Back to the Giro

It was a typical late July week - mostly hot and humid and stifling in a way that makes you want to do nothing by sit on the couch and drink cold sugary things that you know you shouldn't be drinking while contemplating all of the things you should be doing but aren't. A week ago Wednesday morning I'd gone out to meet the WeMoRi as usual, getting onto the tail end of the fast-moving string that turned out to be only the front part of the already decimated group. I was still near the back and practically on my limit from the sudden acceleration as we went around the corner onto Wisner where the accordion effect took me immediately from 28 mph down to 17, requiring a full-throttle sprint to close gaps that got me back up to 28 mph but did not actually close the gap. I blew up, throttled back, cut across the park at Harrison and soon jumped right back into the deep end on Marconi at Toussant. By then I was at least warmed up a bit so staying with the group was feasible. 

Friendly Friday was friendly enough, and all I had on my dance card for the weekend were two Giro Rides. The day before I'd seen a report that the Seabrook bridge was open again, albeit one lane only, so that would at least make the route a little less complicated than it had been for the past month. Still, turnout was a little low since some people have started riding the earlier SaMoRi at 6:30 in an effort to avoid some (actually very, very little) of the heat. That didn't really make it much slower, at least on the way out where the average speed was probably close to 27 mph. As has been happening lately, the return trip was considerably slower, I guess because by then the temperature was probably around 90° and the heat index was probably pushing 100°. 

Bad sign

I figured that Sunday would be similar, which indeed it was. The weather forecast for the morning was calling for thunderstorms starting around 10 am. It felt just a bit cooler when we started out, and although I don't think the speed was faster than Saturday's, I was doing a bit more work so it felt like maybe a little more of a workout for me. When we turned onto Hayne Blvd. on the way back the sky to the west was black and I knew that we were about to get wet - really wet. Soon it started raining really hard and for a moment I wondered if we'd end up hiding in the abandoned container underneath the Casino bridge like we had when the same thing happened about a month ago. Indeed, the ride over the Seabrook bridge was in an absolute deluge, but by then everything was completely soaked with water anyway so there was no point in stopping. Coming down the bridge I swung right onto Lakeshore Drive while most others went straight onto Leon C. Simon. Between the traffic, stop lights, and sharp-edged potholes on Leon C., I kind of hate taking that route even if it's a bit shorter. By the time I turned off of Lakeshore Drive the weather had eased up to just a steady light rain. Later that day I picked up a 50 pound bag of concrete to finish fixing a little section between the house and garage that I'd started a couple of weeks early but had not had quite enough concrete to finish. Well, I soon discovered that 50 pounds of concrete doesn't go quite as far as I thought, so I'll have to get one more bag to finally finish it off.

Monday's Mellow Monday ride turned out to be decidedly non-mellow but somehow most everyone stayed together anyway. The heat felt just a little less oppressive, at least. I was mainly focused on doing as little work as possible anyway. 

On Tuesday we had a nice little group that did the levee ride out to Ormond and back at a remarkably steady speed in the 23 mph range that felt like it required a lot more effort on the way back than it had on the way out. Somewhere out there I saw a text message on my Garmin from Candy telling me I might have trouble getting into the basement. The Garmin only shows a limited number of characters on the screen but I surmised that there was a road crew working on the street. I had seen the heavy equipment staged out there when I'd left in the morning. By the time I got home they were punching  holes through the road, breaking up the old asphalt and shaking the hell out of the house.

DESTRUCTICON

I soon decided it might be a good day to work from home just in case there were any surprises. We hadn't had any advance notice that they would be shutting down the street, unless you count the knock on the door that Candy got around 7 am telling her to move the car. At least there was a full-size crew on  hand, so by afternoon they had removed all of the asphalt and top layer of dirt on the block and were starting to lay down the underlayment and cover it with fresh dirt. How long it will be before we have a paved street and don't have to park a block away, of course, is anyone's guess. 

