Holiday Wrap - End of Another Decade

Thought we might lose Renzo, but he pulled through.

It was the last week of work before the holidays, at least for me. With Christmas falling on a Wednesday, I'd be taking the prior Monday off from work and wouldn't be returning until the start of 2020. Early in the morning around Wednesday I heard the dog pacing around the house and figured he deeded a quick trip out to the back yard, so I got up to let him out and when I walked into the kitchen, barefoot of course, I stepped in something wet. I flipped on the light and found a mess of urine and bloody diarrhea. Returning home early after work that day the situation had gotten worse and I called the Vet. Another day or two and we were at the local pet emergency / critical care place, MedVet, where the dog would be spending the next few days. After numerous ultrasounds, antibiotics, and eventually a feeding tube, he was finally improving as the bill crept up over three-thousand dollars. He hadn't eaten for four or five days, and the Vets had resorted to feeding him rotisserie chicken.

Back home

He's been home now for over a week, is now on his third rotisserie chicken, and thinks that his days of eating regular dog food are over. Anyway, he's back to normal more or less, and nothing more serious turned up, so I guess that's good. My bank account, however, has taken a pretty bad hit with the combination of Vet bills, my own bills from the cataract surgery, and the annual property tax bill. I'll be starting 2020 about ten grand in the hole, and that's before income taxes. And people wonder why I don't have a cyclocross bike and a gravel bike and a mountain bike, and why I appreciate it when a race offers a few places with cash prizes so I might get lucky enough once in a while to offset gas and entry fee expenses!

Three trips to the Zoo in three days. Happy kids, tired feet.

Anyway, aside from the whole dog situation, there was a lot of other stuff going on. Danielle and Shannon flew in on the 21st, so we got to check out the new airport for the first time. It was nice enough, I guess, but of course we didn't see the actual concourses since we were just meeting them on the public side of the single security checkpoint. The think that impressed me the most were the green and red lights in the parking garage indicating where there were open or occupied parking spaces. (I'm easily impressed.)

Christmas Eve Holiday Giro

On Christmas Eve we did a nice holiday Giro Ride with a good group and nice weather, and then on Christmas morning we even did the WeMoRi, although of course it was a much smaller group than usual.

Christmas Day WeMoRi

Then there was a little family Christmas dinner at Ginger's house, a trip to Audubon Zoo with nieces and nephews and their kids, then a return trip to the Zoo that night to see the holiday lights displays. Then more nieces and nephews and their kids arrived, for another trip to the Zoo, plus a trip over to City Park for their holiday lights thing. In the midst of all of this, I was still somehow managing to get in my morning rides. I'd been thinking there was no way I would be hitting my 12,000 mile goal this year, by the time the weekend arrived it was starting to look like a possibility. We were getting a lot of warmish and very wet Gulf air out of the South, and although it meant a lot of heavy fog, bordering on actual rain, it was still OK for riding. Both weekend Giro Rides were foggy and wet, and while I'd earlier been expecting them to be rained out, they both happened anyway, so surprisingly I found myself with a bit over 12,000 cumulative 2019 miles, and only about thirty miles short of the "Festive 500" 5..00 kilometer holiday goal by the end of the weekend.

Squeaked past my 12,000 mile goal.

A nice ride out to the "Big Dip" on Monday morning took care of the Strava Festive 500 thing with just one riding day left for the year ... and decade. Then this morning we had our usual Tuesday morning ride, conveniently set back to 6:30 since most are off from work and wanted to enjoy that extra half-hour of nap time. That ride was a nice steady one under a clear blue sky with temperatures starting around 49 and rising to, I guess, nearly 60. Nice way to end the riding year, I think.

Danielle and Shannon ship out early tomorrow morning - early enough that I will still be able to make what has kind of become our traditional New Year's Day levee ride out to the Spillway starting at 7 am from Jefferson Playground. That should be a nice kick-off for the new year. Our winter northshore rides will start up January 5th and continue for six or seven weeks. I'm kind of looking forward to those, hoping the weather cooperates and it's not too miserably cold and/or windy. Tomorrow more family will start arriving for a couple more days, so things will remain busy around through the weekend and into next week before getting back to the routine. It won't last too long, I guess, with 12th night kicking off the Mardi Gras season Sunday night on, of course, the 5th. I'll then need to start paying bills and figuring out when I want to have the other cataract surgery. I was recently drafted onto the Bike Easy board, so I'll be meeting with one of the board members next Monday over coffee. That should be interesting. Then I'll need to really get down to business with planning for the Tulane collegiate race weekend and the Tour de La and the Westbank race and the Time Trial.  Guess I'll just drop some photos down here for posterity---

City Park lights

Climbing the climbing tree at the Zoo

Audubon Zoo lights

 

City Park lights

Season's End

Ready to go Saturday morning at the Fly

Last weekend was the end of the 2019 racing season here, and I spent it mostly sitting under a tent at the Audubon Park Fly scoring the cyclocross races, the last day of which was the LAMBRA Cyclocross championship. As cyclocross races go, these were pretty easy to handle. From our vantage point we could see much of the 1.2 mile (yeah, we knew it was a bit short) course that made the best possible use of the levee and the e not-really-Monkey-Hill that the park built out there when the commandeered the real Monkey Hill for the Zoo many years ago. Saturday morning was cold and damp, with a fairly heavy fog and chilly breeze blowing in from the ice-cold river. Still, by Cyclocross standards, it was way better than normal, which is to say there was no mud, no sand, no rain, and well above freezing.

