One Day More

Well, last Saturday was a complete wash-out. The weather was just miserable all day.  I ended up finally getting a good start on a little project I'd been putting off for the past, oh, six years.  The basement.  After Katrina it was briefly all nice an cleaned out. If there's one thing good about a flood it's that chance to start over with a clean slate.  It didn't last, however.  Before I knew it, the basement had become a repository for cast-off items from about three different households.  My little corner that I keep for bikes and maintenance and tools and other workshop stuff kept getting smaller and smaller. 

So Saturday I started throwing out stuff. Stuff like old 28-hole GEL 280 tubular rims and venerable Fiamme red labels. Of course there were also other things like the numerous cans of old paint that are still drying out behind the garage.  It took me the better part of two days to straighten out and rearrange that one quarter of the basement, but now all the bikes have their places and there's enough open space to actually walk around and work on a bike.  I'm just hoping I don't come down with a Hantavirus infection after stirring everything up so much.

Sunday morning I got on the bike in the dark and started out toward the lakefront to meet the Giro Ride.  It was damp and a bit foggy and felt at least ten degrees colder than it actually was.  Four blocks from home I said, out loud, I don't feel like riding today. It was only by force of will, or perhaps guilt, or maybe compulsive tendencies, that I kept going.  The turnout was fairly low once again, but after an Americano I felt a little better.  The ride was pretty tame by Giro standards, no doubt influenced by the dreary damp morning.  By the time we were on the way back, however, the sun started to come out and right away everything got better, and warmer.  So what had started out as a pretty miserable ride ended up as a nice brisk day under a bright December sky.  Go figure.  Up in Minnesota Brian Toone was slogging out a few miles with chemical heat packs in his socks on a ride with an average temperature of something like minus 17.  Brian, you gotta draw the line somewhere, man!  Anyway, I spent much of the afternoon on the basement project, but didn't really finish it up until Monday. 

This morning I went out a little late.  I hadn't slept very well and awoke with a headache, probably an allergic inflammation from inhaling all that crap in the basement.  I went out to the levee expecting to be riding alone but ran into a rider from Washington who was in town and looking for the morning levee ride.  A bit later we met up with Donald, so we had a nice 16 mph type of ride.  Unfortunately, the headache just kept getting worse and my neck kept getting more and more stiff, so by the time we were halfway home I was pretty uncomfortable.

There's only one day more in 2013, and when I checked my year-to-date mileage I realized I needed only 25 miles or so to hit the 12,000 mile mark for the year.  Mileage isn't necessarily a good indicator of training value, of course, especially in my case since most of my training miles are done with some sort of group, but even so, 12k is a respectable annual total.  I doubt I've been under 11,000 miles in at least ten years.

So today I saw that David LeDuc got a two-year suspension for testing positive at masters nationals for EPO, and testosterone, and amphetamines.  He's about a year older than I am and I've been seeing his name in masters nationals results since the early 80s.  I don't know what to say.  Doping to try and break into the Pro ranks is one thing, but doping to race in the 60-64 age group is something altogether different.  If he'd tested positive for just testosterone, or Viagra, I could probably see how that might happen, but EPO?

Riding Alone

After the complete wash-out that was Sunday, a cold front finally shuffled through some time after midnight leaving behind damp streets, cold temperatures and wind - lots of wind.  I was off work so I didn't worry too much about getting to the levee exactly on time, especially since I wasn't expecting anyone to be there anyway.  One extra bonus we sometimes get following a good rain is a bike path littered with sticky dead earthworms.  I'm not exactly sure what causes this mass suicide, but it can make for a really messy bike ride.  As expected, I was riding alone on Monday, and although it was cold and windy, I wasn't going very hard which made the riding reasonably tolerable.  As often happens when I'm riding alone, I spotted the bald eagle sitting atop one of the big power line poles on the batture, and although the light wasn't very good I stopped to get a few photos anyway. Preparations for the partial bike path closure seem to be moving along, and on Monday I could see where the fencing was set to close off the path at the upriver end of Ochsner hospital.  I guess that the first section to be closed off completely will be from the Orleans parish line to that point, which is maybe half a mile or so.  Along the batture there were two of the big crew quarter barges that the Corps of Engineers uses, along with a huge tugboat and lots of parked cars.  It looked like they were staging an invasion.

Fortunately the bike path was still open Tuesday morning when I went out a little later than usual.  Since I'm off work there wasn't any good reason to ride in the dark, especially since the temperature was in the upper 30s and the wind probably around 12-14 mph from the north.  I dressed warmly since I was planning on riding for a couple of hours at as easy a pace as the wind would allow. At least the sky was finally clear.  I was out around LaRose, I guess, when I saw Steve and Kurt coming toward me.  They turned around and we rode out to Ormond where Steve headed home.  Kurt rode with me back downriver to River Ridge before turning back himself.  I got home with just enough time to shower, change, and ride over to TISM for a physical therapy appointment and about an hour of back and shoulder strengthening work that will probably leave me a bit sore.  I guess the next twenty-four hours will be pretty busy.  Rumor has it that they may try and move my dad from the hospital to a nursing facility, although which one still seems to be up in the air.

So perhaps I'll find some time in the next few days to complete the new SafeSport continuing education module that I'm supposed to have for my official's license.  The reaction among many officials on the listserv to that new requirement, plus the new background check requirement and cost, has generally been, to put it succinctly, "this is bullshit."  It is becoming very clear that a lot of our officials, especially those who typically officiate just one or two races a year, for free, aren't going to renew.  I think this is going to be a problem.....

Doppler Shift Week

It always happens.  The closer you get to a holiday, the tighter and tighter things start to stack up.  It's like some kind of pre-holiday Doppler effect. The quick bullet list goes something like this:

• Thursday night a week ago Dad breaks his hip, is in the hospital, then a nursing facility, then back to the hospital where he spends all night in the ER because there are no beds;
• Listened to a USAC continuing education workshop on 2014 rule changes on my cellphone while sitting in the ER waiting room;
• My neck still hurts when I ride;
• Bank account has been overdrawn, again, by she who will not be named because she probably bought you a Christmas present too;
• Levee bike path is about to close;
• Weather fluctuating from 38 to 80 degrees;
• Ordering prescription Oakleys to use up leftover FSA funds before the end of the year;
• Neighborhood bank armored car delivery holdup and murder;
• And then last night a drunk hits the curb on S. Claiborne behind the house at high speed and the car goes diagonally across the wide neutral ground, miraculously missing trees, across Broadway, across the oncoming three lanes of S. Claiborne without hitting any cars, and crashes into a fence behind a house.  Totally drunk out of his mind guy gets out of the car and starts walking home down Claiborne toward east Carrollton.  All the neighbors run outside, We call 911 and follow him for a few blocks hoping the police will show up.  Police show up about two hours later.  Should have implied that shots had been fired.
• And yes, I still have to take that 90 minute USOC/USAC required SafeSport continuing education things on how not to be a child molester.

Today I left the office around 11:30 to ride over to Touro hospital so check on my father who finally got a (very nice) room.  When I got back to the office a couple of hours later the door was locked and all the lights were off.  Monday is the last official day of work around here before the holidays, but for all practical purposes things shut down today.

Last weekend most of the Giro Ride ended up doing Keith's TVR ride down Metairie Road and looping around on the levee back to Audubon Park.  TVR stands for The Vagina Ride, which I think it intended to ensure that the pace remains at a level suitable for the fairer sex, despite the fact that a number of that sex's members could readily rip his and my legs off at will.  Anyway, it was a nice ride although this time we didn't find any handguns.

