Summerish

Waiting for the Seabrook Drawbridge
 Easter Sunday

The Sunday Giro had, somewhat uncharacteristically, stopped en masse at the red light on Bullard at Hayne when I looked over at the rider next to me and remarked, "This is the hottest I've been on a ride this year." That wasn't to say that is was the kind of mind-numbing soul-sucking mid-summer heat that I knew was yet to come, but still, I think we were at a bit of a seasonal turning point. Back at home I found myself thinking it was about time to stash the long tights and long-sleeve jerseys and winter gloves and such somewhere in the back of the kit drawer for the duration.

Somewhere north of Pass Christian. Brandon, Colin, Charles, Steve.

A week ago Sunday a few of us went over to Pass Christian to meet Steve Martin for a 70-miler. I was looking forward to a break in my steady diet of local group rides, and the weather was looking like it would be excellent, which in fact it was. Well, unless you count that headwind on the way back. Anyway Steve, Colin, Charles, Brandon, and I had a pretty great ride in the country where everyone was on the same page, which kept the pace smooth and steady. There wasn't a cloud in the sky, and with a light tailwind as we headed north from the coast, all seemed right with the world as each of us took long pulls at moderate effort levels. In its own way, the ride was a kind of recovery ride in that there wasn't much in the way of intensity unless you count the last 20 miles or so into an increasing south wind.

Friday

This week it was kind of back to the routine except for Thursday. Monday and Tuesday were certainly routine, anyway. Wednesday morning, however, greeted me with a 17 mph south wind, which made the ride out to meet the WeMoRi easy enough. As usual, I merged into the string of little headlights along Marconi, a bit surprised at how few there were. I guessed that the crosswind along the lakefront had shattered the group and there was another group somewhere behind. As it turned out, I was wrong about that. On the plus side, the smaller group made for a better workout. I was happy to put in the extra effort because the forecast for Thursday morning was calling for rain. Indeed, it was too wet to ride that morning, although the weather cleared up nicely later in the day. Fortunately the Tulane group was planning a 5:30 levee ride, and with things already winding down at the office ahead of Easter weekend I was able to make it out to that one, where I also needed to hand off a BikeReg check to Joey for deposit into the TUCA account. 

The weekend was really nice. For me, temperatures in the upper low to mid-80s are always the most comfortable. It was also Paris-Roubaix weekend, featuring the first women's Paris-Roubaix on Saturday, followed by the classic men's race on Sunday. Although GCN, to which I subscribe because it's the cheapest, couldn't carry those races live because other pricier services had exclusive rights to them, they did show really nice 30-minute highlights later in the day which I thought was perfect. Back at home, it was another double-Giro weekend for me. I had started out on Saturday thinking I might add some extra miles before going home, but by the time I was back on Lakeshore Drive I was more than ready to call it a day. It always seems to take a couple of weeks to get used to the warmer summer temperatures and I never seem to eat or drink quite enough on the Giro rides. I'd brought along a bit of HammerGel that I did have a the turnaround, so it wasn't a complete failure, but on the other hand I didn't even go through a single small water bottle.

Sunday cool-down

Sunday was Easter and of course that meant a somewhat smaller than usual Giro Ride group, not to imply that there wasn't enough willing and able horsepower to make it worthy. As I was having my pre-ride coffee at Starbucks David Schreffler appeared, decked out in patriotic garb. I hadn't seen him in years since he moved to St. Louis. He was in town visiting some family and then heading down to Tampa where he is expecting to move soon. Despite the smaller than usual turnout, the ride turned out to be pretty fast. I did manage to convince myself to make some efforts here and there, and as usual the warmer temperature - it was only in the mid-upper 70s I guess - agreed with me. 

Dave S

There's a race in Cuba (Alabama) next Sunday that I'm hoping to make, so I'll  have to keep that in mind this week. The masters race is only 46 miles, so it won't be like some of the long hot races of attrition we used to have on that course as part of the Meridian race weekend, so I guess that's good. Or maybe not. Sometimes the shorter the race the faster and more aggressive it becomes, and given my recent tendency to get dropped on the first uphill attack, that isn't really ideal. I'll have to go back and take a good look at the course profile so I'm at least not caught off-guard this time. I had some great races on that course back in the day, especially when it was in the middle of the summer, the distance was longer, and the temperature was higher. At any rate there's stuff I'll want to pick up from Robert to have on hand for the Tour de Louisiane that we need to really get moving on since June is rapidly approaching. At least I got the event permit submitted and set up BikeReg to open registration starting today.