Weather Pendulum

For those of us afflicted with acute intolerance for indoor cycling, this time of year is really all about the weather. Although it's nearly time to start lifting the training intensity a bit, especially if Rouge-Roubaix is on one's calendar, most rides over the last month and a half have been more about saddle time and scenery than wattage and muscle damage. The last two weeks have presented a bit of a challenge even for the most stalwart winter cyclists. Today, however, the weather pendulum finally started to swing noticeably the other way, and for those of us who spend all winter getting whipped around at the end of that long shaft it came as a welcome relief. It was still rather chilly by New Orleans standards, but at least I was finally back to wearing my normal winter wardrobe. The insulated skullcap from Iowa and the wind-resistant shell gloves stayed at home this morning for the first time in nearly a week.

Today's long levee ride started out with about a dozen riders, and with the wind gradually shifting around to the ESE we had a little bit of tailwind most of the way out to the turnaround at Ormond Plantation. (Hopefully I won't get in trouble for using the "P" word.) The slightly warmer weather had my legs feeling kind of happy today, and by the time we were halfway out I'd already started some strategic unzipping to keep the sweat accumulation down below the cold and clammy level. For pretty much the whole way out we had a nice smooth paceline that was comfortably rolling along at around 23 mph. Every time the speed would ramp up closer to 24 I'd feel the urge to shift to the big ring, but I never did until well after the turnaround when my legs were starting to get a little tired. It always feels nice to shift to a larger gear for a while when you're nicely protected at the back of the paceline.

I was already thinking about that cup of hot coffee at Zotz when we were still five miles from the ride's end. For the past week I'd been skipping my coffee stop because it was still too cold to make the brief stop worthwhile. Today, though I happily sat outside on Oak Street sipping my coffee and checking my email. Oh, yeah, I got a replacement BlackBerry Bold, so I'm plugged back into the Matrix again. But, getting back to important topics like the weather, tomorrow should be really nice and then it all kind of falls apart late Friday night and Saturday with a high probability of rain ahead of our next little cold front. In the meantime, I'll just keep hanging on to that pendulum and hoping for the best.