Surly Ghost Grappler – the 400 mile review
When the Surly Ghost Grappler was announced in February of 2022 I was intrigued. It was a weird mix of mountain bike, gravel bike, and……
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2022 Biking year in review
This year was another great year for me when it came to biking. Although I had to take a break in the middle, due to…
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Quick and dirty bike stand
Over the years we’ve started to acquire a few too many bikes, and figuring out a good way to store them in the garage can…
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Old Abe Trail biking, to avoid the rain
Sunday morning was meant to be a beautiful ride around the NW metro area with my wife, clocking in a 50 mile distance. However, as…
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Layering in winter
Living in a cold weather area you need to be prepared for different weather conditions if you want to be outside and active. It’s not…
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Garmin fēnix 6S – Long Term Review
In June of 2021 I bid farewell to my old Garmin 735XT that I loved and upgraded to a brand new Garmin Fēnix 6S. The…
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2021 Biking Year in Review
Once again 2021 proved to a bigger than normal year for me when it came to biking. I didn’t top my 2020 stats, but it…
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Well that was dumb…
Because of the adventures I like to take via bike, I put a rear rack on almost every bike when I get it. I procrastinated…
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The end of the GravelKings….
In my first impressions post I talked about the weird issues of the Panaracer GravelKing SK+ tires and concrete with grooves in it. In the…
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First Impression Review: Panaracer GravelKing SK+
Update: I’ve since removed these tires and gone back to my old ones. About two weeks ago I decided to move over to tubeless, and…
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The Journey to Tubeless
Last winter I decided to try going tubeless on my fat bike, and had mixed results. I knew that the tires I was using were…
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#30daysofbiking 2021 edition
Last year was the first time I was able to join in with the #30daysofbiking event that encourages folks to get out and ride at…
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Review: 2021 Surly Ice Cream Truck
This review is a long time coming, but now that I have over 100 miles on the bike I feel like I can share my…
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Making 2021 plans
For the first time in a while I’m feeling really hopeful that we’re on the back-side of this pandemic. Vaccines are rolling out, case numbers…
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My tubeless adventure
In the biking world there are a few topics that will provoke a massive discussion. Frame material and “definition of a gravel bike” are two…
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2020 Biking Year in Review
It’s time once again for my yearly review wrap-ups. Starting as always with my biking year in review! Despite everything bad that happened in 2020,…
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Strava Privacy Zone… a lesson learned
Even though I use a Garmin device to track all my activities, I push all of them from Garmin Connect to Strava. For the most…
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Staying active in the dark
It never fails. Every year around this time my activity levels drop like a rock and I find I need to re-motivate myself to keep…
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A little documentary work
My wife decided to do a tour of regional park reserves, and set about planning a 3 day, two night, bikepacking trip to visit them…
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The streak has ended, but…
Back at the end of March I decided to join up with #30daysofbiking. The goal is to bike, even just a little bit, every single…
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Working with what Minnesota gives us
This past weekend we took an extended trip to Itasca State Park. It was a long time coming, and we were super happy to finally…
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The story of a toe
A couple of weeks ago I had an unfortunate run-in with a dumbbell. Not the kind currently trying to take over social media, but the…
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#30daysofbiking… complete!