Louisiana Cycling Club 1891

Anyway, I have been squeezing in a barely reasonable amount of riding in the mornings.  Last weekend the Giro rides were once again pretty thin because of the weather, and the mornings remained quite cold until Thursday.  This morning I had to check the thermometer three times before I believed it.  I think it was something like 65 degrees.  Shorts and a jersey on Dec. 20.  Bet that doesn't happen in Minnesota.  Unfortunately, it looks like the morning levee ride routine that has been my bread and butter for ten years is about to be upset.  When we came down the exit ramp after Thursday's ride there were a couple of workmen putting up fencing there.  This morning I was not surprised to find the on-ramp fenced off completely.  I stopped to take a quick photo for Facebook, but up on the levee I could see a few riders waiting for me.  All of the auto/truck access roads were open, and indeed the entire bike path was open.  I fear that by Monday, however, the actual work zone will be entirely fenced off and it will be a couple of years before we have the full bike path back in action. It has been suggested that we just ride on River Road past the construction area, which would probably be a mile or two, before getting back up onto the bike path.  Riding on River Road is not for the faint of heart, however.  It's narrow and there is absolutely no shoulder, just a ragged asphalt edge.  It probably wouldn't be too bad in a group at 6:15 am, but by the time we come back around 7:45 it will be terrible.  Often, traffic is backed up from Oak Street to Ochsner, and since the road is so narrow I'm not even sure we could ride past the line of stopped cars.  I am seriously considering going back to riding Carrollton Avenue out to do a lap on Lakeshore Drive and perhaps also a loop around City Park.  Carrollton is well lit and wide, and the only real traffic issues would be on a 2-mile stretch on the way back.  The other problem, though, is that we'd lose quite a few minutes because of traffic signals and that sort of thing.  Should be interesting, anyway.

So I ordered a pair of Oakley Half-Jacket sunglasses with bifocal lenses from Sport RX for $315.  My old Oakley M-frames are hanging in there and are fine with my contact lenses, but since I had the opportunity to get these I figured I'd go for it. They can't really do the same prescription lenses for the M-frame, so it was a bit of a compromise.  Otherwise, I feel pretty out of shape right now, and the fact that the house is absolutely crammed full of chocolate and candy is not helping one bit.  Although I've been putting in some miles - fewer than I'd like but better than nothing - I haven't done anything that would really constitute training in over a month now.  The twice-weekly physical therapy visits have been fine, but I haven't noticed any dramatic improvement.  Instead it's been a very slow process measured in weeks rather than days.  By the end of the rides my neck and back muscles are still fairly stiff and painful but at this point my attitude is "screw it, I'm riding."

I recently found a photo in the Louisiana Historical Society archives from 1891 of the Louisiana Cycling Club's house just off St. Charles Ave. on Octavia Street. It is still standing across from Daneel Park as a nicely kept home.  I stopped there today and gave the owner a copy of the photo.  Then, on the way home from the hospital one day this weekend I went to see if the old New Orleans Bicycle Club house was still standing and was surprised to find it was finally being repaired after having half the roof ripped off in hurricane Katrina.

Winter Again

Last weekend's Giro Rides were kind of difficult.  The weather was generally cloudy, damp, cold and windy, and the resulting sub-par turnout didn't make things any easier.  For me, the first 45 minutes or so were OK, but I struggled through the rest of the rides as the muscles in my neck and upper back got tighter and tighter.  It was really pretty frustrating, since my legs felt generally fine.  The rides themselves weren't particularly fast.  Saturday morning, while we were sitting at Starbucks before the ride, a number of the guys were planning on riding to Slidell.  By the time we actually got out to Venetian Isles, however, only a handful actually went.  Coming back home in the thick wet cold mist I could only imagine what kind of a death march their return trip would be.

So by Sunday evening I had already decided to sleep late on Monday, and I wasn't really making any firm plans for Tuesday either.  When I was awakened around 3:30 am this morning by the sound of rain I just took it as a sign and wrote off my Tuesday ride.  The roads would have been wet anyway and the 40 degree temperature and double-digit wind speed would have made for another miserable ride.  I am thinking lately that I must have herniated a disk in my back.  Tomorrow morning I have an appointment for physical therapy, so we'll see how that goes.  At any rate, I'm glad it's December and not March.

Next weekend is the final race of the cyclocross series and since it's the LAMBRA championship I'll be going, but I just can't seem to convince myself that it would be anything but foolish to race.  Another crash wouldn't be a good thing right now, and the fact that I have been riding pretty conservatively for over a month now certainly doesn't give me any confidence in my fitness level anyway.  I just put the initial 2014 race calendar up on the LAMBRA website, so at least that's done.  I also sent the RaceClean agreement to our treasurer so she can attach the $1,700 check and send it in to USAC.  Later, I'll have to send a list of all of our LCCS races, and then it will be up to USADA to pick one at which to do drug testing.  We'll include the RaceClean logo on all of the event announcements and websites in order to get the most visibility possible.  I still have to sit down and plow through the SafeSport webinar and exams which I'm not really looking forward to.  It should be an interesting road season next year with two track series' on the calendar plus a criterium in New Orleans.  We still need to make some final decisions about a couple of the championships and we have a couple of people working on what will probably be a complete reorganization of the bylaws and LAMBRA structure.  The old structure was based on the assumption that there were a relatively small number of clubs, all interested mainly in road racing, and all with fairly large memberships and interest in promoting races. It was reasonable then to have a Board composed of one representative from each club.  Things have changed, however, and now we have a number of smaller team-clubs, quite a few clubs that put on mainly fun rides, and the relatively new emergence of relatively independent race directors.  I think it's time to move to an elected Board.  While having a two-state-wide popular election would have been difficult ten years ago, now it should be quite simple, so anyway we'll see where that all goes.  At the very least I expect it will shake a few people out of the bushes and get them more involved.

What's Comin'

It has been a difficult weather week for riding, even down here in the southern delta where it's been unseasonably warm and rain-free.  Why would that be a problem, you ask?  Well the problem has to do with south winds and the Mississippi River, the former being warm and humid and the latter being ice water from the frozen north.  Every morning this week I've ridden out to the levee to find it partially or fully blanketed in fog.  The lower the wind, the thicker the fog.  This morning was the first time all week that I didn't have to keep my headlight on, and that was only because the wind had picked up. It's also the reason I don't have much in the way of photos.  Anyway, that's apparently about to change.  The cold front that has been causing super-low temperatures all the way back to the Rockies is approaching the city like that "rough beast that slouches toward Bethlehem" from The Second Coming.  It would be one thing if a big cold front would just blow through, drop the temperatures and move on off to the east, but this one is barely moving now and in all probability will back up out of the Gulf after coming through and cause all sorts of unpredictable nasty wet weather.  Or not.  They don't really seem to know for sure. 

So yesterday I finally went over to the Tulane Sports Medicine Institute to get this neck/back thing checked out since it's been nearly four weeks since I fell on my head and it is still hurting after half an hour or so on the bike.  They took a whole series of x-rays, and the good news is that there wasn't anything there that looked like a major spinal problem.  Granted, we didn't fire up the NMR for this  -- oh, I mean the MRI (the general public is still afraid of the word nuclear, despite a general ignorance of both physics and pronunciation).  The plan for now is prednisone for a couple of weeks and maybe a little physical therapy next week in hopes that the muscles and related soft tissue that I have angered by not lying on the couch enough will calm down.  We'll see.  I'm giving it a 50/50 chance and hoping for the best.

