Winter Rides, Circle of Life

Monday morning on the lakefront

Although unsurprisingly cold and windy, last week took some unexpected turns. It started on a cold Monday morning with an unusually small group for the Mellow Monday ride. Still feeling the effects of the prior weekend, I happily backed off when the pace finally picked up heading back on Lakeshore Drive, and was a little surprised to find I wasn't the only one. The two or three who had ridden off the front sat up and waited, so for all intents and purposes it was indeed a mellow ride. Cold, but mellow. Tuesday morning was just a complete washout and I didn't even bother to look out the window when the alarm went off since I could hear the rain and the car tires outside on the wet road. I told myself I'd go out for a few miles later in the day, which of course didn't happen. I didn't really feel too bad about that because I knew I needed a little break.

Wednesday morning was in the low 40s or high 30s, but with a strong north wind. In the dark I trudged into that wind out to the lakefront, turning down RE Lee (recently re-named Allen Toussaint Blvd.) and making a U-turn just before a lone rider in black went flying past. Looking back I could see the headlights of what I assumed was "the group" to which I latched on about thirty seconds later. The lone rider turned out to be Brett. I hung onto the back of the little 5-rider group, trying to get my physiology to acknowledge that it needed to adapt, and wondering if these were all the riders in attendance. Looking behind, I couldn't seen any other group, although as it turned out there was one. The brutal north wind had blown the group apart on Lakeshore Drive long before, so I guess I was with the break. I was being careful not to interfere with their rotation since I didn't feel like I had anything to contribute and would probably just slow them down. Jaden was in there occasionally offering sage, but otherwise ineffective advice. By the time we got back onto Lakeshore Drive people were looking pretty tired. I saw Jaden come past Lisa and motion for her to get on his wheel just before he launched an attack to which the rest of the group mounted absolutely no response other than an implied sigh of relief. At that point I started taking a few pulls since any attempt to chase anything had obviously evaporated. It wasn't until after we went around the traffic circle at Elysian Fields that I finally saw the rest of the group a minute or two behind  us.

Thursday morning group at "the pipes"

Thursday morning was colder still, and just as windy, for the levee ride. There was a surprisingly good turnout despite the weather. It was a pretty normal ride except for the unrelenting north crosswind and a brief stop near the end when Pat's computer mount broke off. That afternoon we drove across the lake to the Northshore Humane Society place to look at adopting a dog that Candy had seen on their website. This little mixed breed dog is maybe nine months old and is still being treated for heartworm and skin problems but they offered to let us take him home on kind of a trial basis, which was a little surprising, but anyway we headed back home with a dog that they had been calling Willie Wonka. 

The dog

Keeping with the theme we will probably call him Charlie for simplicity (one of the characters in the movie). I was expecting some drama dealing with a new dog that had presumably never been house trained. Fortunately he settled in well, quickly figured out that he shouldn't do his business in the house, and started methodically gathering up all of Renzo's old toys to hoard on a particular dog blanket on the floor. We kept him in the kennel the first night, and let him sleep in the living room the second night, and he has now moved into the bedroom without incident. He has to go back on Thursday to be neutered and get some more of his shots, at which point we can officially adopt him.

Laura

By Friday I was pretty tired of riding in the wind but went out to the Friendly Friday ride anyway where again only a handful showed up. I took it nice and easy since I was expecting a long and windy northshore ride on Saturday followed by a long ride out of Independence with the Tulane riders on Sunday. When I got home on Friday I learned that my sister in law Laura had died, which we all knew was coming but were hoping it would be much later than it was. I had planned a 60-something mile northshore ride for Saturday, but the forecast was calling for a low temperature Friday night in the upper 20s, which would mean something around 34° for our 8:30 am start time, along with more north wind. That evening I checked around with some of the riders who usually do these rides and most had already decided to skip it, so I ended up cancelling it at the last minute and re-setting my sights on the Giro where it would be warmer. Naturally, Saturday's Giro had a smaller than usual turnout, but it was still a decent group. For some reason I was feeling pretty tired and when the pace ramped way up on the Interstate stretch with the tailwind I lost the draft and figured I'd best just cruise the rest of the way solo. A moment later, though, Jaden came by and motioned for me to get on his wheel. That got me back in contact with the group shortly after turning onto Chef, so that was nice. I decided I'd better stay out of the rotation, but once the speed settled down a bit I went ahead and started taking some pulls anyway. It turned out to be a good ride, and I felt like I hadn't done so much damage that I'd be suffering on the Tulane ride the next day.

