Is It Spring Yet?

Aftermath of the cold front on Lakeshore Drive, Tuesday morning

Upon our return from Georgia the weather here in New Orleans got even colder. Monday morning featured a 30 mph wind and a temperature in the 40s that kept virtually everyone, myself included, off the bike. My 1:00 pm it had warmed up to around 51° and the wind had died down to a mere 20 mph, so I somewhat ventured out to the levee for a short and gusty ride. Just keeping the front wheel on the ground was a sufficient workout. I was spinning into the wind at 12-14 mph trying to stay in recovery mode territory, completing only 22 miles before calling it a day. 

At the plants think it's spring

Tuesday it was even colder, in the low 40s, and there was still a 10 mph wind blowing. I arrived at the museum of art promptly at 6 am to find the place deserted. Out on Lakeshore Drive, they had the eastern end closed off (of course I rode it anyway) because of all of the sand that had been washed onto the road from the prior day's north winds. I was of course going pretty slowly and so ended up with a bit over 30 miles. I think I saw only one other rider the entire time. I'm either dedicated or stupid, but either way I'm definitely on one end of the bell curve.

Coffee Shop
Shenanigans

By Wednesday morning the wind had finally died down, but it was still pretty cold for the WeMoRi. I headed out a bit overdressed for the 42° temperature, but at least I was comfy for the commute to the lakefront. There was a surprisingly decently sized group when I blended in along Marconi. The pace wasn't too insane, so I was able to do a little work here and there, and felt like it was a good workout. 

A few of the Tulane riders were on hand, so we stopped at French Truck on the Lafitte Greenway for coffee, which was nice except that it made the ride back home feel absolutely freezing. Charles had finally gotten his new Bianchi put together, but had to bail when it started making some kind of horrible noise that, like all horrible bike noises do, sounded like it was coming from the bottom bracket but actually wasn't. Turned out to be a bent rear wheel axle thing.

Friday morning coffee ride after Friendly Friday

Thursday was still chilly but just a touch warmer, and we had a pretty good group on hand, of which three continued out to Williams Blvd. Nothing fell off of Charles' bike that was now sporting his backup wheelset, so all was good.

Friendly Friday had around twenty riders on hand this morning, in no small part due to the 56° temperature, I suppose. Things remained relatively sedate until the Bayou St. John bridge, but even then it never got super fast or anything. By mid-day the temperature was up into the mid-70s, and the 10-day forecast isn't showing any morning temperatures lower than 59°, so perhaps most of the winter kit can begin its annual migration to the bottom of the drawer. I guess tomorrow will be a Giro Ride, and then on Sunday there's a ride over in Mississippi that I may try to make. 

On the home front I've almost got all of the retirement stuff lined up - TRSL and TIAA rollovers and RMDs and all - so that's good, I guess. I still need to get my income tax materials to Reggie/Connor. Maybe I can start actually thinking about dates for the TT championship, maybe team TT event, and possibly the Tour de La, all of which is going to be a few months later than usual this year for sure. At least I got the LAMBRA championship jerseys for the past two years into production at Voler, although that was not without its problems. For some unknown reason, a number of people did not receive the email from Voler that included the ordering link with the store credit. When I sent out a reminder, at least three or four people responded that they had never gotten the Voler email. I had Voler re-send to them and a couple others who had not completed their orders, but even then the did not get the emails. Maybe they had blocked Voler as spam or something? I eventually got the links from Voler and sent them myself to the people who had contacted me, and they received those as normal. Go figure.

I think we'll have a few people going to Sunny King in Anniston AL in three weeks since it's also the Southeast Conference championships. I'll probably register for the 50+ races in which I will surely be shelled quite early. I may try to do the Cheaha gran fondo in mid-May this year if the start align. We'll see.