A Solution, Not “The” Solution

I dusted off the smart trainer today. It’s that time of year. If I can do two or three sessions per week, then I think I’ll be satisfied. Trying to replicate my mid-summer outdoor cycling volume with offseason trainer rides is too terrible to contemplate. The plan for this offseason is to keep my total exercise volume consistent with a mix of activities rather than to rely so heavily on cycling.

While I don’t count trainer miles in my yearly totals, I will use them in pursuit of Garmin Connect goals. That’s good motivation to do something I won’t always want to do. Let’s be honest! Even when I was a Zwift user–despite all of Zwift’s features, challenges, social connections, and so on–there were many days when I simply couldn’t find enough motivation to pedal to nowhere.

And yet, Zwift still tempts me. I am not ruling out a return to it in early 2026. It’s not a good fit right now, though. I have travel plans in November and December, and the trainer isn’t coming with me.

Andiamo!

See that Lamborghini Countach? I had that poster on my bedroom wall back in the 1980s. It was a more than suitable replacement for the poster of Farah Fawcett, whose stock was already falling by then. Next to pizza, it was my favorite thing to come out of Italy … until now.

In late September, I invested in a pair of Favero Assioma Pro MX power meter pedals.

This is the mountain bike version, not the road bike version. But I use mountain bike pedals on all of my bikes, as it always has made more sense to me to wear shoes in which I could actually walk if it became necessary. So, the new pedals went on my new Scott Addict. I am still learning what they can do for me. Right now, they are expensive toys that delight me with a few statistics I didn’t have before. When the 2026 outdoor season begins, they will be key components of a refined training plan. During the 2025-26 indoor season, I hope to get more in tune with my FTP and VO2 max. Those numbers will come from turbo trainer rides and should transfer pretty accurately when outdoor rides resume in the spring.

My 2025 outdoor season is not over yet, but the end is in sight. Earlier today, I surpassed my mileage goal. There is now no incentive to ride unless the weather is fair.

But to get back to how additional performance statistics fit into my future plans … I have taken a particular interest in VO2 max, which is strongly correlated with longevity. You’ll probably see a lot more discussion of longevity here in the future. My serious injury last November and my 60th birthday in June combined to bring longevity to my attention in an urgent way. And just as I was beginning to explore the subject, I found a study from August 2024 that determined the effects of aging can spike rather than appear gradually. Making matters worse, 60 is one of the ages associated with a spike.

The safe assumption is that I am at risk for one of those spikes, and the best response is to eat better, sleep better, and exercise smarter. In each area, I have made progress this year. I have not been especially restrictive with my diet, but I have cut out a few things and it’s hard to argue with the results: at my October 1st weigh-in, I was down 17.2 pounds from my peak weight this year, which I reached on April 16. I still have setbacks with sleep, but the overall trend has been for longer and more restorative sleep. Exercise is something I have had in abundance for decades, but I didn’t trouble myself too much about its quality. That’s changing. Cycling is going to continue to be hugely important to my cardiovascular health. I expect giving more attention to FTP and VO2 max to provide big benefits. The biggest benefits, though, may come from a greater focus on strength training.

My statistics from last week furnished proof that the offseason has begun, even though I expect to do a few more outdoor rides this year. For the week of October 6-12, I spent 2½ hours on strength training, 11 hours on walking, and only 3½ hours on the bike. All of that walking was inside, which was convenient but hardly inspiring. I need to get back on the hiking trails soon. And that reminds me of something: my 30-year-old hiking boots were made by hand in Italy and are still as good as new. Maybe they deserve the No. 2 spot after pizza. I need more time with the Favero pedals to make up my mind.

Blevins Makes History In Lake Placid

Congratulations to Christopher Blevins, who had an amazing weekend of UCI World Cup mountain bike racing in Lake Placid NY. Last Friday, Blevins clinched the 2025 series title in short track (XCC). On Sunday, Blevins clinched the 2025 series title in cross-country Olympic (XCO). In each race, Blevins used a powerful sprint to secure victory. Bevins is the first American man to win the XCO title since John Tomac in 1991. American Ned Overend was the inaugural champion of the series in 1990. Additionally, Blevins is the first man to win both the short track and cross-country Olympic titles in the same season since the series added short track as a separate discipline in 2022.

Last Big Week Of 2025?

Warm, but windy!

Our remarkable run of good weather continued today with more sunshine and another afternoon high in the 80s. I knocked out 30 easy miles today to surpass 200 miles for the third week out of the last four. On Thursday, I reached 3,000 miles for the 21st consecutive season. Going into the new week, I’m only 70 miles away from my goal for the year: 3,161.

I won’t stop on 3,161 miles, but I will allow myself the occasional break. Including today, I have ridden on 11 consecutive days and on 27 out of the last 28. I wasn’t about to waste days that were 10-20° above normal for this time of year. In the week to come, temperatures will drop into the normal range and my rides will get shorter. I may hit my mileage goal on another slow roll around town that is noteworthy for no other reason. And after I hit my goal? Only the warmest days will remain in play.

Overreaching?

I ride more miles on the Eisenbahn State Trail than anyone I know. Almost every ride includes it in some way, even if I’m just taking a brief ride on the trail to reach the start of a road route. And almost every week, spring through fall, I do at least one ride to Campbellsport and back. From my house near the south end of the Eisenbahn, that’s 32 miles. But I rarely go to Eden, the northern terminus of the trail. It’s 14 extra miles, roundtrip. For whatever reason, that relatively short distance makes a big difference.

