Feeling So Inclined

Three weeks ago, my employer announced a strict No Overtime policy. A typical work week for me is 43 hours. Because I work alone on Saturdays and Sundays, I can’t take breaks on those shifts. To comply with the new policy, I’m now taking a 1-hour break every Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. I eat “lunch” at my desk—in the middle of the night, I don’t have a lot of restaurant options—so, what should I do with these mandatory breaks? Exercise, of course!

One hour is long enough to squeeze in a treadmill walk and a quick shower. My typical treadmill walk is 3.5 mph with a 1% incline for 60 minutes. I’m going to do something different with these new workouts: 3.0 mph with a 10-15% incline for 45 minutes. That’s slower but harder because it’s all uphill. These workouts will supplement, not replace, what I’m already doing. They will hit the muscles in a slightly different way and burn a bunch of extra calories. At this time of year, my cycling mileage drops dramatically. Bonus time on the treadmill should help to keep my weight in check.

For The Record, I’m Back In Wisconsin

Late yesterday afternoon I returned to West Bend after 25 days in Pennsylvania. As I mentioned in my last post, rain from Hurricane Helene robbed me of several opportunities to ride. Nevertheless, I racked up 343 miles of cycling during the trip. I also did 42 miles of walking for fitness. I even managed to lose 2 pounds, though there were many rich meals and treats at Mom’s house.

I briefly was tempted to hop on the bike when I got back, but I really needed to unpack, get organized, and stock up on groceries. My house is shut down while I am away. I turn off the water at the main valve, unplug almost everything electrical, clear the kitchen of perishable food, and empty the trash cans. I come home to a house that isn’t flooded, didn’t catch fire, doesn’t stink, and has added almost nothing to my next utility bill. After restarting the house yesterday I had just enough time to watch some hockey on TV, do an easy 20-minute treadmill walk, and gape at the aurora borealis as it flickered above my roof for the third time this year.

I did a 2-mile walk today, bringing my 2024 total to 464 miles, a personal record that beats the 463 miles I walked for fitness in 2021. I also got back on the bike today for 32 miles. How could I not ride today? West Bend hit 80° for the first time since September 21 and perhaps for the last time this year. The current forecast says we won’t reach 60° tomorrow afternoon, and by next Tuesday our daytime high may be only 50° or even colder. We’re expecting overnight temperatures in the 20s and 30s early next week. My cycling season could be coming to an abrupt end. I certainly won’t be doing the cyclocross race in Richfield tomorrow, but that’s not a weather thing. I have to work tonight. My Fridays are usually free, but not this one, and it’s just too hard to work all night and then perform well in a morning race.

My form isn’t too bad right now. Whether I am objectively fitter than I was before my trip is unclear, but I don’t think I did anything to hurt myself. I managed to do something for fitness every day, even on the days that required long hours in the car, and even when I had only enough time for a short walk. I have a nice streak going: today is my 45th consecutive day with a ride, a walk, or both. If my cycling season is almost over, then at least I have my treadmill and my strength training options in the home gym, plus miles of hiking trails nearby.

And then there’s that To Do list, which includes a bunch of household projects to complete before winter arrives. To whatever extent my time in Pennsylvania could be considered a vacation—and it should be remembered that I continued to work remotely for my employer—then playtime is emphatically over. I expect to be very busy until at least mid-December.

September’s Soggy Sayonara

Statistically unimpressive, but better than nothing!

I followed last Saturday’s cyclocross race with a Sunday road ride here in the Philadelphia suburbs, then lost the next five days to the shockingly widespread effects of Hurricane Helene. Things aren’t as bad here as they are in Georgia and the Carolinas, but we have had at least some rain every day since Monday. I found just enough time for a walk on each day that I couldn’t ride, so I haven’t been completely idle. I had to complete some of those walks at night on days that offered no breaks while the sun was allegedly up. There is some chance of rain tomorrow, Monday, and on Tuesday as October begins. I didn’t expect Wisconsin would have better weather during this time of year, but I didn’t predict Helene. And, as you should expect, I have been pretty miserable this week.

Next weekend looks beautiful, so I still hope to do another cyclocross race here. A long layoff is poor preparation for a race. Those five lost days were my longest layoff since April 1-6. I forced myself to ride today in conditions that were less than ideal. There was a constant mist, but at least there was no rain during my ride. The roads were wet and fallen leaves made for many sketchy corners. I rode for almost 1.5 hours and saw exactly zero other cyclists. It wasn’t much of a ride, but it was far better than another rest day. I need to test myself a little more in the days to come, then decide by Thursday’s pre-registration deadline whether I’m racing on Saturday.

