Mileage Back, Fitness Not Quite

A week ago Monday was Memorial Day, which of course meant a Holiday Giro. There was a pretty good group on hand for this one, and as Holiday Giros go, it was good, which is to say it wasn't too slow, and it wasn't too fast, and there were enough wheels available for drafting, which I definitely appreciated. The shoulder is still pretty achy, especially in certain orientations under load, and of course the lost fitness is coming back at a snail's pace. I've been doing a few little theraband exercises for the past week that I suppose are better than nothing, but it is impossible to attribute any improvement to them.

Tuesday's long ride turned out to be unexpectedly short. As usual, a lot of the group turned off at the end of Lakeshore Drive, leaving just Will T and me. The pace had been pretty fast, so I was already planning to turn around early on the lake trail - maybe at Causeway, or at the next outfall canal, but my plans were interrupted when I came down over the curb turning onto Hammond Hwy and managed to pinch-flat. As I was pumping up the tire after changing the tube I felt a sting on my ankle and realized I'd been standing in a little red ant pile. I brushed away as many as I could, but five or six of them managed to sting me anyway. At that point I just took it as a sign and headed back home.

Wednesday's WeMoRi went as it has been going for me lately. Fortunately is wasn't super-fast that day and I more or less survived, at least until the sprint started at which point I eased up and cruised in the rest of the way. The forecast for Thursday was not looking good, so I wasn't surprised to find wet streets when I awoke. I watched the weather radar for about half an hour and it looked like I might be able to squeeze in 15 miles on the levee around 6 am, so I headed out on the Cyclocross bike since it's much less prone to flats. Well, that didn't work out. The minute I got to the levee I felt the first raindrops, and looking to the west all I could see were dark black clouds, so I turned around and started riding toward Audubon Park, just barely ahead of the worst of the rain. Well, until I actually got to the park. At that point the sky opened up above and I limped back home in the pouring rain down various torn-up Carrollton streets. At least I tried, but I don't know if the 6.5 miles I logged were worth it.

By Friday the weather was much better and not surprisingly we had a pretty decent turnout for Friendly Friday. Saturday felt a little cooler and for some reason we had a really big turnout for the Giro. That, of course, meant that it was going to be a fast one. In addition to the usual instigators like Connor, Dustin, Jaden, Pirmin, Brett, TJ, etc., we also had Dan Bennet who was in town for a few days, and a pretty strong rider on a e-gravel bike that had a cassette cog that looked considerably larger than my 'cross bike's large chainring. There was a bit of a northeast wind which kept things together on the way out on Hayne Blvd., but somewhere along Paris Road, where we picked up more of a tailwind, the group split. At one point I found myself behind the rider on the e-bike as the speed crept up over 28 mph, and I started to worry that he would exceed the bike's assist limit, but somehow he gutted it out on that 40-pound bike with an impossibly low gear and flat pedals.

The return trip started with a nice bit of recovery pace until we got to the Hwy 11 intersection, after with it ramped back up to normal. With a bit of a tailwind, we averaged around 29 mph to the Interstate. Then, after turning onto Hayne Blvd. all bets were off and whoever was on the front put the hammer down. I think we averaged a bit over 30 mph to the overpass, after which the group kind of shattered with a fast group off the front between the bridges. Although there was no chance of catching, I did make a decent enough effort there, and then we were saved by the drawbridge being up, so everybody was back together for the cool-down along Lakeshore Drive. It was a pretty hard ride for me.

Sunday's Giro featured less wind and slightly fewer riders, so the pace was relatively tame, at least by the prior day's standard. That put me at 277 miles for the week, thanks to that long Monday ride, and despite the rain day and the shortened Thrusday ride. I was pretty happy with that since it was the first week I've had with relatively normal mileage and intensity in seven weeks. I feel like I'm still in a bit of a fitness hole, as some of those rides felt harder than they should have, but at least it's progress.

Dan was still in town for the Mellow Monday ride, which had a pretty big turnout and at a nice revocery ride pace, at least until the last bit. When we turned onto Wisner near the end, Dan launched off the front, forcing almost everyone to chase. Almost everyone but me. I felt like I really needed the recovery, so I didn't even make an effort.

On Tuesday there were three of us who continued out to the lake trail. Earlier, when we did a lap of Lakeshore Drive, the lake had been just pancake smooth, but as we headed west we started to pick up a significant tailwind. Without too much effort we cruised out to Williams Blvd. at around 24 mph, and then of course plodded our way back at more like 19. It was actually a significant workout.

This morning I woke up around 5 am and realized I'd forgotten to put out the garbage. With once a week pickup, and warm summer temperatures, you don't want to miss a garbage day around here, so I rushed down stairs and dragged the bin out to the street. Since I was already up, I went ahead and rode out to the lakefront earlier than usual, hitting Lakeshore Drive probably three minutes ahead of the WeMoRi group. I cruised east and made it around the Seabrook loop before being swept up by the pack that was relentlessly pushing 27-30 mph. Fortunately there were wheels available, so I hung on all the way down Lakeshore as my physiology caught up with my legs. At the turn onto Touissaint, though, there was a car that kind of split the group, forcing those of us at the back to chase back on. Unfortunately, when the rider in front of me blew up, I just couldn't close it the rest of the way, so it was just VJ and me on Wisner. We cut across the park on Zachary Taylor to Marconi and ultimately merged back into what was left of the group just before Lakeshore Drive. At that point, two riders were already off the front, a situation that did not change for the rest of the ride. Again, that was some badly needed intensity for me, even though I was in the draft throughout. 

Time Off

A rare vacation happened last week. We loaded up the car on Sunday morning, clamped the bike to the roof, and headed for the beach. Well, actually we were headed for the Pensacola airport where we were to pick up Danielle and Shannon. Naturally, their flight was delayed, which led to a long wait at the airport for us. Pensacola's airport is a pretty simple one, so there wasn't really anything to do but sit and wait for an hour or so. From there I took the shorter, slower, but more scenic route along Highway 98 through Ft. Walton and Destin, and then down "30A" out past Grayton Beach to the Seaside development where we were renting a little two-bedroom. The weather forecast for the week was looking great, with surprisingly cool mornings.

My plan for riding, if there even was one, was basically just to get out early. 30A is a simple 2-lane road without a shoulder that nowadays is lined with condos and hotels and such except around the state parks. Fortunately, there is also a separate bike lane the entire way. Unfortunately, the bike lane is full of pedestrians and dog-walkers and such, and crosses about a thousand driveways, so it's not really a comfortable place to be going fast. I was starting my rides at around 6:30 or so, and for the first hour traffic was very light, so riding on the road was fine. By my second day there I had settled on a plan of riding east first, then back west past Seaside and out to little parking lot at highway 393. The first day I had gone west to the end of 30A and run in to school traffic, so this was a better option. 

