Cold and Wind and Rain

I feel a little bad complaining about the weather. It's way worse farther north. I mean, take a look at what Toone was riding in the other morning.  

No nicer in B'ham

Even so, the weather here in New Orleans has been pretty much sucking the life out of my motivation for the past couple of weeks. It's actually not all that unusual, however. February is always my most difficult month, and the two, going on three, week virus has not helped, either. Tomorrow I am heading west with the Tulane team for the first conference race of the season. We will have an 8 or 9-hour drive to San Marcos, TX. Conditions for the Saturday morning road race and Saturday afternoon hill climb/time trial don't look too appealing right now. The temperature will probably not get out of the 30s for most of the road races and at best the roads will be wet. At worst, it will be raining. All they can do is pile on the clothes and gut it out, but conditions like that also mean flat tires and slippery turns and gritty drivetrains. I'll be bringing a bike, and probably all of my winter riding gear, and if at all possible I'll get in a few laps of the road course, assuming they have sufficient follow cars and such. That's always a little hit-or-miss with collegiate races.

It has been 15 or 16 days since I got sick and I'm just now starting to feel almost normal. I've skipped a ton of riding over the past couple of weeks and it will probably take another couple of weeks just to get back where I was. This morning I was determined to get in some miles. It was around 40F when I stepped out the door at 5:43 am, which wasn't too bad. Unfortunately there was also a 16 mph wind blowing straight out of the north, which happens to be the direction I have to go to get to the lakefront. I rode to the usual meeting spot to find it, not surprisingly, deserted, so just continued on toward the lake without even stopping. I knew that a lot of riders would have looked at the combination of temperature and wind speed and made other plans. Riding out to the lake I was probably going 15-16 mph most of the way, fingers and brain both numb. Out on the lakefront I could feel the full force of the wind, which was significant but by no means unmanageable. Out at West End there were only two other riders, so we grouped up and rode a lap of Lakeshore Drive at a reasonable effort level before one turned off to head home and we turned the other way down Robert E. Lee to do a lap around City Park. Despite the nice tailwind on Wisner Blvd. I never bothered to shift out of the small ring. The lap around the park was good and after we parted company at Marconi and R.E. Lee I headed back home down Wisner. On Jeff Davis Parkway I somehow managed to hit every single red light, and so, combined with the much slower pace and the bit of perspiration buried under my winter jacket, that got me really chilled by the time I got home. I guess it will be another 3-ride week for me, and that's assuming I can actually put in some miles on Saturday.  

This is not the way to stay in shape. I'm just glad I have no plans to ride Rouge-Roubaix this year.

Natchez Pilgrimage

Last weekend was our annual pilgrimage to Natchez State Park for the NOBC training camp. This year we teamed up with the Tulane collegiate riders, which made for a very nice mix. I had been more apprehensive about this year's trip than usual because I'm just barely getting over the cold that put me out of commission for over a week, and also because Danielle was in the early stages of the same thing.

We rolled out of New Orleans a little late on Friday, but still arrived at the cabins a bit after dinner time, which in our case involved a Subway Sandwich shop inside a Wal-Mart north of Hammond, LA. I had been figuring on eating later, around McComb, but was over-ruled by a few bladders and stomachs. There were apparently a lot of deer running about up there in Mississippi, but although we saw a couple fresh road-killed ones we at least didn't have any close calls ourselves. The weather forecast for the weekend was extremely unstable, changing from hour to hour, so we didn't really know what to expect for Saturday except that it would probably be better earlier than later.

So Saturday morning our planned 7:30 start dragged on to almost 8:30, but fortunately the temperature was around 50 and it was looking like most of the rain would hold off until early afternoon. We headed north on the Natchez Trace, planning on riding to Port Gibson, and then returning with a little loop past Church Hill to add a little variety.  The Trace itself is smooth, graded, and practically devoid of traffic this time of year, which makes it a great place for rides like this where we know the group will split up. I was feeling reasonably good, considering the setbacks of the prior couple of weeks, although I was already starting to feel a little soreness in my quads by the time we made the turn-around. Danielle was gutting it out pretty well, although I know she must have been feeling like crap. I was just glad that it wasn't particularly cold and that the rain was holding off. It actually ended up being a pretty good 70+ miles, which included two or three stops for regrouping. As we rode the last couple of miles back to the cabins it started to rain a little bit and I thought to myself how lousy it would be to have ridden all that way only to get soaked in the last two miles. It turned out to be just a brief little shower, so I didn't really get very wet.

That evening we had a big group dinner in the cabin while we watched the old Race Across Louisiana movie, and then got a little serious with some coaching/training presentations and discussions. I allowed myself a couple of glasses of wine, knowing I'd probably pay for them the next day.

So as predicted it rained that night and we awoke to a cold 40-degree mist and wet streets. A couple of riders headed home, but I was glad that all of the Tulane riders were up for a ride despite the conditions. The plan was just to ride the 17 or so miles to Natchez, ride down and up the 20% grade bluffs, stop for coffee, and return to the cabins.  I think I ended up with a little over 40 miles, which made for a 170 mile week despite missing two days, so I can't complain too much about that. Anyway, the streets were wet and it was pretty chilly and damp, so I wore long tights, shoe-covers, winter jacket, etc.  Can't say I regretted it for one minute, either.  Danielle wisely decided to meet us in Natchez with the car rather than do a cold wet ride with what was rapidly becoming a chest cold.

The ride to Natchez was nice and steady with a slight tailwind, so everyone stayed together easily and the pace was pretty controlled. The ride back was a little harder. The Tulane riders wanted to work on paceline/team TT, so most of it was moderate paceline. As usual, there was a little bit of sketchiness in the paceline, but nothing too bad. It must not have been too hard because a few of the guys ended up basically racing the last couple of miles to the cabins after we stopped at Emerald Mound.  All-in-all it was a good weekend, despite the weather. By the time we got back to New Orleans that afternoon it was almost 80F since the front had not yet come through there, Naturally, that happened overnight. The rain woke me up in the early morning hours and I immediately decided to take Monday off.  I'm still having some chest congestion and all, so it's really not worth taking any chances right now.

