Rain, Wind, Waves, and Fam

Thursday was flat tire day

It was a busy week, complete with a complete power failure downtown, an almost-complete failure of my laptop, rained-out rides, rides that should not have been ridden, flooded streets, and a house full of family. 

But we survived.

Wednesday morning I headed out for the last WeMoRi before the time change to DST puts us all back into the dark. As luck would have it, I flatted somewhere on Carrollton Avenue as I was riding into a 12 mph north wind. That put me way behind schedule so I turned around at the north end of Wisner and was soon swept up by what there was of the group which had already been shattered by the crosswinds on the lakefront. First, Sam went flying past fast enough that I didn't even consider trying to catch his wheel. Quite a while later a little group came along that was going more my speed. That turned out to be the second group of at least three.

That morning as I rode to work I could hear the big generators running at LSUHSC, which is never a good sign. Sure enough, there was no power to 1555 Poydras or any of the buildings around that area of the CBD. Apparently a bird managed to blow out some key transformer or something. So I turned right back around and headed back with the intention of working from home. I fired up my old laptop and it was installing some push update to Office that ultimately corrupted the operating system. I had to jump though numerous flaming hoops to get the computer to revert to an earlier Restore Point. That process took a couple of hours but fortunately was successful at rendering my computer operational again. I felt lucky even though I'd lost the better part of a day when I really needed the computer for an impending grant deadline. My daily COVID report was, of course, quite late. The power situation hadn't improved by Thursday morning, so that was another work-from-home day.

Thursday morning the levee was pretty wet from earlier rain, but we headed out anyway for the usual 6 am ride. The group was small and the wind was down to a relatively mild 7 mph. As often happens when it's wet, the flats started pretty early, and by the time we were fixing the third we'd already decided to cut the ride a little short in the interest of time. Somehow none of the flats were mine, which was a little surprising considering the condition of my tires.

A cold front was moving through on Friday and looking at the radar I thought I could squeeze in the Friendly Friday ride before the torrential rain and gale force winds arrived. I got about six blocks from home when I started to feel raindrops, so I pulled the plug and went back home, which of course caused the rain to stop. Oh well. As expected, a strong cold front pushed through overnight, dropping the temperature from the 60s to the low 40s. Family started arriving Friday evening. 

Saturday morning the temperature was in the 39-40° range and there was a 23 mph north wind with gusts up to at least 40, but the clouds were gone and the roads were dry. When I turned on my Garmin computer I had a Gale warning, high wind warning, and freeze warning. I figured I'd ride out to Starbucks and see if anyone else was stupid enough to show up. After a struggle into the cold wind that had me down to 11 mph at times I went inside and ordered my usual small dark roast with 4 packets of raw sugar and sat down to see who would show. A little while later Christopher arrived (Julia had been pushing the Tulane riders to do the Giro that day), than Chris from St. Louis who had contacted me earlier that he would be in town. That was about it. We headed for the lakefront, more out of curiosity than anything else. It was clear we wouldn't be doing the Giro. Plan B for situations like this is to ride laps around City Park. 

Waves breaking over the seawall flooded parts of Lakeshore Drive

When we turned onto Lakeshore Drive we could see the waves splashing over the seawall. A couple hundred feet to the east the road was under water, and right there were Julia, Gavin, Dustin, and Jaden. After briefly documenting the situation with photos we headed back toward City Park where, given the 20 mph tailwind, Jaden decided to take a shot at one of the Strava KOMs. I redlined pretty quickly and dropped off the back, eventually getting back together with a few of them to complete the lap and then just head back home. It was really too windy and cold to do much of anything productive, so I didn't feel too bad about it. At least we tried!

The aborted Giro got me home in time to join everyone for breakfast at Satsuma on Maple Street, so that was nice. Later that day we took the kids over to the City Park amusement area where they had a blast riding all of the rides while I sat around watching and freezing. It was pretty cold all day. Dinner was at Frankie & Johnny's where they were playing Irish music in honor of St. Patrick's day (the parade was that day).

It was still windy on Sunday, but nothing near as bad as Saturday had been. The Giro group was a little smaller than usual, and the temperature was in the low 40s. The east end of Lakeshore Drive was covered with deep sand from Friday night's gale-force north wind, so we had to detour at Franklin Avenue to Leon C. Simon. It was the first day of Daylight Saving Time, which meant that the sun wasn't quite above the horizon when we rolled out at 7 am. A little group went off the front on Paris Road and nobody seemed too interested in trying to catch it, so we had a nice paceline going on Chef out to Venetian. Pretty much the same group, led by Brett and Lisa, took off early on the way back so the situation was basically repeated for the return ride. It did have its fast moments, of course. Charles was finally back in the pack after surviving a bout with COVID.

Not Riding Rouge Week

Sunday Giro rolls out along Lakeshore Drive

I have to admit, not registering for Rouge Roubaix this year, the first time it was run in Gran Fondo format (no officials, categories, etc.) was kind of hard since so many people I know were doing it. Despite my right brain's desire to go with the crowd, however, my more rational left brain knew better. With additional miles and additional gravel sectors bringing the "long" ride out to 127 miles I knew for certain that even under the best of circumstances I'd probably need narcotics to ride the last 45 miles. Given the rather steep entry fee, I'd likely also need narcotics to actually register. I could add to my list of excuses my lack of a suitable bike capable of using tires wider than 25mm. On the plus side, I had a nice week of riding without the attendant stress such an impending race - I mean fondo - would undoubtedly entail.

Wednesday morning just before being swept up by the WeMoRi group

So the day after Mardi Gras I went out to the 6 am WeMoRi that had a reasonable number of riders, jumping in as usual on Lakeshore Drive around Marconi. Just before being swept up by the group I took a quick photo over my shoulder of the not-quite sunrise. Other than one of the riders turning right in front of an oncoming car at Marconi and Toussaint (aka RE Lee) it was a fairly moderate WeMo, I thought - not surprising for the day after Mardi Gras, however.

Skeleton crew on the levee Thursday

Thursday morning's levee ride had a small contingent this week. Charles is in isolation after testing positive for COVID, Dan is out of town on business, and Rich is out of town on fun. For the full ride we ended up with just Pat, Howard, and me. Even at a slightly slower pace than usual, having just three riders means a lot more time at the front, so it was a pretty good workout. It's nice to have a lot of light in the sky for most of the ride right now, and I really just need the headlight for maybe 30 minutes. Of course, that will all change a week from now after the change to DST plunges us back into an hour of darkness in the morning.

