Dave Retreats. And Then? A Tacx!

It even came with a trainer tire!

I’m back in West Bend after a week in eastern Pennsylvania. While it was great to be with my mother on Thanksgiving and great to have dinner with a couple of my cousins on Black Friday, the trip was something of a disappointment. There was only one day of nice weather: 61° and dry last Wednesday. I did a 4-mile outdoor walk and hoped for more days of the same sort. But those days never came. The temperature dropped, the wind roared, and day-long rains arrived. With the great outdoors rendered off limits and with no treadmill at my disposal, I kept my walking streaks alive with hundreds of ridiculous circuits around the interior of Mom’s house. During the last week I ate too much, exercised too little, and missed West Bend even though I knew it was getting pounded with snow and bitter cold.

Now that I’m home again, it’s time to get back into regular workouts. But as I resume turbo trainer rides, there is a noteworthy change. In Pennsylvania I unexpectedly picked up a second-hand Tacx Vortex smart trainer. On Facebook Marketplace, it was listed for $20 and I gladly would have paid that price without haggling, even though I had no way to test its functionality before returning to Wisconsin. As things turned out, the owner simply wanted it gone and let me have it for free! You can’t beat that deal, but you might wonder why I wanted it when I already had a newer and arguably better smart trainer. The answer is Garmin Connect.

When Garmin acquired Tacx in 2019, it integrated the Tacx training app with its Garmin Connect platform. Since that time, numerous Garmin Connect challenges have been available only to users of the Tacx app. I intend to pursue those challenges to add some spice to my indoor trainer season. The app has features similar to Zwift, Rouvy, and MyWhoosh, so it should be more engaging than the handful of ride stats that come from my Garmin Edge cycling computer.

I got my first taste of the Tacx training app today. I did not, however, explore the many virtual environments. I contented myself with a simple display of ride stats and it looks like I might need to make some adjustments. Tacx said I averaged only 74 Watts for a 30-minute ride at 13.4 mph. It was an easy, get-to-know-you ride, for sure, but that power output seems low. At least I could count on my heart rate monitor, which paired easily with the Tacx app. And Garmin Connect rewarded me with my first two Tacx badges, so I’m satisfied with my first ride.

My next step should be to explore those virtual environments, the cornerstones of the Tacx platform.

And I Would Walk 500 More?

Walking 1,000 miles this year was not in my plans. In my New Year’s Eve statistical review of 2024, I wrote that I would shoot for 500. And we should remember two things. First, I was still recovering from surgery when I set that goal. I could not be certain how my body would respond. Second, I had set a personal record of 554 miles in 2024 and didn’t want the pressure of extending my record every year just to feel accomplished.

I surpassed 1,000 miles today. With 42 days remaining in 2025, I might get another 100-150 miles. I expect to keep going at approximately the same pace, and that means walking every day. The streak is still alive: I have walked at least 1 mile expressly for fitness every day since last December 13. Achieving that consistency might be a more worthwhile accomplishment than the big mileage total.

I still won’t want the pressure of chasing a new PR for walking in 2026, so I probably will set no mileage goals outside of Garmin Connect. Garmin’s “Walk Streak” challenge requires a single, 1-mile walk every day for 30 consecutive days. Garmin also has quarterly walking challenges that reward the 1-mile-per-day minimum, so those are automatic for anyone who keeps the “Walk Streak” challenge going. And then there’s the annual “Ultimate Walking Badge,” a reward for completing all four quarterly challenges. Again, simply meeting the “Walk Streak” minimum will yield the “Ultimate Walking Badge.”

Walking 1 mile every day has some general health benefits, but it isn’t enough by itself to build real fitness. Hitting my minimum standard of 10,000 steps per day goes further. On recent 1-mile walks, I have averaged about 2,000 steps. I have to walk the equivalent of about 5 miles per day to hit 10,000 steps. So, is 5 miles per day my real standard? I didn’t become a 10,000 steps-a-day guy until this year was well advanced. Am I going to surpass 1,825 miles in 2026, 5 miles per day for 365 days? That doesn’t seem likely. I’m getting some of those 10,000 steps from ordinary daily activities and not from measured walks. But I sure didn’t expect to double my PR this year, which I am on pace to do. So, never say never.

Pretty Doesn’t Begin To Describe 11/14/25

Losing fitness already! Today's ride would have been all Zone 2 a month ago.

Yes, I rode outside today! West Bend reached 60° for the first time since October 20 and came up just a little short of its first 70° day since October 18. I missed the last 60° day; October 18 was my last outdoor ride before today. Under sunny skies and with only light winds, today I went up the Eisenbahn State Trail to Campbellsport and back … plus a couple of bonus miles around town. I might have stayed out for another 30 minutes or so, but my water bottle ran dry. The high winds that have been so common during the last week will return tomorrow, and they might keep me off the bike. My lawn needs one more mowing before winter. There probably won’t be a better day for it than tomorrow. If today’s ride was my final outdoor ride of the year, then at least it was very satisfying.