2024 Carpenter Cross

Today, for the first time ever, I did a cyclocross race in Pennsylvania. I lined up for the Masters 40+ Cat 4/5 race at Carpenter Cross in Horsham, just 7 miles from my mother’s house in the suburbs north of Philadelphia. The temperature was about 80° and the course was dusty from a recent absence of rain in this part of the world. I really liked the course. It didn’t have a run-up, but it had a challenging mix of barriers, climbs, descents, off-camber sections, and sand. I was able to ride the sand pit when some of my rivals were forced to run, and that was good for a couple of positions. We did a short prologue lap to start the race, then three full laps. I had a disappointing start but then settled in. My final lap was my fastest full lap, and that ain’t bad. The race combined the Masters, Juniors, and singlespeed fields, but scored them separately. I had a little fun with an under-19 racer who, technically, wasn’t my competition: I cut him off at the last tight corner and then outsprinted him to the line. He will learn not to leave the door open! As for the guys who were my competition in Masters 40+ Cat 4/5, I placed 13th out of 19, 4:57 behind the winner. That translated to about half a lap on this long course. So, I wasn’t close to the front of the race. That’s OK. I got a good workout, sharpened my bike handling skills a bit, and showed my mother and my oldest kid what I do for fun.

Surprise: A 200-Mile Week!

Short and to the point.

I lost track of my miles this week. Yes, me! With the final Royal Oaks cyclocross practice of 2024 on Wednesday, the season opener of the WCA cyclocross series on Saturday, and the long drive to Pennsylvania coming up tomorrow, today I was surprised to awaken to the realization that I was just a few miles short of my first 200-mile week this year. Not too long ago, I banged out 200-mile weeks with some regularity. But I had not done one since last year, July 31-August 6. So, today I insisted on hitting that target. I finished my week with a total of 201.85 miles and a season-high ride time of 13:40:47.

I am not likely to approach those numbers again this season. I will be off the bike tomorrow, then back on the road bike for 1.5-2 hours on Tuesday. The midweek forecast for eastern Pennsylvania is rainy. I hope not to be shut out. There’s a cyclocross race in my plans for next Saturday. I will want at least more one good ride after Tuesday … and I don’t want the race itself to be a mudder.

2024 Greene Acres CX Classic

The 2024 Wisconsin Cycling Association cyclocross series opened today at a new venue, Nathanael Greene Park in St. Francis. The course featured open grassy straightaways, a short sand pit, some off-camber descents, singletrack through the woods on the park’s west side, and more elevation change than you would expect. It was a course that suited me pretty well. My results probably are an accurate reflection of my fitness and ability at this moment, but in both of my races this morning I was delayed more than once by riders who crashed or stalled in front of me.

I turned 59 in June, which is 60 in cyclocross years. That’s because USA Cycling calculates “racing age” as the age you will be on December 31 in the year in which the world championships take place in your chosen discipline. Got it? The world championships for the 2024-2025 season will be held in France, January 31 through February 2. I will turn 60 in 2025, so my racing age for this season is 60. That puts me in a new division, and today I did OK in the Masters Cat 4/5 60+ race. I placed 5th out of 19.

In the open Cat 4 race—not age-restricted—I placed 28th out of 44. If you could break that race down by age, then I would have been 3rd of 10 in the 60+ group. So, both of today’s results give me some hope that this season I could find myself on a Masters Cat 4/5 60+ podium or two.

When I wasn’t racing, I was shaking a lot of hands. It was good to reconnect with so many friends in the cycling community. It also was good to see the results of the guys from the Royal Oaks practice series and to hear from them the ways practice converted to success today. Finally, it was super gratifying to receive several compliments from people who know me as the current President of the Wisconsin Cycling Association. We’ve done some really good things this year to move the organization forward, and there’s more to come before my term runs out in December.

But now it’s time for me to run back to Pennsylvania. If all goes as planned, then my next race reports will come from there. I should be back in Wisconsin in time for Field of Riches CX, right here in Washington County, on October 12.

Twenty Seasons Of 3,000 Miles

Trust me: today’s ride was nothing special. After a 50-mile effort on Thursday, today I wanted an easy spin in advance of tomorrow’s cyclocross races. Today’s ride was noteworthy only because it took me over the 3,000-mile threshold for the 20th consecutive season.

For me, this is Season 21. The only time I have failed to exceed 3,000 miles was in Season 1. That was 2004, when I rode only 1,454 miles. Cycling then was still very much an activity that I saw as an accessory to my other athletic interests. Mileage goals didn’t really start until 2005.

I will try to surpass 4,000 miles before this season ends. The last time I failed to reach 4,000 was way back in 2008 when a crash resulted in a broken collarbone and some unexpected time off the bike. In 2023, I rode 1,151 miles between September 14 and December 31. A repeat of that performance would get me past 4,000 miles for the 16th straight year.