This morning it was over 70F when I went out to the levee to meet Scott and David.  Just as we were about to take off a little group of Semi-tough riders came past so we caught up with them and rode together to the pipes where they turned around and we continued on to the parish line.  We did spot the Bald Eagle perched in his usual spot near Colonial Country Club on the way out, and again on the way back in another tree.  Thanks to the wind, the fog wasn't bad at all this morning, with the only significant accumulation being around the Ochsner bend where the long stretch of north-south river gets the south wind good an cold before it runs into the levee there.  I don't really know what the weather or riding possibilities are going to be like this weekend, except that we'll probably be back to winter temperatures.

The Threat of Christmas Hangs in the Air

Where did I read that?  Somehow that phrase always comes to mind this time of year when the riding gets harder, routines become compromised, the weather goes from unpredictable to random, and my bank account starts bleeding profusely.  After a couple of nice rides Saturday and early Sunday morning, I had to descend into LAMBRA administration for the 11:00 annual business meeting. Right off the bat I realized that the catering had been incorrectly scheduled for Monday, so I quickly ordered some pizza before launching into a little intro for the dozen or so club representatives, plus our USAC Regional Representative Stuart Lamp, who were able to attend.  It was actually a pretty good meeting as such things go.  I should be able to get an initial 2014 race calendar up in a day or two.  There will be a few loose ends as usual, but I was happy to see most of the sponsoring clubs ready to step up to the plate again next year.  I still need to send out a summary.  One thing that I hadn't really anticipated was the decision to eliminate LCCS points for Cat. 4 women, but in light of the fact that none of them has had any real reason to upgrade for years, it's worth a try.  I'll talk with our upgrade coordinator so he understands the situation and is prepared to be sufficiently flexible.  It really makes no sense that although the women start our as Cat. 4s instead of Cat. 5s like the men, they still have to meet the same 4 to 3 upgrade requirements as the men.  We also tasked a couple of the guys to start working on a reorganization plan for LAMBRA.  Things have changed since the days when there were a fairly small number of fairly large clubs.  The organization is currently set up as an association of clubs, but it's getting to be time to change that because of the appearance of small elite club/teams and race director organizations.  I can see us moving toward a Board of Directors elected by popular vote rather than the club representative system we have now.  We also need to get more people actively involved in LAMBRA administration so that the same people don't get stuck doing everything forever. I think an elected Board and various committees should do that.  I just hope they don't all feel obligated to make a while bunch of rules and just keep the focus on helping ensure that we have good events with accurate results. Should be interesting, but at any rate I'm glad to see people taking an interest in this.

So last night I logged on to my USAC account to renew my racing and official's licenses for 2014.  There's also a Race Director's license in play that I think I get for free.  Anyway, it was rather painful.  The racing license was $70 and the official's license was $75 plus another $35 for the new required criminal background check.  That's like the equivalent of two new tires and a chain, and I still  haven't renewed my club membership. It'll end up being over $200.  I remember when it was more like $25.  Then, just to twist the knife, there is a new continuing education requirement for the official's license.  I had to email the Regional Director to find out where the secret place on the website was to take care of that.  Then, I figured this should be fairly easy so I logged onto the SafeSport training site this morning thinking I could at least knock that one out in half an hour.  No way.  They estimate 90 minutes.  I didn't even look at the rulebook update training site that I also have to take care of.  This is all going to make it really hard for some of our volunteer officials who typically officiate only when necessary to renew their licenses.  I'm worried about that.  Basically I have to now prove I'm not a criminal and have been duly trained in the finer points of sexual harassment, bullying, hazing, sexual misconduct, and "grooming behaviors" -- whatever that is -- in order to officiate bike races. The rulebook CEU requirement should be a walk in the park after that.  On top of all that, The Daughter has to have her second root canal in two months next week, not to mention the looming threat of Christmas.  Whew.

Anyway, I did get out on the bike Monday and today, both days riding mostly or entirely alone. Monday was still chilly, but at least I had the whole bike path to myself and spotted the eagle again near the country club. This morning it had just finished raining when I got up and the streets were soaking wet.  I stared at the radar for a while, looked out the window a few times, and made an executive decision to wait until 6:30 in hopes that the streets would at least be a little drier.  The Daughter decided to skip her ride altogether.  At least the temperature was a comfortable 64 or 65 degrees. The streets were still every bit as wet at 6:30 as they had been at 6:00, but at least it wasn't raining so I headed out to the levee and put in some 26 miles at a reasonable pace.  The neck is still an issue, however, and I finally broke down and scheduled an appointment at TISM with Greg Stewart who I'm sure has seen more than his share of people who have landed on their heads. I'll might get the "Why did you wait so long?" lecture, but at least the sports medicine folks understand the mentality that makes a football player with a concussion want to get back in the game. 

Winter Gear

We've had some chilly mornings around here lately.  It always seems to take me an extra ten minutes to get out the door on days like those.  It's so easy in the summer.  Shorts, jersey, socks.  When the temperature is in the 30s or even low 40s, the process becomes more complicated.  Long tights, knee-warmers and shorts, knickers, or shorts with cold knees?  Long-sleeve jersey or jacket?  Wind vest?  DeFeet gloves or regular gloves?  Toe-covers, full shoe covers, or both?  And don't forget the chapstick.  So on Friday I got out to the levee at literally the last minute to find only Scott.  Everything was covered in a thick layer of frost, but at least the wind that had beaten us up on Thursday had died down.  I rode with him out to the parish line where he decided to continue on while I turned back.  My neck is still bothering me after 45 minutes or so, so I was happy to be able to sit up every now and then.  A number of the local riders were doing a long ride, nearly 160 miles, around Lake Pontchartrain.  If I hadn't been suffering from the nagging neck and back issues I probably would have joined them, but on this particular morning I was glad I hadn't.  Aside from the cold, I could already feel the wind picking up as I made my way back home.  On the plus side, the bike path was practically deserted.

So this morning I rode out to the Giro Ride with Danielle with the idea of doing the whole ride for the first time in about three weeks.  It was cold enough when I left home, ten minutes late, that I was wearing full tights and my winter jacket - basically full winter gear.  I knew it would get warmer once the sun came up but I just wasn't willing to suffer those first couple of hours. Arriving at Starbucks I was a little surprised to find Ben, Jaden and Woody.  They had all done that 160 mile ride the day before, spending nearly ten hours on the road.  At least I was pretty sure none of them would be kicking butt today.  The ride itself was pretty easy, as Giro Rides go, and I was glad that my neck muscles didn't start complaining too loudly until we were halfway back.

Tomorrow we have the annual LAMBRA meeting.  I hope there's a decent turnout.  It's really hard to get people to travel to this meeting, apparently even if it's just across town.  At the very least we need to get the 2014 calendar in good enough shape to post it, even if some dates are tentative.  Although we don't start until 11:00, I will probably skip the Giro and instead meet a few riders from the Tulane club around 8:00. Maybe I'll get in a few miles before that, but I'm thinking 25 miles will be about it tomorrow.

Wind and Pain and another Year

Friday afternoon I left work a little early in order to make it over to Bayou Bicycles.  I don't think I'd been there in three or four years, but Danielle had made an appointment for a bike fit with Robert Driskill who does the Specialized Body Geometry fittings.  She has been having persistent problems with upper back and shoulder pain on longer rides and figured an independent appraisal of her position might help and I had already tried the obvious stuff like raising the bars a bit and making sure the saddle was level.  I arrived a little late, but that was fine because Robert was still trying to find a stationary trainer he could use that would accommodate her 650C wheel bike.  The system uses a few cameras that feed video to a computer where you can get a good look at the rider in action from multiple angles and then make measurements of key angles to help identify any peculiarities in position or pedaling. 