Stopping The Slide

Last week’s rewards from Garmin Connect.

I wanted to create a training camp atmosphere for myself last week, combining different activities to pursue multiple Garmin Connect challenges. Adding interest to my workouts and arresting a month-long decline in exercise time was imperative. As recently as September, I was cranking out 20-hour weeks split between cycling and walking. For the week that ended on Sunday, November 2, my total volume was down to 11 hours, 45 minutes. Fewer hours of daylight and falling temperatures were mostly to blame, but it’s also true that my remaining fitness goals for 2025 are well within reach even if I abandon outdoor exercise.

Anyway, for the week that ended yesterday, I was determined to devote more time to my workouts. The result was 17 hours, 8 minutes of total training volume. I took advantage of time away from work. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday were vacation days; Thursday and Friday were my regular days off. My new work week began at 11 p.m. on Saturday. Yes, it’s weird. My family and friends can’t remember my work schedule, even after five years.

With my training camp enthusiasm running high on Monday morning, I decided to go for a Garmin Connect challenge that I mentioned in an earlier post but thought I might never attempt: Stepping Up 40K. That’s 40,000 steps in a single day, a big increase over my personal record of 30,042. In that earlier post, I said I wouldn’t try to earn the Stepping Up 40K or the Stepping Up 50K badge with only indoor activities, as the tedium would be almost unbearable. Well, I did complete Stepping Up 40K indoors but yes, I was perfectly sick of walking by the end. I won’t say now that there’s no chance that I will complete Stepping Up 50K indoors, however I will need time to think about whether it’s worth the effort. My new personal record for steps in a single day is 41,635. Garmin says I walked 21.4 miles and burned 1,113 calories above baseline to get it, pushing my total calorie expenditure above 3,000 for the day. I spent more than 5½ hours on the treadmill spread over 11 sessions, with meals, bathroom trips, and laps around the house to break the monotony.

Last Tuesday was the anniversary of the bike crash that led to my hip replacement surgery the following day. On this November 4, I was disappointed with my energy. The problem wasn’t the huge walking effort of the previous day; the problem was sleep. In an ill-fated attempt to adopt a daytime schedule for the entire week, I went to bed at 9 p.m. on Monday. By 3 a.m. on Tuesday, I was up again. I passed the day somewhat aimlessly and went back to bed from 5 p.m. until 10 p.m., getting another round of sleep that wasn’t especially restorative. By midnight, I had done just enough not to consider the day a total failure: 11,033 steps and a 30-minute upper body strength training session in the home gym.

Wednesday should have been a bounce-back day. It was only OK, not special. The highlight was a 4.3-mile treadmill walk. I finished the day with 13,715 steps, which isn’t bad but it’s actually a slightly smaller effort than my average over the last four weeks. Thursday was more of the same: 12,769 steps and a 30-minute lower body strength training session in the home gym. That’s hardly “training camp” stuff.

Friday began more ambitiously. I spent an hour on the treadmill before visiting my surgeon for a final follow-up visit. My new X-rays looked great and the doctor was very pleased with my recovery. After the visit I did an outdoor walk for the first time since July 5. Yikes! I guess you could say my hopes for a big autumn of hiking haven’t been realized. Friday’s step total was a respectable 16,210. Still, I didn’t do everything I had planned. When the day ran out of sunlight, I ran out of giving a damn and went to bed.

That decision to go to bed when darkness arrived may prove to be the start of a better sleep schedule for me. It’s certainly more in line with what nature intended. I slept well from about 5 p.m. until about 12 a.m. on Friday night. In my many years of working nights–my current job is only the most recent to require overnight hours–I always have preferred a bedtime soon after the end of the shift. This has meant trying to sleep during daylight hours. I may revert to that schedule when Daylight Saving Time returns, but at least for now I will try to stay awake after work. Morning exercise, a quietly productive afternoon, and a bedtime of something like 3:30 p.m. probably would be beneficial. I have averaged only 5½ hours of sleep per day for the last year, and that’s not enough. Every effort to fix my sleep eventually fails, but I must keep trying.

Saturday was another day of fleeting motivation. I did a solid upper body strength workout, but I couldn’t talk myself into a turbo trainer ride. I finished the day with 10,768 steps. Getting 10,000 steps, 1 mile of walking expressly for fitness, and 30 consecutive minutes of walking have become my non-negotiable daily minimums. More is better, though!

