2023: A Statistical Review

I’m calling 2023 a successful season. How could I not? I wanted to reach 90,000 lifetime miles, and I did. I wanted to race more, and I did. It doesn’t matter that I beat my mileage goal by the narrowest margin, or that I didn’t race as much as I had hoped. When I look back on 2023 in the years to come, I will remember it for the time I spent in Pennsylvania helping my mother after she had surgery to fix her broken hip. That was the really important work this year. Cycling, as much as I love it, is only a hobby.

I rode 4,423 outdoor miles this year, 1 more than I needed to reach 90,000 lifetime miles. So, I will look for 4,999 miles in 2024 and 5,000 in 2025 to reach 100,000 lifetime miles during the season of my 60th birthday. It’s a worthy goal. I have not had back-to-back 5,000-mile seasons since 2015-2016. With 4,423 miles this year, I beat last year’s total of 4,190. This season ranked 13th out of 20 for mileage and 9th for ride frequency. I did 164 rides this year, up from 143 last year, but my per-ride total of 26.97 miles was my lowest since 2017. I set only one personal record this year: 177 miles is now my record for December. My longest ride of 2023 was only 50 miles. My 6 cyclocross races were 5 more than I did in 2022, but short of what I would have done if not for staffing issues at work that required many changes to my schedule and many overtime hours.

In 2023, I spent 1,581 minutes on the turbo trainer, mostly while hooked up to Zwift. That’s my 9th highest total, all-time. I could have and should have done more. That’s also true of strength training workouts, which I missed during those 16 weeks in Pennsylvania. And I failed to hit my 260-mile fitness walking target, but only narrowly. I walked 238 miles in 2023 and I will keep my 2024 target at 260. But with my new treadmill, scheduled to arrive on Saturday, I think I will exceed that target easily.

In my 2022 season recap, I wrote that in 2023 I wanted to get down to my high school weight of 185 pounds. That didn’t happen. I spent the year between 195 and 204 … usually closer to 204. In 2024, I will do a weigh-in at the start of every week instead of just at the start of every month, on the assumption that it will be easier to correct for a 1- or 2-pound gain than for a 5- or 6-pound gain! Losing weight would be so valuable to me as a cyclist, and it remains the beast I cannot slay. But there’s every reason to keep trying.

Some Changes Coming In 2024

This post is going to read like a list of New Year’s resolutions. It’s not. It’s an intersection of obligation and opportunity. It’s an action plan that straddles January 1 only because it contains items that depend on medical and dental insurance plans which, of course, reset with the new year.

I have known for a long time that my blood pressure is too high. In 2016, I got on medication to address that issue. Medication was working for me. I was happy. My doctor was happy. Then the COVID-19 pandemic came along and I almost completely stopped interacting with the world outside of my own home. I stopped seeing my doctor, so my doctor stopped renewing my prescription. On Tuesday morning, I had my first physical examination since September 2019. I am back on hydrochlorothiazide. I think I will be from now on. And I have resumed tracking my blood pressure at home. I had not been doing that regularly since 2016, and I was foolish to stop.

It’s probably true that my high blood pressure and my high cholesterol, which also requires medication, have a genetic component. I will never know. I was adopted as an infant and I have no information about the medical histories of my biological parents. But I should be controlling what I can control. I never touch tobacco and almost never touch alcohol. Exercise isn’t a problem, as this blog should make obvious. Diet is the problem, carbohydrates in particular. My doctor is urging me to cut out carbs as much as I can. She understands their value to me as a cyclist who trains and races, but she wants me to find other sources of calories off the bike. Bread, pasta, and cereal have been huge components of my diet. I already have begun to reduce my consumption. Soda, which I love so well, has to go away completely. Starting on January 1, I will track my water intake via Garmin Connect. If I drink as much as my doctor recommends, then I won’t have room for soda anyway!

On January 4, I will get up to date with my vaccinations. On January 26, I will have a carotid artery ultrasound to determine whether arterial plaque is contributing to my high blood pressure. If it is, then there’s a simple surgical fix. Left untreated, carotid artery plaque is a serious stroke risk. On January 30, I will have my first dental appointment of the new year, and at that time my dentist and I will decide how to complete the process that began late this summer. Sometime in the next 3 months, I will have the colonoscopy that I should have had by the time I was 50 years old. I’m 58 now.

This is all really important, foundational stuff. What will it matter if I’m working to improve my fitness on the bike but simultaneously leaving myself open to preventable disease?

I don’t expect big changes in my approach to cycling in the new year, however I will change my approach to walking. On January 6, I will take delivery of a new treadmill for my home gym. (I ordered it back on December 21 before my doctor even had a chance to tell me what a disgusting tub of lard I am.) I expect to use it a lot. On days when I do not plan to ride the bike—whether that means riding outdoors or on the smart trainer—I can take an extended walk with intervals governed by the treadmill’s preset workouts and its automatic incline adjustment. On days when I will be riding the bike later, I can do a short walk in a fasted state soon after I get out of bed. Those 30-60 minutes in prime fat-burning mode should pay dividends. A smarter and more consistent approach to walking will add to my overall health and fitness without adding significantly to my training stress and fatigue.

So, you can see that these are not New Year’s resolutions. They are not vague hopes and fleeting commitments. This is a time-bound list with very specific and achievable objectives. Progressing through this list will make me stronger on the bike and off.

90,000 Lifetime Miles

I reached 90,000 lifetime miles today, completing the goal I set for myself at the end of last season. I came into December needing 176 miles. That seemed like an almost impossible number to reach. My personal record for December was, coincidentally, 176 miles, set in 2018. Prior to this season, my average December output was only 57.5 miles. With 31 miles today, I established a new personal record:

Normally, I have reached my mileage goal for the season long before December. I’m already very disinclined to ride in cold weather, so I really can’t be bothered when there isn’t a statistical objective. West Bend hit 47° this afternoon, which hardly qualifies as cold on December 24, and I clearly have benefited from warmer than average temperatures this month. But I was content to stop on 31 miles today with my first new monthly mileage PR since August 2021.

With these objectives finally in hand, I am shutting down my outdoor season. There are no more personal records within reach, my job is still demanding a lot of extra time from me, and I’m mentally fatigued. Thursday should be my first night off since December 7. And what did I do with my “free” time on December 7? I drove the 900 miles back to West Bend from my mother’s house in eastern Pennsylvania ... no big deal. I will have worked 20 consecutive nights by Thursday. I need a break. Then I need to miss the bike so badly that riding inside seems like a good idea.

