50F, which in my book is somewhere between chilly and cold. Rather than wrestle with the arm-warmers, I broke out the heavy Pearlizumi LS jersey this morning for the first time since spring. A cold front had come through during the night and there was a stiff northwest wind blowing. Apparently it was blowing so hard that it blew most of the usual morning riders right off the levee because there was just a handful today. Luckily, though, Brady was there, and knowing his propensity for self-flagellation, I wasn't surprised when he went to the front and proceeded to tow us like a mother duck halfway to Destrehan before reluctantly pulling over so we could put in our wimpy little one-minute pulls. The whole time he was pulling, everyone else was being very quiet as if they were hoping he'd forget we were back there and keep pulling into the wind.

Although I had skipped the ride on Monday out of sheer laziness, I still felt kind of off-form today and although my brain kept wanting to ride hard, my legs were just not cooperating. It was as if I was dragging anchor all day, even though the wind rarely let me get out of the small chainring. By the time I got home, quite a few minutes later than usual because of the relatively slow ride speed, my feet were still cold. A sign of things to come, I'm afraid. There always comes a time in December when the shoe-covers just stay on the shoes all week. I hate that week. Anyway, despite the big cup of exceptionally strong Starbucks Thanksgiving Blend that I made at home, I felt lousy all day at work too. Then, on the way home I decided to ride down Broadway instead of Pine St. because they've been digging up the intersections on St. Charles and since it was already dark, I figured it would be safer on Broadway. Big mistake. There was a steady stream of cars, all apparently in a big hurry to get home. I ended up plowing right into some kind of crack or pothole that I never saw. Shortly after that, somebody threw open a car door that I narrowly missed. Finally, I got across St. Charles and cut back over to Pine Street. That was just about when my front tire went flat, no doubt pinch-flatted by the aforementioned pothole. So I just limped home on the rim for the next ten blocks. Thump, thump, thump .....

It's already down to 51F around here, so unless some clouds roll in overnight I guess it'll be another morning in the 40s. I can already feel my feet getting cold. Maybe I'll actually have to break down and fire up the central heat soon.

Club Ride Day - Sea of Green

Bicycle racing clubs can seem a bit anti-social sometimes, especially during the racing season. The riders who are able to travel to the area races, most of which consume entire weekends, don't get too many chances to get to know the newer riders who don't or can't. Add to that the various individual constraints on training times, fitness levels, and local geography, and a larger club often ends up with a lot of riders who don't know each other very well. Fortunately, once the racing season and general testosterone levels wind down in October, there are a lot more opportunities for everyone to get together. One of those opportunities was yesterday when we had an NOBC Club Ride over on the northshore. Leading up to the ride day, there seemed to be a fair amount of interest in the ride, but it's always hard to guess who and how many will actually show up for these things. Excuses for not making winter rides are easy to come by, but this time the weather was definitely not one of them. With no rain in the forecast, and northshore temperatures set to rise from the upper 50s to the mid-70s, you really couldn't ask for a better day.

I arrived at the Puccino's parking lot at Lakeside Shopping Center a bit earlier than usual, which is to say, "more than three minutes early." There were already a few people there - Big John, Carin, Mignon, and by the time I'd picked up a cup of coffee, more were arriving, including Mark, John, Brady, and Rich. So we loaded up the Volvo, along with three other cars, and headed north over the lake for the meeting location at Abita Springs. The sky was blue and the temperature was warm enough that I was fully expecting to be riding in just shorts and jersey. By the time we got to the northshore, however, the temperature had dropped over ten degrees and we were driving through some significant fog. I was glad I'd brought the extra jersey and arm-warmers. When we arrived, the place was full of cars and people unloading bikes. Apparently some Crescent City Cyclist riders had organized an impromptu ride starting at the same time. Even so, when our sea of green finally rolled out for our club ride I counted twenty-five, including a lot of riders who we don't normally see on the faster northshore training rides. By the standards of weekend northshore rides on Saints game days, this was huge.

