Two Hundred Fifty

Two Hundred Fifty miles a week has always seemed to be the point at which, for me, I feel like I'm actually making progress. If I can string together two or three weeks at around that mileage I start to feel like I'm getting in shape. Of course there are some weeks during the racing season during which I might not hit that mark, but those are usually weeks in which I make up for lower mileage with higher intensity, otherwise known as "racing."  So anyway, last week I finally got back up to a 250 mile week for the first time since mid-September.  Although it should last, it probably won't if the weather and my unreasonable fear of cold have anything to say about it.

The wind that had been plaguing us around here for the better part of a week finally started to die down yesterday, and that, combined with the aforementioned 250-mile week, had me feeling particularly frisky on yesterday's long levee ride.  This morning the wind was nearly calm, and for some reason we had a rather large group of ten or twelve when we started.  With the slack wind and the traditional steady 22 mph Wednesday pace, it was an enjoyable ride. The temperature was in the mid-50s, riding to maybe 60, the sky was clear, and there was a light fog hugging the ground here and there.  Since the bike path is now closed downriver of the Orleans/Jefferson parish line to the Corps of Engineers Building, everyone dropped down onto River Road at Dakin Street with me today. Unfortunately, we got caught by a particularly long train.

Things are pretty quiet here in the office today. Faculty and students are both in short supply ahead of the holiday weekend, so I'm just hoping against hope that one or two of my emails will actually generate replies.  We have some consultant meetings next week and scheduling for them has been particularly difficult.  The annual LAMBRA meeting is scheduled for a week from next Sunday and as usual practically none of the clubs has put its race dates on the planning calendar.  I'll send out a reminder tonight and see if we can get some action on that. 

Tomorrow we have a 7 am  holiday ride up on the levee that should be nice.  We'll have a bunch of people over for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow evening so I know I'd better get my ride in early since the rest of the day will probably involve vacuum cleaners and trips to the grocery store.

So I should be working on building up a new (to me) bike soon. I'm guessing it will be a couple of weeks before I have everything together, assuming neither time nor money runs out first.  Yeah, I know.  The suspense is killing you, right?