Ride in the Rain Month

Tom Butler: 0:04

This is the Cycling Over 60 Podcast, season 2, episode 15, writing in the Rain Month. I'm your host, tom Huffer. I am now seeing really good progress on my blood glucose front. It has been a good enough level of progress that I am optimistic that I will be one of the people who successfully reverses type 2 diabetes. That means at 60 years old, I am still able to make significant changes that will impact my health for the rest of my life. The studying I have done has been a real eye-opener, I believe. In addition to my age, I am overcoming years of insulin resistance. If you or someone you know has been diagnosed with diabetes or pre-diabetes, my journey is one that can give hope. I look forward to being able to get back to some intense bike rides to see how much of an impact these changes will have. With almost half of people over the age of 40 with insulin resistance, it is highly likely people listening to this are impacted by this condition.

Tom Butler: 1:11

Here is the most important piece of information that I have come across High glucose levels for people who are not type 1 diabetics is a secondary indicator of a problem, and A1C is not a great picture of what is happening with blood glucose levels. By the time my A1C was 6.0, I was already a long way down the road to poor health. A1c is not going to show unhealthy glucose spikes if my overall average is okay. So my blood glucose could have been rising and falling in really unhealthy ways and I wouldn't have seen it in A1C. In fact, a1c and blood glucose levels shouldn't be seen as a good indicator of glucose management by the body. Here is why Almost everyone starts out with plenty of places to store the excess blood sugar that results from the average American diet.

Tom Butler: 1:58

I am focusing on the American diet because it is the biggest example of a wrong approach to eating. So we start out in an okay place. As we overload our system with excess sugars, our body starts shoving all that excess all over the place in our tissues, all over our body, and that works for a while to maintain a healthy blood sugar level. But this is similar to having a hole in the bottom of a boat. If you are able to bail faster than the incoming water, it looks like the boat is in okay shape. It's not filling up with water. However, that doesn't change the fact that there is a hole in the bottom of the boat that needs to be fixed. What we really need to know is how much insulin is being pumped out to manage the amount of glucose in our blood. As more and more insulin is needed to maintain a good blood glucose level, that is the first indication that something is going wrong, and our system is then working harder and harder to maintain healthy blood glucose. So we start gaining fat because our insulin is frantically stuffing the excess glucose stored as fat in every place it can find. Only when insulin levels are high and still totally overwhelmed do we start seeing a rise in blood glucose levels. So I believe that, along with blood glucose levels, we need to be monitoring blood insulin levels.

Tom Butler: 3:10

I am not in a good place yet with my blood glucose. It is still spiking much higher than what is healthy. However, what success I have seen most likely can be attributed to the fact that I have been able to lose 10 pounds since starting wearing the continuous glucose monitor, but it has taken a while for me to lose enough weight to make an impact. As I lost the weight, I saw very little change in the measurement around my abdomen. I was losing from all over the place. One of the biggest changes is that you can now see muscles in my back, but it is a domino fat. That is the indication of making enough progress to make a difference. That is because losing a domino fat is what will get me to the place where insulin can once again do its job. I am currently at 210 pounds and I have plenty of fat left on me, but I believe that as I get even closer to 200 pounds, I will see dramatic changes in how my body handles blood sugar, because my system will be less and less overloaded. My insulin then will be able to have the impact that insulin is supposed to have.

Tom Butler: 4:13

The main thing I have been doing is avoiding almost all carbohydrates. Now, I am not recommending this for anyone. If you want to try doing this, make sure that you are working with a professional that can guide you to do it safely. It has been a very uncomfortable journey, but I do believe that it has been behind the progress that I am making. If your A1C is above 5.7, start educating yourself about reversing insulin resistance it is highly likely that you will need that information and start preparing yourself that you will need to eat differently from those around you. I am anxious to get to a 5.7 A1C level someday. I am not sure that that is possible now with the damage I have done over the years. But I am interested in not returning to normal. Rather, I want to return to better than normal and I know my cycling is going to benefit immensely from that shift.

Tom Butler: 5:11

Paul Tome from Cascade Cycling Club offered to come on the podcast and talk about their ride in the rain month activities and I thought that was a great idea. I always love hearing about what Cascade is doing to keep the energy high in the area cycling community. Here is our conversation. Well, I am joined today by someone I always enjoy talking to, and that is Paul Tomei from Cascade Bicycle Club. And Paul, you have to remind me, director of Content and Strategy. What's your title there?

Paul Tolme: 5:39

I am essentially the blogger and the media relations manager. So I am the media relations manager and content strategist. It sounds very fancy.

Tom Butler: 5:48

I like strategists and we are here today to talk about ride in the rain month, which is happening the month of November. I think that Seattle is a great place to have a ride in the rain month.

Paul Tolme: 6:02

It's about riding in the rain this morning.

Tom Butler: 6:05

Yeah, right, right. Yeah, we've had a lot of opportunities, although it's last time I looked outside, it looked pretty nice out there today. Now, before we get into ride in the rain month, I'm wondering if you could take a few moments to talk about the pedal relief project. There was recently a celebration. Can you give a bit of a report for 2023?

Paul Tolme: 6:26

Absolutely, and thank you for asking, Tom, and thanks for inviting Cascade Bicycle Club on again. Yeah, the Pedaling Relief Project is a pedal-powered program where we engage volunteers to do rides, food rescues and then deliveries on behalf of food banks. It's an incredible program.