The officiating duties went smoothly for me and Keith. The largest field was only about 25, so scoring was pretty easy as long as we were able to keep track of the lapped riders.

Candy and Dennis made appearances on Sunday

On Sunday, Candy dropped me and the equipment off in the morning and took off with the car to shop. Right around when the last race ended Dennis Dunham showed up on his bike, so we had a nice chat as I loaded the car back up with the LAMBRA equipment. It's amazing how tired you can get just sitting around officiating. So anyway, I missed another two days of riding, but at least got out on Monday morning for 30 miles or so before work. This morning, however, was a different story. I awoke to wet streets, a temperature in the 40s, and a 15 mph north wind with a cold mist falling and more rain on the way, at least according to the radar. I was half-dressed and had gotten the rain bike ready, but eventually came to the decision that it would be a fairly pointless and miserable ride, so I bailed and made some coffee instead.

Guess I'm getting soft in my old age.

Tomorrow morning will be around 40° with a 13 mph wind, but I should be able to get out there to the WeMoRi. Looks like Saturday and Sunday will be rainy, so it will be another low-mileage week.

Welcome to winter in New Orleans.

I guess it may give me a little time to catch up on some website stuff and plan some northshore winter rides for January and February.

Three Days

A foggy December morning on the lakefront for the Tulane Coffee Ride

Having skipped the Wednesday morning WeMoRi because of the weather, I was looking forward to getting back on the bike on Thursday, even though I was supposed to avoid "strenuous" exercise. I figured that what that really meant was not to be doing 200 pound clean and jerks at the gym, which of course I could never do anyway. So I headed out to meet the 6 am group, only to be stopped in my tracks by a train that was stopped in its tracks and blocking both Oak and Willow streets. It was well over five minutes before it finally began to move, so of course by then I'd missed the group. Just as well, I figured, since that would allow me to ease into my ride and see if I could detect any negative impact on my left eye. It was cold and windy, so I was a little concerned about that, but as it turned out I never detected anything unusual at all. With the new lens in the left eye, I was wearing only my right eye contact lens, along with my regular photochromic riding glasses with the stick-on reading lenses, and all seemed fine as I cruised along at an easy 18 mph or so, pushed along here and there by a nice little tailwind. I was not quite to the little dip when I saw the group on its way back (they'd obviously turned around at the big dip), so turned around myself and merged into the 5-rider group that was now battling a significant Northeast wind. I took a few short pulls but never got my heart rate over 145 bpm or so just in case a hard effort would somehow cause my left eye to explode.

Found another old photo, this one from the
Bastille Day race in '79. Glenn Gulotta, me, and Tom Finklea.

With Tulane at the end of what we used to call dead week ahead of exams, some of which have probably already happened, the TUCA group decided to push back the Friday coffee ride to 7:30. With things at the office already rapidly descending into holiday paralysis, I decided to go out around 6:30 for a few extra make-up miles on the levee before meeting up with them at the Reily Center. There was a dense fog alert in place, which for riding basically means you will be getting wet and, eventually, cold, so I dressed as if it was 45 degrees rather than the 53 that it actually was. I did not regret that decision, and other than my feet that eventually got a bit damp, I was comfortable throughout. Tonight is the WeMoRi party over at Blue Crab that I'll probably go to for a while. My weekend will be consumed with cyclocross officiating here in New Orleans, together with the annual LAMBRA meeting Saturday night, so it will probably be one of my lowest-mileage weeks of the year.

Replacement Body Parts

Like the hazy yellowed plastic headlight covers on an old car, the lenses in my eyes have been getting worse and worse, especially over the past couple of years. Granted, they've suffered a lot of abuse, first with years of swimming during the chlorine and pre-goggles era, and then more years of riding in the pre-cycling-glasses era.  My left eye had gotten so bad that oncoming car headlights were blinding me and I was seeing things in the distance in double-vision, so it was time for some replacement parts.

On Monday morning I got up early and headed over to Baptist Hospital, which is now Ochsner Baptist Hospital or maybe Baptist Ochsner hospital, to get a lens replacement, aka cataract surgery. I'd been born at that hospital over six decades earlier while my dad was eating pasta across the street and my mom was, no doubt, unconscious, which was the way they did it back then. Things moved quickly, and after someone put a series of about ten different drops in my eye and someone hooked me up for some mild narcotics, it took about fifteen minutes, tops, to remove the old lens and stick in the new plastic one. I was out of there in time for breakfast, wearing a pair of gigantic sunglasses, and with a follow-up appointment for the next day. There was remarkably little to no discomfort, but according to instructions I spent most of the rest of the day taking it easy, lying on the couch, and generally bored out of my mind. I wasn't supposed to work on the computer, which proved to be infinitely more difficult than I would have thought.