Charley keeping a watchful eye on the road work outside the window

This morning's WeMoRi was remarkably moderate compared to the past few weeks since a few of the usual instigators were absent. That at least encouraged me to put in a couple of brief efforts for a change. The road work crew was already hard at work on the street when I arrived home, so it will be interesting to see how much progress they have made by the time I get back from work. Tomorrow I have to bring the car to the body shop to get the damage to the mirror and door repaired. With my $1k deductible I'll be paying for almost all of the work, of course, and we'll be without a car probably through Monday, although the estimated three days. I'd like to get out to a northshore ride or somewhere that isn't flat one day next weekend, so that could throw a monkey wrench into the works.

A Bit of Recovery

Monday Morning on LSD

I was drifting off the back of the strung-out single paceline of the Saturday northshore ride, thinking to myself, "I think I'm going to need some serious recovery time next week" as we rolled down Lee Road toward 1072. I had been struggling with the pace, which admittedly was quite high, from the start and was pretty sure I knew why. 

A solid month

My last day off the bike had been the first weekend in June when I was officiating the Tour de La, and since then had done a number of fast training rides back-to-back. Everyone says that as you get older you need more recovery time, and although I think that advice sometimes gets blown a little bit out of proportion, it's not entirely untrue. Saturday's "Pine Loop" ride was just shy of 60 miles, but with it starting at the Lee Road playground I knew it would be all rolling hills. I also knew it would be fast. That's just the kind of ride I wanted, even though the little Strava voice in my head kept whispering something about accumulated stress. It didn't take long for the pace to ramp up once we turned onto Lee Road from Tung and Peyton went to the front. Somehow I found myself on his wheel as the speed settled around the 27 mph along the slight uphill drag toward the Firetower. The whole time I could see my heartrate, which had been a little high from the start, creeping upward despite my best efforts to exploit whatever slim draft all 115 pounds of 16-year-old Peyton, decked out in his national championship jersey, was providing. As we approached the long downhill to the Bogue Chitto I figured it might be a good time to pull over and seek some better shelter at the back of the 7 or 8-rider string behind us. My timing couldn't have been worse. With my Check Engine light already flashing red, the paceline hit the downhill just as I was dropping back, streaming past about five mph faster than I was going, and despite ramping it up to 34 mph I never caught any of the draft that I so desperately needed. I backed off to recover a bit, hoping that the group would pause at the intersection in Enon long enough for me to rejoin it. As the road flattened out I saw Peyton dropping back to pick me up and pace me back to the group, which was nice.

Up by Pine we did a nice short loop that I hadn't done in a long time. It wasn't quite as hilly as I remembered it, so I think we probably used to go a little farther before coming back into Pine back in the day. I remember one race that we put on that started around Pine. It was back in the early 70s and must have been in the middle of the summer because it was super hot that day. This was before feed zones and electrolytes and big water bottles, and it was probably supposed to be 80 miles or so, which was typical back then. I say "supposed to be" because what was left of the lead group made a decision to unilaterally shorten the race by one lap. The people at the finish line were a little surprised when we sprinted for the finish when they fully expected us to be doing another lap. Anyway, I digress....

OK, OK, I get it.

So I was still hanging on after we stopped at the store in Pine and headed back toward Enon and was feeling OK but was still not quite firing on all cylinders despite skipping pulls and generally trying to limit my efforts. Not far from 1072 on Lee Road there's a little hill near the church where I came off the back, again. Fortunately MJ turned around and paced me back the last mile or so to where everyone was waiting at 1072. Under the circumstances I was fully expecting to be riding alone by the time I was halfway up the firetower climb, but as it turned out everyone just rode that at a nice steady tempo, so at least we rolled back into the parking lot together. 

I figured the Sunday Giro wouldn't get too crazy. With the Seabrook bridge still out, the ride doesn't get a nice long stretch of road without intersections until we get to Almonaster, and between the heat and the alternate route the group size has been smaller than usual anyway. For me, this ride was an exercise in wheelsucking and energy conservation. I had already decided that my next couple of rides, at least, would be strictly Zone two-ish even if that meant, which I knew it would, dropping off the back at times to enforce the recovery goal. There were only a few people on the ride who were pushing the pace, so in general it was a pretty easy Giro, which worked out perfectly for me.

