Halftime 2023

Halfway through 2023, I am ahead of last year’s pace for both miles and ride frequency. I have ridden 1,568 outdoor miles this year, up slightly from last year’s first-half total of 1,455. And I have ridden on 59 occasions in 2023, up from 48 by this date in 2022.

So, why I am dissatisfied with my progress? There are two reasons. First, I haven’t done any really special rides this year: no races, no centuries … not even a metric century. My longest ride to date is just 40 miles! Second, I had a really unproductive June. This month’s 483-mile effort compares very unfavorably to recent years and is my lowest June total since 2006.

I have done 140 miles of walking for fitness. That’s slightly more than halfway to my goal of 260 miles this year.

I plan to remain in Pennsylvania until the end of July, and I will need a big month on the bike to get my cycling season back on the right track. May was uncommonly dry here, but June was uncommonly wet. I lost a lot of days to bad weather this month. When I came here, I couldn’t have imagined that West Bend would literally have better summer weather! July will begin tomorrow under warm sunshine in the Philadelphia area, but rain is expected to return on Sunday and then to continue on-and-off for much of the following week. That’s not good for me. I need to string together some of those 6-ride, 200-mile weeks that you have come to expect from me.

I came to Pennsylvania with a list of things to accomplish for my mother. Most of those things are done now. And Mom is 6 weeks farther along in her recovery from surgery on her fractured hip, so she can take care of many things she couldn’t handle before. In the 4 weeks that remain on this visit, I need to look out for myself a little more and crank up the saddle time.

Troubling Trends

Here in Pennsylvania, I have settled into a comfortable routine. I have been here for a month, after all, and my mother’s house and neighborhood were already familiar to me. Work for my employer has continued uninterrupted. In most respects, I am living here just as I live back in West Bend.

However, cycling feels different. On an average day I can give it only about 90 minutes. My overnight workshift ends at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time. That means my whole day is shifted one hour later: I’m going to bed an hour later in the morning, getting up an hour later in the afternoon, not getting on the bike until late in the afternoon, then cutting my rides off at about 90 minutes to ensure I can help Mom with dinner. I’m going to finish June 2023 with more miles, year-to-date, than I had at the end of June 2022, but that’s mostly because this April was so much more productive than last April. June 2023 is not going to be a statistically impressive month, and by the end of July it seems probable that I will be behind my 2022 pace. That’s up to me, of course. If I find the motivation to do longer rides on my days off, then I can stay ahead. I will remind myself of that at a later date; this week already appears to be compromised. The forecast for Thursday, my next day off, is 65° with rain. That’s a miserable excuse for a summer day in Philadelphia, and there’s a chance of rain every day after that until at least the middle of next week.

I did the 3,000th ride of my cycling career last Thursday. That’s cool, I guess, but my ride frequency hasn’t been great this month. I did only four rides during each of the last two weeks, just 6.5 hours each week, and barely more than 100 miles per week. At this time of year, my mileage and saddle time should be roughly double what I have been doing. I have lost more days to bad weather than I could have anticipated, and that’s going to get worse before it gets better.

Gino Mäder

Official statement from the Bahrain Victorious team:

It is with deep sadness and heavy hearts that we have to announce the passing of Gino Mäder. On Friday 16th June, following a very serious crash during stage 5 of the Tour de Suisse, Gino lost his battle to recover from the severe injuries he sustained. Our entire team is devastated by this tragic accident, and our thoughts and prayers are with Gino’s family and loved ones during this incredibly difficult time.

Following the high-speed incident which occurred on the final descent of Thursday’s stage, the 26 year old was resuscitated at the scene by medical staff who also performed CPR, before being airlifted to hospital.

Despite the best efforts of the phenomenal staff at Chur hospital, Gino couldn’t make it through this, his final and biggest challenge, and at 11:30am we said goodbye to one of the shining lights of our team.

Gino was an extraordinary athlete, an example of determination, a valued member of our team and the whole cycling community. His talent, dedication, and passion for the sport has inspired us all.

Managing Director Milan Erzen commented this morning: “We are devastated by the loss of our exceptional cyclist, Gino Mäder. His talent, dedication, and enthusiasm were an inspiration to us all. Not only was he an extremely talented cyclist, but a great person off the bike. We extend our deepest condolences to his family and loved ones, and our thoughts are with them during this difficult time. Bahrain Victorious will race in his honour, keeping his memory on every road we race. We are determined to show the spirit and passion Gino displayed, and he will always remain an integral part of our team.”

