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Glade Optics Fathom Goggles Review

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After almost seven years my trusty Smith I/O ski goggles were starting to show signs of aging. So about half way through this ski season I started shopping for some new goggles.

The problem I ran into in shopping for new ski goggles was one that I think most avid skiers who also have young kids can relate to. That problem was budget! The last time I shopped for ski goggles I didn’t have budget constraints like I do now because I didn’t have kids back then. This time around I had my daughters’ college funds to consider as I shopped for goggles.

While I would have liked to just go and buy another pair of Smiths, it just wasn’t in the budget this time. On Instagram, my partner came across a brand that I hadn’t heard of before. That brand was Glade Optics.

I was intrigued by Glade Optics because they’re based in Breckenridge, Colorado and appear to have an actual physical presence in the U.S. even though the goggles are made elsewhere. The other intriguing thing is that they weren’t priced ridiculously low like some knock-off brands you’ll find on Amazon, but they weren’t as expensive as the goggles I was replacing (you won’t find Glade on Amazon at all).

Glade Optics also offered a pro discount for people who work in the ski industry. I submitted the requisite paperwork to prove that I actually am a ski instructor working at a ski mountain. About a week later I got an email from Glade Optics inviting me into the pro program. The discount offered was significant and I was able to purchase a pair of Glade Optics Fathom goggles for well under $100.

Unboxing the Glade Optics Fathom Goggles

I ordered Glade Optics Fathom goggles and they arrived in the mail within a couple of days. I opted for the “team edition” Fathom goggles because I wanted the darkest lens option and because the team edition comes with a free goggle case (a $25 product on its own).

The goggles were delivered in the goggle case inside a sturdy cardboard box. Within the case there was a goggles with the dark lens installed. A lighter lens to use on cloudy days was also in the case inside a cloth sleeve.

This is a good time to note that I chose the Glade Optics Fathom goggles over the Glade Optics Adapt 2 goggles because I prefer to swap lenses rather than rely on photochromic lenses to adapt to changing light conditions. I’ve had some less-than-good experiences with photochromic lenses while mountain biking which has made me timid about trying them in other settings.

First Impressions on the Snow

“Whoa! These are dark!” was what I said the first time I put on the Glade Optics Fathom goggles with the dark lens installed. It wasn’t a super bright day when I put them on, but it also wasn’t what I would call a dark day. I’m sure there is some scientific method to measure how dark the lens is. I don’t know what that method is so I’ll just say the dark lens felt like it was blocking a lot of light.

Skiing down for the first time with Glade Optics Fathom goggles on I immediately noticed some wind noise that I hadn’t noticed before. I stopped and adjusted the placement of the goggle strap and the noise persisted. On the next run I adjusted the strap again and the noise went away.

The wind noise must have been due to the fact that my helmet from Smith is made to mesh with Smith optics without any futzing around. The same is not true when using another manufacturer’s goggles. Not a big deal at all, it’s just something to be aware of.

Three Days of Powder and Changing Light!

After getting them I wore my Glade Optics Fathom goggles for every ski lesson that I taught. Wearing the goggle while teaching on the magic carpet and beginner terrain isn’t quite the same test as wearing them while charging through glades covered in 20″ of fresh snow!

Last week I got three full days of skiing at Jay Peak in Vermont. It snowed a few inches every day that we were there. It also snowed 20″ the night before we got there. To say that we hit it right is an understatement. It was freaking fantastic skiing!

On Wednesday it was quite overcast and snow was falling while we were skiing over the bumps and through the glades. I wore the light lens that came with my Glade Optics Fathom goggles. Swapping lenses was super easy because the lenses attach to the frame magnetically. There isn’t any fidgeting with tricky tabs or weaving the lens through a slot in the frame to worry about. While I did take my gloves off to swap lenses, I bet that I can do it with my gloves on if I have to.

On Thursday we woke up to sunshine at Jay Peak! I swapped the light lens for the dark lens on my goggles. The dark lens was the perfect choice. Never once did I have any problems picking up shadows or weird undulations in the terrain while wearing the dark lens. Equally important, I never felt any eye strain from glare off the snow.