Cold Ride

I woke up this morning feeling a little bit better. The throat is still a bit sore, and there's still a post-nasal drip, but at least I didn't feel quite as lousy as I have for the past week. Most people who have had this cold lately have told me it took them two to three weeks to get over it. Anyway, the local forecast had been calling for temperatures in the mid-30s, but when I looked over at the thermometer it read something like 42, so I decided that I needed to at least get on the bike and out the door to get a better read on my current situation. Knowing I'd be riding kind of slowly, I piled on the clothes and stepped outside just before dawn to feel the cold north wind on my face. It felt a lot colder than the thermometer had implied. I had a dull headache that made every little bump in the road rather painful, so I rode easy out to the lakefront and back through City Park. I never saw anyone else, so I don't know if the usual Thursday group materialized or not. I had gone out about half an hour later, so it's possible I just missed them since I was only on Lakeshore Drive for a little while. It felt like I was just getting colder and colder the whole time I was riding, so I guess I'm not really over this cold quite yet. I've been cold every evening at home, walking around the house wearing a fleece vest zipped all the way up to my chin. To make matters worse, it looks like I gave the cold to my daughter because she came down with a sore throat last night. I had really been trying to avoid that. I guess this is going to end up being essentially two full weeks devoid of significant training.  I can't remember for sure the last time that's happened, but it was probably back when I broke my collarbone. I looked back in the log and the last time I had a cold like this was early March of 2013, and it progressed a lot like this one, only faster. I probably missed only four days that time. We have the NOBC/Tulane training camp up in Natchez this weekend and although it's looking like the temperature will be warmer than usual, there's a lot of rain in the forecast for Saturday and Sunday. I guess we'll just have to play it by ear on that. Riding around in a cold rain would probably not be a good idea for me right now.

Still Sick

At Endymion Saturday night

It was eight days ago, on the Tuesday morning ride, that I noticed the runny nose. Granted, my nose runs pretty steadily any time the temperature is below 70F, but this seemed somehow a little different. I had arrived at the usual meeting spot that morning right on time, only to find nobody there. Perhaps it was the stiff northwest wind. I rode out to the lakefront alone, meeting up with a few of the other regulars, and we plodded our way east on Lakeshore Drive in a big eschelon that nobody seemed to want to lead. After the loop at Seabrook, however, Matt rode to the front and started ramping up the pace. I was glued to his wheel in the brutal quartering headwind, focused on staying in his draft and wondering how long he could keep it up. Well, five miles later, at the other end of Lakeshore Drive he finally eased up. I looked back and there was nobody in sight. It was a given that nobody was going to ride out to Kenner on the lake bike trail, so we did an easy lap around City Park and I headed home more than a few miles short for the day. By that night the sore throat had started, and when I awoke in the middle of the night barely able to swallow I knew I'd finally caught the cold that had been going around the office for the past couple of weeks. I woke up later that same night to find my shirt soaked with sweat, so I knew I was sick. I felt bad enough that morning that I stayed home from work. It would turn out that Tuesday's ride would be my last bit of training until, well, until I get back on the bike, which hasn't really happened yet unless you count the Friday coffee ride, or a brief and ill-advised excursion I took on Monday morning.

One of the Thoth parade groups

So after Wednesday morning I decided it would be unwise to do any significant efforts on the bike considering the cold dry air and my desperate hope that I might avoid having it all turn into a big old chest cold and possibly bronchitis or pneumonia. Mardi Gras weekend was coming up fast, and since we are off from work both Monday and Tuesday, I had been hoping to enjoy the long weekend. It didn't really turn out that way. Every night I'd go to sleep hoping I'd wake up the next morning and feel fine, and every morning I'd wake up with a screaming sore throat and probably mild fever. Still, it didn't seem to be affecting my lungs. I'd been sucking on zinc lozenges for days hoping to at least mitigate the effects of the virus, and I'd been staying off the bike and skipping all of the parades in hopes of being better in time for Mardi Gras.

In front of Apolline after the parade

I did make it to the Endymion parade, but that's mainly because we drive downtown to the Tulane Tidewater building, park in the garage, hang out in the office until the parade is literally in front of us, and go back and forth whenever we want. I can't say I was feeling too great, but I did still spend a lot of time down on the street. It's a pretty nice parade and the crowd is reasonably thin by the time it gets downtown. The next day, Sunday, some of us were planning on meeting at Apolline restaurant on Magazine Street (Apolline is the club's main sponsor) to watch the Thoth parade around noon.  I really like watching the parade on Magazine Street. That area has a real old time neighborhood feel to it, and the parade itself is always a little more "local" than the others. Fortunately the temperature was much warmer, so I rode down there with Danielle and had a really nice time. The next morning, although I was not feeling any better, I went out on the bike for a short easy ride since the temperature was still reasonable and it was supposed to rain and then get a lot colder later on. I decided to ride around Audubon Park and then ride out along the levee bike path that was just, finally, re-opened from the park to the stables near Jefferson Playground. That's only a 4-mile stretch, I guess, but on this morning it was nice to not have to deal with traffic.

More Thoth

Well, by Monday evening things were going downhill and I knew I wouldn't be making any trips to the French Quarter on Mardi Gras. The cold had finally gotten to my lungs and I was running a bit of a fever. I started taking some Amoxicillin that The Wife had left over and got that prescription refilled. Then I started taking Mucinex-D, the one with pseudoephedrine, along with Advil. It helped a bit, but basically Mardi Gras day was fairly miserable. Things are a little better this morning, so there's hope, but considering the weather I may be skipping another day or two on the bike. We have our training camp scheduled for this weekend in Natchez, so I am at least hoping I'll be over the worst of it by then.

Levee bike path re-opened

Last night we struggled through setting up the event permit and online registration for the Tulane collegiate race. Man, the USAC system makes that process rather tedious. It was compounded by a glitch that we had found the day before that wasn't handling collegiate licenses correctly for online registration. I think we got it all done, but I'll have to wait until online registration opens on March 1 to know if that all worked out.

So last week I rode a total of 68 miles, by far the lowest weekly total in well over a year. That came after a solid textbook-quality 5-week block of 13-14 hour weeks. Oh well. Back to square one.  Again.

Weather Delay

Mother Nature has been messing with winter training around here lately. It's always hard to get out on the bike this time of year, but here in New Orleans we don't really get a whole lot of days when it just isn't possible.  Nonetheless, it just takes that one extra straw to break the camel's back. Temperature in the upper 30s?  No problem.  Temperature in the upper 30s and a 20 mph wind?  Problem.  Temperature in the low 40s? No problem. Temperature in the low 40 and wet roads? Problem. Sometimes it's not even the cold and wind and rain themselves, it's the probabilities - the increased probability of having multiple flats on dirty wet roads with numb fingers, the increased probability of slipping on a slick corner and crashing, the high probability of having to spend half an hour after riding cleaning the bike and chain. And then there's also just the time of year and, for many, decreased urgency of training hard.  Take last Saturday.