The ride east to the end of 30A and then back to Seaside, early in the morning, was great. There was practically no traffic, the air was still a little cool, and the road was fine. The speed limit varies from 25 to 45, and drivers were pretty considerate, so it wasn't much of a problem. The shoulder is still hurting, by the way. I had hoped it would be all better by the time we took this trip, but no such luck. There's something going in there, because the broken bones are definitely healed by now. Anyway, once past Seaside, I would switch to the bike path for the rest of the way out. After turning around, though, there was a little bit of shoulder along the eastbound road, so I could ride a few miles on the road there, which was much better than the bike path which was, by then, starting to pick up pedestrians, beach cruisers, and dog-walkers. None of the riding I did could be properly termed "training," of course, but at least I got in some decent saddle time.

Seaside itself is nice enough, as those kinds of developments go. The pastel colored houses are crammed together pretty tightly, but there a nice shady walkways, a couple of pools, and of course a whole shopping area that includes a little grocery and a line of faux food trucks. Not surprisingly, everything is expensive. There were hundreds of beach cruisers, many electric, along with lots of electric vehicles that look like golf carts but seat about eight and are mostly road-legal. All of that clogs up that section of the bike path and roadway.

Of course I eventually went out to the beach. There was a pretty good south wind most of the time, so it was mostly yellow or red flags. I was surprised that there were no jet skis or boats in sight. What was in sight were hundreds of beach umbrellas. Various beach chair companies have monopolies on stretches of beach, so if you bring your own, you have to set up kind of in-between developments, which was actually pretty nice. I usually dread sitting on a beach in the sun, but there was always a nice breeze, so it wasn't too bad. I did manage to get sunburn on the tops of my feet, probably because they have not seen the sun in about then years.

Barrett and Frank - We should probably add an 80+ age group now, or maybe a vintage bike category.

We had the LAMBRA time trial championship scheduled for Sunday morning, so I stayed up until registration closed on Friday night to set up the start list and results workbook and send out the start times to everyone. I guess I got to bed around 12:30 am.

The drive back on Saturday was just the reverse of the drive out, so we dropped the girls off at the airport and got back home around mid-afternoon, well before they landed in Seattle, and an even longer time before their luggage arrived.

Sunday morning we were up early to load up the car with race equipment and head over to LaPlace to put on the time trial. This year I had decided to get a new megaphone and leave the big PA system and generator at home, relying only on my little Jackery battery to power the computer and printer. Setting up, I discovered that I had forgotten to bring my USB adapter. The printer cable has the older USB connector, but the new laptop just has USB-A. Fortunately, Ty was able to make a quick run over to the LaPlace WalMart to pick up an adapter.

We had 45 registered this year, which was less than half of the turnout we used to have, but was actually a few more than last year. Everything went smoothly, which is to say nobody went to the hospital and nobody was arrested. I guess we were back home by 11:00. There was a significant breeze mostly out of the south, but we still had a couple of  times in the 53 minute range. Not bad, but still pretty far from the 49:32 course record.

Monday was Memorial Day, so we did a holiday Giro Ride. There was a decent turnout for that, considering many people were either out of town or had other plans. It felt like a fairly hard ride for me, but of course that was because I haven't had much intensity for the past seven months. I was just glad I survived it. The temperatures around here are getting pretty high - it's that time of year when I start routinely putting some sort of electrolyte mix in my water bottles. This morning I went out to the WeMoRi, jumping in at my usual spot. I was happy to hang onto the group the whole way, considering. I arrived back home hungry and soaked with sweat. It must be summer.

Easing Back In

 

It'll be six weeks on Wednesday and, yeah, the shoulder still aches, especially when my right hand is on the bars. Last week I cautiously joined a few of my regular group rides anyway. I mean, at this point you just have to do as much as you can tolerate - and maybe just a bit more. On Monday I went out and met the Mellow Monday ride for the first time in over a month. There was a bit of an easterly wind blowing, so once the group made the loop at the armory and the speed picked up, I dropped off the back, eventually rejoining them on the way back from the lakefront. The legs felt fine. The shoulder, not so much. No surprise.

On Tuesday I opted for a solo levee ride, not wanting to get sucked into anything faster than I was ready for on the lakefront. Wednesday morning was rained out, not that I had any intention of doing the WeMoRi. I was kind of stuck at home because of the weather and a meeting uptown, which worked out well because around 4:45 pm the rain stopped and I was therefore able to sneak out on the 'cross bike for a few levee miles. Then on Thursday I decided to go out and meet the 6 am group. That went nicely except that Lakeshore Drive was still flooded just east of Elysian Fields where it's always flooded because of the clogged up storm drains. The group decided not to wade across the pond, and so that shortened the ride considerably for most. On the plus side, I was able to get in a few miles of faster riding that I really needed. I ended up riding solo out along the fairly wet Lake Trail just to log some miles and quite predictably flatted thanks to the wet bike path.

I'd have liked to try Friendly Friday, but unfortunately Friday was rained out, and by rained out I mean it rained pretty much nonstop all day and into the night. 

Hope springs eternal

So on Saturday I went out to Starbucks to meet the Giro. I was still pretty unsure about my fitness, and not yet willing to endure the steady ache of the shoulder, so the plan was to drop off the back when the pace picked up on Hayne. I took the Bullard shortcut to Chef, and almost, but not quite, met up with the group again. I saw them turning onto Chef just before I got there. A few miles later I found the whole group stopped on the sholder fixing a flat, so at least I was able to ride with them the rest of the way to Venetian Isles. Somewhere along the way, Kenny B appeared in the group. Christian L was there from Oxford as well. When the speed ramped up about a kilometer before the Goodyear Sign sprint, I backed off, and a minute later passed Kenny who had pulled over onto the shoulder. I didn't know it was he as I asked, "you ok?" Anyway, the rest of the way was a rather long solo ride for me. Lakeshore Drive was still flooded in the usual spot (we had bypassed it on the way out), but since I was alone and I hate riding on Leon C. Simon, I took Lakeshore Drive anyway. As I slowly ride though the flooded part, which was about a foot deep, I saw two of those big vacuum trucks that they use to clean out storm drains. Spoiler Alert!  It was still flooded on Sunday. Also, after my Sunday ride, I pulled both tires off and drained a significant amount of water out of the rims.

