Weekend Winter Weather

Heading back along the Kenner lakefront bike path on Thursday it was windy but otherwise pretty nice.

Things started going downhill yesterday.  I had made it out to the WeMoRi on Wednesday, which was fine - temperature in the low 50s.  We had a nice brisk training ride without much of the fog we'd had the day before. Thursday morning's weather was similar, maybe even a degree or two warmer.  I'd gone out a little over-dressed like I often do this time of year. It was so freaking dark, though. I have never really gotten comfortable with these group training rides in the dark. To make matters worse, they have started working on some new sections of the seawall on the lakefront and have two new stretches of the right lane blocked off. So on Thursday we made the loop out at Seabrook and as usual the speed ramped up  heading back to the west on Lakeshore Drive. We crossed Harrison at around 25 mph, which wouldn't have been bad except that was where the right lane was closed.  So we go plowing through the only truly terrible section of asphalt, in the left lane, in the dark, in a paceline. Well, water bottles start flying off the bikes and I feel my front wheel make a solid hit in one of the many little potholes that, of course, I couldn't see and probably couldn't have avoided even if I could have seen it. Thirty seconds later I feel my front tire going flat. Most of the group waited while I fumbled through changing the tube with gloves on while trying to see through my fogged-up glasses, still pretty much in the dark.  Took about twice as long as usual, but we were back on the road soon enough. For most of the rest of the ride it seemed like VJ was sitting on the front on his TT bike like a mother duck with all of us ducklings lined up behind him.  I got back home just as it started to rain. Looking at the forecast, I wasn't too hopeful about Friday.

So I woke up on Friday and checked the radar first thing.  It looked like I had a couple of hours before the real rain, but  the streets were still wet and the temperature was already falling because of a cold front that was pushing through. Although the temperature was only 48, I knew it would be even lower by the time I got back.  Also, there was already a light mist falling that I could see in the beam of my headlight as I waited for the Garmin to pick up its satellites. I'd decided to ride the old rain bike and had stuck my rain jacket into my pocket since there was pretty likely I'd hit some rain. By the time I got to the levee, just a couple of miles from home, my arms were already getting wet, so I stopped and swapped my vest for my rain jacket. With a strong north wind blowing, and all the clothes I was wearing, and my glasses already fogging up from the mist or fog or whatever you want to call it, I didn't even bother to look at the speed very much. The old Pennine probably weighs at least ten pounds more than the Bianchi, so I just plugged away at what turned out to be 14-17 mph mainly just to log a few miles that were supposed to be easy but didn't always feel that way. Fortunately I was only planning on doing 20 miles or so, so even though there were a couple of little rain showers along the way and I'd forgotten to put on my shoe covers, I wasn't really too cold or wet by the time I got back home.

This is fun??

The weekend, however, is looking pretty bad. The low tonight is supposed to be 29, although I'm sure it won't actually get quite that low right in town.  The rain should be over by then, but the predicted 21 mph north wind is likely going to keep a lot of people from getting out on the bike for the Giro. I had been planning on starting the NOBC winter ride series on Sunday but we decided to postpone it one week because temperatures on the northshore Sunday morning will be 26 and I'm pretty sure nobody is going to want to ride in that.  I could probably handle it for a couple of hours with proper wardrobe choices, but I'm not likely to make the trip unless I have some firm commitments from a few others... in writing.  I'll just have to play this weekend by ear, I guess. At least it's not as miserable as it is up in Hartford for the cyclocross national championships.  For the life of me I can't figure out why anyone would thing that kind of racing is fun!