Morning weekday ride heading west

I went out to the Giro Ride, knowing I'd be rushed in order to get to the Officials' Clinic I was holding at 10 am that morning, but I'd already missed a ride that week and didn't want to miss another. The temperature was in the mid-40s, but there was a 13 mph wind blowing straight out of the north. Turnout was good for the ride, the sun was shining, and I fully expected it to get pretty hard. It had its moments, but in general it seemed like nobody wanted to push it unless there was a tailwind. By the time we got back to Lakeshore Drive I had to skip most of the usual cool-down and hustle back home the shortest way possible and then rush over to run the clinic. So today is Wednesday and that was the last good ride I did.

Sunday morning was wet and drizzly, so I didn't even consider riding and instead set my sights on a visit to the Tulane training center for some roller time. That turned out to be like 30 minutes of easy but sweaty spinning, a short ride down to the parish line on the levee bike path, and a fair amount of time fooling with the WattBike software. Pretty much a write-off as far as training goes, especially since I didn't really need a recovery day. By afternoon the weather was a lot nicer but I couldn't make myself get back on the bike by then. A cold front had come through in the afternoon.

Monday morning I awoke to a reasonable temperature of around 45F, and an entirely unreasonable wind of 24 mph out of the northwest. I was already starting to feel desperate, however, so I put on my warm Giordana jacket and headed out to the lakefront anyway. It turned in to a 22 mile ride with an average speed of 14.8 mph that felt a lot  harder than it should have.  Lakeshore Drive was, at least, interesting. The waves were crashing over the seawall in those areas where they were hitting it dead-on, flooding parts of the right lane. All that new concrete between the seawall and the road, however, was working great, so I was just dealing with some water and various bits of wood and such. A couple of years ago the road would have been covered with rocks and mud under the same conditions and the Levee District police would have closed the road for a few days until it could be cleared away. Anyway, riding in the 24 mph crosswind was interesting, if nothing else, and I did stop a couple of times to try and get a photo or two, but in general this was more of a sightseeing ride than a training ride. So I set my sights on Tuesday.

Well, the wind was still blowing at about 12 mph by Tuesday morning and the temperature was down to about 39F. I wasn't too surprised to find only two people waiting for the 5:45 am start at the end of Nashville Avenue. We struggled all the way out to the lakefront, but the Metairie/Kenner group never showed up. Most likely the bike path along the lake was still wet from levee runoff, so combined with the cold and the wind, well, the final straw. So we turned around and headed east on Lakeshore Drive, finally picking up Woody and a couple more riders.  It didn't take long for Woody to announce that he was not riding out to Kenner today. We did a lap of Lakeshore Drive, which got fast enough to split the group for a while, and then basically bailed out. The idea was to ride a lap around City Park, but by the time we got to Esplanade we were getting pretty cold from the easy pace and so we just called it a day and rode back home. 28 miles instead of the usual 42.

This morning - steady rain all night, predicted to continue most of the day. I slept an extra hour or so, then rode to work in a cold steady drizzle wearing jeans and hiking boots. Maybe tomorrow will be better, but this week is definitely going to look pretty lame on Strava!

Back in the Wind

A low fog and light wind made Tuesday's morning ride pretty nice.

The weather has been pretty decent around here lately. Unfortunately, that's about to change. I've been staying close to home for the last couple of weeks, which of course meant back-to-back Giro Rides again last weekend.

On Saturday I returned from the Giro, grabbed something to eat, and went right back out to meet a Tulane Cycling group for an easy City Ride. With no particular destination in mind, we ended up heading downtown, stopping at the original site of the New Orleans Bicycle Club, both to check out old plaque in the concrete and to check out the newly re-opened and re-built Martin Wine Cellar across the street on Baronne. That lead us to continue the trip along Baronne and ultimately Dryades, which is in the midst of a kind of revitalization of sorts. Someone innocently mentioned wanting to go somewhere different, so we rode farther downtown, over sidewalks and the wrong way down one-way streets to get to St. Louis #2 where we practiced bike-handling skills weaving among the tightly-packed historic tombs. Since we were so close, we then stopped at St. Louis #1 and walked the bikes through the tour groups to check out Marie Laveau's tomb. That took us through the Quarter to Cafe du Monde, but the line was halfway down the block, so instead we rode down Esplanade Avenue to City Park and had our coffee and beignets at the Morning Call in the old Casino building, where there happened to be a live jazz band playing. I ended up with like 80 miles, most of them pretty slow.

Full house at the Tulane training center

Monday was one of those days when I sleep late, telling myself I'll ride the WattBike in the evening, but don't really follow up on it very well. The rest of the week has been pretty normal, thus far, except for a few kinks. On Tuesday I was a few minutes late getting out the door, so I missed the group at Nashville Avenue. Heading out to the lake solo I could see them going over the I-10 overpass on Jeff. Davis, but after catching a couple of lights they were gone. Then, along Jeff Davis there was some sort of power outage, which made riding pretty cool, actually.  I was glad my headlight still had a bit of a charge left in it. Of course I eventually met up with everyone on Lakeshore Drive, so I didn't really miss much. Then on Wednesday I somehow got out the door early, so I decided to go straight to Lakeshore Drive, instead of Marconi, and catch the group on its way back from the Seabrook loop. I rode all the way out to the Elysian Fields traffic circle, fully expecting to find the group coming at me at 30 mph, but I guess I was earlier than I thought because I ended up riding back and forth between the bridge and the traffic circle a couple of times before I finally saw the headlights coming.

Tulane Friday Coffee Ride, Bayou St. John

I was well on the other side of Bayou St. John before them came up behind me and I could get in. Of course Jaden attacked right away, but then  it all came back together on Robert E. Lee. Leading  up to the bridge I was near the front when I got streamed by an attack down the left and whoever was in front of me didn't respond at all. I did the second lap around City Park a little faster than usual, and then turned around to ride with the Tulane group that was heading for Lakeshore Drive to do whatever intervals or drills they were supposed to be doing. So I ended up riding an extra ten miles or so.

Not looking good for tonight or tomorrow morning.

