Still not feeling quite back to normal, it was nonetheless time to get back on the bike. There's something to be said for taking some time off when you're obviously sick, but after nearly two weeks of mostly sitting on my ass I was feeling fat and soft and generally anxious, and I'd at least improved enough that it seemed a few miles on the bike probably wouldn't make things worse. After a cold front started coming through Saturday morning, along with a few hours of rain, the sky started to clear and by afternoon it was looking pretty nice. The temperature hadn't started dropping yet, so around 3 pm I went out for an easy spin on the levee. The wind was already picking up, but it was still warm enough for the summer kit. The river is pretty high, just about up to the base of the levee on the river side and well above the base on the other side. I rode out to the barricade near Moss Lane, and shortly after starting back ran into Kenny, so I turned around and rode with him for a little while. He was kind of scouting out the route to the Spillway for a ride he'd organized on Sunday to watch them open the Spillway up. I was tentatively planning on doing a northshore ride with some Tulane and LSU riders to check out a possible course for the upcoming Tulane collegiate race. This was good since watching them open the spillway was going to be like watching the grass grow in the dead of winter. The spillway is pretty impressive once it's mostly open and the river water is rushing through on its way to the lake, but the actual process of opening it involves pulling up one huge wooden pin at a time. Anyway, Saturday's ride went well, although I was careful to take it easy since I'm still worried about hindering this excruciatingly slow recovery for the worst cold I've had in a long time.
Sunday's ride wasn't starting until the civilized hour of 10 am, which was good because even by then the temperature on the northshore was barely 45 degrees with a stiff northwest wind making it feel considerably colder. I intentionally overdressed, for what should by now be obvious reasons, as eight of us headed straight into the wind for the next hour and a half. For the first seven or eight miles it was just a single paceline with Dustin sitting on the front at something like 17 mph and complete silence behind while everyone came to terms with the cold. Fortunately for me the ride pace was generally easy, so I don't think I did too much lung damage. We found two or three possible locations for parking for the race, although actually tracking down the property owners may be a bit of a challenge considering how little time we have.
We ended up with 66 miles at 17.4 mph, so kind of classic zone 2, LSD, base training, or whatever you want to call it. I was happy enough that I didn't have to sprint up any hills and that I didn't get dropped. So after the ride I had my car key in my hand and went to start putting bike on the roof, so I put the key on the roof, where I promptly forgot about it. The problem is that the Volvo was still detecting the key up there and, thinking I had the key in my pocket as usual, I started the car and we headed back home. A minute later we heard an odd noise and I said, "What was that?" thinking at first that wheels or something in the back of the station wagon had shifted. Almost immediately, though, I remembered the key. Shit. I pulled over at the first place I could and four of us scoured the narrow road shoulder and ditch, walking up and down both sides, sadly without any luck. At least the car was still running despite a warning on the console about the missing key. I guess it's going to cost me a few hundred dollars to replace that key, which sucks.
This morning the temperature was in the mid-30s and when I woke up with a headache I decided maybe it would be a good day to skip. I think tomorrow I'll finally be back to my normal routine, although it'll clearly be nearly as cold as this morning.
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