After that it becomes more art than science as changes can be made in various settings or components such as cleat position, stem length, saddle height, fore-aft setting, etc., etc.  Of course, you expect to be sold some of the Specialized equipment like saddles, shoes, insoles, etc.  Danielle wanted to get a new saddle anyway, since she was still riding the original squishy one that had come with the bike, and she also got some of the Specialized insoles which I have been using for years.  He also lowered her saddle and we will be looking into shortening her reach a bit, possibly with some different handlebars, although the fact that she rides extremely narrow bars makes it hard to just pull them off the shelf.  Anyway, it seems like the saddle change had a pretty big impact, allowing her to actually put some weight on it instead of essentially supporting most of her weight on her hands and feet. We rushed from the bike shop over to David's house for a little Tulane Cycling party.

Saturday morning was cold and very windy and from the outset I knew I wouldn't be doing the whole Giro.  I'm still getting some significant pain between the shoulder blades after half an hour to 45 minutes and at this time of the year it's just not worth the suffering for a few extra miles.  I rode out to the Giro with Danielle and figured we'd turn around at the end of Hayne Blvd.  As it turned out, the group was in easy mode that day since some were planning on doing a long Giro out to Slidell, so the speed down Hayne never got very high.  Danielle was able to stay with the group all the way to Lake Forest Blvd. where we turned right as the group turned left.  Luckily, Brett and Paige did the same thing, so we had some company, and a motor, on the way back.

Sunday morning there was a Tulane ride planned for 8:00, so first I rode out to meet the Giro at 7:00, mainly for the coffee.  Although the entire West Texas A&M equestrian team was there as it had been the day before, the turnout for the Giro was really slim.  It was cold and really, really windy, and the half-dozen riders who arrived early were sitting inside instead of outside.  I doubt there were more than twelve by the time we rolled out a bit after 7:00.  I just rode to the lakefront and then to Wisner with the group, heading back with a nice tailwind in order to stop by the house and meet Danielle before riding over to campus.  We ended up with seven for the Tulane ride. 

Kenny took us out the levee bike path and then through Kenner to the Lakefront bike path, and ultimately back to campus via Carrollton since Jeff. Davis Parkway is currently all torn up for road construction.  It was still really windy and I doubt the temperature rose more than one or two degrees, but the pace was easy so it wasn't too much of a factor.  Although my neck and back issues are improving, the rate is glacial at best.  After half an hour of so some of the muscles between my shoulder blades start getting really tight and painful.  I doubt I'll  be comfortable with a hard ride until that subsides a little more, so although I would have really liked to have done the northshore ride on Sunday, I think I made the right decision.

Sunday afternoon I spent a little time on Oak Street for the annual Po-Boy festival where I had some sort of catfish po-boy and a cup of Abita Jockamo, followed a bit later by dinner and a birthday cake.

So today was my 60th birthday.  At this point it's becoming more and more preferable to try and ignore the relentless march of time than to dwell on it, but on this particular birthday I had the funeral of a close family friend to attend.  I thought back to the other time there had been a funeral on my birthday.  That was JFK's funeral back in 1963.  Anyway, the funeral was in Slidell and by the time we were heading back the weather was getting worse and worse and it was too late to make it worthwhile to go back to the office.  I had not ridden in the morning because it was ridiculously windy and misty, and since then the conditions had been going steadily downhill.  Tomorrow morning at 6 am is looking like 54 degrees dropping to 52 by 8 am with a 100% chance of rain and a 13 mph northwest wind.  This is not encouraging.  If I'd gotten in a ride this morning it would have brought my annual total up over 11,000 miles.  It's looking like that milestone will have to wait until Wednesday.

That Hurt

Having survived the shorter morning ride on Wednesday without analgesics, I decided it was time to put them aside for a while and see how things went.  Thursday morning's temperature was up around 60F with a moderate breeze and overcast skies.  I planned to do the long (42 mi.) morning ride, even though I was pretty sure the muscles in my upper back would not be too  happy about it.

There was a nice group of a dozen or so up on the levee today and the pace heading out was reasonably smooth.  Of course "reasonable" is a relative term. To be a little more specific, it was mostly in the vicinity of 24 mph except for a little excursion onto the grass when one of the big tractors came over the little bridge just as we were approaching it.  Strava says we still had a 24.6 mph average for most of the outbound leg. When we got to the Luling bridge I sat up to stretch a bit.  Although my neck and back seemed to be doing OK, and in fact felt a little better when I was going hard than when I was going easy, I could already feel the muscles tightening up, making it painful to turn my head.  I knew the ride back was going to be painful, and not because of the pace.

We were maybe halfway back when, for some reason, there were a number of surges with big slow-down between them.  I don't know what was going on, but soon I found myself, more or less accidentally, in a 4 or 5-rider group.  The pace settled down a bit thanks to the wind, and there was a nice rotation going at 22-23 mph for a long time.  By then my upper back was really starting to hurt, however.  When we got close to the country club I sat up and let them go, dropping down to 16 mph for a while.  It didn't really help ease the pain much, however.  Eventually the rest of the group caught and I tucked in behind.  At one point I turned to look back and got a pretty sharp stab of pain under my right shoulder blade (which I've felt a few other times over the past week).  That hurt. 

My Bike Sounds Funny

I pulled on my long tights and long-sleeve jersey this morning to protect me from the brutal sub-60 degree temperature out on the levee.  A clear sky meant the blinky light batteries would have a rest today, and even the wind, which had been strong and gusty the past couple of days, had settled down a bit.  A block from home The Daughter said something to the effect of, "My bike sounds funny."  As she pulled up alongside I could hear the unmistakable sound of a flat tire.  Not the best way to start the ride.  She's still riding the same tires that came with the bike seven years ago, although she's also probably put more miles on them in the last two months as she had in the last two years.  A pair of new ones that are a little more flexible are definitely in the cards. I had to get out the pocket knife to pry a stubborn tiny shard of something out of the tire, and after replacing the tube we finally got rolling again.  We were already late for the morning group, but I figured we'd turn around when we saw them coming back.  Out around the Country Club I noticed a Bald Eagle perched, as usual, on the highest dead branch around.  Since we were already late anyway, I stopped to take a photo even though he was a really long way away.  Mignon was coming the other way and stopped to chat for a while before we continued up the river. 

So with all the delays, we didn't even make it to Williams Blvd. before we saw the group coming toward us.  It was fine, though, because I hadn't taken any Advil or Aleve since Tuesday morning and the sore muscles in my upper back were already tight and painful. It was also good to have a little shelter for that long stretch that was more or less into the wind.

So the injury continues to heal very, very slowly.  The neck muscles are still sore enough that it hurts a bit to turn my head all the way to one side or the other, but even so, it's considerably better than it was a week ago. The muscles between my shoulder blades still tighten up and burn after fifteen or twenty minutes on the bike, and the only real relief is to drop my head, which would be fine except that I can't see where I'm going that way.  Sitting up also helps, although not as much as I thought it would.  I might take a shot at a long ride or two this weekend, but not without some pharmaceutical assistance. 

