Rainy Weekend - Thanks to Hanna

Heading back in Thursday morning. Almost made it home dry, but didn't. Finally remembered
to drill a hole in the soles of my Bont shoes after having to pour water out of them at home.

I knew it was going to be a wet weekend. There was a tropical storm/hurricane named Hanna way down in the Gulf heading for the southern tip of Texas that would be spinning off a ton of rain in our direction. When I went to sleep Friday night I was already making contingency plans because the Giro Ride was clearly in serious jeopardy.

Sunday morning

So when the alarm went off early Saturday morning, the first thing I did was feel around the nightstand for my phone to check the weather. I stared at the radar for a long time. As expected, there was a lot of rain heading our way from the south, due to arrive around 8 am or so, but outside the street was dry and my still-groggy brain calculated that I might get in thirty miles on the levee before most of it arrived. I'd already written off the Giro as a viable option. I knew that most of the Giro riders would, like me, opt for Plan B. For many of them that would be Zwift, for others it would be an early ride like mine. The ride itself went fine, although as usually happens when I ride alone, it was at best Zone 2 rather than Zone 100 like the Giro is. As I approached my turnaround at the "little dip" I saw Dave Simon heading the other way, so at least I had a little motivation closing the one-minute gap after I made my U-turn. We rode together until he turned back around the green pipes in Jefferson. By that point I had been fully expecting I'd be riding in a light rain, but as it turned out the sky looked fine and as I later discovered, the forecast had pushed back the arrival of the rain by another couple of hours. The Giro could have happened, but as far as I could tell from Strava, it didn't. So at least I salvaged 33 miles, however easy, for the weekend, which was a far cry from the usual 120 or so.

This morning it was worse. The streets were wet and it was raining, and neither the forecast nor the radar was offering much hope for most of the day. Then again, this kind of weather can be pretty unpredictable, so I'll hang onto a thread of hope that there could be a little window of opportunity at some point this afternoon. We'll see.

Meanwhile, out in the Atlantic, there's another one coming, currently designated Invest 92L, heading in our general direction. Current long-range models have it making a turn toward the north and skirting the east coast of Florida, but that's along way off and everything could change by then. Welcome to hurricane season.

So Garmin.

A few days ago the Garmin website was hit with a big ransomware attack and everything went down. The first clue that most of us got was when our ride didn't upload to Garmin Connect and from there to Strava. There have been occasional times in the past when, for one reason or another, my ride didn't upload via the bluetooth connection to my phone, so I didn't think much of it when I noticed it wasn't on Strava. I simply went and took the head unit off the bike and plugged it into the laptop and manually uploaded the .fit file to Strava, but by then I had seen the "down for maintenance" notice on the Garmin Connect website. A quick google search for "garmin down" soon pulled up the real reason for the outage, and also dashed any hopes that the site might be back up and running any time soon, and by "soon" I mean within a week. Unless, that is, they negotiate the reportedly $10 million ransom demand and pay off the site kidnappers, which I hope they don't do. I can deal with manually uploading my rides for a while, although if I used Garmin rather than Strava as my main ride log I guess it would be different.

As of last Friday (LDH doesn't report on Saturdays
any more.)

So locally we are seeing some signs that the COVID-19 surge may be leveling off a bit around here. The Mayor shut down the bars, even for take-out service, which, sadly, seems it was necessary. Some videos that I saw of Bourbon Street prior to that were pretty shocking in terms of complete disregard for any sort of social distancing. I also expect that over the past couple of weeks the contact-tracing efforts had revealed that the bar patrons were driving much of the recent increases locally. At any rate, with Tulane getting ready to bring about ten thousand students in from all over the country, we certainly don't want to be in the middle of a surge at that point. The university has some pretty extensive and costly plans for the whole "Return to Campus" process. Of course, the biggest variable there will not be what happens on-campus, but what happens off-campus. I don't know what will happen with the fraternity and sorority houses, which are basically petri dishes as far as infectious diseases are concerned. It will be interesting, in any case.

Unless I manage to squeeze in a ride later today, and for that matter even if I do, this may turn out to be my lowest-mileage week in over two months. I could pretend that I needed the break, but really, I don't. It's not like I've been going out there killing it five days a week.

