Incremental Improvement and the Disc Brake

VJ always has the latest stuff!

By last Monday I felt about ready to start trying to get back in shape, and that feeling was reinforced the following day when Dr. Savoie told me I was clear to resume my normal activities. Of course I'd resumed normal activities a long time ago but was still holding back a bit, well OK, a lot, on the intensity. I mean, what better excuse than a broken bone, right? Well, anyway, it was time.

So I've been trying to slowly, incrementally, increase the amount of time I spend pushing myself on the local rides. I think it's going fairly well. By Wednesday afternoon my legs were feeling a little sore, but I drove out to the lakefront with the bike anyway. The plan was to ride two of the three laps of the WNW training race, and then take photos of the finishers to document the placings. Michael B. has been keeping a spreadsheet of the top five from each week's race. Unfortunately, just after we rolled out for the half-lap warmup I realized I'd forgotten to lock the car, so I circled back to lock up and then rode about halfway to the Seabrook loop before turning around. I knew they'd have a tailwind and wanted to at least get past the broken-up asphalt around Franklin Ave. before they caught me.  Well, I dramatically miscalculated and ended up riding all the way back around the fountain traffic circle before they came streaming by. I accelerated as the unbroken line of riders went by, hoping to latch onto the tail end before I blew up completely. That didn't quite work out. Just as I got to the back, the group came to the one-lane section over the outfall canal. With a strong crosswind coming from the right, and riders already lined up along the left-hand gutter, there wasn't even a hint of draft left for me. I eased up and was soon caught by Wes and another couple of riders, so that was good. We rode a decent enough pace and I got in my two laps, so I was reasonably satisfied with that. Maybe next week.....  On the plus side, the turnout was again quite good, so I'm feeling optimistic about the training races sticking this summer. If the turnout keeps increasing, however incrementally, I could see groups of 30-40 showing up pretty soon.

So I've been seeing a lot of hype about road disc brakes recently. The whole thing kind of fascinates me. While I don't have anything against the idea, really, it seems like the amount of attention it's getting far outweighs the importance, unless of course you're in the business of selling bikes in which case I suppose it holds the potential for a lot of sales. I've been riding bikes a long time, and although I can't speak for people who ride really fast down really long and steep mountains, I have never, ever felt that my brakes were in adequate.  I'm including there the old Universal Super 68 brakes that got me down the 60 mph hill in Bisbee back in 1980. Overall, it seems like the need to have an entirely new frame and fork kind of outweighs any incremental braking benefits to be gained, so at least from my perspective it's more of a cost issue than anything else. If someone gave me a new bike with disc brakes, I'd be fine with that, but I can't see paying extra for a disc brake road bike right now, at least until some better standards evolve. The only benefit I can see, and I think it will probably be a significant one, is that carbon wheels, especially tubulars, could potentially be made with lighter and/or more aerodynamic rims if they didn't need to have braking flats. But then, what do I know. I still can't afford a pair of aero carbon wheels, and I can't help but think that all of the cumulative incremental advantages of aero frames, aero handlebars, aero wheels, electronic shifting, etc., etc., must be at the point where I'm at some kind of significant disadvantage once the speeds get above 25 mph, which lately seems to be most of the time.

Still on the Sidelines

NOBC Cat. 4 Riders ready to race.

The forecast for Saturday wasn't looking all that good and I was scheduled to officiate at the Vuelta d' Acadiana criterium over in Lafayette later that day. In New Orleans, however, the weather was pretty great, so I went out to meet the Giro Ride crowd even though I knew I wouldn't have time to do the whole ride. Turnout there was a little low, probably because some riders were racing in Lafayette that weekend and a few others, the Tulane riders, were racing in Houston at the Rice University race. We had a new rider, Adam, who had just moved here from a couple of years in Japan with the Navy. He's stationed at Belle Chasse now. The ride, at least as much of it as I was able to do, was pretty normal. Once we hit Hayne Blvd. the pace went up to 25-27 mph and stayed there. We lost Adam somewhere around the end of Hayne, I guess. I stayed with the group until Chef Highway, then reluctantly turned around to head home. I saw Adam was with a few other riders, so that was good.

I figured that I needed to leave for Lafayette around 9:30 am, which didn't give me a whole lot of spare time, so I pushed the pace a bit all the way back home, took a quick shower, loaded up the car, and took off more or less on time. It's a bit over two hours to Lafayette on I-10, so I would easily be there an hour before the start of the first criterium at 1:00.  Along the way I drove through a few rainstorms, and it was still raining a little bit when I arrived. We got the finish set up and started the first race of women and juniors about on time. The street was still pretty wet and there was a light rain falling on and off. One of the women crashed on the U-turn just past the start/finish and as we learned later broke her hip. Those aren't as common as collarbone fractures, but I guess I've seen four of them over the years with people I know. Anyway, pretty soon the sky cleared up and the road dried up, so the rest of the races had pretty good conditions. The officiating went very smoothly and I guess we finally packed up and went to the hotel, conveniently right across the street from the race, around 7:00 or so. Then the other three officials and I went for a quick dinner at a little local seafood place. I spent an hour or two cleaning up the day's results and posting them to the LAMBRA website before hitting the sack around 10:30.  The next morning was going to be a early one with the first race scheduled for 7 am.

Sunday's races were on a course up around Arnaudville that they have used a few times. It's a nice loop with an out-and-back section to the start/finish.  The out-and-back section is not too great for a few reasons.  Traffic always seems to be an issue for the finishes there.  Anyway, we arrived in the dark and got the finish area set up before sunrise and sent the first race off about on time.  All of the other races were supposed to start an hour later, which was going to be a problem since the first race would be probably be finishing as we were still starting the other races. Well, first thing we hear on the radios was that the lead vehicle had turned at the wrong road and so the whole race was off-course. Fortunately, they could just continue and that road would meet up with the correct one. I don't think all of the riders even realized they had been led astray.  Anyway, we got all of the other races started and that's when things started kind of going downhill from an officiating standpoint.  One of the cameras wasn't recording, so we just had the lower camera. There had been a lot of riders who had ridden in different categories the prior day than they were racing in that day, and since they hadn't been assigned new numbers in the correct sequences, we didn't know just from the number which race they were in. Also, some of them were listed on two different results spreadsheets since it was an omnium.  This got really confusing later when the breakaway of the Cat. 1/2/3 race caught the Master's race a couple of miles before the finish and we ended up with riders from both groups coming across the line at the same time.  Since we  had only the lower camera, and the riders had only side numbers, there were a few riders we couldn't identify because they were hidden behind other riders at the line. Basically the results were kind of a mess and it took us a long time to straighten them out.  I was still correcting some things today. The worst part of the whole weekend, though, was not racing. I don't feel like I'm really quite in shape to race right now and had already decided to skip this race and give the collarbone a couple more weeks. I had been thinking I'd go with the Tulane riders up to Rice and maybe get in a nice ride while they were doing the road race, but then Ricky called and asked me to officiate because his wife had been in a car accident and was a little banged up.