Paul Tolme: 6:45

We call it you know, bicycling as service is the way to think about it. On November 3rd, we had Mayor Harrell came to a news conference we had at the University District Food Bank to celebrate 1.2 million pounds of food rescued and transported since 2020, which is when the Pedaling Relief Project initiated. So that's a huge milestone and we believe this is the largest program of its kind in the country and we would love it to serve as a model for other cities, and we also were happy to have the mayor there to show Mayor Harrell this incredibly powerful program that is serving community while also engaging bicyclists. We think it's a real win-win. It's one of the favorite programs that Cascade offers. People who participate in that love the feeling of not only getting in a bike ride and exploring a new neighborhood, but also providing a real community essential service Bringing up food that might otherwise go to waste we partner with Trader Joe's Markets, as well as PCC and Safeway Markets in Seattle and then delivering this produce by bike or by bike trailer.

Paul Tolme: 7:55

We have fleets of burly bike trailers that people who sign up with Pedaling Relief Project can borrow, transporting the food back to food bags so that we're eliminating food waste, which is a huge problem in the United States. So much good edible food simply goes to waste In this case, really valuable produce Avocados and tomatoes that might be ripe today or tomorrow and the grocery stores can't put them out on the market, on the shelves, because they might just be a little far gone. But there's still delicious, healthy, wonderful food of high value to the food banks, and so we collect this, we bring it back to the food banks. They then repackage it and then there are other Pedaling Relief rides that then deliver this food to the food bank clients. So it's a great program. We're really trying to raise awareness in Seattle and city government and let businesses know and philanthropic organizations that would like to support this program, which does have a high administrative cost associated with it, help it. Support it so we can expand it across Washington state and to other communities as well.

Tom Butler: 9:00

I just think it's fantastic that Cascade Bicycle Club gives members an opportunity to do something like that. And I do want to point people to June 22nd there is an episode on Cascade Bicycle Club, again with Paul, and I'd encourage people, if you don't know much about Cascade, then go check out that episode because we have an opportunity to talk about a lot of things like the Peddling Relief Project that Cascade is doing.

Paul Tolme: 9:28

Oh, and then one more thing regarding Peddling Relief and using bikes to rescue and deliver food. We also are co-sponsoring, along with the Seattle Bike Blog, our Cranksgiving event, which is an annual Thanksgiving pre-thanksgiving bike ride. That will be on November 18th. If this episode airs before then, you can click on the big Cranksgiving poster photo on our homepage and find out more about that event. But we gather at Bird Bar Place Food Bank in Seattle and then participants get a list of grocery items to round up at local markets and then return to multiple food banks and you can win points. There are prizes prizes for costumes and then there is an after party at the Central Cinema afterward. So it's a really fun day on a bike with a good cause.

Tom Butler: 10:18

What are the better names for an event to, I think, Cranksgiving.

Paul Tolme: 10:22

Yeah, and I would encourage folks to, even if they don't live in Seattle. It's a national movement, so there are Cranksgiving events across the country. Tom Fucalora, the Seattle Bike Blog founder, I believe, initiated the program over a decade ago and Cascade along the way began partnering with him, and I encourage all your listeners to also check out the Seattle Bike Blog, which is an amazing resource for anybody who rides a bike in Seattle in terms of advocating for more bike lanes, alerting folks about calls to action when there are important upcoming city meetings to discuss bike lane infrastructure projects, and across the board. So Tom is a real jewel for the city if you ride a bike.

Tom Butler: 11:02

So how would you summarize? Ride in the Rain?

Paul Tolme: 11:06

Ride in the Rain is an aspirational encouragement for folks to continue to ride their bikes in this soggyest of months, and that's really trying to make it fun to participate and continue riding your bikes. We know that a lot of people spend more time indoors in Seattle in the winter, across the board, whether it's not doing as much walking or hiking also, but we encourage active transportation, getting out to either bike, walk, roll to your destinations and continue your healthful fitness regimen of participating in free group rides, for instance, so that you don't lose all your fitness over the winter. Keep your STP training up. So Ride in the Rain is really an aspirational event where we try to make riding in the rain fun and make people aware that it's really not that difficult or challenging if you are prepared.

Tom Butler: 12:01

What's the origin of the event? Where did that idea come from and get rolling and things like that?

Paul Tolme: 12:05

Yeah, it's about a decade old at Cascade Bicycle Club. I don't know if there are origins that go. I'm sure there is institutional history that's been lost. I came to work for Cascade in 2020 and Ride in the Rain was already a thing in 2020. I know that the University of Washington also does it and they actually have a contest with employees can win points for riding in the rain, and in the past we also had a contest, but it was a very costly thing to run and manage, and so now we've kind of focused on creating events such as our hot cocoa rides in November, and we also do some protected bike lane cleanups. In November we have film screenings.

Paul Tolme: 12:50

Hopefully you ride your bike to all of those events and simply continue what you've been doing through the summer and fall months. Riding in the rain really is. There's the physical challenge, and then there's the mental hurdle that people have to overcome. It's easy to hop on your bike and get outside when the sun is shining in July. It can take a little bit more of mental fortitude to do so and it's pouring rain outside, but with the right gear and preparation, it's completely doable for folks who love to ride bikes.

Tom Butler: 13:18

There are three organizations here. There's Cascade Bicycle Club, there's WAH bikes and then there's University of Washington. Now, on the University of Washington ride in the rain webpage they do take credit that the challenge was born at UW, so it'd be interesting if somebody there has that part of the story.