Summertime Crunch Time

Halfway through July and the rides are hot and sweaty. Just the way I like them. I have always felt better in the heat than the cold, and for me, 70° F is cold. Still, hot is hot, and it takes its toll.

The COVID numbers have been going in the wrong direction practically everywhere, and people are getting concerned. I am getting concerned. Tulane is planning on bringing students to campus in four weeks. We are planning on putting on a time trial in three. It's getting close to crunch time for both. Yesterday, Saturday, the Louisiana Department of Health inexplicably, and apparently without warning, decided to just stop posting numbers on cases, deaths, and hospitalizations on Saturdays. In the middle of an escalating epidemic. I know everyone's overworked, but lumping two days' worth of counts into Sunday's numbers is not helpful, especially to all of the people sweating out where this thing is going. Meanwhile, it seems like people are mostly not staying home. There are crowds walking down Bourbon Street every night. On the COVID testing front, New Orleans has been hovering around the 5.7 - 6.5% range for ten days, but trending up. Louisiana as a whole is worse, ranging from 9.20 - 11.3% over the same period. I'd be reasonably comfortable if those rates were closer to 3%. This weekend I really had to think twice about whether to do the Giro Rides. Group rides like those are the only thinks keeping me motivated right now, and I really doubt I'd find the self-discipline to push myself that much riding alone.

Gavin, after the Giro

This week was as standard and predictable, riding-wise, as ever. A fairly easy ride on Monday, 42 steady miles with the 6 am levee guys on Tuesday and Thursday, 29 miles with the WeMoRi in the middle on Wednesday, and another easy ride on Friday. None were particularly hard this week, so I really felt I needed the Giro rides. Both Saturday's and Sunday's were pretty well-attended. A bit of a east wind on Saturday kept the speeds down on the way out, making it relatively easy in the back of the group where I was. It felt so easy that I even considered riding up to the front to do some real work. Fortunately the feeling passed quickly. Sunday's ride was a repeat of Saturday's. On both, the group split on the way back as soon as we hit Hayne. That's unusual, actually, and by the time I realized what was happening, it was too late. I guess there was a bit of tailwind both days for that segment, so perhaps that's what it was. Anyway, I've gotten home every day this week soaked in sweat, so I guess it's summertime in New Orleans. The forecast for the next two weeks is basically the same every day. Highs around 90, lows around 80, chance of rain between 30 and 80%, and no promises.

Giro heading out on Sunday

Work has been getting more and more busy, and I'm about to pick up a big COVID-related funding tracking project that should be both interesting and messy. Mike Lew, over at Gray Cat Cycleworx in Hammond has started planning a Gran Fondo for March. I'm still expecting we'll be able to pull off the Time Trial on August 9, but the Tour de La will probably be up in the air for another few weeks and I don't think we'll get serious about it one way or the other until after the Time Trial. This evening I happened to check the Tulane Cycling Groupme and saw that one of the riders said there was a water leak at HQ. I knew immediately what it was. I called facilities to report it, and although I told them it was almost certainly a clogged air-conditioner condensate line (it's happened twice before), they sent a plumber, who then called me to meet him there so he could get in. The floor in the back of the suite was basically flooded and water was dripping from the big a/c unit above the bathroom and hallway. A couple more ceiling tiles were about to fall in. So of course the plumber called back and told them it was the a/c. We turned the unit off and hopefully someone will be in there tomorrow to blow out the line and mop up the water. I should mention that the a/c was set on something like 60°F.

Hot Eventful Week

Look! My eye has an ID Card now!

I knew it would be a low-mileage week. Monday was nothing but rain, and besides I had a morning appointment to get a COVID-19 nasopharyngeal test over at Ochsner-Baptist. That was because I was scheduled for eye surgery on Wednesday to get the cataract in my right eye replaced with a shiny new plastic lens, aka Itraocular Lens Implant. That would mean that I'd miss riding on Wednesday, and would be doing an easy ride on Thursday. I did get to go out on Tuesday, although we didn't do the full ride since there were only three of us. Just as well, I guess.