As has now become routine, I went out Friday morning for the Friendly Friday ride, which is virtually identical to the Mellow Monday ride, out of City Park. They are not always so Friendly or Mellow in terms of speed, but this one was pretty civilized. It has been pretty busy at work lately and so I like getting home from these little 6 am rides early enough to relax a bit with a cup of coffee before heading off to work.

Friday morning along Filmore

Saturday was Rouge Roubaix day and I wondered what the Giro Ride turnout would look like. I needn't have worried, however, as it was surprisingly well attended. It also seemed surprisingly hard. That was probably attributable to the steady southerly crosswind. Just after the Goodyear Sign sprint on Chef Menteur we saw a group of riders off on the shoulder, one of whom was sitting down. That is never a good sign, and once I realized that they were just past the infamous "Subway" bump I knew exactly what had happened. There's this smooth buckle in the asphalt there that's been there for a couple of years now and has caused at least four crashes. It sticks out about 18 inches from the right edge of the road, and is remarkably easy to miss, especially if you are behind a few people. Jeff, aka "Subway" has crashed on it twice. Someone had gone out there and spray painted it, which lasted for a while, but with so much traffic that paint has been worn off for about a year now. Anyway, this time the victim was Kerry K and the outcome was a broken collarbone. The group stopped for a while but as I was bringing Kerry her ejected water bottle most of them took off. I jumped back on the road and started to chase down the interstate on-ramp, but even at 30 mph it was clear I wasn't making any progress. Up ahead I could see someone, probably Matt, on a TT bike at the front. Behind were a few other riders who, like me, had been caught by surprise, so I eased up and we regrouped for the rest of the ride. I had earlier been considering doing some extra miles, but by the time I got back to Lakeshore Drive I'd taken that right off the table.

Saturday night I finally broke down and re-cabled the Bianchi. I had to install a new chain anyway, which is relatively easy, but running new cables on a small bike with internal cable routing is always kind of a pain. There's practically no way to get the cable routing at the handlebars quite right on a small frame because there is really not enough cable anywhere to allow for the flexibility that is needed. As a result, cables always end up rubbing on each other, and the handlebar, and the computer mount. Anyway, I got it done eventually and only had to re-run one cable when I discovered I'd gone over instead of under one of the guides coming off of the left shifter.

Sunday was another Giro Ride with pretty much the same attendance as Saturday's. Although it was again windy, the wind direction was more from the east than south. Lured by the ample tailwind I decided to add an out and back to "The Wall" at the end of the Lake Trail after the Giro. As nice and relaxing as the ride out there was, the ride back was right into the wind. By then I'd burned off those four packets of sugar from my morning coffee and was starting to run a little low on calories, so it was a long slow slog back home where I logged a bit over 80 miles for the day. I was then arm-twisted into going for a long walk around Carrollton, and later for a walk over to Panola Street Café for a badly needed late lunch.

The weather forecast for this week is not looking too great. We got a few drops of rain this morning out by the lake, and looking out the window at the office I see a gray sky and wet streets. The chance of rain is kind of high all week, and then a cold front comes through ahead of the weekend. Fortunately, Saturday and Sunday currently look to be dry, although fairly cool. Friday and Saturday should be pretty windy as well. So it will be one of those weekends where I'll have to play it by ear and get in riding when I can.

Auburn and Mardi Gras

A couple of things that hadn't happened in 2021 happened. One was the Auburn Classic collegiate weekend and the other was Mardi Gras. Neither was quite normal. Both were great anyway. I think it was Thursday when Julia texted that she wasn't going to be able to make the road trip to Auburn because she still had some mild but lingering concussion symptoms from her crash. That left just Sean, Joey, Evan, Christopher and me. Fortunately the university is OK with me driving the whole way and even more fortunately we got a big Ford 12-passenger van with a couple of the rear seat rows removed. That made it way easier to load and unload the five bikes, spare wheels, and other luggage. In fact, we should have thrown in a couple of stationary trainers since we had the room. We left around 10:00 am and made the easy 5.5 hour drive, staying below 75 mph because the Big Brother alarm and GPS would beep at me if we exceeded that. Rather than to straight to the Best Western we made a little detour and headed for the Road Race course to do a lap before dark. There were a few teams there doing the same thing. For some reason the guys kind of attacked the first hill while I was still off the back and so I just let them go since I was still having some pulmonary congestion from the COVID case I'd had three weeks earlier. I'd done this race a number of times so I was pretty familiar with the course.

Saturday morning everyone met for breakfast at the hotel and we took off for the Road Race course nice and early. The temperature was in the 40s but the sky was clear so I knew it would warm up. Three of the riders were Category D and Sean was Category C, so we didn't have people in all of the waves. Brett and Lisa were there, though. Lisa would race the combined Women's race and then turn right around and race the Masters race with Brett and me. My race didn't start until 10:00, so the rest of the Tulane crew would be finished by the time I started. Sean was a bit sick with some upper respiratory problem and ended up with a DNF after a few laps. 

In the D race some kid, reportedly a triathlete, rolled off the front from the start, caught the women who had started minutes ahead of him, and finished 5 minutes up on the lead group. Joey was with that lead group for most of the race but finished 2 minutes behind it in 6th place and 5 minutes ahead of Christopher in 7th and the rest of the field. My race started out with a fairly brisk first lap, as usual. Every time I would have to make a sustained effort I could feel my lungs burning, and since it didn't look like things would settle down much for the rest of the race I decided to limit the damage and pulled the plug early on the second lap. For some reason the group eased up at one point during that lap and I made contact with it for a mile or two before the next attack up the hill on the back side when I eased off the back again. I was fine cruising at a moderate pace, so I decided to finish out the distance solo. Mid-way through the last lap the A race caught me right around the "big" hill. I eased over to the right to give them a lot of room. Over the top I noticed one of the riders having a conversation with the moto ref and then dropping off the back. He'd been disqualified for centerline violations. I caught up to him and we rode the rest of the lap together. Meanwhile, Brett got into a 5-rider break that finished 5 minutes ahead of the rest of the field, putting him into 2nd place in the 45+ age group (it was 35+/45+). Lisa finished 7th in the 45+ race after placing 2nd in the Women's race. There was a TT after the road race in which Joey placed 3rd, Christopher 4th, and Evan 5th. Sean was 3rd in the Cs.