This morning the temperature was right around 60, but there was a stiff wind blowing out of the ENE, so I wasn't too surprised to find only two people waiting at the end of Nashville Avenue for the ride out to the lake. Once there we picked up most of the usual riders, so there was a pretty good group, which was good because we were riding straight into the wind all the way to Seabrook. Surprisingly the speed didn't go ballistic after we turned back toward the West, at least not until the last bit of Lakeshore Drive.  Once we got onto the bike path along the lake, however, it ramped up considerably. I think I spent three or four miles sitting on Matt's wheel going 32-34 mph.  The ride back was, predictably, much slower -- like 16-18 mph. By the time I got back to Robert E. Lee there was no sign of the other two riders who I'd ridden out with. I don't know if they turned back early or were popped off the back in the headwind, but anyway, I rode back home solo. A cold front is coming through tonight, so tomorrow morning may be a wash-out.  For that matter, my ride home from work may be a wash-out too.

Winter Interlude

Winter morning rides - just a blur this week.

The past week has been pretty dull routine, despite wildly fluctuating temperatures and, of course, the wind. It was the last week of cyclocross season, at least around here, and now we begin the long winter interlude of cold, dark and windy morning rides as the local racing community awaits the start of the road season at the end of February. As usual, most of the talk centers around the annual Rouge-Roubaix race, and already there are ad hoc group rides being put together so riders can pre-ride the gravel sections of the course. For me, the gravel sections always seemed like the dark clouds rather than the silver linings, and I never found much fun there even though, on occasion, I negotiated them successfully. I've never really committed to that race, I guess, and last year I ended up officiating rather than riding. That might happen again this year. It's been well over a year since that unfortunate crash I had at the October 2013 cyclocross race, and I still get a lot of tension and pain in my upper back and neck toward the end of long rides. Considering the jolting that R-R dishes out to one's head, above and beyond that of a normal 100+ mile ride, I suspect the last forty miles would be pretty ugly for me.

Chilly Giro Morning on Saturday

Anyway, we're now getting to that time of year when the weather really starts to impact my riding. Last week I skipped riding on Thursday altogether because of rain, although I did at least ride both of the weekend Giro Rides, neither of which were particularly hard. Saturday's ride started out at 37 degrees, so turnout was down a bit and motivation was down a lot. It was a nice enough ride, and of course there were a few fast sections, but for the most part the northeast wind and cold air kept the speeds down quite a bit. We had a visiting rider from Oregon on the Saturday ride and I was glad to see that he was having no trouble with the pace or distance. I never really know what to tell visitors who contact me about the Giro Ride. It seems kind of awkward to ask them the questions I really need to ask, like "Are you comfortable enough and experienced enough to rotate through a paceline going 28 mph for, say, five miles without blowing up and/or riding like a dork?" Anyway, it was a cold ride on Saturday and I was glad to get back home.

Sunday was considerably warmer, and although we were missing a number of the faster riders who were apparently doing a long ride on the northshore, the strong east wind kept everyone honest. With the generally moderate pace, I took the opportunity to put in a couple of efforts at the Goodyear sprint and Seabrook bridge that got the heart rate momentarily up into the 170s, but still well below the upper 180s I've occasionally seen in races.

Monday was 12th Night, and since for once the weather wasn't absolutely miserable I rode over to the streetcar barn to seen the Phunny Phorty Phellows start their annual streetcar ride. These are the kinds of things that really make the Mardi Gras season in New Orleans special. Sadly, we lost Boatner Reily the same week, so I wonder if the annual Royal Run, which he started, will continue on Fat Tuesday.

Liz discarding mud-caked gloves at collegiate nats

We had a number of LAMBRA riders over in Austin last week for the cyclocross championships and most put in respectable performances, especially considering the difficult, rain-soaked, muddy course they had to contend with.  The biggest factor, as far as placing was concerned, was usually starting position rather than ability. A few of the local riders had traveled over to Texas a few times in the fall to compete in bigger CX races where they would get better ranking points, but for most, the smaller fields and combined categories we have in most of our races gave them starting positions pretty far down the grid, and on the Austin course it looked to be pretty difficult to get around people to make up any significant amount of ground. We had Liz So riding in the collegiate Division 2 championship, and thanks to her cyclocross experience and the relatively small field of 30-something riders she had a starting position on the front row. She started out in 3rd place but ended up in 6th, covered in slick Texas mud. She was also entered in the women's elite race, but in that case she was seeded near the very back of a pretty large field. Of course, there was the whole disaster on Sunday with the races being cancelled because of an uproar from the local "heritage tree" association. They did manage to compromise and run the races on Monday, but by then some people had already left. Liz pretty much stayed where she'd started, finishing 40th out of 46, but it was good that she was at least able to stay the extra day to compete with her team.

So on Monday the streets were wet from overnight rains, and I sat in bed a while staring at the radar, trying to make a decision. The temperature was still fairly warm, so eventually I decided to go out, rather late, on the rain bike, overdressed, to at least spin my legs a bit. I ended up doing just a very easy 12 miles. I'd started late and ended up having to deal with a lot of traffic and stop lights and slippery asphalt uptown and it just wasn't worth it, so I headed home early. Today the temperature was much colder, and as usual that meant a strong north wind. I got out of bed a little late and was in a dead run to meet the 5:45 am group that, thankfully, had waited a couple of minutes extra. By the time we got out to the lakefront it was clear that the wind was going to be an issue. Waves were breaking over the seawall in places and I could feel the wind tugging at my front wheel as we met up with the other riders near the Bayou St. John bridge. Woody started pushing the pace a bit on the way out to Seabrook and pretty soon there were only a few people willing to come to the front. We rounded the loop at the end and had just started back when a car tried to come past us on the right (we were all over the road right after the loop). That disrupted things enough and put some people into the wind as the road turned west and before I knew it a gap was opening a few riders ahead of me. I confess, I really didn't care. I knew the front group of four or so was just going to hammer all the way down Lakeshore Drive and just couldn't drum up enough motivation to bridge the gap during the twenty seconds of so when I had the chance. We got a little paceline going, but we were probably 1 mph slower so the gap grew pretty quickly. Then things got really confusing. Woody and a couple others turned off onto Marconi, apparently to avoid the crosswinds and water that was rumored to still be draining across the lake bike path. Our group continued on to West End where the Metairie riders headed for the bike path and the rest of us turned down Robt. E. Lee with the idea of meeting up with Woody's group somewhere on Marconi. So we rode down Marconi past Harrison until we saw blinky lights coming toward us. Then we turned around only to discover that this was the Tulane group that had started at 6:30. We rode with them back to Robert E. Lee and then turned toward Wisner, but we never saw Woody et. al. anywhere. By then we were getting cold since we'd slowed down so much, so we pretty much bailed and headed back home. Basically, it was kind of a miserable ride between the wind and the cold. That seems to happen a lot this time of year.

