Coooool front

Yesterday's storms were just a preceeder to today's cool temps and windy conditions. After tuesday's summery ride the conditions were welcomed. Riding on the levee you will have head winds, tail winds and cross winds all in one outing. Being up there with no protection can be tiring.

It wasn't too bad after picking up three for the return at the parish line. We all worked together well and kept it around 20-22 into the wind and 24-25 down wind. But the last little surge after the Huey P hurt! Nothing like a nice 10 to 15 mph wind in your face and trying to maintain 20 for as long as possible. My legs are hurting right now. Hope the wind dies down some for tomorrow's outing and I can get to the meeting point on time...

Toyota United

Pretty cool concept for a cycling team to take on. They are looking for private donors to help support changes for homelessness. It is really cool to see professional athletes doing the right thing and not so much for the fame and glory. Check out Toyota United and see what you think.

The ride today started like the beginning of summer. Sticky and heavy. Did a few hard standing surges with some spinning in between. Flet very slimy by the time I turned for home with David and Taylor. When I made the turn I felt a slight headwind, but as we continued in the wind became stronger. By the end 20 was a very hard effort. Looking forward to the front that is suppose to pass this evening, but as usual it may just drag across north of the lake and we will get some effects later in the week. Keep your fingers crossed, jazzfest is approaching...

Pull out in front of me!

I must have had that plastered on my forehead. For the past several weeks traffic has been insane, and I may be one of them. Seems that everytime I come to a somewhat busy intersection, on my bike of course, some idiot is flying to a stop either to my left or right. Why is everyone in such a hurry? This city isn't that big and you will get there soon enough. I have slammed the brakes on too many times lately to avoid the soccer moms, ghetto blasters, and all the sun fried workers the city has claimed. I have been slowing down my rides to and from work and also heading out and coming home from the morning rides on the levee. At least we still have a levee without cars... wait a minute, there are always the large rock and sand trucks who don't give a crap who is in the right. Anyway I just hope I can avoid from being killed by the local idiot or for that matter the visiting idiot!

On another note today's ride on the levee was quite nice. Steady pace for the entire ride. Richard didn't show so I didn't do the urban tour. Kind of glad with all the morons on the road these days. I think the sun is really affecting everyone. Sure hope that rain comes today....

Urban riding

Had a great experience riding through Old Metairie and New Orleans with out much traffic during rush hour. Richard led the way through some high class neighborhoods of Old Metairie, where Katrina wasn't too nice. We saw trailers in quite a few driveways but the area is nice. We circumnavigated Metairie Country Club then ended up heading down Bonnabel drive to the Lake. We seemed to piss off a few soccer moms, but hey we are allowed to ride in the lane also. Took Lakeshore drive around to Franklin Ave and headed to the Quarter. Richard headed to work and I took Esplanade back to Mid City then Jeff Davis to Napoleon for the final stretch home. All in all it was nice but the roads are still the same ole bumpy drives you would always get. My arms were sore after. We plan on doing this at least once a week. Nice views and we can see how things are progressing around the city. Not very swiftly from what we can see. Hopefully some flood gates will be operational before June. Hmmm...

wearing down

The more I ride during the week the wearier I get while at work. Riding is definitely not as boring as work can be. It was a beautiful morning again. Temps in the low 60's and virtually no wind. Amazing since the wind didn't look like it would let up anytime soon. I know when the temperature begins to rise we will be sishing the wind would be blowing. As for now things are really nice up on the levee. Surprisingly there aren't that many people out riding. Maybe the sinus syndrom is taking its toll on others. I know too well how that can feel. Looking forward to getting out of doge for the next two days and seeing the Zephyrs play on saturday. Today is opening day.

Don't you wish you were here...

day light savings?