Me and my buddy who is retired and would prefer to stay off the Internet.

In the afternoon on Thursday the clouds rolled in quite quickly. Unfortunately, I had left my light lens back in the condo we were renting. I could have gone back, but I didn’t want to miss any time on the slopes. That was a mistake because on one particularly dark run I couldn’t pick up any of the undulations in the slope. I checked up and told my buddy to go slow and I’d follow him until we got out of the clouds. He did.

Friday we woke to mostly clear skies. I chose to go with the dark lens again. It worked out well in light that I would call flat. It wasn’t bright, but it wasn’t dark either. Once again the dark lens performed well and I was able to pick up all of the nuances of the surfaces we skied including glades and high-speed groomers.

Bottom Line

For the price, I don’t think you’ll find a better pair of ski goggles than what Glade Optics offers. Like any ski goggle, after lens quality the fit is what matters most. Glade does have a 30 day return/ exchange policy with free shipping both ways so that you get the goggles that fit you best.

One App to Help You Focus and Stop Procrastinating

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Late last summer I embarked on a project to revamp a bunch of things on the backend of my Practical Ed Tech website. It was a project that I’d rather have avoided, but I had to do it. At about the same time I learned of a new productivity aid called Focusable. Since then I’ve used Focusable whenever I’ve found myself trying to procrastinate.

What is Focusable?

Focusable is a free app and website that anyone can use to teach themselves to focus on completing difficult tasks, to ignore cheap social media distractions, and to recharge after completing a stressful task.

How it Works

Focusable is unlike browser extensions and mobile apps that you can use to block distractions. Instead of trying to block distractions for you, Focusable teaches you how to ignore those distractions on your own. It’s a bit like the old, “teach a man fish” idea.

To get started using Focusable you can go directly to GetFocusable.com and sign-up for a free account. Once you’re signed into your account you’ll see a dashboard with an option to “recharge” or “focus.” Click on focus and you’ll see a timer that you can set for as few as two minutes or as many as twenty minutes. Start the timer then go work on the task you need to do.

When the timer goes off in your Focusable dashboard you can record a short video reflection about how you’re feeling. You can also skip that reflection if you want to get right back to work. I like to record little reflections because they become a little progress journal over time.

Focusable provides little recharge or refocus activities that you can do between blocks of time spent working. The recharge activities are things like guided breathing exercises, guided stretching, and guided eye exercises.

Start a Streak and Keep Going

Focusable lets you track how much time you’ve spent on focused work and how many recharge activities you’ve done. You can set goals for yourself and try to keep a daily streak going for as long as possible.

The hardest part of completing any project is often just getting started on it and working on it every day. I’ve found that using Focusable to get myself started on the first five or ten minute block of work time is usually all I need to get myself on a streak of productivity that lasts for a few hours.

Watch this video to see how Focusable works.

Why Do We Procrastinate?

If you’ve ever wondered why it’s so hard to get started on tasks that you know you need to do even though they’re not particularly hard tasks, watch this TED-Ed lesson on why we procrastinate. It does a great job of explaining the biggest psychological cause of procrastination. That cause being the fight-or-flight response in our brains to tasks that we perceive as difficult or otherwise stress-inducing.

Lessons Learned from Skiing With My Six-Year-Old

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My oldest daughter is six years old. She has been skiing since she was two. One of her favorite shirts to wear these days is this one that has “life is better on the slopes” printed on it. In short, she loves to ski. So when her elementary school was unexpectedly closed on Monday we headed out to ski. But we went to a new-to-her mountain. That’s where the challenge and learning began.

We usually ski at Mt. Abram because it’s a small, local mountain that really caters to families. We also go there because I work there on the weekends and get free passes for the family. Unfortunately, it’s only open Thursday through Sunday. So on Monday we headed to Pleasant Mountain.

It was my daughter’s first ever visit to Pleasant Mountain and my first visit in seventeen years. I had an industry pass for the day so instead of just walking up to the regular ticket window we had to go find the guest services desk to get our lift tickets. That wasn’t a big deal and is a small price to pay for getting a free pass for the day. Unfortunately, it meant some extra walking in ski boots. Again, not a big deal for me, but a little tiring for a six-year-old.