Paul Tolme: 13:41

Yeah, you may want to follow up with them. We're happy to give them credit. We love UW and they mention us on their website and so we thank them and, frankly, we thank any organization, whether it's a business, that is encouraging their employees to ride through November. So we're happy if anybody is promoting encouraging their audience, their employees, their community to ride bikes in November.

Tom Butler: 14:05

And there must be quite a bit of collaboration between Cascade Bicycle Club and UW. I know that there are events that start on the UW campus, which is really handy and really cool. If you've ever considered coming out and doing STP, Seattle to Portland starts at UW and, having done it the first time this year, it was just really fun leaving UW campus and being on the roads with a whole bunch of other cyclists. So you know, shout out to UW for all the support they give for cyclists in the community.

Paul Tolme: 14:39

Go dogs. Yeah, we really support UW as well. As a matter of fact, I mentioned this peddling relief project 1.2 million pounds of food transported event we had recently. The University of Washington's Urban Freight Lab, which is sort of a research arm, looks at the logistics of transportation, trying to encourage micro-mobility and electric bikes to replace delivery vehicles for what they call last mile transport. They recently named the Peddling Relief Project as one of five national initiatives that is really showing how to use bikes in a very positive way that can take vehicles off the road motor vehicles For instance. A lot of these food delivery and rescue rides would have been using a van or a car in the past and now we're using those bikes. Uw's Urban Freight Lab supports our Peddling Relief Project initiative and, yes, we love UW. I'm from New England so I've had to buy some purple sweatshirts since I moved to Seattle because it's a little dog. Yes, we love UW.

Tom Butler: 15:40

Can you give some background information on the relationship between Cascade Bicycle Club and WAH bikes?

Paul Tolme: 15:48

Yeah, so Cascade Bicycle Club is 54 years old this year. We merged with Washington Bikes in 2016. Initially there were two organizations this one long-time, you know, 50-plus year old organization, cascade Bicycle Club, which is fairly well known in the region, and then Washington Bikes was a smaller organization. I was doing a lot of policy work in Olympia when we merged under one umbrella. Cascade Bicycle Club became the 501C3 education and advocacy nonprofit and Washington Bikes became our 501C4 legislative and policy and political endorsements arm. So recently, if you look at the Washington Bikes the WAH bikes blog, you would see slates of bike-friendly candidates that we endorsed. For instance, our Washington bike staff is now preparing for the 2024 legislative session, looking at what bills we can get behind and help sponsor to make cycling safer across Washington and also to support funding for bike infrastructure projects that make it safer for everybody to ride bikes out there.

Tom Butler: 16:57

I could get really lost in just talking about that whole legislative agenda, but you know it is something that you see as you're out and about. You see the impact that Cascade Bicycle Club and Washington Bikes have had because of their advocacy efforts, so it's just really cool to see some of that stuff come to fruition. Now, one of the things that you and I have talked about is the aspect of climate change and the urgent nature of action. I'm wondering if maybe you could talk briefly about how Cascade Bicycle Club and WAH bikes, how that relationship, addresses the need for action.

Paul Tolme: 17:36

Right. Yeah, climate change is a real threat to not only bicycling but, frankly, our modern way of life. We are obviously in support of climate action. The way I would frame how the two organizations work on climate action would be Cascade Bicycle Club is the group that's trying to get more individuals out riding their bikes and also fighting for more infrastructure so that individuals can ride for transportation or recreation safely, and so we can increase the numbers of people on the road, because it's safer to ride with better infrastructure, and so getting more people out bicycling creates the effect of, you know, the strength in numbers, right? The more people who are riding, the more advocates we have for safer cycling conditions.

Paul Tolme: 18:24

Washington Bikes is trying to pass big laws. Climate change requires both big laws which can have a large impact on reducing our greenhouse gas emissions, large amounts of infrastructure money which can encourage and make people feel safer when they're out on the road. Washington Bikes was the supporter of the Climate Commitment Act, which legislates your past I guess that's how I would frame it and when the legislative session begins in January, february, I would encourage your listeners to go to Wobbikesorg to check out what our policy objectives are for 2024. So this is something that we can all do on an individual basis. Take action which hopefully encourages our neighbors if they see me riding a bike and I can encourage them to ride bikes instead of driving.

Paul Tolme: 19:15

Hopefully that there is a ripple effect there. Meantime, washington Bikes is trying to pass the big laws. If you look at the history of our country and the big environmental victories we've had, they've come, you know, with laws like the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act. Prior to those acts, our air was really choked with smoke, our water, you know. There were open sewers and industrial wastes were being dumped right into our waterways. So those laws really had major impact. And we kind of need the same thing with climate change and drawing down our greenhouse gas emissions. And the Climate Commitment Act is a real statement of leadership by Washington State's governor Inslee and the legislature.

Tom Butler: 19:58

I'm pretty sure that the more people that are out on bikes out and about, the more people on bikes that are seen, the more people on bikes that people in the legislature see the statement that people are embracing. The bicycle is a form of transportation I mentioned that's really helpful to. While bikes is there out there, advocating for spending in that area Is that in line with how Right in the Rain advances the vision of Washington Bikes?

Paul Tolme: 20:26

Absolutely. People who are riding year-round are advocates for bicycling.

Paul Tolme: 20:31

They're seen on the road and hopefully they can be encouraged to submit comments on behalf of the legislation. For instance, we had an ambitious traffic safety agenda last year and many legislators sponsored bills. A few of those bills got passed, but some didn't, Maybe because there wasn't enough citizen input. Right, Legislators are maybe cautious by nature and they will act, however, to support initiatives that they see an overwhelming outcry from the voters to support. So we encourage folks not only to ride bikes but to get active in advancing policy that makes our state even safer.