With a mix of televised NFL and NHL games to alleviate the boredom, on Sunday I earned Garmin’s Indoor 50K Ride badge (50 kilometers / 31.1 miles). The next step is the Indoor 50-Mile Ride badge–roughly a 3-hour commitment–and then comes the final boss: the Indoor 4-Hour Ride badge. I have no target dates for those; they sound terrible. I finished Sunday with 15,499 steps.

Last week’s 121,629 steps were more than average but not a record. I somehow amassed 152,122 steps during the week of August 25-31. I spent 13½ hours on walking last week, 2 hours on indoor cycling, and 1½ hours on strength training. As my offseason progresses, things won’t be so out of balance.

My next trip to Pennsylvania is now just two weeks away and I will spend much of that time getting my home and yard ready for winter. Indoor cycling will be a priority too, as I don’t plan to take a bike to PA and these two weeks may present my last opportunities to grab Garmin Connect cycling badges in 2025.

The 2026 WORS Schedule

A Solution, Not “The” Solution

I dusted off the smart trainer today. It’s that time of year. If I can do two or three sessions per week, then I think I’ll be satisfied. Trying to replicate my mid-summer outdoor cycling volume with offseason trainer rides is too terrible to contemplate. The plan for this offseason is to keep my total exercise volume consistent with a mix of activities rather than to rely so heavily on cycling.

While I don’t count trainer miles in my yearly totals, I will use them in pursuit of Garmin Connect goals. That’s good motivation to do something I won’t always want to do. Let’s be honest! Even when I was a Zwift user–despite all of Zwift’s features, challenges, social connections, and so on–there were many days when I simply couldn’t find enough motivation to pedal to nowhere.

And yet, Zwift still tempts me. I am not ruling out a return to it in early 2026. It’s not a good fit right now, though. I have travel plans in November and December, and the trainer isn’t coming with me.

Andiamo!

See that Lamborghini Countach? I had that poster on my bedroom wall back in the 1980s. It was a more than suitable replacement for the poster of Farah Fawcett, whose stock was already falling by then. Next to pizza, it was my favorite thing to come out of Italy … until now.

In late September, I invested in a pair of Favero Assioma Pro MX power meter pedals.

This is the mountain bike version, not the road bike version. But I use mountain bike pedals on all of my bikes, as it always has made more sense to me to wear shoes in which I could actually walk if it became necessary. So, the new pedals went on my new Scott Addict. I am still learning what they can do for me. Right now, they are expensive toys that delight me with a few statistics I didn’t have before. When the 2026 outdoor season begins, they will be key components of a refined training plan. During the 2025-26 indoor season, I hope to get more in tune with my FTP and VO2 max. Those numbers will come from turbo trainer rides and should transfer pretty accurately when outdoor rides resume in the spring.

My 2025 outdoor season is not over yet, but the end is in sight. Earlier today, I surpassed my mileage goal. There is now no incentive to ride unless the weather is fair.

But to get back to how additional performance statistics fit into my future plans … I have taken a particular interest in VO2 max, which is strongly correlated with longevity. You’ll probably see a lot more discussion of longevity here in the future. My serious injury last November and my 60th birthday in June combined to bring longevity to my attention in an urgent way. And just as I was beginning to explore the subject, I found a study from August 2024 that determined the effects of aging can spike rather than appear gradually. Making matters worse, 60 is one of the ages associated with a spike.

The safe assumption is that I am at risk for one of those spikes, and the best response is to eat better, sleep better, and exercise smarter. In each area, I have made progress this year. I have not been especially restrictive with my diet, but I have cut out a few things and it’s hard to argue with the results: at my October 1st weigh-in, I was down 17.2 pounds from my peak weight this year, which I reached on April 16. I still have setbacks with sleep, but the overall trend has been for longer and more restorative sleep. Exercise is something I have had in abundance for decades, but I didn’t trouble myself too much about its quality. That’s changing. Cycling is going to continue to be hugely important to my cardiovascular health. I expect giving more attention to FTP and VO2 max to provide big benefits. The biggest benefits, though, may come from a greater focus on strength training.

My statistics from last week furnished proof that the offseason has begun, even though I expect to do a few more outdoor rides this year. For the week of October 6-12, I spent 2½ hours on strength training, 11 hours on walking, and only 3½ hours on the bike. All of that walking was inside, which was convenient but hardly inspiring. I need to get back on the hiking trails soon. And that reminds me of something: my 30-year-old hiking boots were made by hand in Italy and are still as good as new. Maybe they deserve the No. 2 spot after pizza. I need more time with the Favero pedals to make up my mind.