Gino’s family has requested privacy as they mourn their loss, and we kindly ask that their wishes be respected. The team and family express our gratitude for the overwhelming support we have received from the whole cycling world.

Gino, thank you for the light, the joy, and the laughs you brought us all, we will miss you as a rider and as a person.

Today and every day, we ride for you, Gino.

The People At Number 63

My 90-year-old mother still lives in the house that she and my father bought in 1987 when they moved back to eastern Pennsylvania. It was a homecoming for them: they had left the area in May 1965. I was born in Pittsburgh, in western Pennsylvania, in June 1965, and I never thought of the Philadelphia area as home even though I lived here with my parents and my sister from early 1988 until late 1991.

I didn’t own a bike during that period. I didn’t even ride a borrowed bike. On the traffic-choked roads of this very densely populated area, the prospect of cycling never presented itself to me. And it was pretty clearly not on the radar of the rest of the family. I’m not sure how many decades you would have to go back to find the last bike Mom or Dad owned. The last bike-like thing of my mother’s is this torture device:

As for my sister, the bike that came with her when she moved here in 1987 still hangs from the ceiling of the garage:

My sister now lives in sunny Florida, where her old bike might find new life. But, no. If we’re being honest, then eventually this barely used Raleigh Rapide from the now defunct Racine Cyclery is destined to be sold on Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist. In a moment of curiosity about the bike’s history, the new owner might Google the shop sticker still affixed to the seat tube and discover my blog. Hello from the past.

Sifting through the past has been one of my most time-consuming jobs since I arrived at Mom’s house last month. In 36 years, a lot of things have been pushed into dark corners of the basement. But there’s no more bike stuff, not even a tire pump or ugly old helmet with plastic yellowed by age. We weren’t a cycling family.

As Alike As Two Peas

I don’t drink a lot on the bike. On any ride shorter than about 50 miles, I probably don’t need a second water bottle. And most of my rides are shorter than 50 miles. So, why not put that second bottle cage to good use? Years ago I had a Cage Rocket, a storage pod that slipped easily into my seat tube bottle cage and held things like car keys and energy bars. It wasn’t a bad product—you can still find them for sale directly from the factory—but eventually mine failed. It wouldn’t stay closed anymore and that’s a critical failure for a storage device.

I have been using seat wedges ever since, but I haven’t been completely satisfied with them. They can be hard to open and close. In recent years I have found that I use them only for spare tubes, tools, and other things I might need for a mechanical failure. I have been carrying other things—mobile phone, money, ID—in my jersey pockets. But I don’t like riding with things in my pockets. My new “smart” phone is twice the size and weight of my old flip phone, and it fits in my middle pocket only by stretching the pocket walls almost as far as they will go. Some riders are mounting their phones on their handlebars or tucking them into top tube bags. I’m not interested in those options. My phone goes with me only for emergencies. I’ll dig it out if I need it; I don’t want to see it in the meantime.

So, the bottle cage pod is an idea whose time has come again. This time I have gone with the Topeak Escape Pod in its medium size. It solves the Cage Rocket flapper vulnerability with a screw-on top. The pod easily accommodates my roadside repair gear and features a neoprene liner to reduce rattling. (Ever ride down a bumpy road with a couple of CO₂ cartridges banging together? You get sick of that sound in a hurry.) If you have used ordinary water bottles to store small items, then you would appreciate the differences a purpose-built storage pod can offer. I got such a good deal that a bought two pods, one for my road bike and one for my gravel / recreation trail bike.

The 2023 WCA Cyclocross Calendar

Back In Pennsylvania For ... A While

I am back in Pennsylvania. After driving overnight last Thursday, I reached my mother’s house in suburban Philadelphia in time for breakfast on Friday. I left Wisconsin with a list of projects I wanted to complete for Mom, all designed to make her home safer and easier to manage. Mom turned 90 last month, then broke her hip and had surgery from which she is still recovering. Her recovery is going very well and she’s back at home, but she now has caregivers who visit for four hours each day to help with meal preparation, household cleaning, and other common chores. My projects are beyond the scope of their work. I’m doing things like pruning dead tree limbs, fixing the fiberglass insulation in the garage, removing years of lint from the clothes dryer exhaust hose, changing the furnace filter, and installing a new shower head. I will work with an electrician this week to complete projects we began when I was here in April. This is great stuff with immediate, practical benefits. It’s the sort of work that appeals strongly to me when I do it at my own house, but at Mom’s house it rises to an expression of love, something at which I’m pretty clumsy otherwise.