Tom Butler: 21:10

So how is Cascade Bicycle Club encouraging? What are specific things that are done to encourage people to get out and ride in the rain this month? Just encouraging people to get out in November means they're going to be riding in the rain, but encouraging people to get out and embrace riding in the rain, what are some of the specific events that are happening?

Paul Tolme: 21:30

Yeah, well, if you click on the Events tab on the Washington Bikes website, we have a ride in the rain calendar there. So just this past weekend we had a number of hot cocoa rides, where they started and ended at Cascade Bicycle Club. We also have a number of protected bike lane cleanups. We've got two listed thus far. One is actually tomorrow, so that might not be in time for your listeners to sign up for, but there'll be another on November 11. Both of these are in Seattle and we're hoping to add some more bike lane cleanups to this calendar.

Paul Tolme: 22:05

The situation here is that we have a dense tree canopy and those leaves all fall down and they fall on the roads and in the bike lanes and they can make for real slippery, slimy conditions, and so we will, at these two events, be sweeping, cleaning up and shoveling up leaves to help make those bike lanes clearer. We also have a number of. Our education team has a roadside repair class, which knowing how to fix a flat or doing minor repairs is important anytime of year, but especially so in the dark and rainy months. So we encourage folks to increase their skills by signing up for a roadside repair or one of the other bike maintenance classes we offer.

Paul Tolme: 22:48

We also have a film screening on November 14, a really powerful movie called the Street Project, which looks at the problem of traffic violence, essentially vulnerable road users, bicyclists and pedestrians who are being hit by cars. This is a national problem. The numbers are trending the wrong way. We saw a real spike in fatalities during the pandemic and in any case, the Street Project is a great movie that documents efforts nationwide in different cities to combat this problem, and we will follow that screening with a discussion with our policy team to help people learn about what objectives we're advancing here in Seattle. That's a great program to not only learn about policy and advocacy but have a context for why we as a nation need to make our streets safer.

Paul Tolme: 23:38

Cranksgiving I already mentioned on November 18. And then we have a full free group rides calendar. I know you're an active free group ride participant and you don't have to be a Cascade Bicycle Club member to sign up for our free group rides, and so we encourage folks to check out the free group rides calendar to find rides all through the month of November.

Tom Butler: 24:00

I got to get on it to get my group ride leader certification and get out there and help.

Paul Tolme: 24:06

Yeah, we're looking forward to you being a free group ride leader. Incidentally, I myself am in the last phases. You don't just automatically become a free group ride leader when you become a staff member at Cascade. You still have to go through the curriculum, which I find it kind of maybe do more free group rides in different parts of Seattle than I normally would ride if I was just going out recreationally. It's been a great learning experience for me and seeing the different styles of rides that we offer, because there are fun slow paced social rides and then there are rides that are at faster paces for folks who are maybe training for STP or doing race training. So the free group rides calendar is a great place to find new friends to ride with. I just recently did a blog post about the PYRIDE that I did with one of our new free group ride leaders.

Tom Butler: 24:58

Yeah, pie ride, that sounds wonderful. I am unfortunately right now trying to rain in some health issues and pie is not on my list, but it seems like you know, to end a ride with pie seems like a really good thing. And speaking of that, how important is hot chocolate to ride in the rain month?

Paul Tolme: 25:20

Well, staying warm is important during ride in the rain month, and hot cocoa is a great way to finish your ride. So I would say it's highly important, and if you have one of those fancy flasks that can fit into your bottle cage, put some hot cocoa in there.

Tom Butler: 25:36

It seems like this is the month to really discover where are the premier hot chocolate places in your neighborhood. You know where do you go and get the really high quality hot chocolate from. This is a good month to discover that.

Paul Tolme: 25:52

Tom, that's why I want you to become a free group right now, so you can create Seattle hot chocolate ride or the alivia hot chocolate ride and figure out where to ride from and to, because, frankly, a lot of our rides are themes like that.

Paul Tolme: 26:09

For instance, this past weekend we had a Seattle troll ride which started at Cascade and went to the view of the Fremont troll. There are other free group rides that have done the troll and they'll visit the all. I think there are five trolls around the Seattle region, on Bainbridge Island and elsewhere, and so creating these theme rides is one of the reasons why I want to become a free group rides leader as well to create hot chocolate rides, troll rides you know where are the best bagels and also rides to culturally or historically important destinations. So combining a ride with a to a place that's of interest and then maybe have a little chat by a ride leader or somebody who knows about a place of historical significance, to sort of have a themed ride where you can get exercise but also learn a little bit more about your community.

Tom Butler: 26:57

I'll just sort out there Anybody listening. If you know you know great hot chocolate place that would like to sponsor our hot chocolate ride, have them reach out. You can find my email in the show notes and I'd love to talk to someone about that. You talked about the street project and we just had the time change and you know days are getting shorter, and so I think November also is a time when days are getting darker, which adds an element to you know safety a challenge to safety in biking and makes bike lanes dedicated bike lanes, you know even more important.

Tom Butler: 27:38

I'm wondering how you would rate Seattle as far as having the bike infrastructure to support riding in the rain and riding in darker times.