Blevins Makes History In Lake Placid

Congratulations to Christopher Blevins, who had an amazing weekend of UCI World Cup mountain bike racing in Lake Placid NY. Last Friday, Blevins clinched the 2025 series title in short track (XCC). On Sunday, Blevins clinched the 2025 series title in cross-country Olympic (XCO). In each race, Blevins used a powerful sprint to secure victory. Bevins is the first American man to win the XCO title since John Tomac in 1991. American Ned Overend was the inaugural champion of the series in 1990. Additionally, Blevins is the first man to win both the short track and cross-country Olympic titles in the same season since the series added short track as a separate discipline in 2022.

Last Big Week Of 2025?

Warm, but windy!

Our remarkable run of good weather continued today with more sunshine and another afternoon high in the 80s. I knocked out 30 easy miles today to surpass 200 miles for the third week out of the last four. On Thursday, I reached 3,000 miles for the 21st consecutive season. Going into the new week, I’m only 70 miles away from my goal for the year: 3,161.

I won’t stop on 3,161 miles, but I will allow myself the occasional break. Including today, I have ridden on 11 consecutive days and on 27 out of the last 28. I wasn’t about to waste days that were 10-20° above normal for this time of year. In the week to come, temperatures will drop into the normal range and my rides will get shorter. I may hit my mileage goal on another slow roll around town that is noteworthy for no other reason. And after I hit my goal? Only the warmest days will remain in play.

Overreaching?

I ride more miles on the Eisenbahn State Trail than anyone I know. Almost every ride includes it in some way, even if I’m just taking a brief ride on the trail to reach the start of a road route. And almost every week, spring through fall, I do at least one ride to Campbellsport and back. From my house near the south end of the Eisenbahn, that’s 32 miles. But I rarely go to Eden, the northern terminus of the trail. It’s 14 extra miles, roundtrip. For whatever reason, that relatively short distance makes a big difference.

Today was so sunny and warm and time was so plentiful that I couldn’t resist taking my first trip to Eden since September 12, 2024. It was slow going, if I’m being honest. I couldn’t seem to stop my heart rate from drifting into Zone 3 on what was supposed to be a Zone 2 ride. I kept dialing back my effort, but I never found an easy groove that allowed me to stay in Zone 2. After the ride, Garmin expressed its disappointment in me:

Overreaching? With a couple of short detours to reload my water bottle, today’s ride was 47 miles. I finished it in 3:11:35 for a 14.7 mph average. What’s the big deal? I had a rest day on Wednesday. Today’s ride gives me just a little more than 10 hours in the saddle this week with one day to go. That’s normal stuff for me, so I’ll be back on the bike again tomorrow. It won’t be another 3-hour day, fair enough, but I bet I won’t be unusually fatigued. Overreaching … 

200 + 200 = Satisfied

Yeah, there it is: my first back-to-back 200-mile weeks since July 18-24 and July 25-31, 2022. At this time yesterday, I wasn’t sure it was going to happen. I got rained on yesterday and decided to cut my ride short at just 9 miles. Today’s forecast was very uncertain as little pockets of rain continued to drift through our region, but by early afternoon I was confident I could bang out enough miles to reach my goal. With 30 miles today, I finished the week with a total of 206 miles in 13:20:22. That’s almost a carbon copy of last week, when I did 210 miles in 13:26:30, my highest totals this season.

When the new week begins tomorrow, I will be 27 miles away from my 500-mile goal for September, 33 miles away from another Garmin Connect badge, and 452 miles away from my 3,161-mile goal for the 2025 season. I like my chances of completing the first two. The last one will take more work than I can put out during a single week – my biggest week ever was 283 miles, September 21-27, 2020 – but I should get there by mid-October.

Getting Around

You may have noticed a new Routes page here on the Bike Washington County site. It will become a repository for road routes that I like. Right now it contains two of mine and one from Jimmy Scharrer, each with a simple map and cuesheet, plus GPX files that you can download for your GPS-enabled cycling computers. I will add more routes over time but not on a regular schedule, so check periodically and feel free to direct me to routes that you have created and think would be good additions, as Jimmy did.

Publishing a collection of routes is something I considered for a long time. My most recent upload, the “Evening Standard” ride, got a mention here way back in April 2011. One of the reasons I’m finally taking on this project is my concern for the safety of the Thursday group rides that are organizing in the Washington County Bicyclists group on Facebook. I’ve seen too many routes that include state and county highways where the riders are sharing the road with high-speed motor vehicle traffic, and too many routes that include long stretches into a setting sun. With the incredible road density we enjoy, there’s simply no reason to create routes that exacerbate those dangers. Thursday group rides start at 6 p.m. early in the season and then shift to 5:30 p.m. as the days get shorter with the approach of autumn. They are designed to use all of the available daylight, so they inevitably contend with sunset. And yet so many of them finish into the sun when they might have finished from the north, south, or west. As my collection of routes grows, it will include options from all directions. By next spring, perhaps I will have published enough routes that the Facebook group can just choose from them instead of generating new routes each week. While I appreciate the efforts of the group’s route creators, it’s common for them to publish their routes so late in the week that there is insufficient time for riders to conduct a review and suggest safer alternatives. A repository from which routes can be chosen to match wind direction and available daylight seems like a better and more sustainable choice.