I have a pair of prescription Oakley sunglasses with an assortment of lenses, so I put a non-prescription lens on the left and my most recent progressive lens on the right. That was a lot more comfortable than what I'd come home from the hospital with, plus I could see where I was going a lot better.

At night I have to tape a clear shield over that eye. The biggest issue with that is the tape, not the shield. Taking off the sunglasses I was rather amazed at the difference between the "new" eye and the old one. It's like the difference between old incandescent lighting and a new LED lighting. White things are now actually white again rather than some shade of antique white. I'll probably get the other eye, which isn't nearly so bad, done next year so I have a matching set.

My followup appointment this morning went fine and things are as they should be, which is to say the vision in the "new" eye is somewhere between 20:40 and 20:20. It will be a little while before the eye calms down, which is apparently normal for the day after surgery. On the plus side, I'm clear to work on the computer and drive, and in general it's already a lot better than it was before. On the down side, I'll be putting drops in that eye three times a day for another couple of weeks, wearing sunglasses when outside, and refraining from "strenuous" exercise. I asked what they meant by "strenuous" but didn't get a useful answer. I think they're thinking of sudden intense efforts, like weight-lifting. At any rate, I think I would be well-advised to take it easy on the bike, especially if it's cold and windy, until that eye is fully recovered.

Forecast for tomorrow:  47 degrees with a 16 mph north wind.  Of course.

Love/Hate

The Sunday Giro Ride heading back down Chef Highway on the new silky smooth asphalt.

Saturday's Giro Ride was well-attended, windy, and fast. I almost tagged 40 mph at one point, which wouldn't be unusual elsewhere, but on a ride where the total elevation could be best measured in inches, a non-sprint speed of 40 mph, along with a "best 20 minute speed" of 26.6 mph says something about the ride. What it doesn't say is that I had to pee the whole way out to Venetian Isles thanks to having had a big cup of coffee and then being under-dressed and cold. I did the Giro again on Sunday (there are complications right now making it ill-advised to spend all day riding my bike), and in stark contrast to Saturday's ride, this morning's was smaller and slower.

Blissfully wrong

Anyway, after each of this weekend's Giro Rides I rode back down Marconi, the latter part of which has just received a new bike lane arrangement designed by a committee of people who are apparently not the kind of cyclist I am accustomed to. While the Bike Easy folks are enthusiastically patting themselves on the back for this particular accomplishment, those of us who ride a little faster, usually in the company of others, are having a hard time wrapping our heads around this level of enthusiasm. While the Bike Easy Director, Dan Farve, recently proclaimed about the new bike lane "It was glorious! The protected bike lanes, green paint highlighting the bike lane at intersections, and smooth road surface all felt safe and comfortable," the nicest comment I've heard from the people I ride with was "somebody's going to get killed here." Dan's quote was accompanied on the Bike Easy Facebook Page by a photo of one of the organization's supporters riding the wrong way on the 2-way section of the path that's on the City Park side. Anyway, I personally have a love/hate relationship with bike lanes or paths like this.

Was this intentional?

Heading toward the lake, the path puts you literally in the gutter under the beautiful Live Oaks that line that side of the street. The lake-bound lane will probably be full of leaves, litter, water, and other debris in due time. Along the way, one finds these raised concrete pads that I guess are for people who are waiting for the bus or something. In a few places, the concrete pad pokes out into the bike lane, which just looks like an accident waiting to happen.

You can see where a car has already hit the concrete pad

Motorists are obviously confused. In fact, as we rode home today one poor soul was obviously having a hard time figuring out how to make a simple right turn across the bike lane without running us over, or plowing through the three-foot-high plastic lane divider things, and was probably at the same time wondering why in the world was one part of the road painted green, and was he allowed to drive on the green part or not. I found it all rather unsettling. While we were OK in the bike lane as we cruised easily toward home at a leisurely 15 mph or so, it goes without saying that a group of more than three, travelling at more than 15 mph, is going to be better off dealing with the auto traffic in the other lane.

This driver was very confused about where he should be.

From the motorists' perspective, it's clear that they are confused. If you look closely you can see where some unfortunate motorist drove right into the raised concrete, chipping off some of it and probably damaging his car.  From our perspective, all we want is a smooth asphalt road with two lanes going in the same direction, a reasonably low speed limit, and the ability of a group of riders to take over the right lane when appropriate. Before, we had all of that except for the smooth asphalt part. Now we have the smooth asphalt, but are left with a single traffic lane too narrow to share.

