Back to Track

The weekend was looking pretty good, weather-wise, on Saturday morning as I rode out to meet the Giro Ride. There was a pretty big group on hand since we seem to be in a bit of a road racing lull right now.  Of course, that meant that the Giro Ride would become a de facto substitute race.  Fortunately for those of us not planning on spending the whole time up at the front of the group, the wind direction allowed for adequate shelter for much, but not all, of the ride out to Venetian Isles.  It was by no means an easy Giro, but with such a large group it was not too hard to find a place to recover when necessary.  I was scheduled to officiate the first of a four-race track series over at the Baton Rouge velodrome that day, but since the races didn't start until 5 pm, there was no conflict with the morning training ride.  I had, literally, dusted off the track bike the night before thinking I might be able to squeeze in a few laps here and there, but I was really planning on bringing the track bike in case someone needed to borrow it.  As it turned out, young Lance Abshire fit quite nicely on it so I never did get a chance to ride.  For a 13-year old kid, Lance rides more like he's 18 and seemed to have no trouble at all dealing with the fixed gear in a pack, even attacking a couple of times in the Scratch Race.  Turnout at the track was pretty good, which is to say there were 19 registrants, making for a nice sized Cat. 4 field but only a 4-rider Cat. 1/2/3 group and 2-rider Women's group.  None of which was particularly unusual, although I would have hoped for a few more in the Cat. 1/2/3 race.  I had the LAMBRA finish line camera with me and this would be the first time I attempted to set it up and use it myself.  I knew it would struggle as the sun went down, but my main purpose for bringing it was to get a little experience with it.  As it turned out, it came in quite handy for a couple of the very close finishes, one of which had a separation of about 0.007 seconds.  The only thing I screwed up on was when I pulled the wrong rider in the Miss-and-Out.  Otherwise, things went pretty smoothly and I was glad I didn't have to judge any Points Races that night.  I got home around 11 pm or so, which is pretty good under the circumstances, and finally got to have some of the very non-traditional Gazpacho (V-8 Juice, olive oil, vinegar, lemon juice, bell pepper, tomato, cucumber, garlic, onion, all hand-chopped) that I'd thrown together right before I had left that afternoon.

So Sunday morning I was out at the Giro again, and it was basically a repeat of the day before, although perhaps a bit slower here and there.  I was feeling pretty good for both of the Giro Rides this week, ending my fifth 250+ mile week in a row. Fortunately we got some rain in the afternoon so I didn't feel too guilty about not finishing the painting on the front windows and instead spending the rest of the day eating everything in sight. On Friday I had gone back to the optometrist and after quite a bit of back-and-forth we decided to try some single-vision contacts instead of the multifocal ones I'd been using for riding the prior couple of weeks.  I found the new ones to be generally better for riding and much better for driving, the only problem being that close-up reading, not surprisingly, is a real struggle.  I find myself rather on the fence between the two options.  The multifocals are pretty good for riding and allow for a much better, albeit not perfect, view of the computer.  However the distance vision with those left something to be desired, especially when driving.  The single-vision lenses are much better for driving, which makes it much more convenient and comfortable when driving to a ride or race in the morning since I can put them in at home and just leave them in the rest of the day.  The only problem, of course, it that if I go with them I'll probably have to go get some low-power reading glasses to have on hand for any reading or computer work that might come up.  So basically it's going to be a compromise one way or the other unless we hit upon some other multifocal solution that will work.  One thing in favor of the single-vision solution is that they are significantly cheaper.  I am extremely reluctant to go the dual-vision route with a near vision contact in one eye and a far-vision contact in the other for fear it will mess up the depth perception and peripheral vision that I think is crucial for riding.  Decisions, decisions.