The idea for this ride was basically to enjoy the scenery, keep everyone together, and get a little bit of training on the side. Given the size of the group, I figured that we'd probably split up a bit after the last Enon store stop around mile 40 of the 65 mile route. The ride was really exceptionally good. For the first forty miles the pace remained mostly easy to moderate as planned. Of course, when we got onto that nice fast road back from Plainview to Enon the riders at the front started having a hard time keeping the speed down and some gaps opened up. I'd been expecting that, though, and some of us helped out by pacing some of the small groups back up. Things never did really shatter, though, and everyone arrived at the Enon store for a final break before hitting the Watchtower hill and the last 20 mostly flat miles back to Abita Springs. One thing that was really nice was that we had our own private follow vehicle, a scooter, that would give a little boost to any riders who happened to drop too far off the pace. I think the tandem got an assist on one of the hillier stretches of the route.

As we got close to the Watchtower hill, I looked over at John and commented that this was the famous Watchtower hill. He looked up the road, unimpressed, and said it didn't look too bad. I told him that often, toward the end of long training rides, it was what caused the group to finally split apart for good. Then I rode up toward the front. My plan was to ride a little harder up the hill, just for the training, and then drop back to help whoever might come off the back during the climb. As predicted, by the time I got to the top the group was spread out over a quarter mile of road. I dropped back at one point to help pace Robert and then was surprised when he suddenly came flying past me with the scooter driver pushing him back up to the group at 28 mph. I tried to stay in the draft but they lost me on the next little uphill. There were more riders still behind, though, and eventually we all regrouped a couple of miles later on Tung Road.

After the ride, most of the group walked over to the Abita Brewpub for lunch, where we could also keep track of the Saints game. As I walked in the door Brady handed me a big glass of beer that I think was the AndyGator (http://www.abita.com/brews/andygator.php) which packs a bigger punch than most. It was just what I needed - maybe more. For some reason I hadn't been particularly thirsty or hungry and had finished the 65 miles with practically two full water bottles and an unopened powerbar in my pocked. A few hours later, after a shrimp Po-boy and fries, and back at home, I was surprised to find my legs a little bit sore. I guess that I did a bit more pulling than normal, especially over the last twenty miles or so. Oh well. I'm still in off-season riding mode right now, and I guess that around next weekend I'll start to actually think about training again. For me, that usually just means trying to get in a lot of miles at a moderate pace, working a bit on leg speed and form in smaller gears, and attempting to keep the calorie intake within reason.

A Good Day to Ride

The weather today was about as good as it gets. When I left the house, stuffed into leg and arm-warmers, full gloves and two jerseys, I knew I'd be hot by the time I got back. The sky was clear, the wind was light, and I had no firm plans. I'd hardly taken two pedal strokes when I saw a rider flash down Broadway, a block over to my right. I figured it must be Rob, and indeed we soon met up on Carrollton.

As you'd expect for a great weather day in November, there was a pretty big group for the start of the Giro Ride, and considering the pleasant weather I was figuring it would get fast sooner rather than later. It never quite happened, though. Just as we hit Hayne Blvd. someone flatted and the group slowed down. A couple of guys stopped, but most of the group kept rolling. I guess it was a little too early in the ride to expect everyone to stop. After a few minutes of soft-pedaling, we came to the conclusion that they'd never catch us anyway, and in fact would probably take the Bullard short-cut, so I went to the front and got the pace rolling again. After a while we picked up the guys who had been off the front. Somehow, though, I think that early slowdown kind of took the wind out of everyone's sails. It was so pleasant to roll along at an easy 20 mph that nobody was really interested in pushing things. So that pretty much sums up most of today's ride. There was, of course, a nice little surge for the turnaround, and again for the Goodyear sign, but today they came much later and with less intensity than usual. As you can see from the photos, the locals are very confused about what to wear on days like this. We had everything from knee-warmers (that would be me) to sleeveless tri jerseys.

Finally, halfway down Hayne Blvd. on the way back, the pace started to lift significantly. I guess the group split somewhere along there. I couldn't resist making a couple of hard efforts, sprinting up the two overpasses. (Later, I'd be surprised to find my legs sore.)