I’m A Pop-Tart At Heart

Today I deployed a new weapon in my war against cold: an ActionHeat battery-heated vest liner. This lightweight garment surrounds the body’s core with heating elements like those inside a kitchen toaster, and it fits much like a traditional cycling gilet. The V-neck is an obvious difference, but the vest is not intended to be an outer layer. For its maiden voyage, I wore mine over a thermal baselayer and under a winter cycling jacket, then finished with a wind layer. On this 43° afternoon I rode for almost 2 hours comfortably. I could tell that the vest was contributing something to that comfort. Was it as much as expected? No, but it was better than nothing. Was it worth the money? Only time will tell. Let’s see how long it lasts.

The vest retails for $119. I got mine second-hand, technically, but in an unopened box for $82. ActionHeat says the vest will crank out 90° for 4.5+ hours, 110° for 3+ hours, or 130° for 2+ hours:

My battery gave up a few minutes to the short side of 2 hours today. As you might expect, I used only the highest setting. And 2-hour rides are not normal for me in the winter, so battery life probably isn’t too much of a concern. I plan to use the vest again tomorrow while riding in very similar conditions. If we hit 51° on Sunday—yes, that’s in the current forecast—then I won’t be worrying about battery life at all: the vest will stay home!

It’s Over, Over There

I hope they enjoyed this while it lasted.

The COVID-19 pandemic led to a cycling boom as people looked for socially-distanced alternatives to things like public transportation and health club memberships. Retailers quickly ran out of bikes, parts, and accessories. Then, demonstrating the mismanagement we expect from the bicycle industry, retailers assumed historically high demand was the “new normal” and manufacturers increased production to meet an influx of orders. The supply chain broke down while demand was still high, leading many shoppers to buy overpriced used bikes instead of the new bikes they couldn’t get. But as the pandemic lost momentum, so did the cycling boom. And as the supply chain got fixed, shops were flooded with bikes, parts, and accessories that they couldn’t move without deep discounts.

In October, British cycling retailer Wiggle Chain Reaction lost the financial backing of its biggest investor, Signa Sports United, and almost immediately thereafter entered administration, the UK equivalent of our bankruptcy reorganization. Unfortunately, but predictably, this led to a big layoff of Wiggle Chain Reaction employees. The only good news was for consumers: more of the aforementioned deep discounts. But even that good news was muted. Wiggle Chain Reaction now has eliminated international sales, so its deals are available only in the UK.

I was able to place one final order, and I received it today: a nice torque wrench set, a merino wool long-sleeve baselayer, and a pair of arm warmers. The total cost of $91, including tax, is what you might expect to pay for a torque wrench set or a merino wool baselayer by itself.

Every bolt on every bike has a recommended torque limit, and with carbon fiber frames and parts it is especially important not to over-tighten. Prior to today I had one torque wrench that I could use only on one size bolt for one specific torque limit. Now I can ensure every bolt is tightened correctly. At $39, the merino wool baselayer was the most expensive part of my Chain Reaction order. It’s equal to this $100 offering from Aero Tech Designs that I bought in 2020 and absolutely live in during the winter. But like its predecessor, I expect the new baselayer to serve me off the bike, not on. It will be great for loungewear and for cool weather hiking or yard chores. The arm warmers will be pressed into service on the bike soon enough. My only other black arm warmers are from Pearl Izumi and they are pretty worn out after many years of good performance. The old ones now fit too loosely except after a fresh laundering.

I contented myself with purchases I could actually use … this time. Now I will keep an eye on domestic bike retailers to see if their prices plunge into fire sale territory. If they do, then I could talk myself into a few things that wouldn’t pass the “do I really need this?” test.

Back Home Before Winter Really Begins

Today was nice, but that thin layer of ice on Barton Pond is a sign of things to come.

Wow, it was 56° this afternoon in West Bend—historically, the average high for December 8 is only 35°—and I was here to take advantage of it! I got back from Pennsylvania this morning at 3:30. By mid-afternoon I was ready to ride, but my start was delayed by a broken cable lock that had secured my Framed Gravier to my car’s hitch rack during the trip. Before leaving PA, I noticed that the lock was a little sticky. Somewhere along the way, it froze up, and that had nothing to do with the temperature. This afternoon I snapped the key inside the lock, and that was the final insult. Half an hour later, after much work with a hacksaw and even more swearing, my bike was free. There’s nothing in the forecast to match today. We’ll see whether today’s ride proves to be the last outdoor ride of 2023.

A Walk, A Ride, And A Goodbye To November

With 156 walks since October 1, 2020, today these shoes are officially worn out!

Tuesday broke the streak. (Actually, it broke a couple of them.) Before Tuesday, I had gotten some kind of exercise every day since arriving in Pennsylvania on November 13. Tuesday morning featured snow flurries and high winds. Despite the bright sun of afternoon, the temperature never got out of the 30s and the wind never stopped. I was content to stay indoors, rest, and enjoy a brief visit with my nephew from Montana. I hadn’t seen him in years, as he rarely visits Pennsylvania and never visits West Bend, and as I never have been to Montana.

On Tuesday I finally got a break after 12 consecutive nights at work. My employer continues to have staffing issues and I am covering the gaps. Wednesday was another night off. I’ll be back at work tonight, though, as it’s the end of the month. In the world of information technology, monthend always means more work and more problems. Wish me luck.

Wednesday’s high temperature, like Tuesday’s, was significantly below average for this area at this time of year. As November ends, 8 of the last 10 days were below average. If I had wanted January temperatures, then I could have stayed in Wisconsin! So, I didn’t get everything I expected out of November. I covered 280 miles on the bike, did 34 miles of fitness walking, and grabbed another 9 Garmin Connect badges. On Wednesday I surpassed 200 miles of fitness walking in 2023, but I am unlikely to reach my goal of 260.

Today’s bike ride brought my outdoor mileage total to 4,246 this year, and there’s still a chance that I will reach my goal of 4,422. If getting 176 more outdoor cycling miles doesn’t sound like much, then remember I will be looking for most of them in chilly West Bend. I expect to be back in Wisconsin sometime next week.