First Run

Passes in hand, we headed out to the lifts. My daughter wanted to go straight to the bigger of the two lifts servicing the terrain that I felt was appropriate for her. Instead, I convinced her to start on the smaller lift to warm up. She handled that first run very well and was excited to head to the bigger lift.

Second Run

Off we went to the bigger chair lift and higher terrain. As we headed up she was excited to look around and see the surrounding lakes and mountains. However, I was starting to think, “hmmm…this might be a bit steeper terrain than she’s skied before.” I scoped out what I thought would be the easiest path down for her which was to the left of the lift line.

We got off the lift and turned to the right. At that point we were committed to that direction. Unfortunately, what I couldn’t see from the lift was that while the line I picked was overall the easiest path down, it started with a hard and steep run for about 50 feet. My daughter was excited about it though.

We headed down that first steep section and her skis caught a little ice patch and she fell. It wasn’t a hard fall (she’s fallen much harder on far flatter terrain), but it was enough to scare her. The tears started flowing and were accompanied by “I DO NOT LIKE THIS MOUNTAIN AT ALL! I want to go home!” Through the tears and frustration she got up and we skied back down. The lesson from this run was, what looks easiest from the lift may not actually be the easiest route.

Third Run

By the time we got back down my daughter wanted to go back up the same lift. Now having a better understanding of the terrain off that lift, I agreed that we could do it again. My plan was to take the other side of the lift line down this time.

We got off the lift and headed left to ski the right side of the lift line. I let her lead down the mountain. However, I forgot to do what I always do when teaching ski lessons. That is to give directions on when and where to stop.

As we came to a trail junction I could see she was about to head in a direction that I didn’t want her to go in. So I yelled for her to stop and then skied up next to her. That’s when the tears appeared again followed closely by, “you’re confusing me! You didn’t tell me you wanted me to stop there! This mountain is confusing, I don’t know where we’re going!” The lesson learned on this run was to always give my child directions on where to stop and where we’re going.

We got back down the run without further incident. However, when we got back down, she said she wanted to go home because the mountain was too big and confusing. I suggested we go back to the smaller lift that we started on and then have a snack. She reluctantly agreed to do that.

Fourth Run

This run was incident free and we went to get snacks. Getting snacks was not without incident. My daughter, like many kids her age, gets very nervous in new places. So while I wanted to go inside for snacks and limit walking back to the car (my feet were in pain from blisters I got a week earlier) she didn’t want any part of going inside. Off to the car we went. The lesson here, just carry your kid’s snacks in a backpack instead of leaving them in the car.

Behold the power of snacks and maps!

While snacking it up I got out the trail and lift map. We looked it over and talked about the trails that we thought would be fun. She still wasn’t convinced that she liked “this mountain” so I said, “let’s give it one more try and if you still don’t like it, we can go home.”

After loading up on snacks we headed back to the smaller lift for one more run. I let her lead down the run we had picked while looking at the map. She loved it! Lesson learned: give your kid lots of snacks and a bit of agency over which direction they’re going down the mountain.

Four More Times, Two More Times, Four More Times!

She liked that first run after our snack break so much that she wanted to do it again! At first she wanted to do it four more times. After that she said, “two more times.” After those runs she said, “four more times!” Clearly she was comfortable and happy on that lift and run. If she’s happy on a run, I’m happy on that run.

Timers and Racing Gates

Whenever I ski I turn on the ski tracking function on my Garmin Fenix 5 watch. It tells me the top speed on every run. A couple of weeks ago I used it to track my daughter going 19 MPH on a run. When I told her that she was super excited! Knowing how excited she gets about the speed of her runs, I started reading them out to her at the bottom of each run.

Reading the top speed of each run has become a little game for us. On Monday we played that game and she loved it. She couldn’t wait to tell her sister, mother, the lift attendant, and anyone else who would listen that she went 27 MPH!