Before Dawn

Some years ago, and I mean to say many, many years ago, back when I thought I had some control over things, I would never have predicted that I would ever, under any circumstances, be getting up routinely at 5:15 am in order to go ride my bike in the dark. Just goes to show you, I guess. I've been getting up before dawn to ride for so long now that I don't think I could sleep later than 5:30 if I tried. Truth is, I hate riding in the dark. Problem is, I also hate trying to do training rides in rush-hour traffic. Right now, riding in the early mornings means spending a particularly long time in the dark.  I noted this morning as the sun was just peeking over the Lake Pontchartrain horizon and we were grinding our way eastward into a moderate headwind, that some 27 miles had already passed under my wheels. Never thought that would be the status quo for me.

When we started having training races here that oak tree wasn't large enough to cast a shadow.

Anyway, yesterday afternoon I rushed home from work, filled an ice chest with leftover cans of Budweiser beer that I'll never drink, threw the bike into the car and rushed out to the lakefront. By "rushed out to the lakefront" I really mean crawled through traffic and caught every freaking traffic light. I arrived about two minutes before 6 am. I wasn't planning on riding the training race but did want to tag along for the first lap or so since I was out there anyway. The first half-lap is supposed to be neutral. Naturally we were going 26 mph long before that. I let myself drift toward the back. Coming over the levee as we approached the Elysian Fields traffic circle I saw Mike Williams, who was of course riding a time trial bike, dropping back. He slipped in ahead of me. I stopped pedaling and let a gap open. The traffic circle is bad enough by itself, I didn't need to add fuel to that fire. The group of 20 or so was strung out single-file and the front riders didn't slow down at all as they flew through the traffic circle.  There was, however, a car coming around the circle pretty fast. I figured that was a good time to back off rather than get killed. A few others got gapped off there as well. Once through the circle I got going again but there was no way I was going to close the gap that was by then growing at an alarming rate. Fortunately, this was the Wednesday Night Worlds where turning around early and jumping back in is OK. So I did. I found myself at the end of a very short-lived 3-rider break. At the time I thought, "Nice.  I can hang on back here for the rest of the lap, easy." The moment I thought that, Ben attacked the rise over the levee. That forced me to get off the saddle and accelerate, which kind of hurt both the quads and the clavicle, so just like that I dropped off again. I rode around the Seabrook loop and back to Elysian Fields where I put the bike away and took out the iPad and camera so I could document the finish a couple of 6-mile laps later. The weather out there was nice and it was about dark as the last of the riders and I left the parking lot and headed home.

This morning it was just Scott and me riding out to the lakefront. Scott was worried that we'd miss the group, which had happened on Tuesday, so he was kind of pushing the pace.  We ended up arriving early and were all the way past the Bayou St. John bridge before we merged in to the group. The rest of that lap was pretty fast, as was the ride out to Kenner, thanks to a nice little tailwind.  The ride back was, of course, mostly headwind, which kept the speed down in the 18 mph range for the most part.

Looks like I am going to  have to officiate this weekend in Lafayette. I was going to go to Houston with the Tulane team, but Ricky wanted to stay in Monroe with his wife who  had been in a car accident and was a little banged up from when the car slid down the highway on its side and then flipped over. Understandable. I'm think I should be able to get in a short ride Saturday morning since the races don't start until 1:00. Lafayette is about 2.5 hours away, so I'll need to be on the road by around 9:30 or so, but if I have everything ready to go I should be able to make that work somehow.

Starting Back

It's been hard getting back into the 5:20 am wake-up routine.

Back when I was a swimmer there were those times when you had to start a workout in particularly cold water. I remember one season when we were trying to get extra pool time leading up to the state championships and were doing extra workouts in an unheated outdoor pool, in the middle of the winter. Even though it felt like your head would explode when you hit the freezing water, it was still the only viable way to go.  All or nothing, straight into the deep end, then go hard before you have time to contemplate the obvious option of quitting.

After officiating all day Sunday and then taking Monday off, I decided that it was time to get back to training. After four-plus weeks of zero-intensity rides and weekly mileage totals of under 100, I figured there was really no use in dragging this thing out any further.  The clavicle is still achy, and even now, at just shy of six weeks, I am very reluctant to stand up and pull on the handlebars, but I know from experience that progress from here on out will be at a snail's pace.  So I went out Tuesday morning to meet the group on Lakeshore Drive. I was running a bit late and also concerned about some of the dark and bumpy streets so I took Carrollton Ave. rather than meet the group at the end of Nashville. I merged into the ride on Lakeshore Drive and although I was being particularly careful to leave myself a little room and maintain a view of the road ahead instead of the butt ahead, the ride went pretty well.  There was a tense moment when we rode straight over the concrete levee apron at Causeway in order to get around the temporary barricade there, but my lowest gear and basic friction proved adequate and we were soon back onto the smooth bike path.

Good group for the first WNW race

On Wednesday I went out to meet the WeMoRi, which was thankfully not going exactly full-bore that morning, and survived that pretty well too. That evening was the first Wednesday Night Worlds training race on Lakeshore Drive, and although I wasn't quite not quite crazy enough to jump into that one, I did take the opportunity to ride out to the lakefront to watch and take a few photos before riding back uptown with a few of the riders, which was good because by then it was getting dark. Thursday was a repeat of Tuesday and Friday was the Tulane coffee ride, all of which went pretty well, although by Friday afternoon the sudden jump in mileage was starting to have a bit of an effect on both appetite and fatigue.  I wasn't quite sure what was going to happen Saturday and Sunday, but the plan was to ride the Giro both days, preferably without slamming myself to the pavement or into a car.

Waiting for the Saturday Giro to roll.

Saturday's Giro Ride had a big turnout and thanks to warmer weather, a light wind, and a lack of nearby races. The ride went out pretty fast, but I was feeling OK and other than the fact I was staying a bit off to the side in order to be able to avoid any cracks or potholes it was pretty good. Actually, it was staying really fast, but since there wasn't any crosswind and apparently no attacking, it was nice and smooth.  Pretty much just want I needed.

The crash scene

When we got out to Venetian Isles where the sprint and turnaround is, we saw a group of riders off to the shoulder. It was most of the 5:45 am WeMoRi group and it soon became apparent that there had been a crash.  I could see Keith Andrews sitting in the grass and as I rolled up to him I noticed he was holding his arm in the classic "broken collarbone" position. As I heard it, there had been two lines of riders coming up to the sprint zone. The left line was starting to accelerate past the right one and Mike W tried to move from the right to the left, which resulted in a crash involving himself and a few other riders who had been the left paceline, including Keith who ripped a few spokes out of his wheel and vaulted onto the asphalt before he could even take his hands off the bars. He confirmed a broken clavicle later in the day, so I brought him my X-brace.

The Sunday Giro had a significantly smaller crowd - it usually does - and the pace was a little more forgiving, which was good because Saturday's ride had done a number on my quads for sure. By the end of the day I'd logged 278 miles for the week, which was a bit of a jump from the prior week's 104. Later that afternoon I met up with some of the NOBC riders for a bit of a bicycle pub crawl, which turned out to be a lot of fun. We liked the Tchoup Yard so much we stayed until it was almost dark.  Going to have to do that again soon.

