Lack of Power

Small Giro Group. The Chef Highway asphalt overlay was still not finished.

The WeMoRi a week ago on, of course, Wednesday was kind of fun for me. It was pretty windy when I arrived at Lakeshore Drive, and looking down the road all I could see were three headlights coming in hot. I jumped on the back of the trio of Maurizio, Steven, and Wes and hung on for dear life. I figured the wind and the pace had probably shattered the rest of the group, which turned out to have been the case. Conveniently justifying my blatant and unrepentent wheel-sucking by telling myself it wouldn't be fair to assist a breakaway when there must be an invisible chase group somewhere, I continued swapping wheels at the back for pretty much the duration. This was a remarkably easy task since the trio was cruising along at an equally remarkably smooth and steady pace. I felt only the slightest twinge of guilt, but fortunately the feeling dissipated quickly. 

That evening a big thundestorm came through shortly after sunset. Lightning must have hit something nearby because immediately after a huge flash, the lights went out. Checking Entergy's outage map and text messages, it looked like it should be fixed by 9:30 or so, so I plugged the lamp on the nightstand into my battery pack for a bit, eventually turning it off and falling asleep. Around 1:00 am I awoke to find that the power was still out, and checking my text messages I saw that Entergy had moved back the restoration time to around 9:30 am. That was a little longer than I wanted to have both the refrigerator and air-conditioner out of service, so I hauled the big Honda generator out to the back yard in the dark, ran an extension cord through the bathroom window, and fired it up, only to discover it would only run with the choke on. Obviously something was clogging up the carb jet, which wasn't surprising since some of the gas in that thing is a couple of years old and as good as StaBil is, that's pushing it. Fortunately, I had the little generator I use for races, so I started that one up instead and plugged the refrigerator into it. Then I brought the basement fan up to the bedroom and plugged that into the battery pack. Naturally the power came back on around 3:30 am, which woke me up immediately since I hadn't switched off the lights. A couple of hours later I was out the door for the Thursday morning ride. By then the streets were fairly dry again, but we decided not to ride out on the lake trail because there is often a lot of runoff from the levee after a heavy rain.  Turned out that wasn't the case that morning.

On Friday morning I woke up to wet streets and decided it was a message and I should take a rest day. Turned out the streets weren't as wet as I thought, but since I hadn't missed a day of riding over two months, I figure I was due anyway.

Saturday's Giro was rather sparsely attended, and although it wasn't super-fast, it still felt hard. By the time we were halfway back I was feeling overheated and tired, so I dropped off the back when we turned onto Hayne Blvd. and just coasted in. Charles dropped back to keep me company. By then there were only a few left, and Connor and Steven were already ramping it up for the last segment.

That afternoon I pulled the carburetor out of the generator, disassembled it, cleaned a little bit of crud out of the jet assembly, and put it all back together without having any mysteriously leftover nuts or bolts. It seemed to run OK after that, so I'll see if I can run it for an hour or two next weekend to burn through some of the old gas.

Sunday's Giro was even smaller than Saturday's had been, but otherwise was fine.

Mellow Monday Sunrise

This morning I went out to meet the WeMoRi as usual. Sunrise is already getting noticeably later (now around 8:15), and it was cloudy, which made it feel even earlier and darker than usual and I made my way to the lakefront. The group seemed a little smaller than usual, which I attributed to the 15 mph WNW wind, but as it turned out there had been some disruptions as well, plus some riders had been dropped, or stopped to help other riders, on Lakeshore Drive. Jaden apparently fell somewhere around the Elysian Fields traffic circle, jumped back up, then realized his phone had fallen our of his pocket and had to go look for it. Someone else apparently had a wheel that "broke." Not sure about the details on that. Anyway, since all of that transpired prior to my arrival, and the group, what was left of it, was only a couple of minutes later than usual, I didn't find out about it all until we were on our commute back uptown. Otherwise, it was a good WeMoRi during which I felt, at least, not terrible.

Wrong Reasons

Mellow Monday

Mid-summer in New Orleans means arriving back home soaking wet for all the wrong reasons. Other than an abbreviated Thursday ride, the last week was routine with a capital R. This time of year any morning with a temperature below 80°F is cause for celebration, and indeed there were a couple of those thanks to that "disturbance" that started in the Atlantic, crossed Florida, and came through here in the middle of the night on Wednesday. Fortunately it was moving along at a good pace, and by morning the streets were, quite surprisingly, mostly dry. Unfortunately, I had an early meeting on Thursday, so I had to cut the ride short, which was just as well since turnout was slim.

