2021: A Statistical Review

It was another year without racing, but Season 18 was good to me nonetheless. I finished 2021 with a total of 4,704 miles spread over 148 rides. Both numbers were down from last year, but 4,704 miles is my 10th highest total all-time. Here’s how 2021 broke down, month-by-month:

Personal records in June and August, combined with a very solid July, positioned me for a run at a 5,000-mile season. I would have made it if not for the crash on October 7 that put me out of action for three weeks. But my “official” goal coming into 2021 was only 3,316 miles, so I beat that by a wide margin. And even though I rode less frequently this year, I rode longer, averaging 31.8 miles per ride.

My per-ride average could take a hit in 2022 as I return to mountain biking. However, I still expect to exceed my mileage goal: 3,612. That’s what I need to reach 85,000 lifetime miles.

Do I have to mention that my cycling numbers are outdoor cycling numbers? Riding in the real world and riding on the turbo trainer are two different things, no matter how good the simulations are becoming.

I did a lot of walking/hiking for fitness in 2021, covering 463 miles. Much of that effort was motivated by my late 2020 acquisition of a Garmin GPS-enabled sports watch, without which I wouldn’t have such an easy way to track those activities. My late 2021 acquisition of a smart trainer will drive me to produce a whole new set of statistics for indoor cycling, an activity that until now I have tracked only by the number of minutes spent going nowhere. I’m really counting on Zwift to get me through the winter and leave me in better shape than I have shown historically at the beginning of spring.

Off the bike, 2021 was good to me in many ways. My home got a lot of attention. I addressed plumbing problems in the kitchen and all three bathrooms, I repainted the living room, dining room, and upstairs hallway, and I had new carpet installed throughout the upper level. I enjoyed my first real vacation since 2014—I had to work from my mother’s kitchen table when I visited her last year—and I even attended my first Pirates game at PNC Park in my native Pittsburgh. That stadium opened in 2001, but until this year something always got in my way whenever I wanted to visit. A couple of weeks ago I paid off my car loan, three years early. It’s a great feeling to be debt-free … except for the mortgage on my house. And I read another 20 books this year, which was down from last year’s total but still a solid effort.

What’s the plan for 2022? The pandemic continues to jeopardize any plan that relies on other people, so I will remain focused on myself. I can compete against my old mileage numbers on the bike and, now, on foot. But aside from the year-long goal of 3,612 cycling miles and the new challenge of 500 walking miles, all other mileage records will be targets of opportunity. If I find myself getting close to one, then I will go after it. I’m thinking about, but not yet committed to, walking a marathon. That’s 26.2 miles and would be my longest walk ever. I think I could do it in about 7 hours. And I want to read at least 16 more books. That would finish my run through the complete works of T.C. Bridges, author of many early 20th Century adventure stories … entertaining enough in his way but not the talent Robert Louis Stevenson was.

There’s no big objective for 2022. I continue to work on the multi-year goal of 100,000 cycling miles by the time I turn 60, but that’s the closest thing to a big goal that I have … not just in cycling, but in life. When I was 13 years old someone asked me what I wanted to be in 10 years. I said 23. That was me being a smart aleck. But it’s not nearly as cute to be aimless at 56. Without a clear direction, an accumulation of little achievements has brought me to a comfortable place that many people never reach and some people might even envy. Still, it doesn’t completely satisfy and it certainly doesn’t inspire. Maybe my biggest objective for 2022 is to identify what I really want.

Presenting The 2022 Cheesehead Roubaix

Cheesehead Roubaix XI will begin at Newburg Fireman’s Park on Saturday, April 30, at 9 a.m. CDT. Inspired by Spring Classics like Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders, Cheesehead Roubaix is a 63-mile ride that features almost 10 miles of dirt and gravel. The ride will test your fitness with rough road conditions and about 2,000 feet of climbing.

Cheesehead Roubaix is free of charge, but please consider making a voluntary contribution to the Newburg Fire Department to show your appreciation for the use of its facility. Donations will be accepted at the concessions stand before and after the ride. NFD is a small, all-volunteer department. Your generosity will make a big difference!

