Back to the Northshore

Sunday morning on Old Military Road.

Still improving, but not there quite yet. Following up on a fairly solid week of riding, someone, Pat I think, suggested a northshore ride for last Sunday. I thought, "maybe it's time." Granted, I'm still a little ouchy about getting out of the saddle to climb even the overpasses around here, but it's definitely less ouchy than it was a couple of weeks ago. I knew there would be a handful of other riders who might be interested in doing a fairly easy sixty-something mile ride, so we sent out the announcement and hoped for the best.

The Saturday Giro Ride rolling out along Lakeshore Drive

On Saturday I went out to ride the Giro. The weather is starting to resemble Summer around here, and I figured it would be a pretty fast one. Fortunately it wasn't very windy and there were plenty of wheels to follow. Even sitting on wheels most of the time, I still got a pretty good workout. At least Strava thought so, tagging it as "Historic Relative Effort," which it definitely wasn't unless history only goes back three months, in which case it definitely was. Anyway, on the way back, coming down Lake Forest Blvd. where I had that crash last year with Keith when he hit that big old semi-circular uneven crack and seam in the concrete around the manhole cover, two riders plowed right over the thing once again. This time nobody went down, but they both pinch-flatted. One was Steve. A few of us stopped to assist, and then rode in the rest of the way. I got home feeling pretty hot and tired but without any residual groin pain. I think this was the first weekend that it hasn't been much of a problem. I do still feel like I lack some power, especially with my left leg, but it's nothing dramatic.

Coming down the firetower hill toward Enon

So Sunday morning I headed out across the lake to meet up with a few others at the Abita Springs trailhead. It was the first time I'd been across the lake since the crash in early March and I was looking forward to a nice controlled ride in the country. I'd mapped out a nice little 63-mile route that wasn't too hilly and included Old Military Road and North Factory Road, and a little loop north of Enon. We started with maybe seven or eight riders, and as we rolled out I noticed how cool the air felt. The ride went well and we stayed in the 20-22 mph range I guess, so a lot of zone 2. Mark and Mignon split off after the firetower hill on the way back in order to avoid the part of the ride that was on Hwy 40, but I really wanted to ride Factory Road, so the rest of us stuck with the original plan. As it turned out, there wasn't much traffic on 40 at all. Despite the relatively easy pace, by the time we got back to Abita Springs I was definitely feeling my legs. All those little hills add up, I guess. The usual Sunday arts and crafts thing was going on at the Gazebo and there were a lot of people hanging out around the Abita Brew Pub. I walked over to a little trailer that was selling shaved ice and got a big cup of fresh lemonade for the drive home.

Mark, Mignon, and Randy

So the week came in at 286 miles, which is probably the longest in months for me, although not by too much. I have a pretty solid six weeks of significant riding under my belt now, preceded by another four weeks of gradual increase after spending a month of so completely off the bike while bones healed. It seems like it's been forever, but I guess the recovery is actually going as well as could possibly be expected. It's actually been 15 weeks since the accident, during which time I've logged a little under 2,000 miles. Of course I'm still running over a thousand miles short of normal, but under the circumstances I can't complain.