Rough Shoulders

A late afternoon meeting that ended a bit early prompted me to take care of some pre-event duties Thursday evening.  Despite the fact that I'd been late to that meeting because of a sudden rainstorm, and subsequently ridden there in a light drizzle, I decided I'd take a chance on the LaPlace time trial course having escaped the scattered rain.  I needed to get out there and freshen up the road markings for the turnarounds, and this looked like a good opportunity for that.  So I picked up a couple of cans of road-marking paint, threw the bike into the car, and headed for I-10.  Of course by then it was right in the middle of rush hour, so it probably took me half an hour just to get to the interstate.  LaPlace isn't very far away, though, so I arrived at the TT start location a bit before 6 am.  This stretch of road (Hwy. 51) runs adjacent to and parallel to the elevated I-55, and although you'd think that the only people using it would be looking for a nice place to go fishing, at this time of day there were a few who were apparently trying to beat the I-55 traffic to Pontchatoula. Since I was by myself and the sky was overcast, I decided I'd better stick to the wide but bumpy shoulder.  It was not comfortable, however, and every now and then when there weren't any cars coming, I'd get back up onto the nice smooth asphalt that makes this route such a good time trial course.  On the way out I stopped at the start line and then at the 5k, 10k and 20k turnarounds to re-mark them, finally getting back to the car just before it started getting dark.  I can't say it was the most enjoyable ride I've done lately, but at least it's one more thing I can check off of the list for Sunday.

This morning I was actually a little surprised to find three other riders waiting for me on the levee.  Sometimes I end up riding solo on Fridays.  Today we had a nice little paceline in which each rider was taking pulls of two or three miles at steady speeds in the narrow range of 21-22 mph.  I stopped at Zotz afterward for a cup of dark roast.  I guess I'll be riding the Giro tomorrow morning, although it's looking like I might have to bail out a little early.  Then on Sunday I'll be working registration and results for the NOBC 2-Person Time Trial, and doing in a TT with Dennis in-between, assuming we aren't terribly short-handed.