So that's my "hate" part of the equation. On the other hand, I daily ride my fifty-year old spray-painted single-speed bike to work at an average speed of perhaps 10 mph, in which case I love having a bike lane to, at least, legitimize my place on the road. Of course, I don't believe for a moment that the white stripe on the road is going to keep the distracted drivers from killing me if I'm not extremely defensive, or even if I am. Fitness and competitive cyclists are stuck in-between. For the most part, we get along much better riding with the auto traffic where the rules of the road are clear, and we don't get along so well riding in bike lanes or paths where the rules are arbitrary and confusing and the routes sometimes look like they were designed by committees of people who lump all cyclists together, along with the dog-walkers and pedestrians.  So the bottom line here is that I want the bike lane for when I'm commuting, but I also want the separate right lane for when I'm training and/or just riding faster than 15 mph.

Three Giro Week

Part of the big Thanksgiving Giro group

There was quite a large turnout for Thursday's Thanksgiving Holiday Giro Ride, and although holiday Giro rides are sometimes easier than usual, this one wasn't. To make matters worse, I'd overslept, which meant a rushed ride out to Starbucks and, even worse, no time for coffee. On the plus side, the temperature was in the mid-50s, rising into the 60s by the end. It was windy, though, and that meant a fast section along Chef Highway where we averaged over 29 mph for five miles or so.

Stole this photo from Jamie who was apparently in town

Back at home, Candy cooked a big turkey, made stuffing, and two pies. There were only the two of us. I long ago stopped arguing about this sort of thing, but really.....

I didn't ride Friday morning since I had a 9:50 a.m. appointment with an Ophthalmologist to see about the cataract in my left eye. "Nuclear sclerotic cataract of left eye. Nuclear sclerotic cataract of right eye." So now I'm scheduled for a left eye lens replacement on the 9th. Looking forward to having functional binocular vision again. It's just a matter of time before the right eye will need the same, of course. Going with the regular single-vision lenses, I'll still need reading/computer glasses, but I'd rather have the best possible distance vision. Should be interesting. I'm just hoping it doesn't keep me off the bike for more than a couple of days.

Following up on the holiday Giro, I went out again on Saturday for another dose. That particular Giro was significant because we actually got a semi-cohesive paceline going on Chef Highway that closed the gap on a small break that had been out there since Paris Road. That almost never happens. Anyway, Candy has spent the last couple of days decorating for Christmas. I have no idea what that entails, really. All I know is that there are a bunch of plastic bins all over the living and dining rooms, and every once in a while she brings something to me that needs to be either repaired or polished. I did drag the artificial Christmas tree up from the basement, so I'm expecting the usual issues about why all the lights don't work. We added a couple hundred extra lights to the ones that came with the tree a few years ago, so it doesn't really matter much.

What could possibly go wrong here?

Saturday night another little cool front came through, but there was hardly any rain and the temperature was still in the low 60s in the morning, so the Sunday Giro was basically summer kit plus thin arm-warmers, and the arm-warmers were really just for the ride out to Starbucks. It was a pretty typical Giro for this time of year - some fast segments, some slower segments. On the way back, I took the new bike lane on Marconi past Delgado. That thing was definitely designed by a committee. Bike lane in the gutter, then parking, then a single car lane, with occasional concrete islands protruding into the bike lane where there are bus stops and where the buses will hold up traffic while loading and unloading, I presume. It all seems more dangerous to me than the two wide traffic lanes that were there before. The only nice thing is that the road surface, which had been in bad shape for a long time, has finally been completely repaired. Guess every cloud has a silver lining.

So Strava says I have ridden 11,183 miles thus far this year. It's a couple hundred fewer than usual, and so I guess I'll finish up 2019 well under 12k but still around average I guess.

YearDistanceΔ Prev. YearΔ With 2019201911,183 mi- 225 mi∅201811,408 mi- 19 mi+ 225 mi201711,427 mi+ 280 mi+ 244 mi201611,147 mi+ 204 mi- 36 mi201510,943 mi- 504 mi- 240 mi201411,447 mi+ 284 mi+ 264 mi201311,163 mi∅- 20 mi

Herding Cats

The Sunday Giro, on Chef Highway a couple of miles before the Goodyear Sign sprint.

After a rained-out Saturday and a "close but not quite" Tulane football game, I got home in time to upload the results from the cyclocross race in Jackson and then rushed out to log a few miles on the levee before sunset. By then, the wind was starting to pick up and the temperature starting to fall, and although I didn't ride particularly hard, the combination of impending darkness and northerly wind at least kept me from turning it into a sightseeing sojourn as sometimes happens with these kinds of unplanned rides.

May repaint that valve cover soon just for
appearances sake.

Earlier in the day I'd spent a bit of time on the GT-6. I'd already re-installed the cleaned-up carbs and replaced a leaking section of heater hose. This time I pulled each of the spark plugs and injected a little bit of Mystery Oil into the cylinders to perhaps loosen up any stuck piston rings that hadn't moved in twenty years or so. I think that my next move will be to pull the gas tank and clean it out, checking to see if that fiberglass patch I made a few decades ago is still good. Then maybe a fresh fuel filter before putting some gasoline in the tank, priming the fuel pump, etc. If all that goes OK, then it might be time to spring for a battery (and battery charger most likely) and see if the starter solenoid and motor work. One thing at a time.

