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My start-of-season goal was to get to 500 miles by July 1st. Despite it being a wild guess of what I could do, I reached that goal on June 26th. It was just enough to get me out every day I could go out, and to motivate me to ride catch-up miles for the days I couldn't go out.
I set a new goal of 1,000 season miles by September 1st. I passed that goal on August 4th.
It's worth noting that the data below is only for the e-bike rides. On August 5th I started putting a little mileage on the old Klein Attitude, and it's not in the data. On August 7th I put 8.9 miles on the Klein, also not recorded. I need to come up with a scheme to track multiple bikes in the same charts without becoming too cluttered.
Goal Progress Tracking
Per Ride Miles and Calories Burned
Rides toward September 1, 2024 goal
Notes
August 31, 2024 Last day of this goal. First ride: 16.9 miles, 830 calories.
I didn't ride yesterday due to needing to run distant errands and then it was raining and muddy when I got home. So at the moment I'm short of my stretch goal of 1,250 miles but am way over my original goal of 1,000 miles. Odometer says 1,239.6 miles.
Yesterday morning's weigh-in said I'm at 162.4 pounds. Today's weigh-in said 160.8 pounds. Note that I started the season at roughly 180 pounds. That means I've lost aroud 18 pounds since the start of the season. It's weird that it doesn't feel very visible. Yes, my pants are looser (except around my quadriceps, which have grown). But it's just interesting that fat stores are basically everywhere when you've been mostly sedentary for more than a decade. I still have 'love handles' to burn off, and would still like to get to 150 pounds, but that's probably an unrealistic target for the season without doing something drastic diet-wise (which I've avoided; I have not fasted at all).
I know I didn't properly account for gaining some muscle mass (mainly quadriceps). Can I get to 155 pounds by season end?
August 29, 2024 After a few days of being sick, overlapped with a multi-day power outage in my area (DTE sucks; 365,000 customers were without power), I was finally able to take a somewhat leisurely ride today. 14.3 miles, 681 calories.
That's twice this month I've had multiple day stretches where I didn't ride. Stuff happens; just get back on the bike when it's possible!
I suspect I won't make my stretch goal of 1,250 miles by September 1, but I'll be close. I'm at 1,222.7 miles.
August 26, 2024 Sore throat and congestion today, so no ride.
I did fabricate some simple stands out of 1/2" baltic birch plywood so I can flip my e-bike over without bashing the control pad and display. While there are some over-engineered ones available for purchase, mine were free (scrap plywood). Just a hole a bit bigger than my handlegrips in a piece of plywood that's roughly a rounded triangle. Slide one over each handlegrip and I can flip the bike over where it stands on these and my seat. So the next time I need to repair a flat, life will be a little bit easier. These pieces fit easily in the panier compartments of my rear rack bag.
I'd like to later make some out of acetal or UHMW, just for long term durability and weather resistance so I can strap them to the rack or the outside of the bag.
August 24, 2024 14.8 miles, 760 calories.
I got a puncture flat on the ride today in the rear tire of the e-bike. A relatively small piece of glass through the tread. I was able to patch it roadside with the tools I carry and a Peak Tools GP-2 self-adhesive patch. It was 84F and I was on paved roadside path in direct sun, so that part wasn't much fun. But at least I know I can successfully patch a small puncture with what I carry at all times on the e-bike. Which is a good thing; it's not even possible to roll the e-bike when the rear tire is flat without destroying the rim. That's because the bike is silly heavy (88 pounds).
August 23, 2024
28.0 miles today, 1,359 calories. Split across 3 rides: 14.6 miles,
4.3 miles and 9.1 miles. A season record for miles in a day.
August 19, 2024
After 3 days of rain, I was excited to get out and ride this evening.
I was hoping to do 18 miles. Unfortunately, the road commission graded
and brined the roads AGAIN! That's the 3rd time in 2 weeks they've
made a mess of the roads, and it makes no sense that they brined after
several days of rain. They claim they only do it 4 times per summer,
but it's been more than once a week here this year. If it was just
water, I wouldn't get so irritated about it, but it's not just water.