Wilma Quinlan Nature Preserve

Eastern Pennsylvania was sunny today and yet not warm: 42° was the high temperature in Mom’s neighborhood. I took a break from the bike after three straight days of riding. Today was perfect for a cross-training hike to, through, and then back from Wilma Quinlan Nature Preserve. It’s remarkably like West Bend’s Lac Lawrann Conservancy, but smaller. It’s owned by the municipality, features a network of easy turf and gravel trails, and it’s off-limits to bikes. If bikes were allowed, then it would be an excellent training spot for cyclocross. The preserve doesn’t have any abrupt elevation change like Lac Lawrann’s, but it does feature a couple of longer, steadier climbs like the ones we use for CX practice at Royal Oaks Park in West Bend.

With each passing day I am less confident of my ability to get the 206 outdoor cycling miles I still need to reach my 2023 goal. The weather simply isn’t going to be good enough for long enough. Realistically, I hope for 1-2 more rides while I’m here. In the week ahead, I expect to do more walking/hiking than riding. I still have a couple of important-to-me walking goals to hit.

Still Reaching For 2023 Goals

Thursday's ride was the big one this week.

Today is the end of my training week. Since arriving in Pennsylvania on Monday, I have completed 4 bike rides for a total of 111 miles spread over a little more than 7 hours. And I have done 5 walks for a total of 9 miles spread over a little more than 2.5 hours. That’s just short of 10 hours dedicated to exercise this week, which ain’t bad! Consider that I had to drive 963 miles from my house to Mom’s, and that I had to work overnight on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. It's another vacation that's not really a vacation: Mom's kitchen table is my temporary office. This was a busy week.

I hit a couple of modest personal milestones on the bike here in PA. This season now ranks 15th out of 20 for total miles, and 10th for number of rides. That tells you a little something about my 2023 season: ride length is down. My average ride this year is only 27.11 miles. It will be a little lower before the year is over, as colder temperatures and shorter daylight hours conspire against me.

I’m still working toward several cycling goals. I need 44 miles to beat my total from last season. I need 275 to reach 90,000 lifetime miles, which was the goal I set at the beginning of 2023. Those are the big ones; the rest are Garmin Connect challenges that would be nice to complete but aren’t as important. The weather forecast through November 28 shows an average daytime high of 48° here compared to 38° in West Bend. While that’s not as warm as I would like—and it’s below average for this area—it’s still better than what I would get at home. I will try to take advantage of the difference, because when I return to Wisconsin in December there won’t be any outdoor riding in my plans.

Coming Soon: Santa Ramp-Up 2023

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4,000 x 15

Computers are great at doing the same thing again and again. It’s usually when you make a change that things go wrong. With the expiration of Daylight Saving Time last night, my company needed to update the time on the mainframe manually. And falling back to Central Standard Time appeared to create an extra hour during which we could perform additional maintenance without affecting the 6 a.m. up time we promise our customers. In the end, we gave back that hour and then lost almost two more. First, the system didn’t come down cleanly at the start of the maintenance window. Later, the system didn’t come back up cleanly. It was ugly. I console myself with the knowledge that I didn’t cause the problems and that my efforts reduced the duration and severity of the outage. But those efforts were fatiguing, and I didn’t have enough free time in an almost 12-hour shift to get a decent meal.

So, I came into today a lot tired and a little pissed off. Maybe it would have been smarter to go directly to bed. But daylight is even more precious now and I didn’t want to risk sleeping through all of today’s, so I stayed up and got my bike ride done. By itself, it was nothing special: I covered 20 miles in 83 minutes. I was just riding, not really training. But with those 20 miles I surpassed 4,000 miles for the 15th consecutive season. Oh, and I completed another Garmin Connect badge. That was a good way to put a bad night behind me.

Tomorrow should be warmer but the winds should be much higher, so it could be a big day for yard work. Suddenly, my next trip to Pennsylvania is only a week away and I have a long To Do list on which cycling is a maybe and not a must.

October’s Big Badge Haul

From a cycling perspective, October wasn’t good for much. I spent only 26 hours in the saddle, splitting time between outdoor rides and the smart trainer. That’s down from 40 hours in September. I’m not looking forward to tomorrow’s weigh-in.

From an overall fitness perspective, however, October wasn’t a complete disaster. I did good work in the home gym, embracing my new strength training program. And I assembled a big collection of Garmin Connect badges:

As you can see, I picked off a couple of the indoor cycling badges that I identified as goals early this month. There will be more of that in November. But right now I’m almost desperate to ride outside again. I haven’t done it since last Wednesday. Remember one week ago today, when it was 80° and life was easy? That seems like a long time ago now. Today I earned Garmin’s 2023 Halloween badge with a wind-blasted walk across the snow. Just Wisconsin’s latest trick, and the closest thing to a “treat” in the forecast is the chance of a 50° day this weekend.

Despite the depressing weather, as November begins I will be pursuing at least 8 more Garmin Connect badges. I’ve said it before: they are small rewards, but sometimes they motivate me just enough to keep me moving when otherwise I wouldn’t bother.

(Last?) Gasp!

Sunny and 80° today? Wow! That’s a record for this date, surpassing the 71° day we had last year. And it’s far better than the 55° average high. Today was our first 70° day since October 5 and our first 80° day since October 3. It was freakishly good. Unfortunately, there’s nothing like it in the forecast. Rain is coming back, we’re dropping into the 40s for the weekend, and next week we’ll have daytime highs in the 30s with freezing temperatures overnight. I was outside on the bike today for 2 hours. I’ll be outside on the bike again tomorrow while the temperatures are still in the 60s. After that, I’m making no promises.

Turning Inward

Today’s 25-mile ride was just my 4th outdoor ride in the last 10 days.

More than a month has passed since my former coworker announced his plans to retire. He worked his last day on September 29 and still has not been replaced, though this week there are signs that someone is in the hiring pipeline. It might take another week or two before the new worker is on the schedule, and in the meantime I will continue to work a lot of extra hours. Overtime has fattened my wallet but has hollowed out my cyclocross season. Grafton and Sun Prairie are no longer in my plans. The state championships are off my calendar too, as I will be in Pennsylvania on November 18. My employer has promised me a few days off, whatever may happen with the new worker, and I arranged those days in a way that ensures I can travel to Mom’s house for another extended stay. I expect to be in PA from November 13 until December 1. That leaves only Kern Park Kross in Milwaukee on November 4 and CamRock & Roll in Cambridge on November 11 as potential races for me. Neither is very realistic. It will take far nicer than average weather to entice me.

