It seems a bit early, but I have been at this healthier (not crash) diet and consistent training for a couple of weeks now and feel amazing! I still have a long road ahead of me to get where I want to be, but initial signs are all pretty dang positive.

Just this last weekend I got a notification on my phone which mentioned that my resting heart rate trend had decreased fairly significantly since the end of 2023. This is a direct result of, frankly, treating myself a lot better than I had been! Of course there will always be the holiday revelry (I think it is important actually), but the problem was that my nutrition before the holidays was pretty trash. I can go back months and months (I have been wearing some sort of heart rate monitor daily for years) and see this data. For most of last year my resting heart rate was mid to high 50’s. These last two weeks it is on a downward trend to the low 40’s!

On top of that, my Garmin watch is really confused with my HRV score as the score has been going higher and higher since the start of the year. Now HRV can be a pretty touchy subject, and frankly I’m not a doctor anymore, but from what I have read this higher HRV score in my case is likely due to improved fitness. Its going to take some more weeks for the Garmin to stop telling me I need to rest as it was so used to my lower HRV score.

Ok, so training is heading in the right direction, now what about the good stuff - gear.

My first race/event is the Gravel Worlds Winter Endurance. I am signed up for the 100 km (~62 mile) fat bike event. Yes, there is a 150 km (~93 mile) route, but I wisely decided that would be too early in my season to be useful - in fact it would likely put me in a fitness hole this early on. I must be finally gaining some wisdom in my old age.

So that bike in question is my 2020 Giant Yukon 1. I bought this way back at the start of the Pandemic from The Bike Way, and it has undergone a few changes from the factory spec. MAN I love the deep purple color!

Only change not shown here is the handlebar and tires.

1. Changed the Stem and Handlebar.

The stock setup was a very short stem and a riser handlebar. To be a bit more stretched out as I mostly use this thing for longer gravel rides, I put a 90mm stem on. I also had a carbon Race Face handlebar not being used that I put on.

2. Changed out the stock wheelset for a Cantu Rumble 27.5 Carbon Wheelset

The stock Giant wheelset was advertised as tubeless compatible, but for whatever reason my wheelset would not seat a tubeless tire to save its life. I picked up this carbon wheelset to deal with that, but also mostly because the rotational weight on this beat was insane. This wheelset transformed how the bike handled.

3. Changed out the stock Maxxis Colossus tires for Bontrager Barbegazi tires

Those Maxxis Colossus tires were great in deep sand (like out at Lake Mac) and snow, but were basically the slowest tire I had ever experienced on gravel (and that includes Surly Nates). These Barbegazi tires are lighter (nearly 200 grams a tire), have the same volume (27.5 X 4.5), and have a much more gravel-friendly tread. Happily they seem to do great in snow as well so nothing lost there.

4. Changed the dropper seatpost out for a standard post

OK, so this actually is a downgrade. I did this because I use this bike on gravel a lot where a dropper is arguably not needed (especially on a traction-friendly fat bike). However there have been a few times on snowy descents where I have absolutely missed the dropper. I might at some point put it back on (still have it), but not for this race/event.

5. Garmin Rally Power Meter Pedals

Lol - yep, a Power Meter on the fat bike. Picked these up from The Bike Way and love em. I have the single-sided variant, but one of these days I’ll pick up the other side. I will say that the battery in these things last an impressive amount of time!

Other than all that, the bike is stock and well-loved. I will use the Wolf Tooth Pogies depending on the weather. 

This might not be the fastest fat bike setup for a gravel event, but I am not in this to win in. I'm in it for the training time. if I wanted to be fast I would switch to a 3.8 tire at the very least.