Pleasant Mountain, like most corporately-owned ski mountains these days, has RFID tags in their lift tickets. The tickets are actually cards about the same size as a credit card, gone are the days of stickers hanging off a jacket’s zipper. My daughter had never used an RFID equipped card or lift gate before. She loved the beep that the gate made when she put her card next to the card reader. It quickly became a game to see if she could beat me to buzz through the gate.

The lesson learned: if your kid likes games, play games while skiing.

Shout Out to Emma the Liftie!

Lift attendants (lifties) range from old grumps to ski bums stoned out of their minds to young people just trying to earn a living. Then there are people like Emma who seemed to really enjoy working the lift that’s utilized by new and very young skiers. She was smiling every time we went through the lift line, seemed excited to help new people learn to use the lift, and generally appeared happy to be there.

Unbound Gravel 200 – The Hardest Bike Event I’ve Ever Done!

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Last weekend I completed the Unbound Gravel 200 gravel bike race in Emporia, Kansas. On the whole it was a ton of fun and I want to do it again. Here’s my story of preparing for Unbound Gravel 200 and completing the event long after my goal time and even longer after the winners had finished their celebratory beers. 

TLDR Version: I rode, I puked, I rallied, I finished.

What is Unbound Gravel?

Unbound Gravel is an event that was formerly known as Dirty Kanza. (You can read about the reasons for the name change here). There are many events over the weekend, but the 200 is the marquee event. 

It is a mass-start event much like the Boston Marathon. And much like the Boston Marathon, entry is via a lottery and the level of participation ranges from professional athletes to rank amateurs like me who just like to ride bikes and push themselves to accomplish difficult goals. Before the race people who don’t know bike racing asked me if I had a chance to win. I did not! I didn’t even have a chance to win my age group (40-44) as the guy who won my age group finished in the top ten at the Tour de France a few years ago. 

Training for Unbound Gravel

In February of 2020 I was entered for the event, but it got canceled along with just about everything else last year. My entry was rolled over into this year. So I was more or less training for Unbound Gravel 200 for eighteen months. 

Living in Maine a lot of my training time was spent on an indoor trainer. Although I did manage some outdoor rides every month of the year, I couldn’t consistently ride outside until late March. By and large my training followed a plan from Training Peaks that called for a lot of polarized and interval training sessions. 

My goal was to have 3500 miles logged before I got to Unbound Gravel. I came up about 500 miles short of that goal. 

Overall, I felt like my training and fitness levels were good heading into Unbound Gravel. The only thing that I would change is to put in a few more really long days on the bike (that should be easier to do next year due to some upcoming changes in my working schedule). During the race itself, leg strength was never an issue and my legs felt fine the next day. That said, my shoulders and triceps were sore as all get-out the next day (more about that, next). 

Race Weekend! (Thursday and Friday)

We (my awesome partner, Jess) and I flew out on Thursday morning. Our daughters stayed home with our awesome friends’ college-age daughters. I put my bike in an Evoc Bike Bag that I borrowed from a friend. I then just checked it as luggage on our Delta flight to Kansas City. In Kansas City we rented a Toyota Tacoma from National. 

Renting a truck was the result of a calculated gamble. I’m a member of National’s Executive Elite program that lets you pick any vehicle on the lot. Sometimes you’ll show up and it will be nothing but Nissan Maximas and other times it’ll be a lot full of SUVs and trucks. I’ve flown into Kansas City enough times over the years to remember that there are often a lot of SUVs and trucks on that National lot. (If I wasn’t a National Executive Elite member, I would have paid the extra cost to guarantee the availability of a truck or large SUV). 

The drive from Kansas City to Emporia is about two hours. We got into Emporia at about 5pm Central Time. Hotel rooms and Airbnb rentals go fast in Emporia for Unbound Weekend. The best I could find available was a Super 8 that ended up being almost $600 for the weekend! I’m already on the hunt for better accommodations for next time. 

After getting my bike assembled at the Super 8 we headed into the center of Emporia where all Unbound Gravel-related activities were happening. As soon as we parked and started walking down the street I could feel the buzz in the air for the weekend. We walked past the outdoor vendor expo just as it was closing then found a great Mexican restaurant! While waiting for the table I checked out Gravel City Supply and grabbed some CO2 canisters because I couldn’t take them on the plane. 