Even with my overnight work schedule, which makes the warmest hours of every afternoon available to me, I’m feeling the effects of falling temperatures and waning daylight. Tomorrow will be the last day this year with a 6 p.m. sunset. Two weekends later we will “fall back” out of Daylight Saving Time: sunset on November 5 will be 4:39 p.m. Ouch! If I weren’t chasing a couple of mileage goals, then I would be content to abandon my outdoor season right now.

I can’t say that I’m enthusiastic about spending lots of time riding indoors; it’s still kind of a necessary evil. But I do want to get back into the home gym for more structured strength training. Yesterday I began a new routine that adds grip strength exercises to the upper body program I have been following. And I continue to explore my options for a new treadmill, which I think would be a great addition to the home gym. The last year in which treadmill workouts were a significant part of my overall fitness plan was 2013. At that time, my old treadmill was almost ready for the scrapheap and was not much fun to use. A new, feature-rich treadmill would give me an indoor aerobic exercise option other than the smart trainer. It’s still just an idea right now, though, and one on which I will take no action until I return from my upcoming trip to Pennsylvania.

Mom’s house won’t need much to be ready for winter. I’ll do a little landscaping, change the furnace filter, check for drafts around the windows and doors … that sort of thing. When I return to my own home in December, the outdoor cycling season will be done. I will have plenty of time for projects, the biggest of which is to replace the faucets in my bathrooms and kitchen. All four of those have gone bad in one way or another, and I never really liked them anyway.

Starting The 2023-2024 Trainer Season

My cyclocross season might already be over. It is at least on hold. I won’t be at the Oshkosh race tomorrow or at the Trek Cup races next week. I hope to be a spectator for the World Cup races at Trek headquarters on Sunday the 15th, as those races take place in the middle of the afternoon when I’m free. Gone are my ambitions to return to Pennsylvania this month. I had identified four races in the Philadelphia area that I wanted to do, but then my schedule changed when my coworker retired. Now I’m targeting a return to Pennsylvania for Thanksgiving, but the cyclocross season will be done by then.

Instead of letting the cyclocross bike sit idle for at least the next two weeks, today I hooked it up to my smart trainer. There might be a lot of rain next week, and temperatures are dropping. (Was yesterday the last 70° day and the last 60° day of 2023?) Having an indoor training option seems like a good idea, though outdoor rides will be the priority. Only outdoor rides count toward my mileage goals; I treat indoor rides differently. I expect to restart my Zwift membership when I return from Pennsylvania at the beginning of December. In the meantime, I want to experiment with my Garmin Edge 830’s ability to control my smart trainer. And I want to go after the indoor cycling badges offered by Garmin Connect:

Indoor 10-Mile Ride (1 point)

Indoor 20-Mile Ride (1 point)

Indoor 50K Ride (2 points)

Indoor 50-Mile Ride (4 points)

Indoor 4-Hour Ride (8 points, repeatable)

Garmin Connect doesn’t count Zwift rides toward these badges or any others; it counts only data obtained from a Garmin or Tacx device. So, today I finally earned my Indoor 10-Mile Ride badge, though I have done many rides in excess of that distance on Zwift. Today’s ride was very experimental. I wanted to ensure everything was set up properly before I committed to a longer ride. The Edge 830 did vary the trainer’s resistance as I simulated the first 10 miles of the real-world route I completed yesterday. Now I can move on to more ambitious things.

Today’s trainer ride was my first since March 12 and my first use of my heart rate monitor since July 31. I’m still not sure the HRM is working properly. It failed outright on a couple of occasions in July and, frustrated, I stopped using it. But I really want a working HRM for indoor training. I’ll get a new one if the current one proves unreliable.

2023 Field Of Riches Cross

We don’t get many bike races here in Washington County, so today’s WCA cyclocross race in Richfield was a must-do on my 2023 calendar even though I had to race almost immediately after working all night. Richfield Nature Park is just 15 miles from my house and the weather was perfect. Seriously: it was 20° above normal today. I couldn’t say no.

I doubled-up again, as I have done for each of the 3 WCA events I have attended this season. In my first race of the day, Masters 50+ Cat 4/5, I placed 22nd out of 39. In my second race, Open Cat 4, I was 37th out of 43. In each race I got a sub-par start. I got clipped in right away, but I also got bumped and blocked by other riders in the early moments. The course had too many turns for my taste, and the first one came far too soon after the start. The accordion effect is real and I was on the wrong end of it. On the first lap of each race, I found myself almost stopped behind other riders as they negotiated the turns. Meanwhile, the guys who started from the front row built an early and insurmountable lead. I was good on the straightaways and good enough on the climbs. I lost time in the turns, especially in the first race before the morning dew burned away.

Next on the WCA series schedule is Oshkosh, but I’m not in love with Saturday’s forecast. Wind chill around 40° looks awful from the perspective of today’s sunny, 80° brilliance. And it won’t help that I will be coming off an overnight shift on Friday the 6th. Last Friday was my last night off until my new coworker is ready to work alone, and my new coworker hasn’t even been hired yet! Today’s races may prove to be my final races of 2023. I hope not, but things get a lot harder now. If I’m working until 7:30 on a Saturday morning, then there are several venues I simply cannot reach in time for the Masters 50+ Cat 4/5 race at 9 a.m. Even the Open Cat 4 at 10:30 a.m. could be a challenge. The Open Cat 3/4 at 2:25 p.m. remains an option, but when am I going to sleep? As I write this, it’s almost 6 p.m. and I have been awake since yesterday at 10 p.m. Whether I will get any sleep before tonight’s shift begins at 11 p.m. is a troubling question.

As today began, I needed exactly 800 more miles before the end of the year to reach my goal of 90,000 lifetime miles. Getting them won’t be easy. In the final 3 months of 2022, I rode 669 miles, my highest fourth quarter total since 2018, when I rode 838 miles. So, the goal is possible if the weather is good enough. But even if I reach it, my bigger goal of 100,000 lifetime miles before the end of 2025, the year of my 60th birthday, will be tough. That’s back-to-back 5,000-mile years in 2024 and 2025, and I haven’t had back-to-back 5,000-mile years since 2015-2016.

Pothole Protection Procured

I have been very satisfied with the Swagman XC2 trailer hitch rack I purchased in 2019. It was inexpensive, yet it holds two bikes securely and getting the bikes on and off the rack is quick and easy. Recently, though, I noticed damage to one of the grip arms that ratchet down on the top tube to keep the bike from bouncing out of its cradle. I have no idea how the arm got bent out of shape. The picture above shows the damaged arm on the right and its replacement on the left. Notice the difference in the arcs.

