53km / 3 hours 18 minutes / 144m gain

It feels good to be on my bike :)

Calico and Lindsey had to get up at 3.30 am to catch their flight, so it was very early morning and a bit of a sleep disaster for Lindsey and me. I don’t think either of us got more than an hour of sleep before the wake up. The hotel was hot, and the window opened to a floodlight that was almost as bright as the sun :).

After they got into the taxi, I went back to sleep (I hope she gets some sleep on the plane).  managed about 3 hours of sleep before my 6.30 am wake-up.

As a result, I am loopy as hell.

I drove to long-term parking, and it took me twice as long to get ready. I started riding at 7.45 am. And I was extra careful getting out of town in a loopy state, I didn’t want to get hit by a truck (I meant to avoid rush hour).

The bike lanes and paths were amazing; the French do such an amazing job on their bike infrastructure. 80% of the time, I was on a dedicated bike path (20% shared, but with a decent amount of room).

The ride was beautiful but wild.

There were plenty of times I was just going through what felt like a wild field. Because of the area, there is a lot of sand, and everything is covered in it. Lots of mud and very careful routing over bumps and weird rivets from the logging trucks. Fun day and I hope the gravel route keeps up. Gravel riding is slower but really fun.

Breakfast was an apple and cashews; lunch was sardines and rice crackers; dessert was some wild blackberries next to the wine fields. I am looking forward to dinner; the small family hotel is surprising me with something!

I jumped on a ferry to get across the inlet, and on the other side was an amazing fortress, the “Citadel of Blaye” (one of the hundreds). I rode my bike all around it as the city made it into a park. It was massive and a really cool history read.

I am going to come back here and do a tour + underground tunnel tour at some point. Hopefully, we are living in this area at some point :)

Summer break is a new experience for us (since this is Calico’s first year in school).

Generally, we like to travel for a month, but this is the first year we have done it over the summer in peak time. We spent July in Issigeac, France. It is a small medieval village in the Dordogne (see marker below of map).

We got a good deal on an Airbnb with a big discount since we stayed an entire month. It didn’t have AC, but it didn’t get too hot, and we had plenty of fans. The weather in France was remarkably cool, given the rest of Europe was under a massive heatwave.

Mom and Tony visited for over two weeks, which was amazing! We had a lot of fun :)

I turned 42 on July 20th, and it was terrific to have Lindsey, Calico, Mom, and Tony there. That is the first time in quite some time :). We ate Indian food in a nearby town. And, randomly, one of my favorite cousins was on a trip nearby, so we got to have lunch with him and his fantastic family toward the end of the trip.

I did one of these posts last year, and it is helpful to figure out how to train better for the next long ride.

For the Italian bike trip, I was better prepared than any previous ride and felt great.

How did I train for Italy?

• 12 weeks where I ramped up training over time. The last week I rested
• I did 93 hours of rides in that period.
• I did 37 2+ hour rides.
• I did 9 3+ hour rides.

How did I train for this ride in France?

• I did 12 weeks of training. I am going to rest the last 10 days (I might get one or two rides in).
• I did ~73 hours of rides in that period.
• I did 20 2+ hour rides.
• I did 13 3+ hour rides.

The first 4 weeks of training were a mess. I visited Nick in Cannes, and I didn’t bike. And then, my bike had some serious problems, and I was biking indoors while it was in the shop for a few more weeks. That all slowed down my total hours a bit.

The good news is that in that between June 19th to July 17th I got in thirteen 3+ hour rides and they all felt good. Plus, I got a lot more altitude in my rides since I am in rural France. I am hoping that translates into a good tour, we shall see:).

In April, Calico and I did a father/son bike weekend in Northern Portugal. We had a blast, and I wanted to plan out his first overnight bike tour while we were in France. We found a nearby converted rail trail called the Sarlat Voie Verte. It was perfect, as he is too young to deal with cars.

Day 1 – He covered 36km in ~ 2 hours 50 minutes. He even rode a few km on a pretty busy road with cars (I was nervous and took most of the lane so he would be safe). We stayed in a beautiful gite with a swimming pool, and he got to practice his swimming (doing great). And he made some British friends at the local town we walked to for dinner (they made plans to meet next year same town).

Day 2 – After we stopped at a bakery on the way out of town, we rode 21km in 1 hour 47 minutes. And met Lindsey at our pickup point :).

While Lindsey and Calico head to the U.S.A., I plan to do a bike tour along the EV3 route from Bordeaux to Paris and then at Paris to turn and head to Mont St. Michael on the Veloscenic cycle route.

The route is estimated to be around 1,300km and ~6,700m of climbing (last year’s bike tour was 999km and 11,000m). I’ve got 31 days total (including breaks), and I still need to map things out a bit (last year was 18 riding days with an average of 56km each riding day).