After the ride a few of us went across the street to Kona Cafe' for a while, after which I finally headed home down Marconi. Tomorrow we have an NOBC no-drop ride and lunch at Abita Brewpub across the lake that should be pretty nice. It's looking like the weather will cooperate, too. I'm sure winter will eventually get here, but hey, no rush!

Later that afternoon we rode over to Whole Foods on Magazine St. to pick up some oatmeal for cookies. There were bikes everywhere, and when we arrived we were lucky to find a place to lock up the bikes. They were busy setting up the patio for a wine and food tasting event, while inside it was a sea of boots and berets, with the occasional studded dog collar, as usual. Riding home through the old streets, Audubon Park, and Tulane's campus I was reminded once again why I put up with all the city's crap in order to live here.

All About the Weather

Forty-nine degrees. It's been a long time since the outdoor temperature has dropped below 50F, and I'm sure that by the time I actually got out the door it was probably already a degree or two warmer. I dug out my DeFeet gloves, zipped up my vest, and rode out to the levee under a clear sky. I was actually rather chilly. It seems to take a week or two to get used to the cooler weather, and the fact that we only get it a couple of days at a time around here doesn't really make it any easier, or faster. Anyway, one thing is for sure. For the next few months, it'll be all about the weather. It will be too hot or too cold or too windy or too wet or some combination of the above. Today, though was pretty damned close to ideal. The wind that has plagued us all week had finally settled down. The river level was dropping. The air felt crisp and clean. Our little Friday group did the usual ride, taking long steady pulls, often in a double paceline, at an easy pace. Sam showed up today. Hadn't seen him in a while. He's heading up to Grand Junction, CO to go back to school at Colorado State in a few days.

Today, in-between phone calls and emails, I set up an NOBC Facebook page. It's remarkably easy to do, so I thought, "Why not?" If it helps get the word out a little better, it'll be worth it. About thirty seconds after it went live Dustin "became a member," which is what one does for Facebook "Groups," not to be confused with Facebook "Pages" for which one becomes a "Fan." I find it all kind of confusing, but then again I've never been much of a natural at the whole social networking thing.

Nice November Weather

A clear blue sky, slightly cooler temperature, and a bit less wind made it a fine morning for riding. The night before, someone had posted that the unpaved gravel hump in the bike path that we've been avoiding for the past couple of months had finally been re-paved, so it would be the first time the group would be doing the "full" long ride in a while.

The ride out to the turnaround started off at a pretty good clip, especially considering the crosswind. I think everything was still together, though, when we spotted Donald about a minute up the road. That's kind of when things started to get out of hand. It seemed that Rob was determined to catch him before the turnaround, and the pace started to pick up in fits and spurts until the front of the group fractured completely. Rob and one other rider split off the front and caught, but the minute they did, Donald ramped the pace up another notch and it split again, ultimately leaving Rob and a string of lone riders, including me, spread out over half a mile of bike path as we approached the upriver end of the bike path at Ormond.

The group was unusually slow to come back together on the way back, and at one point before we had all regrouped, Rob was pulling just three or four of us at the front with the rest of the group fifteen seconds back. So someone told Rob to ease up and wait, but since, as usual, he had his ipod plugged firmly into his head he didn't hear him. So we let him go and eased up to regroup, but it was fairly obvious that the rest of the group wasn't really too interested in catching. Rob eventually looked back, discovered he was alone, and eased up. I suspect, though, that Donald was being passive-aggressive and for some reason didn't want to ride with Rob today. A few of us rode up to Rob, thinking that the rest of the group was right behind us, but as it turned out, there was still a fair bit of space between us. Anyway, we eventually ended up with just a little group of four off the front. Rob was pushing the pace a bit, and when I realized that two out of our four would soon be either pulling off or turning around, I decided to sit on the back and conserve some energy for the inevitable two-man time trial into the wind with Rob riding on his forearms and me hunting around for a bit of draft. So it turned out to be a pretty hard ride by my standards, and I was all too happy to sit up at the Playground for a long cool-down and let Rob sail off down the river.