Checking Strava later that day I realized how long it had been since I'd taken a day off the bike, and then when I looked at what Strava calls my weekly "Relative Effort" the screen was red and included the word "historic." 

So with that confirmation of my own gut feeling I went out to the Mellow Monday ride on my old Cervelo with strict self-instructions to keep the pedal pressure light no matter what. When the speed ramped up on the way back down Lakeshore Drive I slipped off the back and spun in the rest of the way to Canal Blvd. before getting back into the group. It wasn't quite the "active recovery" it should have been, but close enough I guess. Actually, my legs felt fine, so apparently Sunday hadn't inflicted any discernable additional damage. Still, I knew I should take at least one more day easy, so I went out to the Tuesday levee ride with a plan to take only short pulls and to drop off the back somewhere on the way out to soft-pedal for a few miles before turning around and latching back onto the group on its way back. The "group" turned out to be just three of us after the usual suspects turned back at Williams Blvd., but fortunately neither Martin or Charles was pushing the pace much, so I was able to keep my efforts under control, pulling off from the front once my heart rate nudged above 130 bpm and watching it drop back down to around 110 in the draft. 

I guess I'll see how I'm feeling tomorrow morning and then play the WeMoRi by ear.

Mileage Insanity

July 4th Giro meetup

It's officially mid-summer around here and so by now the 82°F, 90% relative humidity pre-dawn morning air is starting to feel positively cool despite the little rivulets of sweat running down your face and dripping onto the top tube. On the plus side, it looks like we are getting into our regular summer weather pattern with gradually increasing clouds during the day culminating in afternoon thunderstorms. That at least cools thing down just a little bit, although sometimes at the expense of even higher humidity. Riders are going through insane amounts of water, often spiked with some sort of electrolyte mix, even on the shorter weekday rides, some of which are starting earlier and earlier in the morning. So ... situation normal.

Tuesday was July 4th, and so of course there was a "holiday Giro." The Seabrook bridge is still out, and although it was originally scheduled to be re-opened a couple days ago, they sent out an announcement saying it would be another two to three weeks because of "unanticipated structural issues." The alternate route we've been taking isn't quite a good and includes a few places where the road is perpetually flooded because the Sewerage & Water Board doesn't seem to feel any great sense of urgency when it comes to fixing long-standing water leaks in out-of-the-way locations. Even so, there was a good enough turnout on Tuesday that included Rachael (aka Red) in town from Texas, and Tim who seems to be getting back into consistent riding. As we rounded the sharp corner at the bottom of the Danziger bridge people started yelling about a flat that turned out to be Barry's. I turned around just before the spot where the road is flooded and could see him at the bottom of the bridge so I rode back over to see if he needed help, which he did. Although he was riding regular tires with tubes, the tire bead was stuck like glue to the rim and no amount of thumb force could dislodge it. It wasn't even possible to get a tire tool in there. After spending an inordinate amount of time, during which the statute of limitations ran out and the rest of the group headed out, I finally got out my little pocket knife and managed to get the screwdriver blade in there. Once I got one little section away from the rim the rest was easy. Of course by then we were ten minutes behind the group so Barry just sat on the front (he was on his Tri bike) with me on his wheel and one or two others behind me and basically towed us all the way down Almonaster and most of the way down Chef until we saw the group on its way back and could get back in. It turned out to be a decent enough workout, actually, since drafting off of a Tri bike isn't quite like drafting off of VJ.

