September’s Soggy Sayonara

Statistically unimpressive, but better than nothing!

I followed last Saturday’s cyclocross race with a Sunday road ride here in the Philadelphia suburbs, then lost the next five days to the shockingly widespread effects of Hurricane Helene. Things aren’t as bad here as they are in Georgia and the Carolinas, but we have had at least some rain every day since Monday. I found just enough time for a walk on each day that I couldn’t ride, so I haven’t been completely idle. I had to complete some of those walks at night on days that offered no breaks while the sun was allegedly up. There is some chance of rain tomorrow, Monday, and on Tuesday as October begins. I didn’t expect Wisconsin would have better weather during this time of year, but I didn’t predict Helene. And, as you should expect, I have been pretty miserable this week.

Next weekend looks beautiful, so I still hope to do another cyclocross race here. A long layoff is poor preparation for a race. Those five lost days were my longest layoff since April 1-6. I forced myself to ride today in conditions that were less than ideal. There was a constant mist, but at least there was no rain during my ride. The roads were wet and fallen leaves made for many sketchy corners. I rode for almost 1.5 hours and saw exactly zero other cyclists. It wasn’t much of a ride, but it was far better than another rest day. I need to test myself a little more in the days to come, then decide by Thursday’s pre-registration deadline whether I’m racing on Saturday.

2024 Carpenter Cross

Today, for the first time ever, I did a cyclocross race in Pennsylvania. I lined up for the Masters 40+ Cat 4/5 race at Carpenter Cross in Horsham, just 7 miles from my mother’s house in the suburbs north of Philadelphia. The temperature was about 80° and the course was dusty from a recent absence of rain in this part of the world. I really liked the course. It didn’t have a run-up, but it had a challenging mix of barriers, climbs, descents, off-camber sections, and sand. I was able to ride the sand pit when some of my rivals were forced to run, and that was good for a couple of positions. We did a short prologue lap to start the race, then three full laps. I had a disappointing start but then settled in. My final lap was my fastest full lap, and that ain’t bad. The race combined the Masters, Juniors, and singlespeed fields, but scored them separately. I had a little fun with an under-19 racer who, technically, wasn’t my competition: I cut him off at the last tight corner and then outsprinted him to the line. He will learn not to leave the door open! As for the guys who were my competition in Masters 40+ Cat 4/5, I placed 13th out of 19, 4:57 behind the winner. That translated to about half a lap on this long course. So, I wasn’t close to the front of the race. That’s OK. I got a good workout, sharpened my bike handling skills a bit, and showed my mother and my oldest kid what I do for fun.

Surprise: A 200-Mile Week!

Short and to the point.

I lost track of my miles this week. Yes, me! With the final Royal Oaks cyclocross practice of 2024 on Wednesday, the season opener of the WCA cyclocross series on Saturday, and the long drive to Pennsylvania coming up tomorrow, today I was surprised to awaken to the realization that I was just a few miles short of my first 200-mile week this year. Not too long ago, I banged out 200-mile weeks with some regularity. But I had not done one since last year, July 31-August 6. So, today I insisted on hitting that target. I finished my week with a total of 201.85 miles and a season-high ride time of 13:40:47.

I am not likely to approach those numbers again this season. I will be off the bike tomorrow, then back on the road bike for 1.5-2 hours on Tuesday. The midweek forecast for eastern Pennsylvania is rainy. I hope not to be shut out. There’s a cyclocross race in my plans for next Saturday. I will want at least more one good ride after Tuesday … and I don’t want the race itself to be a mudder.

2024 Greene Acres CX Classic

The 2024 Wisconsin Cycling Association cyclocross series opened today at a new venue, Nathanael Greene Park in St. Francis. The course featured open grassy straightaways, a short sand pit, some off-camber descents, singletrack through the woods on the park’s west side, and more elevation change than you would expect. It was a course that suited me pretty well. My results probably are an accurate reflection of my fitness and ability at this moment, but in both of my races this morning I was delayed more than once by riders who crashed or stalled in front of me.

I turned 59 in June, which is 60 in cyclocross years. That’s because USA Cycling calculates “racing age” as the age you will be on December 31 in the year in which the world championships take place in your chosen discipline. Got it? The world championships for the 2024-2025 season will be held in France, January 31 through February 2. I will turn 60 in 2025, so my racing age for this season is 60. That puts me in a new division, and today I did OK in the Masters Cat 4/5 60+ race. I placed 5th out of 19.

In the open Cat 4 race—not age-restricted—I placed 28th out of 44. If you could break that race down by age, then I would have been 3rd of 10 in the 60+ group. So, both of today’s results give me some hope that this season I could find myself on a Masters Cat 4/5 60+ podium or two.

When I wasn’t racing, I was shaking a lot of hands. It was good to reconnect with so many friends in the cycling community. It also was good to see the results of the guys from the Royal Oaks practice series and to hear from them the ways practice converted to success today. Finally, it was super gratifying to receive several compliments from people who know me as the current President of the Wisconsin Cycling Association. We’ve done some really good things this year to move the organization forward, and there’s more to come before my term runs out in December.

But now it’s time for me to run back to Pennsylvania. If all goes as planned, then my next race reports will come from there. I should be back in Wisconsin in time for Field of Riches CX, right here in Washington County, on October 12.

Twenty Seasons Of 3,000 Miles

Trust me: today’s ride was nothing special. After a 50-mile effort on Thursday, today I wanted an easy spin in advance of tomorrow’s cyclocross races. Today’s ride was noteworthy only because it took me over the 3,000-mile threshold for the 20th consecutive season.

For me, this is Season 21. The only time I have failed to exceed 3,000 miles was in Season 1. That was 2004, when I rode only 1,454 miles. Cycling then was still very much an activity that I saw as an accessory to my other athletic interests. Mileage goals didn’t really start until 2005.

