A Lull

We've been in kind of a lull since the Red Bluff fondo a few weeks ago, so not much to blog about other than a lot of routine early morning rides in the dark, plus the weekend Giro Rides. It has been in the mid to low fifties in the morning all week, which to me feels rather cold and is practically impossible to dress for. As we approach April the training rides are starting to get a little faster for a little longer, but unfortunately we don't have any really nearby races on the calendar until the end of April when we'll be hosting the Westbank Speed Festival at the NOLA Motorsports Park. This should be a fun day with a full slate of races on the track, plus the opportunity to try out Karting. It's actually a really expensive venue for us to use. Even with $35 entry fees, the club will probably net about $5 per rider at best.

Fortunately the riders who live on the Westbank stepped up and raised enough sponsorship to cover a nice little prizelist. Then, the week after that race we will be hosting the Time Trial Championships. In addition, I'm just about to submit the Tour de Louisiane event permit for June 8-9. I'm probably going to go with BikeReg for online registration for that one. USAC has finally worked out a deal with them, and even though everything won't be ready for official roll-out until June 1, I think most of what I need should be in place now. It'll be a little more work to get that all set up since, at the moment, I can't duplicate a prior year online registration setup from USAC so that it will migrate to BikeReg, although that is one of the things they are currently working on. Another interesting development, and one that should be in place in time for the Time Trial, is a long-awaited deal between USAT and USAC on some kind of joint racing license or membership thing. Hopefully that will make it easier for USAT riders to come do our Time Trial. We'll see.

Saturday Giro Ride stopped for a flat (didn't stop for the next one, though!)

Last weekend we had a couple of nice Giro Rides. With the weather warming up and the road season rapidly approaching, the number of riders is increasing, as is the speed. Even so, the Tuesday/Thursday morning levee rides are still a bit inconsistent, attendance-wise. On Tuesday it was chilly and quite windy. I think there were like four of us, and a couple had plausible excuses for turning around early. Then, this morning (Thursday) we had a big turnout, which for this ride is about a dozen, that made for a much faster ride. By the way, the Mississippi River level has started to drop a bit and the Corps of Engineers has started closing off the Bonnet Carre Spillway, so maybe I won't have to move stuff from the basement to the main floor after all!

Thursday morning returning on the levee

As usual, I've been loafing around most of this year around Zone 2, which is to say I'm doing just enough riding to keep from getting much fatter but not really enough to keep from getting dropped in a real race.  Situation normal. February and March are never good for me, and I don't usually feel like I've hit my stride until around mid-June or July. On the plus side, there a good slate of LAMBRA races in May and June, followed by the usual lull in July into August, but that does at least open up the opportunity to travel. Maybe.

Danielle flew in from Washington a few days ago. We have my niece's wedding this weekend, so lots of family will be arriving today and tomorrow. I think we have a bunch of family kind of camping out at our house overnight before they can get into a short term rental down the street, and there's a crawfish boil at my sister's house tonight. I'm going to have to take tomorrow off from work, I'm afraid, lest I appear to be more antisocial than I really am. Then next week Danielle defends her dissertation at LSUHSC before flying back to Olympia where she already has a job lined up with the Department of Health. The only bad thing is that the Tulane Cycling team has Conference Championships over in Denton TX this coming weekend and neither Dustin nor I can go because of weddings, so that's a little disappointing since they are offering a couple of non-collegiate races. Masters Nationals this year is in Colorado Springs, which would be a nice place to go, and a terrible place for me to race. I mean, going from sea level to 6,000 feet and expecting to survive repeated high-intensity efforts, uphill, is just ludicrous. I still have vivid memories of the 1980 nationals in Bisbee, Arizona where it was only around 3,000 feet but on a course that was straight uphill in one direction and straight downhill in the other. I felt great climbing on the first lap, came flying down the mountain at 55 mph with the group, and completely imploded halfway up the next lap having still not recovered from the first lap's climb. Lesson learned for sure. Anyway, the Crossroads Cycling Classic and LAMBRA Road Championships just decided to move to that same weekend. This morning Steve was talking about going up to the Alabama Cycling Classic, aka Sunny King, April 13-14, which would be fun but kind of a heavy lift for me right now. We'll see.