Paul Tolme: 27:50

Well, I will say that Seattle is better than most cities. We see a lot of progress in Seattle, and so I don't know if I want to give them a number or a letter grade. It's getting better. Of course, what? What can municipalities do, you know? Better street lighting to make our streets safer is one thing. We do these bike lane cleanups in the fall, but we would encourage all municipalities and Washington State Department of Transportation to do more frequent street sweeping and cleaning of the bike lanes because, as you know, sometimes you'll ride through a bike lane and they'll be broken glass or nails or things that sort of fall off cars and onto the side of the road and they all end up in the bike lane. So more cleaning of bike lanes.

Paul Tolme: 28:33

As an individual, I strongly encourage people to have front and rear lights.

Paul Tolme: 28:38

During the daytime I'll put them on blinky mode, but once it gets dark, there's been a lot of research to show that blinking lights can actually confuse drivers, especially you can imagine looking through a windshield that's wet, and windshield wipers on blinking red lights can make it more challenging to have depth perception of how far away is this person on a bike, and so I always encourage individuals to run with just a steady red light on the rear at night and on the front as well, just a steady beam. I actually put two front lights on my bike one that's sort of pointed down more at the road to help me see, and then a light that's pointed more up to be seen. I mean there are these sort of two types of lights the ones that help you see and then the ones that help you be seen by people driving. That's, it's not necessary to have two lights, but it's something that I do, and so those are a few of the things better bike lane cleaner bike lanes as an individual stay visible.

Tom Butler: 29:39

I like that suggestion with two lights. It'd be interesting to find a manufacturer that realizes that and has a dual light that you can turn one on as it gets dark to help illuminate your way. That's interesting to find something like that out there, yeah.

Paul Tolme: 29:54

And a lot of electric bikes these days, since they've got a battery on them, come with built in front and rear lights, and that's a great innovation. You know cars, you don't have to put lights on the front and the rear. Right, they come. Cars come with all the things you need, and we encourage bike manufacturers to sort of if they can integrate those safety features right into the bikes.

Paul Tolme: 30:15

And for sure, electric bikes and your more expensive bikes do have those add ons lights, for instance. But if you've just got an old road bike or a old commuter bike, it's worth investing in a good pair of lights. I mean, cars have running lights For a reason. They found that when car headlights are on during the day it prevented crashes, helped drivers see one another.

Tom Butler: 30:38

So the same goes for people on bikes Help make yourself visible to folks who are driving cars and all kinds of options out there for lights. I actually recently came across a brake light that got brighter as you were slowing down Right and I thought that was interesting. It'd be interesting to see if there's anybody that does a study or is looking at that to see if that is an innovation that's going to become standard. I don't know what the technology is that makes the light get bright, but I thought that was interesting.

Paul Tolme: 31:10

Yeah, another word on lights. So I recently acquired a pair of pedals with lights integrated into them. So they've done research to show that lights in motion are easier to see by people driving. So you can imagine if they're on your pedals. There's this circular motion where your pedals are sort of spinning in space, rather than just a static red dot, for instance, which would be on the back of your bike. They're made by a company called Redshift and I believe they're called Arclight pedals, but I found they're a little bit heavier so I wouldn't put them on my you know STP bike. But for my electric bike, which is already heavy and has an electric motor on it, I find them great for riding at night. They really do make you a lot more visible at night. So that's a nice product that I like. Check it out at Redshift, I believe, is the company that makes those.

Tom Butler: 32:06

I would like that, but I think I'd like to have something that was maybe removable or something. You know, if I'm commuting around on my hybrid bike, I don't mind having a little extra weight. You know something that could be put on or taken off if you're going for a longer ride.

Paul Tolme: 32:22

Yeah, and I'm just thinking, you know, my wife and I have bought off of the Amazon. They sell just little red lights that have a little clip. You can clip them on to a bag or a pannier, for instance. I'm thinking, boy, you could probably clip those somehow onto your back of your shoe or so that they would be there and kind of replicate the motion of these red pedal lights that I was talking about.

Tom Butler: 32:46

Yeah, I like that. I feel fortunate in Western Washington, if you can conquer riding in the rain, you can pretty much ride year round. I mean, it will get cold, you know, and if you're going for an early morning rainy ride, it can be pretty chilly, and if you're going down a hill on a cold, rainy morning you can feel it, but there's not a lot of snow to deal with, and so it does seem to be, you know, a place that is actually a little easier to ride year round.

Paul Tolme: 33:16

Absolutely. You know, I lived prior to moving to Seattle in places where it was challenging to ride in the winter insofar as snow and ice, although I had studded. They sell studded bike tires for people who maybe live in eastern Washington where they do get frozen ground and snow. I would encourage your listeners to check out studded tires if they want to continue commuting to work through the winter where it gets icy and snowy on the ground. But yes, riding in the rain really is about. We talked about the mental and the physical components and the gear on your bicycle front and rear lights, fenders, fenders. I see people riding in the rain without fenders and I think boy they're really making it harder on themselves, because you know that line of water up your back is not ever comfortable.

Paul Tolme: 34:09

Now that said, if I'm just doing a fast recreational ride, I don't mind getting a little wet, but if I'm commuting to work, especially, you want to stay dry. So a lot of it really is about gear selection and you know from head to toe I have a whole rain riding in the rain setup that I will use for when I'm commuting. I have about a six mile commute from my house in Seattle to Cascade headquarters out in Magnuson Park and I can get to the office and my clothes will be dry, aside from maybe a slight amount of perspiration.

Tom Butler: 34:40

There are two things there's the aspect of staying dry and there's an aspect of staying warm. So how do you manage the warm part of it? We have pretty good gear these days to stay warm I mean stay dry but that warm part it seems like you would have to have some choices, as far as I'll think of an outer layer to have on or something like that.