My greatest personal success on Saturday was convincing everyone we should have dinner at Olive Garden! While waiting for a table I chatted a bit with Julie Carter who is the coach for the Lindenwood varsity team. They were there with a full-size bus and athletics staff.

The forecast for Sunday had been looking like rain, but as the evening went on the forecast started to change a bit making it quite uncertain. As it turned out the rain missed the race entirely. I never do the criterium since everyone would have to wait around for hours just for me. The Category D race was at 8 am, and since Sean had already decided not to race, that meant we'd have three people in the first race and then be basically done. Then Evan kind of crashed during warmup and backed out of the race too, leaving us with just Christopher and Joey. Category D is very much a beginners race, so things can get sketchy. On the very first lap there was a big crash on the tight bumpy turn #3. Somehow both Joey and Christopher managed to get with the front group after that. Both were in a nice 5-rider lead group until Christopher dropped his chain on the bumpy turn. He was eventually lapped but latched onto the front group when that happened and ended up passing a couple of riders who had been ahead of him. Joey finished 4th and Christopher 7th, so that wasn't too bad.

After the long drive back to New Orleans I was glad that we had Monday off because of Mardi Gras the next day. There was a Mardi Gras Giro Ride Tuesday morning, and given the fact that I'd logged a total of 40 unimpressive miles all weekend I decided to skip my usual Fat Tuesday routine of the Royal Run followed by a stop on St. Charles to watch Rex and then a long walk down to the French Quarter and back. 

Instead, I did the Giro and then we rode bikes down to the Quarter, which meant I missed all of Rex, Zulu, and the truck parades. Candy walked around with me for a bit and then headed back while I made a few more passes around the Quarter looking at the people and taking a few photos. I was glad that I managed to catch the Société de Saint Anne group just as they got to the river to throw wreaths and ashes for departed loved ones (OK, some of those are pets, but some are people). I came back with photos but not even a single strand of beads.

I guess it's back to work today!

Rumblestrip

Sunday on the northshore

Finally back to a full week of riding last week. Most of the weekday rides were fairly uneventful unless you count me almost hitting (actually I did brush it with my shoulder) one of the "safety posts" turning off of Lakeshore Drive onto Marconi after the WeMoRi. I was a few riders back and I guess they cut inside of the last post, which of course I couldn't see. 

Friendly Friday was very windy

Thursday's levee ride was pretty nice, although quite windy. As we were coming back, I guess around the bridge or playground, we say Julia heading the other way. Nothing unusual about that. However, as it turned out she crashed shortly after that. Dustin had her doing a sprint workout and when she started a sprint something bad happened with her drivetrain that landed her on the asphalt, apparently mostly on her head. When she got up her chain was broken and the rear wheel was off the bike. Perhaps the chain broke and jammed everything up. Anyway, I got home and was eating a quick breakfast when I checked my email and found a not from her dad asking if I could accompany her to the hospital. Dustin had picked her up and was dropping her off at her house, but she'd cracked her helmet and had some possible concussion symptoms, so a CAT scan was in order. By the time I picked her up she was looking pretty good, not repeating herself, and otherwise showing no concussion symptoms, so that was good. We went over to the UMC ER where it took maybe an hour and a half to get a scan, which didn't show anything abnormal. The only bad part of the whole thing was that the guest internet was apparently not working in the emergency room so I couldn't really do any work even though I'd brought my laptop for just that purpose. 

Saturday I went out into the wind for the Giro. We're finally getting back to where there is some significant light in the sky by 6:30, which is nice. Of course that's all going to go away and we'll be back in the dark again when we shift back to DST in March. There was a pretty stiff north wind blowing, which meant lots of crosswind. Fortunately there wasn't a whole lot of horsepower on hand, and I think some of what was there rolled off the front early, so the pace was fairly tame. That didn't mean it was easy, though. I spent the whole way out along Chef Highway in negotiation with the rumble strip. I am still being a little cautious about hard efforts since I was sick, and even today still have some lingering post-nasal drip issues.

Since nobody had been able to commit to the usual Saturday Northshore ride we decided to do one instead on Sunday. The temperature was in the mid-40s for the 8:30 am start and there was a significant east wind blowing. I was trying out a new stem - same 90mm length but a little bit of rise to this one. We had only five riders on hand despite the promise of a sunny sky and rising temperatures. Kyle was on a brand new bike, with a multitool in his pocket. Stanley P had come down from Baton Rouge. Steve and Randy filled out the other two slots. Nobody was interested in going very hard, so most of the ride was at a nice moderate pace. Kyle stopped a few times to make various bike adjustments. He had also not been on the bike much lately. He and Stanley were starting to struggle a bit toward the end. I think the only significant effort I made was from the Firetower climb to Tung Road. Kyle and Stanley had dropped off as the climb started, and we knew they wouldn't have any trouble getting back since by then we were only a few miles from the Lee Road ballpark where we'd started. It was a good ride for me. I had been a little worried about doing a really hard ride, so the way it worked out was perfect. The new stem seemed to work out well. It's probably just a centimeter or so higher, but I think I could tell the difference, which was a little surprising.

3-Day Report

Tuesday morning

I went out to the 6 am Tuesday levee ride without a plan. With just a tiny bit of lingering congestion, there was really no way to tell if I was up to the usual forty miles or not other than to jump back into it. It was still chilly, but a bit warmer, and there was hardly any wind, so those were good signs. I started the ride cautiously, taking shorter than normal pulls, which, considering how short my usual pulls are, were quite short. A few people were planning on turning back at Williams Blvd., so that became Plan B in case for some reason I wasn't feeling right. As it turned out, however, I was feeling pretty much normal. Granted, my legs were reminding me that I'd been off the bike a lot over the prior week, but all systems appeared to be functioning within normal parameters so when we came to Williams I went ahead and committed to the full ride. I think we were down to just four or five at that point, but fortunately none of them seemed interested in pushing the pace and we settled into a comfortable 22-23 mph rotation. I arrived back home feeling fine, and rushed off to work shortly thereafter.

