Shrinkage and Sunshine

It was in the low 30s when I arrived at Starbucks on Saturday and I could already tell that the shrinkage factor had taken its toll on the Giro Ride turnout, if not on certain aspects of male anatomy.  We rolled out under a grey sky with a skeleton crew of about a dozen and a tempting west wind.  It was the first time I'd been on the bike since Tuesday, and the cumulative effect of my drastically reduced training volume really started to hit home once the pace ramped up on Hayne Blvd.  There are a couple of things about group rides or, for that matter, road races, that don't always seem obvious at first but soon etch themselves into every rider's brain.  The first is that any ride feels harder with a small group, even if you stay off the front.  The second is that it's ofter harder to stay with a group or close a gap when there's a direct tailwind than when there's a direct headwind.  So there I was in our small group blasting down Hayne Blvd. with a direct tailwind as a small group started pulling away ahead of us. One thing about a Giro ride when it's cold and windy is that the riders who actually do show up are probably not the ones who are accustomed to sitting at the back chatting about the weather.  The result yesterday was a good fast ride all the way out to the turnaround at Venetian Isles. The ride back was another story.  The combination of a stiff headwind and a small group made the return trip a long one.  By the time we were back to City Park I felt like I'd been ridden hard and put up wet.  Don't you just love that feeling?

So family duties being what they are of late, I had to pass on a couple of good ride options today.  There was a long northshore ride that I would have liked to do, and there was also a joint Tulane/LSU ride up in St. Francisville.  Considering my current fitness level, the latter might have been the better choice, but since I had to be back home by 11 am I didn't have to make a decision anyway.  For me it would be another Giro Ride.  The ride out to Starbucks felt a lot like it had the day before except that there wasn't any wind.  We were also expecting a lot of sunshine, once the sun came up, so even though I wore one fewer layer I knew I'd be warm once the Giro got going.  Even so, those knee warmers under the tights and that nice NOBC winter jacket were well-appreciated as I made my way down Carrollton Avenue with around thirty-six degrees on the thermometer.  The ride itself had a somewhat larger turnout than the day before, and although there were a few fast stretches, it felt considerably smoother and easier than the prior day's Giro.  Oh, while I'm thinking about it, I'd like to thank the New Orleans Police Department for not ticketing half of the group when it rolled through a stop light on Chef right in front of one police car and right behind another.  If we'd been in Dallas I'd probably be writing this from the county jail.  I would have taken more pictures the last couple of days, but working the little buttons on the pocket camera while riding with two layers of gloves just wasn't worth it.