Early Party

When I rode to downtown Shreveport this morning to meet up with the 5:50 ride group, I wondered if an all-night party had been going on. I saw several well-dressed people on the sidewalks near the downtown bus terminal like they had left a party or work. I joined up with the other 8 riders and reversed the path I had taken to meet them (it's the best way to make sure I don't miss them). We passed by an old warehouse that has been converted to studio apartments and there were several folks standing outside, well dressed. One of the females said, "Good morning, bikers!" and raised a glass to us. We laughed and said good morning back to them. With our flashing lights we probably looked like a mini-Mardi Gras parade to them. I wish I had been to that party if it lasted all night in downtown. Not something you see very often.

There are 110 riders, including me, pre-registered for the district time trial championships this Sunday down in LaPlace, Louisiana. There are eight in my age group. There should be at least 150 riders for this event but I guess it's getting late in the season for most of the racers in Louisiana and Mississippi, and I guess late season burnout is taking hold. Plus most of the entrants are serious TT guys or, like me, are aiming at personal goals. If you don't fall into those two categories then why make the time and effort to do it? Time trialing is hard work...you ride by yourself for 40 kilometers (24.8 miles) against the clock....if you're trying your best then you should be in a world of hurt by the time you cross the finish line. It should not be pleasant but you should be proud of your efforts. The difficulty this time is that the weather forecast says there will be 10-11 mph winds from the northeast during the ride. In other words, there'll be a headwind going out but a tailwind coming back. I'm not looking forward to the first half of the time trial since I'm not that good riding into the wind. I'll have to really push it on the way out the best I can, then use the resulting tailwind on the way back to offset my losses. Should be interesting at the least. As I've said before, I have two goals....first, to set a new personal best (currently it's 1:02:31 set in 1998) and the second is to break an hour for the distance. I should get that first one but I really want that second goal!

I've spent some of today working on the kitchen. We got the electrical work done a couple of days ago and now the place has been nudged a little closer to the 21st century. We have plenty of outlets now and a dedicated line for the computer. Yay!