Part of the Saturday Giro returning

Restless at Rouge-Roubaix

Splitting off from the Giro before things got fast.

According to my loosely formulated recovery plan I dutifully headed out to Starbucks on Saturday morning to meet the Giro Ride for the first time in five weeks. The clavicle has, I assume, been healing at a reasonably normal rate and for the most part has not been painful while on the bike. I can't say the same for removing T-shirts or lifting the front wheel over bumps, or taking out the garbage, but whatever, it's about where I would expect it to be. So the plan was to have a cup of coffee, ride out with the Giro along Lakeshore Drive where the pace is conversational, and then turn around at Seabrook and head back home to prepare for a drive up to St. Francisville where I was scheduled to be Chief Judge for Rouge-Roubaix on Sunday.  Packed pick-up and late registration started at noon, so by 10:15 or so I was on the road with Danielle who was going to be helping with registration, manning the first feed zone, and then helping with scoring back at the finish line.

It started raining about halfway there, then stopped for a while as we got settled in at the St. Francisville Town Hall for our six-hour registration shift.  That all went pretty smoothly as riders, officials and volunteers filtered in, signed waivers, picked up their fancy fabric numbers, etc. By the end of the evening we had given out packets to all but 45 or 50 riders, which would make Sunday morning a little less intense. The organizers had gotten us rooms practically across the street at the St. Francisville Inn, a nice little bed and breakfast in the middle of town, directly in front of the start line. By the time we ate dinner it was starting to rain again, and I could hear rain all through the night as well.  Fortunately, by the time we headed out on Sunday morning for the 5:45 am packet pickup the rain had pretty much ended, but it was getting rather windy and cold.  I, for one, was glad I wasn't riding. We closed up registration on time and after fishing a piece of broken plastic from inside my little printer we headed over to the start line with start sheets and radios.  I tracked down the lead and follow car drivers and motorefs and got them all to download Zello if they hadn't already, since that was going to be our main "race radio" for the next seven hours or so.  By the time we started the first group, the Pro/1/2s, I was shivering from the cold.  I wouldn't warm up for another three or four hours.

A dirt section without mud

A few minutes after we started the Masters we heard there had been a pile-up even before they were out of the neutral section.  An ambulance had to be called for a rider with what turned out to be a broken hip, and as a result the Cat. 4s had to stop and wait for it to clear.  I'm not sure if the Cat. 5s and Women had to wait as well - the groups were starting at ten minute intervals. Anyway, once all of the groups and lead cars and follow cars and motorefs were gone I gathered up the computer and printer and headed for the finish line where the other two officials and I set up the tent and cameras and clock and computers and everything. As usual, there were church services going on across from the finish line and we had to wait that to end and the parked cars to move from the finish stretch.  In the meantime, we were getting great updates from the follow cars over our Zello channel which went a long way toward reducing the stress of not knowing if a bunch of riders was going to unexpectedly appear coming over the hill 200 meters from the finish line. The riders had been confronted with a sticky, muddy first dirt section rather than the usual loose gravel, and unlike previous years that first section proved to be one of the most decisive of the entire race. Many riders had to stop to clear the packed mud out from between their forks and tires when they came to grinding halts.  Others just powered through and sometimes ripped the derailleurs off their bikes.

Winner of the Pro/1/2 race

The finishes went pretty smoothly, or at least as smoothly as can be expected when five groups get scattered over about fifty miles of the countryside and ten minute gaps between groups start to become pointless. It gets very difficult to assemble results when riders are constantly coming across the line for, literally, three hours and you're trying to sort them out by class and category so you can at least post the top results for the podium ceremonies.  I think we did a pretty decent job with that - certainly better than in the past when the awards were being given out about a mile away from the finish line.  Anyway, it was a long day and a long drive home and the collarbone was a little achy by the end.

After skipping Monday morning (overslept) I went out this morning to meet the regular group on the Lakefront for what would be my first quasi-training ride in five weeks. It was particularly dark and rather cold and very windy but I knew it was now or never.  Fortunately the pace never got really fast, so my biggest concern was dealing with the crosswind eschelons and worrying about hitting something in the dark. A number of riders turned back at the end of Lakeshore Drive, so the group going out to Kenner was only five or six, which was good because that gave everyone a bit of a draft for the long head/crosswind outbound leg.  I arrived back home feeling OK but obviously a little tired. I guess it will be a few weeks before I am back in some kind of shape and not worrying so much about another crash.

Unstrapped

When I woke up this morning I unstrapped myself from the x-brace and headed out for my first ride without it since the collarbone broke. For the record, it's been 4 weeks and 2 days. It was quite a relief to be riding without it, although I needed to be really careful along Carrollton where the bike path is covered with leaves, and up on the levee whenever I'd pass a pedestrian, most of whom were walking dogs, sometimes unleashed. Although the collarbone would occasionally remind me it wasn't fully healed, generally any time I moved my left hand on the bars, it was otherwise not much of a problem. Thanks to the smooth and level asphalt on the bike path I was pretty comfortable cruising along at 19-20 mph when it was clear, slowing dramatically whenever I'd encounter pedestrians or Levee District trucks or Jefferson Parish police.  They have been adding a ton of dirt to the city side of the levee out around Jefferson Playground and the bridge, and on Monday they had it blocked off there with traffic barrels and tape. This morning the signs were there but the barrels and tape had been moved aside and there was no sign of any work going on, so I was able to ride unimpeded out to Williams Blvd. and back and what was probably the fastest speed I've gone for a month. It's also about the slowest speed I would normally go, but regardless, it felt pretty good. The temperature was in the 60s and the wind was light, so it was a perfect morning for riding. Out around River Ridge I saw both of the Bald Eagles around their big nest. I wonder if there's a baby eagle in there this year.  Coming back I saw them again and thought to myself how great it was that I didn't even feel the need to stop and take a photo since I see them so often. It was probably a bit over ten years ago that I first started seeing eagles around here, and back then they were really pretty rare.

So I'm thinking that I will ride out to meet the Giro Ride on Saturday morning, staying at the back and turning back before things fast. Right after that I'll need to head up to St. Francisville to help get registration set up on the computer and then will be spending all of Sunday officiating. I figure that if all goes well I'll start trying to get back in shape on Monday. I may even have to find the heart rate monitor to keep me honest after such a long stretch of easy riding. I figure that the collarbone injury will have cost me about 850 lost training miles by then.  I guess it will be another three to four weeks before I'm back in good enough shape to race or even ride like I normally would. I guess that's about normal, though.  Last time I broke a collarbone it was 5 weeks before I went out to meet the Giro and 6 before I did a whole Giro Ride, so I'd say I'm about a week ahead of schedule this time.