Our new sponsor, Cedar Creek Outdoors, will provide technical support and a mid-ride rest stop in Belgium. Please let us know you plan to attend so that we can ensure there’s enough food & drink at the rest stop. Join the fun at the Facebook event page, send me email, or leave a comment below.

Cheesehead Roubaix is designed for self-sufficient cyclists. Be prepared to handle your own flat tires and other minor mechanical issues. The ride uses only open public roads and park paths. You are responsible for your own safety and conduct, and you are expressly not exempt from Wisconsin traffic laws. Represent the sport well. Please visit the Cheesehead Roubaix website and print out your own copy of the cuesheet and map. The website also offers data files for GPS devices.

See you on April 30!

Dark And Windy, But Warmer Than Ever

Yesterday was a literal freak of nature: 64° on December 15 in West Bend! It was our first 50° day since November 17 and our first 60° day since November 8. It was a record-breaking day, beating the high temperature of 50° set in 1998. The high temperature is only 33° on a typical December 15. We probably won’t see anything to rival Wednesday until at least March, so I felt compelled to get outside and enjoy it.

On Monday I took my first ride on my new mountain bike and yesterday afternoon I took my second. But I wasn’t mountain biking; these were slow rides on city streets and park paths. I just wanted to get to know the bike a little bit before winter. Outdoor rides in cold temperatures aren’t in my plans anymore, especially now that I have Zwift. My winter rides almost never met any real training objectives anyway. As I have said many times, they were mostly about fighting cabin fever. I can accomplish the same thing with an occasional hiking or snowshoeing adventure.

The steady breeze from the south that brought us yesterday’s warmth turned into a dangerous windstorm overnight. That kept us above 60° until about 2 a.m. … for what it was worth. By 6 a.m. the temperature had dropped below 40° and now we’re at only 32° … which feels like 21° with the wind chill. The forecast says we’ll stay below freezing until at least next Monday, and you won’t catch me fighting it.

Garneau Over And Over And Over Again

Last year I spent pretty freely on cycling clothes. It seemed like everything in my wardrobe wore out simultaneously. I didn’t expect to add many pieces this year, so I’m a little surprised with the results. Pictured above are the five jerseys I bought in 2021: one black with long sleeves, two black with short sleeves, one blue with short sleeves, and one red with short sleeves. All, you will notice, are from Louis Garneau.

I destroyed one of my Team Pedal Moraine jerseys when I crashed in October. I will replace it as soon as the team places another order … probably this winter. Full-custom jerseys are not cheap! But good jerseys don’t have to be expensive, and that’s why I really like Garneau. I like Garneau’s shorts, too, and ride in them exclusively unless I’m wearing my full team kit. Garneau is Canada’s answer to Pearl Izumi, delivering great performance for the money. There’s something about Garneau that works better for me.

Garneau is my go-to brand for summer. For cold weather gear, I choose Aero Tech Designs. My tights, baselayers, and merino wool tops come from Aero Tech, which makes most of its stuff in America. That’s super rare and from other brands comes at a premium price, but Aero Tech remains a high-value provider. Aero Tech’s shorts are expensive though, and its jerseys, while affordable, don’t often appeal to my Spartan aesthetic. Aero Tech’s baselayers and merino wool pieces are simple and tasteful, and I use them off the bike as often as on. For hiking or just casual wear, I love my Aero Tech merino wool jersey. I think it would be better with a full zipper, but otherwise it’s perfect.

Now there’s a new player competing for my attention: Decathlon. The French retailer isn’t really new—it opened for business in 1976—but it’s still fairly new to the American market. Decathlon has a global reach and a lot of attractively priced house brands. I recently purchased three sleeveless baselayer tops for the price of one top of equivalent quality from a big brand like Pearl Izumi, which itself is still nowhere near the top of the price spectrum. It’s easy to win on price if you’re willing to sacrifice quality, but Decathlon doesn’t seem to be doing that. I’ve been completely satisfied with my purchase and a quick Google search will show you lots of good reviews of Decathlon’s other offerings.

So, who are you wearing this season?

