2023 Englewood CX

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

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

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

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

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

My USA Cycling Downgrade

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

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

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

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

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

Wow, Was I Wrong!

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

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

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

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

Summer 2023, Continued …

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

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

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

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

Will This Put A Dent In My Season?

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

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

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

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

Season 10 Begins At Royal Oaks

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

Back On The BMC

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

First 200-Mile Week Of 2023

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

Presenting The Twilight Zone-2 Ride

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

Keeping Up … And Slimming Down?

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

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

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

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