I won’t publish any route that I wouldn’t ride myself. I consider them safe enough, but no route is 100% safe. (A couple of the worst crashes I’ve ever had were on car-free recreation trails!) Know your own limits, respect the weather, always consider how the position of the sun affects visibility, and use good judgment if you want to try one of these routes for yourself.

My Best Week On The Bike In 2025

Today's familiar route

The first week of September was a disaster. In those seven days, I did only two rides for a total of 57 miles and a total ride time of 3:40. I simply could not motivate myself when the air temperature was barely above 60° and when the wind was making me feel even colder. And yeah, I know I had better “warm up” to the idea of riding in those conditions, because soon they will be the norm. But in the first half of September, they are absolutely not. We should still be hitting mid-70s regularly.

So, imagine my delight with the way this week turned out! This afternoon, West Bend briefly topped 80° for the first time since August 22. I rode every day this week and finished with my first 200-mile week of 2025. I completed 210 miles in 13:27. That’s getting the job done! Almost all of those miles came from the Eisenbahn State Trail, but I didn’t mind. If I had needed variety, then I might have found it easily. There was a group mountain bike ride at Glacial Blue Hills on Tuesday, cyclocross practice at Royal Oaks Park on Wednesday, and a group road ride that left from the Eisenbahn’s Rusco Drive trailhead on Thursday. If you had done all of those and my Eisenbahn group ride on Friday evening, then you would have had four distinctly different ways to enjoy cycling on four consecutive weeknights. Not bad, West Bend!

We’re going to continue to have warm and dry conditions for at least the next few days, so I will continue to push. I really am all about the miles right now; rest days be damned. (I don’t recommend this approach to those of you who are actually training for something. Real gains come only with adequate recovery.) Despite my big totals this week, I still need 658 miles to meet my goal for the year: 3,161. Last year, I had only one 200-mile week: September 9-15. This year, I have a chance for my first back-to-back 200-mile weeks since July 18-24 and July 25-31, 2022. I want to go into October needing as few miles as possible, and I want to leave October thinking only of cross-training workouts and indoor cycling until next spring.

Twilight Zone-2 Ride: 2025 Finale

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 15-16 mph. The ride will start promptly at 6 p.m. Sunset will be at 7:10 p.m., so this ride will finish in the dark. 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.

Pedal Moraine To Close At The End Of September

Here’s news I hoped I would never see. Mark Ramsey, owner of Pedal Moraine Cycle and Fitness in West Bend, announced on Facebook this morning that the store will close at the end of this month. This is a big loss for the local cycling community overall, and almost certainly a fatal blow for Team Pedal Moraine, which now must find a new title sponsor or else disband.

When Did 45 Miles Become A “Long” Ride?

I did my longest ride of the year today: 45.00 miles in 2:45:31. That surpassed the 36.16 miles I completed in 2:29:24 back on June 28. Go back to 2010 and my average ride was 33.94 miles. This year I am averaging only 25.71 miles per ride. I used to do centuries and metric centuries. I used to do 200-mile weeks for several weeks consecutively. My biggest week so far this year was 170.23 miles, June 23-29. What’s going on?

Believe it or not, the answer is sleep. I’m sleeping better and longer, which means I’m usually sleeping into afternoon hours that used to be available for cycling. It’s not a bad trade. I feel like my fitness right now is at least equal to my fitness from a year ago, though I have ridden 500 fewer miles.

But I need to make some adjustments, and I need to make them quickly. Summer is fleeing Wisconsin with a swiftness I don’t think I have seen before. By this time next week, I might have to turn on my furnace. Summer, by the way, doesn’t officially end until September 22. That means nothing here. I’m already in long sleeves most of the time and in thermals with increasing frequency. I will be able to outdress the weather for a little while, but there’s not much I can do about waning daylight hours. Today was our last day in 2025 with a 7:30 sunset. We’ll be down to 7:00 on September 16. Almost all of my rides this month have started after 5:30, and that won’t work much longer. I consider 1 hour to be the minimum duration for an outdoor ride; anything less than that is a waste of time. And 90 minutes is probably the sweet spot, so what can I do?