Arkansas Classic Report

Large turnout for the Arkansas Classic collegiate races that included a couple of non-collegiate categories

In what has become a regular thing, I was again off the bike all last weekend. This time it was for a road trip with the Tulane Cycling riders up to Fayetteville for the University of Arkansas' Arkansas Classic. At least I don't feel too bad about missing rides right now. The collarbone break was 4 weeks ago and it's starting to feel a lot better. I may venture out for part of a group ride on Saturday, weather permitting. More on that later. Anyway, I was happy to be able to help out with the driving, since it's a 9-10 hour drive and it's better for the riders to be able to relax, sleep, read, or whatever than to be driving all day. The race itself has some nice challenging courses - especially the time trial and the road race. The criterium this year was your basic parking lot criterium. For this race we had Ben Bradley and Ben Spain in the Cat. A Men's race, Grayson Rosenfeld in the Cat. B Men's race, Jerry Cornell in the Cat. C Men's race, and Joy Jason in the Women's B race. Joy upgraded from D to B during the week after her first ever race weekend. Coming from Tulane's swimming team that closed out its season recently, I guess she'll just be around for a few more races this spring before graduating, but she brings with her a lot of basic fitness and a good competitive spirit. I wish we'd had three or four more riders make this trip since it's a dual-conference race which means larger fields with riders coming from everywhere from Minnesota to New Orleans.  The club put on a pretty good event this year with adequate officials and good results. After the mostly uphill morning time trial, we headed to the road race course for the afternoon races on a 20+ mile loop that featured a couple of pretty significant mile-long climbs and descents that had some riders seeing 50+ mph.

First up was the Cat. A Men's race. They made it maybe two or three miles before there was a big crash that took out at least three riders. One MSU rider had a suspected broken hip and one of the two Lindenwood riders who went to the hospital needed stitches.  Luckily the MSU's rider's bones turned out to be intact, but the ambulances in the road caused the following races to be delayed for around 45 minutes. Meanwhile, the Cat. A men's race was neutralized for most of its first lap. I rushed over to the feed zone at the top of "the hill" to hand up bottles to the two Bens, then back to the finish line to back up the officials if needed (they had three, so no problem, which was good since it was cloudy and too dark for my iPad's camera to get good video of the bib numbers). I could try and describe the A race, but Ben did a better job of that so I'll just paste in what he posted to Facebook.  Suffice it to say, with only two riders in the race they kicked ass and killed some dreams:

9 Lindenwood guys and 5 MSU riders. Course was a loop with a climb at the start and end about 1k long. First lap was neutralized due to really bad crash and dude getting Med evac. Second lap group of four with Ben Spain got off. Lindenwood didn't want to chase. Attacked up the first climb of the last lap. No one came with and I had a small gap. Knew the next 8 miles were tailwind so I put my head down and started drilling. Near the end of the tailwind section I saw the group of 4 in front of me. I recovered on a little roller and the lead group never looked back. Coming off the roller was a descent and right 90 degree turn. I built up a ton of speed and sailed past them. None of them had time to react and jump my wheel. Ben Spain kept them marked and I just kept time trialing. Headwind for last 9 miles. It was like the worse levee ride ever. Stayed around 175 HR. Figured I'd get caught, win, or die from exhaustion. Last climb 3 miles from the finish I was about to pop myself. One of those times your hands go numb from hyperventilation. Finally made it to the finish stretch and looked back for the first time since I broke away. No one in sight. People at the finish line didn't know I was the first rider across. Last hour I was at 4.9W/kg. Main pack came in 40s back. Good times.

Men's A Omnium Winners

Meanwhile, in the Women's B race that had started together with the Men's C race, Joy ended up winning, which was pretty impressive. It was the longest ride she had ever done without stopping. In the same race, Jerry came off the back at some point, and then missed a turn and had to double back, finishing 24th out of 30. In the Men's B race Grayson, who hasn't really been training at all, finished 10th out of 11, but with a smile on his face.  The criteriums the next day were actually pretty interesting and since they had like five officials on hand I got to take some photos which are all on a photo album on Google. The highlights of that race were Joy winning the criterium in a 3-up sprint and Ben scooping up enough prime points that, together with his 2nd place finish, pushed him into the Omnium lead by just four points. So with just 4 riders, Tulane won the Men's A Omnium, The Women's B Omnium, the Men's A Road Race, the Women's B Road Race, and the Women's B Criterium. We got back to New Orleans around 1:00 am on Monday. I went out for a quick easy ride on the levee at 6:30, then stopped by HQ to pick up the keys to the rental van that was left there (we drove in one of the Tulane motor pool vans). I threw the bike into the back, drove to Enterprise to return the van, and rode back home.

So this morning I went out for a ride on the levee only to find that they had it closed off at Jefferson Playground where they've been doing some kind of work on the levee. Just before there, I saw two Coywolves of Coyotes sniffing around the stables, no doubt trying to get one of the many chickens they have there. They ran back across the levee when I got close. I might have tried going around, but with the collarbone still somewhat less than solid I figured I shouldn't push my luck and just turned around, did a lap around Audubon Park and went home.

Looking OK, apparently, at 4 weeks

Just as well, as I had a followup appointment at Tulane Institute of Sports Medicine for 9 am anyway.  A quick X-ray and 5 minute meeting with Buddy Savoie and I was out of there with an OK to start weaning myself away from the brace. I'll be up in St. Francisville Saturday afternoon and then all day Sunday to officiate Rouge-Roubaix. I am thinking that I might ride out to the Giro on Saturday morning and hang off the back for a while until it gets fast before turning back. It's really hard not being able to really train or do the group rides, especially this time of year when everyone is getting excited about the upcoming races and everything. I figure that next week I'll start doing the group rides again. That will be five weeks since the collarbone break. Still, I won't be taking any chances, which means I'll be out in the wind and getting dropped a lot, which I can't really do anything about since I will be pretty out of shape. I guess it will be late April or early May before I'm back to training like normal.

A Long Mardi Gras Weekend

The weekend prior to Fat Tuesday features lots of parades day and night, and more often than not I make a lot of them. This year, however, the LSU collegiate race weekend was scheduled on top of it, and seeing as I am still a little broken and without a plausible excuse, I ended up officiating all weekend along with Ricky and Mike.

Walking to the start line

Turnout for the race was surprisingly light with fewer than fifty riders on hand despite great weather and good courses and fairly good organization. Before the race I was expecting there would be problems with registration and licenses and such because at the first collegiate race of the season they had let a bunch of riders race in the wrong categories and/or without actual racing licenses. As it turned out, though, there weren't many problems like that.

There was a Friday night pre-registration session from 6-10 pm at LSU that turned out to be a huge waste of time. I guess maybe five people picked up their numbers there. It would have been a problem for Saturday morning if the race turnout had been large, but with such a small crowd, everything was fine and the races all got off more or less on time and without incident. The only problem for me, other than the discomfort of having to wear this x-brace and not being able to do some things with my left arm was that it was cold up there in St. Francisville.  I was freezing for the first couple of hours.

