What a crazy stretch of weather we had in La Grande around last weekend. It was all bookended by ice on Hunter Hwy. On what seemed to be an innocuous Wednesday morning I rolled unto hunter. I soon noticed that the overnight moisture was still present in the tire grooves and it wasn’t looking normal. The temperature reading before I left was above freezing but this apparently wasn’t the case on the road surface as I stopped and confirmed the black ice. The traffic was still maintaining its careless speed so I quickly ushered myself off the road. One pickup had fallen victim with a broken axle, I’m guessing from a skid onto dry pavement. My more recent ice experience was Tuesday on my morning ride. The road was wet where traffic was driving but ice on the edges. This had me cyclocross riding on the world’s narrowest shoulder and then jumping down to safer mid-valley roads as soon as I could. It ended up being a good ride as I stairstepped down the gravel roads through the valley ending up down by Hotlake where I was roaming with antelope before cruising into town on Foothill.
Friday may have been the warmest day during the stretch but the rain just ruined the ride. Rad and I were hoping to miss the showers and loop around Indian Valley and Elgin with our cyclocross bikes. The rain hit and wouldn’t let up for the rest of the ride. We happened to meet up with two active graders out fluffing up the roads on opposite ends of the valley. Rather then turn around, we just forged through their fresh mud. By the time we got to Elgin we were pretty dirty and our hands were getting cold. Yes, we bad weather riding vets had underestimated the moisture potential and choose improper hand wear. Everything else was warm, but our hands turned into meat hooks. I had to abandon trying to shift because either my derailleur had quit working or my hands had quite working. I seriously couldn’t tell which was the problem. When I arrive home, I had to sit on my bathtub for about 10 minutes to wait for my hands to warm up enough to introduce them to warm water. The pain of the warming was excruciating, probably similar to a ball pin hammer torture.
The next day I was up for another hard training day, but torrential rain that was coming down and discouraging me from riding in to our local group ride. I successfully talked myself into it and got soaked. Surprisingly, when I was getting closer to La Grande I started seeing daylight in the clouds and the clearing ended up making the ride very nice. By Sunday, I was tired of cleaning my bike so I pulled out the running shoes. So this was my first run since my retirement triathlon last May. The 10 k effort went fine, but the leg pain for the next 48 hours was excruciating. I forgot how eccentric contractions rip up muscle and tendons. Walking became unnatural and I feared stairs. The lesson I’ve learned is that I need to run more often.
The muscle pain upright seemed to mostly disappear while seated on the bike, so I continued to ride hard the next few days trying to stay seated as much as possible.
Overall, the riding was good during this stretch. I’ve spent quite a bit of time with cyclocross tires on riding some good grooves on the gravel roads. These roads are really good to ride after rain. The experience has challenged a few of my local maxims. One is my intentionally overstated, “It never rains during the day around here.” We had 5 days of rain and snow, and only 2 of these had much rain during the day so I still think there is a lot of support for this notion. The other rule is, “Never let a forecast decide your ride.” This is supported now more than ever. The days I thought would be the worst, based on the forecast, ended up being really good riding. The day I thought would be good, based on the forecast, ended up being the frozen fingers day. I do believe you can and should adjust your ride based on current conditions and naked-eye observation, but using a forecast around here to decide the ride leaves you at home ruing your decision. This supports the 10-minute-weather rule in La Grande. For example, my decision to run Sunday was appropriate because it rained all day. Likewise, the decision Monday not to ride in the 50+ mph winds was probably prudent.
Now I’m looking forward to colder weather to eliminate rain from the mix.
Leave a Comment