I will try to surpass 4,000 miles before this season ends. The last time I failed to reach 4,000 was way back in 2008 when a crash resulted in a broken collarbone and some unexpected time off the bike. In 2023, I rode 1,151 miles between September 14 and December 31. A repeat of that performance would get me past 4,000 miles for the 16th straight year.

The Brutal Math Of Garmin’s Step Challenges

Last Saturday’s 7.2-mile walk on the Ice Age Trail took 15,713 steps over 2.5 hours.

As I continue to use Garmin Connect for fitness motivation, I am trying to earn as many badges and points as I can within the activities I am willing to do. Garmin has challenges for all sorts of things, including swimming, scuba diving, and a few other sports in which I have zero interest. Most of my badges and points are coming from cycling and walking. Some of the walking challenges are quite easy. For example, I can earn the September Weekend Walking badge (1 point) by completing a single 3-mile walk on September 27, 28, or 29. The challenges based on steps, not on miles, are much harder.

When I’m walking for fitness, my stride is about 32 inches. That makes each mile an average effort of 1,980 steps. My average speed is about 3.5 mph. So, here’s the effort required to hit Garmin’s biggest one-day step challenges:

Can you imagine devoting 7:13 to walking in a single day? Even 3:37 would be an ordeal unless it were in some impossibly beautiful setting. I hiked the Bright Angel Trail at the Grand Canyon in 1983 and I would love to know how long it took to cover those 7.8 miles with a heavy pack on my back, but that was long before the days of GPS-enabled fitness trackers. I’m sure I didn’t average 3.5 mph or take such long strides … not with 4,460 feet of elevation change to accommodate. I don’t know if I can commit to any of those challenges if I have to complete them on the treadmill or the Eisenbahn State Trail or even the Ice Age Trail.

Getting 10,000 steps per day is a commonly recommended goal for general health and fitness, but here again the math is daunting. At 1,980 steps per mile, I would need to walk nearly 5.1 miles to get 10,000 steps, and at 3.5 mph, that’s almost 1.5 hours. Garmin’s “30-Day Goal Getter” (4 points) and “60-Day Goal Getter” (8 points, repeatable) look attractive because of their high point values, but just try to find 1.5 hours every day.

The people who are successful with these 10,000-step challenges probably are breaking them into smaller chunks. A 45-minute morning walk before work plus a 45-minute evening walk after dinner gets you to 1.5 hours without too much trouble. But there’s no way to break up the 25,000- to 50,000-step challenges that diminishes the effort. Credit to you if you have completed one of these. I’m not sure I ever will.

Royal Oaks CX Practice: September 4, 2024

Summer 2024 In Its Death Throes

“Meteorological fall” began yesterday and will continue until November 30. And it’s “meteorological fall” in quotation marks because it’s not actual fall, which will begin on September 22 and continue until December 21. I’m trying to convince myself that summer isn’t over yet, but I’m failing. Yesterday and today were noticeably cooler than average for this time of year. A warmup on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday will get us back to where we should be … briefly. By Saturday we could see overnight lows in the 30s and an afternoon high of only 50-something. If you have a morning start time at Englewood, site of the first event of Wisconsin’s 2024 cyclocross season, then you might be racing with 40° wind chill. Yes, really: on September 7, a summer day. And it’s summer not in quotation marks because it’s actual summer, and I’m not sure there’s anything Wisconsin hates more.

I will not be at Englewood next Saturday or Sunday, though I enjoyed racing there last year. This year’s races are not part of the Wisconsin Cycling Association series; Englewood is its own independent event. As an independent event, Englewood’s registration fees are much higher than those of a WCA race. That’s a big turnoff for me. Other people must think so too: the pre-registration numbers don’t look good. A lot could happen between now and late Thursday night when the pre-reg window closes, but I think many amateurs are balking at $50 per race.

My Saturday is probably going to include a long hike on the Ice Age Trail. I don’t want to break out the thermal cycling clothes this early! I’m not chasing every last mile anymore. I have abandoned the goal of 100,000 lifetime miles before the end of 2025. To get there I would need about 6,000 miles next season. I have hit 6,000 only once in 20 seasons and I won’t get close to it this year. There’s no good reason to expect a return to that kind of volume, and my objectives are changing.

Two weeks from today I will be back in Pennsylvania. I expect to stay there until October 11. I also expect that the weather will be consistently warmer there. So, I’m hoping for more cycling miles than I would get here, plus a couple of cyclocross races, plus a significant amount of walking/hiking. Pennsylvania trips never have truly worked out as training camps for me, but I will keep trying. I want to return to Wisconsin with improved fitness and a desire to challenge for WCA cyclocross podiums in my age group.

I get a lot of fitness from riding a lot of miles, but I always seem to hit my head on the same ceiling. That’s not genetics; I am coming nowhere near my potential. Greater attention to detail in my cycling workouts would yield greater results, but I have struggled for years to commit. It’s not fun. There’s a reason so many people burn out after turning to that kind of training. I recognize that I need something new and I want it to be a more well-rounded approach to fitness, not a cycling-only plan. Currently, I am making a conscious effort to increase my walking mileage. When my Pennsylvania trip is over I will begin a new strength training program in the home gym. Cyclocross is the focus at the moment but cyclocross will last only as long as I can tolerate the cold. When that season ends—and especially if that season ends early—I will need some new objectives that have nothing to do with the bike.

30,000 Miles On My BMC

On today’s ride I surpassed 30,000 miles with my 2013 BMC Granfondo GF02, which I purchased as “new, old stock” in March 2014. What a great bike it has been! I'm at 92,595 career miles, so the BMC has accounted for almost one third of my grand total. Oh, and I’ve worn out another set of tires, too.