So on Sunday I finally threw caution to the wind and decided to see if I could stay with the Giro the whole way. Sundays are usually just a bit slower, at least in theory. There was some significant wind, which definitely helped me, since I spent the whole time near, or on, the back of the group. I did find that I was no less uncomfortable on the drops than I was on the brake hoods. Anyway, I was happy to have stayed with the group, unless you count that segment between the bridges where I just stayed on VJ's wheel as he unsucessfully tried to close a big gap. I eventually caught back up along Leon C Simon when the front group finally eased up.

The sholder still aches whenever I have to extend my arm in front of me, as in riding the bike or even brushing my teeth, but I guess it is very slowly improving in that regard. I can still feel the broken ribs when I lie in bed, which is no surprise at all, of course. On the plus side, I think I'm OK getting back to my regular morning ride routine as long as I don't do anything crazy and am willing to tolerate a bit of discomfort.

A Week on the Road

Sunday Giro heading out on LSD

Progress has been frustratingly slow, but at least I was able to spend a full week on the road, much of which was on the road bike. I am still being very cautious, and severly limiting my time with other riders. The right shoulder muscles around the top of the scapula become quite achy when my hand is on the brake lever for any length of time. Granted, it does seem to be improving, and the pain-free range of motion is very gradually expanding, so I probably shouldn't be complaining since it's still a few days shy of five weeks. The weather, in general, has been particulary nice for riding lately, and that has definitely been contributing to my general sense of frustration.

At any rate, I did manage a full week of riding. Weekdays, except for this morning, were all on the levee, and on Wednesday I finally dusted off the road bike. There wasn't really any noticeable difference riding that as compared to the 'cross bike, at least on the levee. One thing about all these slow rides on the levee is that I've been able to enjoy watching the wildlife along the slightly flooded batture.

I've seen eagles practically every day, and of course lots of herons and ducks, and a surprising number of kildeer. There have also been a few alligators. On Friday I happened upon a rather large alligator that was "bellowing." That's a low, deep, sound they make, presumable related to mating. There was another smaller alligator cruising along right behind, so I guess it works.

Saturday morning the roads were still wet from overnight rains, so didn't go out until mid-morning. I switched back to the cyclocross bike for that. One reason was the wet streets, but the main reason was to minimize the chance of flatting on the levee bike path. Of course, by the time I was a few miles down the path the road was already drying up. It's amazing how much slower it feels on the 'cross bike compared to the road bike. Anyway, the ride was otherwise fine.

On Sunday I rode out to Starbucks to meet the Giro group, with no plans to ride farther than the end of Lakeshore Drive. Until this shoulder stops hurting I won't feel comfortable in a group at any speed that might qualify as "fast."  Hitting unexpected bumps in the road can be a little painful, and I'm not particularly confident about my bike control and braking yet. There was a big group on hand, and the weather was practically perfect, so of course I hated to turn back at the Armory. A fair number ended going out to Fort Pike that day, and it was by all accounts a really good and fast ride.

I, instead, rode out to The Wall at the west end of the lake trail and then down to I-10. I felt pretty good going out with a slight tailwind. Coming back I took it easier since thing were getting more and more achy and I was sitting up periodically to give my shoulder a break. Still, it was a great day to be out on the road, even if most of it was solo.

This morning I rode out to the Mellow Monday ride, which had a typical turnout. It was relatively cooler, like around 64 ° or so, with a significant east wind. I tagged along near the back on the way out, knowing that it would get fast once the group made the loop at the Armory and picked up the tailwind, which of course is where I dropped off the back. I am still not ready to be going 30 mph in a group, so I just cruised back to the west and picked them up on the flip side. There's rain in the forecast around mid-week. At the moment it looks like Tuesday morning might be OK, but Wednesday morning is not looking promising at all, and things won't be much better until some time on Saturday. Of course, it's a summer forecast, so we could ultimately get anything from torrential rain and floods to periods with blue skies and sunshine. Situation normal.

Outside

River's high

Last Saturday was my first day outside, on the bike, since April 2. I knew from past experience that it would be a little uncomfortable, but by then I felt the expected level of discomfort would probably be no higher than that of another hour on the indoor trainer. The typical time everyone always gives for bones to more or less heal is six weeks. Saturday was three weeks and two days, so some compromises and adaptations were definitely in order. Top priority was to not fall down, of course, but not doing more harm than good was right up there too. Fortunately, I had the 'Cross bike, currently shod with 36 mm gravel tires, and set up for a much more upright position than the Bianchi, to fall back on. The bike currently has a Redshift "shockstop" suspension stem on it, since I'd been thinking of doing a little gravel riding if I could ever find anything nearby that was worth it. So I put about 40 psi in the tires, and stepped out the door around 6:30 am, aka sunrise, on Saturday. Under the circumstances, riding in the dark is just needlessly throwing another unknown variable into the equation, especially since I would be riding alone and didn't have to worry about meeting a group or anything like that.

Not knowing which of the local streets may have been torn up or re-paved over the past few weeks, and not knowing how my shoulder was going to respond to every little bump in the road, I decided to play it safe and take Neron to Short to St. Charles to Burdette so I could cross the railroad tracks at the Corps of Engineers entrance and avoid the unknown condition of Willow and/or Oak Streets. I probably averaged 10 mph at best. The shoulder still aches when my right arm is on the bars, and even more when I lift it off the bars, and as expected I could feel every little bump in the road despite the relatively cushy tires and upright position. Still, it wasn't really much worse than being on the indoor trainer in that regard. The weather was practically perfect, which seems to be the status quo since I was injured, of course, so I ended up riding all the way out to the upriver end of Jefferson, where the levee bike path is still closed. The river is just below flood stage this week, and they've opened a little bit of the Spillway already, but it looks like the level will drop next week. On the plus side, the flooded batture attracts a lot of wildlife. On my two rides up there, Saturday and Monday, I have seen two or three eagles, a rather big alligator, a snake swimming in water, at least three types of herons, some killdeer, and occasionally some humans.

These rides are not steady, or fast, and any actual training benefit is minimal. It's more about getting comfortable on the bike and moving my legs at this point. Interestingly, riding with my hands on the drops does not seem to hurt any more than in other positions, although I spend most of my time with my hands on the tops and probably 70% of my weight on my left hand. Every couple of miles I move my right hand to the top of my thigh, which immediately relieves the otherwise ever-present dull ache. As a result, I see my speed and heart rate kind of all over the place as I shift hand positions and, occasionally, sit up entirely with both hands off the bars. Anyway, I guess it was a successful experiment in that it confirmed that I could handle being on the bike for an hour and a half without too much of a problem.