Tulane's last home game of the season.

By Sunday the temperature was back down to the upper 40s, but the sky was clear and the wind not so bad as I rode out to Starbucks for the Giro Ride. By the time we rolled out at 7 a.m. sharp, we had a pretty big group, so I was expecting it to get fast. It didn't turn out quite like I'd expected, though. Somewhere on Hayne, Jaden attacked and one or two went with him, but the rest of the group didn't seem too interested in making the necessary effort to chase it. I'm not sure if they were still out there or not by the time we all got to Chef Highway, but it wasn't long after that that a gap started to open up a couple of riders ahead of me. Sensing the danger a few riders came flying by from behind to bridge up, but surprisingly most of the rest of the group, including me, just kind of watched, hoping I guess, that somehow the gap would close all on its own.

Eventually we got a rather flaky paceline going, but trying to get this group to ride a steady, smooth paceline turned out to be like herding cats, which is to say it was a dismal failure. We'd get three of four riders taking their pulls, then nobody would come through and the pace would drop back down from 25 to 22. Predictably, that would result in someone blasting up the side or going to the front at 26, which would just succeed in opening more gaps, and then the pace would fall again. I've no doubt that if everyone had just ridden a steady paceline at 24-25 mph we would have caught the group pretty easily. Anyway, it was kind of frustrating and since most of them didn't seem to understand the concept, here's a nice little video about how this paceline stuff is supposed to work.

Things settled down a lot for the return trip, so that was pretty uneventful and a bit slower than it really should have been. It's all pretty typical for this time of year, though. A lot of riders are taking it easy right now, which is understandable I guess. For some reason my legs were a little sore on Sunday, so I wasn't really pushing things, myself.

Pothole anniversary coming up this week!

When I got home after the Giro I had a notification from Garmin Connect that my chain had reached the 2,500 mile mark. Since I'd already secured a new chain, I went ahead and replaced it a couple hundred miles sooner than usual. I'm sure there will be some skipping on my training wheel cassette, though. I think that's at least the 4th chain that cassette's been through. I did notice an occasional skip on my Monday recovery ride, but I wouldn't expect to find out how bad it really is until I do a harder ride with some accelerations in various gears. Often, it there's just a slight amount of skipping, the new chain will wear in the old cassette a bit after a couple hundred miles and everything will be fine. We'll see. Meanwhile, the anniversary of the Neron/Pine pothole is rapidly approaching in just four days! That will actually make two full years, less the 4 days between the first water main break and the second water main break, since we've had a paved street in front of the house. And the Mayor thought I was going to vote for another 3 mills of property tax on top of the huge increases we've seen already?  Are ya' kiddin?

So I've been taking my "baby dose" of generic Lipitor for a week now with no noticeable side effects, so I guess that's a good thing. I did watch an interesting documentary type video on Netflix that Jaden mentioned - "The Game Changers" - that was mainly about the benefits of a plant-based diet. While I could see myself going a bit more Vegan than I am now, I don't see myself eliminating all animal-based foods, mainly for practical/availability reasons. Fortunately, wine is totally plant-based, so at least there's that. Anyway, there were some interesting things about the video with respect to the effects, if any, of plant-based diets on athletic performance. Granted, they were probably cherry-picked, but still somewhat convincing.

Dawn Patrol

It's been a little chilly in the mornings this week, but really not what you would call "cold." On Tuesday we had a good group for the 6:00 a.m. Dawn Patrol on the levee with the temperature hovering around the high 40s. For a change, there was no reason to cut the ride short, and although we lost a few riders who had to turn back early, we still had four doing the whole ride, and picked up a couple more along the way. This time of year it's still a bit dark when I ride out from the house to meet the group, but within half an hour I've switched my headlight to its lowest setting, mainly just to give a little extra warning to anyone coming the other way. By the time we're halfway out to Destrehan the sun is over the horizon and the temperature starts to rise. It's really kind of a good time of year for riding around here, even if you have to start before sunrise. A month from now it won't be quite so nice. It will be darker for more of the ride and the temperature will often be a bit colder. Even so, the weather is always quite variable in November and December.