I am currently training; I’d like to be in as good shape as I was for the Italy trip. I didn’t get as much notice, so we shall see how it all comes together. I am nervous as this will be in August, so I hope to avoid terrible heat waves (cue global warming’s deep, maniacal laughter).

We went camping near El Barco, Spain, this last weekend and it was beautiful!

It was a pretty rainy weekend but with plenty of sunshine as well. We had a very fun Friday night in town at a wonderful little bar before heading back to our tent (Lindsey was in the house on the riverside property we rented). Calico played soccer with some local kids in the square while Lindsey and I had a few glasses of wine. We tried to go hiking on Saturday but got hit with some heavy rain and thunder and had to jog down the mountain quickly :).

Calico and I slept in the tent both nights despite a little rain. And we managed to make cheeseburgers, hot dogs, and smores. Next time I need to bring a better metal grill top as it made the hamburgers pretty difficult with the one they had.

Good times :)!

The Welch-Bolen brothers have united for the first time since Christmas 2018!!! Watch out world :)!

Here we are in front of the red carpet in Cannes, France :)

I got to visit with Nick for ten days, and it was fantastic (he lives in Shanghai, and with Covid, that was a pretty impossible visit either way). We even managed a swim on Friday!

He is in the movie industry and was on a team that won this year’s 48-hour film contest in Shanghai. They then got picked by the global 48-hour film contest as one of the best short films worldwide and were given free tickets to Cannes to do a screening in the short-film corner. They are here to network and hopefully line up funding for a feature-length horror film they are working to make (if you know Nicolas Cage, they feel he would be perfect for the lead).

I’ve been wanting to take Calico on some longer bike rides, and we made it happen this weekend!

After school on Friday, we headed North to Ponte De Lima. It was so much fun to have some time just me and him. We cooked together, ate outside, and had adventures. And Lindsey enjoyed a lovely quiet solo weekend

The routes we did were 99% gravel/dirt, 100% car-free, and relatively flat next to a beautiful river.

Day 1  – 22km

He wanted to keep going and going! I was amazed as I expected to hit ~8km, and he would be tired. I had to force him to turn around at 11km so we would return in time for lunch.

Tota time biking – 2 hours 7 minutes.

Total time – 4 hours 13 minutes.

We stopped for a long time to play in a waterfall. And plenty of stops to explore and eat a snack. He has a single-speed and isn’t totally comfortable with some terrain, so we walked a lot of the uphills. He got a lot more comfortable by day two.

Short video here…

(one of his his first pedal biking!!!)

(funny picture of below with Calico being very hungry and trying to be patient for food)

Day 2  – 25km!!!

He was really excited to go again, so we packed up our Airbnb and headed to the trails. He was insistent on beating his day 1 record, and I convinced him to turn around at 13km (in time for lunch).

Tota time biking – 2 hours 15 minutes.

Total time – 3 hours 37 minutes.

There wasn’t as much to explore this way, and we started later. So we kept moving pretty well.

It has been a big adjustment to have Calico in school, as we can only travel when he is on break :).

So for his spring break, we drove to Valencia on April 1st for two weeks (about 7.5 hours away)!

Calico got sick before we left, so much so that we delayed our drive a few days. He was having high fever and nightmares at night. We were both pretty tired from the long nights. This first year with him in school has been challenging with what he brings home.

I started feeling low energy and got sick for a day, but then I felt better. I did a full workout on Monday but then went and got a massage on Tuesday morning, which broke me. I think being face down for 45 min just destroyed my sinuses. I was sick for nine days with sinus crap; it sucked (somehow, it got in my right eye). And even after that, it took me a few more days to shake it thoroughly. I need to see a specialist about my sinuses as something is wrong with them (it is almost the only thing I ever get sick from). I have also been working too much and shot. I need to rebalance, but it is hard as Shepherd is in a critical phase.

Luckily Calico and Lindsey were fine and visited with our friends there.

And luckily, I was improved by the time Rose, Steve, and Evie came to visit. It was so much fun to have them stay with us, and I hope we can do it again soon. Evie is adorable, and we had a blast showing them our favorite city in the world. Calico adores Evie, and it is a happiness to see them both interact (he is also pretty fond of Rose and Steve, he made about a million things for them before they arrived, even a cardboard bar nook so he could serve Steve beer, lol). Lindsey enjoys entertaining, and it felt like we had several Viking feasts.

Many of these photos are credited to Steve, as he knows WTF he is doing with a camera :)

We spent Lindsey’s birthday weekend at an old Portuguese fishing cabin on the coast. We had a fire, we grilled and had a really good time. The weather wasn’t quite what we were hoping, but we had way more sunshine than we expected. Watching Calico play on the beach, dunes, and tide ponds is so much fun.