This is how the old arm was engaging with the top tube of my cyclocross bike:

The replacement arm arrived today, and this is how it engages with the top tube:

That’s far more secure. I worried that the angle of the old arm could allow the bike to vibrate out from under it. After tax and shipping, the new arm was $25 and I was happy to pay it. I still have the other arm that came with the rack, and it's in perfect condition. But I do sometimes need to transport two bikes. I need to trust that bike rack to work flawlessly at all times.

2023 Sheboygan County Cycling Classic

Autumn returned to Wisconsin today and I returned to Evergreen Park in Sheboygan for a pair of cyclocross races in the Wisconsin Cycling Association series. It was my first visit to Evergreen Park since September 2015, and the course was at least as bumpy today as it was 8 years ago. It’s a hard place to ride fast. Last weekend at Englewood, my average speed was 12.2 mph in the first race and 12.0 mph in the second. Today I could manage only 10.8 mph in the first race and 10.3 mph in the second, and that wasn’t because I had bad fitness.

I placed 12th out of 36 in the Masters 50+ Cat 4/5 race and 19th out of 31 in the Open Cat 4 race, when I was the last man to finish on the lead lap. And that little fact contributed to my 0.5 mph drop in average speed. The rider ahead of me was out of reach, and there was literally no one who could catch me, as everyone behind me had been pulled off the course by the USA Cycling officials. I conserved energy and took no risks, content at that point just to finish.

I felt some discomfort in my right calf near the end of my second race. I blame the long runs across the sandy beach that flanks the quarry lake at Evergreen Park. My 2022 season ended prematurely due to an injury to my left calf, and historically I have had trouble with both. There was no sensation of the muscle tearing today, so hopefully I will be OK for the races in Richfield next Sunday, October 1. I’m definitely out for tomorrow’s Battle of Waterloo, and I’m probably out for next Saturday’s Badger Prairie CX in Verona.

Days Don’t Come Much Nicer!

Can you believe we hit 80° in West Bend this afternoon? That hadn’t happened since September 6, and I despaired of it happening again before next … June? But it did, and it was an occasion to get outside and celebrate. After back-to-back rest days on Monday and Tuesday, I was full of energy and enthusiasm. My spirits were lifted further by the early completion of yard chores I had been putting off and by a call from my dentist with good news: my bridge came back from the lab a week early, so I will get it this Friday instead of next Friday. That will complete my dental work for 2023, and few things make a person feel as good as being done with dental work!

On the bike today, my objective was to accumulate miles and time in the saddle. I traveled the Eisenbahn State Trail to Eden and back, then tacked on a few miles in West Bend to finish with 50 miles in 3 hours, my longest ride this year. And I probably will re-do that route tomorrow when we might hit 80° again. Friday’s ride will be slow and short in advance of Saturday’s cyclocross races in Sheboygan, where I’m registered for both the Masters 50+ Cat 4/5 and the Open Cat 4.

2023-2024 Hugh Jass Schedule

The Hugh Jass Fat Bike Series has announced its 2023-2024 schedule and West Bend again will host one of the races. Here’s the full schedule, but watch for changes at the series website as the season approaches:

November 11

John Muir Trails, Whitewater

December 9

Trek Headquarters, Waterloo

December 30

Kegel Alpha Trails, Franklin

January 20

Regner Park, West Bend

February 24

Blackhawk Ski Club, Middleton

Sepp Kuss Wins The Vuelta!

Congratulations to Sepp Kuss, winner of the general classification at this year’s Vuelta a España! Kuss is the first American to win a Grand Tour since 2013. It’s a well-deserved victory for a rider known mostly as a domestique who uses his climbing prowess in support of others.

2023 Englewood CX

I did something today that I had done only twice before: I doubled-up at a cyclocross event. It happened in Wausau in 2016 and in Illinois in 2017. I had traveled considerable distances, and I was going to get my money’s worth. Today’s venue was in Fall River, just 52 miles from home. That’s not too much of a travel burden. My decision to double-up was motivated only by the desire to compete, not by the desire to squeeze everything I could out of my investment.

My first race today at Englewood CX was Masters 50+ Cat 4/5, and it was the 100th USA Cycling-sanctioned race of my career. If you can find all of my USA Cycling results—that’s road, mountain bike, and cyclocross—then you might be fooled into thinking I began today with 101 career races. But it’s not true. USA Cycling continues to credit me with one race for which I was registered but did not start and with another race in which I had no involvement at all. I’m not sure why USA Cycling didn’t remove me from those results when I called out the errors years ago. Oh, well, it doesn’t matter now. I’ve hit a legitimate milestone. (Thursday’s cyclocross practice was a milestone too. It was the 70th practice I have hosted in West Bend since I started the series in 2012.) My result today was solid but unspectacular: 14th out of 45. I really liked the course, which had lots of hammer-down grassy sections on which I excelled. I wasn’t great on the sandy, twisting descent through the pines, but overall I was very satisfied with my result.

I followed up later this morning with the Open Cat 4 race. Having a 1-hour break after the Masters 50+ Cat 4/5 race is what makes the Open Cat 4 race possible for me this season. I had time to refuel, to ensure I was properly hydrated, and to swap out some sweaty clothes for dry ones. So, I was comfortable when the race started … maybe too comfortable. I didn’t have the same snap in my legs that I had in the first race, and I don’t think that was fatigue as much as it was a shoddy warmup between races. Garmin says my average moving speed in the second race was 12.0 mph, down from 12.2 mph in the first race. That’s not a big drop, but I felt it. And in a race with a lot of much younger guys, that drop in speed translated to a drop in the standings. I placed 28th out of 40.

Look for me on Saturday, September 23, in Sheboygan. I won’t be in Franklin tomorrow for the next event in the WCA cyclocross series. I have to work from 11 p.m. tonight until 7:30 a.m. tomorrow. That’s a typical Saturday night for me, so most Sunday races are out.

Work took an unwelcome turn this week when my 3rd Shift coworker announced his retirement, effective September 29. We work together Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays, then he works alone on Thursdays and Fridays, and I work alone on Saturdays and Sundays. Hopefully his position can be filled right away, but no matter how quickly a replacement is found, I can expect to work additional hours until the new hire is sufficiently trained. That could affect my Saturday racing plans if my Friday nights are no longer free. For example, I may have to target the 2:25 p.m. Open Cat 3/4 race instead of the morning races. I would expect to take a serious beating in that race, but at least it would be an opportunity to compete.