Wednesday morning was even warmer. I think the temperature was around 61°F when I left for the WeMoRi. I'm still a little hesitant to risk being cold, so I was dressed more like it was 55°, which turned out to be just fine. There was a pretty big group when I latched onto it along Marconi. The pace didn't seem to be particularly fast today, so that worked in my favor since I am still trying to avoid any really huge efforts, just in case. Sitting toward the tail end of the group, though, I felt fine with the speeds. 

Right now it's looking like we will be able to get in the Thursday morning levee ride before the rain starts ahead of the next cold front. It should be around 70°F at 6:00 am, but with a 13 mph SSE wind. That means mostly crosswind conditions for most of the ride, which is never easy. After that it will probably be rain the rest of the day and into the night, and then falling temperatures and a 13 mph north wind by Friday morning. 

Reset

That's a positive.

The scratchy throat started on Tuesday. I tried to ignore it, hoping it would resolve itself quickly and that it wasn't what I suspected it was. Wrong on both counts. I'd skipped riding on Monday morning after the trip to Orlando, but did venture out for the Tuesday morning levee ride, during which I felt fine. Wednesday morning was yet another trip to the Vet on the northshore to follow up on the new dog's skin, so I didn't get to ride. By noon on Wednesday, though, the sore throat seemed to be getting worse rather than better, and an hour later I pulled the plug and went home to take one of the at-home SARS CoV-2 antigen tests. Somewhat surprisingly, that turned up negative. I wanted to believe that it wasn't COVID, but deep-down I knew better, and if I needed any more confirmation, that came Wednesday night as the throat got significantly worse and was accompanied by a headache and head cold symptoms. I barely got through the night with help from Sudafed and Advil. On Friday morning I did another Antigen test. That one was clearly positive, not that I really needed the additional confirmation by then. For all practical purposes, things remained the same for the next three days and nights. Although I usually felt a lot better during the day when I was moving around, it was pretty cold outside in the mornings and so riding was completely off the table. Better to live to fight another day, as they say.

Saturday morning Robert came by to pick up race supplies for Sunday's Virlillia Road Race in Mississippi, the second race I'd planned to do, but couldn't, this year. It looked like it would have been a great early season race to do, so I was sorry to be missing it. I guess I should be happy that I am definitely not planning on doing Rouge Roubaix, to which they have added additional gravel miles. It's not that the temptation isn't there, but for sure I know better than to subject myself to that kind of thing.

It wasn't until Saturday that I started to get the upper hand on the virus, and I finally got some normal sleep by Sunday night. This morning, Monday, the sore throat was almost gone, and the dog was tugging at my arm by 5:30, so I decided it was time to reboot the system with an easy ride on the levee (rather than the sometimes-mellow Mellow Monday group ride). The temperature was in the low 40s, so I dressed for the upper 30, knowing I would be taking it easy and not generating much heat. After missing nine of February's 14 days so far, there was not much to be gained by trying to do a hard ride quite yet. 

Meanwhile the new dog has been rampaging through the house destroying whatever he can get hold of - shoes, my arm, plastic bags, papers, etc. The other day we came home to discover that he had found one of those big metal cans of popcorn that people get around the holidays. We'd forgotten we even had it, but he managed to knock it over and eat whatever was in there. This morning we caught him holding a wine glass in his paws and licking the remnants from the inside. So now, all the shoes are in closets and anything remotely edible has to be kept out of reach, which means about ten inches from the edge of any table or countertop. Next week he starts his heartworm treatments so we will be really challenged to keep his activity level down. He'll probably need to stay in his kennel most of the time.

 Next up for me will be Auburn on the 26th. I don't know if I'll still be feeling the effects of COVID and the resulting break in training by then, but there's only one way to find out.

Family Weekend Off the Bike

As sad as it might be to lose a family member, the silver lining on that cloud is always the impromptu family reunion that results. In a rather amazing feat of coordination, Candy and I, together with both of my sisters and one brother in law managed to book the same flight and hotel for the weekend trip to Orlando. Even better, the flight didn't leave until after sunrise, which almost never seems to be the case for me. It would be my first flight since the November before COVID, so we equipped ourselves with the recommended K95 face masks and hoped for the best. First, though, was another trip across the lake to drop the new dog off to be neutered and so finish up with his shots and to be boarded until we could pick him up on Monday. 

I was a little disappointed not to be able to go to the race in Gainesville, but glad that Julia, Christopher, Dustin, Lisa, and Brett were all able to make the trip. It looked like a great early-season race. We have another race in Mississippi this coming weekend that I am hoping to attend even though it will no doubt be colder than I like, which, to be clear, means under 75°. Maybe the four days I just had off the bike will turn out to have been a good thing. That's what I'm telling myself anyway.

We arrived in Orlando in the early evening and rushed over to the hotel, checked in, and rushed to a family dinner without even taking the luggage out of the rental car trunk. We were still about half an hour late, and Danielle, who was flying in from Olympia, was still at the airport when we arrived, but eventually the entire table for 20 or so was full. I'm still afraid to look at what our share of that dinner bill was, but whatever, it was well worth it.

The next morning Candy announced that she couldn't find her driver's license, the only ID she had. We searched and searched, but not luck.  More about that later.

Saturday morning we headed to the chapel, following the Google Maps instructions, and twenty minutes later arrived at a place with no chapel. Turns out there was a "north" and "south" to that address, and we were of course at the wrong one. So the memorial service at the Baptist chapel was nice even though we got there a couple of minutes late, and, thankfully, was fairly brief. One never knows with these things! Laura and Jay were regulars there and so had a lot of friends who attended.

We spent the rest of the day at the house catching up with everyone, including a couple of people from way back in my swimming days, and eating various things I almost never eat. At least five people approached me with, "You must be Jay's brother," a greeting to which I've been accustomed childhood. It was late evening by the time we finally said goodbye to everyone. A little while later we headed to dinner somewhere around downtown Orlando. The wait for our table was going to be about an hour, so we went next door to an oyster bar for drinks and a few oysters, followed by a nice dinner (some sort of clam pasta for me) with the sisters, daughter, etc. I don't know which of the unusual culinary items was to blame, but that night my gut was quite unhappy with me, a problem that lingered into the morning. 

