The streets were good and wet Tuesday morning, but I went out anyway. I'd checked the radar and it looked clear (it wasn't, however - just a weather.com glitch apparently). Since the temperature was warm I figured a few miles on the Rain Bike couldn't hurt, even though there was no chance that the routine Tuesday long ride was going to happen. I was fully expecting to ride alone, of course, but soon after I hit the levee bike path, a rain-jacketed Brian rolled up to me and moments later Howard turned around to join us. The rain started a few miles later and continued for the rest of the ride. It was warm enough, though, that I knocked off 23 easy miles and arrived back home with dry feet and air in both tires. It had been a good call because it rained pretty much the rest of the day. When I got home I checked the radar again and discovered that the one radar frame I'd looked at happened to be lacking the rain data.
Wednesday was another routine levee ride, at least until my rear tire went flat about halfway out. I took ten minutes to fix it after prying a particularly well-embedded shard out of the tread with my pocket knife. Having told the rest of the group to continue on without me, I met back up with them around Williams Blvd. The Wednesday Night Worlds were scheduled for 6 pm, but during the day there were reports that the storm that had come through earlier had flooded Lakeshore Drive and it was therefore full of dirt and debris. This happens fairly routinely out there, and the police just barricade it off for a few days until the guys come out and put all of the dirt back where it came from. I was a little late getting out of the office, and so I arrived at Lakeshore Drive a few minutes after the race had started, joining the group out near Franklin Avenue. They had decided on a modified route that went from the fountain to Franklin, then up and over the levee to a U-turn and then back to Lakeshore Drive. The only problem was that the group had to negotiate barricades three or four times per lap. One of them required single-file. None of that stopped the training race, however. I wasn't feeling too sharp and spent a lot of time hanging around near the back, which eventually resulted in my getting gapped off when Eddie sat up about halfway into the last lap. Oh well. Live by the draft, die by the draft.
This morning the weather was awesome. Clear blue skies, light winds, temperature in the mid-60s. That brought out a fairly big group for the long Thursday ride and within a few miles of the start the pace really started to get fast. I guess we averaged close to 25 mph most of the way out to Ormond. The return trip was somewhat less intense. Otherwise it was a pretty routine ride.
So this weekend I'll be officiating the LSU collegiate race, which is also the South Central Collegiate Cycling Conference championship. That means I probably won't get to ride all weekend. Unfortunately it also means I'll miss the other stuff going on this weekend, such as the Ochsner triathlon, the Blue Angels air show, etc. The weather forecast for Saturday is not looking good at all with the chance of rain well above 50%. That would mean officiating a road race in the rain and possibly an evening team time trial in the rain. Rain really complicates that stuff a lot. I'm going to need to bring extra socks! Hopefully it will be over by the time they have the criterium on Sunday morning because I think that course will be kind of slippery when wet.
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