Wednesday's WeMoRi was fairly typical. I'd somehow gotten myself out the door a little earlier than usual and so arrived at Lakeshore Drive a bit ahead of the group. They swept me up around Elysian Fields at 29 mph where I inserted myself into the paceline. It was fast but things were going along fine until there was a split as we crossed Toussant on Marconi after the "backdraft" sprint. The back half of the group hesitated just a bit too long and the front didn't ease up as it often does. There was a brief but intense effort to close the gap that failed, so despite maintaining a decent speed we never got very close. That evening Charles came over so we could pull his bottom bracket that he thought was going bad. It turned out to be fine, and we soon figured out that the horrible noises he'd been hearing were coming from his relatively new rear Zipp hub. Off the bike it seemed OK, but once clamped into the frame there was all sorts of drag on it and you could see that the freehub wasn't staying parallel with the bike as it turned, so the diagnosis was that "the hub is broken." He later took it to someone who took it apart and found that, basically, the bearings had just kind of blown up. That wheel is on its way back to Zipp and in the meantime he bought a new one. They sent him the 11 speed version instead of the 12 speed version but at least by the weekend he had a functional rear wheel again.

Thursday's levee ride was the last for Brandon who was heading back to California until at least next spring.

Saturday heading out on Stafford Road

By Friday I'd decided to skip the Saturday Giro and go across the lake to what I was sure would turn out to be a ruthless beating consisting of about 70 miles with Peyton and Lisa and a bunch of the faster riders. I wasn't disappointed. We started at St. Benedict's church on Smith Road at Stafford, near where the old Priory used to be where lots of our races and rides started back in the 70s. Now there's a little subdivision and church retirement home where there used to be cattle, and the old church that had been a little farther down Smith Road has been replaced by much bigger one with a parking lot at the corner. Anyway, after a little warmup on Stafford we got onto Million Dollar road and Peyton went to the front and towed everyone at 25-30 mph for about ten miles as I hung onto the back still trying to get the engine firing on all cylinders. After turning onto 437 I found myself on Peyton's wheel for a while and with my heart rate starting to head into dangerous territory I decided survival was the better part of valor and dropped back to the safety of the slightly more substantial draft at the back of the dozen or so riders. I could tell it was going to be a fast and aggressive ride, so I figured I'd stay as protected as possible for a while until things settled down a bit, which they eventually did. At one point before we turned onto Wardline Road a little gap opened up that split a few of us off the back for a few miles. Wardline was kind of a minefield of potholes and patches but at least there wasn't a steady stream of gravel trucks, and as bad as the road was, it was better than it had been the last time I'd ridden it when nothing had been repaired and there were random sections of sand and gravel. Anyway, we all regrouped at the store stop at 44 miles. 

Saturday's store stop at 44 miles - getting hot

I don't think the speed had ever dropped much below 25 mph since Million Dollar Road, so everyone seemed happy to take a little break. After that the pace stayed fast the rest of the way in. It was one of those rides that Strava called "Historic Relative Effort." Average speed was 23.7 mph, with a "best 20 minute heart rate" of 156 bpm and a max of 174. Even so, I felt pretty good at the end and thought I'd managed my effort well while still getting a workout similar to what I'd have gotten in an actual race.

Sunday morning double paceline

So feeling pretty good after Saturday's ride I went ahead and decided to make the drive over to around Biloxi for a long 115 mile ride that Alison had put together. This one was definitely not going to be fast, so I figured I should be able to survive it despite the lingering effects of Saturday's effort. For this one we had nine riders on hand for the start. For me it would be kind of an insane version of a recovery ride. I knew I could keep my effort and heart rate low and under control with this group, so the only real concerns would be the distance and the heat. Fortunately, we would be stopping at practically every store along the way so staying hydrated was never much of a problem for me. 

It felt absolutely cool as we started off heading north at 6:00 am, forming up into a double paceline. For most of the ride the pace stayed in the general neighborhood of 20 mph, although one or two riders occasionally pushed it up a couple of mph. At first that didn't cause much of a problem, but I knew that it would eventually. We took a number of rather long breaks at stores where people were getting cold water, cold drinks, food, and at one point a jar of pickles. I bought a couple of Cokes along the way and re-filled bottles but never got close to running out of fluids. I'd had to leave home at 4 am to make the drive, so I was already well into caffeine withdrawal by the time the ride started and wasn't feeling all that great. I wondered if maybe I'd bitten off more than I could chew after that hard ride on Saturday, but after a cold Coke at the second store stop I started feeling a lot better. 

