One Part Journal, One Part Sunglasses Review
That's as much of a unifying theme as we're getting this week.
Although I certainly have some more specific newsletters planned in the coming months (similar to the Offseason Training or Bike Commuting posts I’ve had recently), this week is going to be a little less formal.
In the absence of a particular topic, it’s time for some reflections on the year so far - plus a mini-review of a new pair of sunglasses.
Finding Consistency
My offseason has been slowly gathering steam since mid-October. Semi-regular endurance rides turned to more intentional riding plus a bit of weightlifting in November. December was a somewhat intentional step back while travelling for half the month. January rebounded into some proper structure, including a baseline FTP test and a handful of interval sessions. (After not doing any intervals for several months, which is not recommended. Oops.)
So with the first month of 2025 now in the rear view mirror, I’m still somehow shaking off the last bit of the “starting weightlifting” soreness but feeling positively about the volume I’ve been putting in. On the trainer, I’m putting in more time than I was a year ago without sacrificing any consistency. I’m beginning to "performance tune the engine” with intervals about every other week, although the vast bulk of that work won’t be starting for another month. (And I intend to write about my pre-spring ramp when we get there.)
When I start to step up my training, there’s an impulse to feel like it all has to happen now, but I have to remind myself that my biggest targets for the year aren’t until July and October. There’s time for a slow build, and right now I’m still laying the foundation. I have to remember to trust the process that has worked before.
Laying the foundation doesn’t have to be boring, though. Yeah, the indoor trainer wears on you, but I have managed to get outside. I had my January R-12 ride. Just this last weekend, I went on a very fun casual group ride with Evolution Chicago. And side note - I am so grateful for the Chicago cycling scene and particularly the several racing clubs who host one or more public group rides each week, many of them year-round. It’s a great way to motivate myself to get out for a ride in the offseason, and once the spring hits, it’s an important tool for training intensity for me.
The offseason happens so slow and so fast all at once. February is another month doing pretty much exactly what I did in November and January, just trying to find even more consistency, maybe fit in an extra endurance zone ride each week as my fitness improves. At times, the offseason can feel interminable. But on the other hand, I’ve got one month to go until I start my spring ramp, and I’m not even trying to be race ready by March or April like many in the area who might be racing Hell of the Wind, Rough Road 100, or Barry Roubaix. The year can feel like it’s accelerating quickly.
So once again I have to remind myself: be in this moment. Those later phases of the year will come. Puzzling out every detail of May or June right now isn’t helpful. Trust the process you’ve developed for yourself and the reasons that you’ve set that schedule.
Review - Julbo Ultimate Photochromic Glasses
I have never been one to buy expensive sunglasses. For years, the Ironman branded ones you could grab at Target for $20-30 were plenty for me. UV protection? Check. Let’s roll. Even when it wasn’t those in particular, the principle held. Find a good pair for under $60 and take care of them but don’t worry to much if you wear them hard.
The correlate to this approach, though, was that I always needed either a pair of clear glasses or an interchangeable set of clear lenses for riding in low light conditions or at night. That necessitated a judgment at the start of each ride: Do I think the clouds will hold? Will I be out past dark? Do I bring two pairs of glasses/lenses and stop to swap mid-ride?
None of which is a massive pain, but it was annoying on those rides when you thought the weather was going one direction, and then it broke in the other. Or more recently, when I knew I’d be out in day and night or over multiple days. Swapping lenses still isn’t hard to do, but it becomes less appealing when you’ve got to do it with sweaty, dirty hands while trying not to smudge the lens you want to wear, and you have to reserve accessible space for that spare lens that’s just going to sit around most of the time.
That annoyance peaked last year, so I started looking for other solutions. Namely, I started looking into photochromic glasses.
Photochromic lenses are reactive to UV light, so they automatically adjust their tint based on the ambient conditions. This isn’t a new technology, but it’s not something you see everywhere, either. And I had a very particular question: were photochromic lenses good enough that they could work at night AND in peak sunshine?
This comes down to transmission range. Sunglasses are typically rated by how much light they transmit through the lens. A typical pair of sunglasses are somewhere around 20% light transmission, while clear glasses will transmit more than 85% light. (Because, you know, they’re clear.) What I wanted was something that would hit both ends of that spectrum in a single lens so that I would never have to change it - I could just keep riding regardless of the light conditions, and my glasses would adjust on their own.
Enter Julbo. I poked around at nearly every brand on the market, many of which do have photochromic options. But Julbo offered lens options with the widest light transfer range I could find - 87% down to just 12%. Perfect. Other options I looked at would quote similar numbers for the sunny end (12-18%) but tended to peak in the 60s for low-light transfer. I just didn’t have confidence that would be enough in the dead of night.
I also was frustrated with the way my previous pair of sunglasses sat away from my face and would sometimes allow road spray up under the edge. I know many people like the wide “shield” design, but I want my glasses to fit tight to my cheeks. Maybe it’s just the shape of my face that doesn’t work with those. Regardless, the Julbo Ultimate promised a more aggressive curving wrap around my face. With those two factors considered, I pulled the trigger in December.
Suffice it to say I have not been disappointed in the least. I’ve worn these glasses skiing with zero complaints. I’ve worn them on multiple rides, including from full sun to full dark and from dark cloud cover to patchy sunshine. The lenses work beautifully, and the wrap fits tight. At just under $200 on sale, these glasses were far more expensive than any sunglasses I’ve bought before in my life, but they have been well worth the money already.
The changing tint does take a bit of getting used to. If you go outside on a sunny day and put traditional sunglasses on, you immediately have the experience of the world getting darker, and then over time your eyes get used to that “normal.” Photochromic glasses are sort of the opposite. Because they adjust to the light conditions as they change, you continuously have the feeling of seeing the world as fully lit. This can be disconcerting at first, and I wondered several times if the glasses were actually adjusting as they were supposed to. But then I’d pull them off to find that the lens - without my realizing it - had become fully dark. They were working exactly as advertised to protect my eyes, and I just needed to learn to trust them.
I am so happy to not need to tote extra lenses everywhere this year, and to just feel confidence that my single pair of glasses will be perfect regardless of the lighting conditions. Game changer. Well done, Julbo. Five stars.
Bonus! Ultra Season Is Starting!
In fact, we already have one race in the books.
Race Around Rwanda
Congratulations to Ted King for his win at this year’s Race Around Rwanda. Dotwatching was thrilling, as King, Laurens Ten Dam, and others competed against several incredibly strong African cyclists, including Kenneth Karaya, who podiumed in both the 2023 and 2024 editions of the race as well as coming second in Badlands in 2024, and last year’s winner Vincent Chege.
It seems like it was a wildly competitive and extremely difficult edition of the race, with thick mud early on and a number of high-profile DNFs as riders pushed themselves to fight for the win.
Down-field riders are still on course. Live tracking and results are here.
Atlas Mountain Race
The mountain race series (Atlas, Hellenic, Silk Road) has quickly become some of the highest profile ultras in the world, and the Atlas Mountain Race in Morocco starts on Friday! More than 300 riders are set to start, with deep fields on both the men’s and women’s sides. I’m very excited to watch this one as well.
Live tracking is here. If you want a race preview, I recommend a few podcasts:
Ultrascape - Josh Ibbett (who is racing again this year) and Beccy Waters are seasoned racers with a well-considered preview.
Detours - Host Mel Webb’s two most recent interviews/episodes are with top contenders in the women’s field.
The Mountain Races Podcast - the race’s self-produced preview