Paul Tolme: 35:02

Yeah, staying warm. I mean, for me it's about fingers and toes. Those are the extremities that are out there in the cold. On a bike, you know, you can go jogging in the rain and be really hot. For instance, when I was a runner, I recall that.

Paul Tolme: 35:18

But when you're on a bike, your fingers and toes are sort of right out there in front and actually getting the wind that you're generating while moving through space, so staying warm. There's a company called Bar Mitts which makes these kind of neoprene mittens that fit right over your handlebars. Those are a great product. A cheaper alternative is to wear a pair of like plastic surgical gloves underneath your regular bike gloves so that, while your hands might get a little sweaty inside those plastic gloves, that little layer keeps them dry and warm. Same thing goes for feet. The cheap alternative is slip your foot into a bread bag before you put your cycling shoes on.

Paul Tolme: 36:01

However, if I'm commuting and going to work or going to a place where I want to be presentable, I have a pair of nylon booties. I got them through REI. Rei has a good selection, as well as another company that we love at Cascade called Shower's Pass. They're based in Portland and Cascade members get discounts on all Shower's Pass products and they make premier cycling gear. So they sell these zip up rain booties. That would be. If I'm wearing a casual shoe, for instance, there's a big zipper on the side. You just kind of slide them up. It's almost like putting on a galosh with a zipper If I'm riding recreationally. I have a pair of neoprene booties that are a little bit more stretchy, that fit over cycling shoes. It's a little more of a snug fit, but they have a space for your cleat on the bottom so that if you wear clipless pedals and need to click in, you can find these neoprene coated booties that are waterproof and those will definitely keep your toes warm.

Tom Butler: 36:57

When you're using those, are you finding it a little bit more difficult to clip in, or not really?

Paul Tolme: 37:04

Not really. If you position it correctly, there's a little hole in the bottom of this neoprene bootie, or sometimes just a couple Velcro straps. At the bottom of your shoe is relatively exposed to the elements, but it's the top and the sides that are being covered. In other words, the hard plastic sole of your cycling shoe is not where you're going to get any rain intrusion, and so it's covering the top of that foot which is getting all the rain and cold. I would say that any cycling gear might take a little bit of practice clicking in and clicking out, but I find those two types of booties to be very effective.

Tom Butler: 37:42

I've used toe covers in the past and they've been pretty good. It's obviously not the same level of protection as a full bootie, but it stops a lot of the oncoming water or if you splash through something.

Paul Tolme: 37:55

Yeah, those are another great and pretty cheap solution. I think you can get a pair of those neoprene toes Slip on. Just pull them over the toe of your shoe, whatever you're wearing. Maybe they cost 10 or 15 bucks.

Tom Butler: 38:09

Yeah, there is a big difference between going for a training ride or a recreational ride, going to get some exercise in on a bike in the rain. If I'm going out and doing that, I'm getting sweaty anyhow. But to find that balance between being warm enough and dry to commute to work or to commute to the store, whatever, and yet not being dripping with sweat when you get to work, it seems like that is a bit of a challenge.

Paul Tolme: 38:38

For sure, which is why I use the e-bike for a lot of my commuting and my pedal bike for when I just want to get exercise on the weekend. So for sure, not everybody owns an e-bike, but they certainly do help in terms of riding to work, getting that boost, especially on the hills, where you can go uphill at 10 or 15 miles an hour and not be sweating while doing so. But that said, I mean I ride with a pannier and a lot of commuter bicyclists have panniers to bring their laptop or a change of clothes. So I slip oftentimes a pair of clean, dry socks into my panniers. Just another pair of clean clothes.

Paul Tolme: 39:19

A lot of offices these days have places where employers will provide their locker or something, or even some employers have showers where a person could take a shower. But, that said, that's not necessary If you wear your cycling gear and your rain gear and they get to the office and you can change into your work gear by carrying it in your panniers. That's another way to get around the problem. But riding in the rain does take some preparation and bicycling is an activity that will cause you to perspire sometimes. So maybe adjust your pace, give yourself a little more time. So you're not arriving to work dripping wet, but the joy of getting that daily exercise hopefully completely drowns out any of the negative aspects of getting a little damp or a little sweaty.

Paul Tolme: 40:07

I know that riding year round is not just great for reducing my carbon emissions and saving myself money on gas, but it keeps me happy, sane and healthy. Which is really the great thing about riding year round is you'll have to go to the gym less. You won't have to do intentional exercise. Your exercise, health and happiness is just baked right into the day. Going to and from work, which oftentimes is a miserable experience if you're driving and caught in traffic.

Tom Butler: 40:38

I'm on this journey to reverse insulin resistance. I've been wearing a glucose monitor for about a month now and it blew me away what was happening with my blood glucose level. About 40% 44% of people over age 40 will develop insulin resistance. This whole aspect of riding year round and commuting it's such a benefit from that perspective. And for me, there are these different cultural things that need to happen in order for people to have an easier time with active transportation, and so it seems like we just need to get used to people showing up at work sweaty and maybe we just kind of the way we dress or kind of what we accept is yeah, this is part of the way our culture is going to move, where it's understandable that you were active in the way that you got to work.