For the first year since I had heard about this challenge, I managed to get it done. If you’re not familiar, #30daysofbiking is a challenge…
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2019 Biking Year in Review
It’s time once again for my annual wrap-up of my running and biking adventures for the year. This year marked a huge change in my…
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Fitness week recap – 12/2/2019
Week Starting 12/2/2019 Running: 14.3 miles Biking: 33.4 miles Steps: 68.787 (34.33 miles – 20.03 walking) Impression: Two weeks ago was vacation week for me and my running and…
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Fitness week recap – 11/18/2019
Week Starting 11/18/2019 Running: 12.5 miles Biking: 14.8 miles Steps: 83,999 (41.5 miles – 29.00 walking) Impression: Pretty simple week this past week. Rode my bike to the train…
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Fitness week recap – 11/11/2019
Week Starting 11/11/2019 Running: 9 miles Biking: 38.1 miles Steps: 71,932 (35.14 miles – 26.14 walking) Impression: Didn’t get out an run much this week. Still dealing with some…
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Trying to be less car-dependent
When I was a kid we didn’t own a car until I was 15. We lived in a neighborhood in St. Paul and so bus…
Read moreFitness week recap – 11/4/2019
Week Starting 11/4/2019 Running: 13.7 miles Biking: 13.4 miles Steps: 87,609 (42.91 miles – 29.21 walking) Impression: Low mileage week. Was at a conference for a couple days which…
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Fitness week recap – 10/28/2019
Week Starting 10/28/2019 Running: 25.2 miles Biking: 50.5 miles Steps: 98,266 (48.82 miles – 23.62 walking) Impression: Got back to normal this week with a decent amount of running…
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Fitness week recap – 10/21/2019
Week Starting 10/21/2019 Running: 6.0 miles Biking: 36.8 miles Steps: 57,383 (28.81 miles – 22.81 walking) Impression: RECOVERY WEEK! Yep, not much to report on the running front. I…
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Fitness week recap – 10/14/2019
Week Starting 10/14/2019 Running: 106.2 miles Biking: 0 miles Steps: 245,966 (125.26 miles – 19.06 walking) Impression: Really quick and easy post this week. I didn’t run much all…
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Fitness week recap – 10/7/2019
Week Starting 10/7/2019 Running: 15.6 miles Biking: 43.1 miles Steps: 83,683 (41.07 miles – 25.47 walking) Impression: Little bit of a down week this week. We’ve had some crappy…
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Trying out bike packing
Last week my friend Mike pinged me and asked what I was doing on Saturday night. He picked up a bike a few months ago…
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Fitness week recap – 9/30/2019
Week Starting 9/30/2019 Running: 30.9 miles Biking: 49.1 miles Steps: 107,545 (53.5 miles – 22.6 walking) Impression: This week was back at it. I managed 4 runs over the…
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Fitness week recap – 9/23/2019
Week Starting 9/23/2019 Running: 11.4 miles Biking: 74.1 miles Steps: 73,442 (34.5 miles – 23.1 walking) Impression: I wasn’t kidding when I said that this blog would get some…
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How to buy a bike… Jamison style
A couple years ago I decided to start looking for a fat bike. It took me almost two full seasons before I pulled the trigger…
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Fitness week recap – 9/2/2019
Week Starting 9/2/2019 Running: 13.7 miles Biking: 34.9 miles Steps: 113,348 (56.74 miles – 43.04 walking) Impression: This week turned out not to be quite what I expected, but…
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Fitness week recap – 8/26/2019
Week Starting 8/26/2019 Running: 30.6 miles Biking: 70.8 miles Steps: 113,267 (57.65 miles – 29.42 walking) Impression: Due to a crazy work schedule of my youngest kid (working the…
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Fitness week recap – 8/19/2019
Week Starting 8/19/2019 Running: 19.0 miles Biking: 65.2 miles Steps: 97,710 (48.42 miles – 29.42 walking) Impression: Back to recovery week. My legs were feeling pretty trashed after Marquette,…
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Fitness week recap – 8/12/2019
Week Starting 8/12/2019 Running: 36.6 miles Biking: 23.4 miles Steps: 127,019 (60.14 miles – 23.54 walking) Impression: Another race week! I got so wrapped up in the return travel…
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Fitness week recap – 8/5/2019
Week Starting 8/5/2019 Running: 12.3 miles Biking: 34.1 miles Steps: 77,168 (37.05 miles – 24.75 walking) Impression: Recovery week! I kept it really low key this week for two…
Read moreFitness week recap – 7/29/2019
Week Starting 7/29/2019 Running: 67.9 miles Biking: 3.6 miles Steps: 195,536 (95.67 miles – 27.77 walking) Impression: Race week! This week was two small runs, a quick bike commute…
Read moreFitness week recap – 7/22/2019
Week Starting 7/22/2019 Running: 24.3 miles Biking: 62.5 miles Steps: 105,642 (51.94 miles – 27.64 walking) Impression: The taper begins for Badger 100K. I kept my running mileage really…
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