Friday Ride

I stood there for a while staring at the bikes, wondering if I should ride the Orbea or the Bianchi.  My plan for Rouge-Roubaix is to ride the Orbea, mainly because I have a 12-27 cassette for that bike and figure I'll want those two extra teeth about halfway up blockhouse hill, if I happen to still be on two wheels at that point.  Bike weight really isn't an issue for this race, especially since I always approach it more as a hard training ride than as a race.  Somehow at 6:15 am it seemed far too much work to swap the seat bag from one bike to the other, so I went out on the Bianchi as usual. The air felt colder than I'd expected, and I was glad I had pulled on my vest at the last minute, but at least the wind had eased a bit from the day before.  Up on the levee I met up with John who I don't think had ridden with us in quite a while, and Scott. It was just a regular smooth paceline ride today with each rider taking long pulls at 20-22 mph.  I guess I was lifting the pace 1 mph or so, feeling perhaps like I wasn't getting my heart rate up into training effect territory while at the same time wondering if I shouldn't be taking it easier in light of what was to come on Sunday.  For me, though, there has never seemed to be much of a difference whether or not I ride really easy a few days prior to a race.  As long as my legs aren't actually sore at the start, it doesn't seem to matter.  I'll probably meet the Giro tomorrow morning and ride halfway out with the group before turning back.  Anyway, I stopped at Zotz for a cup of coffee on the way home.  By then the temperature had risen considerably and it felt quite nice sitting there in the sun on Oak Street.

I have been feeling rather out of shape lately, having missed most of one weekend in Austin and the next in Orlando, along with a whole lot of shortened or missed weekday training rides.  Psychologically, I am not exactly in a good place going into this 104 mile ride, but it's not like I've never been here before.  Other than one or two years when I was kind of almost in shape, I have not taken this race too seriously.  The mileage is generally a bit over my head and the effort level, particularly the last 40 miles of it, is always a struggle, but you know, a bad day at Rouge-Roubaix is still better than a good day on the couch.  Tonight I'll swap wheels and cassettes around and generally make the Orbea more or less ready, scrounge around for gels or powerbars or whatever, and meet up with the Tulane riders around 1:30.  Then there will be a stop for packet pick-up, a group dinner, a bit of sleep, and a 5 am wake-up call.  Thus will begin what I think will be my forty-second road racing season.