End of a Cycle

Last weekend we had the last races of the 2014 LAMBRA season. That evening I posted the preliminary calendar for 2015. It's still a little rough and it will take me a week or two to fill add links, contact information and whatever other details I can get, but at least the major race weekends are there. It seems the cycle continues with hardly a break now that we have a solid cyclocross season and an early spring collegiate season.

I have some LAMBRA administrative tasks to finish over the next few weeks, some updates to the bylaws, drafting a suggestion for a new organizational structure, etc. I'm sure by mid-January I'll be fielding questions about the new event permit requirement for certified Race Directors. We'll be doing an officials seminar at the end of January, and probably also another LAMBRA meeting to finish up some things we didn't get to in Jackson, and possibly also a Race Directors meeting if there is sufficient interest. Looking at my Strava profile it seems likely I'll hit the 12,000 mile mark for 2014, which is about normal I think. I've probably been in the 11-12k range every year for at least the past decade. It doesn't look like we'll have any really cold weather all the way through Christmas, and probably very little in the way or rain (which we could actually use some more of right now).

So the New Orleans cyclocross race went quite well this year. The weather was nearly perfect by my standards, although probably a bit on the warm side for some. It was nice to be able to officiate a cyclocross race without being freezing cold, or wet, or both.Turnout was great with over 100 entries, and nobody went to the hospital. Results of the last race were printed out a couple of minutes before the last rider had even finished, posted to the website by dinner time, and uploaded to USAC yesterday. I usually wait a day or so before uploading to USAC because it's kind a a hassle to make corrections in three different places. The post-event report was done and submitted Sunday night and once I drop the envelope with the 1-day license waivers in the mail this afternoon that should be it for the season. I think the only thing I still use postage stamps for is sending in the 1-day licenses to USAC. On Monday morning I made a snap decision to sleep in. It's just that time of year. In the afternoon I went over to the Tulane cycling center and helped Kenny do the firmware updates to the WattBikes that will now allow riders to store their heart rate monitor numbers in their profiles. It also makes it easier to pair the WattBike with a Garmin, so after work I went over there and tried it out. After a bit of menu navigation I had the Garmin picking up the speed, time, distance and cadence from the WattBike, and at the same time both the WattBike and my Garmin were picking up my HRM. The only downside is that after pairing the Garmin with the WattBike I need to remember to re-pair it with my bike when I get home, which just takes a minute.

Early this morning I heard a little rain outside, but by the time I rolled out of bed at 5:15 the streets were almost dry. A little cold front had come through, but the temperature was still around 60F. The only fly in the ointment was the wind, which was blowing pretty hard from the northwest. The three of us that met at 5:45 didn't really feel the wind too much on the way out, but once we hit Lakeshore Drive it was clear that it was going to be a factor. Naturally, the pace started ramping up after we picked up the other riders and got into the tailwind heading east, and then the head/cross wind going the other way split the group a bit. I was basically in full-on crosswind wheelsucking mode, so I was staying with the front group but doing less work than most of the others. The ride out to the casio along the lake into the wind wasn't too bad since I was being careful to stay on the drops, take short pulls, and not let any gaps open. As usual, it was the tailwind that seemed the hardest. Matt and Howard and Brian started pushing the pace pretty hard. For most of the ride back along the lake trail we averaged 28 mph, and that included the section after Causeway where you really have to slow down for a while. I had an average speed of 29.7 for most of the section up until there. Even so, since I wasn't taking pulls consistently my heart rate never got over 170, so I still had a little bit in reserve.

Danielle finished up here last exam this morning and will be heading back home to Olympia tomorrow afternoon. I got her 650c Cannondale packed nicely in an old bike box we picked up from Bicycle World on Saturday. The bike is small enough that I only had to remove the saddle and handlebar. It's in there with the stem and seatpost still in place and the fork pointing straight ahead, and there's still room to spare. This will be a one-way trip for this bike, so although she has a real bike box, for this trip we just used a leftover cardboard box, which I think should work pretty well since the bike's aluminum and I covered it in pipe insulation and bubble wrap, and got the plastic pieces that come with new bikes to protect the derailleur, fork ends, etc.