Easy Miles

Dustin's Birthday Ride on Sunday

It was still chilly Wednesday morning when I headed out in the dark toward the lakefront. It was one of those mornings when just getting out the door was a struggle. I guess it must have been the same for most of the rather diminutive WeMoRi group into which I merged along Marconi, because there was an obvious lack of either horsepower or willpower, or perhaps both. The pace remained low, at least by WeMoRi standards, although I did not hear anyone complaining about it. Thursday's levee ride turnout was a little low as well, and by the time we were past the airport it was just Rich and I. The moderate east tailwind had lured us into doing the full route, but of course that meant a long and relatively slow ride back down the river into an increasing headwind. I guess part of the motivation for doing the full ride, in spite of there being only the two of us, was that the forecast for Friday morning was calling for thunderstorms.

So I was a little surprised when I awoke Friday morning and found dry streets and weather radar that I interpreted to mean we'd probably get the entire Friendly Friday ride in before the rain. Perhaps I should have studied the morning weather a little more. I showed up at City Park to find only Mitchell, which was a clear indication that we were the only ones who had misread the meteorological crystal ball. We headed out anyway, riding at an easy pace, but still fully expecting to stay dry. That expectation was soon drowned when we made the loop around the Armory. Heading back toward the west we could now see, and hear, the lightning and thunder of a rapidly approaching storm, and within a minute or two we could feel the first raindrops falling. I was still holding some hope that the rain would remain light, but we decided to turn early and head straight down Wisner to shorten the route. By then the light rain had gotten heavier, and by the time I was heading back home along Norman Francis it had become a torrential downpour. The street was already starting to flood as the water finally soaked through my shoes and wool socks, and by the time I got home I was thoroughly soaked. I went inside, poured the remaining water out of my shoes, and jumped into a nice hot shower. Oh well, at least we tried.

Adding miles after the Saturday Giro. North wind eschelon.

Saturday was a Giro Ride day, and as Giro Rides have been going lately since the Seabrook bridge has been closed, it was anybody's guess which route we would be experimenting with that morning. This time we took Lakeshore Drive down to Press and Congress Drive to get to the Danziger bridge, and then just stayed on Chef Menteur rather than switch over to Almonaster. It worked out OK, but of course everyone missed the long fast stretch on Hayne. On the way back the group was kind of lazy, and a couple of people rolled off the front. Then, instead of going back to Lakeshore Drive, we stayed on Chef, dodging potholes and stoplights. Four of us then continued out to the Lake Trail in order to add some miles. It was still super windy out of the north, so most of the ride could be described with a single word - crosswind. The one exception was the stretch from Veterans to Airline on the airport road where we had a full-on tailwind that kept us at 30-31 mph the whole way with what seemed like minimal effort. The ride back down the river on the bike path was a long slog in the crosswind with tired legs that brought my Saturday mileage up above 80. 

Sunday was Dustin's birthday ride, starting up in Independence. I'd been kind of on the fence about this one, but give that the bridge closing has taken some of the luster out of the Giro, I finally decided to go ahead and commit to the 72 mile ride. I went  up with Dylan. We started with, I think, 13 or 14 riders, including Sean and Evan, and I was glad to see that the ride was going to be a fairly easy one. Even so, I was very much limiting my effort and time on the front, since I could still feel the prior day's 80 miles in my legs. The group stopped multiple times to regroup, with a long store stop at around 50 miles. It was a nice long easy ride on roads with hardly any traffic. Saturday and Sunday pushed my weekly mileage up over 300, but of course most of it was fairly low intensity.

More wind on Monday

This morning we just had a few show up for Mellow Monday, no doubt thanks to the 20 mph wind. Even though nobody was trying to make the pace very fast, the northeast wind made things a bit challenging anyway. Instead of going straight home, I rode down to TUCA headquarters at University Square to meet Zion who wanted to spend some time on one of the Wattbikes in preparation for one of the USAC talent identification events he is planning to attend in California.