Sunday's races were held a the State Police training track between Baton Rouge and St. Francisville which is basically a little car racing track. The course went around the perimeter, so it was a long, windy, non-technical loop. The A race was interesting. After Ben Bradley had won the Road Race and Time Trial, it was time for Ben Spain to take a shot at the Criterium.  He went off the front early with an LSU rider and they ended up finishing about 20 seconds ahead of the second group.  It didn't look easy.  Later that day there were two non-collegiate races that were surprisingly well attended and featured some really nice racing. In the "A" race Ben Bradley basically time trialed the entire thing, finishing almost a minute ahead of two of his teammates, who themselves finished ahead of the pack that was led in by two more of their teammates, so they took places 1-5.

I was glad I didn't have work on Monday and could rest up a bit for Mardi Gras.  I got up early Tuesday morning and put in a few miles on the levee before heading over to Audubon Park to watch the start of the Royal Run.  Danielle met me there and picked up a Rex T-shirt, which was purple this year.  By the time we got home the truck floats were already starting to line up along S. Clairborne outside our house. It was probably around 7:45 am. and some of them would still be rolling at 4:30 as we were walking home from the French Quarter.

Kenny and Danielle and Sofia

With Candy coming down with a cold, Danielle and I headed out to St. Charles Avenue to meet up with Ginger and some of her friends in front of The Columns. Once the first floats of the Rex parade arrived we walked farther down to 2525 St. Charles where they always stop to toast and take a break while they wait for Zulu to complete its turn onto St. Charles from Jackson Avenue.  I took a bunch of photos there, and then once they started rolling again we continued walking toward the French Quarter.

Once there we wandered around for a couple of hours, stopped to eat, and met up with Kenny and Candy for a little while, finally heading back home around 3:30 or 4:00.  The crowd down in the French Quarter was pretty tame this year, and the weather was great so there were a lot of costumes. We always leave before things start getting really crowded and the people start getting really drunk. By the time we got home it was almost dark and my feet and hips were killing me, which is pretty much normal for Mardi Gras. It's about a four mile walk each way, so counting all of the walking around we did while down in the Quarter, I'd say we walked at least twelve miles.

Followup #1

Lots of lonely solo rides in my immediate future.

A rainy Tuesday morning offered a welcome excuse to sleep late yesterday. Although I've been able to sit on a bike and pedal, trying to do so on wet streets would be a very bad idea. With a compromised ability to take evasive action, and apply the front brake without pain from the smashed and still swollen finger, I have my hands full just riding slowly on quiet city streets in daylight.

Not there yet, but progressing I guess.

Later in the day I had my first followup with Dr. Savoie. They took a couple x-rays and he said that I was doing very will with the x-brace. From at least one perspective the collarbone pieces look to be quite nicely aligned. It still hurts, sometimes quite a bit, sometimes not so much, but I guess it's progressing more or less normally

Last night, after having to get picked up from work because it was raining, we went over to Dat Dog on Magazine Street for a fundraiser for CALM. Despite the pint of Tin Roof Parade Ground Porter, I was feeling pretty uncomfortable by then, partly because I was sitting on what was basically a bench, and partly because my back and collarbone were getting pretty achy by then. Back at home I was setting up the Excel workbook for the LSU collegiate races I'll be officiating this weekend and looking over the list of "permanent" bib numbers I got from the conference director when I noticed that things didn't look right.  Double-checking the list against the USAC collegiate database was easy, but unfortunately revealed numerous riders who had already been allowed to race in the wrong categories, along with some who were racing in the higher categories without collegiate licenses at all. Three riders from Rice raced in the Cat. D criterium despite having Cat. C licenses, and subsequently placed first, second and third.  Apparently nobody was checking licenses, or just didn't care, last weekend. That kind of puts me in a bad situation for next weekend. Do I enforce the rules or look the other way? It's rather frustrating because this seems to happen every year.

Better than nothing, but hate losing so much hard-earned fitness.

Anyway, the weather this morning was really nice with the temperature around 58, a light breeze, and a clear sky.  I strapped the brace over my jersey and rolled out at 6:30 for another cautious ride on the levee.  Along the way I rode with John for a little while, pointing out two Bald Eagles near the nest at River Ridge. He turned back shortly afterward, but I continued on to Williams Blvd. before heading back. As has been happening when riding with the x-brace, my left hand kept going numb and my neck was hurting, but under the circumstances I couldn't complain too much since I was at least outside on the bike. When I got back home I looked at my Strava stats and, wow, you can really see the training cliff I've fallen off of!  I guess it'll be at least two or three weeks before my weekly mileage even approaches normal again, but there's no point in pushing the envelope and risking a fall or even just interfering with healing.  Kind of sucks having this happen during what is usually some of the best riding weather of the year, though.

Eleven Days

There were floats all over the place today - lots of parades from here until Fat Tuesday

After a rainy Friday that extended well into the night, Saturday morning was looking pretty nice. At home, staring out the window at the slowly drying streets and blue sky, I knew it would be a nice day for a long Giro Ride - one that I wouldn't be doing. It had been eleven days since I broke the collarbone, and I'd been thinking I might try going out for a very cautious ride on the Bianchi once the street was dry. The collarbone has been mostly a dull ache when I'm wearing the x-brace, with is essentially all the time. When I take it off to change shirts, though, it's immediately obvious that there's still a long way to go before it's back to whatever normal will be now.  The smashed ring finger that was purple and swollen is finally back down to where I can, with a little effort, get the ring off, so that's progress.

No big numbers on the Garmin for a while

It was a bit after 9:30 am when I rolled the bike out the door for the first time since the crash. With the x-brace cinched up tightly on top of the jersey, I picked my way carefully through the side streets, trying my best to avoid the wet leaves, cracks, and potholes. I was a little surprised that I could easily reach the brake levers and could put some weight on the left hand without much pain. The last time I broke a collarbone it was three weeks before that was feasible, and the time before, which was admittedly a more severe break, it was a good five weeks. Even so, I knew my ability to take evasive action was severely limited, so the two miles from home to the levee bike path were a little tense.  Once up on the path, though, I could relax a bit thanks to the smooth asphalt and lack of cars. It was a beautiful day for riding - blue sky and summer kit - so although I knew I wouldn't be doing anything that would qualify as training, at least I was outside and moving.

Rode with Pat, Steve, Kurt and Charlie for a little while

I nearly out at Williams Blvd. when Steve, Pat, Kurt and Charlie rode up from behind (I was probably going about 15 mph. They had started out around Ormond, so were on their way back. They eased up so I could join them for a while, but when we got out to the end of Jefferson Parish I figured I'd pushed my luck enough already and turned back, stopping for a minute to watch one of the Mardi Gras parade krewes getting their floats lined up to convoy over to the start of one of the afternoon parades. By the time I was halfway back my left hand was going numb. I guess the reason was that I wasn't moving it around on the handlebar, because that hurts a bit. Anyway, I made it home in one piece, so the ride was a success in my book. If I can tolerate an hour or hour and a half every day on the bike path for a while perhaps I won't get too fat and will be able to get back to more serious training without too much drama. Guess I'll just have to play it by ear for a while, but I'm hopeful I'll be back in action in two or three weeks if all goes well. I have a followup visit with the orthopedist next Tuesday.