My 2021 Giant Anthem

It’s my favorite holiday: New Bike Day! But before we get to the good stuff, here’s a little history lesson:

In July 2019, I sold my mountain bike, a 2011 Trek X-Caliber that I had purchased in early 2012. At the time, I thought I might soon be selling my house and maybe even moving back to Pennsylvania, so unloading the bike (and a bunch of other things) made perfect sense. At 8 years old, the bike was outdated. It was time to get a new one that offered several technological advances. I figured I would do that in my new location, but more than 2 years later I’m still here in West Bend and I now have no plans to leave. It’s time to put mountain biking back on my program.

That’s easier said than done, however, as the COVID-19 pandemic has severely disrupted the global supply chain. With almost all bicycles coming out of Asia, getting a new bike is a challenge. I’m lucky that I found not just any bike, but one that meets all of my needs: the 2021 Giant Anthem 29 2. During an exhaustive search that included almost every imaginable brand, I spotted the bike on Giant’s website and quickly completed the purchase. Giant shipped the bike to Mountain Outfitters, West Bend’s downtown bike shop, for final assembly. The purchase price included a tubeless wheels/tires setup, an absolute essential for a modern mountain bike but something most brands don’t provide. You know what the other brands mean by tubeless-ready? They mean get ready to pay even more money.

The Anthem is my first full-suspension mountain bike and I’m counting on that rear shock to make a world of difference. My first mountain bike had 26-inch wheels, so upgrading to the Trek X-Caliber and its 29-inch wheels back in 2012 was a huge step forward for me. I was instantly able to overcome trail obstacles that had stopped me before. Now, I expect a similar leap as I upgrade to full suspension. I’m not the most technically adept mountain biker. Getting more out of the equipment will help. I also expect to like the simplicity of the Anthem’s single chainring. The X-Caliber had a triple that was a frequent and frustrating source of dropped chains.

I think the Anthem is going to be a great fit. I would have been happy with the equivalent Trek, but nothing was available and there’s no end in sight for the distribution bottleneck. So, I feel a little guilty not being able to patronize Pedal Moraine, the bike shop sponsor of the racing team to which I belong, but these are unusual times. And I’m not super loyal to Trek as a brand. The Anthem is my third Giant: I used to have an OCR1 and an FCR3, great bikes that eventually I outgrew as a rider. Giant bikes offer exceptional value. At any given price point they are usually outfitted better than their rivals from other major brands.

There’s a lot of uncertainty about the 2022 mountain bike racing calendar here in Wisconsin. Neither WORS nor WEMS has announced a schedule yet, and many people believe WORS will not come back. We’ll see. In the meantime, I’m going to train as if mountain bike racing will be an option next year. The Anthem is a great cross-country machine and I would like to see what I can get out of it—and out of myself—in competition.

Pass This On To Your MTB Friends:

Since January 1, 2018, Washington County has charged admission for all motor vehicles entering its 6 most prominent parks:

• Ackerman’s Grove
• Glacier Hills
• Heritage Trails
• Homestead Hollow
• Leonard J. Yahr
• Sandy Knoll

The county parks department received a lot of criticism from the public when the fees were announced. Much of it was from people who simply didn’t want to pay for something that had been free. Other people observed that the fees were unfairly burdensome for low-income households. I stayed out of the argument. But give credit to the parks department for making the best of a bad situation. It instituted the fees only after our tight-fisted county board told it to fund itself, as no more money would be coming from taxes. And the department recognized that it would need to offer more attractions to bring in paying customers. During the last four years we have witnessed numerous changes. Old buildings have been refurbished and marketed as wedding/reception halls. Cabins and ranger houses are now available for rent to families in search of a peaceful weekend getaway. Beer gardens and live music have become common. Public/private partnerships like Sandy Knoll’s disc golf pro shop look like they’re here to stay.

None of this mattered very much to me. Bikes were banned from county park trails, so I used the parks only for hiking and snowshoeing, activities I could do just as well and without any fees in West Bend city parks. But in 2022 I will have to consider a parks pass for myself. After a four-year absence, I am coming back to mountain biking … just in time for the official opening of the new trails at Heritage Trails County Park. This purpose-built system will keep hikers and mountain bikers on separate trails. Much of the system is already complete, and rider reviews have been overwhelmingly positive. If Minooka Park is the center of mountain biking for our neighbors in Waukesha County, then Heritage Trails may soon become the center for Washington County. It will, at least, give West Bend’s Glacial Blue Hills Recreation Area a worthy rival.