The weather was so nice all day that around 1 pm I decided to go for a ride around the park rather than eat lunch. When I got near the entrance I spotted a couple of people sitting on a bench eating po-boys. Behind them was a fully loaded tandem touring bike. So naturally I stopped to get the story. It was a couple from Scotland who had ridden down the entire length of the Mississippi River. They had just arrived in New Orleans via the bike path and had stopped at GNO Cyclery to get a broken spoke fixed. They had directions to someone's house for the night. I figure they were in their late 60s and they looked just a bit road-weary. Even at the modest speed they were doing, however, they were happy to be near the end of their journey, which in this case was the little town of Venice, another fifty or sixty miles downriver, I think. It's basically where the pavement, and dry ground, ends.

Wind and Women

This morning it seemed the wind was blowing even more strongly than yesterday. Thanks to the wind, I was still feeling a little chilly in my arm-warmers as I waited atop the levee for the rest of the group to arrive. Once we got going, though, the headwinds and crosswinds kept us working pretty hard. We had a couple of triathlete women on the ride this morning. One of them (Tanya) rides with us pretty often. The other I didn't recognize, but I think I'll remember those short shorts next time! I'm sure three or four of the guys asked me if I knew who she was. Anyway, at least the general level of attractiveness of the paceline got a hefty boost today.

On the way home I stopped for a few minutes for a cup of dark roast at Zotz on Oak Street, where I had to navigate around a road closure where they are fixing some of the granite "cobblestones" that were just installed a month or so ago. I guess these guys don't have a lot of cobblestone experience. I had noticed last week that some of them were already coming loose. They're mainly there to slow down the traffic, but I suspect that today's modern suspension systems just laugh at that sort of thing. The interesting thing about them, though, is that they were recycled from the original stones that the street was originally paved with. They had mostly been covered up with asphalt for the last fifty years or so, so it's kind of neat that they dug them up and used them as "traffic calmers" at the intersections.

Later in the day I went over to Country Day school to meet with a couple of students who are trying to get a cycling team started. The instigator, Marc, moved here with his family from Spain fairly recently. I gave them some information on bikes, training and racing. Hopefully they will be able to get something going. In the meantime, Michael is working on the annual LAMBRA meeting, currently scheduled for Dec. 5 in Jackson, MS, and is ordering a batch of LCCS jerseys for this year's winners. I think we may try for a new design for 2011 and offer whatever leftover jerseys we end up with to current and former LCCS winners at a big discount. I need to write up the order for the LCCS awards and Cup, and while I'm at it I want to see what it would cost to get some kind of trophies or plaques to give to our District Champions, at least for the Road Race and Time Trial. The problem, of course, is that we have so many age groups that it could easily get too expensive. Perhaps we'll just give awards for the skill-based races. I dunno. We'll have to see about it.

A Slow Return

Monday was supposed to be pretty much of a wash-out with Hurricane Ida, or more likely Tropical Storm Ida, scheduled to roll into the Gulf Coast that day. So when I squinted at the tiny little image of the weather radar on my Blackberry, even before getting out of bed, all I really saw was a whole lot of green. Glancing out the window I could see that it wasn't actually raining, but I figured that between the wind and nearby rain, trying to get in a ride was a bad bet, so I opted for an extra hour's sleep. As it turned out, I'd lost the bet that day, because most of the rain somehow missed us. Ordinarily, missing a Monday ride wouldn't have bothered me a bit, but after three full days off the bike that included two days of ad libitum feeding, I was feeling like a slug and my joints were starting to rust. Just to compound the problem, we went out for a nice dinner at the Maple St. Cafe' that evening for my mother's birthday. I went to sleep early, but determined to ride in the morning come hell or high water.

This morning the alarm never quite went off. My antique clock-radio (red digits, mechanical tuner, and all) had been set on good ol' WTIX. Well, apparently the broadcast antenna for this little fly-by-night oldies station, which is located down in Galliano somewhere, must have gotten knocked off-kilter by the wind because they were essentially off the air. The result? I woke up at about 6:20 for the 6:15 ride. "It's OK," I told myself. A nice solo ride out to meet the group on its way back would be a good way to ease back into riding. Unfortunately, there was neither a group to meet nor any easy riding to be had. The wind was still blowing at 15 to 20 mph when I hit the levee. I looked down at the computer only to have it reach up and slap me right in the face with a 14 mph reading. Obviously, I was going to be making a slow return from my little sojourn in Colorado. So I did my best to get my legs back into the game, with the morning traffic on one side and some remarkably high water on the other. All of the rain up north has really swollen the Mississippi down here lately. The water was covering the batture in many places, and in general was at least five or six feet higher than normal. The only good thing about that is that you get to see a lot more wildlife when it's like that.