Can't complain about the February weather in New Orleans lately.

Visit to HQ

A room full of officials. The symposium was surprisingly well attended. Most of these people are more serious
about officiating as a career than I am.

So it's been almost a week since my unfortunate encounter with a car, and about 24 hours since I got back from Colorado Springs. It was a good thing that this broken collarbone and associated bruises and such haven't been as painful as those from the last collarbone fracture, although my back and neck have been increasingly achy. It's funny how you initially focus on the most obvious injury, and then over the following few days you start to notice all of the other stuff that was initially overshadowed. Wearing the X-brace helps a lot, although it does of course restrict movement a bit and certainly gets uncomfortable, but if it lets the collarbone heal up without surgery and other complications I guess I'll just have to live with it for a few more weeks. At least I've been through this before and already know how to get into a T-shirt and do a bunch of other things without raising my left arm.  Meanwhile my shoulder, left arm, and left hip have turned a nice shade of purple and yellow as the bruises and pooled blood start to show up more.  I'll spare you the photos.

USAC HQ still hasn't changed the logo on the building
to the new version, which I like much more

I had been registered to attend the USA Cycling National Official's Symposium, held last weekend up in Colorado Springs, so I felt lucky that I wasn't so much in pain or under the influence of narcotics that I'd have to cancel. Even though I wasn't looking forward to all those hours sitting in an airplane passenger seat and knew the collarbone and everything would make that even worse, I got up at 4:15 Friday morning so Danielle could drive me to the airport anyway. Under the circumstances, I thought  it best to pack really light for this little two-day conference, so all I had with me was a nice little rolling backpack with a couple of shirts and changes of underwear and little else. It was a good call. The first leg of the trip was to Houston, where I switched planes to one of those neat little ones with one row of seats on one side and two on the other.  The flight attendants were of course going crazy dealing with all of the carry-on luggage that wouldn't fit and had to be gate-checked, but they let me through with my one bag.  That when I realized two things.  First, there wasn't enough room under my window seat to stow the backpack that had easily fit under the seat of the larger plane. Second, I couldn't lift it high enough with my broken collarbone to get it into the overhead bin. Luckily the girl behind me saw me try and immediately offered to help.

The Race Caravan Training Certification session was interesting. It's a totally different world
than the "one follow car" world we usually work in.

So I get off the plane in Colorado Springs and it's something like 70°F and sunny. I had to wait half an hour or so outside for the shuttle from the Marriott to arrive to pick three of us up, and by then I was pretty warm from the temperature and achy from the collarbone and five or six hours of sitting. This was my first Official's conference, although I'd been to maybe eight or ten of the Local Association conferences in prior years. I really didn't have anything to do the rest of the day or evening, which was fine since it allowed me to lie down, take some Aleve, and veg out watching TV.

USAC CEO, ??, UCI Technical Director,
USAC Technical Director

Saturday morning I was up at my usual time, which was unfortunate since my usual time was in Louisiana and not in Colorado. In other words, I was up at 4:30 am. Oh well. Lots of time to delicately slide off the brace and T-shirt, take a shower, and cinch down the brace again over a fresh T-shirt and button-down shirt. The meetings themselves were pretty good and covered a lot of the things I wanted to find out about, especially the new IT system they have been working on.  A lot of the people there were also Local Association representatives, so I knew many of them and of course most of the USAC staff who were on hand. Sitting for so long was more tedious than usual, so I spent a couple of sessions standing in the back of the room, but mostly I was taking notes to share with the other officials. Saturday evening they had a happy hour at USAC Headquarters, where the meetings were, prior to a buffet dinner.  Under the circumstances I thought it best to limit myself to just one glass of wine and a light dinner since I hadn't gotten any exercise in days and probably wouldn't for a few more to come.  I headed back to the hotel a little earlier than usual, took a 12-hour Aleve, and got in a little sleep. It's been a little uncomfortable to sleep, which is pretty typical for a collarbone break.  I tend to wake up, try to get comfortable, sleep for a little while, wake up again, and repeat.

Anyway, Sunday was pretty much a repeat of Saturday except that it had snowed overnight and the temperature had dropped into the 30s and everything ended at noon. I headed back to the airport with John Patterson from Georgia and Josie Strange from Florida. We were all on the same flight to Houston. The return trip was fine and I was glad that the plane was big enough that I could get my bag under the seats each time, but even though I didn't have a long layover in Houston, I was a bit uncomfortable. The plane for the first flight from COS to Houston was super cold for some reason. I had to fish out my vest from my bag just to keep from freezing.  Then the short flight from Houston to New Orleans was unusually warm.  Go figure. Anyway, it was a pretty good trip under the circumstances and I'm glad I went. I probably would have spent the whole weekend sitting in a chair in front of the TV feeling sorry for myself at home anyway.

Races start next weekend with a collegiate race in Texas. Don't know if I'll be needed for that one yet, but I guess I could help with the driving. I had been looking forward to riding the road race myself because they were combining the Collegiate A men with the non-collegiate Cat. 1/2 men.

Break in Training

Riding back along the Kenner bike path in the crosswind.  Last group ride for a little while for me I guess.

Things had been going just fine on the training front lately. Not a single missed day since the first of the year, some good long training rides across the lake, and over 1,500 miles logged through the first week of February. The weather had been reasonably cooperative, the training rides were starting to get a little more intense, and I was feeling as strong as would be expected for weak and frail old guy. I was thinking about travelling with the Tulane team and racing in Texas in the combined Cat. A/Cat. 1/2 road race in less than two weeks. After a nice easy recovery ride on  the levee on Monday I headed out as usual Tuesday morning with Dave and Rich to meet the lakefront training ride. The sky was overcast and rain was expected later in the morning, but radar was, for the moment at least, clear. There was a significant, and increasing, south wind blowing, and it was summer-kit warm. Meeting up with the rest of the group on the lakefront, things ramped up pretty fast, and after making the loop at seabrook they got even faster. A number of people turned off after the lap of Lakeshore Drive, and once we hit the bike path heading out to Kenner I could tell that the crosswind was going to have a big influence on the ride.  Indeed, it was pretty much like ten people trying to sit at a table for four where the front four or five guys were getting a decent draft, but everyone else was strung out along the edge of the road mostly in the wind. It was a good enough morning ride, though, and afterward Rich and I headed back uptown via the usual route as the sky started to darken with the approaching thunderstorms.