Back to Winter Training

Another wet and foggy ride on the lakefront - Saturday's Giro Ride heading home

When I checked my Strava profile yesterday I was rather shocked to find that I'd ridden over 300 miles last week. I guess I shouldn't have been so surprised. After all, I was off from work the whole time and the weather, although often wet and messy, was never very cold. And then there was that New Year's Day group ride to Slidell on Thursday. That replaced the usual 40 miles with 94, so together with a longer than usual Monday ride and back-to-back Giro Rides on the weekend, it all kind of made sense. What I remember most about the past week, however, are wet streets, flat tires, and messy bikes.

New Year's Day, heading out

On Tuesday and Wednesday I met a visiting rider from Chattanooga, Tab Tollett, for the usual long Tuesday ride and then the usual WeMoRi. Tuesday the temperature was in the mid-50s, which was nice, but the lake trail was a mess with water still training off of the levee, just as it had been the day before when I'd ridden out there by myself. Both days I stopped to spray the grit off the bike with the garden hose before bringing it inside. Wednesday was cooler, starting out in the mid-40s, which was fine, except that there was an absolutely brutal northwest wind blowing. It was so brutal, in fact, that the WeMoRi riders decided to skip their usual lap on Lakeshore Drive and instead do an extra lap around City Park. Of course, since I usually meet them when the come off of Lakeshore Drive, I was surprised to see the whole group of blinking headlights flying down Wisner Blvd. just as we were coming down the overpass. There was no way we were going to catch them, so we cut across City Park and picked them up on Marconi for the next two laps. That worked out fine, actually.

Store Stop at Slidell

So on New Year's Day we had a big group of almost 20, I guess, that set out for a special "Holiday Giro" out to Slidell and back. It was in the 50s most of the time, and the wind had died down quite a bit, so it turned into a really nice ride that got me home with 94 miles at 20 mph. The group got kind of split up on the return trip, first when Matt apparently decided to adjust his saddle angle just as we were leaving the gas station, and later when someone flatted coming down the bridge at Fort Pike while a little group was 30 seconds off the front. The little group never knew and just kept hammering, since that stretch from Fort Pike to Venetian Isles on the way back is often pretty fast. Once we got the flat fixed and got rolling, we averaged about 25 mph but didn't catch until they sat up.

Saturday Giro, STILL with the wet roads and fog, but *shorts!

My legs were pretty trashed after the Slidell ride, and when I awoke on Friday to more we streets I decided on an easy ride on the old Pennine since I'd just converted it back from cyclocross mode to rain bike mode. I still had the CX wheel on the rear, but decided to put my regular rain wheel on the front since it had a Mr. Tuffy in it. Unfortunately, the Mr. Tuffy didn't stop a leak from developing near the valve hole where the tube must have rubbed through. I have a little adapter in there since the old rim has a hole designed for Schraeder valves and I was using Presta valve tubes. Anyway, I ended up having to make a very messy flat tire repair with everything already coated in wet road grime, so by the time I was finished with that I figured it was a sign that I should just go home, which I did.

The weekend turned out to be pretty nice. It was something like 68 degrees when I left home in, basically, summer kit. After a week of slogging around in knickers and long-sleeves and everything, it felt great to be riding in just shorts. I was still wearing shoe covers, however, because the streets basically never dried up all weekend. I followed that up with a repeat Giro Ride on Sunday where we ran into a ton of fog out on Chef Highway but otherwise had a pretty good ride.

So now it's back to normal, back to work, and back to the routine. The temperature was down around 40 this morning and it looks like it will be typical winter riding with morning temps around 40 until Thursday morning when another cold front is supposed to bring it down below freezing with a low of 26F and winds of "20-30 mph."  Not really looking forward to that.  

Easy Holiday Week

NOBC City Ride

It was a week of weather issues that provides, conveniently enough, ample excuses and disincentives to make for some nice easy holiday rides. Tuesday evening's "cold front of the week" found me in the dark heading for the lake on Wednesday, naturally running a bit late and struggling against a brutal northwest wind to meet the WeMoRi.

Foggy Giro - on the lakefront

Although I knew I was a little behind schedule, I was still surprised to see the blinking lights of the group coming at me shortly after I had turned onto Robert E. Lee Blvd. I sprinted for the next cross-over but an oncoming car forced me to nearly a stop just as the break flew by. I sprinted again, this time from 9 mph to 28 mph, just barely catching the draft and rapidly plunging into hypoxia. A couple of riders split off the front along Wisner in the semi-crosswind, but surprisingly the rest of the group didn't materialize until well after the City Park Avenue sprint. That's when I found out that the group had turned around early on Lakeshore Drive because of the combination of darkness, rocks and debris blown onto the road by the cold front, and probably also the brutal wind. At least that explained why I had run into them so early. Anyway, I got in my fifteen minutes of Wednesday intensity and then the pace settled down to conversational mode for the second lap around the park. I stopped for a while at Starbucks, where they were in a panic because the expresso machine had broken down, before making my way back home.

Monday - that little spot is an eagle

Later in the day I started organizing (I use the term loosely) an after-Christmas Friday city ride. I had no idea who would, or could, make such a ride the day after Christmas, but I really wasn't up for a real training ride, so I proposed 20-25 miles at conversational pace through the city, ending at the Morning Call in City Park for coffee and donuts (ahem... I mean "café au lait and beignets."  We just called them donuts back in the day before they became so trendy). We had a nice turnout and took a more scenic route than the usual training rides, winding through Old Metairie out to the Lake Trail and Lakeshore Drive, then down to the Quarter via Franklin Avenue, and finally back to City Park by way of Esplanade Avenue.  It was a really nice ride and I had no trouble at all taking care of three beignets in short order. By then we were all starting to get chilled from sitting around in damp riding clothes, so I was glad to get back on the bike and back home to a hot shower.

Although I had initially been holding out a little hope for a ride on Saturday, the weather forecast was not offering a lot of hope in that regard. By late evening I was pretty sure the Saturday Giro would be a wash-out. I guess it was, although there were a few people who spent five hours riding in the rain out to Slidell and back anyway.  I am not quite that crazy, myself. Instead, I went over to Tulane after dinner and rode the WattBike for an hour or so while watching American Flyers. Coincidentally, one of the cyclists from back in the day recently posted some photos on the Midwest Dino Riders FB page of himself riding this rigged up bike with a huge camera mounted to the front fork. The equivalent today can be attached to your handlebars. The movie itself is a little weak, but some of the racing scenes in Colorado were taken from the Coors Classic and are actually pretty good.