It's nasty stuff to get on your bike and car, and it's environmentally
awful. :-(
So, only 10.8 miles due to time. I had to slow to a crawl on Allen Road between Hubbard and Rattalee Lake in order to not get completely covered in brine mud. When I saw the road, I went past it to Reese Road in hopes that I could circumvent the brine, but Reese Road was even worse.
August 15, 2024
13.1 miles, 619 calories. My usual Oak Hill / Sashabaw / Clarkston / Allen / Oak Hill route, but all in ECO 1 (first time I've done that). ACL injury a non-issue.August 14, 2024
My old ACL injury was aching a bit for the last couple of days, so I backed off on my ride length. Seemed to not be an issue today, but today was a reduced calorie intake day so I wasn't terribly motivated when I went out. I managed 10.7 miles, 555 calories.August 11, 2024
13.1 miles today, 638 calories.August 10, 2024
First ride today was an awesome leisure ride! I rode in Detroit with my friend Andy. We rode the Detroit River Walk, then onto Belle Isle for a picnic lunch I packed, then the Dequindre Cut (which is short but awesome!). It was a perfect day for it: mid-70's, partly cloudy and a nice breeze off the river. My odometer ticked off 16.1 miles. Only 350 calories, but I expected that (flat, slow).Second ride: 9 miles, 464 calories.
August 7, 2024
Total today: 18 miles, 908 calories.8.9 miles, 436 calories on the old Klein Attitude this morning. Kinda kicked my butt. It's not happy on washboard (which I knew), and the riding position combined with the 175mm cranks doesn't agree with my body. I'll keep putting miles on it and see if I can get enough flexibility to keep riding it. I'm still a bit stunned what I was able to do on this bike 32 years ago. To be 25 years old again...
9.1 miles, 472 calories on the e-bike at night. Interesting how very close the calories/mile is on the e-bike versus the Klein. I chalk a lot of this up to being able to be very aerobic on the e-bike, while the Klein acoustic bike winds up being more anaerobic. That's in no small part due to me being wary of the smallest chainring on the Klein due to the age of the rear derailleur; chain tension isn't fantastic, and these bikes were sort of infamous for chain suck (it's happened on my Klein a few times ovr the years).
August 5, 2024
I'm been putting in fewer miles for a few days. That's because I've been rehabilitating my 1992 Klein Attitude that's been sitting in storage for more than a decade. The tires were dry-rotted, so I replaced them with SE Cub tires, 26x2.0, blue with black sidewall. The bike still had clipless pedals on it, which I replaced with some Theory composite pedals with sealed bearings (also blue); they were the least expensive blue pedals with sealed bearings at the local store (Albe's BMX in Clawson).The seat is crumbling apart. I ordered a new Selle SMP TRK seat from Amazon. I removed the old Onza bar ends, as well as the dried out Onza grips. I temporarily installed some Velo lock-on grips I had in the spare parts bin, basically new since they were on my Biktrix e-bike and replaced immediately with Deity Supracush. Assuming I keep riding the Klein once in a while, it will eventually get RevGrips. This bike is a bone rattler, I'm somewhat amazed at what I used to do on this bike when I was 32 years younger. Today, it isn't really a trail or mountain bike in my mind. The geometry is all wrong, from the long reach (forcing a crouched position) to the steep head angle to the narrow bars (580mm). It's fully rigid, and it's stiff even by rigid standards. It's also a 3x8 drivetrain with all the problems that entails on rough trails. In all honesty, it's much closer to a road bike (sans drop bars) than a modern MTB. If I keep riding it, it's possible I'll replace the MC1 bar/step setup, but it'll require a quill adapter.
August 2, 2024
Only 8.9 miles today, 448 calories. Had to race the rain on the way home. Thunderstorms at the moment.I'm 9.4 miles away from my 1,000 mile goal. Would've just knocked it out today if it weren't for the rain. Tomorrow will be sunny and 85F, I should be able to pass my goal.
Some good news on the weight front... this morning's weigh-in said 163.0 pounds. That's 2 days in a row under 165, which had been a plateau I was fighting. I'm still aiming for 150 or so, but it's nice that I seem to be past a stubborn hurdle.
