Summer Pattern

Friendly Friday

Although most of last week was abnormally hot and dry even by New Orleans standards, by Sunday it looked like things were starting to settle back into the more typical summer weather pattern. On the plus side, that means a daily chance of scattered thunderstorms to cool things down a bit. On the minus side it also means no huge blob of high pressure to protect us from storms and hurricanes coming out of the Gulf. Indeed, there are already three disturbances that are being tracked out there - two with relatively low chances of development but one with a high chance. The models are currently keeping that one well south of the Gulf, but then again, it's early.

Sunday Giro starting back from Venetian Isles

Last week was just a series of really warm but mostly uneventful group rides here in the city. They all seemed a little harder than they should have, as rides on hot summer days always seem to. 

Summer Pattern

For some reason the Saturday Giro was particularly fast. I'm pretty sure there was a bit of a race going on among a handful of riders up at the front, where I definitely wasn't. We had a significant west northwest wind, and as a result our average speed from the time we hit Hayne until the turnaround out at Venetian Isles was 28.2 mph with a max a bit over 34. Even sitting in the group that was a significant effort. On the way back we were more in the 25-28 mph range, and as always the headwind made it seem easier as long as you stayed in the wheels and off of the front. We were just about to Fortier Blvd. and starting to ramp up for the drag race to the Goodyear sign sprint when I saw Richie sit up with a flat. He was already toward the back and nobody was stopping, so I eased over and went back to help out. It was still a long way back into a headwind and it would have been a pretty miserable slog alone. So he got the flat fixed and we rode back together, which must have looked almost comical since he's about the tallest rider in the group and I'm about the shortest. Anyway, he continued on to the west when I turned off at Marconi. A minute later I thought to myself, "Damn, I should have given him a spare tube and CO2." I'd noticed he had only the one spare back when he fixed his flat. As it turned out, he didn't even make it to Canal Blvd. before he had another flat and ended up calling someone for a ride home. As I made my way town Norman Francis, sucking the last drops of electrolyte solution out of my water bottle, I came across Joe who mentioned he was supposed to be helping a few people do a practice duathlon out around Audubon Park later that day.

Charley

By the time I got home and took a quick shower the dog, who now thinks he should be taken for two-mile walks in the park on a daily basis, was already harassing me so I threw him in the car and drove over to Audubon Park where we could take a long walk under the oak trees. Halfway around I hear, "Hey Randy, is that you?" It was Joe sitting under an oak tree with water and stuff waiting for his people to arrive at the ad hoc transition area. As I stopped to chat Keith Andrews, who was riding around the park, also stopped by. So ultimately the word for the day on Saturday was "dehydration." I spent the rest of the day drinking whatever cold fluids I could lay my hands on. Thankfully, the dog was good and worn out.

Sunday's Giro, although it featured pretty much the same wind conditions as Saturday, was considerably more civilized, which is to say I wasn't hanging on for dear life quite as frequently. Later in the afternoon we took the dog for a long walk in City Park, followed by a much-needed stop at the coffee shop on the Lafitte Greenway for an iced coffee.

Finally wore him out

This morning, Monday, there were a few light scattered showers around in the morning. I aired up the tires on the old Orbea and rode that bike just in case the roads were wet so that I wouldn't be risking a puncture on the somewhat nicer tires on the Bianchi. Only four of us showed up at the start, joined a little later my Mark M, so we had a pretty nice ride. There were a few light raindrops here and there, but really nothing that was enough to get the pavement really wet. This time of year I almost welcome a little rain shower now and then. At any rate, the cloud cover kept the temperature, but definitely not the humidity, down to more tolerable levels than it had been for the prior week, so that was good.