Eight Flats and a Handgun

It was another wet and foggy morning. The air was warmer and thicker than it had been yesterday, and as I rode out to the Starbucks on wet streets I wondered if anyone would show up.  I myself was planning on doing something like I'd done the day before, perhaps riding out to the end of Hayne before turning back.  I knew the muscles in my upper back would be screaming by then anyway. 

I guess there were a dozen riders this morning.  Keith had announced the return of the TVR rides, and given the small group, wet streets and fog, I figured I may as well do that ride since it heads back toward the levee and the pace stays generally under 20 mph.  The mist was so thick when we left that it was essentially raining, but that eased up and we had only the damp street to deal with.

We rode out on Metairie Road down to Central Avenue where we turned toward the river, crossing the multiple railroad tracks underneath the Earhart expressway.  Just as we got there I noticed something on the side of the road and said, "Was that a holster?"  One of the guys had seen it too and it was indeed a holster containing a 9mm handgun.  He picked it up, removed the clip and we rode on, eventually handing it off to a levee district police officer (they had him sign some paperwork for that). 

Anyway, it wasn't long after we'd gotten onto the bike path that the flats started.  I think he ultimately had three or four, and along the way we had another three or four.  I think the total was eight.  On the plus side, the frequent stops gave me time to stretch out the injured muscles in my back.  Somehow I myself escaped flatting.

The muscles in my back are still a long way from fine, and unfortunately they hurt most when I'm riding, so I think it's going to be another week or two before they are back to normal, assuming there isn't some other more serious injury there.

Team Kit Season

It is not uncommon for a team kit order to drag on into December or even January, with actual delivery not being accomplished until some time in April.  And so it was truly amazing that both the NOBC and Tulane Cycling team kit orders were completed in the early fall, and even more amazing that both orders arrived within a day of each other.  One thing that has really simplified the whole process has been the ability of the manufacturers to set up team stores on their websites, thus relieving the clubs from assembling orders, collecting payments, sending deposits, sorting out who gets what, etc., etc.  Nowadays we just get a great big box, inside of which are a whole bunch of individually wrapped orders, each with the rider's name on it.  The Tulane box arrived at my office on Wednesday afternoon.  By Thursday afternoon David and Carly had stopped by, made up bags with team water bottles and kit orders for everyone, and hauled them away for distribution.  By 7:30 am this morning I'd already seen two of the team members wearing their new kits up on the levee.  For myself I had ordered only a new Tulane jersey, a long-sleeve NOBC jersey and a pair of NOBC kickers.  The Daughter, however, had ordered a whole lot of Tulane gear since she doesn't have the stockpile of old stuff that I have.  Well, actually she has a lot of my stockpile right now.  Maybe I'll get some of it back now!

I did indeed venture out to the levee again this morning. It was overcast and damp, and the streets were a little wet with more rain in the forecast.  I wasn't surprised that I was the only one at the meeting spot by the Stacks.  It was just as well, since my neck and upper back are still in pretty bad shape from that beating they took in Jackson last Saturday.  By the time I was twenty minutes in to my ride those muscles were screaming again, and so when I got to Williams Blvd. I stopped to stand for a while.  It didn't really help much.  On the way back I met up with Woody, which at least took my mind off of the pain for a while.  I'm now thinking that it is probably going to be a couple of weeks before this tissue damage is healed and I can ride comfortably for more than half an hour at a time.  Sucks, really.  Tomorrow I'll ride out to the Giro in the morning, but I'm fully expecting to be turning back somewhere along Hayne Blvd.  There are family commitments starting by 10:00 am anyway, so I wouldn't have been able to do the whole ride regardless.  On the plus side, I have reserved a meeting room at Tulane for the annual LAMBRA business meeting.  On the minus side, I now need to send out the notice about that to everyone, make up an agenda, create a brief presentation, make arrangements for lunch since it will be during Thanksgiving break, drop off a check for the room rental fee, get the planning calendar set up, etc.

More Pain

After Sunday's little excursion down the river, and in light of the fact I still couldn't turn my head without wincing in pain, I decided to take a couple of days off the bike.  This had a two-fold purpose, one of which was to allow for some healing to occur and the other was to keep from being T-boned by a car I didn't see because I didn't turn my head to look.  It's now Wednesday and those neck muscles have been slow to heal.  Along with the excruciatingly slow healing process has come a much more definitive ability to pinpoint the location of maximum damage, which seems to be in the general vicinity of my left rhomboids between shoulder blade and spine.  Totally inaccessible, of course.  Turning my head to the right clearly tugs at something down there in a very unpleasant way.  Although the neck doesn't hurt at all unless I look over my shoulder, those back muscles hurt pretty much all the time unless I'm lying flat on my back.

This morning the temperature had plunged down to 39F or so and there was a strong gusty wind blowing out of the north, all of which helped make the decision to stay home and brew some coffee feel quite guiltless; perhaps bordering on wise.  As I sit here at my desk that particular section of my upper back just aches and aches despite the 12-hour Aleve I took this morning.  I will probably go out for some sort of ride tomorrow morning regardless, if for no other reason than prudent psychological maintenance.

To add to the pain, I had a Vet appointment for our two dogs yesterday afternoon.  The older one, an American Eskimo that is like 110 years old in dog years, left with a cortisone shot, two different varieties of flea control, pain medication and a recommendation to have all of his remaining rotten teeth removed.  The other needed shots and a checkup.  Both needed more heartworm and flea control drugs.  I think we were there about an hour and a half, with the price of escape coming in at a very painful $720.  Today The Daughter is having a cap put on a broken tooth.  That should be another grand or so. 

And people wonder why I don't have carbon-fiber race wheels?

This weekend we are hosting a baby shower at the house, and also will finally be laying to rest my mother's ashes now that the missing title to the gravesite has been found.  I'm rather glad there isn't a race nearby this weekend.

One nice thing is that the new Tulane cycling team kits arrived this morning at my office, and I presume that the new order of NOBC kits that was scheduled to ship out last Friday must not be far behind. The NOBC order includes a long-sleeve jersey and knickers, I think.  Just in time for the cooler weather.

Head First

It was a long weekend, for which I am still paying a price.  It all started at 4:30 am on Saturday morning when I slipped out of bed to load up the car with officiating stuff and racing stuff in order to make it up to the cyclocross race north of Jackson, Mississippi in time to get registration set up.  For this race we would have a couple of additional officials, so I was confident I'd be able to race the masters race in order to break up the tedium of officiating.  These cyclocross races in which we allow lapped riders to remain can get pretty challenging to judge, even with fields of only fifteen riders.

I arrived at the course in plenty of time to get the finish line set up.  The DSGP crew had already staked out the course which featured some actual terrain and three artificial barriers, one of which was hidden immediately behind a big rolled hay bale.  As usual the Cat. 4/5 race was the biggest, and also the hardest to score with riders getting quickly scattered all around the course. Ricky, one of the other officals, raced in that one, so when he finished I handed him my messy score sheet and rushed off to my car to pin race numbers onto my vintage NOBC jersey.  It was still pretty cool, so I decided to wear a jersey that was age-appropriate to both the bike and myself.  I had enough time to ride the bike down to the port-o-let before riding back up to the start line where I positioned myself near the back so as to avoid interfering with anyone who was actually racing.  Having not ridden, or even seen, most of the course, I took it easy on the first lap.  Then, seeing a number of riders just a bit ahead of me I decided to see if I could catch them. That didn't last very long.  Coming down the first downhill I planted my front wheel firmly in a little diagonal gully which threw me and the bike off to the right.  I remember thinking that I might be able to save it just before I was slammed head-first to the ground.  That knocked the wind out of me and pretty much destroyed every muscle, ligament and tendon connecting my head to the rest of my body.  I am still hoping that nothing is broken.  It took me a couple of minutes to get up and although I considered just walking back to the finish line to DNF, I thought I may as well ride out the rest of the lap, albeit very carefully.  I ended up finishing, although of course I was lapped by the leaders.  Afterward I found that my helmet had cracked and I had bruise on the top of my forehead where I'd hit.  I still can't comfortably turn my head without some pain.  Anyway, we finished up officiating the rest of the races and I made the 3 hour drive back home thanks to a couple of Advil as I debated the wisdom of doing the planned 104 mile Varsity to Varsity ride the next morning.

