Half Week

NOBC Training Camp group heading out on the Trace

It wasn't the best of weeks for riding. Between the cold temperatures and rainy mornings I skipped out on three of seven days, and a couple of those on which I actually did ride barely rose to the "training" level.  Then there was this morning ... but I'll get to that later.

After skipping my Monday ride (I think it was raining?) I was determined to get out on Tuesday.  The University, and most of the city for that matter, was shut down on Tuesday and Wednesday because of the threat of ice and slick roads.  It wasn't really a problem in the city itself, but commuters coming in from elsewhere were definitely best advised to stay home because the interstate and causeway were mostly shut down.


Tuesday morning the streets here were fine, and since I was off of work I waited until 6:30 to head out.  I drove out to the playground and met up with a few other riders there at 6:45 am.  I'm thinking 6:30 is going to work better in the future, however, since we lose a lot of time and therefore mileage with all of the driving and changing of shoes and getting bikes out of cars and such.  I think there were some other complications as well, so we didn't ride the full distance out to Ormond and instead turned around quite early.  We were off again on Wednesday, so I met up with Ben in the afternoon when it was a little warmer.  He was planning on doing some 8-minute intervals.  We rode out toward The Dip and I stopped for a quick nature break a little before we got there.  He started his first interval after turning around, so Pat (he had come by as I was re-mounting) and I jumped on his wheel as he flew past and just hung on for the next five minutes or so.  Pat then turned back to head home.  Ben started his second interval with me on his wheel and I was having a nice time motorpacing back there when up ahead I saw someone with an unleashed dog.  As we approached I let a gap open, Ben kept hammering, and I lost the draft.  It was like hitting a wall.  Suddenly my speed went from 27 mph to 23 mph as Ben practically disappeared up the road. I had time to catch back up when he finished that interval and the next one went fine.


Thursday was more rain and I didn't ride, but at least I made it out for twenty miles on Friday.

A stop at Church Hill to regroup

The NOBC training camp was last weekend up at Natchez State Park, so Danielle and I were on the road around 5 pm for the 3 hour drive.  The weather forecast was looking OK for Saturday but very questionable for Sunday.  The camp had a fairly good turnout despite a few last-minute cancellations, which always seem to happen, and we rolled out Saturday morning with a dozen or so for our planned 68 mile ride.  That ride went quite well, actually, although we never really saw the sun. I spent a little extra time out in the wind now and then to compensate for the moderate pace and doubled back a couple of times for riders who were off the back, so I ended up with 73 miles that felt like legitimate training.  Danielle had a good ride on new wheels and with her new ultra short reach handlebars, even though we had to stop at one point when one of those plastic shopping bags blew across the road and got tangled up in her derailleur.  That afternoon Bob did a nice training presentation and we watched Chasing Legends once again.  The forecast for Sunday morning was still all over the map when I finally went to bed.

You never know who you'll run into
 on those Mississippi back roads.

Sunday morning I checked the hourly forecast and radar and thought it looked pretty good.  The chance of rain didn't really jump up until around 10:00 and the radar was showing just spotty showers, so I was hopeful. I was looking forward to the ride in to Natchez and our traditional stop at the coffee shop there. Well, by the time we were finishing breakfast a light rain was already falling and motivation was lagging.  With the wet streets and increasing chances of significant rain we ended up not riding at all and heading back home before 10:00, driving through a couple of heavy downpours and some thick fog along the way.  Another missed day.



So I was determined to get in a ride Monday morning.  Unfortunately I wasn't quite determined enough to get everything ready the night before.  When I got up to ride I realized that most of my stuff was still down in the basement in my bag.  I had to search for my tail light and put that on the bike, put the headlight on the bike, find the Garmin and put that on the bike, fish out my glasses from inside my shoe, etc., etc.  When I was finally ready to go I pulled the bike down from the hook and found the chain wasn't meshing with the cogs because it had jumped off of the lower derailleur wheel when I'd put the wheels back on after arriving home the day before.  I was already running late so I tried to force it with the pedal but that wasn't working so I tried to shift it to a lower gear.  When I did, the derailleur cable broke.  Crap.  I looked around to decide on my next move.  The Orbea's saddle was still set for someone who had borrowed the bike and I didn't want to have to get out the tape measure and reset it.  The Cervelo's tires were nearly flat from not having been used in months and its pedals were still on the track bike from earlier in the season.  I decided to move the pedals over to the Orbea, which took a few minutes, and then pump up the tires, switch over the saddle bag and lights, etc.  I finally got out the door a good twenty minutes late.  I stuck to my plan to ride out to the lakefront, despite the fact that traffic would obviously be a little heavier than normal.  Another cold front had come through with the prior day's rain, and although it was only in the mid-40s there was a strong north wind all the way out to the lakefront.  I finally hit Lakeshore Drive and was planning on doing a full 10-mile lap at a reasonable pace when my rear tire went flat.  I limped to the traffic circle and stopped at the Levee Board police station parking lot that has been abandoned since Katrina to fix it.  By then any motivation I'd had was long gone.  I pulled the offending piece of shell out of the tire, changed the tube, and just headed back home.  Tomorrow morning it's looking like the wind will be shifting around to the southeast and the chance of rain increasing, again, but at least it won't be very cold.  Hopefully I'll be able to get in a decent ride out to Ormond.  Hopefully.  Now if I can just remember to stop by the bike shop to pick up a derailleur cable this evening.....