Backpedaling

Sunday TUCA Northshore Ride - La Tung Road

After returning from Six Gap I figured it was time for an easy week that might allow for a bit of recovery. While a 250 mile week might not seem like an easy one, it is really never about mileage as much as it is about intensity, and if anyone is an expert in minimizing intensity, it's I. After the long drive back from Dahlonega that had me back home around midnight I made the easy decision to skip my usual Monday morning ride altogether. Besides, I had an early meeting that day and was going to be a little sleep-deprived anyway, and of course my bike was still in Six Gap mode with the race wheels and 11-32 and everything. Yeah, I could have ridden the Orbea, but it just didn't seem worth the effort under the circumstances. Also my legs still hurt. 

As expected, I was not very "high-functioning" on Monday, but by Tuesday morning I was more or less good to go, so I headed out to the levee for the 6 am ride, only to find that nobody else was there. Just as well, I thought, since that way I could moderate my effort and help the recovery process along rather than possibly derail it by trying to stay with a fast group. Since I was solo and slow and had yet another morning meeting, I turned back at the Little Dip rather than go for the usual 40+ miles. Then, on Wednesday, I boldly went out to meet the WeMoRi. My legs were a lot better but still not 100% so I was definitely not going to be anywhere near the front. Of course sucking wheels at the back of the group does have its own risks. I jumped into the back of the group along Toussant and hung on with the hope that there would be enough of a lull on Wisner that I could recover from the acceleration, but wasn't quite that lucky. Subway was ahead of me and tried to close a gap when it accelerated but kind of blew up. I looked up and knew there was no way I was going to close that gap by myself, so I just sat on his wheel as we slowed down and discussed where to cut the course. So we got back in on the other side of the park and then somewhere on Lakeshore Drive the exact same scenario repeated itself and we rolled in probably half a minute behind the front group. On the plus side, I was able to pat myself on the back for not going too deep trying to chase.

Thursday morning we had some of the usual suspects up on the levee but as it turned out they all needed to turn back early for one reason or another, so once I was past Williams Blvd. I was on my own. I went ahead and did the full ride anyway, cruising at a moderate steady pace that might be described as Zone two. On Friday, instead of doing the 6 am Friendly Friday ride, which sometimes gets fast, I instead met the Tulane group for an easy 6:30 am levee ride. So with five fairly easy days behind me I figured I'd go ahead and ride the Saturday Giro.

Saturday Giro heading over the still partially closed Seabrook bridge.

Saturday's 6:30 am Giro turned out to be a pretty fast one, but the group was large so despite the fast pace I was mostly able to remain sheltered and keep my efforts short. I was still intent on doing a full week at lower than normal intensity, and felt like I was doing pretty well with that. Part of that strategy was to put together a Tulane Cycling northshore ride for Sunday. I knew we would have one or two riders who didn't have the volume to easily handle the 53 mile route I'd mapped out, even though it was not a particularly hilly one.

We rolled out of Headquarters at University Square about half an hour later than planned, but it didn't really matter since we weren't meeting anyone. I'd forgotten to put my third bike carrier on the roof, so I had two on the roof and one inside the car along with lots of wheels since the other car could just fit two bikes without front wheels. The weather was great and the air actually felt fairly cool for the first hour even though we hadn't started until 8:00. Abita Springs had most of the usual parking spaces along the fence blocked off for their weekly Farmers' Market, so we parked along the bike path where there were "business parking only" signs. Fortunately that didn't turn out to be a problem. 

The ride went pretty smoothly. Sean would up the pace when he'd come to the front which left one or two of the others struggling a bit on the little climbs. After the store stop at Enon we let Sean go on the Firetower climb in order to try and keep the rest of the group together. There were a couple of times when we  had to ease up a bit for one rider who was at that point where every little climb starts to feel like a mountain, but in general we were staying in the 18-20 mph range which was appropriate for this group. Afterward we had an early lunch at the Abita Brewpub before heading back across the lake. That afternoon I went over to Lowes and picked up (literally) a couple of sacks of concrete, once again straining my lower back, and finally finished patching up some of that broken concrete between the house and garage. It isn't very pretty, but it will suffice. Ever since the road work people tore up and subsequently replaced the road and sidewalk on the Pine Street side of the house we've had rats burrowing under the concrete in a few places. I tried this electronic rat trap that basically electrocutes rats a couple of weeks ago, and although I think one rat got zapped pretty well he unfortunately limped off to die someplace under, or in, the basement, resulting in four days of dead rat smell. I searched for the body but could never find it. Yesterday I put out rat poison in those little cat-resistant boxes, one outside the side door and the other in the garage. Hopefully the next fatalities will happen outside the house, but there are really no guarantees on that based on prior experience.

Monday Morning

This morning I went out to the Mellow Monday ride. It was fairly windy and I was feeling a little sluggish, so I mostly just followed wheels. A couple of guys were doing some work on the front but the speed was fairly controlled anyway.