I think it sucks. Just keep the time the same and for all those people who like to sleep in, screw 'em! I really like to get up with the sunrise and not before, so since the time change it is back to walking the dogs in darkness. This is easier for the spastic Riley. The dog is scared of his own shadow. Anyway missed the group once again, this has now become a habit. So I ride out on my own and contemplate... on just about anything. The morning was perfect. In the low 60's with virtually no wind. So maintaining 21 was doable. Met the group about a mile from the normal turnaround and we kept it around 23-25 for the ride in. Nice and steady. Felt good and caught up with some of the guys since I can't make it out on time. Anyway heading to the parental estate tomorrow for a family meeting. Looking forward to some fishing. Time to get out of here since the weather is super nice. later alligators

Wind hurts

Another blustery day up on the levee this morning. Head winds can really suck! My legs are hurting and I really didn't do much. Sluggin' the extra puonds doesn't help. Here is to the weight melting away... HA!

Getting back to normal

It's been a while since my last post and too much has happened to catch up on in a single post... so I'll just skip it. Work is crazy busy, which is good but will only last until the end of June. I have sort of an option to stay, but it is not definite. The bike is doing well and I am finally getting back into shape. Katrina added about 15 to my midsection and I am slowly making prgress of losing it. Got about 8 more to go to feel good about my weight again. Nice ride this morning up on the levee. The weather is warming up and only a single jersey needed for the ride. The River had lots of fog and the wind was very light. Only an easy 25 miler today. Still trying to get used to the time change and I never set my alarm. Harder to wake up when it is still dark. Anyway back to the grind...

Katrina

Well it has been a week since we evacuated New Orleans and I can't believe there are still people waiting to be evacuated. Thanks George for all your useless help. I really hope that someday we can rebuild our city and take into account everyone and not just the mid to upper class. I really thought this country was about all men being created equal, I guess they are just not treated equal. No matter the final outcome, New Orleans has a great man as its Mayor and I hope he leads us to a brighter future. I am very fortunate that I could leave the city when I did, I just feel like crap now that I have no means to help the others that are stranded there. Please email your congressmen or persons to get the feds to do something. We have rescue teams from all over the country helping, just not enough man power that our military has on hand. If you have a chance this weekend view Jerry Lewis's telethon, he will be not only raising funds for MDA, but also for the hurricane victims.

CRASH

Well yesterday started out well, but couldn't get that good rhythm in the paceline. Felt more like a race. We all had a hard ride until the end when Eddie dropped his glasses and looked back for them. As he did his front wheel left the pavement and he tried to correct, which is nearly impossible. I was unfortunately right behind him and he layed down right in front of me and I went sailing over the handlebars and next thing I knew I am standing in the grass. Although between leaving the bike and standing, I hit the pavement HARD! Left quite a bit of skin from both elbows, my hand, knee and back along with fabric from my jersey. The fortunate thing, if there really is in a crash, is that neither one of us broke anything. I am really sore on my right side and my left wrist, so it is going to take a while to get back to normal. Just hope my dogs don't mind shorter play sessions while throwing a ball for a while.

You know how hot it is?

It's so hot that when I took a shower this morning after my brick workout, I only used cold water and it wasn't cold. It was quite comfortable and I could have stood there all day. I even got into the shower after I had stopped sweating. Can't wait until fall.

The workouts are progressing well. I actually enjoy the bricks. Makes running alittle more tolerable. Not my favorite thing to do. I am going to continue this schedule for the next month and increase my running mileage and then begin the time trial position on the bike for the last month before the race. Need to get some swims in also. It will all come together. So far so good, just wish we could have a cold front come through. Right!

Sitters

I decided to roll on throught the meeting area since I was early and get a jump on things before I got caught by the group. Nice to just spin at 20-21 before the craziness. Well I caught up to Todd and we talked for a while only going about 15. A little too slow to suddenly jump to 25+. Anyway the group finally came by at Williams and we jumped in. Not very well organized but we did our best. I was helping with a mediocre rotation. Kept running into traffic and that can upset things a bit if your not paying attention, like most people. They seem to get mesmorized by the person in front of them and will just sit there.

