Miles and Miles

For the past month or so it seems I've been rather unintentionally piling on the miles, which by no means recommended practice, especially for me. Sometimes, though, it just works out that way because of favorable weather, extra group rides, and available time. Normally, I think of 250 - 275-mile weeks as good solid routine mileage, so I was a little bit shocked to find two weeks that were over 350 miles and that the last four weeks were all practically 300 miles or more. I may be paying for that now, of course.

Monday a week ago was Labor Day so of course there was a Holiday Giro. Also, of course, that came on the heels of two regular Giro Rides on the prior days, plus the annual Fall Expo at Tulane where we recruited a ton of new riders thanks to having bikes available and the fact that we added triathlon. Giro Ride turnouts lately have been rather low, which makes the rides considerably harder, if not faster, because there's a huge difference between sitting near the back of a 40-rider group and working in a 9-rider paceline. A good thing, perhaps, but exhausting.

And so on Tuesday when everyone else turned off after the Lakeshore Drive section, I was kind of relieved to be able to ride solo out to Williams and back on the lake trail. There was a pretty significant East wind blowing, so although it felt great on the way out, I definitely could have used a few wheels to hide behind on the way back. That evening we had the introductory meeting for Tulane Cycling & Triathlon, which I thought went really well. At last count we have 35 students who have paid their annual dues, which is by far a record. Wednesday's WeMoRi was as usual brisk but uneventful.

On Thursday it was just Jess and I for the Lake Trail segment which felt really smooth and steady. Then on Friday I rode the Friendly Friday ride which turned out to be really fast. The Tulane group was doing a levee ride that morning, so I rode straight down Carrollton afterward and met up with them on the bike path, which made for a really nice cool-down ride.

Saturday's Giro had a small but fast group that included Peyton, Connor, Rob, Rachel (in town for a few days) and at some point Jaden. The group split pretty early on Hayne Blvd. but those of us in the gruppeto had a pretty good paceline going anyway, so it was a good enough workout.  

Sunday was kind of a repeat of Saturday, but without the faster riders. That was good because by then all those miles were starting to catch up with me. The Tulane group had scheduled its first "long ride," heading up the levee and then over to the lake trail and then a lap of Lakeshore Drive and City Park, so I was able to meet up with them after the Giro. That ride had a planned stop at Cafe' du Monde where I had a badly needed frozen cafe' au lait. After a long afternoon walk around Audubon Park with the dog, I was starting to feel a little sketchy. 

Monday morning I went out to the Mellow Monday ride. There were a number of new Tulane riders there, and of course it got a little fast on Lakeshore Drive, dropping a few. I turned back and met up with them at Marconi and we rejoined the group for the last stretch. That evening I felt like I might be running a low-grade fever, and considering how much time on the bike I'd been piling up, I figured it was time for a day off, so I skipped riding altogether on Tuesday, which was good because I still wasn't feeling quite right. This morning I went out to meet the WeMoRi but the group didn't show up when it usually does. I figured something was wrong, which turned out to be the case. I went ahead and headed down Wisner, and eventually the group, what was left of it after a crash they'd had on Lakeshore Drive, swept me up. That was shortly before the overpass, so naturally I kind of blew up going over that and was quite happy to just let them go, but then Charles, who was a few bike lengths ahead of me, started to chase and I thought maybe I could latch onto his wheel. Of course he was chasing hard, so I never quite made it into his draft before throwing in the towel somewhere on City Park Avenue. Then, on the way home, Maruizio flatted, so I stopped with him before continuing home.