The Sunday group at a turn

Sunday's ride had seven, which is probably about the perfect number for this sort of ride. This was 90% zone 2, I'd say, which was fine with me since I already knew I wasn't going to be able to make it to the race in Gainesville the following weekend. I was supposed to help with the driving for that collegiate race but had to back out in order to attend Laura's memorial service in Orlando, to which we will be flying. I think it's probably been three years since I was on an airplane. Anyway, we should have pretty much the whole family there, so that's nice. With the LAMBRA race calendar coming together, I'll have an opportunity to race in Mississippi the following weekend, so that should work out fine anyway. We'll drop the new dog off at Northshore on Thursday and they will board him until we pick him up on Monday.

Volume

At the upriver end of the levee bike path.

Volume. It's that technical coach's term for "riding a lot." This time of year, for me, riding a lot is one thing, while riding hard is quite another. While the recent spell of cold and windy weather has sent many of the local riders into their garages and basements where they have been happily riding around Watopia or wherever Zwift's current imaginary routes happen to be, I have been trying to at least get out on the road as much as possible without dropping my core temperature below operational norms. Together with the long MLK day ride on Monday and a long levee ride on Saturday I somehow managed to piece together a 320 mile week that was nonetheless practically devoid of significant blocks of intensity. In other words, it's winter.

Thursday and Friday mornings were so cold and windy that almost nobody rode in the mornings, myself included. Fortunately, since we are again working from home until the Omicron surge dies down, I was able to sneak out in the afternoons for a couple of short battles with the cold north wind. We're talking average speeds of like 15 mph despite arguably more actual effort than the usual longer and faster rides. 

By Saturday, with the forecast calling for sustained sub-freezing northshore temperatures in addition to a 10 mph north wind, we pivoted and moved the usual northshore winter training ride to the southshore, starting at 8 am and riding all the way out to the "new" end of the bike trail near Gramercy. I think it was about 34° when we started. It turned out to be a harder ride than you'd expect of 84 miles on a dead-flat bike path thanks to the unrelenting wind and a couple of other factors. We started with maybe five riders, but within the first few miles we picked up another group of five or six, at which point the pace started to ramp up. As always happens on the levee in a crosswind, the first four of five riders behind whoever was pulling were getting a bit of a draft and everyone else was entirely in the wind. The result was that riders started getting shelled off the back one by one. One of the riders who had met up with us was Maurizio Topini who used to live here but has been in east Texas for the past decade or so. At one point he tried to create a second eschelon but the other riders didn't realize it and it quickly fell apart. Anyway, I had to make some pretty hard efforts for a while, but by the time we were out around LaRose our group was down to just five, not coincidentally exactly the number that will fit on the bike path in a crosswind. The pressure stayed on, with Maurizio and Chris taking longer and longer pulls. 

Maurizio and me

I was doing OK but trying to limit my efforts in the wind since I knew it wouldn't be much better on the way back and I didn't want to blow up and have to limp in the last twenty miles by myself. As it turned out, we all made it out to the end in fairly good shape and then stopped at a gas station shortly after starting the return trip. It was still cold, but as far as problems went that day, the wind totally overshadowed the temperature. By the time we were halfway back a couple of the guys were really starting to feel the miles and effort, and things came apart a couple of times before we settled down into a slightly slower pace. Naturally my neck was killing me most of the way back. It seems to be considerably worse when it's cold like this. Anyway, it was a solid 88-mile day for me which left me wondering how I'd manage whatever there would be of the Giro on Sunday.