A Litte Strange, I Freely Admit

I do a lot of rides like the one I did today. I don't always ride like this, of course, but there's usually one or two of these per week. And I don't know anyone else who rides this way. I think most people who ride in town are doing much shorter routes. Today's ride was 32 miles long, but it twisted and turned so many times that I was never more than 4.2 miles from home. A route like this isn't great for the average speed, but accelerating away from stop signs and after every corner is pretty good training for the upcoming cyclocross season!

Riding The New Regner Trails

I went to Regner Park this afternoon to ride the mountain bike trails I helped to open. It was my first time riding them. Somewhat embarrassingly, it was my first time riding any mountain bike trails since July 1, 2022! The return to mountain biking that I envisioned when I bought my Giant Anthem at the end of November 2021 simply has not materialized. And if it ever does, then it probably won’t be because the Regner Park trails are so cool. They aren’t. They were designed to be beginner-friendly, so they have few noteworthy features. But they are serviceable. They get the job done. Close to home and free to ride, the Regner trails give me a new option for a change-of-pace workout when I get bored with my routine.

Twilight Zone-2 Ride III

Meet at the downtown West Bend train depot for a twilight ride on the Eisenbahn State Trail to Campbellsport and back, with a mid-ride snack stop at Kohn’s Filling Station. That's 28.5 miles and we'll average about 15 mph. The 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.

Presenting The 2024 Royal Oaks CX Practice Series

Cyclocross practices at Royal Oaks Park in West Bend will begin in just 4 weeks! That’s right: we’re moving to Wednesdays. Why? Well, Mondays don’t make sense because a lot of people use them to rest after a big block of training or racing over the weekend. Tuesdays are dominated by a group mountain bike ride at Glacial Blue Hills. Thursdays are now set aside for a group road ride. Some of those Tuesday mountain bikers and Thursday roadies are cyclocross racers. I want to give them an opportunity to practice without making them miss out on the other disciplines that they enjoy. Fridays are too close to the weekend. If you were to break your body or your bike on Friday evening, then you might not have time to get things fixed before your Saturday race. Wednesday feels like a good fit. Attendance will tell me if I’m right. See you on August 14 for the start of our 11th season!

Next Sunday: Bikes & Brews In Kewaskum

 

After Nuun

In January 2019, Trek had such an incredible deal on Nuun hydration tablets that I still wonder about it. I wasn’t in the habit of exploring Trek’s website for sports nutrition. I’ve been a Nuun fan for more than 10 years, but usually I bought it from Nashbar, Performance Bike, or at a local shop. However, Trek’s deal was too good to pass up. I hope nobody got fired for getting the price wrong, if indeed it was wrong, but I should have kept pressing the Buy button until there was nothing left. Showing some restraint, I purchased 8 boxes for $6.99 apiece. Each box contained 8 tubes. Each tube contained 10 tablets. From other retailers, a single tube of Nuun was selling for about $6.99, so to get 8 tubes for that price was suspiciously good. That’s a total of 640 tablets for $58.72 after tax!

At the time, I told a friend I had just purchased 3 seasons’ worth of Nuun. That estimate was a bit off, as sometimes I ride with only water. Today, more than 5 years later, I am down to my last tube. And Nuun tablets are great! Unlike powders, there’s nothing to measure and nothing to spill. I’m still a fan. There’s still a place for Nuun when I am taking my bike somewhere to ride or to race. But to buy 640 Nuun tablets today, I would have to pay more than $500! For everyday rides that leave from my driveway, I’m going back to homemade sports drink. Tap water, granulated sugar, salt, and flavoring agents like lemon juice are cheap. It will be a long time before I go through $500 worth of those.

I use water bottles with a capacity of 750 ml. I have a plastic pitcher with enough capacity to make five 750 ml servings. So, my recipe is this simple:

Add 1 cup of granulated white sugar (775 calories).

Add dash of ordinary table salt (sodium chloride).

Add dash of salt substitute (potassium chloride).

Add ½ cup of lemon juice (25 calories).

Fill with water (approximately 1 gallon).

Stir ... and re-stir before the next serving if necessary.

Chill in the refrigerator.

That’s a sufficient supply of electrolytes and about 160 calories per serving, almost as many as the equivalent amount of classic Gatorade and far more than the 15 calories I was getting from Nuun. Sometimes I will need the extra energy source and sometimes I won’t. In any case, I should be doing a better job of staying hydrated. Nuun is very thinly flavored and I have finished many rides with a nearly full bottle. I think the extra sweetness of my own mix will encourage me to drink more.

Looking For Lemmiwinks

I got back on the bike today for the first time since Wednesday evening and for only the second time this month. That’s not typical for July and no, the weather doesn’t get all the blame this time. I lost Thursday and Friday to a medical procedure that was long overdue. I turned 59 in June and should have had my first colonoscopy a decade ago. I finally got the job done yesterday. And it went well. It’s true what they say: the preparation is worse than the procedure itself. I spent most of Thursday in bed or in the bathroom, and by the time I had a meal on Friday afternoon I had gone almost 48 hours without eating. In that span I lost 6 pounds! A lot of that was just water, for sure, but not all of it. It takes more than a few calories to keep me going even when I’m not doing anything athletic, so I burned off a little fat.

As I recover from the dehydration that accompanied the colonoscopy, I will gain back some of that 6-pound weight loss. That’s OK; I’m more interested in the How and Why of the weight I won’t gain back. Should I experiment with intermittent fasting, which has shown a lot of promise as a weight loss tool? One day per week without food wouldn’t be that unpleasant—I didn’t feel uncomfortably hungry at any time during my colonoscopy prep—and it could coincide with a rest day in my training plan. I did have noticeably less energy on Thursday and Friday, which says something about the extent to which I rely on carbohydrates for fuel. I’m sure part of the reason my weight hasn’t really come down this year is the absence of longer, slower rides on which fat is burned preferentially.