Sunday's weather was also nearly perfect, so I decided to make my way to Starbucks for the start of the Sunday Giro. I planned to ride with the group, carefully, on the Lakeshore Drive warmup segment, and then turn back at the Armory loop. That worked out nicely, so I put in a few extra easy miles on Lakeshore Drive before heading back home. It was still early on a Sunday morning on my way back, so I didn't have much traffic to deal with.

This morning I did another easy levee ride, which felt pretty much the same as the last one. Progress at this point is really slow and hardly noticeable on a day-to-day basis. What I am noticing is the return of my more usual aches and pains in my back and neck, probably made a little worse for lack of use. My right elbow occasionally hurts, but hopefully I won't end up with epicondylitis from lack of use like I did with one of my collarbone breaks. Also, the 'Cross bike just seems so slow and heavy compared to my regular road bike. The mountain bike shoes don't help in that regard, either. So I guess I will continue with this routine for the week and see how things are feeling on Friday. 

This is always such a balancing act.

Three Week Scapula Report

Definitely healing.

Today was X-ray day for me at TISM. After spending another hot and drippy hour on the trainer down in the basement, I cleaned up and walked over to TISM for my follow-up appointment. Progress seems like it has been slow, but then again, it always seems to feel that way in the third week after a broken bone. I can now, somewhat painfully and slowly, lift my right arm above my head, and it has been getting a little bit easier to  do things like sleep and pull on t-shirts. 

After four or five x-rays, I waited in the exam room for Dr. O'Brien to arrive, feeling fairly confident that there would not be any surprises. When he asked how I was feeling, I commented that I had developed a whole new appreciation for the number of muscles and ligaments that attach to the scapula. He smiled and replied, 16! He said that the scapula was healing very well, pointing out the differences between my ER x-rays and the new ones. You can see the healed collarbone from that crash at Six Gap some years back quite easily. My range of motion is good enough that PT shouldn't be necessary. The official radiology report noted the following, which I guess isn't too bad. The osteoarthritis is no surprise, considering my age and family history. The increase from 2 ribs to 4 was a little bit of a surprise, but does kind of explain the difficulty with lying down in bed. 

1. Healing comminuted fracture of the superior medial aspect of the right scapula.
2. Increased conspicuity minimally displaced lateral 2nd through 5th right rib fractures.
3. Moderate acromioclavicular and glenohumeral osteoarthrosis.
4. Corticated mineral density projects adjacent to the superior glenoid, likely loose body from scapular fracture.

As usual, he advised that things won't be really healed up until 6-8 weeks, and that of course everything won't be fully solid for a month or two after that, but in the meantime, I'm OK to get back on the road to the extent I can tolerate it, provided I don't do anything stupid, like crash. So no more follow-ups, just a gradual return to normal activity. In celebration, I pumped up the tires on the 'cross bike, which immediately reminded me that my right shoulder is still not ready for prime time. I think I may venture out for an easy ride on the levee this weekend.

Back around Christmas, the daughter had sent us a dog DNA test kit from Basepaws. It wasn't until a few weeks ago that I finally got around to swabbing Charley's gums and sending it off for analysis. That took quite a while, but a couple of days ago I got the results. Somewhat surprisingly, he matched up a little more with Labradors than "Staffordshire" Terriers, but it did confirm our suspicion that he was mainly a Lab / Pit Bull mix. Of course you can argue about the differences between "American Pit Bull Terrier" and "Staffordshire Terrier," but it seems that they largely the same, and the name depends more on whether you are in the U.S. or England. Interesting, though, and he didn't show any worrisome health traits, so that was good.

Reluctant Riding

Not exactly scenic

Well, it'll be three weeks next Wednesday since my unfortunate accident, and my perception of progress seems to have reached a bit of a plateau. For the most part, the ribs and scapula and whatever else was damaged don't bother me much as long as I'm vertical, and don't have to lift my right hand above the shoulder. Unfortunately that includes things like brushing teeth, shaving, and pulling on T-shirts. None of that is unexpected, of course. Lying horizontally in the bed is still pretty unconfortable, especially since I hate sleeping on my back.

So last Monday I decided it was time to climb onto the old Orbea, mounted on the even older wind trainer, and at least move my legs. It does still hurt with my hands on the bars, even with most of the weight on the left hand, but it's not intolerable. Every now and then I'll sit up to give it a little rest. Anyway, I at least managed to ride a little bit each day this week, accumulating a weekly total of 98 miles, keeping in mind that mileage on a trainer doesn't really mean much, intensity is low, and sweat volume is high. I've mostly been watching whatever cycling videos I find on YouTube to minimize the boredom. It doesn't seem like it would be worth setting up Zwift or Rouvy, since I'm not really inclined to put much intensity into my rides at this point.

Yesterday I got the Bianchi more or less back in shape. It suffered surprisingly little damage. The bottom of the right handlebar near the end was pretty well ground down by the long slide on the asphalt, and the brake hood on that side was torn, but other than a little scrape on the saddle, I can't find much else. So I re-taped the bars and ordered new brake hoods, and we'll just have to see if everything holds together when I finally get out on the road again, hopefully in about a week. I already have a replacement for the helmet, and a little superglue stuck down the edges of the ripped parts of the right shoe nicely. Fortunately, I had been wearing an old kit, so tossing it in the trash wasn't at all painful.

I have a followup appointment next week, so we'll see how those x-rays look and take it from there, I guess. I should be in a pretty deep hole by then, and it'll probably take a good month to climb out of it. The might be a little PT in my future too.

No Pretty Pictures

It's was one week since my Rapid Unscheduled Dismount (RUD) yesterday. Clincidentally, it has also been one week since I had a good night's sleep. There has been some improvement, of course, but as usual the day-to-day changes are barely preceptible. It will be a while before I can lift anything with my right arm, but at least I can now get it high enough to type, and almost high enough to feed myself. Sleeping, or just lying down, has really been the worst, though. The best I can do is to lie on my back with one or two pillows under my head. I doubt I've been asleep for more than a couple of hours. I'll see if I can get on the bike, inside of course, next week after we're done with the Tour de La. 

Yesterday I walked over to the Tulane Sports Medicine clinic to see Dr. O'Brien. He gave me a photocopy of a few of the x-rays from the ER, and checked range of motion to see if there was any obvious joint damage (there wasn't), and generally assured me that it should all heal up at the usual rate. He was OK with me getting on the trainer as soon as I could tolerate it, but of course advised to stay off the road for 6-8 weeks. He knows I won't wait that long, of course. I have a followup appointment in two weeks so they can do some x-rays to make sure things are moving in the right direction. 

