Out to the End

End of old section, start of new.

I heard the garbage truck outside the bedroom window Saturday morning as I awoke.  It seemed darker than usual for 5:45 am, but I didn't think much about it as I got dressed for the Saturday Giro.  Down in the basement I fill water bottles under the single bare light bulb, and before putting on my riding shoes I opened the door to bring in the empty garbage can.  As I stepped out into the thick humid dawn I felt something hit my face.  A raindrop?? A light rain was just beginning to fall.  I went back upstairs to have a look at the weather radar. 

End of the path near Norco.

It didn't look good. 

I sat there or a few minutes watching the animated radar and wondering if I should pump up the tires on the rain bike.  Then I heard the first clap of thunder. I shut everything down and climbed back into bed, still wearing my team kit and put in a couple more hours of sleep while the rainstorm drifted through.  I heard there were a few riders at the Starbucks who sat around drinking coffee until finally throwing in the towel and going home.

So by 10:30 am or so the rain was over and it was looking a lot better.  I've been feeling rather mileage deprived lately, having missed riding on Thursday entirely, so I thought I'd head out to the levee and ride all the way out to the end.  The bike path had been extended upriver recently, and in fact was not yet officially open, and I thought I'd go check out the new asphalt.  It was already getting pretty warm by the time I left.  Considering the heat and the fact I'd be riding solo, and the likelihood of a little headwind for the return trip, I stayed in a low gear and tried to keep my speed between 18 and 20 mph.  The bike path was still rather deserted as I headed up the river, but most of the water had evaporated. I could hear my seatpost creaking inside the aluminum seat tube and knew that water and grit had finally worked their way down in there. Somewhere way out around the Luling bridge I saw Rolan riding toward me.  "I'm going all the way to the end," I yelled as he slowed and made a U-turn to join me.  A couple of miles later we came to a barricade across the bike path.  On the other side was fresh blacktop, still missing its center line stripe. 

Naturally we went around it.  Over the next few miles we had to detour down onto River Road a couple of times to get around pipes near Norco, but back up on the levee the asphalt continued.  A little while later, though, we came to the end of the paved road, maybe a mile before the Spillway, and turned back.  Rolan turned off about halfway back as the heat got hotter and humidity got heavier.  I sucked the last drops of water out of one bottle and started in on the other, riding all the way to Audubon Park and adding a couple of laps around the road there or good measure.  I was a little surprised how tired I was by the time I got home, but at least I'd gotten in 56 miles on the bike.  I was already wishing I'd gotten in the car and made the 6 hour drive to race in Oxford, but complications on Friday, including a dying car battery and ridiculous property tax assessment had pushed that a few spots down on my priority list.

So Sunday morning looked a lot better as I rode out to the Giro Ride.  Unfortunately I'd miss my pre-Giro coffee because I'd fallen back asleep after shutting off the alarm clock.  I'd be there in plenty of time to make the ride, but my usual twenty minutes of caffeine loading were definitely out.  There were a few key riders missing, of course, thanks to the races in Oxford, and there were a couple more TT bikes than usual (the Team TT is next weekend), but turnout was still good.  As soon as the pace started to pick up I noticed that my legs felt a little sore.  Really?  From what?  This sort of thing never happened when I was 25, but now it's a fairly frequent occurrence. 

Anyway, the Giro was fairly fast today and even though I wasn't riding aggressively enough to be on the right side of the splits for the sprints, I got a good workout, again went through every drop of water I'd brought, and got home feeling quite empty.  I ended up logging about 250 miles for the week, which it about normal for this time of year.  I've always said that I don't start to feel like I'm in shape until I have a few consecutive 250-mile weeks under my belt.  I heard there was some Olympic bicycle racing going on this week over in England, but you wouldn't know it from NBC's prime-time coverage.  I did, however, see hours of women in bikinis and horses leaping over things and even British celebrities and royalty cheering for the track races that they didn't show.