As the days get shorter and colder, my options become more limited. Grabbing my headlight for another trip up the Eisenbahn State Trail is the easiest and safest option – I’m very conscious of the dangers of riding into a setting sun – but riding after sunset won’t be the warmest option. The best thing I can do is to start earlier. I want to wrap up my outdoor season by the end of October, by which time sunset will be earlier than 6:00. That makes 4:00 the most attractive start time, effective immediately. By starting at 4:00, I will hit the warmest hours of the day most of the time, and all route options will remain available to me.

Sleep, though … is it going to take a hit? That depends on how disciplined I am. If I force myself to be in bed by 8:00 each morning, then a 3:00 wakeup time gives me a 7-hour sleep window. During the last four weeks, my average sleep duration was 6:23, so this new schedule might work. I have to try. Doing nothing would just be failing gradually.

The 2025 Royal Oaks CX Practice Series

Photo credit: Mitchell Vincent

Cyclocross practice returns to West Bend this evening and I’m happy that there are people who want to do it and at least one person who wants to lead it, because I’m no longer in charge. I presided over 75 practices:

I hope this year’s series is a great success, but it is time for me to move on to other objectives.

Addicted

At this time last year, I surpassed 30,000 lifetime miles on my 2013 BMC Granfondo GF02, which is still great today after even more time and more miles. However, it is an aging 2x10-speed aluminum bike with rim brakes. That’s not where the industry is today, much less where it will be tomorrow. When things break or wear out, finding replacement parts will only get more challenging and more expensive.

I’m close to 6,000 lifetime miles aboard my 2022 Framed Gravier, a capable bike for a ride on the Eisenbahn State Trail, but not something I would want to ride on the road any more than necessary. It’s heavy and the gearing is all wrong for me. On one hand, I like the simplicity of the single chainring. On the other, I’m usually riding at 40x11 and wishing I had more gears.

You already should have guessed where this is going.

All year long, I was thinking about a new bike that could replace both the BMC and the Framed, simplifying things for me in my most common riding scenarios. After much deliberation, last week I decided the 2025 Scott Addict is the solution.

Scott makes different versions of the Addict. For me, the right choice was the Shimano 105 12-speed mechanical version. I think it’s a better value with less hassle than the Shimano 105 Di2 version; the bikes are identical otherwise. I’m not a fetishist when it comes to bike technology. Electronic shifting is cool, but it comes with its own set of worries and a much higher price tag. Today’s 105 group performs as well as yesterday’s top-of-the-line DURA-ACE group with only a small weight penalty. I’m getting more climbing gears (11-34) than I have with the BMC (11-28), more top-end gearing (50-tooth big ring) than I have with the Framed, and hydraulic disc brakes, an improvement over both the BMC and the Framed. And like all modern road bikes, the Scott has clearance for wider tires. Its stock 32mm tires will be fine on the road and on a gentle gravel trail like the Eisenbahn, where I have been using similar 32mm tires on the Framed for the last three years. The Scott’s stock wheels are surprisingly good and contribute to a noticeably smoother ride. They are only slightly heavier than the wheels on the BMC and they are almost a full pound lighter than the wheels that came with the Framed! They’re even lighter than the custom wheels I ordered to replace the Framed’s stock set.

While Scott began as an American company, it is now headquartered in Switzerland, and its product offerings are known better to the European market. In the US, you can find versions of the Giant Defy and the Trek Domane that are almost identical to my new Addict – carbon frames, Shimano 105 12-speed mechanical drivetrains, unspectacular yet eminently serviceable house brand wheels, saddles, handlebars, etc. – but they don’t come close to the Addict on price. And price is always a consideration. As I was reviewing my options, total cost of ownership was a thought. So was timing. I think we are heading into a period of significantly higher prices driven by new tariffs. Anything coming from overseas – and that’s almost everything in the bike industry – is going to cost more. I didn’t want to wait any longer. You can still find deals on stuff that is already in the US. A lot of companies in a lot of different industries front-loaded their shipments this year to get ahead of the tariffs. But once that stuff is gone, the next wave of stuff will be more expensive.

I don’t plan to part with the BMC. If it is to become only a backup road bike, then it will be a great backup road bike. The Framed, though, is looking for a new purpose. I already have stripped it of its pedals, bottle cages, computer mount, and saddle. (The stock saddle on the Addict was too short for my riding style, and it’s 30 grams heavier.) As a single chainring bike with mechanical disc brakes and plenty of tire clearance, a pair of flat pedals could turn the Framed into an all-season, urban errand runner. Or this could simply be time to find a new owner for it.

On today’s 35-mile shakedown ride, the Addict performed flawlessly. The only thing that would have made it better was a heater. What’s up with our weather? Is this August or October? It would be typical of my luck for me to have purchased a great bike right before the early arrival of a chilly autumn. Give me at least a few more nice weeks, please!

