Hurricane Sandy

Saturday: Bloomington, IN to Danville, IN (53.5 miles). Cool, hills and headwind.
Sunday: Danville, IN to Lafayette, IN (65.8 miles). Cooler, more hills (but longer and shallower grades), and headwind like I've never experienced. Absolutely brutal (about 45 of those miles were straight into the wind out of the north). We couldn't even coast downhill--had to pedal.

With calm winds, I can do 17-18 MPH on the flats no problem for extended periods. I was struggling at times to maintain 8-10 MPH.

But, as this was a fundraising ride for Habitat, someone is closer to decent, affordable housing.

Today: went to work. Screw the bike. 😉

Sandy didn't hit until Sunday evening. It didn't rain over the weekend here in the DC area. I think you guys were riding the other storm that Sandy collided with. I rode to work yesterday but everything was closed, so I went home. The post office was open but if I had picked up the mail I would have been stuck with it. None of the companies I deliver mail to were open.

50 dry miles over the weekend, 13 wet miles yesterday. Love disc brakes. Vibram boot soles worked OK with Time MTB pedals.

Yes, the rain on Saturday and Sunday was from a front moving up from the southwest...one of the two that merged with Sandy. That front was pretty strong and wiped out any thought of riding. It was two days of cold, miserable driving rain.

Yesterday, the wind built all day to near 40 MPH and last night we had gusts hitting 47 MPH according to Windfinder.

We lost power just after midnight due to downed trees and limbs taking down the power lines. I'm on my standby generator...all is good here.

Today they have revised the forecast to be a bit warmer (52°) and the winds have been downgraded to 30-35 MPH. Still a 100% chance of rain all day!

With the 80% rain forecast on Wednesday, it will be Thursday for the earliest shot at riding (still a 50% chance of rain). There's no real damage here though, so we got lucky!

Saturday was actually fairly nice here, but Sunday started sucking and yesterday was just crazy. Gotta love living in a neighborhood with underground power lines that connect to a well-cleared main line. We got some flickers, but I think that was probably other sections of the grid losing power and things shifting.

If it weren't for the rain, though, I'd have loved to taken a ride in Sandy. Yeah, the upwind legs would have been rough, but with that much sustained wind in a consistent direction, the downwind legs would have ROCKED.

Now the biggest issue once the rain stops (which it doesn't look good for today) is how much debris is going to be littering my usual routes. There's a lot of trees pretty much everywhere I ride.

I guess I could hit the gym today, although that's definitely a measure of last resort.

On the trainer only this past weekend. It is snowing at my present elevation here at work and starts about 2500 foot level below that is all rain. Maybe a sign of a great ski season.

No ride Sunday or Monday. I went out today to check out the roads. A little over 18 miles of riding and I road by several road crews clering downed trees off the roadways.

Quoted post said:

Originally Posted by davereo [IMG]/img/forum/go_quote.gif[/IMG]

No ride Sunday or Monday. I went out today to check out the roads. A little over 18 miles of riding and I road by several road crews clering downed trees off the roadways.

You must have got hit hard. Still raining? You're hardcore.

I got another day off. I went for a short ride. A few miles from my house, I ran into a group of four Parisians (two men and two sons) touring from DC to NYC. I showed them the way as far as Laurel Md. (about halfway to Baltimore) then wished them luck, turned around and headed home. My feet and hands got wet and cold on the return trip. Conditions were harsh. Light rain, wind, 45 degrees. Lots of debris on the roads. Some closures on the bike path due to flooding. Evidence of flooding elsewhere that had submerged the road but since subsided

Quoted post said:

Originally Posted by jhuskey [IMG]/img/forum/go_quote.gif[/IMG]

On the trainer only this past weekend. It is snowing at my present elevation here at work and starts about 2500 foot level below that is all rain. Maybe a sign of a great ski season.

Gert out and ski October snow! Jealous.

"I got another day off. I went for a short ride. A few miles from my house, I ran into a group of four Parisians (two men and two sons) touring from DC to NYC. I showed them the way as far as Laurel Md. (about halfway to Baltimore) then wished them luck, turned around and headed home. My feet and hands got wet and cold on the return trip. Conditions were harsh. Light rain, wind, 45 degrees. Lots of debris on the roads. Some closures on the bike path due to flooding. Evidence of flooding elsewhere that had submerged the road but since subsided"

You earned your "Ride You Like A Hurricane" patch!

Warmed up to 47° here in Ohio and the winds got to near dead calm just before darkness. It is STILL raining!!! Damnit! Maybe I can ride tomorrow...