This weekend is the Tour de La, and as usual pre-registrations are low. The weather this weekend should be great, so at least nobody can use that as an excuse. I should have some help loading up the car tomorrow, and then I'll go check out the road course and re-mark the turns and TT (hope I can find last year's marks!). I won't be able to do much of anything as far as course setup goes this year. Hopefully there will be enough help on race day to get the essentials done, though.

Out for the Count - Once Again

Mellow Monday

I had been starting to feel like I might be getting in shape. Temperatures had been much more to my liking, and turnout for the early morning rides had been rising. The Tour de La was rapidly approaching, and we'd been working on nailing down some of the logistics.

Last weekend, the Saturday Giro had been rained out, but by 7:30 am the weather was past us and the roads were starting to dry up, so I went for a levee ride on the old Orbea. Why the Orbea?  When you ride on the levee bike path when it's wet, there's always a 50% chance of a flat. It's something from the aggregate they used for the asphalt. So I wasn't too surprised when I flatted a bit past Williams Blvd. I had been considering extending the ride out to the Spillway, but the flat pretty much killed that idea, so I fixed the flat and turned back at the fence at the parish line where the levee work begins.

The weather for the Sunday Giro was much better, and although we had a good turnout, a few of the usual instigators were missing. That kind of kept the speed down just a bit, allowing almost everyone to get into the paceline at one point or the other. As Giro Rides go, it was a pretty good one, and so I ended the week with a bit over 250 miles despite the shortened ride on Saturday.

On Monday, we somehow managed to get in the full ride before the rain, so that was nice. Then, on Tuesday, we had a good-sized group on hand for the longer ride out to the casino on the lakefront bike path. There was a pretty significant east wind blowing, so the ride out there felt smooth and fast. Of course, that ended when we turned around. Our speed had been around 25 mph all the way out, but was down to around 19 on the way back. Jess was on hand for this one, but somewhere along the bike path on the way out she disappeared. I figured she needed to get back early or something. Well, we were maybe halfway back when we saw her on the side of the bike path struggling with a flat tire. We stopped and got it fixed, of course.

Levee ride - status of the ongoing levee work

Wednesday morning I rushed out to the lakefront to meet up with the WeMoRi. It was dark, warm, quite windy, and humid. A trio of riders, that I had mis-identified as a car, flew past me on Lakeshore Drive. There was no way I could catch that, but of course I figured there would be a group right behind them. I looked back on Marconi and saw ... nothing.  When I got to Toussaint, I rode around in little circles trying to decided what to do. I figured maybe the rest of the group had turned off of Lakeshore Drive early because of the wind, so I had to decide whether to chase, or continue down Marconi to meet those three riders on their way back to the lakefront. Just about that time, a small group of three showed up, which turned out to be the remnant of the main group, so I jumped in with them. There was no way we were going to catch the lead break. Those guys must have been five minutes ahead. We kept up a pretty good pace anyway. One rider turned off somewhere along Wisner. 

Then, on the way back to the lakefront, Eddie C turned off at Toussaint, leaving just MJ and me. I was in front as we crossed Toussaint. It was still pretty dark. Anticipating the big section of missing asphalt that we've been skirting for the past month or two, I was way over to the left side of the right-hand lane with my hands just resting on my brake levers, when I hit a little bump/hole in the asphalt. That threw me forward, and took my hands off the bars entirely, so now I'm in some kind of warped supertuck position with basically no control over the bike. The insides of my thighs were rubbing the front tire as I tried to regain control, and ultimately lost it, going down pretty hard. That did some damage to the almost-new helmet, took some material off of my right shoe, and as I soon began to suspect, broke a few bones. I could barely lift my right arm at all. It didn't feel like a broken collarbone, at least the ones I've broken before, and I suspected it might be the scapula and ribs.  The Garmin's incident detection had been activated, sending a message to my wife who quickly called to see if I was OK, which I was not. MJ hung around until Candy showed up to bring me over to Lakeside Hospital for x-rays. The verdict:

No acute cardiopulmonary abnormality. Suspect nondisplaced fracture of the right lateral 3rd and 4th ribs without pneumothorax. Minimally displaced fracture of the superior border of the right scapula.

So I guess I'll be out for the count for a few weeks. With the Tour de La coming up next week, we are trying to get some additional volunteers since I won't be able to lift anything at all. I have an appointment for next Wednesday at TISM. In the meantime, I'm surviving on hydrocodone-acetaminophen and cyclobenzaprine. The shoulder is still quite painful, making some simple things, like lying down or putting on socks, a long and complex operation. 

For the Tour this year, JoePaul has been a huge help with sponsorship. He also has some T-shirts in the works. I ordered the trophies and bib numbers (going with just one per rider this year), and got some little imprinted tape measures made. The criterium will be at Lakeshore High, where we did the collegiate criteriums some years back. It's not a bad course, actually. The road race and time will be the same as last year. I haven't re-marked the turns and the TT start, finish, and turnaround, yet. I'm hoping I can do that Friday afternoon. Normally, I would have done a ride on the course this weekend and re-marked everything, but that just wasn't feasible under the circumstances.

Here we go again!

 

Unaffected

The past week has been a rare one. For once, finally, it was a whole week of riding that wasn't significantly affected by the weather. Everything around here is currently coated in yellow-green Oak tree pollen, and it's even been feasible to ride in just summer kit. At least as our government rapidly devolves into a willfully ignorant idiocracy, the riding has been nice.

As usually happens this time of year, attendance at the local group rides has been picking up. Last Saturday's Giro had a solid group thanks to the sunny sky and welcome arm-warmer optional weather. I did a little somewhat cautious work, while trying not to compromise myself for a planned 70-mile ride our of Bay St. Louis on Sunday.

Sunday morning I headed for I-10 for the hour-long drive to BSL, stopping in Slidell for a cup of coffee. While there, I heard the staff talking about seeing a whole lot of police on I-10, and wondering what had been going on. A couple of minutes later, as I merged onto the Interstate, I noticed a helicopter flying straight down the highway about 500 feet off the ground. I later learned that a police chase had resulted in the death of a St. Tammany police officer. 

I got to War Memorial Park about fifteen minutes before the start to find a group of nine or ten. The weather was pretty nice, with just a moderate wind and mostly sunny skies. The night before, I had installed a new chain, and was hoping that my old cassette with over 20k miles on it already, wouldn't cause it to skip. It didn't. The combination of using drip-wax and my usual routine of replacing chains at 2,500-3,000 miles has been quite a game-changer when it comes to cassette life, and clean hands.