Well, despite the neck and back damage, The Daughter and I convinced The Wife to come with us to Baton Rouge at 5:20 am the next morning so we wouldn't have to get a ride back to Baton Rouge to retrieve the car.  The Varsity to Varsity ride is a ride that the LSU team has been doing for a few years in which they ride from the Varsity Sports shop in Baton Rouge to the Varsity Sports shop in New Orleans.  It's long, but it's not a race, so they stop a few times along the way and there are lead and follow vehicles.  This would be The Daughter's first century ride, so I didn't want to miss it.  I popped a 12-hour Aleve before we left and hoped for the best.  As long as I wasn't moving my head around much it was fine, but looking back was next to impossible so I quickly decided to ride herd at the back of the 24-rider group and take a few photos along the way.  This was nice in that I had a draft, but it was a little scary in that I could see the somewhat unstable riding of a few of the newer riders.  I left a little extra space ahead of my front wheel.

The ride went remarkably smoothly.  The weather was nearly perfect, although there was a wind out of the east that seemed to get stronger as the ride went on.  Much of this ride follows River Road, so it passes a number of old plantation homes, sugar cane fields, grain elevators and oil refineries.  It's not exactly the most scenic ride around, but some section are pretty nice.  It's also dead flat, which was good because it would be the longest ride ever for a number of the riders.  This year there were a few Tulane Cycling riders in the group, and I think it was the first century ride for three of them.

It got to where I was really looking forward to the rest stops because the muscles in the back of my neck and upper back were screaming after an hour or two of steady riding.  The last rest stop was a mile or so before the Spillway which comes at around 76 miles. I could see that a few of the riders were starting to hurt, although The Daughter still looked like she was doing fine. 

After riding through the spillway the pace seemed to pick up a bit at the front and three of four riders came off the back.  I backed off to try and pick them up but I could see that the group was riding away from us and there was no way they would catch if it didn't slow down, so I rode ahead, worked through the group, and let the riders at the front know what was going on.  They eased up for a little while and I dropped back to pick up the stranded riders.  All but one of them made it back to the group before the pace started creeping up again, so I dropped back to the LSU rider who was off the back in order to see if I could pace her back up.  After a mile or so I discovered she wasn't on my wheel any more.  I would have realized this earlier but it hurt too much to look back.  So I dropped back and picked her up again, this time keeping a slower pace of around 12 mph. Her calves were cramping up, but I knew that the follow vehicle had gone ahead since we were now on the levee bike path.  She fell off again, so I picked her up and dropped the pace down another notch.  She was really hurting, but a couple of miles later we met the follow car at the "Little Dip" and she was rescued. 

By then the pack was long gone, at least five minutes ahead of me, so I had to ride the last twenty miles alone.  That was fine until I got onto the city streets and realized how tricky it was to ride in traffic without turning your head!  Anyway, I eventually found my way to Varsity Sports, had some pizza and a beer, and then The Daughter and I rode home.

I took some more drugs and went to be early with the full knowledge that I would not be riding on Monday.  Hopefully everything in my neck and back will improve by tomorrow.

Wind and Cold

I wasn't expecting to see many people out riding this morning. A cold front had come through before dawn, leaving behind wet streets, a strong gusty north wind, and falling temperatures. I went out a little late with The Daughter, knowing we'd be doing battle with the wind but glad that the temperature hadn't yet started to really drop. Although the levee bike path was relatively quiet, there were still a number of riders out there, mostly solo or with one or two others.  By tomorrow morning it should be down to 50F or so with a 12-15 mph wind.  I know that doesn't seem so bad to some, but it will be about the closest thing we've had to winter yet this Fall.  I think the cool weather will stick around at least through Saturday, which should make the upcoming cyclocross race up in Jackson, MS feel more like a real cyclocross race with early morning temperatures in the 40s.  The next day we'll be joining the LSU team for their annual ride from Baton Rouge to New Orleans that works out to a bit over 100 miles, but that should be done at a fairly easy pace with a number of stops along the way.  By Wednesday of next week the job site on the levee bike path nearest the Huey P. Long bridge will be closing down a section of the path until some time in 2015.  That will mean a detour of maybe a quarter mile on River Road, which wouldn't be too bad if River Road had a shoulder, or a good road surface, and if that section didn't happen to be right where all of the traffic and trucks turn off of Jefferson Highway onto River Road.  I have already suggested to the contractor and the levee district police that perhaps a few "watch for cyclists" signs or something like that would be a good idea.  No response from either to my email however.  The morning group should be able to take over the lane when needed, but it's going to be dicey for the solo riders, especially once the days get shorter and we're back in the dark. I'm not sure if riding down Carrollton Avenue will seem like a good alternative or not, but depending on how things go it may turn out to be a reasonable option one or two days a week.

So Much

Last Friday I headed off to Colorado Springs for the annual USAC Local Associations Summit.  For some reason my flight went through Denver this time instead of Dallas, which was something I probably should have thought about a little bit ahead of time.  The trip there went fine, but it was a long enough layover in Denver waiting for the 30-minute flight from there to COS that I had plenty of time to realize I probably could have just rented a car in Denver, driven to Colorado Springs, arrived earlier, and likely paid considerably less.  If I'd gotten together with a few other people going to the same meeting and we had shared a rental car it would have been even cheaper.  Oh well.

The "LA" conference is usually pretty packed with information flowing both ways, which is to say that the Local Association representatives usually have a lot to say about the topics that are covered, and the USAC staff have a lot to tell us about plans and changes in the world of competitive cycling.  So much information.  This year was no different, and although we didn't get our usual preview of proposed changes to the racing rules, we certainly filled that gap with discussion about the move to a single racing license, fee increases, discount programs, etc.  There were also the usual rather frightening sessions about insurance and risk management.  On the plus side, we get to meet all of those people we work with via email and telephone all year and have an opportunity to pick the brains of those in other Local Associations who are dealing with similar issues.  The only complication is the rather large difference in perspective and priority between the really big Local Associations and the smaller ones like ours.  The LAs like us all struggle to find enough officials and promoters to put together a reasonable racing season without everyone going too far into the red, largely depending on volunteers and never having quite enough of them or even riders themselves.  The large LAs have issues involving professional race timing companies and promoters with huge budgets and hundreds of participants per race. In that world there is always some friction between the promoters who are being told they have to hire a whole bunch of officials and the officials who actually compete with each other to get assigned to those big events for which they are paid in full.  In our world we have officials who routinely serve at discounted rates or as volunteers, judges who aren't actually officials, registrars who are volunteers from the local clubs, and promoters who are thrilled if there are over 100 entrants and the race breaks even.  Anyway, I am expecting some unhappiness about the jump in license fees from the riders who never cross disciplines, and from the promoters who have to collect an additional $5 from the one-day license riders.  As an example, if you are putting on a weekend event like a stage race or omnium you will be collecting from each 1-day license rider $30 in license fees plus $6 in insurance surcharges (neither of which you get to keep), which works out to $36.  Since the Cat. 5s cannot receive any prizes of value (i.e. cash), just how much of an entry fee over and above those $36 can you charge them without it looking totally out of line with the entry fees for the other classes.  Of course we'd love to see them all buy the $70 annual licenses, but if they don't think they will do more than five or six races some of them will just cut down on racing rather than get annuals.  The event permit fees are finally getting re-worked so that the big jump that used to happen when an even had one race with $2k or more in prizes will go away.  However that means that the smaller races that were getting away with relatively trivial permit fees of $25-50 are probably going to see their fees double.  Realistically it still won't be much more than a drop in the bucket compared to the other costs of putting on anything beyond a local parking lot criterium, but it will still seem like a money grab to some.