August 1, 2024
First ride today: 14.2 miles, 684 calories. Warm (88F) and humid (55%) again. Wanted to get my ride in before the rain arrives. Forecast is calling for rain all day tomorrow.Season odometer is at 981.7 miles. That puts me 2 rides away from my September 1 goal of 1,000 miles.
July 31, 2024
One ride today: 15 miles, 700 calories. Warm (87F) and humid (91%). My old back prolem was acting up today, so I wasn't sure how far I'd make it. But it was mostly a non-issue on the bike.My 1,000 mile goal is not far away; I'm at 967.5 miles. But there's quite a bit of rain in the forecast for the next many days so I'm not sure when I'll get to the goal.
July 30, 2024
One ride today: 9 miles, 459 calories. Wet.July 29, 2024
One ride today: 9.6 miles, 489 calories. It rained earlier, it was a sweaty/sticky ride (high humidity).July 28, 2024
First ride today: 16.3 miles, 775 calories. Kind of a hot day, 87F.July 27, 2024
Just 2 short rides today, to mom's and back. Total 8.5 miles, and only 346 total calories.July 25, 2024
First ride: 14.2 miles, 668 calories. Sashabaw/Clarkston loop 2 but with a jog over to Reese Road between Rattalee Lake Road and Oak Hill, to tackle the hill that I've not been able to do in ECO 2 at the end of a longer ride. Victory! The entire ride was done in ECO 2, including this hill.July 24, 2024
First ride today: 13.1 miles, 649 calories. Sashabaw/Clarkston loop 2. Still wet and flooded in a few spots since we got some more scattered hard rain.Second ride: 9 miles, 467 calories. We had some more rain before this ride; the bike will need a cleaning tomorrow.
July 23, 2024
One ride today: 13.1 miles, 637 calories. Sashabaw/Clarkston loop 2. It was muddy and flooded in a few spots since we got some hard rain. I didn't ride yesterday due to rain.July 21, 2024
First ride today: 16.3 miles, 793 calories. Sashabaw/Clarkston loop 3 but counterclockwise. It turns out this is considerably easier because there aren't any significant climbs at the end. So I added a Whippletree/Shappie/Hadley sidetrack at the end which adds 1.2 miles.I am 168 miles ahead of where I need to be on my goal. So it wasn't overly ambitious, but was still a wild guess. Part of that is that the weather has been relatively cooperative. The other part was that I had no way of knowing how much further I'd be able to go on each ride after cycling for a couple of months.
July 20, 2024
First ride today: 15.1 miles, 703 calories. Sashabaw/Clarkston loop 3 All in ECO 2 except that one darn hill on Reese before it ends at Oak Hill. I needed ECO 3 for it, which has been true on all of my 13 to 15 mile rides if it's near the end. It will be a victory when I can do it at ECO 2 near the end of such a ride.July 19, 2024
First ride today: 14.3 miles, 705 calories.July 18, 2024
First ride today: 14.1 miles, 701 calories.July 17, 2024
First ride today was 14.5 miles, 678 calories. Ended at mom's for dinner. Second ride, from mom's to home was 4.2 miles, 178 calories. Legs feel OK. The next two days look favorable weather-wise, I'm going to try to do 13 to 15 miles each of these days. On the 15th when I did 26.3 miles, I hit a wall at around 22 miles. Fought through it, and I think it was heat exhaustion (it was 86F at the time), but I think it's wise for me to stay under 20 miles/day for a little bit unless I happen to feel strong beyond that on a given day.July 16, 2024
One ride today: 9 miles, 458 calories. Legs were sore/stiff from yesterday's 26.3 miles.July 15, 2024
First ride today was 13.2 miles, 600 calories. 'Sashabaw/Clarkston loop 2' route. We got .7" of rain this morning, so it was a bit muddy and wet. A couple of spots on the bike paths were flooded over, but none more than 6" deep. I rode through most of the flooded spots, very slowly since I'm now a bit gun-shy from the water issue I had a couple of days ago.Second ride today was the same route with one minor tweak on a side street (took the shorter but steeper route). 13.1 miles, 613 calories. Broke my season miles-in-a-day record (was 23.8, now 26.3). Also broke my ride calories record for a day (1,213). Tomorrow it looks like we'll get another .75" inches of rain, so this is a good thing.