My USA Cycling Downgrade

Several factors converged today and forced me to make a choice that I privately considered for a long time. That choice was to downgrade my USA Cycling cyclocross category from 3 to 4. I remember how satisfying it was to upgrade to Cat 3 at the end of 2014—I had made several podiums and accumulated the necessary points—and it all made sense at the time. So, downgrading required me to swallow some pride. But if I’m being honest, downgrading was probably necessary to keep me racing.

After upgrading to Cat 3, I never had an impressive result. I really was just pack fodder, getting clobbered by much better racers. I want to be competitive, but in Cat 3 I can’t be. It gets worse with age: every season I’m another year older than most of the guys. I’m 58 now; the youngest racers in my Masters division are only 49. And I’m probably still feeling the effects of 2 years lost to the COVID-19 pandemic, as I didn’t race at all in 2020 or 2021. I raced only once last year.

This season, then, is going to be a reset. I hope so, anyway. Pre-registration for Saturday’s race ends tonight at midnight and my USA Cycling license was set to expire tomorrow. I used the renewal process as my opportunity to downgrade. For Saturday, I am registered in the Masters 50+ Cat 4/5 race and the Open Cat 4/5 race. There’s a chance I will enter the Open Cat 3/4 race later in the afternoon, but there’s also a chance of thunderstorms.

If I had remained a Cat 3, then my only race on Saturday would have been Masters 50+ Cat 1/2/3, the last race of the day … and only if the thunderstorms stayed away. Looking at the forecast, I didn’t want to commit to a race with such uncertain conditions. It’s funny, but weather is one of the factors that prompted me to downgrade. When I upgraded before the 2015 season, a big part of my motivation was to get out of the morning timeslot and into the warmer afternoon. These days, the WCA schedule gives me more opportunities as a Cat 4. I still can race in the afternoon if the morning is too cold, or I can race in the morning to avoid afternoon rain.

Finally, there’s the camaraderie. Some of the guys I really enjoy racing against have downgraded from Cat 3 to Cat 4 in the last few years. We’re not getting any younger, and downgrading is absolutely a concession to that fact. Nobody gets to do this forever, but we’re not done yet.

Wow, Was I Wrong!

When I said in my last blog post that there would be “a lot of bike riding in my immediate future,” I wasn’t counting on the weather turning sour. We had a couple of summer-like days, then somebody turned off the heat and threw in a little rain. We should be hitting 75° in the afternoon, but we’re not. Tomorrow we’ll be lucky to hit 60° and it’s going to rain all day.

I also didn’t factor in my supplemental cyclocross practice on Tuesday at Riverside Park. It was good to work on skills, but it did nothing for my fitness. And I failed to account for waning daylight. We’ve been losing 3 minutes per day and it’s really noticeable now. Tomorrow begins the last week of 2023 in which sunset will be after 7 o’clock.

I did a 31-mile road ride today to finish the week with exactly 100 miles. That’s my lowest total since June 19-25. I need more long, fat-burning, Zone 2 rides. I’m stuck on 199 pounds, 5 pounds heavier than I was on this date last year. It’s probably time for me to flip my schedule again. I prefer to sleep immediately after my workday ends at 7:30 a.m., then ride late in the afternoon. But afternoons aren’t long enough anymore and I can’t afford to start riding at 5 p.m.

The Royal Oaks cyclocross practice series concludes this week. That will turn my Thursdays back into opportunities for long rides. And because Thursdays and Fridays are my “weekend,” there’s probably no better way to spend them. I spent only 6 hours, 41 minutes on the bike this week. I will lose fitness rapidly if I can’t get back to my usual training load of 10-14 hours.

Summer 2023, Continued …

It’s September 1 and the grocery stores are already full of Halloween candy and pumpkin spice everything. It’s sickening, and I refuse to be rushed into a season for which I have little affection. Autumn doesn’t start until September 23 and I want to squeeze all I can out of the last 3 weeks of summer. The 10-day forecast seems to promise summertime conditions, so there’s a lot of bike riding in my immediate future. I kicked off September with a 32-mile Eisenbahn State Trail ride, cruising leisurely to Campbellsport and then making a little more effort on the return to West Bend to beat the setting sun. The graph above shows the difference in speed before and after the turnaround.

Here’s a weird thought: August was my first full month at home since March. I went to Pennsylvania to celebrate my mother’s 90th birthday in April, then I went back to Pennsylvania in May after Mom broke her hip and I stayed until late July. So, August was a month of catching up on things around my house, in the yard, and on the bike. I got back on the familiar roads of Washington County, rode with friends I hadn’t seen in a while, and started up another season of cyclocross practices. August was productive. I racked up 711 miles to finish the month with 3,021 miles, year-to-date. That’s slightly ahead of last year’s pace. And I lost 4 pounds … not the 7 pounds I wanted to lose, but not bad.

Giving up Coca-Cola was one of my plans to lose weight in August. My goal was total abstinence but I gave in on 2 occasions. The first was a few weeks ago when I had a rare case of indigestion that nothing else would cure. The second was yesterday before cyclocross practice, when I was coming straight from a dental appointment and my energy was low. So, in September I again will try to avoid Coke completely. Losing a few more pounds would be good for any number of reasons, but especially for my racing ambitions.

The WCA cyclocross season begins next Saturday, September 9. Don’t look for me in Manitowoc; I will be working overnight on Friday the 8th to cover for a coworker who’s having surgery. That will be the second of 7 consecutive nights on the job for me. Working all night, then going to a bike race, then working all night again is not a winning combination. I plan to start my racing season on Saturday, September 16, at Englewood CX in Fall River.

Will This Put A Dent In My Season?

Today’s blog post is not really about cycling, but it is about something important to my health that could negatively affect my plans for the rest of 2023. The next 5 weeks will be filled with intervals of discomfort that have nothing to do with the bike.

Ever since I have had teeth, I have had bad teeth. I had a natural underbite, which is not ideal for dental health or for facial attractiveness. At the age of 11, I got braces. My orthodontist believed he could correct the problems with my bite if only he could move my teeth far enough. When my family relocated, my new orthodontist immediately realized that my problems could be corrected only with oral surgery. He spent the next 2 years moving everything back to where it had been originally. Finally, in August 1983, at the age of 18, I had oral surgery. Soon thereafter, the braces came off. That’s right: I had braces for 8 years. As you can imagine, that wasn’t good for my social life, and it wasn’t good for my teeth overall. Having braces presented cleaning challenges that led to cavities, and moving the teeth so far over such a long time led to blunted roots. On an X-ray, many of my teeth look like baby teeth, and those short roots make it easier for my teeth to break. Now, any cavity is potentially a death sentence for the tooth in question, as it is not always possible to drill into my teeth without breaking them. Nice, huh?