The Mexican restaurant, Casa Ramos, might have been the highlight of the weekend for Jess. Her one request of me for the weekend was to have a nice, seated dinner (as parents of small children it’s rare that we eat a meal without getting up and down ten times). Queso and chips is Jess’ “love language” and she was very happy to order that the instant we sat down. Believe it or not, there is not a place within 50 miles of our home in Maine that serves good Mexican food so Jess was happy and I was too. Casa Ramos was in full Unbound Gravel mode. Huge banners from Canyon Bikes were hanging on the walls and there were even bike-themed margaritas on the menu (I opted for a giant stein of ice-cold Modelo). 

Jess is happy to have Queso and Beer!

Friday morning I joined an organized “shake-out” ride with about 100 other people. The ride was a 21 mile loop intended to give folks the opportunity to make sure our bikes were in working order and familiarize themselves with the kind of gravel we’d be seeing for many, many hours the next day. I met a few folks on the ride including one guy who lives about two miles from the house that I grew up in! Conversations during the ride centered around questions about where people were from, whether or not it was their first Unbound (DK), and tire choices. 

After Friday morning’s shake-out ride Jess met me and we grabbed some good coffee at Granada Coffee and we wandered around the outdoor expo. It was there that I bumped into The Vegan Cyclist. The Vegan Cyclist is Tyler Pearce who makes some very entertaining videos about bike racing and training. He’s taller in person than he appears on camera. We chatted for a minute then wished each other luck. Spoiler alert! We both suffered from some serious nausea after the first neutral water stop the next day. 

The rest of the day was spent organizing snacks and supplies into the Camelbaks that I’d wear during the race. Dinner was pizza and salad from an unnoteworthy place. Bedtime was at 8pm after a nice Facetime session with our adorable daughters who wished me luck and told me “don’t get a flat tire.” 

Race Day!

I was up at 4:01am to make oatmeal, drink some terrible hotel-room coffee, and answer nature’s call before the race. The race didn’t start until 6am, but I’m a slow mover in the morning despite the fact that I’ve been getting up between 4am and 5am for years. By 5am we were walking to the truck to drive to the starting area. We were a bit earlier than most, but not all riders. Jess got us some proper coffee from Granada Coffee to drink while waiting for the starting area to fill up. 

At 5:30am I lined up at the 14 hour marker as that was my goal time for completing the race. The nervous energy in the starting area was palpable. I chatted with the guys around me until the National Anthem played then we gave each other fist bumps for luck and we were off! 

Nearly 1,100 people rolled out at the same time yet unlike a local crit I didn’t hear one person yell, “hold your line!” That was the first sign that gravel racing is a much different experience than road racing. 

After a couple of miles of pavement we hit the first gravel section and wouldn’t see pavement again until the first checkpoint at 69 miles.  I paid close attention to three things throughout the first section of the race. Those were my heart rate, the people in front of me, and the line that I wanted to take through the gravel. 

The first twenty five miles of gravel were rather tame. The roads were wide and dusty but the surface was rather smooth and free of ruts. Then all of a sudden, we weren’t in Kansas anymore! The road switched from wide, smooth gravel to two big ruts with large rocks, water, and mud mixed in. It was here that I stopped looking at my bike computer and solely focused on the people in front of me and the line that I wanted to ride. Even a second of inattention to either of those things would have put me on the ground, hard! It was in this section that World Tour Pro Kiel Reijnen broke a rim then decided to attempt to run to the next checkpoint before the time cut (he didn’t make it). 

I survived the first really difficult terrain without any flat tires or mechanical problems. That could not be said for a lot of people. I attribute getting through the first tough section without any flats or mechanical problems to three things. First, I didn’t try to “bomb it” down any hills and held back from riders in front of me so that I could see a clear line. I heard one guy behind me say, “I’m trusting your line.” In my head I said, “that’s a bad idea.” Second, while I’m not a great mountain biker, I have some skills at picking lines and learned how to do it back in the days before full suspension bikes. Third, dumb luck. 

