Winter Blows Into Town

It was inevitable. Winter. We had somehow been avoiding the worst of it, riding around in summer kit as if it was Fall, but we knew it was coming. One way we knew was because by Wednesday morning we were starting to get tornado alerts that soon enough became tornado warnings. 

Power outages show the tornado's path

It was around 11:30 on Wednesday when I heard a few raindrops hitting the ledge outside my 6th floor window. Looking out toward the Superdome I could see that some of the banners on the lightposts had already been ripped off by the wind. Looking at the radar I could also see that the worst was yet to come, so I rushed down to my bike and made good my escape back home. By 4 pm there was a tornado ripping through sections of the westbank, eventually crossing the river to the east. A number of other tornados had already hit farther up the river as the cold front came through. It was bad and those who were hit were hit hard. Once the front moved off to the east the temperatures started to drop, and by the time I rolled out for the Thursday morning levee ride the temperature had dropped from the low 70s to the low 50s, accompanied as usual by a strong wind. The group was down to only four pretty quickly and the easily reached consensus was to turn back at the Big Dip since we were struggling to maintain 20-21 mph in the crosswind.

Friday morning the temperature was in the 49-50° range and of course it was still windy. As I rode out in the dark to the Friendly Friday ride I wondered who would show up. Surprisingly there was a pretty big group on hand. The combination of ample available horsepower and strong winter wind out on the lakefront, where the temperature was a good ten degrees warmer thanks to the lake, resulted in a ride that seemed a lot harder than you'd think it you just looked at the speed.

I went out to the Saturday Giro already feeling pretty un-recovered, which is never a good thing. The wind out by the lake was probably in the 10-15 mph range, and the temperature was in the low 50s, so turnout was lower than usual, which didn't mean it would be easier. After the warmup along Lakeshore Drive into the northeast wind we came down onto Hayne Blvd. where someone, probably Sam, launched an attack down the left side at about five mph faster than I was going at the time. Riders streamed past on my left, leaving me just enough time to remark, "Really??" before completely blowing up without ever really catching the draft. I quickly made the executive decision to retreat and live to fight another day, giving up the chase to wait for my breathing to go from "gasping" back down to "breathing heavily." Fortunately, experience has taught me a couple of things about the Giro. For one, it probably wouldn't be that fast on the way back. For another, there are a couple of shortcuts. So I turned off of Hayne onto Read Blvd. where I enjoyed a bit of tailwind, and then worked my way over to Bullard and Chef Highway. In a rare bit of perfect timing, I came to the intersection with I-510 just as the group got there, allowing me to slip smoothly onto the back, which is where I stayed because I was not about to put my nose back into the wind at that point. As expected, the return trip was considerably easier other than the usual race to the overpass and Seabrook bridge. My legs had felt sore the whole time and I was just hoping I hadn't done too much more damage.

Skeleton crew on Sunday

On Sunday it was even colder - mid 40s - and still just as windy, and as you'd expect there was a much smaller group on hand. As we were rolling out along Marconi Howard showed up in his car, announcing that he'd left his helmet at home. Well, we weren't about to let him get away with such an excuse and so we stopped at Matt's house where VJ, who knew the combination to his garage door, pulled one of Matt's helmets off the shelf for Howard (Matt was up at Bogue Chitto riding mountain bikes, apparently). Even with Howard, though, the entire group probably numbered only ten, which was not much of a match for the unrelenting northeast wind. We did, however, manage the entire ride even though we were struggling to hold 17 mph on the way out along Hayne. The return trip featured some sections of nice tailwind, and when we got back onto Hayne things picked up quickly to around 28 mph which had my still-unrecovered legs begging for mercy.

Monday in the wind along Lakeshore Drive

This morning's Mellow Monday ride was not exactly mellow. The temperature was in the low 40s and the ENE wind on the lakefront was probably in the 12-18 mph range. The group was down to just a handful as we battled our way to the east at about 16 mph. Then, of course, we made the loop at Seabrook and were immediately going 28-29 mph. This tailwind section was actually a lot harder than the headwind had been. It's always surprised me that people will push themselves more in a tailwind than in a headwind. By the time We hit the Bayou St. John bridge I'd had about enough and pulled out of the paceline for a couple of badly needed recovery miles. My 2022 mileage total is just a tad over 12,900 right now, so it looks like I'll be over 13k miles again this year, even taking into account the really cold weather that is about to hit. Tomorrow morning is looking to be rainy ahead of the next cold front. Wednesday should be windy and not too cold in the morning, but after that things start going south and at the moment Thursday, Friday, and Saturday are showing lows slightly below freezing. The high on Christmas day will only be around 42°. 

I guess I could use a couple of rest days anyway! Meanwhile, they are finally pouring concrete for the sidewalks and driveways along Pine Street, so maybe people will have a place to park soon. Of course they have, in the process, totally destroyed the little triangular neutral ground across the street which has become a dumping ground and storage area for heavy machinery, lumber, concrete, rebar, etc., etc. With the freezing weather I am hoping that the section of water line that they ran ABOVE GROUND between my meter and the sidewalk doesn't freeze and leave us without water over Christmas. I guess I'll put some pipe insulation on it and hope for the best. The dog has recently decided that the bed in the back room is his since Candy put Christmas stuff on it.