Today was so sunny and warm and time was so plentiful that I couldn’t resist taking my first trip to Eden since September 12, 2024. It was slow going, if I’m being honest. I couldn’t seem to stop my heart rate from drifting into Zone 3 on what was supposed to be a Zone 2 ride. I kept dialing back my effort, but I never found an easy groove that allowed me to stay in Zone 2. After the ride, Garmin expressed its disappointment in me:

Overreaching? With a couple of short detours to reload my water bottle, today’s ride was 47 miles. I finished it in 3:11:35 for a 14.7 mph average. What’s the big deal? I had a rest day on Wednesday. Today’s ride gives me just a little more than 10 hours in the saddle this week with one day to go. That’s normal stuff for me, so I’ll be back on the bike again tomorrow. It won’t be another 3-hour day, fair enough, but I bet I won’t be unusually fatigued. Overreaching … 

200 + 200 = Satisfied

Yeah, there it is: my first back-to-back 200-mile weeks since July 18-24 and July 25-31, 2022. At this time yesterday, I wasn’t sure it was going to happen. I got rained on yesterday and decided to cut my ride short at just 9 miles. Today’s forecast was very uncertain as little pockets of rain continued to drift through our region, but by early afternoon I was confident I could bang out enough miles to reach my goal. With 30 miles today, I finished the week with a total of 206 miles in 13:20:22. That’s almost a carbon copy of last week, when I did 210 miles in 13:26:30, my highest totals this season.

When the new week begins tomorrow, I will be 27 miles away from my 500-mile goal for September, 33 miles away from another Garmin Connect badge, and 452 miles away from my 3,161-mile goal for the 2025 season. I like my chances of completing the first two. The last one will take more work than I can put out during a single week – my biggest week ever was 283 miles, September 21-27, 2020 – but I should get there by mid-October.

Getting Around

You may have noticed a new Routes page here on the Bike Washington County site. It will become a repository for road routes that I like. Right now it contains two of mine and one from Jimmy Scharrer, each with a simple map and cuesheet, plus GPX files that you can download for your GPS-enabled cycling computers. I will add more routes over time but not on a regular schedule, so check periodically and feel free to direct me to routes that you have created and think would be good additions, as Jimmy did.

Publishing a collection of routes is something I considered for a long time. My most recent upload, the “Evening Standard” ride, got a mention here way back in April 2011. One of the reasons I’m finally taking on this project is my concern for the safety of the Thursday group rides that are organizing in the Washington County Bicyclists group on Facebook. I’ve seen too many routes that include state and county highways where the riders are sharing the road with high-speed motor vehicle traffic, and too many routes that include long stretches into a setting sun. With the incredible road density we enjoy, there’s simply no reason to create routes that exacerbate those dangers. Thursday group rides start at 6 p.m. early in the season and then shift to 5:30 p.m. as the days get shorter with the approach of autumn. They are designed to use all of the available daylight, so they inevitably contend with sunset. And yet so many of them finish into the sun when they might have finished from the north, south, or west. As my collection of routes grows, it will include options from all directions. By next spring, perhaps I will have published enough routes that the Facebook group can just choose from them instead of generating new routes each week. While I appreciate the efforts of the group’s route creators, it’s common for them to publish their routes so late in the week that there is insufficient time for riders to conduct a review and suggest safer alternatives. A repository from which routes can be chosen to match wind direction and available daylight seems like a better and more sustainable choice.

I won’t publish any route that I wouldn’t ride myself. I consider them safe enough, but no route is 100% safe. (A couple of the worst crashes I’ve ever had were on car-free recreation trails!) Know your own limits, respect the weather, always consider how the position of the sun affects visibility, and use good judgment if you want to try one of these routes for yourself.

My Best Week On The Bike In 2025

Today's familiar route

The first week of September was a disaster. In those seven days, I did only two rides for a total of 57 miles and a total ride time of 3:40. I simply could not motivate myself when the air temperature was barely above 60° and when the wind was making me feel even colder. And yeah, I know I had better “warm up” to the idea of riding in those conditions, because soon they will be the norm. But in the first half of September, they are absolutely not. We should still be hitting mid-70s regularly.

So, imagine my delight with the way this week turned out! This afternoon, West Bend briefly topped 80° for the first time since August 22. I rode every day this week and finished with my first 200-mile week of 2025. I completed 210 miles in 13:27. That’s getting the job done! Almost all of those miles came from the Eisenbahn State Trail, but I didn’t mind. If I had needed variety, then I might have found it easily. There was a group mountain bike ride at Glacial Blue Hills on Tuesday, cyclocross practice at Royal Oaks Park on Wednesday, and a group road ride that left from the Eisenbahn’s Rusco Drive trailhead on Thursday. If you had done all of those and my Eisenbahn group ride on Friday evening, then you would have had four distinctly different ways to enjoy cycling on four consecutive weeknights. Not bad, West Bend!

We’re going to continue to have warm and dry conditions for at least the next few days, so I will continue to push. I really am all about the miles right now; rest days be damned. (I don’t recommend this approach to those of you who are actually training for something. Real gains come only with adequate recovery.) Despite my big totals this week, I still need 658 miles to meet my goal for the year: 3,161. Last year, I had only one 200-mile week: September 9-15. This year, I have a chance for my first back-to-back 200-mile weeks since July 18-24 and July 25-31, 2022. I want to go into October needing as few miles as possible, and I want to leave October thinking only of cross-training workouts and indoor cycling until next spring.

Twilight Zone-2 Ride: 2025 Finale

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 15-16 mph. The ride will start promptly at 6 p.m. Sunset will be at 7:10 p.m., so this ride will finish in the dark. 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.

Pedal Moraine To Close At The End Of September

Here’s news I hoped I would never see. Mark Ramsey, owner of Pedal Moraine Cycle and Fitness in West Bend, announced on Facebook this morning that the store will close at the end of this month. This is a big loss for the local cycling community overall, and almost certainly a fatal blow for Team Pedal Moraine, which now must find a new title sponsor or else disband.