Ups & Downs

Getting more sleep is irrefutably a good thing for my overall health. Today, though, I slept away my chance to get on the bike. By the time I got out of bed, another nasty line of thunderstorms was about to hit West Bend with more rain that we don’t need. I was determined not to let the remainder of the day go to waste, even if I did have to spend it indoors.

Here was an opportunity to use my new Garmin Instinct to track an activity I couldn’t track before: floor climbing. Last week I did a short test of this feature, climbing 20 flights at home. That’s 20 trips from the first floor to the second floor, and back again. Garmin gave me credit for only 18 flights (90%). Today, I went longer: 50 flights. Garmin’s accuracy was even worse, as I was credited with only 43 flights (86%). But I guess it’s close enough. There just isn’t that much elevation change between the two floors of my home. I’ll bet the accuracy is better outdoors. And given that I performed today’s test during a thunderstorm, I suppose there’s a chance that Garmin was thrown off by rapid air pressure changes. Garmin does advise against descending too soon after reaching a higher level, as the tracker may need several seconds to detect a pressure change. Air pressure changes during the storm may have blinded my device to some of the 7 climbs it omitted from my official total.

Today’s effort, while imperfectly measured, was sufficient to earn me a new Garmin Connect badge.

“Virtual Climb - The Narrows” is one of four badges available for floor climbing. It will be the only one I earn at home! If today’s performance is a good indication of the effort required for each of these, then the shortest of the three that remain would take me about three hours and 100 trips up and down my staircase.

No, thanks!

Garmin Instinct 2

I treated myself to a new fitness tracker last Tuesday, one so feature-rich that many more weeks may pass before I discover everything it can do for me. After a fair amount of research, I bought it with some expectations, of course, but I have barely made a beginning with its 66-page owner’s manual.

Anyway, the Garmin Instinct 2 is now my primary wearable, replacing my Garmin Forerunner 35. Although the Forerunner is still functioning perfectly, it is nearly five years old. Health and fitness statistics have become so important to me that I cannot bear the thought of breaking my tracking streaks for any reason, including a technical glitch. So, now I have two devices that can track the metrics I value the most.

Incidentally, both the Instinct and the Forerunner could be used as cycling computers, but I will continue to use my Garmin Edge 830 for those statistics and for navigation, which is much better viewed on the handlebar than on the wrist. If the Edge 830 ever dies, then I can revert to my Edge 500 … until I upgrade again. Yes, I have a little money tied up in Garmin devices. (Can’t forget about the smart bathroom scale or the blood pressure monitor.) I’m living in a Garmin Connect world where each device motivates me to be healthier.

The Forerunner turned me into an avid fitness walker. The Instinct will encourage a wider variety of cross-training activities by measuring things I couldn’t measure before. I’m counting on it to motivate me to spend more time on strength training, which has been very sporadic this year. I fell out of the habit when I was recovering from my hip replacement surgery last winter. And the Instinct’s built-in barometric altimeter will track elevation gain when I do a climbing workout on stairs or hills.

A better fitness tracker will give me not only more features, but also greater accuracy. However, it still won’t give me perfect accuracy. During a short stair climbing workout last Thursday, my new device counted only 18 of the 20 floors I actually climbed. That’s 90 percent, an A- on the report card. And it was way off during a couple of tests on my treadmill. Fortunately, that one is fixable: Garmin has a calibration feature that allows the user to override its measurements with the treadmill’s measurements. The treadmill knows how long its belt is, and it knows how many times that belt went around, so you can trust it for distance and speed. Garmin is really just making a guess based on your self-reported stride length and the number of steps captured by its accelerometer. Using my Forerunner on the treadmill, sometimes I would grab the handrail for several seconds to arrest the accelerometer when I knew my device was getting ahead of the treadmill’s calculations. The Instinct, now calibrated for my treadmill, should be accurate as long as I am using the “Treadmill” function. But for some insane reason, Garmin treats “Treadmill” workouts as running activities only; there is no walking option. After I complete a walk, I will need to change the activity type from running to walking on Garmin Connect. That’s not great. Garmin fares much better outdoors, where walks can be tracked via GPS.

The Instinct and I are still getting to know each other. Its sleep tracking and heart rate monitoring are getting better the more I wear it. So far, so good, I guess. It’s going to be a great tool once I get past a couple of growing pains.

Hi, Maintenance?

If you're wondering what this

did to the Eisenbahn State Trail in Washington County, then I have news! I rode the full length of the Washington County segment today and found only a couple of serious issues. The most serious is the landslide at the Woodford Drive underpass:

Looks like the county maintenance team already came through with heavy equipment to reopen the trail. It's going to need a fresh topping of crushed limestone as soon as possible. The Woodford Drive bridge appears to have been somewhat undercut by the landslide. I don't know whether it can be saved. As a wooden-deck bridge, it's a piece of history. I would be sorry to see a plain steel-and-concrete span in its place.