The most common cause of damage I saw on the local news was the houses and cars crushed by falling trees. Never have a tree within fall radius of anything worth more than $5!.

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"I went out today to check out the roads. A little over 18 miles of riding and I road by several road crews clering downed trees off the roadways."

You are also awarded an official "Ride You Like A Hurricane" patch! I remember back in the early 1980's venturing out to inspect the damage done by tornado...a different perspective for sure, with all the [censored] on the roads and ruined real estate with every swivel of the head.

There's sticks, limbs and trash all over our roads. No real flooding to speak of, but the high winds brought tons and tons of lumber and leaves down. Toys, garbage cans and junk flew every which way! My local coop power company (I'm not just a customer...I'm an owner!) sent up two line crews to New Yawk to help restore downed lines, replace transformers, etc.

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"It is snowing at my present elevation here at work and starts about 2500 foot level below that is all rain."

We had light snow in several areas to the north and west...up to 3" or so. Average elevation in the 600' to 1200' range as a guess. It melted in the afternoon rain thankfully!

"Maybe a sign of a great ski season."

I prefer last winter's weather...warmish and with a distinct lack of that white stuff! I was in GREAT shape last March!

"I guess I could hit the gym today, although that's definitely a measure of last resort."

My wimp workout for today included storage prep for the genset and picking up a few hundred pounds of fallen limbs and stashing them on the various wood piles around the main farm. I checked the fence lines thru the woods (weird...no damage this time!), inspected the house and building roofs, checked the barn siding for lifting, etc. I took a quick hike up thru the neighbor's field to check the seismic blastholes and sensor locations...I was soaked after being out in the rain for about two hours.

I need to scan and post that old, old VeloNews cartoon I cut out decades ago...it shows a crazed, hulk-like racer/character freaking out because he hasn't been able to ride for awhile and screaming, "I can't take it anymore! I need to...get...training again!!!".

I just checked thee regional radar on Weatherunderground and Ohio still looks sketchy for tomorrow. Screw it! I'm headed to Cleveland tomorrow and hoping the velodrome is open. No trees on da new velodrome! clevelandvelodrome.orgclevelandvelodrome.orgOpen ↗

You guys are getting "par for the course" wind that they get in Belgium nearly all year round.

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Mapei squad wouldn't let a little bit o' wind and rain disrupt their training [IMG]/img/vbsmilies/smilies/eek.gif[/IMG]

limerickman said:

You guys are getting "par for the course" wind that they get in Belgium nearly all year round. [IMG]cyclingforums.comLLOpen ↗[/IMG] Mapei squad wouldn't let a little bit o' wind and rain disrupt their training :eek:

I think it's likely Belgium's weather challenges might be put to shame buy what the Netherlands get, but then maybe I've got an incomplete understanding of that. We saw no epic weather here, but Cleveland, about 30 miles north of here, on Lake Erie, did have some flooding in the area and 50mph winds. Fun trivia: Cleveland was known as The Mistake by the Lake and is infamous for having at least one waterway catch fire.

Oh look! I think I see Tom Boner out for a training ride!

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Lots of 'Blue Roofs' going down today...and it's STILL raining this morning.

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I hope Rabo...er...White Label doesn't have their bikes stored in there!

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300 pictures here: http://reportnews.newsnet5.com/ChannelGallery.aspx?c=8260&page=1

I think Gilbert better forget his training ride and get to work cleaning up what's left of his home.

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We also lost the HMS Bounty. Two of the crew died. I was on this ship in 2010.

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Quoted post said:

Originally Posted by alienator [IMG]/img/forum/go_quote.gif[/IMG]

I think it's likely Belgium's weather challenges might be put to shame buy what the Netherlands get, but then maybe I've got an incomplete understanding of that.
We saw no epic weather here, but Cleveland, about 30 miles north of here, on Lake Erie, did have some flooding in the area and 50mph winds. Fun trivia: Cleveland was known as The Mistake by the Lake and is infamous for having at least one waterway catch fire.

Those countries located on the North Sea do get their fair share of stormy weather.
Along the coasts of both Holland and Belgium the breeze coming in from the sea is something else.

You're in the electoral bellweather state, Alienator?

limerickman said:

You're in the electoral bellweather state, Alienator?

Unfortunately, yes. Our reward for that is constant bombardment with political ads.

"Unfortunately, yes."

Wait! Wut?

We let you back into Ohio?!?!?!

Damn! It's time to secure the borders!