So for the first time in years I didn't have an overlapping conference in Washington D.C. and didn't need to rush off to the airport on Sunday morning before the LA Summit actually ended.  Even so, I did need a ride to the airport, so I was there about three hours before my little hop over to Denver.  Again, I was thinking, "I should have rented a car," especially after seeing five or six other people from the meeting who were also waiting for flights to Denver.  Anyway, I finally get on the little plane and am seated amidst an excitable group of high school synchronized swim team members (I could actually smell the chlorine when they sat down) and we make an uneventful flight at about 10,000 feet to Denver that wasn't really worth bothering to put the gear up on the airplane.  Now the excitement started because my arrival time in Denver was also my boarding time for my connecting flight.  Fortunately I knew they were both leaving from the same concourse, albeit about a mile apart, and we arrived a few minutes early.  I hustled down the long concourse and got to the gate a few minutes after the rest of the passengers had boarded, took my seat and kicked back for the long flight back to NOLA.  Or so I thought.  So we're sitting there and nothing's happening when finally the pilot comes on the speaker and says there's an electrical problem that they need to have checked out and it would probably just take five minutes or so.  An hour later we're still at the gate.  Finally it looks like the problem is solved so the pull back from the gate and then the pilot comes on again to tell us there is another problem and they need to run through some diagnostics with the mechanic to see if they can fix it without going back to the gate.  I knew we were in trouble when he said they were going to have to shut everything down and "reboot the plane."  That never works for my computer, so I wasn't giving it much hope.  Of course it didn't work and we had to get towed back to the gate where everybody had to exit the plane and hang around in the airport for another half hour or so.  Finally, three hours late, we took off.  That meant that rather than getting home at 9:30 or so, it was more like 1 am.  Long day.

This morning I went out for the long Tuesday levee ride and when I opened the door I knew the turnout would be slim.  There was a strong gusty wind blowing out of the southeast and the sky was overcast.  I think we started out with seven or eight riders with a pretty strong tailwind.  Somewhere out around Kenner, though, the group split when all but the front two had to slow down to work through some pedestrians in both lanes. I took a pull into what was at the time mostly a crosswind, and then Woody came past and ramped it up to close the gap.  Nobody was able to go with him under the circumstances, however, so the rest of us just formed up a nice little paceline and watched the three riders ahead slowly pull away.  Big Richard and I turned around at The Dip, knowing it would be a long slog into the wind all the way back, but most of the rest continued on.  We met up with Donald, so we had a nice 3-rider group to share the work, which was substantial.  The wind occasionally dropped our speed down to 16-17 mph despite a pretty significant effort.  We had averaged over 25 mph on the way out.

End of Dark

The wind's been shifting back around to the south lately, lifting the morning temperatures well out of arm-warmer range, at least until the next front arrives Halloween night.  Since I'll be departing for Mountain Time on Friday, I'll be off the bike for three days.  I hate that, but it will actually be a shorter lapse than usual.  For the past few years the USAC Local Associations conference has come immediately before the NCURA conference in D.C., and as a result it was usually five or six days before I saw the bike again.  This year the D.C. conference has been moved to August, so at least my losses will be limited.

Sunrise around here is currently at 7:12 am, so even the relatively late 6:40 am ride is starting in the dark.  Fortunately, however, this week will be the last of the dark rides for a little while.  For me, tomorrow will be my last.  By the time I'm back we will have moved our clocks backward and on Monday the sun will rise at 7:12.  For a few weeks the lights can come off the bike, but the reprieve won't last long as the days continue to shorten.  By November 30 sunrise will be back to 6:38, and by Christmas we'll already be a few miles down the road before the sun peeks over the horizon. To further complicate matters, the levee construction work that started earlier this month will, on some undetermined date, close off critical parts of the bike path and we'll all be looking for alternate morning ride solutions.  The infamous WeMoRi (Wednesday Morning Ride) around City Park and Lakeshore Drive starts at the insane hour of 5:45 am and I don't know that I will often be desperate enough to get up at 5 am in order to get to the start. One group is already pushing for another morning ride around City Park at around 6 am on Tuesdays.  Personally, I'm thinking that 6:30 would be more reasonable, especially if most of the ride was on Lakeshore Drive rather than a battle with stop lights and early commuter traffic on Wisner and Marconi.  It'll be bad enough just getting home from such a ride at 7:45 or so on Carrollton Avenue, so I can't say I'm looking forward to it.  There was a time, however, before the levee bike path was completed, that I routinely rode out to the lakefront on Carrollton to do my training ride on Lakeshore Drive, so I may be back to that some time in the next month or so.  We'll see.

In the meantime, I'm at least glad that there's no race or other big ride that I'll be missing next weekend (although it would be a great weekend for a long ride on the northshore).  The following weekend will be the cyclocross race up in Jackson on Saturday, followed by a 100 mi. collegiate ride with LSU from Baton Rouge to New Orleans, assuming of course I survive the cyclocross.

This morning's levee ride had a group of around ten, I guess.  There was a moderate breeze out of the southeast that didn't present too much of a problem and provided a bit of a tailwind for much of the outgoing part.  Tomorrow we're having our annual Halloween open house, so if you are in the neighborhood any time before 10:30 or so, stop by for a drink and something to eat.

A Bit of Fall Weather

After last weekend's mudfest in New Orleans it was with much relief that I noted a weekend forecast consisting mostly of clear skies and fall-like weather.  I was scheduled to officiate the cyclocross race over in Baton Rouge, and although I'd clamped the bike to the roof I wasn't really  holding out a lot of hope that I'd get to race.  The course at Highland Road park looked great.  there was some good elevation change, some fast sections of grass and hard-packed trail, and of course a number of artificial barriers.  The turnout was similar to the New Orleans race, which is to say it was excellent, and I was looking forward to keeping my feet dry and having as good a time as one can while officiating.

The races themselves went very well, although I can't really say the same for the results.  The multiple-category race had riders being lapped very early, with a couple lapped more than once, and sorting that out took me a whole lot longer than I'd have liked.  There was a little confusion with some riders who were sporting the wrong numbers since they were registered in more than one race, and so basically things started running late. The final race, for Cat. 1/2/3, had only six riders (we don't have many cyclocross riders around here above Cat. 4). The winner, William Sheftal, was the sole Cat. 2 in the field and basically rode away from the rest of the field immediately.  Even so, it was obvious how much faster these guys were going than the Cat. 4s had been going earlier.  The winner's lap times were all a bit under 5 minutes, which were at least a minute faster than the Cat. 4s had been going.  He was so much smoother going over the barriers that there was simply no comparison with the rest of the field.  Anyway, I don't think I got out of there until around 3:30.