Calico’s first day of real school was today! He was excited and Lindsey and I both walked him there and picked him up :)

He is still processing it, as it is a bit of a shock. And they are jumping right into cursive which is new for him. I wish him luck :)

On the way home, we visited Granada and Malaga in Andalucia, Spain.

Grenada was beautiful! We toured Alhambra and found an amazing Syrian place to eat. We ate there twice; it was so good. I also did one bike ride, but it was way too much city riding, and I finally found some gravel at the end of the ride.

Malaga was bigger, sunnier, and had a beautiful beach.

We really liked it, and I got to have a fantastic lunch with Serita. Serita is the freelance editor who takes care of many things at Shepherd. It was really great to meet her, and she brought some of this Tequila she has crafted (I am looking forward to trying it)!

I also managed a long bike ride; the Malaga trails were amazing. I hope to go back and explore more of the gravel routes one day.

We are home now, and I am catching up on a lot of work and random family things we’ve put off. I am feeling more rested which is good.

This is how I feel about 2023.

I am excited about my life and the progress I’ve made as a human. There are so many amazing things going on, and I am excited to see them shake out. 2023 is going to be fun :)

As a family, we are figuring out where we will live for the next stage of our lives. That is exciting, asI doesn’t enjoy the current limbo state.

My big 3 for the year?

1. Get Shepherd to a break-even point on costs and exit beta 🥳. I am having so much fun with this project! So many cool features coming this year…
2. Live a life full of adventure! I am hoping to do another big bike tour this year, but I am waiting to see where we land as a family first. I am also hoping that Lindsey can do a solo vacation soon. And I am planning some camping trips for Calico and me (and maybe a bike trip).
3. Let it go. Short hand for the continued work to keep my energy and health in a good place. I redlined in 2022 multiple times and I aim to do better this year.

Onward to 2023!

2022 was a hard year… but we also had a lot of fun.

The year had a rough start.

We found out Lindsey was pregnant in January, but a few weeks later, we found out it was not viable (followed by a miscarriage ~6 weeks later). We’ve been trying to get pregnant for a while, and this was emotionally hard. It took me a while to process it as we were so busy. Lindsey’s health hasn’t been great since the miscarriage, which has been stressful for us. We are making progress there and are hopeful she will be back at 100% soon.

We spent the first six months of the year on the road with an epic road trip around Europe. We wanted to look at places that might make a more permanent home as Calico gets closer to starting school. Road trips are great as we spend so much time with each other. We had a lot of fun adventures. But it also wore me down since I worked insanely hard to get Shepherd.com to a good place. We haven’t reached a conclusion to this search for a home yet, but we hope to make a decision soon.

The Amazing

Lindsey and I have been married for eight wonderful years! She is a great PIC🙃. Calico turned six this year, and we had so much fun this year. I am thankful that I have a flexible schedule so I can get a lot of time with him. 

I did an epic 999km bike tour along the Via Francigena route in Italy. It was a mind-blowing experience, and these rides make my soul sing. I am looking forward to my next one…

What fun stuff did we do this year?

• We started the year with a massive road trip to explore places we might want to make a more permanent home (pictures here). We started in Montpellier, France, and then headed to Karlsruhe, Germany, Düsseldorf, Berlin, Dresden, Prague, and finally, Graz, Austria. After that, we were exhausted and took a long stay in Istria, Croatia (we love Croatia). Then we spent some time in France in Aix-en-Provence, and some short stays in Lyon and Bordeaux. It was good to get home after all that.
• While we were in Croatia, I did a 3-day ride over an old rail trail. Lindsey and Calico tagged along in the car, and it was a really fun experience. We also did our first tasting menu at an amazing hotel/restaurant in Slovenia.
• We took Calico on his first camping trip! Calico and I slept in a tent while Lindsey got a wonderful little cabin. We had a blast, and I am planning another one soon.
• I did an epic 999km bike tour along Italy’s Via Francigena pilgrimage route in October. It started in the foothills of the alps and ended in Rome. Here is a summary, and here are a ton of pictures. I did a much better job training for this one (which I am proud of as I wasn’t prepared for the previous one). The food was amazing, and I had a lot of treats.
• We visited dear friends in Dublin for Thanksgiving. It was so good to see Rose, Steve, and their new family member Evie. I got a cold that got in my sinuses which wasn’t fun, but I managed to rally for the second half of the trip. We hadn’t seen them since 2017, and I’ve missed them.
• My mom and stepdad visited us for Christmas! I wish they could have stayed longer as it went by too quickly. Calico loved having them here. I was frustrated as I hit some health bumps, which took time away from everything (trying to be kind to myself as it happens).
• I turned 41 years old with my lovely family!

The Challenges!

Health
As mentioned above, Lindsey has struggled for most of 2022 with post-miscarriage health issues. We think we are on a good path now and will know more soon (stress is lower). I was doing well health-wise, but December has been a mess. I think I am just exhausted at this point. I finally went to the hospital last week to get checked out (I was worried it might be Chron’s). They said everything looked good, and I most likely had really bad food poisoning and need to rest. I hope to be back at 100% soon.

