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!