Whatever adjustments I may make to my diet and training, I have a good digital scale that I should be using for more than just overall weight. I bought the scale in May 2014 to replace an inaccurate analog scale. It’s pretty sophisticated but I have asked it to perform only its most basic function. Most of the research I’ve seen on the subject concludes that while digital scales do a very good job with total body weight, they are not very accurate with lean muscle weight, body fat percentage, hydration status, and other metrics. Nevertheless, I’m going to track my own numbers for a while. Even if the absolute values aren’t very accurate, the trends should be trustworthy. Up and down should still work.

Garmin offers a scale like mine but includes wireless data uploads to Garmin Connect. I would love to have that feature, but I’m not ready to pay $150 for it. I may be ready to pay $150 for Garmin’s blood pressure monitor. It also works over WiFi with Garmin Connect and it has come to my attention at a time when I’m somewhat dissatisfied with my existing monitor. I have high blood pressure and I probably should be checking it more than once per week. My current monitor is a little clumsy, though, so I use it with some reluctance.

Friday’s colonoscopy was the latest in a series of important investments in my health that go back to last year. As I said before, it doesn’t make sense to worry about cycling performance if the very foundations of health are crumbling. So, there’s more to come. I will have a routine checkup with my primary care physician on July 26 (with blood tests a day or two earlier) and a dental cleaning on July 30. And then I should be done with pokings and proddings for a while.

Halftime 2024

As silly as this looks, I am warming to the idea.

We have entered the second half of 2024 and I’m just about where I was at the end of the first half of 2023. That’s not good. I hoped for more, but hope doesn’t count for much. The truth is that I haven’t had a lot of motivation this season. As July begins, I have done 56 rides for a total of 1,523 miles. At the midway point last year I had ridden 59 times for a total of 1,568 miles. The difference is negligible, so maybe I shouldn’t be too hard on myself. And if you want to find a bright spot, then look to my per-ride average, which is higher this season.

I spent last June in suburban Philadelphia where I find miles harder to accumulate. I spent this June at home where longer rides should be easier. And I did ride more this June—504 miles, compared to 483 last year—but I was expecting something like 700-800. It’s impossible not to view June as a disappointment. We had a ton of rain in Washington County. Entire days were wiped out by it, and it came so frequently that I lost an extra day or two to lawn care when the fast-growing grass was finally dry enough to cut.

Frequent and heavy rain has been a problem since early spring, so it’s no surprise that my treadmill has gotten a lot of use. I have done 342 miles of fitness walking so far this year, much more than the 140 miles I had racked up by June 30 last year. That’s also far in excess of my final total of 238 miles in 2023, and it already beats the target of 260 miles that I established for 2024. I walked 463 miles in 2021 and that personal record is looking vulnerable this year.

I wasn’t idle in the first half of 2024, but I wasn’t ambitious. The 10-day forecast doesn’t promise a good start to the second half of the season. We’ll be at least 10 degrees below normal today and tomorrow. We’ll get about another inch of rain tomorrow. There’s just no end to it. On last Wednesday’s ride, I had to turn around in Quaas Creek Park because the bridge over the creek was under water. On Saturday’s ride, I observed that the Milwaukee River is overflowing its banks along River Drive north of Green Tree Road. Another inch of rain could bring flooding to the road itself. The pure mountain bikers are screaming that their trails have been open only occasionally this year. If the rain keeps up, the roadies will have cause for their own complaints.

Another One Lights The Dusk

On Tuesday, training partner Jeff Wren and I went down to Cedarburg to watch some Tour of America’s Dairyland action. We didn’t get back to West Bend until 9 p.m.  But it was a gorgeous evening and neither of us had ridden earlier in the day, so we fired up our bike lights and hit the Eisenbahn State Trail. I knocked out 20 miles in 1:16:36, a 15.7 mph average. That’s alright under the circumstances. (Jeff’s ride was a little shorter. I started from my house on the south side of town; he started from Barton. Downtown Kewaskum was our turnaround point.) I could have been persuaded to stay out much longer if not for my work schedule. I had to log in from my home office by 11 p.m.  Doing a ride so late in the day was taking a chance. Something as simple as a flat tire might have made me late for work.

No misfortune found me, but I did have only minimal performance from my headlight for the last couple of miles. That was my fault: the light wasn’t fully charged when I started. I use a 700-lumen Bontrager Ion. It serves not only as a great bike light, but also as a powerful and compact flashlight. I travel with it, carry it on nighttime walks/hikes, use it in tight spots while performing home maintenance or auto repairs … it’s super handy. And I always have appreciated that it recharges via USB. I can recharge it in the car or by attaching it to a laptop or by plugging it into a wall outlet. Very versatile. Very convenient.

So, I bought another one! Trek has them for just $49.99 right now. That’s 50% off and it’s a steal. If you think that’s still a lot of money for a bike light, then you’re underestimating the value of never having to replace batteries. I think my first Ion was about $80, discounted, in 2015 and it’s still going strong. Even at that higher price, it has paid for itself. But it can’t back itself up, and recharging takes about 5 hours. I’m going to like having a second one. These lights are so compact that it will be no hassle to take both on a nighttime ride.

Some night when I don’t have to work, maybe I’ll take the Eisenbahn all the way to Eden and back. The Ion’s runtime at maximum power is a little more than 1.5 hours, and a full-distance Eisenbahn ride takes me about 3 hours. The math works, but to be safe I probably should start while there’s still some daylight left, then deploy the first Ion when I arrive in Kewaskum at about 30 minutes elapsed. The more I think about that ride, the more I want to do it. I will watch the forecast for a warm, dry Thursday or Friday.

