We’re rapidly approaching a milestone on The Dog Cancer Ride Across America – we’re 20 miles from the Oregon border and getting ready to cross into Idaho. Though we spent a bit of time riding on the Washington side of the Columbia River early in the ride – in reality, after 12 days and 450 miles, we’re getting ready to leave our first major state and head off into the rest of the country.
I never thought I’d be so excited about crossing over into Boise. No offence to Boise, of course, it’s just not a major bicycle destination city. But for me it represents the start of the rest of the country – and a milestone of the ride – 1 state down, 15 more to go!
The ride today was really nice. After the major climbs of yesterday, the rolling hills and partly sunny weather were a total joy. And it allowed me to complete my longest ride of the route – 65 miles. 65 miles is actually NOT a long ride by cross-country bicycling standards – Andy, the brit we met the other day had done 13 rides of over 100 miles on his way across the country – but until today I’d been averaging about 45 miles per day, so I’m pretty proud of my 65 mile journey (even though I know that by the end of the ride, 65 miles will seem like a short trip around the block).
It was a pretty day too – not as dramatic as the rides earlier this week – but down long rolling hills that are excellent to ride along. And we even hit a cute town about 20 miles before our final stopping point in Vale, Oregon. A tiny 1 shop town, with some sweet store owners and lots of fun quirky stuff, and an EXCELLENT bowl of chili. We got a bunch of videos of them, so you should be able to watch and see what I’m talking about.
All in all, an excellent ride on our last full day in Oregon – except for one small detail…
One of the challenges that I know I’m going to face on this ride – is that my knees tend to have trouble with repetitive motions over time. I’ve been through this before – on my San Francisco to Los Angeles ride, during the marathon, etc. – where I had to use a lot of knee braces and other tricks to keep my knees from hurting too much. It’s a temporary thing – and one that I can generally work around –but one I know to expect during certain parts of the ride.
Well, today was the day for my knee to act up. As I rode up some hills I could feel it coming on – a sharp pain on the inside of my left knee. It’s been hovering in the background over the past few days, but today it came on really strong – to the point where I had to stop a few times to massage my knee and ease the pain.
Like I said, it’s expected given my past experiences – and usually it just comes and goes over time. I’m hoping that as I ride across the country my knees will strengthen and the pain will fade off into the distance – I’m not worried, by now I know a lot of tricks to keep it feeling good for as long as possible – but if not, we’ll just rename the event The Dog Cancer Ride Across America (in Pain).
Good night on our last night in Oregon – before crossing the border into Idaho and heading off to ride the rest of this beautiful country.
Bye for now, and I’ll see you down the road.
-Ted