WeMo Finish

Ride photos seem to be in short supply lately, especially mine. Half an hour into almost every ride my jersey is sweaty, as is my phone, and since it still hurts a bit to fetch it out of my back pocket with my right arm, I've been reluctant to do so anyway. Saturday's Giro was fairly normal for this time of year. There were a few missing people because of some ad hoc alternate rides in the area, along with the Giro regulars who have been invading the SaMoRi in an effort to miss the worst of the heat. As often happens this time of year, it was fast on the way out, but a bit slower on the way back as the sun took its toll. Sunday was about the same but with a much reduced group. That made it feel a bit harder since the available draft was likewise reduced. Nonetheless, we mostly all survived, stopping at the gas station on Harrison for a cold drink before the short commute back home, or in Chris' case the long commute back home. 274 miles for the week seemed to be enough for me, although there were a few out there doing 100+ mile rides despite the copious solar radiation.

Mellow Monday was pretty mellow. I guess we were mostly in the 22-24 mph range. My legs felt tired, so I wasn't complaining. 

This morning as we gathered in front of the City Park Museum of Art, watching the regular exercise group on the steps, I made a remark about how it was already pretty hot and that there didn't seem to be any wind. Indeed, none was detectable there in the park. Apparently all of the wind was hiding out at the lakefront, though. Shortly after we turned onto Lakeshore Drive we picked up a pretty significant tailwind, so it was 26-29 mph all the way out to the Armory. The trip back westward, of course, was much slower. By the time Charles and I were approaching Williams Blvd. on the lake trail we were struggling to maintain 19 mph. Of course the ride back to the east was much faster, but by then the morning sun had been on us for over an hour, and I'd guess the relative humidity was in the 90% range at least. When I got home I hung my kit in the bathroom to let it dry out so it wouldn't serve as nutrient media in the laundry hamper.

Looks like one more hot day before things change and we get a few days with some rain and high temperatures just a touch below 90°. After that, though, it's back to lows around 78-80 and highs around 91-95 for the forseeable future, with the typical summer afternoon chances of rain. 

Meanwhile, over in Tucson, they're building a new, apparently mostly aluminum, velodrome!

Short Supply

Saturday Giro

Ride photos, especially mine, have been in short supply lately, due in no small part to the copious amount of sweat with which my phone, glasses, gloves, handlebar, and everything else is coated. You will just have to take Strava's word for it that the rides actually happened, I guess. Just as well, I guess, as last week's rides were quite routine.

As has been the case in recent weeks, the Friendly Friday ride had a big turnout. While 20-25 riders may not seem like a particularly large number, for a 6:00 am ride on a Friday morning when the temperature is already 80°F and the relative humidity is pushing 98%, it's still impressive. Naturally, with that many riders there are a few willing to sit on the front and push the pace, so it was a bit faster than usual. 

A Green Heron visited the NOMA fountain
after the Friendly Friday ride.

There was also a pretty good turnout for the Saturday Giro, and apparently also the earlier SaMoRi, and although the pace was fast, it wasn't super-fast as it sometimes is. I rushed back home afterward so I could jump into the shower, change, and drive over to Lake Lawn for Keith Andrews' celebration of life. The place was packed. Keith was involved in a lot of things, so you had the cycling people, the sailing people, the Rolling Elvi people, the restaurant people, and the attorney people. It was nice to catch up with some of the local cyclists who I haven't seen much in the past few years. Even Matt Rinard showed up, which was good to see since he had been in the hospital for a hernia operation and subsequent infection. One of Candy's sisters over in Texas passed away that day, as we later learned.

On Sunday I decided to go over to Bay St. Louis with Dylan for once of Steve Martin's rides. Surprisingly, that ended up with just four of us - three from NOLA and Steve. The plan was for a 70-mile ride. These are always just steady Z2 type rides with most people taking long steady pulls, and this one was no exception. Of course, with only four riders the pulls came up more frequently, and we were treated to a couple of pretty good "dog intervals" along the way. The first couple of hours didn't feel very hot, with is kind of typical there. Eventually, though, we turned back toward the south and things heated up, and the 70 mile ride quickly turned into a 64 mile ride. My legs were achy the entire time for some unknown reason. Perhaps the fact that I haven't missed a day of riding in 56 days had something to do with that, but it's not like I've been pushing myself very hard lately. Afterward we stopped for a quick lunch over at Long Beach Market & Deli (Steve's favorite).

Mellow Monday

Mellow Monday was reasonably mellow yesterday. Most, but not all, of the group successfully forded the Lakeshore Drive pond east of the Elysian Fields traffic circle, despite about four inches of water covering the shallowest part. I wish they would fix the nonfunctional storm drains there. They seem quite content to drag our the traffic barrels and shut down the road every time it rains, though. Later on Monday evening there was a lot of rain around the lakefront, although none at my house or apparently in Jefferson.

This morning we knew it would be even more flooded than usual, so the group just looped around the traffic circle and wrote off those extra four miles or so. We had a few people left when we got to the Lake Trail bike path in Jefferson, but lost a few by the time we got to around Clearview, leaving must Charles, Jess, and me. It still felt kind of hard heading west, at least to me. Perhaps there was just the slightest of headwinds along with some lingering soreness. Anyway, none of us was pushing the pace much by then.

