Wednesday Morning

We had lucked out on Tuesday and wrapped up the regular long levee ride a few hours ahead of the rain, the worst of which came through in the afternoon as part of a cool front. As a result, I was expecting it to be chilly and windy this morning.  It was, although the wind turned out to be the larger issue. It has become routine now for me to ride out to the lakefront and Lake Trail on Wednesday mornings.  Leaving around 6:30 am, there's now little need for lights if the sky is clear, and traffic on Carrollton Avenue is still relatively sluggish.  What wasn't sluggish today was the northwest wind.  I kept looking down at the computer, each time disappointed to see a speed of around 17 mph rather than 20.  Turning west and riding along the lakeshore bike path was no better but at least it was less stressful.  After finally turning around about 12 miles out I was glad to have a little tailwind, even if I still had to deal with the northerly crosswind vector.  It was generally one of those slow but difficult rides that barely nudge the fun meter. 

Coming back down Marconi I passed a little groups of teetering "Bike to Work Day" riders and watched the ever-suffering Tulane Crew team walking through the wet grass from their boat corral to the spot where they can climb over the canal floodwall.  It is such a shame that nobody ever gets to see them on the water, and even more of a shame that they don't have a better place to train. There are a lot of parallels between the rowing team and the cycling team - finding good training routes, getting equipment and people to far-away competitions, trying to keep up a challenging training program over the winter months and then squeezing long road trips in while still keeping up with classwork.

Riding from home to work an hour later it was a good ten degrees warmer.  Down on Lowerline Street I spotted a bluebird.  I almost never see those in the city.

Meanwhile, hotel and rental car reservations have been made for the Tulane Cycling road trip out to MSU in Wichita Springs, TX.  It is looking like we will be missing a couple of key riders, and that is likely to cost us the division 2 road championship this year, but these things happen with collegiate club sports.  On the plus side, the advance planning for this race seems to be a notch above some of the others. I was asked to help with officiating and of course foolishly agreed, so I probably won't get in much, or any, riding over the weekend.