As these BSL rides usually go, this one was a typical smooth paceline with some people, notably Connor and Todd, taking really long pulls, and others, notably me, taking substantially shorter ones. I hadn't brought any nutrition with me except for one gell packet that I was saving for emergencies, so when we hit our store stop at around mile 40 I got a big Payday bar and a small Coke. The former I ate immediately, the latter I mostly poured into one of my water bottles. Steve J was on hand for this ride, having warned us at the start that he was probably getting in over his head. He gutted it out, though, finally dropping off the back to cruise in alone for the last ten miles or so. It was a good ride on a nice day.

This week has been remarkably routine, at least for riding. We had a good group for Tuesday's ride, but as often happens it was just Rich and I for the part out to the casino and back. It's definitely still sunrise photo season. Wednesday's Giro was going great until Steve K pinch-flatted his front tire on Marconi. I was right behind him at the time, and I backed off quickly because it looked like he might lose it as his bike suddenly went kind of squirrely. He kept it under control, but the damage was done, and there was already a whole lot of space between me and the rest of the group. MJ came around quickly and I latched onto his wheel as he made an effort to close it. I was just hoping that the group would have to stop for the light at Toussaint, but when it didn't, I knew we were done for. 

Of course, we regrouped after the sprint for the "ride home" group. After Charles split off at Norman Francis, Will and I continued on, soon spotting Jaden with his kids on the way to school.

Thursday's ride had a good group, some of which actually did the whole ride, which was nice. This morning the temperature was around 70° and wind light as I rode in the dark to the Museum for the 6 am Friday ride. The weather forecast for tomorrow is not looking too good, so perhaps that was one reason we had such a big group - close to 20 I think - , at least for the start. As we rode easy up Marconi toward the lake, Charles realized one of his derailleur batteries had died and stopped with a couple others to swap the front one to the rear. Right after that, I think his computer ejected itself from the bike and they had to go back and search for it, so we didn't see him or Will until later. The pace going east on Lakeshore Drive was brisk but not unusual. I was near the front as we came around the Armory loop and started heading back to the west. One or two riders pulled off the front, and then Connor, who I was behind, ramped it up quickly to 29-30 mph as I hung tenaciously to his wheel for a mile or two. As we got close to the Elysian Fields obstacle course I realized there was nobody behind me, and decided to do myself a favor and wait for the group. Connor eased up shortly thereafter, so it was grupo compacto again. Soon enough, Connor was at the front again, and after crossing Marconi things started to disintegrate a bit. Connor wasn't familiar with the Friday route, and missed the turn onto Canal, but eventually found his way back to NOMA. Meanwhile, as we streamed down Marconi, someone flatted around Toussaint, leaving just a handful of us off the front. 

Yesterday I finally broke down and did surgery on my Bont Vaypor SL Shoe. I had stripped one of the cleat nuts months ago. This particular shoe has a slotted 3-hole cleat attachment setup, so rather than having three individual T-nuts, it uses a single triangular piece that incorporates all three threaded nuts so you can slide it forward or backward to increase the range of cleat positions. It's not something I needed. Anyway, replacing it meant slicing the sock liner with an Exacto knife and removing a triangular cover, cutting some more fabric, and finally pulling out the offending piece and inserting the new one. It went OK, and of course the damage is all covered up by the insole. I made sure not to over-tighten the bolts this time (used about 4.5 nM) and as always greased the threads. I'd never stripped a cleat nut before, and I think perhaps these have fewer threads in order to reduce the stack height. 

Replacement cleat nuts

Meanwhile, I've been finishing up plans for the Tour de La. Joe Paul has arranged for T-shirts, I ordered some imprinted tape measures, trophies and bib numbers were ordered and received, and so basically all we really need are riders and volunteers. I am hoping to do a ride on the northshore, maybe Sunday, so I can re-mark the course and make sure there are no big road surface surprises. I was hoping to do that Saturday, but if it's raining, I can't. We'll see. 

Northbeast Classic Weekend

WeMoRi finished; sun still not above the horizon

The annual arrival of Daylight Saving Time is celebrated by some and despised by others. I fall solidly in the latter category. For those of us who need to get our riding in before work, it means a whole lot more miles ridden in the dark, which inevitably leads to more unexpected interactions with New Orleans road surfaces and the copious amounts of debris thereupon. In other words, more punctures, and an increased risk of plowing into a pothole or chunk of broken concrete or whatever.

Wednesday morning I went out in the above mentioned darkness to meet the WeMoRi. The temperature was in the mid-50s and the wind was light, which made for a fast but fun ride. After the official finish at the invisible finish line at Marconi, we did our usual cool-down out-and-back on Canal Blvd. before turning back onto Lakeshore Drive. The sun had still not crept over the horizon, but at least the pollution and haze made for a colorful pre-dawn horizon.

Thursday's ride was warmer, but with a bit of a south wind. There was a nice little group at the 6 am start, but as usual, most turned back for home by the end of the Lakeshore Drive segment, leaving just a few of us for the ride out west along the lake. We kept the pressure on all the way out, then took a little break on the way back before gradually getting back up to speed. It was OK.

Friday was road trip day, this time up to the collegiate race weekend at Piedmont University. As usual, a couple of riders bailed for one reason or another, but we still had seven, including me, by the time we rolled out around 9:45 am, I think. I had been kind of dreading this race because the weather forecast had originally looked really bad, but by Friday things had improved considerably, and it was looking like the Saturday road races and time trial would be fine. The only question was whether the approaching line of storms would go through overnight and be gone by the time the Sunday morning criteriums started.

I was registered for the Masters race, of course. I had inadvertantly registered for 50+ because I hadn't realized they also had a 60+, but it didn't really matter. I didn't have any plans or goals other than some solid training. We had a big field of over 40 riders for this one, so I thought it would be easy to just sit in the pack. That turned out to have been a little optimistic. After about a mile the pace shot up dramatically. I think our first lap average speed was in the 28+ mph range. I was doing OK sitting in the big draft of such a large group, but I didn't feel sufficiently motivated to maintain even that level of effort for the full 50+ mile race. The course was mainly just low rolling hills, but with a few short but steep little climbs on the back side. Somewhere around the end of the third lap I decided to pull the plug and eliminate the stress involved in staying with the group. Being at the back of a 40+ rider group while flying down a hill at 40 mph when you can't even see the front of the group, much less the road ahead, is indeed a little stressful. I still kept the pressure on, so my effort level just dropped a little bit, although my average speed probably dropped from 26 mph to 22 mph. With an average heart rate of 146, which for me is much higher than, for example, a typical Giro Ride, I felt like it was a good and much-needed workout. The other riders in the group, aside from Jess who had a very good race, all came off the backs of their respective groups fairly early. For a couple of them, it was their first ever race, so that was no surprise, and for a couple others, they were racing in a combined Collegiate B/C category, having both just upgraded from Category D. The Cat. B riders definitely put the hurt on the Cat. C riders in that one.

