Winterish

Almost home - Thursday

Along with morning temperatures in the 40s come the time-consuming pre-dawn wardrobe decisions that usually involve substantial amounts of compromise. I usually opt for warmth right out the door, knowing full well that I'll be over-dressed an hour or so later. Or not. It depends on things like cloud cover, wind speed, ride pace, what riding clothes are still clean enough to pass the smell test, and probably the phase of the moon. Suffice it to say, it's a roll of the dice every time. To make matters worse, selecting (and often finding) what to wear, and pulling on layer after layer, takes up valuable time, especially when the gap between the alarm time and ride time is in the 15-minute range, as it always seems to be.

Wednesday morning featured a stiff north wind, and as often happens the clothing decision matrix delayed my departure for a few extra minutes. With every intention of expediting my ride out to meet the WeMoRi group, I put my head down, shifted up a cog, and then managed to catch every single red light along the way. By the time I reached City Park I knew I was running dangerously late and would have to implement Plan B, which is to turn onto Toussant rather than go all the way to Lakeshore Drive. I made a U-turn at Marconi and headed east waiting to be scooped up by whatever was left of the group, which I figured would be smaller than usual thanks to the wind and all. Fortunately there were enough bodies that when I latched onto the back halfway down Marconi there was enough draft and a slow enough pace to allow for the necessary physiological adjustments. Somewhere in the group was Big Red, and at some point Ice Cream Man, but lots of regulars were still missing. I wasn't complaining. I have a hard time pushing myself when it's cold and windy, so despite the moderate pace I was still doing my best to stay in the draft. Toward the end, that draft was directly behind Jaden, who made a surge after the bridge, pulling us past the overly optimistic riders who had launched way too early. He urged me to go past at the end, so I felt obligated and did.

Friendly Friday - regrouping on Canal Blvd.

Thursday morning's levee ride was just plain painful for me. It happens some times. I was cold the whole time, my legs were hurting, my neck was hurting, and my back was hurting. It was just Charles, Rich and me for most of it, and the return trip was largely into the wind, which didn't help. Had I been out there by myself, I would surely have turned back early and limped home at 14 mph. It's an open question whether that would have actually been the better option anyway.

So on Friday the temperature was a little warmer and the wind had died down a lot, which meant a nice turnout for the Friendly Friday ride, to which I arrived with about 20 seconds to spare. The ride itself was relatively civilized, so when we were coasting down the overpass toward the end, I was a little surprised that Dylan wasn't with us. Then, as I turned into the park I got a text from him. He'd flatted both tires out at the Elysian Fields traffic circle, and so needed another tube, so I immediately turned around and headed back out there. 

We got that fixed, even though the valve extender I had was missing the threaded part and was basically just an aluminum cylinder. Somehow it worked well enough that we got the tire inflated, though, so all was good. Later that evening when I had my bike up on the stand I discovered that I'd completely worn through the rubber in one spot on my rear tire and was quite lucky to have made it back home myself. Those tires had over 8,000 miles on them, so I guess I got my money's worth out of them. Fortunately I  had a pair of Michelins I'd taken off of my race wheels before Nationals because there was a little bit of sidewall damage on one of them, so I put those on.

Saturday Fog

The weekend weather was a little sketchy. Saturday morning there was a dense fog advisory. Although the temperature was still reasonably warm at around 60°, the fog was pretty thick and the roads quite damp. As it turned out we had enough to make a quorum and headed out into the patchy fog. I think a few people turned back early. It wasn't until we were practically all the way to Venetian Isles that the fog started to lift. Before that, visibility was dangerously low in some places. It was pretty good ride, though, even if it never got really fast.

Sunday was cooler with damp streets from some overnight rain showers and a hefty 29 mph northwest wind at the lakefront that was gusting to 36. I sat at Starbucks wondering if anyone was going to show  up under the circumstances. An early arrival was Constantine, a rider from Germany who was in town for a conference. Eventually more riders showed up, so we headed out into the wind with everyone doing battle with their front wheels in the crosswind. Had it not been for the wind, it would have been a great day for riding, but as it was I spent most of the time tucked in behind the biggest riders I could find.

Monday morning it was much colder and still quite windy, which not surprisingly resulted in a Mellow Monday ride of just four or five riders. Once again, the ride was mostly a battle with the wind, this time from the northeast, which kept the speed low on the way out along Lakeshore Drive. With so little available horsepower things never got very fast, but it nonetheless felt like a workout.

This morning there were five or six of us up on the levee at six-o'dark. The temperature was till in the 40s with a significant north wind, and by the time I was past Williams Blvd. I was on my own, so I just settled into an easy pace, turning around just before the Luling bridge, since I knew the headwind on the way back would cost me some time, which it did. So it was a nice smooth and easy 39 miles for me this morning, probably a couple mph slower than it would have been if I hadn't been on my own. The next few days should be windy but otherwise pretty good until the next cold front lumbers through at some point on Saturday or Sunday.