Last Friday morning, I began a very aggressive course of procedures that will fix most of my dental problems by the end of September. My dentist estimates I need about $18,500 worth of treatments to replace the missing teeth and to repair the damaged ones. I signed up for the first $5,200 worth of treatments. The big, as-yet-unaccepted expense is for 2 implants with a bridge between them on the upper left side. A few years ago, I got a partial denture to fill that gap. I haven’t been wearing it … not because it’s uncomfortable, but because it alters my speech in a way I cannot tolerate. The dentist tells me that, with practice, I should be able to speak normally while wearing the denture, so I’m going to try again to get used to it. The partial denture was intended to be temporary. I didn’t realize that when it was made for me. A permanent one would fit better and take up less space, making it easier for me to speak normally. So, I might replace the temporary denture at a considerable costs savings vis-à-vis the implants, but only if I can train myself to speak normally.

The denture versus implants question will not be resolved this year, and insurance is partly to blame. I will exhaust my 2023 dental benefits on the other procedures, so any additional procedures will wait until 2024 when I have a new pool of insurance money. (Almost all of these expenses are out-of-pocket, but I will take any little bit of assistance the insurance company throws my way.) Whatever happens, my mouth will be in much better shape by the end of September. I am scheduled to see the dentist on 4 occasions between August 31 and September 29. I would have liked to complete this work earlier in the year, but I didn’t count on being in Pennsylvania for so long. Now there’s a chance that it will disrupt my training and racing. I should be OK, though, because my biggest targets this season are 4 cyclocross races near Philadelphia in mid-October. Tentatively, I plan to go back to Mom’s on October 13 for a 2- or 3-week stay. That will put a smile on Mom’s face, and I might finally have one on mine.

Season 10 Begins At Royal Oaks

Nine racers came to Royal Oaks Park in West Bend today for the opening of Season 10 of our cyclocross practice series. Today’s course was a little more run-heavy than usual. We will experiment with other configurations as the season progresses.

Back On The BMC

Today I got my BMC back from the shop. This is a big deal. Prior to today, my last ride on the BMC was on July 26, when I was still visiting Pennsylvania. Every ride since then had been on my Framed gravel bike, which is not a great road bike. The Framed is too heavy. It climbs hills like it’s towing something. Yes, I put in plenty of work on the Eisenbahn State Trail during the last three weeks, and the Framed is well-suited for that, but I am first and foremost a roadie. Hopping aboard the BMC today for 28 miles on roads I had not seen since May was a joy. The new rear shifter worked perfectly.

First 200-Mile Week Of 2023

This was my first full week at home since May 8-14, so perhaps it’s not surprising that it was my first 200-mile week of 2023. I finished the week with 212 miles and almost 13.5 hours of saddle time. Friday’s 46-mile trip on the Eisenbahn State Trail to Eden and back was my longest ride this year. I did the 32-mile Eisenbahn trip to Campbellsport and back on Monday, Wednesday, and again today, with remarkably consistent numbers. Why so much time on the Eisenbahn? My road bike is still in the shop. But today would have been a good day for the Eisenbahn even if the road bike had been available. Because of its mostly north-south orientation, the trail allowed me to avoid the worst of a strong and steady breeze from the east. West Bend’s yearly average wind speed of 11.1 mph is almost double the average where my mother lives (5.8 mph). It’s noticeable. I’m glad to be home again, but I sure do miss the warmer temperatures and lower wind speeds of suburban Philadelphia.

Presenting The Twilight Zone-2 Ride

Two weeks from today, don’t miss the Twilight Zone-2 Ride! This will be an easy 28.5-mile, Zone 2 ride (14-15 mph average) on the Eisenbahn State Trail from the downtown West Bend train depot to Campbellsport and back, with a mid-ride snack stop at Kohn’s Filling Station. This ride will finish after sunset, so headlights are required. If you’re a Facebook user, then please click here to visit the event page and indicate whether you plan to participate.

Keeping Up … And Slimming Down?

I call 'em "Cheaps Ahoy!" and I love 'em, but damn ...

After a weak June, I rebounded with a solid July: 24 rides for a total of 742 miles. That effort got me to August 1 with 2,310 outdoor miles, year-to-date, exactly the same total with which I began August 2022. I finished last year with 4,190 miles, my lowest total since 2013, so I’m not celebrating my current status. My goal for 2023 is not to match 2022, but to reach 90,000 lifetime miles. I need to finish this season with a total of 4,422 to get there. Obviously I am not on that pace, but I’m not far off.

Training will change this month. My endurance rides will get longer. Cyclocross practices will force me to do intervals. I don’t know if I will find time for mountain biking—Saturdays are my only good options—but in general I will be doing a better mix of workouts on the bike. I will be getting back into home gym workouts too, not just for strength, but also for flexibility and mobility. Since returning from Pennsylvania last Friday, I have been using my foam roller again, and the results have been surprisingly painful. I have a lot of work to do in all phases of my fitness plan. Luckily, my main cyclocross goals are in October. If I’m a good boy, then I can find some kind of good form by then.

Body weight may be the bigger challenge. I started August 2022 at 198 pounds and dropped to 196 by September 1. Today I am 203 pounds. That’s only a 1-pound drop since May 1, the date of my previous weigh-in. Being at Mom’s house for 10 weeks provided many opportunities for treats I would not have had at home, and I didn’t try very hard to resist them. I’m home now, though, completely in charge of what I eat and drink. August will be a month without Coca-Cola or cookies, and the elimination of those empty calories should have a measurable effect. Can I lose 7 pounds in August to finish the month at the same weight I recorded on September 1, 2022? I think so. That’s a good goal.

Presenting The 2023 Royal Oaks CX Practice Series

See You Soon, Wisconsin

I've been wearing out this route for the last 10 weeks!

Today was the last full day in Pennsylvania on my current visit. I expect to return in October. But tomorrow I at least will begin the drive back to Wisconsin, and I probably will complete the drive in one shot to avoid paying for a hotel. I won’t be on the bike tomorrow and I’m making no promises about Friday. I will be unpacking, doing laundry, shopping for groceries, and addressing whatever jobs accumulated around the house during my 10-week absence.