We came over the Jeff. Davis overpass and down onto the bike lane alongside a long line of barely moving cars. As often happens in the morning, there were two lanes of cars backed up all the way from the stoplight at Washington Avenue to the overpass. basically at a standstill. I was cruising along in the bike lane at 18-19 mph a few bike lengths ahead of Rich when things all went south. Suddenly a car that I couldn't see pulled across the two lanes of stopped traffic through a little gap and then into the bike lane right in front of me.  I had a millisecond to slam on the brakes when the front of the car cleared the stopped car to my left and slid a bit sideways, slamming hard into the side-view mirror and passenger side door, and then, of course, onto the ground. I sat there stunned for a little while trying to figure out what had just happened. My left shoulder was hurt pretty bad from the impact and I immediately suspected I'd broken the collarbone (again). It's the same collarbone I broke back in 2008 when a dog ran out into the group on the Giro Ride. Since it was already somewhat deformed, though, I couldn't tell for sure if it was broken, separated, or just badly bruised.  My left hand, and especially the ring finger, must have been smashed between the bike and the car, and at the moment the tip of that finger is purple and swollen to about twice normal size (may need another visit to the doctor if it doesn't resolve soon because I had initially just blown it off as a bruise). I also hit the car and/or ground with my head, denting and slightly cracking the helmet on the left side. I had a pretty good gash on my left elbow and some raw skin on my left shoulder under the jersey, but otherwise at least I didn't lose a lot of skin. Fortunately, Rich was able to stop in time and was a big help since it took me a little while to stand up and get back to normal.  The driver of the car jumped out, asking if she should call an ambulance as Rich gathered up my bike and phone and stuff that had come out of my pockets, and the driver of the car behind the crash came over and gave me her card. Rich and I did a quick check and the bike looked OK with only a scrape on the top of the top tube and a missing handlebar plug.  It was fortunate that I'd slid sideways a bit before hitting the car. I imagine a straight-on hit would have broken the frame and launched me head-first into the window or over the roof. I was able to lift my left arm at least up to shoulder level, so after exchanging information with the driver I rode the mile or so back home.

The fracture is at the collarbone bend near the middle
of the image. The separation  is on the right.

When I got home I called the Tulane Sports Medicine Institute, which is right on campus and less than a mile from my house, to see if they could squeeze me in to get some x-rays and see Dr. Savoie. Luckily, Candy knows one of the people who works there, and by now Dr. Savoie probably knows me by name, so they scheduled me for a 12:45 appointment. I sent Danielle off to the Tulane Cycling Center to retrieve my X-brace that I keep in the team first-aid kit.  About that time we started getting emergency weather warnings from LSU, Tulane, and the city about tornadoes.  The local TV was already in full emergency mode trying to cover at least four tornadoes as some seriously bad weather moved into the area. The closest tornado touched down to the east, along and just north of Chef Menteur Highway a bit west of where the Giro Ride turns onto that road.  Whole neighborhoods were completely devastated along the path of that one

Meanwhile, we made a run for TISM, basically in-between tornadoes. After a bunch of shoulder and collarbone X-rays Dr. Savoie came in with a print-out of one of them to show me where the fracture was. He printed out the X-ray from the previous break so we could compare.  Besides the fracture, there was some separation around the AC joint, but the bottom line was that Plan A is to wear the X-brace and check back in a week or two. His instructions were basically, "Well, you know what to do since this ain't your first rodeo."  The shoulder and collarbone hasn't been quite as painful as my other two collarbone breaks, not that it's been all sunshine and unicorns, but at least I was able to get some sleep last night and haven't taken anything stronger than Naproxin. Hopefully it will heal up OK without having to resort to Plan B which would be surgery. I will be flying out to Colorado Springs on Friday for the two-day Officials Summit at USA Cycling, so I'd already been planning on having an easy week.  Looks like it may be a lot easier than I'd expected. One thing for sure is I will be travelling extremely lightly for this trip since lugging stuff across airports won't be any fun at all.

No Winter, No Problem

Riding back uptown through the park.  Not exactly winter weather.

I looked back on Strava the other day and realized I haven't missed a day of riding yet this year.  That's really pretty unusual, even down here in New Orleans where winter just stops by for a visit now and then. The current ten-day forecast doesn't show anything below 50℉ and is even predicting a high of 79℉ next Sunday. Unfortunately I won't be around here on Sunday, but I'll get to that later.

It was a pretty routine week for the group training rides. After the prior weekend's long miles, I had done an easy Monday recovery ride that probably averaged 14 mph, which seemed appropriate under the circumstances. It turned out to have been a good move, because my legs seemed to recover nicely and by Wednesday I wasn't feeling any residual effects. I do think that the three weekends in a row that have included northshore rides had a lot to do with that. On the other hand, in the back of my mind is all of the advice one reads about old guys needing more recovery. Problem is, recovery is boring, riding isn't.

The weather has remained pretty good for riding. It's been kind of chilly early in the mornings, but nothing really below the mid-40s and mostly warmer than that.  Saturday's Giro Ride was about the coldest it's been lately, starting out around 45℉ but ending up a good ten degrees warmer. Whenever I'm planning a long Sunday ride on the northshore I struggle with my effort level on the Saturday Giro. Letting myself drop to the back of the group seems sometimes a lot more work than staying closer to the front, even if it means taking a few pulls. Funny how that works. You just naturally think that if it's easier to be 5th wheel than 2nd wheel, it must be a whole lot easier to be 20th wheel, but it doesn't work like that.  At some point the amount of draft you get stops getting better but the number of gaps you need to close or the amount of attention you need to pay to squirrely riders ahead of you goes way up. Anyway, I tried to conserve when I could on Saturday, but of course there were a few spots where I just had to put my head down and go in order to keep from getting dropped.

The big group stopped a couple of times for
wardrobe adjustments as the temperature rose.

Sunday morning I was out the door a little early, allowing for some time to sit down at Starbucks on Causeway before heading across the lake for the 4th NOBC Winter Ride Series ride. I was feeling pretty chilly once I got over there and ended up over-dressing considerably.  I knew it was going to get warmer, and I knew we  had enough horsepower in the group to make for a fast ride, so I don't really know what I was thinking.  I guess I always err on the side of having a comfy start. Indeed, I was nice and cozy with my wind-resistant short-sleeve base layer and long-sleeve fleece-lined winter jersey and knee-warmers and long-finger gloves, at least for the first ten miles.  By the time we got to the turn onto Lee Road, about 22 miles into the ride, I was already stripping off stuff and stuffing it into my pockets.  I wasn't the only one, either.  It seemed like a lot of people had dressed for the start rather than the finish. Luckily, I don't suffer much when I'm hot.  Certainly not as much as I suffer when I'm cold, anyway.

The required shot coming over the watchtower hill
heading toward Enon

Once we got north of Enon and about half of the initial 25-30 rider group had turned back, the pace started to ramp up pretty well.  With Sam, Stanton, VJ, Matt, and others on hand, I knew it was going to get fast.  We had a couple of the Nth Degree Juniors on hand and both were committed to the full 82 mile ride.  I was pretty impressed that they both survived that, and especially that one of them stayed with the leaders even after things started to fall apart over the last ten miles or so.  For me, it was a pretty satisfying training ride. I felt pretty much like I thought I should be feeling, which is to say I didn't start to hurt until we were a good 60 miles in, and even then I was still able to hang on without too much trouble. As usual, there was a good long effort going up the watchtower hill coming out of Enon on the way back. I was sitting on Sam's wheel and just trying to stay there, and coming over the top was thinking I should thank him for riding such a nice even tempo on the climb.  Then I realized that there were just three of us with a big gap behind.  I took a couple of very brief pulls, but Sam was really doing all the work, and by the time we made the turn at La. Tung Road I think it was down to just the two of us. Meanwhile the rest of the group was coming back together and getting organized. We weren't exactly crushing it, but Sam was holding a pretty fast pace, especially considering that we'd been riding into a south wind for about an hour.  I was more focused on keeping my front wheel within six inches of his rear wheel. Every time I'd get out in the wind my quads were start to scream, so the last thing I wanted to do was come off his wheel and have to fight that headwind alone. I shouldn't have worried, though.  A few miles later the rest of the group came up on us, so it was gruppo compacto turning onto Stafford Road.  I guess a few people eased up after that because we were down to five or six toward the end of the ride.