From roughly mile 50 to the first checkpoint at mile 69 the terrain switched back to relatively tame gravel roads. But by then the field had really started to splinter and I largely rode alone only occasionally hooking up with one or two people to trade pulls heading into the first checkpoint. 

At the first checkpoint Jess was waiting for me with Coke, a PB&J sandwich, and some other snacks including beef jerky and pickles. I declined the beef jerky and pickles. That was decision number one that would come back to bite me in the ass. After lubing my chain, drinking my Coke, and having my sandwich I rolled out of the checkpoint well ahead of my goal time. 

Leaving the first checkpoint I was feeling good and was all alone. I kept snacking and drinking water as I rode along, occasionally passing other riders and occasionally getting passed. All-in-all, I was ahead of my goal pace and feeling good as I rolled along. Then I stopped at the first neutral water station shortly after the 100 mile mark. 

As I came upon the first neutral water station I was feeling good and had plenty of water still in my Camelbak along with bottles on my bike. I thought about rolling right past it, but so many other people stopped that I thought “maybe they know something I don’t know about what’s coming up.” I should have trusted my own judgement and rolled through, but I didn’t. I stopped and topped-up my Camelbak with water from a giant water tank. The water tasted like watered-down Milk of Magnesia! 

I pedaled out of the neutral water station still feeling good except for the fact that my Camelbak was now full of water that was barely palatable. And the water bottles on my bike were full of Mapleaid which is great when cold, but disgusting when warm. Then at about mile 125 the effects of heat (93F) and relentless headwinds hit me hard! My pace dropped from a steady, manageable 15mph to 10mph almost instantly and every effort made me feel nauseous. But I figured I could get to the next water station at mile 136 and refill with fresh water and I’d be okay. 

The water station at mile 136 had water that was even worse than that at the previous water station! Drinking it made me nauseous and left a very chalky taste in my mouth. I sat at that water station for a while and thought about my next course of action. It was 30 miles to the next checkpoint where Jess would be waiting for me with fresh, bottled spring water. I do 30 mile rides all the time so that distance feels easy to me. I decided I could ride to the next checkpoint without drinking water, that was a disastrous choice!

Miles 136 to 156 were the thirty most difficult miles I’ve ever traveled on a bicycle! I puked at least three times, I walked my bike up at least five hills that I’d normally soar over, and I very slowly turned the pedals for almost four hours to get to the checkpoint. When I finally got there I told Jess I was done.

I collapsed in the grass next to the truck at the checkpoint. I was done. Then Jess started pulling out the tricks in her nurse, mother, loving-partner playbook. First she yelled at me to drink some Coke and eat something. Then she made me walk a little. Then when I was just about to pull the plug, she pulled out a “Go Dad Go” poster that our daughters made and she had secretly brought along. That’s what got me going again. Jess said just try to ride a few more miles. So I climbed on the bike with a bag of Doritos, a load of clean spring water, and a can of Coke in my Camelbak. 

A mile or two after leaving the last checkpoint I came upon some cows loose in the course. Two other people were pedaling nearby and we started chatting about the loose cows. A minute or two later one of them said, “hey, do you want to roll in with us?” I immediately said yes. That’s how I met Eddie and Rae who became my best friends for the last fifty miles of the race. We took turns pulling, we waited for each other at the top of the trickier climbs, and chatted about all things bikes and life as day turned into night and we rolled back to Emporia. 

In the end I finished four hours after my goal time, but I finished. I’m not a talented enough writer to describe how awful I felt and how difficult it was to get from mile 136 to 156. Likewise, I can’t describe how valuable it was to have Jess as my support crew at the last checkpoint to get me going again. 

Would I do Unbound Gravel 200 again? Yes!

How do you feel?

Everyone has asked me how I feel after finishing the race. I actually felt really good all things considered. My legs were fine. Once the nausea went away after the second checkpoint I probably could have pushed the pace but my goal time was gone by then and I just wanted to enjoy the company of other riders out there for the experience. The only lingering soreness was in my arms and shoulders from all of the jarring that is associated with gravel riding. 