Paul Tolme: 41:42

Right. I mean, gee whiz, if you go to some of these European countries that are always touted as the most bike friendly, I mean, those folks are riding to work every day, it's the norm, and driving the car in the Netherlands or Copenhagen, that's the aberration and that's the way my wife and I try to treat our car. We own a car, but we try to only use it when we're leaving Seattle, or in the winter we like to ski, so we'll drive the Subaru up to the mountains to ski, or on those occasions when we need to go to the Home Depot and get some plywood. So even that could be accomplished with a cargo bike. Like my colleague, max Burton, the founder of Peddling Relief Project, has an extra cycle cargo bike where he carries hundreds of pounds of stuff to help set up our events.

Paul Tolme: 42:30

So, yes, there is a normalization of the activity of bicycling as a mode of transportation that we need to have in the United States for many reasons. It's just healthier and happier for all of us, and, while we love, I work for Cascade Bicycle Club and encourage people to ride bikes you mentioned walking as well. For the same reasons, my wife is lucky enough to have about a 30 minute walk to her workplace and she does it year round, rain or shine. And so walk to work, if you can, and combine it with Mass Transit Cascade Bicycle Club. I'm lucky insofar as they sponsor us with an Orca Pass here in Seattle which gives us free bus and light rail passes, and that's something we would encourage all employers to do for their workers to give them that option, subsidize their commute by buying them an Orca Pass. That's a great initiative. As a matter of fact, the Washington State Legislature recently passed an initiative getting, I believe, high school kids, public school kids, orca Passes and other Mass Transit Passes.

Tom Butler: 43:37

Have you seen any experiences that people have had? Have people made any comments to you about how Ride in the Rain Month has helped them experience cycling in a more complete way?

Paul Tolme: 43:47

I'm not gonna lie to you, tom, we do see fewer people riding in the winter in Seattle. But yeah, I think of some of our devoted volunteers, like Anita Elder, who has taken up bicycling as a real part of her life, part of her daily regime, and riding year-round with her electric bike has kept her healthy and happy and she cheers, just like you do Cascade Bicycle Club, in finding this community. So I encourage people to give it a shot. You know, there is a little bit of infrastructure in terms of getting offenders on your bike, for instance, if you don't have it, and buying some rain gear, but the benefits will come back to you twofold in terms of saving money on your commute, putting gas in your car and the health and happiness that you get out of riding every day. And then you have something to brag about as well.

Tom Butler: 44:40

Yeah, I recently posted that the nice thing about riding in the winter in Seattle, in the Seattle area, is you can brag about it. Yes, I ride all year long and yet not suffer, not have the challenges that someone might have if they're riding in Chicago or Denver or someplace like that.

Paul Tolme: 44:58

That's true. Studded tires in those places, yeah, yeah.

Tom Butler: 45:02

Which I would actually love to rent or borrow a bike with real wide tires that had studs on them. I would experience that and I'd really be interested to see what that's like to ride in some packed snow or even on ice with studded tires and just see how that works.

Paul Tolme: 45:20

It's great I've done it. A company that we partner with a lot called Priority Bicycles. They sell studded tires for their bikes, and I own a priority. It's one of these bikes that has a belt drive instead of a chain, which is another innovation of the last decade or so. That has really made my commuter bike less maintenance, because not having to maintain a chain through the winter is really nice, and these belt drives are rest resistant. You really don't have to do any maintenance to them. So that's a great technology for folks who can afford it in priority bikes, yeah.

Tom Butler: 45:55

Interesting. I'll have to go check them out.

Paul Tolme: 45:57

In addition to studded bike tires, there are these snow bikes or fat bikes with the big balloon tires. You see these now on a lot of electric bikes all over the place, because they do really help with riding over potholes or railroad tracks or the urban hazards that you get riding with skinny tires in the city, but they're immensely fun on snow. I used to live in Lake.

Paul Tolme: 46:22

Tahoe area up at 6,400 feet and a buddy of mine had one of these they called fat bikes that you run a really low PSI maybe only five PSI in your tires, compared to a road bike tire which would be up 100 to 120 PSI real high pressure. That low pressure really gives you grip on the snow or also on sand, for instance. Some people ride those types of bikes on the beaches of Southern California. There are certainly exciting opportunities to ride in the winter Out in the Metau Valley. They rent these snow bikes and you can use them on the cross country ski trails out there.

Tom Butler: 47:03

Anything in.

Paul Tolme: 47:03

Leavenworth Washington, another place I lived for a couple of years. Snow bikes are fantastic.

Tom Butler: 47:09

Cool. As you look at the future of ride in the rain, how do you envision it growing or where to go with ride in the rain month Boy?

Paul Tolme: 47:19

I see a future where there are bike lanes and bike networks connecting communities across Washington.

Paul Tolme: 47:27

Thanks to the funding and the move ahead Washington legislation and the complete streets law that was passed two years ago, I see more people on bikes, which means there will be more people riding through November and through the winter months.

Paul Tolme: 47:46

It's a change we really need to make as a nation and we need to figure out how to create more incentives for people to ride year round, especially for transportation. I'm a recreational bicyclist, but it's transportation cycling that is really the huge benefit for society. And so, with continued better infrastructure, where more people feel safe riding on the streets and hopefully have figured out their rain gear attire from their booties right up to their bar mitz or neoprene gloves to keep their fingers warm and their fenders, there will be strengthened numbers where elected leaders will have no choice but to vote for more infrastructure if they want to get reelected, and every bicyclist on the road is another advocate for the activity of safe and protected bicycling. So I see a bright future, and Washington State is a leader one of the most bike friendly states in the country for many, many reasons, and Kastmeet Bicycle Club's decades of work is one of those reasons why Washington State is a national leader on so many bicycling initiatives.

