Holiday at Home

This pretty much sums up the weekday morning rides last week.

As predicted, the weekday morning rides the week before Christmas were less than ideal. Tuesday's long ride turned into a shortened ride with Darren, the only other person who showed up, on a wet and foggy levee bike path. I got home wet and dirty, but was glad I'd taken the old Orbea that eliminated any feelings of guilt when I took it out back and sprayed it down with the garden hose before lubing the chain. I was hoping for a good WeMoRi on Wednesday but I got my timing wrong and when I met up with the unusually small group on Lakeshore Drive, it was right at the place where there's a median and so I couldn't make the necessary U-turn and missed the group. I ended up short-cutting across City Park to get back into the pack, but by then it was only five or six miles from the end, so basically I didn't get much intensity out of it. And then there was Thursday. That turned out to be another wet lonely shortened ride on the levee. At least I had taken Thursday and Friday off from work and so spent a while drinking coffee in front of Zotz before going home to hose down the bike again. Friday was basically more of the same, although at least I had time to add a few extra miles.

Heading back from Venetian Isles - not feeling too optimistic as Adrian rides off into the rain.

With some extended family coming to town for the weekend through Christmas, options for the weekend were limited to the Giro. Saturday morning it was still fairly warm, but there was a cold front making its way across Louisiana that included a narrow but dense band of rain heading straight for New Orleans. Once again, I went out on the old Orbea because I knew there was no way in hell I'd be making it back home dry. But after all of the shortened rides earlier in the week I was feeling a little desperate for mileage. Looking at the radar, I figured we had a chance we'd get in most of the Giro route before the rain, so I went out to Starbucks to find out who the other insane people were. As it turned out, we had maybe fifteen by the time we started. Most of the strong riders who normally populate the front of the Giro stayed home, however, so the pace wasn't anything to write home about. Adrian was spending a lot of time on the front, along with Jim and me, and nobody else seemed very interested in coming around to take a pull. On the service road heading toward Chef Highway, the three of us found ourselves strangely off the front. I looked back and though someone had flatted, but apparently not. We waited up to re-group and headed down Chef. Soon, just the three of us were rotating at the front again. We weren't going all that fast, so that was fine with me. We were maybe halfway out to Venetian Isles when we saw the 6:45 am group heading back. At that point everyone except the three of us turned around and joined them. Unfortunately, the three of us didn't know that!  Mike W. appeared somewhere and Jim sprinted with him to the line at Venetian. That's when I turned around and realized we had been abandoned. It's also when I realized that there was a huge, dark cloud between us and home! I was with Adrian, while Jim was well behind us since he and Mike had gone all the way to the turnaround. I sat up to wait, but Adrian didn't, so I ended up with Mike for a bit, but by then I could feel the first little raindrops falling and Mike wasn't waiting. I told him I was going to wait for Jim. Of course he just kept going. So Jim and I get together and soon the real rain starts falling. I was really glad I had my new super-bright Bontrager Flare tail light, a gift from Danielle, especially for the ten of fifteen minutes when we were on Chef in a heavy rain. As expected, though, the line of rain was thin and passed through quickly, so although the rest of the ride was wet, the rain eased up quickly and stopped before I got home.

Sunday's Giro was much better attended, although being Christmas eve, nobody was pushing the pace very hard. It was considerably cooler, though, and at least I put in a few brief but reasonably intense efforts. Somewhere out there on Sunday my total 2017 mileage inched past the 12,000 mile mark, which for me means a pretty decent year, especially considering that it was one of those broken collarbone years.

Christmas at Ginger's Place

Christmas day was much colder and I was more than happy to take the day off from riding, but in retrospect perhaps I should have gone out early and logged an hour or so anyway because Tuesday morning was another messed-up ride. Christmas day we went over to my sister's place for a big late lunch, and lots of wine with pecan pie and lemon meringue pie, and blackberry pie.

I got to the start this morning at 6 am to find only four, including myself. I'd looked at the forecast, and it looked like some light rain was in the area. It was. We weren't five miles into the ride when a light rain started falling and immediately two of the guys turned around. Having seen the radar, I didn't think it would be a downpour, so even though the temperature was in the 40s, I continued, along with Scott from D.C. who shows up around here occasionally. He was definitely looking for some exercise, so we traded pulls in the off-and-on misty drizzle. It wasn't quite rain to soak your feet right away, so I figured I'd stick it out until my feet started to get cold.

Breakfast on Panola Street

We got a bit past the little dip before the rain got a little heavier and more steady, at which point we turned around. A few miles later we'd out-ridden most of the rain, but the path was wet and by then my feet and legs were starting to feel cold despite the cotton shoe-covers and thermal tights. Every time I'd go to the front I'd get in 30 or 40 pedal strokes and then my quads would load up and start to ache, which is pretty normal for me in cold weather. Anyway, I was happy to have gotten in 32 miles under the circumstances, even if it did leave my bike a mess. Scott ended up riding another 25 miles or so by himself while I went to Riccobono's with Candy and her sister and friend for coffee, eggs, potato, and toast (I passed on the breakfast Bloody Mary and Andouille Omlette). The forecast for tomorrow has more rain, so I guess I'll be checking the radar at 5:30 am.