Rubber Side Down

Greetings from Bucks County PA, where today I did a 30-mile road ride that did not include a crash resulting in significant injuries! I liked not crashing so much that I intend not to crash again on future rides as my vacation continues into next week.

Fall 2022

It’s 8:03 p.m. Central Daylight Time, the moment autumn officially begins. And today certainly feels like the start of a new season. West Bend touched 60° for only a few minutes today and we will struggle to reach that modest plateau for at least the next week. We should still be averaging 70° for an afternoon high, so I’m not wrong to be disappointed. But again I’m left to wonder whether our historical averages are accurate. They must be inflated: we almost always seem to be below them.

Adding to the sense of change, this evening I hosted the final Royal Oaks Park cyclocross practice of 2022. My still sore, still tight left calf kept me off the bike. I directed the setup and teardown of the course … not a big job, but it’s still a job. Much like Cheesehead Roubaix, cyclocross practice at Royal Oaks is my show. I’m the one person who has to be there, no matter what. Today’s practice was number 8 this season and number 64 since the series began in 2012. I didn’t run the series during the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021, so it was nice to come back this year for Season 9. Attendance wasn’t great—our best turnout was 10 racers—but this season was notable for its appeal to first-time participants. The newbies learned a lot, progressed quickly, and now can look forward to success in actual races.

I’m looking forward to vacation, starting one week from today. On Sunday, three of my favorite TV shows will have their season premieres. Two weeks from tomorrow, the new NHL season will begin. So, there are some good things coming my way this fall, but the clock is definitely winding down on my outdoor cycling season. In addition to the falling temperatures, we’re losing about three minutes of daylight per day. Soon I will be riding more inside than outside. But watch out for Thanksgiving, nine weeks from today. After my upcoming week-long vacation, I still will have a four-day block of time off to spend before the end of November. Don’t be surprised if I skip the turkey and head south in search of warm weather and big miles.

2022 Flyover Silver Creek CX

My first race of the 2022 WCA cyclocross season also may have been my last. Today at the eighth running of Flyover Silver Creek CX in Manitowoc, I re-injured that left calf muscle, this time with a discernable “pop” and a sharp pain that almost certainly means a torn gastrocnemius. When the injury occurred, I was in no danger of winning the Masters 1/2/3 50+ age group. I knew before the race began that even the lower steps on the podium are not meant for me. But I was on my way to a 14th place finish in the 18-man field, and I was OK with that. In the end, I yielded 14th and 15th to riders who caught me on the last lap when I no longer could run with the bike or climb hills. I was still able to apply force to the pedals while seated, though, and I preserved 16th place by outsprinting my last challenger. It was my first bike race since CrossFire in Sun Prairie on October 26, 2019, and I had high hopes for it and for the season in general. Now I just want to be able to walk without a limp when I visit my mother in two weeks.

I’m assuming there will be no more cyclocross races for me in 2022, so my training focus is going to shift back to high-mileage weeks on the road for as long as the warm weather holds. As of today, I am still 300 miles short of my goal for the year and 688 miles short of my 15th 4,000-mile season. I will shoot for those marks. When the weather turns, I will get more serious about Zwift. Clearly, this isn’t how I wanted my season to go, but I will try to salvage something from it.

The New Season Begins! (On Zwift)

At Thursday’s practice, I already knew today’s race wasn’t in my plans.

As the 2022 cyclocross season begins, I am forced to confront two unpleasant realities. First is the tentative nature of the WCA schedule. The Sheboygan race originally scheduled for September 3 got moved to October 16 and the Milwaukee race originally scheduled for September 10 got cancelled altogether. Today’s race in Waterford went on as planned, so the season is finally in progress … but not for me. That’s because the second unpleasant reality is bad weather. And bad weather is a part of cyclocross many racers enjoy, but I don’t. When I saw that today was going to be an all-day soaker, it was an easy choice to stay home and stay dry. So, instead of being three races into my season, I’m still looking for my first. The promise of a seven-race September is long gone.

Staying home today meant staying inside. West Bend was wet too—the National Weather Service has issued a flood watch for most of southeastern Wisconsin, where some areas may see as much as 5 inches of rain by the time it stops on Monday—and West Bend also was nearly 20° below normal. Got to love summer afternoons that never get out of the 50s! Tomorrow is a planned rest day for me. I’m looking forward to getting back on the road Tuesday and Wednesday. On Thursday, cyclocross practice at Royal Oaks Park will run on a hilly course as a test for next weekend’s hilly races in Manitowoc and Franklin. I’ll do something fairly light on Friday to make sure I’m not fatigued going into the weekend.

I did not intend for today to be a rest day, and it wasn’t. I put in a solid hour on Zwift, my first training ride on the virtual cycling platform since February 28. (Don’t worry: my account was on hold for much of the time I wasn’t using the service, so not all of those monthly fees went to waste!) Zwift calculated a new, higher FTP for me today. That felt good. I still haven’t done an actual FTP test, but that’s coming. I need to take those numbers seriously if I expect to compete on Zwift when winter arrives.

I have gone back to my original plan by using the Trek Boone on the smart trainer. When I bought the Framed Gravier, I thought I would use it instead. That’s not going to work out. The Gravier’s original wheelset, now relegated to backup duty, is too wide to allow me to mount my 25mm rear trainer tire properly. The setup I used today worked perfectly, the hour passed quickly, and I got a terrific workout. Not a bad Plan B on such an ugly day.

Welcome Home, Tarra!

Yesterday afternoon I was privileged to ride with Tarra Gundrum on the final leg of her fundraising ride for the Wisconsin 9/11 Memorial and Education Center in Kewaskum. Gundrum left Wisconsin on August 14 and rode more than 900 miles to Washington DC. She returned to Wisconsin by train. Yesterday’s ride on the Eisenbahn State Trail began at the Rusco Drive trailhead and finished at the memorial, where even more supporters greeted her. To date, Gundrum has raised more than $5,000 and the donations are still coming in. Great job!

Calf Injury Update

My left calf continues to bother me. After a full-stop rest day on Monday, I felt strong enough to do a road ride on Tuesday. I was fine as long as I remained seated, but I could not pedal comfortably when I was out of the saddle. When I rode again on Wednesday—a ride on which I surpassed 3,000 miles, year-to-date—I felt strong enough to pedal out of the saddle. And that brings us to today and cyclocross practice, which proved too much for me.

Cyclocross practice was fine as long as I stayed on the bike, but I couldn’t run. During the practice race I detoured around both sets of barriers instead of dismounting to run over them. I gave something like a 75 percent effort: plenty of aerobic capacity went untapped as I very consciously tried not to hurt my leg any further. We’ll see what happens next Thursday.

In the meantime I will continue to train. Ordinary riding doesn’t aggravate the injury. And I have to keep the weight off somehow! I had a good weigh-in today: I’m down 14 pounds since May 1. I’m still +4 since this date last year and +5 since last October 1, but I could lose those pounds in the next few weeks. A handful of supplemental solo cyclocross practices might be in order. They’re short workouts but they’re much more intense than my typical road or rec trail rides. My weight loss stalls when all I do is long-steady-distance stuff. Mixing in the shorter, harder workouts always produces good results.