Sunday morning we were dreading the ordeal we were expecting to have with TSA to get Candy onto an airplane without valid ID. I was in the shower when she stuck her head in the door to say she had found the long-lost driver's license ... in her shoe ... the one she'd been wearing all of the prior day. It must have gotten in there during the TSA inspection when we were leaving New Orleans when they had to re-run here bag and took her ID during the process. In the rush - TSA screening always seems like a rush - it somehow landed in her shoe, which she then put on thinking there was just a little wrinkle in her sock. Anyway, that was a big relief. Danielle took an Uber to the airport at 4 am for her long flight back to Washington. We had planned to be at the airport three hours early because of the ID situation, so although that was no longer necessary we were all up anyway so we were there fairly early. Fortunately my gut had calmed down a bit by the time our 10:30 am flight departed, although of course I hadn't had anything to eat or drink unless you count a couple of chewable Pepto tablets. The flight back was uneventful and we were back at home by about noon where the sky was clear and the air was fairly cold. I thought about riding but ultimately decided that under the circumstances to skip a couple more days to be on the safe side.

Back to the bike tomorrow!

Winter Rides, Circle of Life

Monday morning on the lakefront

Although unsurprisingly cold and windy, last week took some unexpected turns. It started on a cold Monday morning with an unusually small group for the Mellow Monday ride. Still feeling the effects of the prior weekend, I happily backed off when the pace finally picked up heading back on Lakeshore Drive, and was a little surprised to find I wasn't the only one. The two or three who had ridden off the front sat up and waited, so for all intents and purposes it was indeed a mellow ride. Cold, but mellow. Tuesday morning was just a complete washout and I didn't even bother to look out the window when the alarm went off since I could hear the rain and the car tires outside on the wet road. I told myself I'd go out for a few miles later in the day, which of course didn't happen. I didn't really feel too bad about that because I knew I needed a little break.

Wednesday morning was in the low 40s or high 30s, but with a strong north wind. In the dark I trudged into that wind out to the lakefront, turning down RE Lee (recently re-named Allen Toussaint Blvd.) and making a U-turn just before a lone rider in black went flying past. Looking back I could see the headlights of what I assumed was "the group" to which I latched on about thirty seconds later. The lone rider turned out to be Brett. I hung onto the back of the little 5-rider group, trying to get my physiology to acknowledge that it needed to adapt, and wondering if these were all the riders in attendance. Looking behind, I couldn't seen any other group, although as it turned out there was one. The brutal north wind had blown the group apart on Lakeshore Drive long before, so I guess I was with the break. I was being careful not to interfere with their rotation since I didn't feel like I had anything to contribute and would probably just slow them down. Jaden was in there occasionally offering sage, but otherwise ineffective advice. By the time we got back onto Lakeshore Drive people were looking pretty tired. I saw Jaden come past Lisa and motion for her to get on his wheel just before he launched an attack to which the rest of the group mounted absolutely no response other than an implied sigh of relief. At that point I started taking a few pulls since any attempt to chase anything had obviously evaporated. It wasn't until after we went around the traffic circle at Elysian Fields that I finally saw the rest of the group a minute or two behind  us.

Thursday morning group at "the pipes"

Thursday morning was colder still, and just as windy, for the levee ride. There was a surprisingly good turnout despite the weather. It was a pretty normal ride except for the unrelenting north crosswind and a brief stop near the end when Pat's computer mount broke off. That afternoon we drove across the lake to the Northshore Humane Society place to look at adopting a dog that Candy had seen on their website. This little mixed breed dog is maybe nine months old and is still being treated for heartworm and skin problems but they offered to let us take him home on kind of a trial basis, which was a little surprising, but anyway we headed back home with a dog that they had been calling Willie Wonka. 

The dog

Keeping with the theme we will probably call him Charlie for simplicity (one of the characters in the movie). I was expecting some drama dealing with a new dog that had presumably never been house trained. Fortunately he settled in well, quickly figured out that he shouldn't do his business in the house, and started methodically gathering up all of Renzo's old toys to hoard on a particular dog blanket on the floor. We kept him in the kennel the first night, and let him sleep in the living room the second night, and he has now moved into the bedroom without incident. He has to go back on Thursday to be neutered and get some more of his shots, at which point we can officially adopt him.

Laura

By Friday I was pretty tired of riding in the wind but went out to the Friendly Friday ride anyway where again only a handful showed up. I took it nice and easy since I was expecting a long and windy northshore ride on Saturday followed by a long ride out of Independence with the Tulane riders on Sunday. When I got home on Friday I learned that my sister in law Laura had died, which we all knew was coming but were hoping it would be much later than it was. I had planned a 60-something mile northshore ride for Saturday, but the forecast was calling for a low temperature Friday night in the upper 20s, which would mean something around 34° for our 8:30 am start time, along with more north wind. That evening I checked around with some of the riders who usually do these rides and most had already decided to skip it, so I ended up cancelling it at the last minute and re-setting my sights on the Giro where it would be warmer. Naturally, Saturday's Giro had a smaller than usual turnout, but it was still a decent group. For some reason I was feeling pretty tired and when the pace ramped way up on the Interstate stretch with the tailwind I lost the draft and figured I'd best just cruise the rest of the way solo. A moment later, though, Jaden came by and motioned for me to get on his wheel. That got me back in contact with the group shortly after turning onto Chef, so that was nice. I decided I'd better stay out of the rotation, but once the speed settled down a bit I went ahead and started taking some pulls anyway. It turned out to be a good ride, and I felt like I hadn't done so much damage that I'd be suffering on the Tulane ride the next day.

The Sunday group at a turn

Sunday's ride had seven, which is probably about the perfect number for this sort of ride. This was 90% zone 2, I'd say, which was fine with me since I already knew I wasn't going to be able to make it to the race in Gainesville the following weekend. I was supposed to help with the driving for that collegiate race but had to back out in order to attend Laura's memorial service in Orlando, to which we will be flying. I think it's probably been three years since I was on an airplane. Anyway, we should have pretty much the whole family there, so that's nice. With the LAMBRA race calendar coming together, I'll have an opportunity to race in Mississippi the following weekend, so that should work out fine anyway. We'll drop the new dog off at Northshore on Thursday and they will board him until we pick him up on Monday.

Volume

At the upriver end of the levee bike path.