There's also noticeable erosion where the Moraine Park Technical College connector meets the Eisenbahn, but that's nothing new. The connector was constructed at too steep a pitch. It really should be ripped out and replaced.

I found only one tree toppled by the weekend storm:

Until the county arrives with a chainsaw, you'll find that obstacle between mile markers 4 and 5, just a little south of County Highway H.

The Friday Night Shift

Join me for 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 brief mid-ride snack stop at Kohn’s Filling Station. This ride will finish after sunset (8:05), so headlights are required. Please visit the Facebook event page to indicate that you plan to join the ride.

Seven Twelfths

The always affable Jeff Wren was all smiles after today's 13-man group ride in West Bend.

July was good to me. That is often the case. In a typical season, July is the month with the biggest mileage total. The days are long, the afternoon temperature is usually to my liking, and it’s easy to find the motivation to ride outside almost every day. This month I rode 717 miles. It was my first 700-mile month since August 2023, when I rode 711 miles. And 711 miles was a good total, but July was still my biggest month that season: 742 miles. My personal record for miles in one month is 1,020, set in July 2011.

I now have compensated for a rain-soaked May to get back on pace for this year’s mileage goal: 3,161. I have ridden 1,611 miles, year-to-date. That is exactly the number I wanted to hit by this date. (Yes, I made sure to get the last 35 miles I needed today. I would have done “hill repeats” on my driveway to hit that number if it had been necessary.) Here is the schedule I established for myself before the season began, with projected miles in black and actual miles in red:

To reach 3,161 miles, I will need solid but not spectacular output for the next three months. I’m not asking myself to do anything I haven’t done before. And I’m not asking myself to ride outside during the cold weather months. When we come off Daylight Saving Time, I want to be done with outdoor rides until next spring.

All those miles in June and July had a predictably positive effect on my already good health. Since returning from Pennsylvania at the end of May, I have lost 9 pounds. I had a very good blood test last Thursday as a precursor to this morning’s annual physical examination. My doctor had nothing but good things to say about my health and the habits that contribute to it. She recommended only that I keep doing what I’m doing and that I get the pneumonia vaccine this autumn, in keeping with CDC guidelines for people over 50. That’s good advice, but I won’t worry about autumn until autumn. Give me a scorching hot August and watch my fitness continue to improve!

Exploring The Garmin Connect Expeditions

In 2023, Garmin introduced a series of challenges it calls expeditions. Some are hikes and some are climbs. Completing the climbs is a function of walking up lots of stairs. I experimented with stair climbing as a cross-training exercise back in 2010 and occasionally I have revisited it. I no longer have access to an indoor staircase tall enough to suit the workout, but the 32 steps from Chestnut Street up to McLane Elementary School might be good for intervals. Not during the school day of course; I can live with onlookers considering me eccentric but not with them suspecting me of being a pedophile. Repeats at McLane–especially if I were carrying my rucksack–could build both strength and aerobic capacity. My current Garmin watch can’t track stair climbing. Maybe I should upgrade. I kind of have my eye on a model with that capability plus other features that would be nice to have. And let me know if I’m overlooking a set of outdoor steps in West Bend that is longer than McLane’s.

Back to those expeditions … my current Garmin watch can track steps, and completing the hikes is a function of accumulating large numbers of steps over time. I have been progressing through the hikes in ascending order. Earlier today, I completed the Via Transilvanica hike, which Garmin estimates at 1.9 million steps. I started the hike on March 16. Yeah, it took a while! But Via Transilvanica is only the second longest hike on Garmin Connect. I now embark on the big one: the Appalachian Trail, which Garmin estimates at 4.9 million steps. If I get only my minimum standard of 10,000 steps per day, then I won’t finish this challenge until December 1, 2026! So, I’m not going to track this one as carefully as I typically track my fitness goals. I’ll get it when I get it. And no, I don’t delude myself that the accomplishment in any way will match completing the real Appalachian Trail, but I won’t turn down that 8-point Garmin Connect badge.

Garmin doesn’t offer cycling expeditions, though you could easily imagine them. How about global circumnavigation? Ride 24,901 miles to complete a virtual trip around Earth’s equator. For most people, that challenge would take several years. Maybe start with a virtual Tour Divide: only 2,745 miles. Many dedicated cyclists could knock that out in just a few months. Mimic the Grand Tours of the professional peloton. Ride a virtual RAGBRAI. The real world of cycling provides at least as many opportunities for Garmin Connect expeditions as hiking and climbing. Maybe we’ll see them someday.