I was way out by The Dip when I saw Taylor coming the other way so I turned around to ride back with him. It wasn't a hard decision, since I'd been looking forward to a little tailwind for quite a while by then. I was also far enough out and late enough that I should have already seen the group on its way back, so I figured they had probably bailed out this morning because of the wind. Anyway, I rode back with Taylor listening to him tell his usual jokes (I think he must subscribe to the joke of the week club) and contemplating how caustic his sweat must be to have completely rusted his entire headset. Granted, he was riding his old beater bike. His carbon Trek had cracked and the replacement had just arrived at the shop the day before, so I guess the next time we see him he'll be on shiny a new Trek Madone. It's a good thing carbon fiber doesn't rust!

Tomorrow I am meeting with a small group at Country Day school about starting a cycling team. Should be interesting! Oh, by the way, at the request of USAC, I set up a LAMBRA Facebook page. Facebook is so confusing! So this is a "page" rather than a "group." I'm not exactly sure which is better for this, but I don't think it's a big deal one way or the other since we already have a website and a discussion list. We'll see .....

Up in Colorado

I'm up in Colorado Springs this weekend for the annual USA Cycling Local Associations conference. Since USAC moved out of the Olympic Training Center last year and into their own building, most of the meetings are being held at the nearby Rodeo Hall of Fame. Friday night we had a reception at the new USAC offices, which are much, much nicer than what they had at the OTC. The new place includes a nice indoor training facility for staff, a really impressive collection of photographs on the walls, and a big and conveniently located western bar that occupies part of the building. Unfortunately, I didn't sleep very well because the sudden change to dry air, and perhaps some allergy issues, made it difficult to breathe. I woke up with a pretty good headache. Saturday morning the weather was just beautiful. Kind of cold, but clear and nearly windless. With the morning sun shining on the nearby mountains, I was really wishing I had a bike. It would have been a great day for a ride up to Manitou Springs or something.

We got started bright and early with some of the usual presentations by USAC staff. The one about insurance and liability is always a little bit frightening. We also went through all of the proposed rule changes, after which the Board of Trustees went off to debate them. We ended the meetings with presentations by two chip-timing companies, followed by a reception and dinner. Tomorrow will be similar, with the meeting starting at 8 am. I'll have to head off to the airport around 2:00, by which time I expect I'll be pretty beat. This meeting can be pretty humbling for those of us from the smaller regions. Like last year, there was a lot of talk about cyclocross because so many districts are in the middle of their big 'cross seasons where typical turnouts for single races are running somewhere around the total number of licensed LAMBRA riders. Anyway, it is certainly enlightning to hear about what's happening in the larger districts. Sometimes it makes me feel happy that we don't have quite so many problems to deal with on a daily basis.

Short Week

The Wednesday ride somehow felt harder than usual this week. I think perhaps it has something to do with all that Halloween candy I've been eating. Somehow we ended up with a fair number of little leftover Hershey bars, Skittles, and other tempting products of the modern petrochemical industry. Anyway, the only interesting thing was that there was a film crew working at the Maple Leaf. Somebody told me which movie it probably was, but of course I immediately forgot. The had a big base camp set up near where the ride starts, and as I rolled past I could smell breakfast cooking. Those film crews sure do eat well.