As usually happens, by the time we were over 70 miles in some riders were starting to wilt a bit. The temperature by then was pretty high and although the ride was mostly pretty flat, this section of the ride was a little more hilly that the rest. As a result, there were a few time when the group came apart without the riders at the front knowing it, but each time they'd eventually slow down to regroup. This was not the kind of ride where you wanted to leave anyone out on the course alone. 

With all of the store stops and everything I was feeling better than expected over the last 25 miles or so, but then again I had expected to be feeling pretty bad, so... Joe Paul was spending more and more time on the front as the miles wore on. I guess we were maybe ten or fifteen miles from the end when it started to rain. Other than the wheel spray, the rain was kind of nice, washing away some of the sweat and salt and making it feel a little cooler. Over the last half hour or so the rain kind of came and went and came again, and just after we got back to the cars the sky opened up once more so everyone rushed to throw everything into their cars which kind of limited the usual after-ride chit-chat. Alison, Joe Paul, and I think one other still had to ride another ten miles or so to Alison's house from which they'd started. Just before I left I checked Google maps and it was showing over an hour delay on I-10 where they have just started work to repair a bridge or something. I called home to let Candy know I'd be later than expected, and headed out with a plan to stop for some fast food before deciding what to do about the traffic situation. Shortly after getting onto I-10 the rain got really heavy in a dangerous sort of way, so I stopped at a Wendy's right off the interstate to wait it out and in the meantime had Waze route me to home. Not surprisingly it routed me around the traffic delay by way of Picayune, which really added only about 25 or 30 minutes. That turned out to be better than I'd expected, so I was pack home by, I guess, around 3:30.

This morning my legs were definitely still a little sore, so I made my Mellow Monday ride as mellow as possible. After a 372-mile week following four weeks that were over 280 miles, I think it may be time for an easier week mileage-wise.

Zone 2 Sunday Miles Out of BSL

Front half of the Sunday ride paceline, somewhere in Mississippi.

It was around Friday when my back finally started to feel more or less like whatever normal is nowadays, which basically means I could bend down and put on my socks without holding onto something for support. That was good because it was a busy weekend. One of my nephews and his wife, along with their two kids, were at the house for a little visit which always entails various activities like trips to the zoo. Fortunately I was able to keep up with my usual rides while Candy kind of covered for me. That allowed me to skip the trip to the Aquarium and a few other excursions, which was nice because we were still operating under daily "excessive heat warnings" all weekend.

Looking for the WeMoRi

On Wednesday I went out to meet the WeMoRi. The right side of my lower back was still hurting any time I stood up on the pedals but as long as I could stay seated it wasn't too bad. I merged into the group as usual along Marconi where, also as usual, I went from 18 mph to 28 mph as my physiology struggled to deal with the suddenly increased demand ... rather late as usual of course. I was still way at the back when we went around the right-hand corner onto Wisner, which turned out to be a fatal mistake. The back of the group always seems to slow down way too much on that turn, maybe because the inside of the corner is festooned with entirely unnecessary flex posts. If you're at the back going around that turn you are going to have to sprint immediately after it just to stay in contact. I was still unrecovered from the effort of merging into the group, and when the back of the group slowed to 18 mph for the corner I knew it was going to be bad. It was. The accordion effect had me maxed out right away and I pretty much blew up a little while later, along with a few others. I cut across City Park before the overpass and eventually got back into the group.

Thursday's ride didn't get off to a very good start. As I worked my way around the dangerous tracks at the streetcar barn on my way out to t he levee I suddenly heard the air escaping from my rear tire, accompanied by a loud "whack, whack, whack" of a big nail that was stuck in the tire. I hit be brakes hard to minimize the damage to the frame, which actually set off the Garmin incident detection alarm. I came to a quick stop, turned off the alarm before it started calling for help, and looked down to find a four-inch nail sticking out of the tire. I sent a quick text to Charles to let them know I wouldn't be meeting them for the 6 am start. So I had a nice easy ride up the river, eventually finding the group on its way back about a mile short of the Luling bridge.