Sunday morning was practically as cold as Saturday, and although it was still good and windy, it wasn't quite as bad in that regard. I got out to Starbucks around 6:35 and picked up my sugar-loaded coffee and waited to see. There had been a suggestion that, if only a handful showed up, we do a different route to incorporate Almonaster. As it turned out, and to my surprise, we ended up with maybe a dozen rather chilled people, so we did the whole route. The pace was fairly controlled with a steady paceline on Chef for much of it. I know because I was staying behind that paceline for the most part. At one point I accidentally got into the paceline, so I figured I'd take a short pull so as not to disrupt things, but when Lisa hit the front immediately ahead of me and ramped the pace up by about three mph I had to pull off. Then on the way back things were going nicely until a small group in front sprinted for the Goodyear sign which opened a pretty good gap. The rest of us took a little time to get going, and were gradually closing the gap back up when we caught the red light, and then a fire truck came out of the fire station and we all moved over into the grass to let it pass on the shoulder. Of course by then there was no way we were going to catch the front half of the group. At that point everyone backed off and we rode fairly easy the rest of the way in. 

So I think I'm due for a couple of recovery days which may work out fine since Tuesday morning is looking like it will be rained out.

I'd have more photos except that it's so difficult to take them when you're wearing three layers of gloves!

Weather Weary

Saturday's Giro cooldown on LSD

It's that time of year here when the usual series of cold fronts interspersed with days of humid southerly winds result in wild temperature and rain fluctuations. So it was last week. 

Foggy and friendly

Friday's Friendly Friday ride was remarkably friendly last week, which is to say it never got really fast like it sometimes does. Perhaps some of that was because of the chilly temperature and the fog that made chilly feel more like cold.

We had already cancelled the Saturday northshore ride because of the forecast for rain in the morning. But by Saturday's Giro Ride it was warm enough on the southshore (mid-50s) that most people (no, not including me) were riding with bare knees. The radar also gave us some confidence that we wouldn't see any rain until late morning. With the knowledge that a cold front preceded by rain would be coming through later in the day, and considering that, by morning, it looked like it wouldn't really hit until 11:00 or so, a few of us made plans to ride the Giro and then continue west on the lakefront bike trail, looping back around to the river levee to extend the ride. That turned out to be a fun ride with just a handful of us that turned out to be 83 miles for me and considerably more for a few others. As predicted, the rains came in the afternoon and the temperature plummeted.

Climbing up the levee on Saturday

By Sunday morning the temperature was just above freezing and there was a stiff 15-20 mph west wind. I was pretty sure the Sunday Giro was out of the question but I went ahead and battled the wind out to Starbucks where I had to move from my usual table because the wind kept blowing my helmet onto the ground. Despite the cold and wind a few people including Julia, MJ, Keith, and Will, actually showed up. We quickly decided on a lap of Lakeshore Drive, then around City Park, and then whatever. I think Will basically towed us around most of the way. When he ramped it up past 32 mph heading east on Lakeshore Drive I dropped off the back, unwilling to put in the necessary effort. As it was, I was still going 30 mph all by myself with a heart rate barely in the 130s. I turned around before the Armory and got back in for the headwind stretch to the west, by which time Julia was MIA, so when we made that sharp left turn at the bottom of the Bayou St. John bridge to pick up Wisner I thought I should wait so as to not leave her out in such a brutal wind alone. I waited a couple of minutes with no sign of her, so I went ahead, cutting across City Park and again hooking up with what was left of the group. We eventually saw Julia heading back on Marconi, so I guess I should have waited a bit longer. Anyway, we then cut across City Park again at Filmore where I decided I'd be long enough in the wind and cold and headed home.

Monday was MLK Day, so I was off from work along with a few others, which resulted in a Holiday Giro Ride. By then the temperature was around 40° and the wind had died down to manageable levels, so despite the noticeably busier traffic we did the normal Giro route. With so few to share the work and basically no place to hide, I felt really drained by the time I got home even though the speeds were nothing to write home about.