About That West Bend Bike Route …

This spring, the City of West Bend quietly dismantled its bike route. The signs are down. The sharrows will wear away or be paved over. I think there’s a good chance you didn’t notice. I think there’s a good chance you don’t care. And I don’t care as much as you might expect, though I was involved in the design of the route. I never believed it would lead to an increase in ridership. I wanted only to give Bike Friendly West Bend the best opportunity to succeed. By the time I was drafted into that advocacy group by Craig Hoeppner, the city’s parks director until 2019, it was clear that BFWB would never get what it really wanted. Physically separated infrastructure is the gold standard of bike routes, and in fiscally conservative West Bend that simply was not a realistic goal. So, from the outset I was working on a consolation prize.

Known to some as the “orange loop,” the route was never intended to stand alone. BFWB envisioned four interconnected loops to create a network throughout the city. We gave them color-coded names to make them easy to discuss as we pored over the map of our future system. It looked like a big city transit map with routes that connected schools, parks, and other places of interest by utilizing low-traffic residential streets and the Eisenbahn State Trail. Ultimately, it was too ambitious for West Bend’s elected officials, who refused even to vote on the proposal in 2017. It was too ambitious even though it could be established with just signs and paint.

In 2021, the orange loop was implemented by itself. It was a mostly east-west route to complement the mostly north-south Eisenbahn State Trail. We will never know whether the original concept would have had more success. Would ridership have been more robust if more neighborhoods had been linked together? I doubt it. The orange loop and the others that might have followed all suffered from an absence of physically separated infrastructure. Prospective riders were not convinced that signs and sharrows provided the safety they needed.

City staffers weren’t sold on the safety of the route either. They insisted on some alterations to the orange loop that I thought made the finished product less effective and, oddly, less safe. For example, the route ran on the sidewalk between the Eisenbahn State Trail and Eastern Avenue instead of on Decorah Road itself. But any cop in town will tell you that most car-versus-bike collisions in West Bend occur in crosswalks as riders come off the sidewalk and into the path of motorists. Between Eastern Avenue and Sheridan Drive, the route had to run on Redwood Street, one block north of Decorah. By demanding that the route avoid Decorah, the city missed an opportunity for traffic calming on the north side of the busy high school campus. If the route had served the campus as the original design intended, would more students have viewed it as a transportation option?

By late 2020, Bike Friendly West Bend was so desperate to implement a bike route that it accepted all of the compromises to its original plan. And the voices within BFWB who believed the tired mantra, “If you build it, they will come,” were wonderfully naïve. There was a presumption of demand for cycling infrastructure that far exceeded actual demand. The success of the Eisenbahn State Trail as a destination for recreational riders was erroneously taken to forecast success for on-street bike routes. But the prospect of sharing even low-speed, low-volume residential streets is now such a horror for the average person that the BFWB plan probably was doomed from the start.

This morning I talked to Jay Shambeau, the city administrator, about the bike route’s past and present. I was surprised to learn that there may still be a future for it. Dismantling the route was motivated largely by poor road surface conditions, especially along Kilbourn Avenue, where some of the fading sharrows are painted on broken asphalt. Reconstructing Kilbourn is one of the city’s most immediate priorities. We could see the bike route return after reconstruction is complete. The signs haven’t been discarded, just stored. But the most important sign has to come from you. If you want a bike route in West Bend, then you have to let City Hall know.

Never Will I Ever, Vol. 2

It’s time for another round of things about cycling that either don’t appeal to me or that I find ridiculous or distasteful. Let’s start off gently with something that simply doesn’t appeal to me. Never Will I Ever …

Go Downhill Racing

Despite having had some success as a cross-country mountain bike racer, I am not a great technical rider on singletrack. Downhill racing is so far beyond my skill level that I would never consider it for a moment. But it does look cool! I’ve watched my fair share of downhill racing, especially when it was featured on Red Bull.tv.

Compete For Strava Segments

This was a stupid idea even before e-bikes flooded the market, so it’s a really stupid idea now. If you want to compete against your own times, then fine. If you want to compete against other people, then get together with them in the same place at the same time. You’re lying to yourself if you think people aren’t cheating on Strava. Motor doping is real.

Count Trainer Miles The Same As Outdoor Miles

Either the bike moved from one place to another or it didn’t. Time spent on stationary riding, no matter how closely it mimics outdoor riding, is just time. (For what it’s worth, I do count my treadmill miles the same as outdoor walking miles. I guess the difference is that treadmill walking still requires balance and is almost indistinguishable mechanically from outdoor walking.)

Install White Handlebar Tape

White handlebar tape is only for professional riders whose team mechanics wrap their bars with new tape before every race. They have money to burn. I don’t. You probably don’t either. Keep your bike looking clean, not like a cigarette butt on wheels.

Ride With A Mirror

If you’re the sort of person who gets startled by every passing vehicle, then by all means get yourself a mirror. I don’t have one and I don’t want one. I realize that I am sharing the road and that periodically I will be overtaken. I always ride as far to the right as I can; it’s the responsibility of drivers to pass me safely. The idea that a glance in the mirror would tell me I am about to be rear-ended and that I then would have time to make an evasive maneuver is laughable. Riding on open roads is a calculated risk, and mirrors don’t change the math.

Buy A Jersey With A Short Zipper

I demand full-length zippers on my jerseys. Full-zip jerseys are easier to put on and so much easier to take off when they’re wet with perspiration and sticking to your back like fly paper. And if you crash, then you’ll appreciate being able to slip out of your jersey instead of having it unceremoniously and expensively cut off at the hospital. I had a couple of jerseys with short zippers when I was a new cyclist, so I guess this one is really a Never Will I Ever Again.