What I’d Do Differently

There isn’t anything that I’d change about my equipment choices. While there was almost 11,000 feet of climbing during the day, none of the climbs were so long or so steep as to need an easier gear. 

My nutrition strategy had one huge flaw. Too much sugar, not enough salt! As soon as Jess gave me those Doritos at the last checkpoint my nausea went away and I was back to being able to eat and drink. That tells me that I definitely didn’t have enough salt in my system. Over the next year I’ll experiment with various salty snacks and drinks that I can mix in with the Untapped Maple Waffles that I love. 

Fly home on Monday morning instead of Sunday morning. Jess and I were both a little bummed to miss the after-party because we had to head straight to the airport after the race to catch our 6am flight. 

Take a few more pictures and maybe some videos of the course. Or maybe not. People like The Vegan Cyclist do a great job of video race reports so maybe I’ll leave it to them. 

Equipment!

No report about Unbound Gravel 200 is complete without a rundown of the equipment choices. 

Bike: Niner RLT RDO

Groupset: Ultegra 46/36 front, 11-30 rear. Shimano RX clutched rear derailleur. 

Wheels: Prime Black Edition 50 disc. 

Tires: Continental Terra Speed 40mm tubeless with a ton of Orange Seal sealant. Tires inflated to 36 PSI. 

  • I did not have one flat or puncture. I attribute that to picking conservative lines through the tricky sections and a good dose of luck. 

Pedals: Look X-track Race

Disc Brakes: SRAM Centerline (because Shimano discs are almost impossible to find right now)

Bottle cages: generic aluminum cages. They worked and I didn’t rattle out any bottles which is not something that everyone could say. 

Shoes: Scott MTB pro-team race (these are so old they’re not made anymore and I’ll be retiring mine after this). 

Want to follow more of my adventures?

Connect with me on Strava or Instagram. 

Five Tips to Help Busy Teachers Get and Stay Fit

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In December of 2018 I was the biggest I’ve ever been in my life. The nice suits that I’d purchased just a year before no longer fit and I was down to just one pair of jeans that fit. Worst of all, I was having back pain that made it difficult to get my daughters out of their cribs in the morning. 

Richard Byrne walking in snow and pulling a sled with two children in it.

In short, two years of putting fitness on the back burner as “life got busy” with two babies at home caught up to me. Does this sound familiar to you? I had to choose to either do something about my fitness or sail off into my forties with an ever-expanding waistline. I chose to do something about it. 25 months later I’m not only back in shape, I’m in better shape than I was before my kids were born. 

Here’s how I’ve managed to get in shape and stay in shape while balancing the responsibilities of teaching, raising a family, blogging, and hosting professional development events. 

1. Set clear, realistic daily/ weekly goals. 

“Get in shape” is a fine goal, but it’s not a clear goal. It’s too vague to measure and it takes too long to accomplish to give you the gratification you need to keep working at improving your fitness. 

Rather than saying, “I want to get in shape” or “I want to lose 15 pounds” set a goal of “30 minutes of vigorous exercise on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.” If that sounds too structured for you, try “150 minutes of vigorous exercise this week.” 

Short term goals that focus on the process (time spent exercising) rather than the outcome (improved fitness) are easier to measure. It feels a lot better to say “I spent 150 minutes exercising this week” than to say “I lost one pound this week.” When you accomplish that measurable goal you’ll have the confidence that you can do it again which makes it more likely that you will keep going and do it again the next week. String together six weeks of accomplishing the goal of “150 minutes of vigorous exercise” and your fitness will improve even if you don’t see immediate changes in the mirror or on the scale. 

2. Conduct a Time Audit

Most people, myself included, have some habits that eat away at our time without actually being good uses of our time. Take a good, hard look at how you spend time during your day. Are you checking Facebook for “just a minute” in between the essays that you’re grading? How many times a day do you check your email? 

Identify those habits that are eating away at your time and cut them out or cut them down. Use that time toward more efficient completion of your “must do” tasks. 