As was true in April, I am working overnight for my employer, handling all of the responsibilities I have when I work from my home office. So, this isn’t a vacation by any reasonable definition. And there’s no pre-defined end date, which is something a real vacation probably would have. My kids will look after my house and yard until the end of summer if necessary, though I don’t expect to be here that long. I will run out of projects eventually. Mom will complete her courses of physical and occupational therapy. She likely will continue to need outside help for a handful of things, but she will return to a mostly independent life. At that point, I will return to Wisconsin.

With many projects already completed, I will devote more time to cycling soon. I have done only short rides so far: 21 miles last Friday, 25 on Sunday, another 25 today. Longer rides are coming. Fridays and Saturdays will be best for them. And I need them. I still haven’t gone beyond 40 miles this year.

Re-tired

The world may never know how many licks it takes to get the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop, but we now know how many miles it takes to wear out a Continental Gatorskin:

If I’m being completely honest, then I don’t know how many miles were on the front tire … a few more than were on the rear, but under far less of a load. It was time to replace the pair and start a new counter on Garmin Connect. This time, I’m not just tracking the mileage, but also establishing an upper limit of 3,000 miles:

I went a little too far with the tires I replaced today. I didn’t go this far this time, but still I should have made the swap sooner.

M’aidez!

Somebody help me out with this weather! Crank up your furnaces and throw open your doors. Point a can of hairspray toward the ozone layer and hold down the button until it’s empty. Refuse to accept carbon offset credits … you can do that, right? Do something to speed up this global climate change that, at least to me, appears to hold so much promise for Wisconsin. It’s May 1st, May Day, and it’s 20° below normal. Add the chill of a 20 mph wind and the “feels like” temperature is below the freezing mark. We had snow flurries this morning. Enough!

Despite this poor start, I have high hopes for May. I’m coming into it 6 pounds lighter than I was on May 1, 2022. And I wouldn’t call myself fit, but I have 374 more outdoor miles in my legs than I did last year on this date. April was pretty good to me. As partial proof of that statement, here are the 9 badges I earned last month on Garmin Connect:

Some Garmin Connect badges don’t count for much. On certain holidays, for example, recording any activity of any duration at any level of exertion will meet the criteria. But some badges do offer proof of a real effort. I call your attention to the Highly Improving badge, earned by reaching “an Aerobic Training Effect of 4.0 for an activity.” I did that on April 27, the maiden voyage of my Garmin Edge 830:

Aerobic Training Effect is one of the new metrics the Edge 830 makes available to me. It’s a way to ensure there’s enough intensity in my program to make fitness gains. Doing only easy things is a recipe for being able to do only easy things. On the other hand, performing every workout to exhaustion is also a certain path to failure. Everyone needs to find a balance, and Aerobic Training Effect looks like a good tool. Moving even further toward that balance, the Edge 830 calculates something called Exercise Load:

Each activity carries an Exercise Load score, but the real value of the metric isn’t obvious day-by-day. Some days are supposed to be heavy, others light, so Exercise Load is best used in the aggregate, week-by-week. If you believe in concepts like periodization—e.g., three weeks of load progression followed by one week of recovery before the cycle repeats—then you can target specific Exercise Load scores.

I hope these additional aids will bring real benefits to my training, which for too long has been too imprecise. There have been times when I was great on the bike, or crap on the bike, and I couldn’t tell you why. I’ve said many times that, in general, I ride better as I ride more. But what happens when there’s no time to ride more? I must make better use of the hours that I can devote to training.

Images From Cheesehead Roubaix XII

It was another bad weather day in Newburg for Cheesehead Roubaix XII. Approximately 40 riders left Fireman’s Park in a 44° rain. The rain lasted for almost the entire ride and the wind speed increased, becoming an icy headwind for much of the trip back from the rest stop in Belgium. But I heard only good reviews of the new route, and everyone seemed happy enough at the ride’s end. These pictures will give you some idea of what the riders faced!

The first unpaved sector, St. Augustine—Blue Goose, would be used again as the last unpaved sector. This was the first time Cheesehead Roubaix covered the same sector in each direction.

The railroad crossing in Fredonia is always an exercise in bike handling. Riders weave through a maze of chain link fencing designed to slow bike and pedestrian traffic. 

We lost the hilly Lovers Lane in Washington County this year but we kept the flat Lovers Lane in Ozaukee County, much to the delight of this rider from Illinois:

Gravel and more gravel! At the south end of Alder Road, we go east on Silver Beach.

Cedar Creek Outdoors generously supplied the rest stop.

Cheesehead Roubaix remains committed to clean sport and dirty roads!

Up the Hofmannberg … not far to the finish line now!

See you again next year!