The Hardest Rides

Out at the Spillway

Sometimes it seems like the hardest rides are the slowest rides. It usually start with a hard time actually getting out the door. Wednesday morning I was determined to make the WeMoRi despite the wet streets and strong wind and cold temperatures that seem to have become normal around here lately. I went out anyway, of course, a little late, of course. I was worried I might miss the group if I went straight to Lakeshore Drive from Wisner Blvd., so I turned onto Robert E. Lee and then Marconi so I'd be sure to see them coming. When I got to Lakeshore Drive there was a brutal north wind coming off the lake and no blinky lights in sight. I figured they had decided to skip Lakeshore Drive and do an extra lap of Lakeshore Drive instead, so I turned around and continued alone on the WeMoRi loop. As I made the turn back onto Wisner I looked back and saw some riders, so I figured I'd made the right decision. As it turned out, the "group" was composed of only four riders, including Scott from D.C., and they hand actually done the Lakeshore Drive lap but were going so much more slowly than the usual group does that my timing had been wrong. Anyway, we all came together and had a nice ride, even if it wasn't particularly fast. Once again, I got home cold, wet and dirty.

The forecast for Thursday hadn't looked too bad, and I didn't check it when I got up in the dark that morning. I dressed for the 40-something degree temperature and headed out the door and was immediately surprised to see a light drizzle in the beam of my headlight. I thought that perhaps it was just one of those quick little showers passing through and continued on, but by the time I got to the deserted meeting spot it was a legitimate light rain so I had to turn back and head home, logging a total of 3.8 miles for the day. Oh well.  Later that evening we took a long walk down to Freret Street for lunch at High Hat Cafe, which was nice except for the walking part.

This morning the sky was finally clear, but the temperature was in the low 40s and a steady north wind was blowing. I decided to wait until the sun came up since there wasn't a group ride and I didn't have plans anyway. I wanted to ride out to the Spillway, which would give me a nice 50 mile ride. I'd already decided it would be an easy ride. This turned out to be one of the slowest, hardest rides I'd done in a while. I tacked on a few extra miles on the other side of the Spillway up to Airline Highway just to see what that road was like. The entire ride seemed like it was either headwind or crosswind, and although I got back home just shy of 60 miles with an average speed of something south of 17 mph, I was tired and achy and hungry like I'd just finished a 90 mile group ride.

Tomorrow is what might be the last Giro Ride of the year. It should be in the mid-40s with little chance of rain and a light wind, so that's good. Sunday's forecast is not looking so good, though. Looks like a pretty good chance of rain that morning ahead of a very cold front that will be hitting full-force on Monday. The low on Sunday night will be around freezing and then Monday night will be in the 20s, which is pretty damned cold for New Orleans. Morning lows will be in the 30s through next Friday, so that's going to make the morning rides difficult.