Volume. It's that technical coach's term for "riding a lot." This time of year, for me, riding a lot is one thing, while riding hard is quite another. While the recent spell of cold and windy weather has sent many of the local riders into their garages and basements where they have been happily riding around Watopia or wherever Zwift's current imaginary routes happen to be, I have been trying to at least get out on the road as much as possible without dropping my core temperature below operational norms. Together with the long MLK day ride on Monday and a long levee ride on Saturday I somehow managed to piece together a 320 mile week that was nonetheless practically devoid of significant blocks of intensity. In other words, it's winter.

Thursday and Friday mornings were so cold and windy that almost nobody rode in the mornings, myself included. Fortunately, since we are again working from home until the Omicron surge dies down, I was able to sneak out in the afternoons for a couple of short battles with the cold north wind. We're talking average speeds of like 15 mph despite arguably more actual effort than the usual longer and faster rides. 

By Saturday, with the forecast calling for sustained sub-freezing northshore temperatures in addition to a 10 mph north wind, we pivoted and moved the usual northshore winter training ride to the southshore, starting at 8 am and riding all the way out to the "new" end of the bike trail near Gramercy. I think it was about 34° when we started. It turned out to be a harder ride than you'd expect of 84 miles on a dead-flat bike path thanks to the unrelenting wind and a couple of other factors. We started with maybe five riders, but within the first few miles we picked up another group of five or six, at which point the pace started to ramp up. As always happens on the levee in a crosswind, the first four of five riders behind whoever was pulling were getting a bit of a draft and everyone else was entirely in the wind. The result was that riders started getting shelled off the back one by one. One of the riders who had met up with us was Maurizio Topini who used to live here but has been in east Texas for the past decade or so. At one point he tried to create a second eschelon but the other riders didn't realize it and it quickly fell apart. Anyway, I had to make some pretty hard efforts for a while, but by the time we were out around LaRose our group was down to just five, not coincidentally exactly the number that will fit on the bike path in a crosswind. The pressure stayed on, with Maurizio and Chris taking longer and longer pulls. 

Maurizio and me

I was doing OK but trying to limit my efforts in the wind since I knew it wouldn't be much better on the way back and I didn't want to blow up and have to limp in the last twenty miles by myself. As it turned out, we all made it out to the end in fairly good shape and then stopped at a gas station shortly after starting the return trip. It was still cold, but as far as problems went that day, the wind totally overshadowed the temperature. By the time we were halfway back a couple of the guys were really starting to feel the miles and effort, and things came apart a couple of times before we settled down into a slightly slower pace. Naturally my neck was killing me most of the way back. It seems to be considerably worse when it's cold like this. Anyway, it was a solid 88-mile day for me which left me wondering how I'd manage whatever there would be of the Giro on Sunday.

Sunday morning was practically as cold as Saturday, and although it was still good and windy, it wasn't quite as bad in that regard. I got out to Starbucks around 6:35 and picked up my sugar-loaded coffee and waited to see. There had been a suggestion that, if only a handful showed up, we do a different route to incorporate Almonaster. As it turned out, and to my surprise, we ended up with maybe a dozen rather chilled people, so we did the whole route. The pace was fairly controlled with a steady paceline on Chef for much of it. I know because I was staying behind that paceline for the most part. At one point I accidentally got into the paceline, so I figured I'd take a short pull so as not to disrupt things, but when Lisa hit the front immediately ahead of me and ramped the pace up by about three mph I had to pull off. Then on the way back things were going nicely until a small group in front sprinted for the Goodyear sign which opened a pretty good gap. The rest of us took a little time to get going, and were gradually closing the gap back up when we caught the red light, and then a fire truck came out of the fire station and we all moved over into the grass to let it pass on the shoulder. Of course by then there was no way we were going to catch the front half of the group. At that point everyone backed off and we rode fairly easy the rest of the way in. 

So I think I'm due for a couple of recovery days which may work out fine since Tuesday morning is looking like it will be rained out.

I'd have more photos except that it's so difficult to take them when you're wearing three layers of gloves!

Weather Weary

Saturday's Giro cooldown on LSD

It's that time of year here when the usual series of cold fronts interspersed with days of humid southerly winds result in wild temperature and rain fluctuations. So it was last week. 

Foggy and friendly

Friday's Friendly Friday ride was remarkably friendly last week, which is to say it never got really fast like it sometimes does. Perhaps some of that was because of the chilly temperature and the fog that made chilly feel more like cold.

We had already cancelled the Saturday northshore ride because of the forecast for rain in the morning. But by Saturday's Giro Ride it was warm enough on the southshore (mid-50s) that most people (no, not including me) were riding with bare knees. The radar also gave us some confidence that we wouldn't see any rain until late morning. With the knowledge that a cold front preceded by rain would be coming through later in the day, and considering that, by morning, it looked like it wouldn't really hit until 11:00 or so, a few of us made plans to ride the Giro and then continue west on the lakefront bike trail, looping back around to the river levee to extend the ride. That turned out to be a fun ride with just a handful of us that turned out to be 83 miles for me and considerably more for a few others. As predicted, the rains came in the afternoon and the temperature plummeted.

Climbing up the levee on Saturday

By Sunday morning the temperature was just above freezing and there was a stiff 15-20 mph west wind. I was pretty sure the Sunday Giro was out of the question but I went ahead and battled the wind out to Starbucks where I had to move from my usual table because the wind kept blowing my helmet onto the ground. Despite the cold and wind a few people including Julia, MJ, Keith, and Will, actually showed up. We quickly decided on a lap of Lakeshore Drive, then around City Park, and then whatever. I think Will basically towed us around most of the way. When he ramped it up past 32 mph heading east on Lakeshore Drive I dropped off the back, unwilling to put in the necessary effort. As it was, I was still going 30 mph all by myself with a heart rate barely in the 130s. I turned around before the Armory and got back in for the headwind stretch to the west, by which time Julia was MIA, so when we made that sharp left turn at the bottom of the Bayou St. John bridge to pick up Wisner I thought I should wait so as to not leave her out in such a brutal wind alone. I waited a couple of minutes with no sign of her, so I went ahead, cutting across City Park and again hooking up with what was left of the group. We eventually saw Julia heading back on Marconi, so I guess I should have waited a bit longer. Anyway, we then cut across City Park again at Filmore where I decided I'd be long enough in the wind and cold and headed home.