The Time Trial started and finished at the Road Race start line, but it went out one way, turned around, came back past the start/finish, and continued to another turnaround before finally finishing at the start/finish. Jess was the first rider to go off. Well, unfortunately, someone had stolen the traffic cones that the promoter had placed at the second turnaround, so when the turnaround marshal went out there he or she couldn't find the turnaround. Jess had the route on her Garmin and realized she must have passed the turnaround just as she was flying down a hill at 30 mph. She eventually turned around, but at any rate the first fifteen or so riders, all women, all did different distances. They ended up just counting the times for the first out-and-back segment.

That evening we had a really nice dinner at an Italian restaurant in Cornnelia, near where Sunday's criterium would be held. As expected, the storms rolled through in the middle of the night, and by 6 am the rain had stopped. They had pushed back the start time of the first race from 8 to 9 am, which worked out quite well. By the time Jess' criterium started, the road was just a little damp and the sun was starting to peek out from behind the clouds. As often happens with criteriums, a lot of the lower category riders didn't show up, so Jess' race had just 7 or 8 riders, I think. Their group split a few laps in, with a 2-rider break, then Jess, then the rest. Eventually one other rider caught up to Jess, but she dropped her on the final lap. Our other riders in the Cat. D and Cat. B/C races all came off the back fairly quickly, but finished in good spirits and with all the skin they had started with, so it was a successful confidence booster. Dylan didn't race because he was clearly coming down with a cold by Sunday morning. As usual I didn't enter the masters criterium since that would have kept us there three additional hours. All-in-all it was fun weekend and although I would have liked to have gotten in some riding on Sunday, I think the sustained intensity from Saturday more than made up for it.

We had a long and uneventful drive back, arriving around 6:40 pm.

Back to Auburn

None of our riders in this, but definitely my favorite photo from the criterium.

I had not really been looking forward to last weekend's Auburn Cycling Classic. Well, actually, I had been looking forward to it until I got sick on on the 12th, ten days before the date. Then, after two days off the bike, followed by a week of miserable weather and low-key recovery rides, I had been holding out a little hope that I might be at least slightly competitive for the road race. However, I was not. The cold that had settled in my chest was -- still is -- just sitting there at some low level of disability rendering me unwilling or unable to put down any significant level of intensity for any significant amount of time.  To make matters worse, the forecast for the weekend in Auburn was calling for sub-freezing temperatures in the mornings. Because of that, though, the organizers changed things up and moved the start times for the first races up to around 10 am, which made a huge difference temperature-wise, but of course it was still going to be cold, at least by my debilitated standards.

This year we had four riders going to the race, and all indications were that the total race turnout would be higher than it had been for the past few years. We couldn't leave New Orleans until late afternoon, which turned into early evening, but at least it is a fairly easy six-hour drive. I drove up with Mack in one minivan, and Dylan and Josiah drove up in the other. Jess drove up separately with Connor. I guess we arrived a the Best Western hotel a little before midnight, but since we didn't have to leave for the Road Race until around 9 am, it wasn't a problem.

Jess at the back of her group in the road race

The road race was on a course I hadn't ridden before. Looking at the route map on Strava, there was s significant 1-mile climb about half-way around the 13-mile loop. It was broken into two parts, with a brief downhill in-between, but still showed some gradients in the 7-10% range. I had put an 11-28 cassette on the bike, which I figured could get me up the short kickers without having to go to the small ring. However, considering the condition of my lungs, and my personal aversion to coming down with pneumonia, I was pretty sure I'd have to let the pack go as soon as it got steep. In order to move the initial start time back by a couple of hours, they had grouped a lot of categories together that would otherwise have been separate. For me, than meant a fairly large 35+ group with people who young enough to be my grandchildren. But as seems to happen every year at this race, the masters riders entries were heavily skewed in the older direction, with the largest contingent being 50+. In other categories, the Women were all lumped together, so everything from Cat. 1 to Collegiate Cat. C in the same field. Jess was riding Cat. C, as it was her first ever collegiate race. Likewise Mack. Dylan and Josiah were both riding the Cat. D race, along with USAC Cat. 5 riders.

Peter and me a few miles before catching the little group ahead of us. Yeah, I was overdressed.

I guess the temperature was in the mid-40s and sunny by the time the masters race started. Some riders were wearing essentially summer kit, but of course, in my condition, I was afraid of getting cold, so I had on long bibs, long-sleeve base layer, long-sleeve jersey, and full-finger gloves. At least I was never cold! My road race started out quite fast, and as it did, I gradually slid farther and farther back in the field, all the while trying to minimize the lung damage. When we made the right turn at around 7 miles to begin the 1-mile uphill section, I was already at the back. I knew I shouldn't try to push it there, and planned to just let the group go and ride at whatever pace would minimize heavy breathing. The climb, which really turned out to be two climbs, wasn't nearly as bad as I'd expected, and in retrospect I probably could have made the effort to stay with the group without doing too much damage. But I didn't. Up ahead, I could see a few riders dropping off from the group along the way, and soon after coming over the steepest section I came up on my friend Peter Stephens. We got together and started trading pulls. Up ahead we could see another group of three coming together, and after a moderate-level effort, we caught them five or six miles later. So we had a nice 5-man paceline the rest of the ride, which was perfect for me. I actually enjoyed the next three times up the climb. When we got close to the finish I was a little surprised that everyone in the group, except me, decided to sprint it out. I mean, we were sprinting for something like 17th place in the 50+ group and probably 30th overall. Jess was 4th in her road race. Dylan and Josiah both ended up off the back from the main group, but not too bad. Mack, I think finished, although they listed her as DNF, so maybe she just did one of the two laps. I'm sure it was a good learning experience for everyone. 

The time trial was at 4:30 pm, and it was starting to get pretty cold by then. Jess won her Cat. C time trial, and Dylan and Josian were 6th and 7th in theirs, so that was fine. That evening we all got together for pizza at Little Italy near campus, which was great. Again, we didn't have an early wake-up for the next morning, which was also great.

