We woke up around 7 AM today to exactly what the weatherman said we would wake up to — a steady rain and temperatures around 40 degrees. We decided to have a leisurely breakfast in hopes that the rain would stop or at least the temperatures would come up a bit.

And the rain did stop. It stopped when it turned into a very light snow. It wasn’t sticking to the ground or the road or even any cars in the parking lot, but it was definitely snow.

We decided we might as well get going. We were on the road by about 10 AM. The snow had stopped, though it was still raining lightly. It continued to rain lightly most of the way to Missoula. Our route to Missoula today took us on I-90 which stayed in the valley next to the Clark Fork River. We had a light headwind all day, but the route was generally downhill too. We dropped about 800 feet in elevation during the ride to Missoula.

By the time we reached Clinton (35 miles into the ride), my toes were getting cold. Pat was meeting us at Clinton in case we needed any food, water, or dry clothes. I debated putting on dry socks or even putting plastic bags on my feet (which provide a very effective vapor barrier to help keep the toes warm), but just stopping helped get my toes warmed up, so I decided I could continue without any change of clothing.

At Clinton, we got off of the interstate and did the last 15 miles of the ride on highway 210. This highway paralleled the interstate, but had the advantage of slower moving traffic, smoother pavement, and more interesting scenery. We arrived in Missoula tired and wet, but thankful that the day ended up being a lot nicer than we had expected.

I learned two things in the last two days of riding in the inclement weather. First, it’s really, really hard to keep testing like I should. When you’re cold and/or it’s raining out, you just don’t want to take the extra time to do those blood sugar tests. During yesterday’s ride, I did OK on the blood sugars until it started raining really hard in the last two hours. I didn’t do a test at all, but I knew that I should have.

The second thing that I learned is to carry my test meter somewhere that will keep it warm enough to perform a test. For example, in a jersey pocket. I had been carrying my test meter in my rear rack bag because up to this point on The Dream Tour, it had always been warm enough to perform a test. When we arrived in Drummond, I did a test as soon as I could because it had been over two hours since my last test. I discovered the meter was too cold. Not a problem really though. I warmed it up by carrying it around inside my cycling jersey for a few minutes. It was 128 (at 2:06 PM). My previous reading was at the top of MacDonald Pass (104 at 11:23 AM).

Total distance:	50.14 miles
Time:	4:10:44
Average speed:	12.0 mph
Maximum speed:	26.7 mph
Total calories:	2910
Average heart rate:	107 bpm
Maximum heart rate:	140 bpm
Total ascent:	674 feet
Total descent:	1404 feet
Ride profile:	(click on image to view a larger version)
Ride comments: Miserable riding conditions today. The early morning snow turned back into a steady, light rain that lasted all the way to Missoula. The first 15 miles or so were very calm conditions, but a headwind (5-10 miles per hour) developed after that. My toes were a bit cold at the end of the ride, but I was quite comfortable otherwise.

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 16th, 2006 at 9:02 pm and is filed under The Dream Tour, Diabetes, Bicycling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.