This morning it was around 52° when I rolled out of the house wearing substantially less than I'd worn the prior few days. The knickers are perfect for this kind of weather when it's warm enough to leave the shoe-covers, skull caps, and thermal base layers at home. No doubt there were riders at the WeMoRi this morning in basically summer kits. As usual, I met the group on Marconi, heading for the City Park loop, and although the pace was brisk, it wasn't a particularly fast WeMoRi today. We came around the corner at City Park Avenue and Marconi onto the freshly re-paved left lane - a huge improvement over the minefield we've been riding over for years. On the other hand, since they are putting in a 2-way bike lane, plus a parking lane, and leaving just one car lane against the median, the group rides are going to be forced into the car lane, which means we'll be holding up traffic from City Park Avenue to the underpass. I'm sure the people who plan these bike lanes never think about group training rides, but I'm also sure that everyone on the group training ride would be much happier if they'd just re-paved the street and left both car lanes like they were. A 2-way bike lane in-between parked cars and the curb, along with concrete road furniture, makes it extremely unsafe for a group to use the bike lane, and having to take the one remaining car lane is sure to piss off cars stuck behind the group. Anyway, since the ride wasn't quite as hard as usual, there were a lot of people thinking they'd take a shot at the final sprint for Shelter #1, so I ended up blocked behind a few people and never really got to sprint. Guess I should have gotten to the front earlier.

Mignon texted me this morning to say she'd broken a collarbone while riding her mountain bike on the levee. She in the grass, going around some pedestrians and dog-walkers, and as she was heading back up the levee to get back onto the bike path she hit a little divot in the grass that landed her on the ground when her gears skipped. So another new member for the Collarbone Club.

It should be warmer for Thursday and Friday before the next cold front comes through some time Saturday. Right now it's looking like rain for Saturday morning, but I'm not going to bank on that quite yet.

Sunshine and the 40s

Just part of the Saturday Giro Ride group heading out along Lakeshore Drive

As often happens down here after a cold front comes through, and I mean all the way through, the weather last weekend was awesome, assuming you include riding in full tights and baselayers and gloves and long-sleeve jerseys in your definition of Awesome. It seems like most of the prior week, along with the weekend, started out at 45-47°F, the only variable being the wind speed. While those conditions might well be defined as "balmy" by Minnesotans, around here it's simply described as "cold," at least until it gets down below 45° in which case it's described as "freezing." If and when it actually gets down to actual freezing, as in 0°C, it's not described as anything because everyone is running around trying to protect their 100-year-old fully exposed galvanized plumbing and is otherwise incapable of speaking anyway since they don't actually have any clothing suitable for such Arctic conditions.

Matt's new Colnago is very pretty. We'll see how long
the white handlebar tape lasts, though.

Anyway, I pulled on the long tights and fuzzy baselayer and everything and headed out Saturday morning for the Giro Ride wondering how many riders would use the temperature as a convenient excuse to torture themselves on Zwift in the comfort of their own basements or garages or living rooms. As usual, I was one of the first to arrive at Starbucks, so I sat inside as a few of the other early regulars wandered in, sipping my coffee, and occasionally glancing out the door to make sure my bike was still there. When I finally stepped outside at 6:58 am I was rather surprised to see such a large crowd ready to ride. I would guess we had around 45 riders in the group as we rolled out along scenic Lakeshore Drive under a clear blue sky. I shivered a bit as I noticed a few riders with bare knees and minimal fuzzy clothing, but hey, to each his own. I'd much rather come home with pockets stuffed with clothes than be cold for the first half hour of a ride, but that's just me.

Caught by the Seabrook drawbridge just as we were sprinting to the top.

It being officially Winter, at least in my book, and me being me, which is to say that I'm now officially in winter training mode, which is also to say that I plan to enjoy the month of November by hanging out at the warmer, less windy end of the paceline, I found a nice comfy spot toward the back as the pace ramped up along Hayne Boulevard, where, surprisingly, the speed remained mostly moderate. That all changed after we made the right turn at the end of Hayne. Next thing I know, I'm pushing 32 and 33 mph just to stay in contact. Of course, it wasn't as bad as it might seem since I was generally so far from the front of the long string of riders that I'd have needed binoculars, or cataract surgery, to see who was actually up there inflicting the pain. It didn't last all that long, though, and the ride down Chef Highway, with it's brand new silky-smooth asphalt, was nice, even if there was a bit of an accordion effect going on nearer the back. Somehow, though, the relatively brief foray into the 30s must have caused a split somewhere because we were missing a few riders by the time we arrived at the Venetian Isles turnaround. The ride back was pretty standard - a surge toward the end of Chef, and then a pretty hard effort from bridge to bridge at the end of Hayne. Sunday's ride was remarkably similar. At any rate, it was so nice to be out in the sunshine in a nice sized group on a nice weekend in November.

Back at home, Entergy apparently came by on Friday and changed out our electric meter for one of the new "smart" electric meters that they say will do great things for me but in reality just makes it easier for them to read the meter without getting out of the truck. Hopefully they didn't screw up the readings when they swapped it out. On Saturday I finally went over to the local auto parts store to get some more carburetor cleaner, along with new wiper blades and windshield washer fluid for the Volvo. So on Sunday I finally put carb #2 back together and re-installed it on the old GT-6, also replacing the leaky heater hose and topping up the coolant. I think that next I'll pull the plugs and put a little Mystery Oil into each cylinder. Then I'll see if I can pull and clean out the gas tank, put a couple of gallons of gas in it, and check the fuel pump that may or may not be functional. Baby steps...