Ride In A Sleeveless Jersey

Here’s another Never Will I Ever Again, because back in 2007 I actually wore a sleeveless jersey on the MS 150 Best Dam Bike Tour. This was not a Team Pedal Moraine thing; I was riding with a team put together expressly for that tour. When it was time to distribute the jerseys, the only one that would fit me was sleeveless. I didn’t feel good about it, but I wore the jersey in the spirit of team unity. I looked like the world’s ugliest female triathlete.

Ride With No Jersey At All

Riding with no jersey/shirt is a bad look. I’m a cyclist, not a 10-year-old boy on his way to the swimming pond. I don’t see a lot of this, but when I do it’s usually a middle-aged guy whose physique doesn’t merit any kind of public display. He probably doesn’t consider himself a “cyclist” but probably does consider himself a man whose driver’s license is suspended because of his latest DUI.

Not Everyone Hates Us ...

Here's proof that not everyone hates cyclists! You can find this little slice of heaven on Wausaukee Road south of Newburg, along the Cheesehead Roubaix route.

Finishing 2024's First 1,000 Miles In Style

Here are some of the guys, relaxing for a few minutes at the mid-ride snack stop.

There was a good turnout for this evening’s Twilight Zone-2 Ride from downtown West Bend to Campbellsport and back on the Eisenbahn State Trail. It was an intentionally easy effort with an emphasis on camaraderie, not competition. But stats are stats! This was the ride that pushed me past 1,000 miles, year-to-date, and every mile counts.

In recent weeks I haven’t had much to say about my own cycling achievements or ambitions. This year is not progressing as I had hoped. I can blame the weather even more than I ordinarily would. Southeastern Wisconsin is experiencing one of the wettest springs in its history. May was especially disappointing. Wednesday, Thursday, and today constitute the only 3-day rainless stretch we had all month. And where was the warmth? At this time of year, we should be hitting 70° routinely, but today was the first time we did so since last Saturday.

For me, inconsistent weather means inconsistent training. If I had any real competition goals, then I would be much better off riding indoors. I rode only 16 times this month. I feel like half of May was wasted, and that’s not a good feeling. I also feel like my goal of 100,000 lifetime miles by the end of the 2025 season is slipping away. Today I surpassed 91,000 lifetime miles. It will take a big effort to reach 95,000 by the end of the year, then another big effort to find the last 5,000 miles in 2025. I finished 2023 with only 4,423 miles. At the end of May 2023, I was sitting on 1,085. For 2024, I’m at 1,019, and the best indication that I still have a chance at 5,000 this year is how poor my June 2023 was! I rode only 483 miles. Surely, I will beat that total this year. I might even double it. Right?

Return To The Twilight Zone

Let's do this again! I introduced this ride last year and it was a lot of fun. We'll start at the downtown West Bend train depot and take the Eisenbahn State Trail to Campbellsport and back, with a mid-ride snack stop at Kohn’s Filling Station. That's 28.5 miles and we'll average about 15 mph. The 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.

The 2024 WCA Cyclocross Calendar

Trail Building At Regner Park

We had a good crew this evening at Regner Park as work continued on new mountain bike trails. I missed Monday’s session, but today I enjoyed two hours in the woods at the west side of the park. Much of the trail will be rake-and-ride; there will be very little earth to move and very little vegetation to cut. Much of my job today was garbage collection and garlic mustard eradication. Reducing the foothold of invasive species was a target of opportunity as we progressed through the undergrowth.

This will be a 2.2-mile loop when it’s done. And the trails will be beginner friendly: a training course for the NICA kids and a nice place just to ride without any features that demand advanced skills. I'm looking forward to riding here later this summer when the loop is complete.

Some Notes As April 2024 Ends

I got a sunburn on Saturday at Cheesehead Roubaix … and I’m not complaining! Uncharacteristically fair weather had a big effect on the turnout. More than 100 riders started, but not all of them finished the full route. Some people found shortcuts on the return trip from Belgium or bailed out even sooner due to high winds. I don’t blame them. It was brutal! The average wind speed was above 20 mph for the entire ride, bringing unseasonable warmth from the southwest. By 4:15 p.m., West Bend hit 80° for the first time since October 24. The ride was over by then, of course. But I was never cold for a moment on this year’s Cheesehead Roubaix and I don’t know if I ever could say that before. And this year’s improved attendance resulted in a nice payday for the Newburg Fire Department: $1,809 in cash donations and post-ride concessions. Thanks to everyone for their generosity!

Cheesehead Roubaix was my first ride on my BMC road bike since October 1. Yikes! My Framed gravel bike got most of the work in the meantime. And no, it’s not ironic that I went back to the true road bike on Saturday. Cheesehead Roubaix is principally a road ride—one with a couple of hills on which the BMC was obviously the better choice—and the gravel sections aren’t so nasty that anything more than a road bike is required.

There was good news for local mountain bikers last Thursday. West Bend’s Park & Recreation Commission enthusiastically approved a plan for new trails at Regner Park. Sounds like these trails could be ready this summer! The planned course is mostly rake-and-ride, with no heavy earth moving.

There’s mixed news about my fitness as we enter May. I’m happy to say that I already have exceeded my walking mileage goal for 2024. My goal was a very modest 260 miles, the same target I missed in 2023, when I walked only 238 miles. And just to be clear, these are miles I walk for the express purpose of improving my fitness; I do not track incidental steps as I cut the grass, shop for groceries, or go about other mundanities. My personal record of 463 miles, set in 2021, is within reach. I’m at 270 miles today, more than halfway to a new PR with 8 months to go. The bad news is that I barely sleep anymore and I am 6 pounds heavier than I was at this point last year … and I was no lightweight then! I have been very inconsistent with my time on the bike this year. Ride frequency and total mileage are down slightly from last year’s pace. That needs to change immediately and I think it will, as better and more predictable weather arrives.