Tuesday morning near Williams Blvd. looking back to the east as Rich fixes Dan's flat

Yesterday's levee ride was fairly normal for this time of year - a starting temperature in the low 40s and a light wind. Other than an early flat tire by Rich it was pretty uneventful, which was good because I was not feeling like I had much to contribute. I guess I was still feeling the effects of that Sunday ride. This morning it was in the low 50s for the WeMoRi. I wasn't feeling all that energetic and spent almost the whole time back in the ample draft of the large group. I must not have been the only one, because the speeds were relatively moderate. On the plus side I was feeling better and at least avoided doing any more damage.

This weekend's northshore ride is definitely in jeopardy because of the forecast that is calling for Friday night temperatures up there in the mid-20 as opposed to the mid-30s on the southshore. The rain ahead of that cold front should at least be over by Saturday morning, so I'm at least expecting sunshine to accompany the freezing temperature and 10 mph north wind. If a few people are willing to commit to a northshore ride, I'll do it since I know I have the clothes for that, but I'm thinking a long southshore ride that doesn't start with thirty miles straight into the north wind might be a better option under the circumstances. We can wait to see the actual hourly forecast for Saturday, which should be out tomorrow, before making the call, though.

Almost Normal, But Then...

Sunday Giro in the Fog

It was looking like it would be an almost normal week. We were scheduled to be back to work on Tuesday, the weather was all over the place (which is normal, right?), the holidays were almost over (12th Night was Thursday), and the first of the winter training rides was booked for Saturday. What could go wrong?

Things were going great on Thursday, until they weren't.

Tuesday morning was cold and I went out with long tights and wool socks and multiple layers to meet the morning levee ride group. Turnout up there was pretty normal and although a few turned back early, which is also normal, we still had a decent group doing the full ride out to Ormond. Everything was normal on the way out. And then we started back. We hadn't even gotten to St. Rose when Scott flatted and he and Rich put their frozen fingers to work fixing it. Neither could find anything in the tire, so we continued on with the new tube - until it went flat again. This time we removed the tire entirely from the rim and turned it inside-out and inspected is carefully as our sweaty body temperatures started to fall. Still couldn't find anything, so we put in another tube and continued. Three or four miles later it was going flat again. A couple of the guys couldn't wait any longer because of work and continued while we inspected the tire and changed the tube again. A couple of miles later it was going flat again. At that point we tried just pumping in more CO2 a couple of times but it wasn't getting us more than a mile or so at a time. Eventually we got Scott about to Jefferson Playground and Rich headed home to get his car and mount the rescue mission as I headed home completely frozen. It was what I'd call a ClusterFlat.

Wednesday's WeMoRi was considerably warmer and a good workout for me but otherwise nothing out of the ordinary. Likewise, the Thursday levee ride was smooth and steady and flat-free. That evening we walked down to the Willow Street Streetcar Barn to watch the Phunny Phorty Pfellows start their traditional Twelfth Night streetcar ride. It was warm and there was a pretty good crowd there despite the fact that they were again not allowing anyone to congregate right at the barn itself, which really did nothing but push the crowd one block down the street. So with the Christmas decorations still in place, the Mardi Gras season began, complete with a nice real French style King Cake from the bakery on Maple Street.

That evening Tulane sent out an email essentially telling everyone to work remotely until the 21st since COVID cases have been surging. I guess the idea is to get the numbers down before the students start back on the 23rd. I am cautiously optimistic that this surge will be relatively short-lived, by which I mean 4-6 weeks rather than 8-12. My averages have been coming down for a few days but they are now complicated by the growing number of people doing their own in-home antigen tests which are not reported. I have definitely had more people I know test positive, and a number of them get pretty sick, in the past month than I've had the entire rest of this pandemic. 

The Omicron variant is spreading quickly and easily and is hitting vaccinated and unvaccinated alike. Friday evening we went to Ruth's Chris Steak House (where I had fish) with Candy's sister and brother in law to kind of celebrate finally almost wrapping up her mother's estate. It was kind of loud in there, so a little difficult to hear the conversation, and of course the prices were ridiculous as usual. As I was pouring the last of the wine into my glass I was thinking, "This probably isn't the best preparation for that 75 mile ride tomorrow." 

It wasn't.