This morning I didn't really know quite what to expect of the ride. The group was pretty long, and right from the start I could see that Rob was going to be pushing the pace a bit. Woody was there on his track bike, so I knew he was still in off-season spin mode, but with a light wind and the temperature in the low 60s, I figured it might get unseasonably fast today. It turned out to be OK, though, at least on the way out. Not slow by any means, but also not blazingly fast either. After the turnaround, the paceline was starting to get little erratic when VJ suddenly sat up. He'd broken a spoke. We were still a long way out, and so most of us waited around so he could stop and deal with the flailing spoke and make sure he'd be able to get home on the wheel, which was something along the lines of a Zip 404, I think. After a quick check, it looked like it would go the distance, so we got going again, but by then a little group was way up the road. The rest of us weren't all that worried about trying to catch them, but pretty soon Mark G. went to the front and took the pace up a couple of notches. That kind of got things going again and after a while we could see we were starting to gain back some of the ground we'd lost. By then the front group had lost a few riders who had turned off to head home, while at the same time our group was getting smaller and smaller. I think we were down to just three for a while, and then Mark left for home, leaving just two, and finally near the there was just me and Ali who had dropped off of the front group. After Ali turned off at the playground, I think there was just Rob up ahead.

So it's a short week for me because tomorrow morning I'm off to Colorado Springs for the USA Cycling Local Associations Conference. It should be interesting. Hopefully none of the more crazy of the proposed rule changes will get past the USCF Board of Trustees. At least the trip there and back will give me a little time to think about getting our LAMBRA meeting together. I've got two delinquent events I'm still trying to get cleared up, one of which was a small NOBC race. I have a feeling I'm going to end up doing the chief referee report myself even though I wasn't even in town for it. That's assuming I can get my hands on the one-day license forms that I was promised would be mailed to me a few days ago. Looks like we're going to have to crack down on the officials and promoters and make sure they don't leave the race site before filling out the forms and writing the check.

November

I can't believe it's November already! I guess I shouldn't complain, though, because the weather around here since Saturday afternoon has been fantastic. It was a little lonely for my Monday morning ride, but today we had a pretty good turnout, even if most of them were a little late. On the plus side, it's not dark any more at 6:15. I can't begin to say how much less stressful that makes the first ten miles of these early morning rides.

For some reason the group was a little slow getting started this morning. I have a feeling it may have had something to do with the Saints game last night. Football fever is running rampant in New Orleans lately. Anyway, the group eventually got its act together this morning and started a nice little paceline. The consensus pace settled in at around 24 mph with most people successfully ignoring the occasional surge by that guy on the track bike.

The ride back, however, soon became quite irregular. There was a bit more of a headwind, and keeping the pace above 23 mph started to take its toll. By the time we were halfway back the paceline was in a continual cycle of disintegration and reconstruction with the speed fluctuating from 21 to 28 mph, and I was finding it difficult to stay smooth. At one point I took what I thought was a nice smooth pull at a reasonable speed, only to discover that I'd opened up a big gap. I eased up and got back into the group when it caught up, only to find that they were then going the same speed I'd been going earlier. Some mornings it's just not worth trying to figure out the pack mentality.

Later, on my way to work, I passed this knocked-over fire hydrant (above) on Lowerline St. It's been leaking water rather badly for the last few weeks and the neighbors have even put up a sign complaining about the complete lack of action on the part of the city. Now it seems they've even taken to decorating it for holidays like Halloween. It's bad enough that city water is pouring completely unchecked out of the ground here, but you would think that a FIRE hydrant might warrant some level of priority in an older neighborhood with old wiring, old gas heating systems and old wooden houses, especially with winter fast approaching. I know from past experience that it only takes about half a day, at best, to repair this kind of leak, even with four guys standing around leaning on shovels and two of them actually working, and maybe another half day to then repair any torn-up asphalt. Somehow the city always seems to stretch that out into a three or four month ordeal for the people who live around there. If you are wondering if the city is back to normal since the hurricane, you need look no farther. We sure could use a Mayor around here, but I can't imagine who in his right mind would be willing to take the job given all of the ass-kissing that would be required just to have half a chance of getting elected, and that's assuming you could get half the electorate to look beyond the color of your skin.