No CX World Cups, But …

Last week’s disappointing news from the UCI was a bitter reminder to American cyclocross fans that we love a very Euro-centric, niche sport. Having no World Cup races on this side of the Atlantic in 2024-2025 will reduce fan engagement. But today’s announcement from the USCX series takes away some of the sting. Trek has stepped up as title sponsor for the upcoming season, ensuring its Trek CXC Cup will continue as a top domestic event. So, we’ll continue to have a UCI race here in Wisconsin, and plenty of Americans and Canadians will be on hand to fight for points that will qualify them for the world championships. However, don’t expect the big European stars at these C1/C2 races, as the cost-versus-benefit equation simply won’t make sense to them.

It will be interesting to see whether the revamped USCX can grow even further in the 2025-2026 season. This year’s schedule misses some regions of the country that traditionally have supported cyclocross well. I’m thinking particularly about New England, the Ohio Valley, Colorado, and the Pacific Northwest. And then there’s Jingle Cross in Iowa, with its rich history. And would you bring back a night race in Las Vegas, even if it weren’t tied to a bicycle industry expo? CrossVegas was always a good show. Is that only because it had the star power of prominent European riders? Well, maybe, but we can’t count on that anymore. Let’s see if USCX can tell a story that keeps us wanting another chapter.

Mountain Bike Trails At Regner?

Local mountain bikers will present a proposal for new trails at Regner Park in West Bend when the Park & Recreation Commission meets at City Hall this Thursday at 6:30 p.m. CDT. The plan would create a 2.2-mile trail in the woods at the west end of the park. According to the proposal, this would be “an easy course with no high risk features” and an ideal alternative for new riders who may be unprepared for the more challenging trails of Glacial Blue Hills. The proposal is a joint effort of GEARS and the local chapter of NICA, whose middle school and high school riders need a practice area that is safe and easily supervised by their coaches. GEARS and NICA would create and maintain the trails, providing a new recreation amenity without cost to the city. (This is very similar to the idea I had for Park Site O back in 2014.) Not mentioned in the proposal, but certainly obvious to the local cycling community, is the potential for fat bikes when these trails are covered by snow. It’s easy to imagine Regner Park as an annual destination for the Hugh Jass Fat Bike Series. If your schedule allows, then come to City Hall on Thursday to support the proposal.

From Aigle, With Love (Part II)

You could see this coming last year, and here it is: the UCI Cyclocross World Cup has abandoned North America with the release of its 2024-2025 schedule. Never mind that the United States is the biggest economy in the world. Never mind that North Americans supported past World Cup events on this continent both by racing in large numbers and by attending in large numbers. Tell me again how American cyclocross is supposed to grow when we don’t have a coherent national series and all of our best riders are forced to base themselves in Europe. There will be UCI cyclocross in America this fall, but it will be the C1/C2 variety, which lacks the prestige of the World Cup series. Domestic pros will battle for points in the hope of qualifying for the world championships, where the lucky few will be crushed mercilessly by the top international pros who had the benefit of competing at the highest level all season. So much for the “internationalization of cycling” that the UCI likes to congratulate itself for promoting.

Happy 91st, Mom!

Today is my mother’s 91st birthday and I am privileged to be with her in southeastern Pennsylvania. I don’t need to remind myself how fortunate I am or what’s really important about my time here. But as a “spring training” destination for my cycling season, the Philadelphia suburbs have been a bust. Since I arrived on March 26, a typical day has been wet, windy, and 10° colder than average. Last Friday we felt an earthquake centered in New Jersey, only 42 miles away. Today we had a solar eclipse. A superstitious man would wonder whether an angry god were out to get him. Seems like wherever I go, bad conditions follow.

Things look like they are finally turning around. Yesterday and today were the first back-to-back >60° days here since March 14-15. Tomorrow will be the first 70° day here since March 15. There’s mostly 60s in the forecast for the week to come, then the promise of 70s again next week. I will try to make the most of better weather. Today’s ride was just my fifth on this visit. I have ridden only 118 miles since arriving in Pennsylvania. Yesterday’s ride was my first 2-hour ride this year. That’s not getting the job done.

Home (Gym) Away From Home (Gym)

It’s the first week of my four-week visit to Pennsylvania, and so far the weather hasn’t been appreciably better than the weather in West Bend. I’m feeling a little cheated, as far as that goes, because a combination of cold temperatures, high winds, and rain has greatly limited my time on the bike. I’ve spent more time walking, and for at least the next week I am likely to continue to walk more hours than I ride.

But the weather has been my only source of dissatisfaction. Things are going really well otherwise. I have knocked out a couple of projects at my mother’s house, I’m getting much more sleep than normal, and today I found a corner of Mom’s garage than I can use as a home gym … of sorts. Back in West Bend, my home gym includes not only free weights, but also a collection of fitness bands that connect to wall anchors at four different points. The fitness bands are my go-to tools for back and shoulder exercises. Because they are so lightweight and easy to move from place to place, I brought them with me on this visit. I purchased four heavy duty screw eyes and sunk them into an exposed 2x4 in Mom’s garage. It’s almost a perfect replica of what I have at home, and the workout I completed this afternoon felt very familiar.

I wish I would have thought of this last year, when I was here for a total of 16 weeks and neglected my upper body the entire time! Now I can bring my fitness bands whenever I visit and keep up with a big component of my strength training program.