This weekend I'm heading up to Colorado Springs for the USAC Officials Conference.  Wes will be there for the Local Associations' Summit earlier in the week.  This will be the first time I've attended a stand-alone official's conference, but it seemed like a good idea considering all of the changes going on lately. USAC should be going live with its new website and back-end database in a couple of months and I'm already seeing some strange stuff that's probably related to that. We should really put on an officials seminar in LAMBRA some time soon, but I don't know when would work. Collegiate races start up in a couple of weeks, so I may be going to a few of those.  There are eight in the SCCCC this year - a big improvement over the four they had last week. For me, it might just mean more driving and officiating and less riding, though. The first race is running the collegiate races together with some non-collegiate races, so perhaps I can go do that and get some good training in, or more likely get my ass kicked since my only option would be to ride in the combined Pro/1,2/Cat. A 82 mile road race. At least the course isn't super hilly, so perhaps I'll just hang on as long as I can and try to survive. Tulane will have at least one rider in that race, so there's a slim chance I might be of some assistance at some point.

Long Winter Rides

Tulane and LSU riders ready to head out for the Saturday training camp ride up in Natchez

Friday evening I rushed over to the main campus to help out with the Tulane's spring activities expo where the cycling team had a table. Rather than cramming everyone into a couple of the big meeting rooms at the student center, aka the LBC, this year they had it set up at the old Fogelman Arena / Devlin Fieldhouse, aka the basketball stadium. As bait, they were supplying free pizza, popcorn and drinks which seemed to be reasonably effective. The spring expo is always a lot smaller than the fall expo that is typically held outdoors.

President Fitts chats with TUCA
riders at the Expo

Anyway, I think they signed  up a few new interested riders and there's a meeting scheduled this week, so that's good. After the expo I went home and dropped off the stuff I'd brought to the expo, threw the bike and a bag into the car and picked up Mike for the drive up to Natchez State Park for the Tulane Cycling training camp weekend. I was planning on driving back on Saturday afternoon, however, since I was scheduled to lead the NOBC Winter Ride Series ride out of Abita Springs on Sunday. We arrived at the cabins a bit after 10 pm I guess.  The Tulane and LSU riders were all busy playing some kind of card game or something, and I was exhausted, so I slipped away pretty quickly, claimed a spot on the couch in the next cabin and went to sleep.  The next morning I found Charlotte camped out on the floor sleeping on three of the couch cushions.  I didn't know she was planning on coming, but if I had I would have asked one of the guys to leave her a bed!  Lack of planning all around, I guess.

Heading out - Natchez State Park

The morning temperature was in the upper 30s, when we left for the Saturday ride around 9 am or so, and so everyone was pretty bundled up in winter gear despite the crystal clear sky. We were probably only ten miles into the ride when it became obvious that most of us were overdressed, though, so there were multiple stops for wardrobe adjustments and to wait for a couple of riders who were having difficulty with the low rolling hills.  I was pretty obvious that they weren't going to survive the whole 60+ mile ride, so at some point they got directions for a shorter route back to the cabins.

Flat #1. Took 4 tubes to get everyone
through one mile of gravel.

Of course, there was a short section of gravel along Cemetery Road that was part of our route. The road was pretty well packed down in most places, so it wouldn't have been a problem ordinarily, but of course as soon as we hit it, it became a race -- one in which I wasn't about to participate. Naturally, we were about 500 meters into the ride when the first rider flatted.  I stopped with Jerry to help with the repair and noticed he was rushing to get it done quickly, so I told him to relax because I was pretty sure the would be another flat tire before the end.  Sure enough, we rounded the next curve and there were a few riders fixing a flat.  We continued on to the end of the gravel, which was only maybe half a mile more, where the rest of the group was waiting impatiently.  After a while we started wondering why the guy with the second flat hadn't arrived so I started to ride back when one of the guys showed up saying that they had blown out two or three tubes trying to fix a big slash in the tire and the rider was walking back and we'd have to call to get someone to pick him up.  I went back there and booted the tire with a piece of Tyvek race number that I keep in my bag for just such a thing, putting maybe 30 psi in the tire since the slash was so big.  At least it got him rolling again.  We stopped a little later to put a little more air in the tire, but anyway he made it into Natchez. We left him at the Steampunk Coffee shop in Natchez and called one of the guys who had turned back early to come and pick him up.

Regrouping at Church Hill

Meanwhile, I discovered that I'd broken another aluminum spoke nipple on my rear wheel, but it was clearing the frame and brake, so I continued on with the somewhat wobbly wheel hoping another spoke nipple wouldn't go. These were some old super-light climbing wheels that I've pressed into service as my training wheels since the crash last October that took out my Mavic wheels. That was the third aluminum spoke nipple to break, so I'm sure there will be others, but I've just been replacing them with brass nipples one at a time for now. Anyway, it was a good ride even though we probably set a record for the most stops in a single training ride.  I headed back home after a quick sandwich to get ready for Sunday's ride.

There was a big group for the start of the NOBC WRS #3 ride

Sunday morning it was pretty chilly up in Abita Springs and once again I overdressed a bit. We had 20+ riders at the start, shedding a few at the turn-off for the short ride, and then a whole bunch around Enon, so we ended up with only seven for the last 50 miles or so. That worked out pretty well, though. Lenny, Jim, Mile Lew, Stephen, VJ, John Dias (yes, he's back on the bike) and I had a pretty good workout on the hilly loop north of Enon.

Only 7 did the full 80+ mile ride - weather was perfect
but got really windy toward the end

By the time we were heading back over the Watchtower Hill, Lenny and Mike were starting to come off the back and most of us were really feeling the miles. Jim went to the front after Tung Road and started towing us all back toward Barker's Corner straight into an increasing headwind, at which point we lost Mike and Lenny for a while. I was pretty tired by the time we pulled into Abita Springs with 80+ miles on the computer, but at least I felt like I'd gotten my money's worth out of the weekend!

I went out Monday morning for a spin on the levee, and between the wind and my sore legs I spent most of the time going 15 mph.  I knew better than to put any pressure on the quads, since I hadn't had a day off the bike in over a month and definitely needed a little recovery time.  This morning the temperature was a little higher and things got pretty fast along Lakeshore Drive for a while, but a few people pulled off after that so the ride out to Kenner was somewhat easier.  My legs felt surprisingly good.  They were still a little sore, but much better than they had been last Tuesday.