Somewhere along the way this week I hit 100 k miles on Strava

So on Wednesday I headed over to the hospital again bright an early. I'd tested negative for SARS CoV-2 on Monday, and when I arrived I was screened for elevated temperature and asked a bunch of questions and finally cleared to go check in. This being my second such surgery, I at least knew what to expect. First there's a series of drops they put in your eyes, then eventually they plug in an IV, dose you up with something that doesn't quite put you to sleep, and wheel you into the operating room. The actual surgery takes maybe ten minutes. Then you hang around until the anesthesia wears off, and they send you home with a pair of gigantic sunglasses and instructions to sit around and take it easy for the rest of the day.

I actually got a fair amount of work done, updating my COVID-19 dashboard and sending it out to the senior administration. The news there, BTW, was not good at all. Apparently a lot of people decided this whole COVID-19 thing was over despite what the professionals kept telling them and went back to partying as usual a couple of weeks ago. So now the cases and hospitalizations are rising fairly dramatically, especially in some areas of the state where people were particularly fond of telling you it was all a big government hoax and that wearing a mask around other people was an infringement on their constitutional rights and such. Anyway, the entirely predictable result was that on Friday the Governor issued a mandatory "mask order" to go into effect Monday morning. It's sad that the best we can do about this right now is ask people to wear a mask around others and to try not to further the spread of the virus, but such is the case with novel infectious diseases.

Temporary buildings going up on campus

By Thursday morning I was dying to at least get on the bike for a while, even though I was supposed to avoid "strenuous exercise," which I guess means anything that might cause my eye to pop out of my head. My compromise on that was to go out a little later than usual in order to avoid being tempted to join the regular morning levee ride, and then to just do a short easy 25 mile ride that included a ride through campus to check out the new temporary buildings they're putting on the McAlister quad. As I got close to the house I saw the Sewerage and Water Board working on patching up the hole they had dug a few months ago when a water line on Pine Street had broken. I stopped and asked them when they were planning on fixing the huge hole not 100 feet away that had gone unrepaired for a year and a half, and counting. Perhaps I shamed them into doing something, because after they fixed the first hole they went over to the other one and shoveled out some of the rocks and dirt, dropped a couple of barrels in the street, and left (sigh).

It ain't pretty, but it'll have to do.

After that I had a post-op visit over at Ochsner that went fine. I was a little surprised that the eye was already providing 20/20 vision since the left eye took a while longer to get there. Now I just have another followup in a couple of weeks and then I'll probably go visit my regular eye doctor and figure out what glasses I'll need for the computer and reading.

By Friday I was feeling fat and sluggish, so I did a somewhat faster solo ride on the levee. It was nice to not have to put in a contact lens to ride. With no problems to report, I planned to do the Giro Rides on Saturday and Sunday, although I am getting more and more concerned about the COVID situation again. I'd really hate to have to go back to solo rides again, but it's entirely possible at this point. Anyway, later that day the S&WB came back with like three trucks and a backhoe and dumped some asphalt into the hole, rolled over it a few times with the truck, and called it a wrap. It is at least an improvement, but nobody will be mistaking it for a professional job.

A rare example of teamwork - pushing rob up the Industrial Canal bridge.

Saturday's Giro Ride started pretty fast. We were already under a heat advisory, but that didn't do anything to diminish what turned out to be an average speed of almost 28 mph for the 14 or 15 miles heading out to Venetian Isles. I think I spent the entire time on the drops hanging on for dear life as we spent most of the time at 30-31 mph. Fortunately the return trip was a little less intense, and then, on Lake Forest Blvd. everyone suddenly hit the brakes. Rob's rear derailleur had flown off onto the street. The lower jockey wheel bolt had broken, causing the chain to jam between the wheel and the cage. That locked up the chain which then broke the derailleur hanger as it came out of the cage. So there's Rob with what was left of his SRAM electronic derailleur in his pocket and the chain still on the bike but almost dragging on the ground, with another ten miles or so to get home. He eventually took the chain off and put it in his pocket after it kept getting caught between the cassette and the spokes. Although he kept trying to pedal, with some limited success, for the most part we pushed and pulled him all the way back to Lakeshore Drive and then over to Leon C. Simon where his wife met him with the car. I don't think I've ever seen a mechanical quite like that on a ride before.