Monday was MLK Day, so I was off from work along with a few others, which resulted in a Holiday Giro Ride. By then the temperature was around 40° and the wind had died down to manageable levels, so despite the noticeably busier traffic we did the normal Giro route. With so few to share the work and basically no place to hide, I felt really drained by the time I got home even though the speeds were nothing to write home about.

Tuesday morning near Williams Blvd. looking back to the east as Rich fixes Dan's flat

Yesterday's levee ride was fairly normal for this time of year - a starting temperature in the low 40s and a light wind. Other than an early flat tire by Rich it was pretty uneventful, which was good because I was not feeling like I had much to contribute. I guess I was still feeling the effects of that Sunday ride. This morning it was in the low 50s for the WeMoRi. I wasn't feeling all that energetic and spent almost the whole time back in the ample draft of the large group. I must not have been the only one, because the speeds were relatively moderate. On the plus side I was feeling better and at least avoided doing any more damage.

This weekend's northshore ride is definitely in jeopardy because of the forecast that is calling for Friday night temperatures up there in the mid-20 as opposed to the mid-30s on the southshore. The rain ahead of that cold front should at least be over by Saturday morning, so I'm at least expecting sunshine to accompany the freezing temperature and 10 mph north wind. If a few people are willing to commit to a northshore ride, I'll do it since I know I have the clothes for that, but I'm thinking a long southshore ride that doesn't start with thirty miles straight into the north wind might be a better option under the circumstances. We can wait to see the actual hourly forecast for Saturday, which should be out tomorrow, before making the call, though.

Almost Normal, But Then...

Sunday Giro in the Fog

It was looking like it would be an almost normal week. We were scheduled to be back to work on Tuesday, the weather was all over the place (which is normal, right?), the holidays were almost over (12th Night was Thursday), and the first of the winter training rides was booked for Saturday. What could go wrong?

Things were going great on Thursday, until they weren't.

Tuesday morning was cold and I went out with long tights and wool socks and multiple layers to meet the morning levee ride group. Turnout up there was pretty normal and although a few turned back early, which is also normal, we still had a decent group doing the full ride out to Ormond. Everything was normal on the way out. And then we started back. We hadn't even gotten to St. Rose when Scott flatted and he and Rich put their frozen fingers to work fixing it. Neither could find anything in the tire, so we continued on with the new tube - until it went flat again. This time we removed the tire entirely from the rim and turned it inside-out and inspected is carefully as our sweaty body temperatures started to fall. Still couldn't find anything, so we put in another tube and continued. Three or four miles later it was going flat again. A couple of the guys couldn't wait any longer because of work and continued while we inspected the tire and changed the tube again. A couple of miles later it was going flat again. At that point we tried just pumping in more CO2 a couple of times but it wasn't getting us more than a mile or so at a time. Eventually we got Scott about to Jefferson Playground and Rich headed home to get his car and mount the rescue mission as I headed home completely frozen. It was what I'd call a ClusterFlat.

Wednesday's WeMoRi was considerably warmer and a good workout for me but otherwise nothing out of the ordinary. Likewise, the Thursday levee ride was smooth and steady and flat-free. That evening we walked down to the Willow Street Streetcar Barn to watch the Phunny Phorty Pfellows start their traditional Twelfth Night streetcar ride. It was warm and there was a pretty good crowd there despite the fact that they were again not allowing anyone to congregate right at the barn itself, which really did nothing but push the crowd one block down the street. So with the Christmas decorations still in place, the Mardi Gras season began, complete with a nice real French style King Cake from the bakery on Maple Street.

That evening Tulane sent out an email essentially telling everyone to work remotely until the 21st since COVID cases have been surging. I guess the idea is to get the numbers down before the students start back on the 23rd. I am cautiously optimistic that this surge will be relatively short-lived, by which I mean 4-6 weeks rather than 8-12. My averages have been coming down for a few days but they are now complicated by the growing number of people doing their own in-home antigen tests which are not reported. I have definitely had more people I know test positive, and a number of them get pretty sick, in the past month than I've had the entire rest of this pandemic. 

The Omicron variant is spreading quickly and easily and is hitting vaccinated and unvaccinated alike. Friday evening we went to Ruth's Chris Steak House (where I had fish) with Candy's sister and brother in law to kind of celebrate finally almost wrapping up her mother's estate. It was kind of loud in there, so a little difficult to hear the conversation, and of course the prices were ridiculous as usual. As I was pouring the last of the wine into my glass I was thinking, "This probably isn't the best preparation for that 75 mile ride tomorrow." 

It wasn't.

Saturday morning on the northshore it was still pretty chilly at 8:30 and significantly windy. The gate to the ballpark was still closed so we parked along the entrance road, which was fine except for the lack of bathroom access. I dressed for the start, which turned out to be a mistake because it warmed up a whole lot. Rather than the thermal bib knickers I should have gone with shorts and knee-warmers. The long sleeve Gore base layer would also turn out to be a bit much underneath my long-sleeve jersey, and the vest I started with was in my pocket before we were ten miles down the road. From the start my legs were feeling achy, and with only five of us after Randy turned back early I knew it was going to be a long ride for me. Chris and Dan were feeling good and by the time we were up past Pine gaps were opening up between them and Charles, Steve, and me on some of the little climbs. It wasn't too bad, and I could tell they were holding back a bit to keep us close, but with only five of us it wasn't really possible to limit the effort like it would be with a larger group. I was kind of disappointed that I wasn't feeling better for this ride, though, because I really like the route up to State Line from the Lee Road ballpark. For most of the ride I was feeling fine in the draft and even on the front, but every time there was a little bit of a climb my legs would start to load up after thirty or forty pedal strokes. I really couldn't explain it considering how easy Friday's ride had been. Maybe it was just all that expensive wine from the night before.

The weather forecast for Sunday was not looking good Saturday evening. Although the temperature would be way up in the 70s, they were predicting a lot of rain starting at 6 am, so I was fully expecting the Sunday Giro to be a washout. When the alarm went off at 5:20 am I checked the weather radar and it was practically clear. The rain chances had also been lowered into the teens. Go figure. So I headed out to the Giro in summer kit on the 9th of January. The street was damp and there was quite a bit of fog as I rode to Starbucks, and I wondered how many would show up. I'd heard that Saturday's Giro had been pretty fast, so it wouldn't take much to convince people to stay in bed. Fortunately there was a decent turnout. A bit smaller than normal but enough to keep it from feeling like a time trial. 