Sunday's criterium were on the NCAT Test Track, a big 1.7 mile oval. We had raced there a few years ago, and I remembered that there had been a couple of big crashes, so everyone got a little warning to be careful about riders taking weird lines through the curves. I was still feeling the damage from Saturday's road race, and since the masters race would be after all of the collegiate ones, I wasn't planning on riding at all. Mack decided not to ride the criterium. 

Like an oversized velodrome

Because of the combined categories, one of the races must have had a 50-rider field, which was kind of great. Jess' women's race went pretty well, and although she finished I guess ten down overall, it turned out to be first place in the Cat. C, so another podium for her. In the Cat. D / Cat. 5 race, Dylan was doing a great job with positioning. Josiah was hanging out nearer the back, which eventually caused him to get gapped off a few laps before the finish. With I think two laps to go, the pack came by and Dylan wasn't there. Then some stragglers who said there had been a crash. It was just about exactly where there had been a crash a few years back when we sent one of our riders to the hospital. The next time around Josiah stopped when he saw that Dylan had crashed, and they both eventually cruised in. I was glad to find that Dylan wasn't the rider who had broken his arm, but he definitely had quite a bit or road rash. Someone a couple of bikes up had swerved to avoid a reflector or something on the inside of the turn, which took out the next rider's wheel, so Dylan rode right into that and went over the bars. Anyway, I was glad there was not a trip to the hospital. After getting him patched up, we headed back home. As expected, we ran into some heavy rain around sundown as we neared Mobile, making the last three hours of driving rather stressful. Even so, I was probably back at home by 8 pm.

From Good to Bad

Mother Nature always seems to have a way of balancing things out so the averages remain average despite the magnitudes of the highs and lows. And so it has been the past few weeks since the snow Armageddon. Before we knew what hit us, we'd gone from sub-freezing winter to balmy springtime. Of course those of us experienced in the local weather patterns, or lack of same, knew that the event was little more than just another "fools springtime." It is, after all, February. 

On the plus side, we had a quite a nice stretch of unseasonably warm mornings. Granted, they were often interspersed with rain, or fog, or both, but really, February beggars cannot be choosers, and it was all oh so much better than three weeks of bitter cold and double-digit north winds.

It was quite nice to be able to, at least temporarily, ditch the thermal undergarments and venture out to the local group rides in summer kit. There were a couple of weekends when I am pretty sure everybody with a bicycle logged Strava miles. Also, with the Superbowl in town, and my office being on Poydras Street which was tented and barricaded a week in advance of the event, I was working from home the entire week of February 3-7, and then again on the 10th. That's a double-edged sword, of course, because it means that every day the wife walks in and asks, "What do you want to do about lunch?' which really means, "Let's go to a restaurant and spend some money." 

I had started the month of February off well, with a fairly easy Giro Ride, augmented by some additional miles on the levee, leaving me with a nice 92 mile day. Thanks to the stretch of relatively nice riding weather, I was feeling good about having put in a couple of 280-mile weeks back-to-back after having spent so many days off the bike because of the snow and ice that had preceeded those weeks. I was thinking that the days lost to the snow and ice hadn't put much of a dent in my training.

Last Saturday we had a small group of Tulane riders on hand for a little northshore ride. The weather would be great temperature-wise, but there were dense fog advisories all over the place the evening before. Sure enough, when we got to the Causeway that morning it was "right lane only and 35 mph" all the way across the lake. I've seen it worse, but I was glad that it was controlled. Up in Abita Springs the fog wasn't an issue, and six of us headed out a little late for a planned 58-mile ride. I knew that it would be a challenge for two of our group, and when they dropped off the back about ten miles into the ride, I knew it would be an easy day for me. After another mile or two I looked back and couldn't even see them, so I told the others to go ahead and swung back around to see what happened. I found them stopped on the side of the road where one of them was nursing a side stitch. We got going again, but for the rest of the ride I was trying to keep the speed low and the climbs easy. We stopped a number of times, and the average speed was only 15 mph, but they both made it. 

The next day was a very foggy Giro Ride. It was a smallish group, so the pace was fairly slow. The week's mileage was OK, but for me there had been little in the way of intensity. I figured I could make up for that the following week.  I was sadly mistaken about that.

The next Monday we had a nice Mellow Monday ride, and then on Tuesday the usual ride out to the Casino and back. I was feeling a little something in my throat. By that night I had a full-on sore throat and knew I was about to come down with a cold. I started popping zinc tablets and hoping for the best. I didn't sleep at all that night and so did not even consider riding on Wednesday. As the cold moved down from my head to my chest, I also had to skip riding Thursday and Friday. By Saturday I was feeling a little better, but still had a lot of chest congestion. The weather was still fairly warm, so I decided to go ahead and ride out to Starbucks to meet the Giro group, but with a plan to turn back at the end of Lakeshore Drive before things got out of the warmup stage. Progress from there has been painfully slow. I went out to the Sunday Giro, but it was very windy and there was only a small group on hand. As soon as we got the Hayne, there was the usual acceleration, and I was quickly gapped. I put in a brief effort until I started coughing and decided that I'd best try to live and fight another day. Charles, who had also been under the weather, was also gapped off, so we rode together to the end of Hayne and turned back. I was clearly not yet ready for any hard efforts.

So now it's another Monday, and a big cold front came through last night. It was barely above 40° this morning, but the real problem was the 20 mph north wind. Josiah and a new Tulane rider were planning on doing the Mellow Monday ride. Still feeling some lung congestion, I decided to layer up underneath my old winter riding jacket, which is pretty much of a parachute, but is also very warm and roomy. I wasn't planning on riding hard. I was almost to City Park, riding straight into the wind the whole way, when I finally looked at the time and realized I was going to be a minute or two late. Turned into City Park and could see a tail light way in the distance. That was when Charles, who was also running late, came up alongside and we picked up  the pace a bit, thinking we would easily catch whoever was up there while they were still in warm-up mode. We went around the next turn and the light was gone. We looked at each other and figured it must have been someone else, and that we had been the only ones to show up, which was not hard to believe under the circumstances. Lakeshore Drive was brutal. It was a NE wind, and we were struggling to maintain 14 or 15 mph all the way to the Armory. Then, just as we started on the way back, we found Josiah and the new rider coming the other way. They turned around and joined us for the remainder of the ride. It's looking like freezing cold mornings for the next few days. I'm scheduled to go up to Auburn for a collegiate race Saturday and Sunday, and I'm not too happy about the forecast for that with lows in the 30s and highs in the 50s. Saturday is supposed to be cloudy and Sunday morning could have some rain, but it's still pretty early to put too much stock in the forecast, so ... fingers crossed.

I did at least get the Tour de La event permit done, and should be able to finish up the one for the Time Trial tonight.