So by Sunday the weather was much warmer and less windy, but looking out the window in the morning I could see a good bit of fog, so I went with arm-warmers and toe-covers despite the 68F temperature.  Yes, it was 68 degrees before dawn two days after Christmas. By the time we started the Giro the fog was getting thicker and thicker, and so basically the whole ride was in the fog. Naturally, that meant that the roads were wet too, so by the time I got home I was pretty well soaked through.  It was a good ride, though. A lot of the usual horsepower was absent, or in the case of Woody, recovering from a cold or the flu and sitting in the draft, so the pace was steady. I ended up doing a fair amount of work as a result. While I may be reluctant to spend much time at the front when they are hammering away at 29 mph, the steady 24 mph we had on Sunday made it relatively easy.

I'm off from work all week, so rather than my usual short easy Monday ride, I instead did a slightly longer easy Monday ride. A cold front had come through overnight, so the streets were still a little wet, but it wasn't really a problem until I got out to the lakefront bike path in Metairie. Since the bike path there is alongside the levee rather on top of it, water drains across it from the levee for hours after any significant rainfall. I had really underestimated just how wet that bike path could be, but I was already committed, so I continued on out to the casino and back with water spraying up my backside and onto my bare shins (temps were just in the 50s). I was already starting to get cold as I turned around to head back east since my 16 mph pace wasn't doing much to keep me warm.

Along the way I saw a bald eagle taking off from the grassy area between the bike path and the levee, but never got close enough to get a good picture. Once again I got home chilled and wet. The temperature is supposed to be dropping all afternoon today, so I guess we'll have a couple of days of winter again until the wind shifts back to the south and brings the rain and fog again.  Meanwhile, The Daughter was driving back from Idaho to Olympia right through a snowstorm centered, appropriately enough, on Deadman Pass. I'm sure there was a lot of white-knuckle driving through the mountains, especially when the snow wiped out the tire tracks. Anyway, I've been spending my time trying to wrap up some LAMBRA stuff. In fact, the trophy I ordered for the winning team in the annual LCCS points competition arrived just an hour or so ago. I need to work on some proposed revisions to the bylaws, get the officials' seminar finalized for Jan. 31, schedule a LAMBRA business meeting, probably for the same date, etc.

Weather and Wet Rubber

Tuesday morning - flat tire number one.

The weather has been all over the place around here lately. At the moment it's 71F outside, the ground is wet from earlier rains and light fog, and I'm sitting here alone in the office on the last work day before the long university holidays wondering what tomorrow morning will be like.

Bayou Road, heading back from Slidell on Sunday

Last Thursday there was a little flurry of activity as we tried to figure out a way to get Liz over to Austin for the SCCCC conference championship cyclocross race. Although she was all registered and we'd reserved a hotel room for her, she had a big exam and was planning on making the drive Friday afternoon, I think. The night before she had been down in the Quarter and had lost her wallet that contained her credit cards and drivers license. This presented a problem since she needed her license in order to rent a car. She was trying to finish studying for her exam, get her credit cards cancelled and re-issued, etc. It was not looking good. She was aiming for collegiate nationals, to be held in Austin in January, and was supposed to compete at conference championships in order to qualify. We briefly considered flying her there, but that still left the problem of transportation, with bike and wheels, once she arrived. Finally, after getting an OK from the conference director that she could have one of the slots at nationals anyway, we pulled the plug.

Last weekend was another pair of Giro Rides for me. Saturday morning started out pretty chilly by my standards, although among the group's riders you could find pretty much everything from summer kit to thermal tights. I had compromised with bib tights and a long-sleeve jersey with base layer underneath, which worked out pretty well. The ride itself was unremarkable and the pack rolled along at mostly moderate speeds, which is not unusual this time of year, especially when the temperature and the holidays conspire to make for a relatively small group.

So by Sunday morning it was a little warmer and the wind was a little lighter and the turnout a lot larger. As I lounged around the Starbucks patio I started to seriously consider tagging along with the group that was planning on extending the Giro out to Slidell and back. With the light winds and relatively large group planning on doing that, I figured, "Why not?"  I had no pressing engagements the rest of the day, and the two bucks in my pocket would suffice to provide needed sustenance in the form of a large Payday bar, at the gas station in Slidell.  Liz was in the group as we headed out but punctured out on Chef Highway before the regular turnaround, so she dropped out to fix the flat and pick up the main group on its way back. I guess we had about twenty riders who continued on past Venetian Isles, and after the traditional nature break just on the other side of the Chef bridge we formed up into a nice smooth double paceline at a remarkably steady 22 mph or so in to a light headwind for the duration.

After stopping in Slidell we  headed back, and as often happens the pace started to ramp up along Chef Highway, staying in the 24-28 mph range pretty much all the way to the turn onto the service road. Some riders, myself included, started skipping pulls for the last four or five miles when the pace started getting unstable. I got back home with 93 miles on the computer and a 20.6 average speed, plus a couple of slightly sore quads.

Monday was rainy, and since I could still feel my legs from Sunday's ride I didn't feel too bad about taking a day off the bike. I'd already gone past 12,000 mi. for the year, so I figured I deserved a rest day.

Flat Number Three

So this morning I stepped outside into thick, muggy, 68-degree air.  The streets were wet, but the radar was offering a very good chance of missing the rain. Even so, there was only Brian waiting at the end of Nashville Avenue today.  Along the way we picked up David who had been running late, and the three of us met up with a fairly large group out on Lakeshore Drive. With a bit of an east wind, the tailwind stretch got fairly fast heading toward West End. When we got onto the bike path along the lake I thought to myself, "I'm glad I left my toe-covers on."  I'd been rushing to get out the door and didn't want to take the time to remove them. That was a good thing because the bike path was very wet with water still draining off of the levee. It may as well have been raining. The pace was pretty steady, ramping up a bit toward the turnaround.  Then, on the way back, someone flatted just before Causeway. Most of us waited, and got going again, only to have another flat around the Bonnabel boat launch. So we stopped again, and just as he was finishing up, Woody realized his tire had also gone flat, so we waited yet again for that one as a few raindrops started to fall. Meanwhile, Brian had ridden ahead after the first flat, and so he eventually called to see where the hell I was. We finally met up on Filmore. Luckily the rain stopped and I got home pretty wet and a bit late, but with air in my tires. A cold front is supposed to push through tonight, so the forecast for tomorrow morning is calling for a drop of 20 degrees by morning. The 50 degree air won't be much of a problem, but it's quite possible the streets will still be soaking wet and then, of course, there's the usual 17 mph northwest wind that accompanies every cold front. Guess I'll have to play it by ear.

