No Rest

Painting the Road Race Course took forever

With the Green Wave Classic collegiate race fast approaching, I figured I'd better go paint arrows on the road and time trial courses or it probably wouldn't happen. So last Saturday after doing the Giro Ride I threw the bike into the car and made the long drive "up north."  The road course is almost 80 miles from home, and I was already pretty tired from the morning ride, but it had to be done. By the time I got there it was already after 1:00 and the temperature was well into the 80s.  That's when I discovered I'd left my jersey at home. I was wearing the wind-resistant base layer I'd worn for the morning ride, so while not ideal, it would have to suffice. Fortunately I'd brought one of those little string backpacks along, so all the stuff that would normally go into my pockets went into that, along with two cans of road-marking paint. Riding by myself way out in the country was nice, and I was happy to be on some very low-traffic roads, which is pretty much why we use them for this race. I rode around the 17 mile loop, stopping seemingly every few miles to paint arrows ahead of the turns and in the turns and after the turns. When I got back, I also marked the 200 meter and 1 km locations. Next, I headed back to the Time Trial course, and did the same for that 3-mile course from Lakeside High School. By then it was already after 4:00 and I was hot and sticky and hungry and tired. I stopped at Starbucks before hitting the Causeway back across the lake. Sunday, of course, was another Giro Ride. Meanwhile, a bunch of the local guys were up in Anniston racing Sunny King and the accompanying road race on Sunday. Some got their asses kicked pretty badly, but a few snagged good results. I was glad to be able to catch the live webcast of the main women's and men's criteriums Saturday evening. I guess those who can, do; those who can't watch it on the internet.

Heading back from Kenner on the morning ride after a fast outbound leg.

So this week's training was pretty routine with just a couple of quirks. The levee-raising work on the lakefront has now closed the bike path on the east side of the Causeway, so we are riding in the grass then up over the concrete apron, underneath the overpass where it's about five feet high, down the levee on the other side, and finally back onto the bike path. I guess it will stay like that for at least a month. These projects always seem to lack any sense of urgency.

Not an easy detour for the morning ride

I was trying to ride pretty hard on Tuesday and probably hadn't recovered from the weekend, so by the time I went out to meet the WeMoRi I was already feeling pretty tired. I had seen the group coming on Lakeshore Drive, so I'd turned around and made it onto Marconi before being caught by Eddie and Woody who were off the front. I made a huge effort there to get on, which was fine, but halfway down Robt. E. Lee the effort started catching up to me. I probably could have hung on, but I knew, or at least thought I knew, that the group was right behind us. I glanced back and saw lights and eased up with the idea of going back to the relative safety of the group. Unfortunately, the lights I'd seen were from cars, not the group. Turned out the group had been held up at the traffic signal and was now way, way behind, so I was stuck in no-man's land for a little while. Anyway, I rode the rest with the group once they caught me, slamming into a rock somewhere on Lakeshore Drive but luckily not pinch-flatting. That evening, although I was feeling dead tired and was starting to get some sort of sinus infection I rushed home and rode out to the WNW training race. I got there a bit late but got in with the group right at Elysian Fields where the neutral warmup ends. There was a nice big group and little wind, so it wasn't very hard sitting in near the back. My plan was to do two of the three laps and then wait at the finish. Well, partway through the second lap, as we were going up the levee before the Seabrook loop, I saw Matt accelerating down the right side as the rest of the group bunched  up on the left, so I latched onto Matt's wheel. A moment later I heard a crash behind and to the left. Michael B had gone down when I guess he ran up onto someone's wheel as the group bunched up while he was drinking out of  his water bottle and unable to hit the brakes until it was too late. I turned around along with a few others to make sure he was OK, which he was.

This weekend I'll be officiating the collegiate race along with Mike Abshire. Danielle will be helping, so that's good. I went ahead and sprang for two nights at the Holiday Inn to cut down on the Saturday morning drive time a little bit. We're not doing the Friday night registration like we have in the past because so few of the collegiate riders seem to show up for it. It's possible that Saturday morning will be some form of chaos if a lot of people show up who haven't pre-registered. Anyway, I'm just hoping they will have enough follow cars and lead cars and all for the road race. Once that's out of the way, the rest is a lot less stressful. The weather is looking to be pretty good, so that's good. Turnout, however, is not looking so good. Online registration ends tonight and I'm seeing only about 30 registered even though this will be the conference road championship. I shouldn't be too surprised since it's Easter weekend and, for some, also Spring Break. Hopefully all of the cameras will be working and judging will be relatively easy. The biggest downside for me is missing another weekend of riding. I've been putting in decent mileage lately, and mixing in a little bit of intensity here and there, but I can't say I am feeling very confident about my race fitness.