I added a calories goal to the goal tracking chart. It's based on the mileage goal, at 50 calories/mile (which is about my peak average for a ride). Most of my rides do not average 50 calories/mile, especially recently since I've been riding bike paths with a lot of blind corners and driveways that warrant caution. Once I'm more familiar with some of the new routes, I suspect I'll be up near 50 calories/mile on these routes by virtue of going harder in the spots where I can.
July 14, 2024
Two rides today. First: 4.2 miles to mom's to help her install a new toilet. Second: 15 miles from mom's to town via Rattalee Lake/Reese/Holcomb, then the Clarkston Rd/Sashabaw/Oak Hill loop in reverse of what I did yesterday. Normally Sunday is my leisure ride day, and I did take it a bit easy overall on the second ride (averaged 42.8 calories/mile).I added two points to the Goal line in the goal tracking chart. One shows the miles I was expected to be at on my last ride, and the other shows the date at which I was expected to reach my current mileage. At the moment I'm about 109 miles ahead of my goal miles, which is about 2 weeks ahead.
July 13, 2024
First ride today was similar to yesterday's first ride. The main difference is that I used the bike path along I75 to avoid staying on Clarkston Road into downtown.On Oak Hill I had to move way onto the shoulder to avoid traffic, and unfortunately rode through some deep mud at about 15 mph. I got a lot of mud on me, and the bike got coated pretty good. Sticky clay. I didn't realize how much was on my face and helmet until I got to the Sunoco and saw my reflection. Doh!
My second ride was the usual Fastest to Sunoco, plus a half mile of unplanned putzing around. When I got on the bike to head out, the motor wouldn't engage. I had rinsed the bike pretty thoroughly after my first ride due to the thick mud. So I removed the battery and blasted everything with one of my blow guns at 90 psi. No go. I considered taking my ride without assist, but it's really difficult to ride this bike with no assist. It's 88 pounds, plus the motor creates quite a bit of drag. Just up and down my road a few times was taxing. So I started troubleshooting by disconnecting sensors that I know will halt motor operation. It turned out to be the front brake sensor. I dried the connectors and the sensor with a hair dryer and was good to go. Worth noting that the controller logged no errors.
Unfortunately I had left my Apple Watch Workout running, and the battery died before I left for the actual ride. So I don't have an actual calorie count for this ride. I guessed at 450 from previous rides and my pace (it was a quick one). But it's worth noting that my Apple Watch has been near dead every time I do a second workout ride in a day. It could use a new battery, but I think the real long-term answer is that I need an Apple Watch Ultra if I want to keep doing multiple workout rides per day. Kind of a bummer since I'm not a big fan of the size of the Apple Watch Ultra. It's a cool watch, it's just bigger than I prefer.
The bummer... I'm sure I exceeded my daily Move calories for the season. I was at 990 Move calories for the day before I took the ride. I spent about 4 hours doing yard work today after my first ride, much of that time trimming trees with the chainsaw attachment on my Stihl multi-tool with an extension, which always kicks my butt if I use it for very long (it's heavy and leverage is poor with the extension). I'm gonna guess my Move calories today were around 1,500, which blows past yesterday's season record of 1,175. I don't really care about the records, it's just nice to know what I'm burning since one of my goals is weight loss.
July 12, 2024
14.8 miles on first ride today. Oak Hill to Sashabaw to Clarkston Road to Ortonville Road to Hubbard to Allen Road to Rattalee Lake Road to Reese Road to Oak Hill. Sashabaw and Clarkston Road have nice bike paths, but they warrant slow riding due to blind curves and driveways. Hence I only averaged 37 calories/mile, which is well under my normal average. There's not much elevation change on these paths either, so it's less climbing than my usual road routes.
The next time I do this loop, I'll likely bring my pedal assist level down to ECO 2 or ECO 1 for the bike path portions. Today's somewhat leisurely ride was fine for a first time on this route.