We picked it up after the dip going about 27 and over the small bumps which was fun, rollercoaster effect. That pace continued until the turnaround. On the way back everyone was intent on sitting in. I finally had enough and came from 8 back to get in front and start a rotation. Fortunately a few took the example and we had about 6 rotating, then 5, 4, 3, 2 and I was pooped by then. Every now and then a new face would show up and finally at the end about 6 came through. Saving it for the finish. Pansies! Oh well it was a good workout and I will just think that I benefitted more than they did.

First Brick

Well it wasn't too bad, although it was short, 20 bike and 2 run. No big deal, just trying to get used to transition. Had a nice ride averaging 20-21 and then a good run, not too fast not too slow. But man was it hot. My body just cranks out the sweat. I have been drinking water all morning and still haven't gone. Hope one works up soon or I will be in trouble for the morning "long" levee ride. I hope to do this every monday and friday and work the run up to 5 miles before I start pushing the pace. I think I can get that in the next 3 weeks. Got to find that swim suit.

Legs of lead

Whew, hot this morning. Got up very late to meet the early group and time trialed it from the house for about 35 minutes until I decided the group would be uncatchable at this point. That really put a hurting on the ole legs and I really couldn't get into a groove this morning. I made it almost to the Luling Bridge and found the group on the way back, really scattered along the path. So I turned around in about the middle of the spread out group and soft pedalled until Eddie came screaming by on his tri bike with a couple of followers. I jumped at the opportunity to finally draft someone. All be it, it was alittle fast, 28 and he kept it up for about 3 miles. Then we held pace at about 26 and I was feeling really tired. Don't know what it was but everytime I got to the back of the group I didn't feel like I was getting a break. Just felt like I had to keep accelerating to keep up. Well I finally had it when we were finally going 24 and there were only 5 of us. I just felt tired and sat up and could only maintain 16. My legs just felt like lead and couldn't maintain the turnover I wanted. So I had another 10 miles to go and took me a good 45 minutes to finally get home. Sure hope I feel better soon.

Knucklehead

Today almost was a repeat of Tuesday. I didn't ride Tuesday due to inclement weather, but I had to go out. Glad I did, because it only sprinkled for about 30 minutes and we seemed to have missed all the heavy stuff as the path was pretty wet in some places. We had a decent pace going 23-24 but seemed a bit slow for a thursday ride, therefore people were taking longer pulls. So not much action until the end of the ride. I happened to be at the end of the paceline, about 10th position, when Matt picked it up on the front. Well since the ride wasn't too tough I decided to see if I could catch the 3 that were off the front. I had a little trouble getting through but once clear of the group I ramped it up over 30 and was making good ground on them. As I got within 10 meters I noticed that a cop in his SUV was driving pretty eratic along the path. Moving to the right then the left and driving off the path. Well Matt started to draft his vehicle and when the cop pulled off the path he passed him. Not a smart move since there is an speed limit of 20, of course it is not posted, but we are suppose to be aware of it. He was going 30, and the cop pulled back on the path, determined his speed while everyone else knew what was coming up. We sat up and started yelling all kinds of stuff. This isn't a good situation because the cops will be out looking for us to be above the limit. Well the blue and red lights came on and he pulled Matt over to have a little chat. Ole Billy Bob was impressed with the speed Matt was going but not about the safety issues. Knucklehead! Just made us more visible and now if any complaints come in from the little ole ladies, we have a black mark against us. Dummy had to say, "Well I only ride up here once a week." Yeah, but most of us ride up there everyday.

830

830 miles for the month just on the road bike, 915 with commuting added in. Maybe someday I will break the 1000 mile barrier for the month, but not this year. I need to start picking up the running miles for the Triathlon in October.

Sunday I got in 60 miles. I headed out to the lake to meet up with the Giro. But I left late and had to stop and adjust my cleat on the left shoe. Therefore I knew I was going to miss the group. So when I finally reached Lakeshore Drive I just took a right and kept on going, right into a nice headwind. I thought "Boy is this going to suck by myself". I just tried to keep it around 20. I ended up riding for 90 minutes by myself before the group came by me in the same direction as me. Turns out I wasn't late after all. Well they had a nice clip of 24-25 going and I jumped in. A few of the guys asked if I had gotten lost. I just said they were late. HA!