Washington County is offering different designs for its 2022 passes. They all provide the same access, but the different designs allow patrons to show off their particular interests and give the parks department another way to measure which amenities park users want to access. So, if you’re a mountain biker, buy the mountain bike pass. The annual pass is the best deal for frequent visitors, but day passes are available too.

Finally Getting Smart

After a long debate with myself, today I committed to a smart trainer and a Zwift subscription. The cheapskate in me said no but the cyclist in me said yes. The compromise, if you can call it that, was the trainer itself. I went with the Saris M2, which is pretty basic and inexpensive as smart trainers go but far superior to anything I have had before.

Saris is a Wisconsin company that offers great American-made products in an industry dominated by imports. The M2 smart trainer has the same look and feel as my old CycleOps Magneto, and that’s no coincidence. Saris trainers used to be branded as CycleOps. But the addition of “smart” technologies to the M2 changes everything.

I installed the Zwift application on my laptop, to which the M2 connects wirelessly via Bluetooth. There was no add-on ANT+ dongle to buy and no mandatory cell phone app such as those required by some of Zwift’s competitors. Installation of the Zwift software was a little buggy, but I make my living in IT. Despite one or two nuisances I was able to get the application talking to the trainer in just a few minutes.

And then it was time for a test ride! Zwift has a script for a new user’s first ride, so I followed that and then tacked on a few extra minutes exploring the virtual world of Watopia. It was cool to feel the resistance of the trainer changing as I moved up and down hills in the simulation. I had not felt that sensation since the last time I rented a CompuTrainer for an hour. Remember those? They were great in their day, but now you can have an even better virtual riding/racing experience at home.

My recent record with indoor training has been poor. Today’s investment in a trainer and a Zwift subscription could turn out to be a huge waste of money. I don’t think it will, though. Zwift’s visual presentation is nice, but it’s the statistics that will motivate me. I won’t have to track my time anymore. I won’t have to do intervals with a piece of paper and a wall clock. The application includes a large variety of workouts and even lets me configure my own. And for the first time ever, I will be able to track watts. I’ve never had a power meter before.

Each winter I gain a lot of weight and lose a lot of fitness. A new approach to indoor cycling should be good for me. In the days to come I will establish baseline statistics and create plans to improve my performance. Eventually, Zwift could become a racing platform for me. My overnight work schedule, which includes Saturday and Sunday nights, makes real-world racing difficult. Zwift makes racing a possibility on any day at any hour. It also pairs well with Garmin Connect, opening a new path for points and badges on that platform.

Every little bit of motivation helps. During the first rides, much of my motivation will be proving to myself that I have not thrown my money away. But I like what I see so far, and I think this new direction will prove to be the right choice.

Salvaging A Top 10 Season

With 4 rides for a total of 91 miles over the last 4 days, I have reached 4,655 miles this season and moved 2021 into my all-time Top 10. It’s a small achievement, one that probably would have passed without any comment if it had happened during the second week of October. And it almost certainly would have, but my big crash put me out of action for nearly a month. Without the crash, today’s blog post might have been a celebration of another 5,000-mile season. But I’ll accept my consolation prize gratefully. In some ways, making 2021 a Top 10 season legitimizes my effort. I wasn’t just screwing around, even if I did get hurt and even if I didn’t do any racing. This wasn’t a lost year. It wasn’t a waste of time.

But it’s also true that the effort of the last 4 days was supported by good weather I had no right to expect. The cold, wet side of November—the normal side—is about to show itself. I have no more cycling goals within reach this year. It’s another 560 miles to break into the Top 5, and that’s just not going to happen.

Coming Soon: Santa Ramp-Up 2021

Continuing The Comeback

We almost got to 60° today—we should surpass it tomorrow and Monday for the first and, probably, last times this month—but today was windy and I’m still coming back from my injuries, so instead of hopping on the bike I hiked almost 7 miles on the Ice Age Trail from Ridge Run Park down to Paradise Drive and back. And in shorts, too! I did cover up my left calf to protect the last of my road rash, but this was a beautiful November day and hiking was a great way to say goodbye to Daylight Saving Time.