Saturday morning on the northshore it was still pretty chilly at 8:30 and significantly windy. The gate to the ballpark was still closed so we parked along the entrance road, which was fine except for the lack of bathroom access. I dressed for the start, which turned out to be a mistake because it warmed up a whole lot. Rather than the thermal bib knickers I should have gone with shorts and knee-warmers. The long sleeve Gore base layer would also turn out to be a bit much underneath my long-sleeve jersey, and the vest I started with was in my pocket before we were ten miles down the road. From the start my legs were feeling achy, and with only five of us after Randy turned back early I knew it was going to be a long ride for me. Chris and Dan were feeling good and by the time we were up past Pine gaps were opening up between them and Charles, Steve, and me on some of the little climbs. It wasn't too bad, and I could tell they were holding back a bit to keep us close, but with only five of us it wasn't really possible to limit the effort like it would be with a larger group. I was kind of disappointed that I wasn't feeling better for this ride, though, because I really like the route up to State Line from the Lee Road ballpark. For most of the ride I was feeling fine in the draft and even on the front, but every time there was a little bit of a climb my legs would start to load up after thirty or forty pedal strokes. I really couldn't explain it considering how easy Friday's ride had been. Maybe it was just all that expensive wine from the night before.

The weather forecast for Sunday was not looking good Saturday evening. Although the temperature would be way up in the 70s, they were predicting a lot of rain starting at 6 am, so I was fully expecting the Sunday Giro to be a washout. When the alarm went off at 5:20 am I checked the weather radar and it was practically clear. The rain chances had also been lowered into the teens. Go figure. So I headed out to the Giro in summer kit on the 9th of January. The street was damp and there was quite a bit of fog as I rode to Starbucks, and I wondered how many would show up. I'd heard that Saturday's Giro had been pretty fast, so it wouldn't take much to convince people to stay in bed. Fortunately there was a decent turnout. A bit smaller than normal but enough to keep it from feeling like a time trial. 

As we rolled out I could tell that the fog was getting thicker. A few people turned back because of that but most continued on, perhaps a bit more cautiously than usual. Visibility on Chef Highway was pretty low, but fortunately so was the traffic volume, and with about twenty flashing tail lights I never felt very worried about it. With some people still licking their wounds from the long gravel race in Mississippi on Saturday the pace for this Giro was fairly steady and I don't think anyone was having any trouble with it. Although I could certainly feel some soreness in my quads from Saturday's ride, it wasn't enough to cause a problem and so I probably did a bit more work than usual.

At home I spent some time Friday night fixing the drain on the old concrete sink in the basement. Nothing there is lined up right and nothing there is able to be adjusted either. Also, the drain pipe is this old style flared fitting for which they no longer make gaskets, so I had to improvise with a not really right gasket and a ton of silicone seal. In the end, I think I got it all fixed without any leaks, so we'll see how long that lasts. Everything in this house moves depending on how much moisture is in the ground and how many big trucks rumble over the bumps on S. Claiborne, and so we just keep buying silicone seal and hoping for the best!

Another Revolution

New Year's Day Giro Ride heading out on Lakeshore Drive

The last few weeks of 2021 were busy. Amidst the dramatic takeover of the Omicron variant of SARS CoV-2 from its Delta predecessor, cleverly timed to coincide with the end of the semester and the holidays, we emerged this morning more or less intact, albeit with lots of scars from our prior revolution around the star we call Sun.

Renzo in his younger days

As things at work wound down for the holidays, our dog Renzo started to deteriorate rapidly. We had been nursing him along for months, carrying him up and down the stairs that he could no longer negotiate and cleaning up the accidents inside, also related to the spinal deterioration. His dementia had gotten much worse, leaving him to pace around the house at all hours, or more commonly, claw at the floor trying to get up. Outside he would just walk in small circles, sometimes getting tangled up in the lawn furniture. We finally had to put him down on the 23rd.

That evening Danielle and Shannon arrived from Olympia. Traffic at the airport was basically gridlocked, and we ended up stuck on the wrong access road for twenty minutes before we could escape and try again, ultimately picking them up inside the short-term parking garage, which actually worked out great.