Well things took a while to get going on the return from Venetian Isle and we just pedalled at 22 for a while then as we were approaching the Chevron station we ended up hitting above 30. The light was red so it was hairy getting through. A gapped formed and then that was the end of the group. I went with 5 others and we worked solidly until Jazzland road then there were 4 total. We had a great paceline up until the Shoney's. People started dropping like flys. Rob kept up his pace and I was with Scott, we eventually caught Rob on Hayne's Rd and picked the pace back up to 25-26. When we came to the first bridge near the casino they had a gap of about 25 meters on me because I had slowed for a red light. I blasted up the hill and Rob and I ended up dropping Scott. We kept our pace high until the next bridge over the canal and we both took off mano a mano. Rob got to the top first as I eased up near the crest, I was done. Felt good to be out there but I kept wondering about the rest of the giro. We weren't really going that fast and no one caught us. Oh well, maybe someone flatted. Didn't see anything relating to a crash on Randy's site so that made me feel better about taking off. Well looks like I need to get my running shoes in order. Only 11 weeks to go.

North winds

We may have some relief in sight. There was a northerly wind this morning and we had cloud cover for the entire ride. Thank goodness, because I worked my fanny off. Matt had his nice new time trial bike but he was civil on the way out. Others just couldn't seem to get organized. Donald kept letting gaps form and would just sit on. So I said to myself, "Fuck this, if anyone else wants to work they will follow". I went around him and we had four of us working together. Nice little paceline holding 23-24 into the wind. I was pretty tired at the turnaround, but the tailwind coming home was nice, at least until it became a crosswind and the pace really increased. Matt picked it up when Donald decided to play and we were hitting 30. There were many just hanging on, then a gap formed and we had 3. We pushed hard until Florida Ave, where we met up with some traffic which really slowed us down and about 4 others then caught up. We picked it up again and kept it around 25-26 for a few miles then all of a sudden only 2 were working, myself and Randy. Finally Matt came around and we were going 28. That dropped everyone else and finally Randy and I were dropped at the Huey P when Matt went to another gear. I had had it by then. Kind of hard to keep the fluids up when you don't get much time to gather yourself after taking a pull. I think it will take me all day before I have to pee. Just hope the wind holds for the day and brings some needed rain.

Wet shoes

Keeping up with the riding, just not with the heat or my posts. Anyway, had the maiden voyage of the new shoes, Nike Poggio III. Nice, with the exception of sweat retention. My feet are 6 inches above ground but I am still standing in water. Once the sweat reaches the mesh do you get any relief. The shoes seem to run on the hot end, but that could just be the weather. I look forward to wearing them in the winter. Everything else about them is right on. As for the ride, nothing out of the ordinary. Had Luke and David put in a small attack. Found out later it was to get back at Jeff from the day before. I don't think it bothered him at all. VJ dropped a water bottle on the return trip which got everyone to slow while he went to retrieve it. Just wishing it would rain! Can anyone send us some cool weather?

Thirsty Thursday

Another hot day to ride. Boy am I glad I have decided to ride with 3 water bottles. Sure makes a difference recovering after the ride. I literally look like I just got out of the pool when we are done. When I see some of the guys that don't even have a bottle, I wonder how they manage the rest of the day. I even drink water all day long to replenish the punishment I am dealing my system every morning. I am actually looking forward to a beer ar two this evening.

As for the ride, it was fairly civil when you look at who showed up. No one rode too agressively and it just suited everyone. Similar to how the last few stages of the Tour have been going for the peleton. Just hanging around until the finish. We all thought Howard would lay down the sprint at the end but it turns out no one reacted, so I jumped and no one was there. Got up to 31 which made me feel good that I could get above 30 on my own. Other than that just maintained 23 to 26 for the rest of the ride with a long spell at 18 at the turnaround. Not bad.