So we now have the season's first spaghetti models, and although it's coming from kind of an odd location, and won't likely be very severe if it sticks to this track, it's looking like Thursday through at least Saturday will be pretty wet and a little stormy here and there. They're giving this one a 40% chance of development as of this morning. Intensity guidance is still kind of all over the map, but only some of the models are pushing it into the lower tropical storm range in 4-5 days.

Disaster Averted - 3g Long Weekend

It is mid-summer and everything is covered in sweat. Handlebars and gloves smell like the inside of a high-school gym locker, and every picture I take with my phone is blurry because my jersey is fully saturated. On the plus side, I missed all of the rain last week, and did not succumb to heat exhaustion, just regular exhaustion.

Tuesday's ride ended with just Charles and me for the long out and back along the lakefront, fighting a bit of a headwind all the way out, and then just cruising easy on the way back. Lots of rides end up that way this time of year, it seems.

The regular weekday rides were, well, regular. Wednesday's WeMoRi was going along just fine, until the group split at the stop light at Toussaint when the front of the group sailed through a red light in front of two cars while the rest of us paused to contemplate the cost-benefit ratio. After crossing, nobody seemed willing to really take up the chase that would  have been necessary.

On Thursday, we had Will, Charles, and me for the Lake Trail stretch. I think Will pulled most of the way, which elicited no complaint from either of us. Will is preparing for a move to Colorado this month, so he will be sadly missing from rides very soon. Later that evening we had a little going-away get-together at TchoupShop down on Tchoupitoulas for both Will and Cliff. Cliff is also moving away shortly. Both have been regulars on the local rides, so they will be missed.

Friday was the 4th of July, so lots of people were off work, which of course meant a holiday Giro. A few riders rode Friendly Friday first, and followed it up with the Giro. We had a pretty good turnout, and the pace was fairly moderate by Giro standards, as holiday Giros should be. I had just installed a new chain, even though the old one didn't really seem to be very worn. Pack when I was using wet lubes I'd be lucky to get 3,000 miles out of a chain before destroying the cassette, so I long ago started changing them routinely betweek 2,500 and 3,000 miles. Since switching to drip-wax, the chains seem to be lasting much, much longer. I'm still replacing them at around 3k just to be on the safe side, but I really think I could be easily getting 4,000 miles from them without problems nowadays.

So on Saturday morning it was back to Starbucks for Giro #2. While Friday's Giro had been under nicely overcast skies, by Saturday there wasn't a cloud in sight once we got going. This was a pretty typical Giro - fast in some places, but easy enough to sit in toward the back. We were on the way back, after the Goodyear Sprint and past the notorious bumps that are now painted orange, when we turned onto the interstate on-ramp as usual. Suddenly all hell broke loose. There was an 8-foot piece or rebar lying diagonally across the road, and if someone in front called it out, I certainly didn't hear it. The rider ahead of me hit it, and when I hit it my front wheel went momentarily sideways. Somehow I miraculously stayed up, while shouting "y'all need to call that shit out!" to the front of the group. Then, a quarter of a mile later, just as we were approaching the exit, by front tire exploded - loudly. Of course, I knew immediately that it must have been slashed by that piece of rebar. Most of the group kept going as I cautiously rolled to a stop. Riding a dead-flat front clincher is like riding on ice, so I was lucky I stayed up, again. I put in a new tube and a boot (I always have a piece of old Tyvek race number in my bag), but the tube immediately went flat for whatever reason, so I had to try again with another tube. Todd used his electric inflator and put just 45 or 50 psi in it, since the gash in the sidewall was big enough to put a finger through and any significant pressure would definitely have resulted in another blowout. We cruised back the rest of the way a bit more slowly. I was glad a few people stayed with me, because the chances I'd make it all the way back without another blowout were fairly high. Anyway, I did make it home. Fortunately, I had a new tire on hand. I had put a new tire on the rear just a couple of weeks prior, but was holding out on the front since it wasn't as worn. Good thing I hadn't put a new tire on the front the day before as I'd planned, since I would have destroyed a brand new tire rather than an old worn out one.

Sadly, it was right after the Saturday Giro that I learned Keith Andrews had passed away. Keith had been diagnosed with highly advanced cancer not long ago, but still it came as a bit of a shock. He had been NOBC's main sponsor for about fifteen years through Desire Title and Apolline Restaurant. Although he hadn't raced in quite a long time, I'd occasionally see him heading out to the lakefront as we were riding in along Marconi. There will apparently be a service at Lake Lawn on Saturday morning. 

Sunday was Giro #3, and once again it was a hot one. I think turnout was a little smaller, but the speed was not unlike it had been on Saturday. On the way back we had to stop at a light on Hayne, and after that the front of the group took off like it was the final kilometer of a race. I could have sprinted to catch, but didn't. I was feeling pretty well toasted by then. All of that made for a 320+ mile week for me.