This Weekend

This weekend started out as expected, with a light rain, wet streets, and dropping temperatures. At 5:45 a.m. I turned the alarm off and pulled the covers over my head. At 8 a.m. I finally put my feet on the floor. The rain had stopped, but it was too late. There were things to do and I knew I'd never break free for a ride. One thing about being in New Orleans is that when the streets are wet or the weather is cold, you can always tell yourself that it'll be better tomorrow. It usually is, and Saturday was no exception. It was about 5 p.m. by the time the house was marginally suitable for visitors. I walked out onto the front porch looked out over the street. There were already kids in their Halloween costumes playing around in front of their houses, held barely in check by their parents who were waiting until closer to sunset before letting them loose on the neighborhood. I had a feeling it would be a busy Halloween night, since this year it fell on a Saturday night. Our first visitor of the night was a rather mystified and wide-eyed little girl whose parents had chosen our house for her very first trick-or-treat. I flicked on the porch light and reached into the huge aluminum pot for a handful of candy.

For the first hour or so there was a steady stream of costumed kids climbing the steps to the porch to yell "trick or treat." Some of the neighbors came around to keep us company, along with a few friends who were in the neighborhood and/or on their way to other Halloween night festivities. From all reports, the French Quarter was pretty wild last night. Just when I was starting to wonder if the bulk of the kids were finished for the night, we had another huge surge, and for fifteen minutes or so we were handing out candy as fast as we could to a seemingly nonstop line of kids. One thing I noticed this year was that a lot more of the parents were in costume. I guess it must have been because Halloween fell on a weekend this year. Anyway, things went well, we had a lot of fun, I drank a bit too much wine, and we finally shut things down around 10 p.m. Then, as always happens when I drink a lot of wine, I woke up at about 2 a.m. quite thirsty and then couldn't get back to sleep. The bottom line was that, for me, that extra hour of sleep promised by the shift to daylight savings time was completely squandered.

My original plan for Sunday was to ride part of the Giro Ride, come back early, and then go back out at 10:30 to meet a few people, including some from the newly forming Tulane Cycling Club, for a Tour du Cafe' ride through the city. Well, the weather Sunday morning was just spectacular. Clear blue sky, light wind, temperature around 60F. I rode out to the lakefront, meeting up with Big Richard along the way, and latched onto the end of the smallish Giro group as it headed East. The pace picked up pretty well on Hayne Blvd., but then a small group split off the front when the rest of us eased off because of an approaching ambulance. There was another group behind us that had decided earlier to stick with a 20 mph pace regardless. The rest of us eventually got a decent paceline going, but it was too little too late to catch Brett, Rob, Mike W., and the other one or two who were with them. We all re-grouped after the turnaround, and although it started off slowly, the pace kept gradually rising until we were up to around 29 mph approaching the Goodyear Sign sprint. I ended up making a few hard efforts and generally getting in a good workout, arriving back home around 9:30. That gave me a little time to recover before heading over to PJ's coffee on campus to meet up with the Tour du Cafe' group. I picked up a cup of dark roast to get me going again. [More photos]

We had only five for the 10:30 ride, but since the plan was to keep the pace easy and make a few stops, it wasn't a problem. We rode out to Metairie Cemetery, making a few detours to get around the streets that were blocked off for the Voodoo festival, and did a couple of laps there in honor of All Saints Day before continuing on to the lakefront and then over to the Starbucks in Lakeview where I had a nice Macchiato. From there, it was back to City Park where the big Voodoo Festival was going on, down Bayou St. John to Grand Route St. John and Esplanade to the French Quarter where there were still a few consumed people wandering about from the prior night's festivities. We rode through the French Quarter, teeming with visitors, back toward uptown, stopping for another coffee stop on Magazine Street at Mojo Coffee House. I was standing in line to place my order, trying to decide what to have, when I came face-to-face with a big pecan pie and decided that what I really needed today was definitely another 500 calories of sugar. Considering the size of the slice I was given, it was probably more like 800. Anyway, by then I finally took a good look at my watch and realized it was already almost 1:30 and I had said I'd be home by 1:00. So we headed back uptown, splitting off one by one for home. I ran upstairs, put some clothes on, and we jumped in the car with the neighbors to go look for dead grandparents in the Metairie Cemetery Mausoleum. We weren't even sure which mausoleum they were in, so it was absolutely amazing when we found them within five minutes among the thousands of vaults.

So now, after 90 miles and probably over five hours on the bike that started at 6:30 am, I think I'm finally ready to take a shower . . . . .