Feeling a little mileage-deprived I went out to the Giro Ride on Sunday.  It was still fairly chilly at 6 am, and I was glad I'd pulled on the arm-warmers before leaving.  The ride itself was very nice.  The pace stayed fast and steady for most of the ride, which was just what I was looking for. Afterward, Ben and I rode straight over to Tulane's Reily Center to meet a few of those riders, including The Daughter, who were leaving at 10:00.  This was a nice easy ride through the park and along the still-closed Orleans Parish section of the levee bike path, and then all the way out to The Dip.  That gave me a bit over 90 miles for the day, so I was feeling satisfied by the time I got home.  I watched some TV while I sorted out the 1-day licenses from the prior day's race and updated the series standings.  This morning I took those standings off the LAMBRA website, however, because the promoter was re-scoring everything in a fairly strange way that I just can't comprehend.  Frankly, I think it's so convoluted and complicated that the riders are never going to understand it, and some of them will probably be pissed off when they see someone ahead of them on points who they never actually got to race against.  I think I'm just going to have to let them handle the series points.

Fleece and Film

I guess this morning was the coolest we've yet had this Fall, which isn't really saying much since it didn't even merit knee-warmers. I knew I'd be chilly anyway, so I dug out my long-sleeve jersey with the fleecy lining. Riding out to the levee felt downright cold, however, and I was kind of wishing I'd pulled on some knee-warmers.  Of course once the pace got going I warmed up considerably, but I never felt really warm.  After the turnaround the pace stayed relatively slow, which eventually made me feel even colder as the sweat started to evaporate.  I guess I should get used to it though.  It's that time of year.

After the ride Brian, Danielle and I pulled up to Zotz for a coffee break and noticed that there were No Parking signs all up and down the street there.  A film crew was just getting things set up for something. There was a black hearse parked on the block that was obviously for the film, along with a cluster of people getting things set up. This happens fairly often on Oak Street. There was another film crew on Carrollton as we rode home, and they've been filming 22 Jump Street on campus for a few weeks now. 

Gumbo Mud and Westbank Giro

I awoke before dawn on Saturday and waited to lift my head off the pillow until a car went by.  I listened intently for the sound of tires on wet pavement, but to my surprise it sounded dry.  I looked out the window and could see that it had not rained.  My first thought was, "This is bad!"  It wasn't that I was looking forward to a rainy day of cyclocross races.  The forecast earlier had been calling for rain overnight that would be tapering off by mid-morning.  With the first of the DSGP cyclocross races scheduled to start at 10:00 am, I was hoping that the cool front would have come through by then. Immediately I pulled up the radar map and what I saw made me jump out of bed and pull on some pants.  The rain was literally a few minutes away.  I ran downstairs and, as quickly as I could, loaded up the car with the race equipment I'd need to officiate - two pop-up tents, generator, race clock, clock stand, flag, banners, table, chairs, and two bins full of clipboards, stopwatches and other miscellaneous stuff.  As I slammed the Volvo's rear door closed the rain started.

When I arrived at the cyclocross venue in City Park, about an hour and a half before start time, the crew was about halfway through putting up the stakes and tape to mark off the course.  I found a couple of the race volunteers and gave them a quick lesson on race registration since the registration would be located quite a distance from the start and I knew I couldn't be there.  I rushed over the the start location and got the tent set up and gear unloaded in a light rain.  The Daughter arrived and helped get things set up as riders started to filter in.  Considering the weather I'd been expecting maybe 30 riders, which would have been an excellent turnout.  As it turned out, the actual number was more like 50, and with a number of them riding multiple races the number of actual entries was nearly 70.  Amazing.  The rain went back and forth from drizzle to outright rain a number of times during the first few hours and the course went from soft and muddy to rutted gumbo mud, especially after the first race.

The first race was the biggest with 34 riders on the line for the Cat. 4/5 race.  Many were racing on 1-day licenses and thanks to some deplorable penmanship we were just guessing on a number of their names.  Bob M. had arrived to help officiate and despite the rain we got the first race started less than fifteen minutes late.  The course times during practice sessions a few days earlier had been running in the seven to seven and a half minute range and indeed the first riders in this race came through at under 8 minutes, so we figured their 30-minute race would be about 4 laps.  Big mistake.  The speeds slowed to a crawl as the course got churned up and bikes became loaded down with mud and grass, so they ended up riding for more like 44 minutes (55 for those off the back).  It was a challenge keeping track of lapped riders but otherwise it was fun. At some point a spectator asked permission to plug a blender into the generator to make frozen daiquiris or something.  There was also free beer on hand, some of which found its way into somewhat illegal handups. 

The other races went pretty well and the rain eventually stopped, although we were falling behind schedule pretty significantly because of some difficulties with scoring resulting from the registration problems plus the extra time needed for riders who were off the back to plod in to the finish.  I felt sorry for the riders on over-geared narrow-tire singlespeeds!  The promoter had not been able to print out the pre-registered riders' entry forms, nor the blank release forms, because of printer problems the night before.  I had a few release forms on hand and we had lots of the multipart 1-day forms, so they used those.  That resulted in a number of riders for whom we didn't have license numbers since the 1-day forms don't have a space for those.  Then, when riders decided to ride additional races, there were some problems with race numbers not being swapped out or noted, but all-in-all it wasn't too bad.  At the finish line I had my own set of problems, not the least of which were the red ants that kept climbing up my left sock and stinging me on the ankle.  My tape recorder must have gotten wet and that was what I was using to record finish times.  Granted, finish times weren't essential, but it's nice to have them.  Luckily The Daughter had been standing next to me and was writing down the times as I called them out into the recorder.  I'd brought my own bike, holding out some hope of being able to ride the masters race, but there just wasn't enough time for me to do that comfortably.  Besides, it looked like a swamp out there by that time and I had my doubts about the fun to suffering ratio.  It wasn't until after 3 pm that I got home and unloaded the car.  The event was unquestionably a huge success and has set the cyclocross event bar quite a bit higher than it's ever been before in this neck of the woods.  The next race is this coming weekend in Baton Rouge.

Sunday there was the annual Tour de Jefferson, which is supposed to be a nice fun 50-mile charity ride over on the Westbank.  Over the past few years, however, it has evolved into the "Westbank Giro" because most of the regular Giro riders participate and it turns into a pretty fast ride.  This year I went over with The Daughter for whom this would be the longest ride of the year.  I told her how I though it would go and advised her to start at the front with me and the rest of the Giro crowd, expect it to be fast, and hang with the front group for the first eight miles until we got off of the levee.  I figured that by then the speed would have shed the more casual (aka dangerous) riders and she could find herself a nice group going at a more moderate pace.  The lead group split off a little bit before that point after a particularly fast surge, but that was OK.  So for me the rest of the ride out to the turnaround was pretty nice.  I mostly hung out toward the back of the lead group, which numbered about 20, I guess, occasionally closing gaps and responding to surges, but mostly drafting and enjoying the scenery.  The return trip was similar, and I was actually a little disappointed that nobody attacked the climb up the bridge.  Our group averaged 24.5 mph for the 48 miles.  When I got back to the start I stopped for a few minutes and then rode backwards on the course for a couple of miles until I found The Daughter safely tucked into a small group.  Her legs were pretty much toast but she was hanging in there pretty well.  After stuffing myself with jambalaya, red beans and rice, and chicken wings, we headed home where I failed to do much of anything productive for the rest of the day.