The weather has been summer-like for almost two weeks, and it seemed that everyone was busy trying to cram a few more miles into their annual totals on Strava. With most people either on vacation or "working" from home in the week or two leading up to Christmas some of the usual weekday rides were extended. 

Summer in December

With Christmas and New Year's Day falling on Saturdays, that meant Holiday Giro Rides on the prior Fridays, both of which were relatively moderate in intensity compared to the regular Giro Rides. Last Sunday's Giro, the day after Christmas, turned out to be pretty race-like with a really big group and lots of intensity. Dan Bennett was in town and did a few rides with us, including this one. While I was trying to meter out my efforts in small manageable doses, Dan went all-in, staying with the lead group for the sprint at the turnaround. It kind of wiped him out for a day or two afterward, but I'm pretty sure he enjoyed every minute. 

A number of rides lately have featured some dense fog and wet roads, especially along the river. That has resulted in more flat tires. On Thursday's ride I flatted on the way out. I was toward the back so I just dropped off and changed the flat in the dark. I couldn't feel anything in the tire, but of course that just meant there was only a 50% chance I'd missed whatever caused the flat and I'd just flat again later. Which of course I did. By then there was some daylight and we found a little piece of glass embedded in the tire that was the culprit. Fortunately Danielle had given me a stack of inner tubes for Christmas.

Even though it was December, when rides are often shortened or missed entirely due to the weather or other complications, I logged 1,247 miles, which was probably one of the highest mileage months of the year. So I ended the year with 13,663 miles, about a thousand more than usual. I can only attribute that to a year with no injuries, good weather, and practically no weekend road trips.

After a fairly easy holiday Giro yesterday, this morning's New Year's Day Giro was super windy and really fast, at least on the way out. At one point out on Chef Highway Jaden dropped back and, no doubt intentionally, let a gap open. Everyone behind hesitated. Eventually I put my head down and took a hard pull at 31 mph, knowing full well that I'd probably blow up and not be able to get back on after pulling off, which is exactly what happened. I did get us close enough that a few riders were able to make the bridge back to the group, though. After such an intense ride out to the turnaround, a lot of riders were pretty tired, so the pace was relatively controlled as we made our way back down Chef Highway. Still, there were a lot of riders who were still willing to go for the Goodyear Sign sprint. Unfortunately, that resulted in a crash that took Matt, Brian and Lisa down. I think Matt probably got the worst of it. Lisa body surfed on top of him a bit, ending up with a chainring gash in her leg but relatively little road rash. All were able to ride the rest of the way in, though.

On Thursday afternoon I was sitting in the living room watching TV and randomly scrolling through Facebook on my phone when I saw a photo of a car that had driven right into a house. It had been posted by someone on the Bike Uneasy facebook page to complain about bad drivers. Then I realized that I recognized the house. I walked to the back of the house that overlooks S. Claiborne and sure enough there was a fire truck and a bunch of police cars in front of the neighbor's house. Apparently someone in a pickup truck had been pissed off at the driver of a little SUV that had just pulled onto S. Claiborne and wasn't going fast enough, so he basically forced her off the road, at which point it appears she may have pushed on the gas instead of the brake and drove right into the neighbor's house. He'd just gotten up out of an easy chair when the car crashed through the wall and landed squarely on top of that chair. Somehow the car had missed the huge oak tree by inches. The tree would have been far less forgiving than the wall. There was a baby in the car. Luckily nobody was apparently injured. A bit later a WWL TV reporter interviewed us about it and the unrestrained speeding on S. Claiborne.

Next week we'll start our annual northshore winter ride series. The current warm weather will be pushed aside tomorrow afternoon by a true cold front and morning temperatures will be pretty cold for a few days, but by the weekend it should be pretty nice. Assuming the current COVID surge resolves and nothing new pops up we are all hoping for a full road racing season in 2022. I guess the early collegiate races may still be jeopardy. Tulane has pushed back the start of the Spring semester by a week but some schools are going fully virtual until February, so we'll see how that all plays out.