The Riverfront Parkway’s New Relevance

I made a blog post called “The Split Personality Of The Riverfront Parkway” back in 2016 and, for the most part, my observations still hold up. The parkway is wildly inconsistent in its surface material, its maintenance, and its utility from one section to the next. Most of the parkway is just as it was 8 years ago. The section that passes through downtown West Bend, however, is utterly transformed. In recent years, the city has realized that people like to be close to water … even something so plain as the very narrow, very shallow Milwaukee River. In 2023, the city completed a new “riverwalk” on the west side of the river. It’s not just a complement to the multi-use paths on the east side. In some respects, it’s better.

On the east side of the river, you can take the parkway past the Museum of Wisconsin Art up to Rivershores. You can cover the same ground on the Eisenbahn State Trail. Either way, you have to cross busy Washington Street. The new riverwalk lets you pass under the street, as I have been doing on recent rides like today’s:

And, just as significantly, the new riverwalk connects more things. Some downtown businesses are already pivoting toward the riverwalk, treating the back door as a second front door. West Bend’s newly reconstructed Main Street boasts many improvements, but more parking isn’t one of them. As more people discover the riverwalk, parking on the east side and then walking to downtown businesses should be more common. Outdoor dining will become more common too, not just because of the river, but also because we like to watch people.

I still think very few people will travel the parkway from end to end, and that’s OK. The new riverwalk would be an asset to West Bend even if didn’t connect to anything to the north or south. In the past 10 years we have witnessed the construction of hundreds of new residential units downtown, and more are coming. We’re moving toward a very dense urban core that can thrive because of our recent investment in bike- and pedestrian-friendly infrastructure.

2024 Kenosha Velodrome Racing Schedule

Wrapping Up February 2024

Does anyone really like leap years? In the Southern Hemisphere, I guess it’s a good deal to have an extra day in February—it was sunny and 77° in Johannesburg today, if you were wondering. Here in the north, February 29 is usually just another deep winter day. We did better than average this time, so I won’t complain. And taking stock of the entire month, February 2024 wasn’t too bad.

Tuesday was the first 60° day in West Bend since November 16 … and then it turned into the first 70° day since October 27! Unreal. We peaked at 71° early Tuesday afternoon, obliterating the old record high of 52° from 1976 and our 36° average high for February 27. Then the wind shifted to the northwest, and taking wind chill into account, we dropped all the way to 1° in only 18 hours. We also picked up a trace amount of snow. On Tuesday afternoon I applied sunscreen and rode outside in shorts for the first time in months. By Wednesday afternoon I didn’t even want to walk to the curb to pick up my mail.

March is expected to begin with temperatures in the low 50s to low 60s, which is good enough to get me back out on the bike. I rode outside on three occasions in February, matching last year’s total. Those 63 miles won’t impress anyone, though, and I’m hoping for better things in March. Last year, March was a bit of a disaster: I rode only six times for a total of 141 miles. I should be able to beat that, especially as I will spend the last week of March in southeastern Pennsylvania, where the temperature historically is 10° warmer on average. I’m planning a three-week stay in Pennsylvania. If the weather is good, then that visit should be something of a training camp for me.

Training in February mostly consisted of upper body strength workouts and treadmill walks. I shattered my old record of 74.08 miles of walking for fitness, set in September 2021. In February, I walked exactly 100 miles. Garmin Connect tells me that February also was my best ever month for steps—203,115 of them—but I don’t know what the old record was. And 203,115 is still short of the 10,000 steps per day ideal that so many fitness experts recommend. I needed almost 29 hours to get my 203,115 steps, which comes out to almost 60 minutes per day. I don’t think I want to devote more time than that to walking. But the new treadmill certainly has been a great addition to the home gym. It’s so much easier to do an indoor walk than to bundle up against the cold. With better weather I will return to hikes and ruck marches, but the treadmill has been the solution for walking this winter.

February was a surprisingly good month for Garmin Connect badges. I earned 12 of them, as shown above. I credit the treadmill for almost all of those achievements and for keeping my weight stable throughout the month. I seem to have reached equilibrium in the calories in / calories out calculation. I’m still far heavier than I would like to be, but at least things didn’t get worse this month.

The 2024 ToAD Schedule

SafeSport Trained, Again

Five years ago, I completed SafeSport training for the first time. I was then the captain of Team Pedal Moraine, and I thought it would look good to complete the anti-abuse, anti-harassment program. This year, renewing my certification wasn’t optional: as President of the Wisconsin Cycling Association, it was my duty to complete the training. USA Cycling requires it of all members of the WCA Board of Directors. USA Cycling might require it of you too, especially if you are in a position of leadership within your cycling club or USA Cycling-affiliated local association.

Breaking The Seal On 2024

There they are, those first precious outdoor miles of the new year! West Bend has enjoyed a few 50° days in 2024, but this was the first one I could use. And even today I didn’t spend as much time in the saddle as I would have liked. In my new role as President of the Wisconsin Cycling Association, I had a 1-hour call with USA Cycling that kept me in my home office until 4 o’clock. I used the rest of the afternoon, all 90 minutes of it, for a ride around town. Unlike most of my season openers, today’s ride was NOT impeded in any way by lingering snow and ice. Even shady park paths were fully accessible. The 10-day forecast proves that winter isn’t over yet, but there are more 50° days coming soon, and maybe this year’s first 60° day next Tuesday.

The 2024 WEMS Schedule

9 Hours of Alpine Valley

June 1

Alpine Valley Ski Resort, Elkhorn

Jack Lake Crazy Eights

June 15

Veterans Memorial Park, Deerbrook

Romp in the Swamp Epic

June 29

Nine Mile County Forest, Wausau

RASTA Rock N Root

July 20

Washburn Lake Trails, Rhinelander

Hundred Down in the Underdown

August 17

Underdown Recreation Area, Gleason

The Wild Ride Buzzard Buster

August/September TBD

Levis Mound Trailhead, Neillsville