Early Morning

Early morning winter rides.

There was a time -- long, long ago -- when I did most of my riding in the afternoon. That generally meant dealing with traffic and impatient commuters, steaming summer asphalt, and missed days due to unexpected evening commitments. Eventually, the realities of life and work forced a shift to morning training sessions. At first they were relatively short, typically around 20 miles, and I could head out at 6:30 am and still avoid the frantic efforts to get to work. Of course, working at a university allowed for a little flexibility in that regard, something that I consider a major benefit. There was a time when I could be competitive with a weekday training plan composed mainly of 20-mile solo rides, but as the races got faster and my telomeres shorter, the training rides started getting both longer and faster. Luckily, by that time the river levee bike path had been constructed, and although I initially used it only for recovery days, after a couple of years there was a consistent weekday morning group up there and I started riding with them almost every morning. When the bike path was expanded upriver of Jefferson Parish, the group started doing longer rides on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and the 6:40 am rides became 6:15 am rides. Often, especially in the winter when it was cold and dark and windy, I would be in full TT mode, racing the two miles from my house to the levee. The Tuesday and Thursday rides that had started out as moderate or easy paced group rides started to attract more riders and, all of a sudden it seemed, they became serious fast affairs that got me home with 40+ miles on the odometer and sore quads. That format remained in place for a number of years and I had it pretty much down to a science, but then things changed.  The Corps of Engineers started working on the levee. Those early morning rides on the levee could get a little frightening when it was pitch dark or foggy and the guys at the front were still hammering away at 28-30 mph. The occasional pedestrians or other cyclists would cause unpredictable moments of chaos in the paceline, sometimes resulting in a crash, but we continued anyway because it was still better than the alternative.

Last year I started driving out to the start of the ride, which by then was being pushed relentlessly farther and farther upriver. That meant an even earlier wake-up. I hated it, but I did it because the alternative was even less attractive. Eventually the levee closure got so far upriver that it just wasn't worth driving out there any more, mainly because of the amount of time it would take to drive back home in rush-hour traffic. And so I started heading out on my own in the morning, riding out to the lakefront and to the Lake Trail in Jefferson. I needed to ride six or seven miles through the city in order to get out to, and back from, the lakefront, and that exercise consumed more precious morning minutes. Others who lived uptown were forced into the same situation, so eventually we started meeting up in order to ride out and back together. That meant an even earlier start time of 5:45 am. on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We chose that time so that we would meet up with another group of river levee exiles coming from Jefferson Parish at the west end of Lakeshore Drive. Coincidentally, the WeMoRi (Wednesday Morning Ride), which started out near the lakefront and had been steadily growing, also started at 5:45, so rather than get up even earlier in order to meet them at 5:45 I compromised and decided to leave home at 5:45 and meet that group on Wednesdays at the Lakefront. So that's the current situation.  Everything from Tuesday through Thursday revolves around 5:45 am.  It's dark at 5:45 am most of the year, so I now have a super bright rechargeable headlight so I don't ride straight into a pothole on the way out to the lake, but I still hate riding in the dark, especially when it's cold, but that's pretty much my standard ride this winter. It took a few months, but the various groups have settled on their alternatives to the river levee, and on Tuesdays and Thursdays we meet up with two different groups, plus a few others, on Lakeshore Drive, which typically makes for a group of, I guess, 10-15 riders racing down Lakeshore Drive in the dark. It demands a great deal of trust in your fellow riders, at least the ones ahead of you.

On the plus side, sometimes the morning sky out by the lake looks pretty amazing.

End of a Cycle

Last weekend we had the last races of the 2014 LAMBRA season. That evening I posted the preliminary calendar for 2015. It's still a little rough and it will take me a week or two to fill add links, contact information and whatever other details I can get, but at least the major race weekends are there. It seems the cycle continues with hardly a break now that we have a solid cyclocross season and an early spring collegiate season.

I have some LAMBRA administrative tasks to finish over the next few weeks, some updates to the bylaws, drafting a suggestion for a new organizational structure, etc. I'm sure by mid-January I'll be fielding questions about the new event permit requirement for certified Race Directors. We'll be doing an officials seminar at the end of January, and probably also another LAMBRA meeting to finish up some things we didn't get to in Jackson, and possibly also a Race Directors meeting if there is sufficient interest. Looking at my Strava profile it seems likely I'll hit the 12,000 mile mark for 2014, which is about normal I think. I've probably been in the 11-12k range every year for at least the past decade. It doesn't look like we'll have any really cold weather all the way through Christmas, and probably very little in the way or rain (which we could actually use some more of right now).

So the New Orleans cyclocross race went quite well this year. The weather was nearly perfect by my standards, although probably a bit on the warm side for some. It was nice to be able to officiate a cyclocross race without being freezing cold, or wet, or both.Turnout was great with over 100 entries, and nobody went to the hospital. Results of the last race were printed out a couple of minutes before the last rider had even finished, posted to the website by dinner time, and uploaded to USAC yesterday. I usually wait a day or so before uploading to USAC because it's kind a a hassle to make corrections in three different places. The post-event report was done and submitted Sunday night and once I drop the envelope with the 1-day license waivers in the mail this afternoon that should be it for the season. I think the only thing I still use postage stamps for is sending in the 1-day licenses to USAC. On Monday morning I made a snap decision to sleep in. It's just that time of year. In the afternoon I went over to the Tulane cycling center and helped Kenny do the firmware updates to the WattBikes that will now allow riders to store their heart rate monitor numbers in their profiles. It also makes it easier to pair the WattBike with a Garmin, so after work I went over there and tried it out. After a bit of menu navigation I had the Garmin picking up the speed, time, distance and cadence from the WattBike, and at the same time both the WattBike and my Garmin were picking up my HRM. The only downside is that after pairing the Garmin with the WattBike I need to remember to re-pair it with my bike when I get home, which just takes a minute.

