Flowers And Bunnies And Sunshine? Not Quite!

Officially, spring arrived today at 4:24 p.m. CDT. I was literally on my bike at that moment, but I didn’t notice any change. Today was a statistically average March 20 in West Bend: chilly, breezy, overcast. The romantic ideal of springtime is many weeks away. It’s best not to get too excited. Fresh in my mind is the -6° wind chill that West Bend felt before sunrise on Saturday morning. I rode outside today and it was good, but we’re not going to have an unbroken path to summer. Tomorrow looks like a nearly identical day, and that will pull me outside again. Wednesday may be even warmer and I’ll look for another chance to ride if we don’t have an all-day rain. I haven’t ridden outside on consecutive days since October 29 through November 3, so I’m eager to see what I can accomplish this week. I had a horrible spring last year and it won’t be hard to beat. There’s a real opportunity for me to finish March with more miles, year-to-date, than I had last year before May 1. And on top of that goal, I have a couple of Garmin Connect badges to pursue. Every little bit of motivation helps. That’s especially true when experience tells me that there’s at least one more blast of cold air and at least one more accumulating snowfall before spring really arrives.

The Absa Cape Epic is running this week and I am enjoying the live YouTube coverage from South Africa. My overnight work schedule gives me a chance to stay tuned to the race without losing any sleep. As our spring begins, autumn is starting in the southern hemisphere. There were plenty of jackets and hoodies at the finish line of today’s Cape Epic stage. It was 66° at the time. West Benders would have been complaining of the heat!

Welcome, March 2023

Today's ride was typical of my winter rides: short, slow, and close to home.

February is gone and I won’t miss it. I spent only 8 hours on Zwift and that’s simply not getting the job done. I did spend 4 hours riding outdoors in February and that’s OK in this climate, but overall I was unhappy with my training volume. Until this afternoon, I had not been on any kind of bike ride since last Friday due to a bit of a cold, the first time I felt sick since June 2016! It was only a little congestion and pain in the sinuses. I spent a lot of time in bed and kept myself extra warm to ensure things didn’t get worse.

Assuming I stay healthy, it won’t be hard for March to beat February in every category that matters. With generally warmer temperatures and the return of Daylight Saving Time, March should offer more opportunities to ride outside. But it is still winter, so I won’t forget about Zwift. And I expect to get back into a more regular schedule of walking and hiking. Today’s 21-mile outdoor ride was a good start to what I hope will be a busy month.

In February I kept my promise and abstained from Coca-Cola. Eliminating thousands of empty calories helped me to lose 1 pound in February despite a lower level of activity. It’s the first time since 2019 that I lost weight in February, and I’m 5 pounds lighter than I was on March 1, 2022. So, I’m going to abstain from Coca-Cola for another month. Let’s see what happens.

From Aigle, With Love

Today the UCI released its 2023-2024 Cyclocross World Cup schedule, and I guess we stupid Americans should just shut up and count ourselves lucky that we still have one race. Those halcyon days of October 2021, during which America enjoyed not one but three World Cup races in an 8-day period, are long gone. Later in that same season, the biggest names in the sport came back across the Atlantic for the world championships. America had never seen a cyclocross season like it … and probably never will again.

What we’re left with is the season-opening race at Trek’s headquarters in Waterloo. And sincere thanks to Trek for its continuing commitment, but the bloom is off the rose. Waterloo was one of two World Cup races in America during the 2022-2023 season. Mathieu van der Poel, Wout van Aert, and Tom Pidcock skipped both. For the three superstars of cyclocross, it simply wasn’t worth the time and expense to come over from Europe. With so many races on the schedule, anyone with series ambitions or who uses the World Cup season only to tune up for the world championships can skip the American trip and keep training without jet lag. With only one American race on next season’s calendar, the situation promises to be even worse. If you’re not a Trek-sponsored rider, an American, or a Canadian, then you’re better off staying in Europe.

Ultimately, the only thing that will make things better on this side of the pond is money. Lots of money. Make American races so lucrative that the Europeans can’t ignore them. The top names in cyclocross typically get appearance money to ensure their participation in races they might otherwise skip. Appearance money brings in the most popular racers, and that attracts more fans. If you’re monetizing the fan base—like every major sport in the world does—then attracting more fans equals more revenue for the race promoters. Done right, that’s a self-perpetuating cycle with benefits for everyone and a path back to multiple World Cup races in America.

Waterloo’s World Cup race will be the biggest cyclocross event in Wisconsin in 2023. It will fall smack in the middle of the Wisconsin Cycling Association season. So, it’s not too early to think about what the WCA calendar will look like, but it is too early to expect any announcements. Last year’s calendar wasn’t released until May 24. The very top level of cyclocross is now barely breathing outside of Europe, but there’s every reason to expect our state championship series will continue to be strong. Hang in there, baby, #crossiscoming.

That’s A Workout!

I hate snow as completely as a person can hate snow. Every flake is a personal insult. Snow represents not fun, but work. It’s another form of trash: something I have to discard, just like autumn leaves or used kitty litter. And my hatred for snow is only enhanced by my ownership of a corner lot. I have sidewalks on two sides of my house, not just one. There’s 121 feet on the north side and 94 feet on the east side, plus another 47 feet from the front door to the streetside mailbox. My driveway is 52 feet long and fans out from 19 feet wide at the garage door to 22 feet wide at the curb.