Second ride was 9 miles, at my more typical pace (roughly 50 calories/mile). Interesting that there was a 'Water Over Road' sign on Allen Road just south of Rattalee Lake Road, but I didn't even see any puddles of note (just the usual wet potholes). I rode the same section of the road yesterday but in the opposite direction, so I assume the sign was placed there 2 days ago during the Beryl rainfall and I didn't notice it yesterday because it was facing away from me.
One final note: my watch told me that I broke my season 'Move' calories record: 1,175 for the day.
July 11, 2024
Two days of rain from the remnants of hurricane Beryl kept me from riding (lots of mud and some washouts). Today I started the make-up miles and managed 15.6 quite easily in a single ride. As far as recorded single rides for the season, it was my longest (but not the most miles in a day). I'll have more make-up miles to do tomorrow. Navigating the forecast, which is calling for more rain on Sunday and Monday. I think I've figured out tomorrow's route. Oak Hill to Sashabaw to Clarkston Road to Ortonville Road to the Sunoco. From there I'll decide how many more miles I want to tack on from there to home. It's interesting to note how much stronger I felt today. Two days of rest turns out to make a huge difference. And my calf bruise still hurts when touched but was unnoticeable during my ride.July 7, 2024
Today when getting ready for a ride, the e-bike fell over behind me and the top tube hit my calf on the way down. A reminder of how heavy the bike is (90 lbs or so as loaded): it felt like someone hit me with a 3 lb sledge. I went for a ride 20 minutes later, but on pedal assist level ECO 4 (I normally do ECO level 3, with spurts of ECO level 2 when I don't need level 3). Leg still hurts like hell, but as near as I can tell, nothing broken. I generally don't get discoloration from bruises (no idea why), but from poking I think I've got a baseball-sized bruise. I still intend to make my evening ride, but it'll probably be another ECO level 4 ride. In any event... 10.6 miles, 422 calories on today's first ride.July 6, 2024
I rode 11.8 miles of the Paint Creek Trail today with my good friend Andy. Leisurely ride, and a very nice trail. I later rode another 10.5 miles near home.July 5, 2024
10.6 miles today.Tomorrow I'm riding the Paint Creek Trail with my friend Andy.
July 3, 2024
18.6 miles today, split between 2 rides. 919 calories accoring to my Apple Watch. More of the dirt roads were brined today, so my first ride was a bit slower than normal.I added a linear regression prediction line on the mile tracking plot.
July 2, 2024
11.3 miles today. Should've been more calories, but I had to slow down in several spots due to the dirt roads being brined today (muddy).July 1, 2024
Today was the day the 1,000 mile goal was intended to start. I got started a bit early due to meeting my 500 mile goal ahead of time.I had planned to ride 9.2 miles today (one of my usual routes). But mom invited me over for dinner, so I thought I'd get there and back on my bike, which is about 8.4 miles round trip. That would've been fine, since I'm a little ahead of schedule on my goal. But I felt strong on the return trip, so I took a detour and went to the party store on my way home. Total return trip was 10.6 miles, and my total for the day was 15 miles.
June 30, 2024
I'm off to a good start, in part thanks to finishing my 500 mile goal ahead of time.I added Calories/Mile to one of the graphs. It's interesting to note that with the Workout app, this number seems pretty consistent even when my ride pace is more leisurely (as it was on this day; Sunday rides are intentionally more relaxed).
It looks like my bike odometer error is now around 1.3% since I changed the wheel size setting. Basic arithmetic says I can't do better since it only allows whole numbers in the settings.
June 27, 2024
I finally got around to correcting the wheel diameter on the bike computer. The odometer had always reported 10% less than GPS and my vehicle's odometer, but I hadn't bothered to correct it. It was set to 26", but presumably that setting is for a typical 26" MTB tire (say 2"). My bike is a fat-tire bike, so the tires are actually much taller. Unfortunately the settings only allow whole numbers, so I changed it to 29" (where it looks like 28.6" would be ideal). I'm not looking for super accuracy, I'd just like it to be reasonably consistent with data from my Apple Watch.
I started using the Apple Workout app on my Apple Watch, which I should have been using all along since it provides useful data. I've no idea how accurate the calorie counter is, but I don't need super accuracy here. I just need consistency and a rough idea of energy expended on a given ride.