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.