Sunday's Giro was fast, but not quite as fast as Saturday's had been, but it was definitely hotter and more humid. I was feeling some of the effects from the prior day, but not really too bad. On the way back, Darren flatted as we turned onto Bullard (Lake Forest and Bullard are mine fields of broken, cracked, sinking concrete roads), so a few of us stopped while he fixed it. The rest of the ride back just got hotter and hotter, and by the end I was just hanging onto Darren and Woody and hoping to make it home before heat exhaustion set in. Good thing I'd decided to use my race wheels and put some electrolyte in my water bottle!

Three Strikes

WeMoRi Cool-down

I think it was when I was on my way out to meet the Thursday morning ride that I heard the sound of rending rubber and thought, "that's going to be a flat." It wasn't, though, and pretty soon I forgot all about it. There were probably eight or more of us at one point on the ride, and I was thinking we'd have a nice group for the full ride out to Ormond and back, but somewhere around the airport people started turning back and next thing I knew we were down to four. I asked if they wanted to turn around at the big dip in LaRose, but everyone was good with the full distance, so we continued. It was good because I'd already missed the Tuesday morning ride, and although I'd gotten out later in the afternoon, I probably didn't get any of the intensity that I needed. On the way back I made a little detour to drop a check off at Mignon's place. It was from BikeReg, and was actually for the Tulane team but was made out to NOBC because of some mix-up I'd created when setting up the collegiate race that, of course, never happened. Anyway, I'll make a donation to the Tulane team from the NOBC to square things up. It wasn't until I got home that I noticed the big slice in my almost-new Continental 5000 rear tire. I ended up sewing a boot into it that evening since it looked like some of the threads had been cut.

Another water main break - a block down the street

I had a bit more time Friday morning since I was off from work, and soon after I started riding upriver on the levee I ran into Charlie D who turned around to join me. We ended up riding out to Ormond, so I logged a few more miles than I'd planned, but as it turned out, it was a good thing I banked the extra. When I rolled the bike into the house after that ride I discovered that the rear tire had, maybe, 20 psi. It also had a big chunk of glass stuck in it. So for the second time in two days I had to deal with a tire issue.

Well, these things always seem to come in threes, don't they? Saturday morning felt a little cooler with a significant northwest wind as I rolled out to Starbucks for my pre-Giro coffee. I was looking forward to the workout and since I hadn't ridden very hard for very long all week, my legs felt relatively fresh. The warm-up along Lakeshore Drive was faster than usual, thanks to the tailwind, and I figured Hayne Blvd. would get pretty fast. It did, but for me it wasn't for long. I don't guess I'd gone more than a mile or so when I hit some crack in the concrete or something that I never saw and heard the rear tire explode. I drifted to the back, and as I dropped out of the paceline, Matt, who was about at the back, asked, "Got everything?" I replied that I did, and pulled off the street under a big oak tree to fix the flat.

Lucky I made it home

What I found was a quarter-inch hole that had been neatly sliced off of the sidewall. Luckily I had an old race number in my bag for just that sort of an emergency, so I fashioned a nice thick boot out of it and inflated the tire just enough to keep the rim off the ground. I guess it was around 30 psi or so. My first thought was to just turn around and go home, but then I decided that since I still had another tube and CO2, I may as well ride a few miles. I couldn't go very fast, and was being careful to lift the rear wheel over the cracks, but the tire seemed to be doing OK, so I rode the service roads on either side of I-10 and came back down Hayne Blvd. By the time I got back to Starbucks the first of the Giro Riders were also getting back, so I stopped to chat. Pat and Steve were sitting in front of the convenience store, planning on doing a few more miles afterward, but I figured I'd pushed my luck far enough and limped back home. I had to throw the tire away, but luckily I had a Continental 4000 that was in good shape to replace it with. It seems that the 5000 tires have much more delicate sidewalls. I'm sure that makes for a nicer ride and lower rolling resistance, but that's not much of a help if you can't keep the air in them.