Tom Butler: 48:55

Well, I never want to have a discussion related to Cascade that doesn't also let people know about how to get involved. So every event that I participate in it reinforces just how special the Cascade Bicycle Club community is. I mean, I've just found over the last it's a little bit over a year now that I've been back into cycling in a serious way and just finding cyclists to be really great people and cycling communities to be really fun communities. So how do people get connected with Cascade Bicycle Club as far as membership is concerned and you could talk a little bit about people that are interested in volunteering how do they get involved with that Great Well, your portal is cascadeorg where you can find on the events tabs events and rides tab, I should say all of the events we put on.

Paul Tolme: 49:53

We're here in the winter months where we do not have our big organized rides, but there is a Save the Date call to action there for next July 13 and 14, seattle to Portland 2024. So mark your calendar with those dates. In December we will be announcing the dates for our events and rides for 2024, starting with Chili Hillie going to the ride for Major Taylor and on through SDP RSVP and ending up with the Kitsap Color Classic. So at cascadeorg you can find all about our events.

Paul Tolme: 50:29

You can also engage with us with our education programs. I mentioned a lot of the bike maintenance classes we have.

Paul Tolme: 50:36

We have learned to ride classes as well, and I'd like to note that this year, we implemented a sliding scale policy for all of our classes, insofar as we don't ever want the cost of a class to be a barrier to someone entering, and so we have suggested amounts that people could pay based on their monthly income levels. And, interestingly, we were concerned that, well, everybody's going to sign up for free and nobody's going to pay for classes anymore. Just the opposite happened. We had a boost in numbers in terms of people taking our classes, and a lot of our affluent members and community members chose to pay more to participate in the class, so that's wonderful. The other way that you can engage with cascade is by volunteering.

Paul Tolme: 51:21

We are always looking for more volunteers, whether it's the Peddling Relief Project, which is one of my favorite things. I encourage you, tom. If you can ever do one in the future, that would be a great episode. Volunteer for our Peddling Relief Project. There is a portal to do so right on our website. You can also just click on the Volunteer tab on our website. We need people during Seattle to Portland to staff the food and rest stops, help us load baggage and bikes, and so there are limitless numbers of opportunities, and just this past Sunday or Saturday, I should say we had our annual volunteer party. We really celebrate our volunteers. So it was a big day with. The staff did all the work, we had food and drinks and fun games and we had hundreds of people came by. Magnus and Park, who were a cascade bicycle club headquarters, are to just participate in the fun.

Paul Tolme: 52:17

We cherish our volunteers, and I encourage folks who are not members but who ride bikes to click on the become a member tab. It's a very affordable membership and the benefits are great. As you found, tom, volunteer If you are a member already to do a PRP food bank ride.

Tom Butler: 52:35

I could go on all day about how great cascade basketball club is, tom, so, but I know you also are a big fan of us, so I'm really a big fan of the people, you know, and I love all the activities that are going on, but the people are really fun to hang around with and I just wanted to say real quick that the street project that is another. The film screening is another sliding scale event, so check that out. It potentially removes a barrier for some people to see that information. Well, I really appreciate you coming on, paul, as always, and I just want to tease in the future, I want to pull you in and talk about some of the tour rights that are going to be happening in 2023. So I'm going to expect that at some point here, as we get closer to the to the beginning of the year, that we'll be able to have that conversation 100%.

Paul Tolme: 53:32

Yeah, we're going to be announcing the calendar for those events. In the past we called them tour lights. They were these three day events. They're one of my favorite events that cascade does because they're usually smaller maybe 100 to 200 people in their different scenic locations across Washington.

Tom Butler: 53:52

People have to tune in for that episode and you'll get all the information on the 2024 tour lights and in time to to schedule some time off or schedule some time to participate in those rights.

Paul Tolme: 54:05

Perfect. Thank you, Tom.

Tom Butler: 54:07

Well, good luck and have fun on whatever adventures you have coming up and on on your bike and other things and travels that you're doing for cascade or otherwise.

Paul Tolme: 54:18

Yeah, Well, you as well, tom, have a great Thanksgiving, and now I'm really looking at my calendar to figure out when I can take a winter ski trip Get my wife and I out of. We're trying. We're going to maybe try to get up to British Columbia this this way.

Tom Butler: 54:32

Fantastic, all right, talk to you later now. All right, peace. As Paul was talking, I realized that I have fully embraced the bike as a recreation machine. However, I don't travel by bike very much. I don't have a daily commute so I don't have an opportunity to do that but I don't use my bike to get many places. There is a bit of reality in that I drive a long distance to most of the places that I travel to for work or social activities, but I could choose to travel by bike. It would take a lot more planning than just jumping in the car, but I'm just not in the habit of making time for biking, so I think I need to plan to use my bike to get to some event in Seattle to experience that aspect of cycling. Seattle is over 50 miles away, so I won't bike all the way there. However, I can jump on a train or light rail with my bike.

Tom Butler: 55:26

I live on a plateau and there isn't many safe routes to get down into the valley to take the train. The safe ones pose a challenge when coming up from the valley on the return trip. They can be steep and the best route adds about 10 miles to the trip. However, I need to do this at least once to experience the challenge of bike commuting. How has your experience of cycling been year-round? Have you found the right gear to make it easier? I would love to hear your personal stories. You can find my email and the link to the podcast Instagram in the show notes. Also, share a thought on what the best idea is for a theme ride. I hope you're finding some great rides and great riding partners who are braving less favorable conditions and darker days. Keep the wheels rolling even if they're wet, and remember age is just a gear change.