Friendly Friday - last ride of June

Friday's Friendly Friday ride was, for a change, a legit recovery ride, which was definitely a good thing for me. The heat and humidity was still pretty intense and I think everybody who has been riding in it for the past two weeks was feeling the need for a little break prior to the weekend. I know I was. My back was finally starting to feel like it was getting better, but it wasn't quite up to considering picking up that sack of concrete mix I need yet. Friday night I installed a new 53t chainring. The old one came with the Campi Record crankset I'd installed 47,000 miles ago. It was pretty badly worn and when turning the cranks while on the workstand you could feel how rough it had become. For good measure, I also installed a new Campi Record 11 chain. The result was a very noticeable improvement in smoothness. Not so much in speed!

I knew Saturday's Giro Ride was going to be on the small side thanks to the heat and the continuing closure of the Seabrook bridge. Still, it seemed pretty fast once we got onto Almonaster and stayed fairly fast all the way out to Venetian Isles. I was still being a little cautious with my back, especially since I was seriously considering doing an early morning 80+ mile ride out of Bay St. Louis on Sunday. That ride was supposed to be a nice Zone-2 affair, which was just what I felt I needed in order to make sure I didn't have any setbacks with regard to my back. Shortly after getting home I was off to the Zoo to meet up with everyone. They had already been there for about an hour and a half, and we were all supposed to go to the "Cool Zoo" from 2-5 pm. Needless to say, it was hot. Also needless to say I was still a little dehydrated and tired. Fortunately I got there right as they were all ready for lunch and then was able to sit in the shade with a cold drink while the rest of the crew rode the little zoo train around to the swamp exhibit and back. After that we were off to the Cool Zoo section where I managed to avoid sticking my head out from under the umbrella at the table. Apparently the water in the "lazy river" was so hot that people were getting out of it early and the staff were considering closing it down for the day. The kids had a blast, though. We finally headed back home a little before 5 pm. By then I'd pretty much decided I'd be able to do the Bay St. Louis ride since the relatives were planning on leaving in the morning anyway.

Sunday's ride was scheduled to start at 5:45 am, so with the hour drive that meant a 4:30 am departure from home. At least we'd be a couple of hours into the ride before it got really hot. I arrived at the little park where the rides start to find Steve M, Charles, Brandon, Alison ( who recently moved back to the area from TX), and Robert B who was on his Trek e-bike. I was looking forward to the ride since it seemed perfectly designed to give me a nice long ride without any fast steep climbing. As usual with these rides I was glad I'd loaded the route onto my Garmin because I still don't know the roads around there very well, and in this case I'd be on some roads I hadn't been on before. The ride went nicely according to plan. Thanks to the early start, the first couple of hours didn't involve too much in the way of heat stress, plus we made a long store stop after only an hour and a half or so. We were at about 66 miles by the time we made our second store stop, and by then it was getting seriously warm and my water supply was getting seriously low. I downed a bottle of powerade or something and refilled both bottles with cold water, so was feeling fine by the time we headed out for the last twenty miles. I'd brought along a packet of Skratch gummies and had started with Skratch electrolyte mix in one of my bottles, so I was in pretty good shape since the pace had been nice and steady the whole time. We finished the 84 miles with an average speed of just over 20 mph, so although it was pretty hot by the end I wasn't feeling too terribly toasted, although the inside of the car was probably around 120°F at that point. Afterward we stopped for lunch at a little place over around Long Beach.

This morning's Mellow Monday ride started out pretty mellow, although the pace definitely picked up on the way back along Lakeshore Drive. It never too too intense, though, so I think I can still call it a recovery ride thanks to staying in the draft almost the entire time. Hopefully the weather will start shifting back to seasonal normal this week. We could definitely use some of those afternoon showers to cool off the rooftops and keep the foliage alive.