This morning it was still like 47°F and since I was planning a really easy recovery ride I should have dressed a little more warmly than I did. On my way back I ran into Kaitlyn who apparently didn't have anyone else show up for the TUCA Monday morning ride, so she turned around and we rode back together until I split off for a quick cup of coffee at Z'otz. By then the sun was starting to warm things up a bit. Tomorrow morning should be around 50°F and then the next few mornings will be in the 52-60°F range until the next cold front shows up on Saturday.

This afternoon I have a conference with a surgeon about my gall bladder which hasn't been causing me any real problems lately. This morning I started taking Atorvastatin, aka Lipitor, because my total cholesterol was borderline high on the one and only such lipid panel I've ever had. It seems a little sketchy to be taking something that interferes with such an important pathway that includes response to training, and has side effects that include muscle pain, and hemorrhagic stroke, among others, and continuing for a year before checking to see if it's actually working. Basically the only feedback I can expect from this are the negative side-effects, so I guess I'll see how that goes. 

Instant Winter

I didn't ride today. I could have, of course, but instead I chose to take the day off from riding, not because I wanted to, but because some days it's just not such a good idea. Today was one of those days. After the spectacular Fall weather we had last Sunday for the Varsity to Varsity ride, Tuesday morning was a bit of a punch in the face. This was the first really cold front of the season. Of course, I still woke up at 5:25 and checked the weather. The forecast had been for cold, rain, and wind, which is never a good combination when you're on the bike, and I'd been fully expecting it to be raining. It wasn't. I sat there staring at the weather radar that was showing some light rain approaching (which never actually arrived) and briefly contemplated breaking out the rain bike. Then I noticed the wind. 33 mph steady with gusts at 41. Temperature at 43 degrees. Relative humidity at 82%. Overcast with a 50% chance of rain. Yesterday I got both influenza and pneumonia vaccines, the latter of which left me with a pretty sore deltoid. So many reasons not to ride! Tomorrow will be even colder with a predicted low at WeMoRi time of 32 and a 10 mph north wind, but at least there is zero chance of rain. I have the clothes to handle that, assuming I can find them. Will I ride? 

The suspense is killing me......

Long Flat Day along the River

Somewhere past the Spillway with Julia and Dustin

Sunday was the 9th almost-annual Varsity to Varsity ride for the LSU and Tulane cycling clubs. This year there were only four Tulane riders doing the whole thing, so I was spared the complication of driving people to Baton Rouge, driving back to NOLA, and then riding upriver to meet the group. That provided a couple of nice benefits. For one, it was probably fifteen degrees warmer by the time I rolled out of the house at 8:08 am wearing just my sunscreen arm-warmers and a wind-front base layer that ended up in my pocket for the return trip. For another, I didn't need to get up at 5:30 am and could actually eat something for breakfast. Joining me for the out-and-back version of V2V this year would be Dustin and Julia who I planned to meet somewhere along the levee bike path.

Rest stop where we met up

I ended up leaving home a bit earlier than I'd planned since I basically didn't know what to do with myself on a nice sunny Sunday morning when I'd normally have been on the bike by 6:10 am. Dustin and Julia were planning on leaving from Headquarters at 200 Broadway at 8:30. I rode easy out to the levee and then rode a mile or two upriver to the Corps of Engineers building before turning around and starting upriver, which put me just a few minutes ahead of them. None of us was in a hurry, so I was all the way to St. Rose before they came up on me. We had a clear blue sky and a slight tailwind, so it was easy going at a steady conversational pace of around 18 mph.

The group scattered along the spillway road on the way back because of the off-road sections - some rode, some walked

There were a few places along the Spillway road, which was technically closed, that had been washed out when the spillway was open earlier in the year, so we didn't really know what to expect when we rode around the barricades. As it turned out, there were just a couple of places where the asphalt was completely washed out, but in both cases vehicles had created a somewhat sandy bypass around them - basically just a bit of off-road dirt riding - that wasn't too bad except for a couple of spots where the sand was deep. Once back on River Road, upriver of the spillway, we continued on, looking for a place where we could get onto the levee bike path three miles later. That got us a nice 7 miles or so on the bike path and through the LaPlace area before it ended and we were back on River Road.

Back on the levee path

I was glad I'd brought my bright rear blinky light for the next stretch because, even though it was a Sunday morning, there was a bit of traffic and there are no shoulders on River Road. The generally east wind had started to pick up a bit, so our speed did as well along here as we cruised under the Gramercy bridge, past Lutcher, and then, a few miles later, found the group at one of their planned rest stops - the one where there used to be a bunch of Beagles in a big enclosure. Amazingly, this was exactly the same place where I'd met the group a couple of years ago - 52 miles upriver from Audubon Park.

Pizza!