3. Go on a Social Media Diet

If your time audit reveals that you spend an hour a day on social media, it’s time to go on a social media diet. A simple way to do this is to turn off the notifications from the social media apps on your phone so that you’re not constantly losing a minute here and a minute there to social media. Another good option is to use a web browser extension that limits the amount of time you can spend on social media sites throughout the day. I use Stay Focusd for that. 

Perhaps you don’t use any social media. If so, that’s awesome! But if you have other ways you waste time online, Stay Focusd can help with that. 

4. Use Time Blocking and Automation

Time blocking is a strategy that I learned about from Cal Newport (author of many good books about productivity). The basic idea is that instead of doing a task like checking email ten times throughout your day you set a block of time when you check and respond to email. If you can stick to time blocking (I have weeks when I’m better at it than others), you’re less likely to feel distracted and will actually have more time throughout your day for the things that matter most. You can read more about the strategy and Cal Newport’s work on his blog. I’d recommend starting with this post or this one. 

Time blocking can be aided by automating some of the more mundane or routine tasks in our lives. Using canned replies and smart compose in Gmail saves me a ton of time. Likewise, using the scheduling tools in Google Classroom allows me to use time blocking for developing and posting materials for my students. After sitting down and knocking out a block of lessons, I schedule them in Google Classroom so that I’m not scrambling every morning to post assignments. If you’re not a G Suite/ Google Workspaces user, there are plenty of automation tools available within the Microsoft ecosystem to explore (Mike Tholfsen’s YouTube channel is a good place to start).

5. Focus on “Why”

Two years ago I stumbled upon Dr. Judson Brewer’s TED Talk titled A Simple Way to Break a Bad Habit. My big take-away from his talk was to ask myself “why am I doing this? And what will I gain?” whenever I am tempted to stress eat a bag of chips or plop down in front of the television instead of doing my planned exercise. 90% of the time just asking myself those questions gets me to make the better choice. 

Finally, focus on why you want to exercise that day. For me the “why” is to help me hit my weekly goal. When I hit my weekly goals of time spent exercising my fitness improves and my health improves in the long run. 

Extra Note for Those With Families

I have two young daughters (ages three and four). They can’t be left alone while dad and mom exercise. This means that we (dad and mom) have to communicate our daily/weekly fitness goals to each other so that we can get the time we need to hit our goals. When I decided that I wanted to participate in the Unbound Gravel 200 (I got in), I knew that I would have to up my weekly training hours. Communicating what the big goal is and the smaller weekly goals helps both of us get on the same page so that neither of us feels like we’re not getting the support we need. 

We also try to include our daughters in activities that help us reach our weekly fitness goals. For example, my daughters are learning to ski right now. Rather than riding the surface lift AKA “the magic carpet” with them, I skate up along  the side as they’re going uphill and I meet them at the top. That gives me a good interval workout. 

The bottom line is that you need to communicate your fitness goals to your partner and get on the same page so that neither party is feeling unsupported. 

February Flexibility

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I’m writing this on Monday afternoon instead of my usual Monday morning schedule. I had to be a bit flexible with my schedule to accommodate the needs of our child care provider. Flexibility was going to be my theme for February anyway so this morning’s schedule change was a nice coincidence.

The Challenge

My plan for February is to focus on increasing flexibility. My goal for the month is to spend at least five more minutes stretching every day than I currently do. I’m going to use the guided stretching routines that are available in the Peloton app. There are lots of other free apps available that offer guided stretching routines. If you need to improve your flexibility, join me in this challenge.

When I originally thought of this I was thinking about physical flexibility, but mental flexibility is important too. Five to ten minutes a day of deep, focused breathing could be what you need to get your mind sharp for the day or to reset after a stressful day. Or perhaps writing in a journal in for five minutes will get your mind in a place to flexible and sharp (that’s what does it for me). If you’ve never tried either of those things, give it a shot this month.

January Recap

How did you do on your fitness challenge in January? I had three slip-ups on the junk-free January challenge. I didn’t hit my goal of 31 junk-free days. However, I still felt better for trying it.

Good luck with this month’s fitness challenge. I’m pulling for you!

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