Early this morning I heard a little rain outside, but by the time I rolled out of bed at 5:15 the streets were almost dry. A little cold front had come through, but the temperature was still around 60F. The only fly in the ointment was the wind, which was blowing pretty hard from the northwest. The three of us that met at 5:45 didn't really feel the wind too much on the way out, but once we hit Lakeshore Drive it was clear that it was going to be a factor. Naturally, the pace started ramping up after we picked up the other riders and got into the tailwind heading east, and then the head/cross wind going the other way split the group a bit. I was basically in full-on crosswind wheelsucking mode, so I was staying with the front group but doing less work than most of the others. The ride out to the casio along the lake into the wind wasn't too bad since I was being careful to stay on the drops, take short pulls, and not let any gaps open. As usual, it was the tailwind that seemed the hardest. Matt and Howard and Brian started pushing the pace pretty hard. For most of the ride back along the lake trail we averaged 28 mph, and that included the section after Causeway where you really have to slow down for a while. I had an average speed of 29.7 for most of the section up until there. Even so, since I wasn't taking pulls consistently my heart rate never got over 170, so I still had a little bit in reserve.

Danielle finished up here last exam this morning and will be heading back home to Olympia tomorrow afternoon. I got her 650c Cannondale packed nicely in an old bike box we picked up from Bicycle World on Saturday. The bike is small enough that I only had to remove the saddle and handlebar. It's in there with the stem and seatpost still in place and the fork pointing straight ahead, and there's still room to spare. This will be a one-way trip for this bike, so although she has a real bike box, for this trip we just used a leftover cardboard box, which I think should work pretty well since the bike's aluminum and I covered it in pipe insulation and bubble wrap, and got the plastic pieces that come with new bikes to protect the derailleur, fork ends, etc.

 

Zero Mile Weekend

You can say what you will about training schedules and the need for rest and recovery, but the fact is that for a lot of riders like me, especially this time of year, taking two whole days off the bike is rather frightening. It's like you can just feel your fitness dropping away like sand in an hourglass. It's one thing if you've spend three or four or five days absolutely hammering, pounding out intervals and hill repeats (whatever those are), but if most of your riding has been easy, known in current parlance as "Zone Two," there is really no need for recovery.  That's exactly why you're riding in Zone Two in the first place. To make matters even worse, once you're well on the down-slope of the aging bell curve you pretty much start getting out of shape fifteen minutes after you get off the bike, and there is no longer any guarantee that even your best efforts will get you back where you were six months ago.

My 1-lap ride

And so last weekend found me up in Jackson, Mississippi for two days of cyclocross officiating plus the annual LAMBRA meeting in-between.  I'd gone up with Ben S in the car and my old Pennine on the roof even though the cold morning temperature quickly persuaded me to abandon all thoughts of actually sneaking into a race. The course up there was a pretty good one, made even better by the fact that you could see about 90% of it from the finish straight.  There was a nice set of stairs to run up, a log or two, an artificial barrier, some significant elevation changes, and a stretch of single-track. I would guess that rider speeds on the course ranged from walking to at least 25 mph. On Saturday morning I did a lap or so around the course just for fun, but it really just confirmed that I probably shouldn't race it. It was the first time I'd been on the dirt in over a year and there was enough technical stuff on this course that faking it just wasn't going to be wise.  Anyway, the races went very well and turnout was pretty good. A few years ago we'd had a race around there and probably got a total of twelve riders. This time it was more like 70. In one of the first races Ben slid out on a turn and probably bent his derailleur hanger, so the next time he shifted to his lowest gear he put the derailleur into the spokes and ripped it off the bike, actually breaking the derailleur in the process.  Luckily one of his Tulane teammates was coming up the next day for Sunday's races so he called him to get him to bring his single-speed (which was massively over-geared for this course).

We had a Cat. 1 woman who was very smooth!

The LAMBRA meeting went reasonably well. We tried to Skype in a few people with only partial success. I guess I should have experimented with a group Skype call ahead of time. I was both surprised and interested to hear from one of the Mississippi mountain bike guys who was at the meeting that he thought it would be a good thing if LAMBRA could bring Mississippi and Louisiana mountain bike racing somewhat under its umbrella to help coordinate the calendar, officiate, etc.  We'll be looking into that. The calendar itself is looking OK, but I am still hoping a couple more races will pop up to fill in some of the gaps. I'm also tasked with writing a draft of some bylaw revisions that would change the LAMBRA organizational structure to something with an elected Board rather than the current one-member-club, one-vote system. That will require some significant thought and probably also a good deal of plagiarism.

Those road racing instincts will get you in trouble!

This coming weekend will be the final race of the 2014 LAMBRA season and also the cyclocross championship, and I am very glad it will be held in New Orleans so I don't have to lose too much of the weekend. The riding this week has been quite chilly in the mornings with temperatures in the upper 40s, but the real problem has been the persistent strong winds from the north and, eventually, east. On Wednesday I went out to meet the WeMoRi as usual. As I wrote in an email to the group about it,

"With the twinkling WeMo orbs closing in on me I made a quick U-turn on Lakeshore Drive and booked it through the turn onto Marconi before hearing LBB come by with a cordial “Hey Randy.” I jumped on his 27 mph wheel that had thankfully decelerated a bit from tailwind territory and tucked myself into the draft. Two cars at Robt. E. Lee, then back to speed in the headwind and cleanly through the right-hander onto Wisner as my lungs struggled to keep up with my legs. LBB was pausing from his steady 25 mph pace only to check the lackluster pursuit behind him every few minutes while I maintained my documentary position three inches from his rear wheel. Up and over the interstate and still no catch, so a final glance behind him rounding the CPB corner and a little surge up to 29 to the sprint with the pitiful rest still too far back to hear."

Thursday's wind was no better. One group got gapped off going through the turn and traffic at the end of Lakeshore Drive and we ended up chasing the entire length of the Lake Trail bike path where there was a nice little tail/cross wind. (Tuesday's ride there had been nothing less than miserable with the group split into 4 and 5-rider eschelons since that's all that could fit in the crosswind.) I think we probably averaged 17 mph on the way back into the wind. This morning I went with the Tulane group for what is now the traditional Friday Coffee Ride. Charlotte flatted on Jeff Davis Pky and the front of the group didn't know for a while, so half of the group went back to help while the rest continued on. We eventually met back up on Lakeshore Drive. I have a lot of LAMBRA and NOBC stuff on my to-do list for the next week or two.  Hopefully I can get the NOBC online membership up and running this weekend, and the 2015 race calendar posted to the website(s). I will be glad to get the final cyclocross race done and results posted, and then perhaps I can start thinking about next year.