After a banana, a couple of chocolate-chip cookies, and a handful of gummy bears, the group headed out downriver and we re-traced our ride. The wind, which had been practically non-existent when we started, had started to pick up a little bit, but it never got to be very bad. As always seems to happen, once we were past the spillway and back onto the levee bike path, a few riders were starting to feel the miles, which led to some gaps and a couple of slow-downs to regroup. Fortunately we were able to keep everyone together all the way to the end this year, including the guy who rode the entire thing in Vans shoes, flat pedals, and gym shorts. I'm thinking he had some kind of riding short underneath because I didn't see any blood flowing down his legs at the end.

At Varsity Sports in NOLA

At Varsity Sports on Magazine Street we had the traditional pizza, and eventually took a group photo on the front porch before everyone headed back to wherever they'd come from. It was a long but enjoyable 115 mile day for me. Since the pace was always quite civilized, my legs were none the worse for wear. I couldn't say the same about my neck, back and crotch. Sometimes, going slowly for a long time can hurt just as much as going fast for a shorter time - just in different places.

Colder Air and Long Shadows

It was a very busy night on Neron Place

Well last week was a total write-off for me. Wednesday and Thursday mornings were rainy, and then on Friday I had to be over at the uptown campus early for some Homecoming volunteer assignments. By the time I left there in the early afternoon I was feeling kind of bad. My stomach had been very unhappy all morning, and I felt like I might be running a low-grade fever, so I just headed home.

We'd had a busy Halloween night on Thursday but I couldn't really attribute how I was feeling to that. Candy  had been home all day Friday (over-)preparing for our annual Halloween party for the neighbors, cooking gumbo, making cookies and cupcakes, picking up stuff from Whole Foods catering, etc., so although I would have liked to have climbed under the covers under the circumstances, there was still much to do. For one thing, the car was showing low air pressure in one of the tires, and just that morning one of the headlights had burned out. So I checked all of the tires, all of which were at least 5 psi low, got them all up to spec, then ran over to the auto parts store for a couple of new headlight bulbs, installed those, topped up the coolant that was just a bit low, and foolishly thought I might be able to lie down for a while to see if I'd recover. That's when she asked me to pick up ice for the drinks. When I got home from that we discovered that two of our ice chests were missing, so I had to go out and buy another one to fill with ice and Rogue Dead Guy Ale.

Reggie, Andrea, and Dennis at Swamp Otter on Sunday

By the time it was party time I was not feeling well at all. I made a few brief appearances but ended up in bed with an ache in my upper right abdomen, a little nausea, and I think a mild fever. I hadn't eaten much of anything all day.

By Saturday morning I was starting to wonder if it was something serious, so we made a trip over to the ER for a "calculus of gallbladder without cholecystitis without obstruction" diagnosis with otherwise normal ultrasound and x-ray and blood work, and referral to an internal medicine doctor and general surgeon. To be more specific, the pathologist said cholelithiasis without evidence of cholecystitis with three tiny nonmobile echogenic foci at the gallbladder neck and a single mobile 0.6 cm stone. Fortunately, by then I was feeling considerably better in general. Later that afternoon I walked over to Tulane Stadium to watch the second half of the Homecoming football game where Tulane pulled off a victory despite at least a hundred yards of penalties that included two called-back touchdowns.

Sunday we finally, at long last, set the clocks back to standard time, which made it so very much better when I had to load up the car and head over to Chalmette to officiate the Swamp Otter cyclocross race. The weather was pretty nice - a little chilly and windy, but with a nice blue sky. The races went pretty well since field sizes were generally small and manageable, so I was back home by 3:30 or 4:00. I might have tried to get out for a late afternoon ride, but figured I'd wait until Monday under the circumstances.

Nice to see the sun in the morning again!

Monday morning the temperature was around 50F, and since I was planning on a nice easy ride, I dug out a pair of knickers and a long-sleeve jersey and wind vest for the first time this Fall. I was definitely not willing to be cold for my first ride in five days. The legs felt fresh, of course, so it was a nice ride. I turned around with a few of the Tulane riders and got a few bonus miles before heading back down Oak Street through the remnants of Sunday's Po-Boy Festival. It was great to be able to go out to ride at 6 am without it being pitch dark for another hour. As it was, I used my lights just to get from home to the levee. By then the sun was almost over the horizon. Looking forward, we have the Varsity to Varsity ride scheduled for Sunday and I expect I'll do what I usually do for that, which is to shuttle riders up to Baton Rouge, and then ride from New Orleans upriver until I run into them on their way back. The only complication this year will be the Spillway road which is still closed and showing no signs of being repaired any time soon. I think we can get through there anyway with a little walking where the asphalt is washed out, but there's always the option of taking the Airline bridge if necessary.

So it's late afternoon right now and feeling even later with the sun already pretty low in the sky. I put the old headlight on the commuter this morning before riding in to work. It will probably be a few more weeks before it's really essential for the ride home, but what the heck. It's looking like morning temperatures in the mid-upper 50s with maybe a morning or two dipping down to the upper 40s for the next week or two. Probably won't need to pull out the full tights and winter jacket for a while.