Wind, Cold, and ... Snow???

It ain't over yet. The last week wasn't exactly a great one, weather-wise. I went out Tuesday in the dark to meet the 6 am group. It was in the 40s with what is now the ever-present northeast wind, but I was happy to find a decent enough group on hand to take on Lakeshore Drive. The wind kept our speed down to the upper teens as we made our way east to the Armory loop, and then of course it was faster as we headed west. Nobody seemed in the mood to push the pace too much, though, and by the time we got to West End I was alone, everyone else having turned off to head back home. Lured by the tailwind, and trying hard not to think about the inevitable headwind awaiting my return, I cruised out to the casino on the practically deserted, and not entirely dry, lake trail. Without putting much of an effort, it was 22 mph out and 15 mph back.

Wednesday was a little warmer, so I rode out to meet the WeMoRi with high hopes. As usual, I made a U-turn on Marconi and slotted in at the back of the group, which is never a good place to be. Unfortunately, someone on the front attacked after turning onto Toussaint, gapping me off before I'd adjusted to the effort. It happens like that sometimes. Having missed the draft after coming around the corner, and looking ahead at the strung-out line of riders ahead, I knew that closing the gap was hopeless, so I eased up, cut across the park on Filmore and rode upstream on Marconi until I could get pack into the group under better circumstances. It was not an entirely wasted workout, though.

Thursday was warmer but the streets were soaking wet. There were just a few riders at the 6 am meetup, and nobody was in a hurry. Rather than get even more wet on the lake trail that I knew would still be covered with runoff from the levee, I turned off early with Charles and just called it a day. By then we were already getting dire weather forecasts for the following week. 

Friendly Friday courtesy of Dylan

It was colder again on Friday, but at least the wind was relatively light. For reasons I can't explain, I was running late and didn't realize it until I glanced at the time as I approached the park and realized I would be two minutes late, so I just continued down Wisner, picking up the group on Lakeshore Drive. Once again, nobody was pushing the pace, so it was indeed a Friendly Friday in every sense of the word. The forecast for Saturday's Giro was not looking good.

Saturday morning it was warm with a south wind, and although it was supposed to be raining, it wasn't. I looked at weather.com and it showed little chance of rain for the next few hours. Then I looked at accuweather.com which showed lots of rain. I optimistically chose the former and rode out to Starbucks where I had just enough time to get my coffee before a light rain started. By then, weather.com's forecast was updated and it was ovbious we'd be rained out. A couple of people showed up anyway, but by then it was clear that the rain wasn't going to stop for a couple of hours. I rode back home in the rain with plans to try again later. At least it wasn't cold. So the word went out that we'd try for a levee ride at noon, by which time the rain would be over and the streets not so wet. I decided to ride the 'Cross bike, and stuck the ass-saver under the saddle since I knew the roads would still be a little wet and the chances of flatting would be pretty high. It was just Charles, Jeff, and me at the pipes, but we had a nice enough ride all the way out to Ormond and back. There were some wet and messy spots here and there, and it was fairly windy, but it turned out to be a nice ride, except for the fact that both Charles and Jeff flatted and I got sprayed with sealant, again. The forecast for the following Tuesday was now calling for snow, sleet, wintery mix, and freezing temperatures.

Sunday was another aborted Giro. The temperature was in the mid-40s, which wasn't so bad, bu the wind on the lakefront was howling out of the north at 29 mph with gusts to 36. A handful of riders showed up anyway, but once we hit Lakeshore Drive, and the crosswind, we quickly bailed onto Wisner to just ride a couple of laps around City Park. Meanwhile, Steven, Charles, Will, and Apryl did a long 100+ mile ride down to Pointe a la Hache, starting at 6 am. Although I'd considered joining them, I just could not summon up whatever it would have taken to get up that early on a cold morning to battle a 20 mph north wind. Of course they all got Strava KOMs on the long southbound stretch, anyway. I did not regret skipping that one.

The much anticipated cold front came through on Sunday, and when I got up this morning it was 31°F and windy, and there was no way anyone, including me, would be showing up for the 6 am Mellow Monday ride, especially since it was MLK day and most people were off from work. The sun is out right now, and it looks like the temperature may get up to about 40 by 1:00, so I'm planning on another make-up ride on the levee. Tonight it's supposed to drop down freezing again, and stay at about 30° most of the day with (gasp) snow showers predicted starting around 7 am. We'll see how that goes. At any rate, we'll be working from home tomorrow because the entire city is treating this like an approaching Category 4 hurricane. I'll have to play Tuesday by ear, I guess. Might even have to resort to the dreaded wind trainer again.

But wait, there's more! Wednesday morning's forecast is worse, and is calling for 24° at 6 am, following a 24 hour stretch of below-freezing temperatures that are sure to burst some pipes down here. We'll have to see how all that plays out, but it could be a bit of a mess around here because we are not equipped to deal with icy roads.