Calico knocked a tooth out…
Calico started 2022 by knocking out a tooth at the playground. He handled it well, as it was pretty intense. He fell on a climbing structure, and it perfectly knocked out one tooth. Luckily the root and everything else were fine.

Energy
I ran into a wall several times this year. Between the miscarriage, travel, and work intensity, my energy management didn’t go well. It was a good learning experience; and I am sure I will do better in 2023. Running your own business is always hard, and the starting phase 100x harder than any other.

How did I do on my goals for 2022?

Fantastic on two out of three!

1. Shepherd is doing fantastic and growing like a weed. I’ll do a separate post with more details. We didn’t quite exit beta, but that is coming toward Feb/Mar. I am having so much fun with it 🙂.
2. We had a ton of adventures in Europe! And I managed one short bike tour and one long one.
3. I didn’t do well on energy, and I am paying for that now (and during the year). Lindsey and I probably need a real vacation where we go to a beach or mountain cabin and do nothing but rest (I’d love to find one with childcare/activities).

2023…

I am super excited about 2023! I have big plans for Shepherd! I am most excited about shipping genres and age groups soon. I’ve wanted that since the start, and we are finally in a place to do that (starting work next week and should have it ready to show by late March).

We will figure out where our more permanent home will be. Calico starts schooling in September, and we want to find a home for our family. We are feeling some stress over this decision (I especially don’t like being in limbo).

Longer 2023 post coming soon…

For 2022:

• I did a total of 370+ hours of tracked workouts.
• I worked out 227 days in some form.

How do I feel about this year?

I think this year was a minor miracle.

We went on a slightly insane journey in the first six months of the year, and I managed to keep my workout routine. I am proud of that, as that shit isn’t easy. I am much better at maintaining workout routines than I was ten years ago.

On the less proud front, I will start with this quote…

“Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming, “Wow what a ride!” – Hunter S. Thompson

This describes my December as I didn’t end the year well.

It has been a rough month. I got hit with a weird depression (super unlike me), followed by exhaustion and brain fog. Then I got nasty food poisoning and immense fatigue. I ended up at the hospital last week (I wanted to make sure it wasn’t Chron’s). The doctors think it was a nasty bacterial food infection, which is “good” news. I am feeling better now, but my energy is still low. I am hoping it recovers after some more rest.

As the chief mechanic of Ben, I probably need a vacation where I do nothing for a few weeks. I need adventure in my life and bike trips to deliver that. But they are also intense, and when combined with work, there isn’t much “rest” happening. And eventually, my body says, “fuck you,” and my motorcycle tips over, and I slide through a wall… then all the king’s men have to put Humpty Dumpty back together again.

I work best when I can balance intense creative work, adventures (biking trips), and vacations (resting on a beach or mountain cabin). But when you add life to the mix, that is hard to achieve. I’ve seen similar patterns with my wife, family, and friends. I am going to get better at this…

Biking

• I rode 259+ hours on my bike.
• I biked on 116 days.
• I covered 4,936km (the second-highest year on record).

I am most proud of the training I did for my big bike tour this year. Unlike previous years I was prepared for the ride. I hope to keep that up for the next one. I also did well, considering how busy Shepherd and life were.

Sick / Not 100%
I was sick, injured, or not at a hundred percent for ~11% of the year. That is about the same as last year. The main impact was this December mess, a cold/sinus thing in November in Dublin, and some flu thing in Croatia in May (I never tested positive for Covid). The interesting thing is those all came after feelings of being overwhelmed and exhausted. I need to listen better.

Sleep
This year 75% of my sleep was rated as good sleep and 60% as “enough” sleep (7.5+ hours). That is similar to last year.

Strength / Rehab / Back
My back felt great 93% of the time this year. That is awesome!

Fun stats:

• I set a new ride ascent record with a 1,249m gain one day.
• My longest ride was 94km (per Garmin)
• I ascended a total of 34,759 meters this year.
• I biked 57+ hours in October on my big bike tour.
• I did 122 strength training sessions this year for 92 hours. That hits my goal of 3 a week, but my average session was 45 minutes when I aim for 60.

What are my health/workout goals for 2023?

1. Maintain a good base on my bike so I can do long bike tours.
2. Do ST 3x a week for 60 minutes to keep my back happy.
3. Continue to improve energy management so that I don’t red line. This is hugely important as I want to do a better job with health/stress in 2023.
4. I want to shift some food habits by about 20 degrees. Specifically I want to shed some extra weight I am carrying, eat less meat, and change some bad habits around screens + food.

I am also adding in speed workouts, but still playing with that.

Past years: 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021 workout summary.