It’s a lot of concrete. Any measurable snowfall leaves me with more than an hour of shoveling if I want to clear it all. I briefly utilized a snowblower about 20 years ago, but I hated it. Not only was it extremely loud, but also it didn’t clean down to bare concrete. I went back to shoveling and, while I despise it, I’m a demon at it. Remember the legend of John Henry, the “steel-driving man” who could hammer his way through solid rock faster than a steam powered drill? I’m that good with a shovel: I frequently clear my sidewalks faster than my snowblowing neighbors. And I don’t die of heart failure at the end, so there’s that!

Of course, some people do die of heart failure during or shortly after shoveling. Your local newscast will be happy to warn you about the dangers every winter. So, just how hard is it? Today I measured my effort as I cleared 5-6 inches of snow from my sidewalks. I left the driveway alone; we’ll be somewhere around 40° tomorrow and Sunday, and I have nowhere to go in the meantime. Here’s what today’s sidewalk cleanup looked like statistically:

That’s no joke: a workout of 53 minutes, 40 seconds, with an average heart rate of 116, a maximum heart rate of 150, and an estimated energy burn of 332 calories. I would have to walk almost 3 miles at a brisk pace to match it, and there are plenty of hour-long Zwift rides on which I don’t approach 17:30 above Zone 3. Enough snow shoveling would beat almost anyone into shape … if it didn’t beat him to death.

Weird Little Day

Today was West Bend’s first look at 50° since December 30 and I was only too happy to hop aboard my Framed Gravier for another ride around town. We got up to 52° before the rain came and the temperature dropped back into the 40s. I now have done three outdoor rides in the last seven days, which is unusual for February. But it’s also unusual that I am continuing to struggle with a bike that, to me, still seems brand new. I’m having problems that I don’t think I should be having with fewer than 500 miles of service.

Today it was the crankset: single chainring SRAM Rival paired with an FSA BB30 bottom bracket. I noticed as I pedaled that the chainring wasn’t tracking in a consistent plane; it appeared to wobble. Shifting wasn’t affected—all of that takes place in back, of course—and there was no sensation that the chain was going to drop off the chainring. Things seemed fine but they looked odd. And looks were not deceiving. I stopped at Pedal Moraine and, with the bike on the workstand, it was obvious that the drive-side crankarm would not have held on much longer. I may have been only a minute away from a catastrophic failure and a humiliating walk home.

Once everything was taken apart, cleaned, and reassembled, I was ready to roll again. Critical to reassembly was ensuring the proper torque on the crankarms. That’s probably the root of the issue, and it’s something I didn’t even think to check when I took delivery of the bike last July. I wouldn’t doubt that the issue was present from my very first ride.

Today was also an opportunity for one more adjustment to the rear disc brakes, which have been extraordinarily hard to get dialed.

I had no trouble on the short ride home from the shop, so I’m looking forward to my next ride. I still think the Gravier will be a honey of a bike once I beat it into submission. Today’s ride was only our 17th adventure together, and on almost every one I have found something at least a little out of place. Is that just part of the deal when your bike is shipped to you from the manufacturer rather than handed to you at the local bike shop? Maybe.

The 2023 WEMS Schedule

Today the Wisconsin Endurance Mountain Bike Series released its 2023 schedule, and it’s a head scratcher:

5/13 – Alpine Valley

6/03 – Jack Lake

6/17 – Wausau

7/08 – Rhinelander (Washburn Trails)

8/19 – Underdown

8/25 – Tomahawk (new, overnight race)

9/09 – Levis/Trow

Only the season opener and the season finale will run on dates that don’t conflict with the much more popular Wisconsin Off-Road Series. The pool of mountain bikers is only so large. Why does WEMS continue to schedule events on the same weekends as WORS?

Poor turnout was the reason behind Team Pedal Moraine’s decision not to bring back the Greenbush Grinder for 2023. You’ll also notice that New Fane is missing. I hate to say it, but I’m not sure how much longer WEMS can hang on if it continues in this direction.

First Outdoor Miles Of 2023

I think we topped out at 47° today, which is very nice for February 8 in West Bend and certainly nice enough to reduce cabin fever. I pulled out the Framed Gravier for a 1-hour ride around town, my first outdoor ride this year. As expected, there were places I couldn’t go because of lingering snow and ice, but it was fun simply to get outside.

The 2023 WORS Schedule

Putting Coke On Ice

A new month begins tomorrow and that means a new weigh-in. I haven’t weighed myself since January 1, but I can tell by the way my clothes fit that this was another month of weight gain. I didn’t do as much with Zwift as I would have liked—only 14.5 hours this month, down from 21.5 in December—and I didn’t make any meaningful changes to my diet until it was too late.

I ran out of Coca-Cola last Friday. When I went to the grocery store on Saturday morning, I made a very conscious decision not to buy more. My Coke consumption has gotten out of control: probably 5 cans a day on average, and that’s a massive 700 calories. Just to offset my Coke intake I need to do a solid hour on Zwift every day. But, of course, I don’t. So, I am giving up Coke for the entire month of February. The shortest month of the year is a good time for acts of contrition, because you don’t have to wait too long to start sinning again. In the meantime, I will have avoided 19,600 empty calories. That has to make a difference all by itself, but it’s part of a larger strategy that includes an increase in dietary fiber and a big reduction in refined sugars. The scale is going to mock me tomorrow and I will keep that humiliation to myself. On March 1, however, don’t be surprised if you see me with a Coke and a smile. One can a day wouldn’t kill me …

The 2023 Wisport Schedule