I did one last ride here this afternoon. It was a lot like its predecessors. I didn’t do any special rides during this visit, but I put in my work. My fitness is better and I think I’m a few pounds lighter than I was in mid-May. My bathroom scale will tell the true story. And then we’ll see how well I perform on the familiar roads around West Bend.

Aside from assessing my own fitness, when I get home I will need to decide, quickly, whether there will be a Royal Oaks cyclocross practice series in August and September, whether there will be a Team Pedal Moraine century sometime this year, and whether I’m going to buy a treadmill for my home gym. I’ve been missing my home gym. During my time in PA, I have done no strength training. That’s not good, so I look forward to getting back into the routine.

Routines figure heavily in whatever claim I have to being a successful person. For the last 10 weeks, I stuck to my routines as much as I could. But I’m anxious to wake up in my own bed on Saturday. I’m proud of all the things I did for Mom, and now it’s time to get back to living by myself and for myself.

Shifting Into MacGyver Mode

Being 900 miles from home and having only one bike with me, encountering a mechanical issue was almost the worst thing that could have happened. It’s not as bad as a crash with injuries—something with which I have experience—but it’s still a pretty serious threat to my cycling ambitions. My rear shifter lever had been getting sticky on recent rides, sometimes refusing to return to its original position. On Monday’s ride, the spring responsible for that return failed altogether.

The lever still works, but it dangles comically from its remaining point of connection. That point of connection, though, is what still allows me to shift gears. So, the bike isn’t completely disabled. The local shop was closed yesterday and today, otherwise I may have dropped in to see whether the shifter could be repaired quickly. I plan to begin my return trip next Thursday, so there’s no time for ordering parts and leaving the bike in the shop for several days.

Enter the humble rubber band. This hack is as cheap and simple and they come, and it works!

I got through a 30-mile ride this evening with no problems at all. I could shift up and down the cassette with ease. I will count on this setup to get me through my remaining rides in Pennsylvania.

Some Notes For July 2023

On Friday the UCI announced that it will ban transgender racers from elite women’s competition if they transitioned from male to female after puberty. The UCI cited scientific evidence that the athletic benefits derived from years of elevated testosterone levels are not counterbalanced by subsequently lowering testosterone in adulthood. And this shouldn’t really surprise anyone. For decades, anti-doping agencies have conducted out-of-competition tests for a variety of performance enhancers, including testosterone, because many of them have effects that last long after the substances themselves disappear or return to normal levels. USA Cycling will follow the UCI’s lead … at least, at the elite level.

We could see legal challenges to the ban. At one extreme, some transgender advocates say that the only necessary proof of womanhood is that a person believe she is a woman. At another extreme, some opponents argue that transgender women will always be men, no matter what they do to alter their bodies. In the United States, the UCI’s distinction between pre-puberty and post-puberty transition may constitute an impossible path for athletes to navigate, as many state legislatures and the federal government have considered or will consider bans on gender transition healthcare for minors. Someday soon, there simply may be no pre-puberty transition.

Chicago’s Austin Killips has been at the center of the debate about transgender cyclists. Killips won the UCI’s Tour of the Gila stage race in May and took the bronze medal at the USA Cycling Cyclocross National Championships back in December. Another transgender athlete, Jenna Lingwood, placed fifth in the elite women’s field at CX nationals after winning the Masters Women 40-44 age group championship. I haven’t met Lingwood, but I have met Killips. We worked together very well for the last 50 kilometers of the Little Apple 100 gravel race near Chicago in 2019, and I couldn’t have asked for a better partner. So, let’s not argue about whether transgender athletes should have some place in competition. They should. And let’s not argue about whether they should be treated respectfully and as members of the gender to which they feel they belong. They should. This isn’t make-believe for them. This isn’t dress-up. This isn’t even about sexuality; it’s about identity. Choosing to transition is damned hard, and the only reason to do it is because all of the alternatives are much worse. But at the same time, let’s not ignore biology. Killips and Lingwood had no noteworthy results when they raced in men’s categories pre-transition. It’s difficult not to argue that their success in elite women’s races is largely a result of the enduring effects of male puberty.

In Other News …

On Wednesday’s ride I surpassed 1,000 miles of cycling since I returned to Pennsylvania in mid-May. It’s a big enough number to impress my mother and other people who don’t ride, but I know it’s less than I would have ridden if I had spent all of that time in Wisconsin. I can’t be too critical of myself, though, because I have devoted a lot of time and energy to Mom and to her home, including many hours that might otherwise have been spent on the bike.

Rain turned today into a rest day and robbed me of a 200-mile week. I finished the week with 11 hours of saddle time and a total of 180 miles, my biggest numbers so far this year.

I’m down to my last two weeks here in Pennsylvania. I expect to be back in West Bend on July 28 or 29. I have tentative plans to return to PA for another two-week visit in October that, hopefully, will include a little cyclocross racing.

Halftime 2023

Halfway through 2023, I am ahead of last year’s pace for both miles and ride frequency. I have ridden 1,568 outdoor miles this year, up slightly from last year’s first-half total of 1,455. And I have ridden on 59 occasions in 2023, up from 48 by this date in 2022.

So, why I am dissatisfied with my progress? There are two reasons. First, I haven’t done any really special rides this year: no races, no centuries … not even a metric century. My longest ride to date is just 40 miles! Second, I had a really unproductive June. This month’s 483-mile effort compares very unfavorably to recent years and is my lowest June total since 2006.

I have done 140 miles of walking for fitness. That’s slightly more than halfway to my goal of 260 miles this year.

I plan to remain in Pennsylvania until the end of July, and I will need a big month on the bike to get my cycling season back on the right track. May was uncommonly dry here, but June was uncommonly wet. I lost a lot of days to bad weather this month. When I came here, I couldn’t have imagined that West Bend would literally have better summer weather! July will begin tomorrow under warm sunshine in the Philadelphia area, but rain is expected to return on Sunday and then to continue on-and-off for much of the following week. That’s not good for me. I need to string together some of those 6-ride, 200-mile weeks that you have come to expect from me.

I came to Pennsylvania with a list of things to accomplish for my mother. Most of those things are done now. And Mom is 6 weeks farther along in her recovery from surgery on her fractured hip, so she can take care of many things she couldn’t handle before. In the 4 weeks that remain on this visit, I need to look out for myself a little more and crank up the saddle time.