As we rolled out I could tell that the fog was getting thicker. A few people turned back because of that but most continued on, perhaps a bit more cautiously than usual. Visibility on Chef Highway was pretty low, but fortunately so was the traffic volume, and with about twenty flashing tail lights I never felt very worried about it. With some people still licking their wounds from the long gravel race in Mississippi on Saturday the pace for this Giro was fairly steady and I don't think anyone was having any trouble with it. Although I could certainly feel some soreness in my quads from Saturday's ride, it wasn't enough to cause a problem and so I probably did a bit more work than usual.

At home I spent some time Friday night fixing the drain on the old concrete sink in the basement. Nothing there is lined up right and nothing there is able to be adjusted either. Also, the drain pipe is this old style flared fitting for which they no longer make gaskets, so I had to improvise with a not really right gasket and a ton of silicone seal. In the end, I think I got it all fixed without any leaks, so we'll see how long that lasts. Everything in this house moves depending on how much moisture is in the ground and how many big trucks rumble over the bumps on S. Claiborne, and so we just keep buying silicone seal and hoping for the best!

Another Revolution

New Year's Day Giro Ride heading out on Lakeshore Drive

The last few weeks of 2021 were busy. Amidst the dramatic takeover of the Omicron variant of SARS CoV-2 from its Delta predecessor, cleverly timed to coincide with the end of the semester and the holidays, we emerged this morning more or less intact, albeit with lots of scars from our prior revolution around the star we call Sun.

Renzo in his younger days

As things at work wound down for the holidays, our dog Renzo started to deteriorate rapidly. We had been nursing him along for months, carrying him up and down the stairs that he could no longer negotiate and cleaning up the accidents inside, also related to the spinal deterioration. His dementia had gotten much worse, leaving him to pace around the house at all hours, or more commonly, claw at the floor trying to get up. Outside he would just walk in small circles, sometimes getting tangled up in the lawn furniture. We finally had to put him down on the 23rd.

That evening Danielle and Shannon arrived from Olympia. Traffic at the airport was basically gridlocked, and we ended up stuck on the wrong access road for twenty minutes before we could escape and try again, ultimately picking them up inside the short-term parking garage, which actually worked out great.

The weather has been summer-like for almost two weeks, and it seemed that everyone was busy trying to cram a few more miles into their annual totals on Strava. With most people either on vacation or "working" from home in the week or two leading up to Christmas some of the usual weekday rides were extended. 

Summer in December

With Christmas and New Year's Day falling on Saturdays, that meant Holiday Giro Rides on the prior Fridays, both of which were relatively moderate in intensity compared to the regular Giro Rides. Last Sunday's Giro, the day after Christmas, turned out to be pretty race-like with a really big group and lots of intensity. Dan Bennett was in town and did a few rides with us, including this one. While I was trying to meter out my efforts in small manageable doses, Dan went all-in, staying with the lead group for the sprint at the turnaround. It kind of wiped him out for a day or two afterward, but I'm pretty sure he enjoyed every minute. 

A number of rides lately have featured some dense fog and wet roads, especially along the river. That has resulted in more flat tires. On Thursday's ride I flatted on the way out. I was toward the back so I just dropped off and changed the flat in the dark. I couldn't feel anything in the tire, but of course that just meant there was only a 50% chance I'd missed whatever caused the flat and I'd just flat again later. Which of course I did. By then there was some daylight and we found a little piece of glass embedded in the tire that was the culprit. Fortunately Danielle had given me a stack of inner tubes for Christmas.

Even though it was December, when rides are often shortened or missed entirely due to the weather or other complications, I logged 1,247 miles, which was probably one of the highest mileage months of the year. So I ended the year with 13,663 miles, about a thousand more than usual. I can only attribute that to a year with no injuries, good weather, and practically no weekend road trips.

After a fairly easy holiday Giro yesterday, this morning's New Year's Day Giro was super windy and really fast, at least on the way out. At one point out on Chef Highway Jaden dropped back and, no doubt intentionally, let a gap open. Everyone behind hesitated. Eventually I put my head down and took a hard pull at 31 mph, knowing full well that I'd probably blow up and not be able to get back on after pulling off, which is exactly what happened. I did get us close enough that a few riders were able to make the bridge back to the group, though. After such an intense ride out to the turnaround, a lot of riders were pretty tired, so the pace was relatively controlled as we made our way back down Chef Highway. Still, there were a lot of riders who were still willing to go for the Goodyear Sign sprint. Unfortunately, that resulted in a crash that took Matt, Brian and Lisa down. I think Matt probably got the worst of it. Lisa body surfed on top of him a bit, ending up with a chainring gash in her leg but relatively little road rash. All were able to ride the rest of the way in, though.

On Thursday afternoon I was sitting in the living room watching TV and randomly scrolling through Facebook on my phone when I saw a photo of a car that had driven right into a house. It had been posted by someone on the Bike Uneasy facebook page to complain about bad drivers. Then I realized that I recognized the house. I walked to the back of the house that overlooks S. Claiborne and sure enough there was a fire truck and a bunch of police cars in front of the neighbor's house. Apparently someone in a pickup truck had been pissed off at the driver of a little SUV that had just pulled onto S. Claiborne and wasn't going fast enough, so he basically forced her off the road, at which point it appears she may have pushed on the gas instead of the brake and drove right into the neighbor's house. He'd just gotten up out of an easy chair when the car crashed through the wall and landed squarely on top of that chair. Somehow the car had missed the huge oak tree by inches. The tree would have been far less forgiving than the wall. There was a baby in the car. Luckily nobody was apparently injured. A bit later a WWL TV reporter interviewed us about it and the unrestrained speeding on S. Claiborne.

Next week we'll start our annual northshore winter ride series. The current warm weather will be pushed aside tomorrow afternoon by a true cold front and morning temperatures will be pretty cold for a few days, but by the weekend it should be pretty nice. Assuming the current COVID surge resolves and nothing new pops up we are all hoping for a full road racing season in 2022. I guess the early collegiate races may still be jeopardy. Tulane has pushed back the start of the Spring semester by a week but some schools are going fully virtual until February, so we'll see how that all plays out.