Weather Delay

Mother Nature has been messing with winter training around here lately. It's always hard to get out on the bike this time of year, but here in New Orleans we don't really get a whole lot of days when it just isn't possible.  Nonetheless, it just takes that one extra straw to break the camel's back. Temperature in the upper 30s?  No problem.  Temperature in the upper 30s and a 20 mph wind?  Problem.  Temperature in the low 40s? No problem. Temperature in the low 40 and wet roads? Problem. Sometimes it's not even the cold and wind and rain themselves, it's the probabilities - the increased probability of having multiple flats on dirty wet roads with numb fingers, the increased probability of slipping on a slick corner and crashing, the high probability of having to spend half an hour after riding cleaning the bike and chain. And then there's also just the time of year and, for many, decreased urgency of training hard.  Take last Saturday.

Morning weekday ride heading west

I went out to the Giro Ride, knowing I'd be rushed in order to get to the Officials' Clinic I was holding at 10 am that morning, but I'd already missed a ride that week and didn't want to miss another. The temperature was in the mid-40s, but there was a 13 mph wind blowing straight out of the north. Turnout was good for the ride, the sun was shining, and I fully expected it to get pretty hard. It had its moments, but in general it seemed like nobody wanted to push it unless there was a tailwind. By the time we got back to Lakeshore Drive I had to skip most of the usual cool-down and hustle back home the shortest way possible and then rush over to run the clinic. So today is Wednesday and that was the last good ride I did.

Sunday morning was wet and drizzly, so I didn't even consider riding and instead set my sights on a visit to the Tulane training center for some roller time. That turned out to be like 30 minutes of easy but sweaty spinning, a short ride down to the parish line on the levee bike path, and a fair amount of time fooling with the WattBike software. Pretty much a write-off as far as training goes, especially since I didn't really need a recovery day. By afternoon the weather was a lot nicer but I couldn't make myself get back on the bike by then. A cold front had come through in the afternoon.

Monday morning I awoke to a reasonable temperature of around 45F, and an entirely unreasonable wind of 24 mph out of the northwest. I was already starting to feel desperate, however, so I put on my warm Giordana jacket and headed out to the lakefront anyway. It turned in to a 22 mile ride with an average speed of 14.8 mph that felt a lot  harder than it should have.  Lakeshore Drive was, at least, interesting. The waves were crashing over the seawall in those areas where they were hitting it dead-on, flooding parts of the right lane. All that new concrete between the seawall and the road, however, was working great, so I was just dealing with some water and various bits of wood and such. A couple of years ago the road would have been covered with rocks and mud under the same conditions and the Levee District police would have closed the road for a few days until it could be cleared away. Anyway, riding in the 24 mph crosswind was interesting, if nothing else, and I did stop a couple of times to try and get a photo or two, but in general this was more of a sightseeing ride than a training ride. So I set my sights on Tuesday.

Well, the wind was still blowing at about 12 mph by Tuesday morning and the temperature was down to about 39F. I wasn't too surprised to find only two people waiting for the 5:45 am start at the end of Nashville Avenue. We struggled all the way out to the lakefront, but the Metairie/Kenner group never showed up. Most likely the bike path along the lake was still wet from levee runoff, so combined with the cold and the wind, well, the final straw. So we turned around and headed east on Lakeshore Drive, finally picking up Woody and a couple more riders.  It didn't take long for Woody to announce that he was not riding out to Kenner today. We did a lap of Lakeshore Drive, which got fast enough to split the group for a while, and then basically bailed out. The idea was to ride a lap around City Park, but by the time we got to Esplanade we were getting pretty cold from the easy pace and so we just called it a day and rode back home. 28 miles instead of the usual 42.

This morning - steady rain all night, predicted to continue most of the day. I slept an extra hour or so, then rode to work in a cold steady drizzle wearing jeans and hiking boots. Maybe tomorrow will be better, but this week is definitely going to look pretty lame on Strava!