September Update on 2026 Fitness Goals

As you know if you follow this blog, I generally give a monthly update on my fitness / Strava goals. I'm sure no one besides myself really cares, but I figure sharing these publicly give me a little extra motivation because of the extra accountability.

Plus, from time to time I'll look at older updates just to see where I was in the past.

In previous years, my goals have been mostly around cycling, but starting this year, I've started running as well.

If you're interested, You can always track these workouts on Strava. 

So far, I'm tracking pretty well to my 2026 Fitness goals, although a couple of aches and pains (not quite injuries) do seem to be slowing me down a bit (at least on running).

Khupacabra Kolorado Kolsch (Batch #399)

Last Saturday, the Brew Model and I normally would have probably gone on a bike ride.

However, the Denver Century Ride was going on, and we didn't really want to navigate bike paths with potentially hundreds of others.

Originally, Saturday the 26th was going to be "Doc's Quad Brew Day", which meant my buddy Doc would brew a batch. His wife would brew a batch. The Beer Model would brew a batch. I would brew a batch.

Plans changed and we did it the previous Saturday, with Buckwheat's Belgium Pale Ale (Batch 398). And, our hosts decided they would only do one batch that day.

When they were not doing two batches, we decided to "only" do one too.

This meant that we had ingredients ready to brew with. Last Saturday we used them on the "original" planned brew day without Doc and his wife .

Khupacabra Kolorado Kolsch

I finished #GCCUSA2026

Yesterday, I got in an 18 mile ride to finish up my 1000 mile September, raising over $5,300 to help fight Childhood Cancer with my Great Cycle Challenge.

The rider / donation page will remain available for at least another month ... and I'll be signing up for my 12th year in 2027 ... so if you want to donate, you still can:

https://greatcyclechallenge.com/riders/EricShepard

M is for Mad Macks Brewing

If you're following along on the A to Z series of posts, and/or read K is for Steep Brewing LaKeside TiKi Bar, you know we are up to the letter "M".

If you don't know what that means ... my wife (aka the SheppyBrew Beer Model) and I work our say through the alphabet, visiting a local brewery for each letter.

We've done this 6 full times and are working on #7. At "M", we're basically half-way through round 7!

Considering we only hit A is for Alley Brews Brewery & Coffee Shop this past April, we're flying through this round of the alphabet.

And, as promised ... "M" is one of those letters that we actually had a good choice, and this past Friday, we visited ...

M is for Mad Macks Brewing

#GCCUSA2026 Hero Jersey Shots

In #GCCUSA2026 Jersey Shots, I shared photos of me in GCC Jerseys.

I left out the "Hero Jerseys" that I've earned over the years, so I thought I'd post those.

Here they are:

2020 "Spider Man"

#GCCUSA2026 Jersey Shots

As you know if you've been following along, I'm riding 1000 miles this month as part of the Great Cycle Challenge.

If you'd like to help out with a donation ... here is my rider page:

https://greatcyclechallenge.com/riders/EricShepard

I've been doing this thing every year for the past 10 years and over that time have collected quite of few GCC Jerseys.

As of a couple days ago, I've taken selfies of all these jerseys (other than 2016, which doesn't fit me and is now in my wife's closet).

Here are those photos:

2017

Buckwheat's Belgium Pale Ale (Batch 398)

So ... remember in Brain Freeze Rauchbier (Batch 397), that my friend "Doc" had a plan to help us "catch up" a little on our low beer inventories?

Well, his plan was a "Quad Brew Day" at his home brewery. 

I would brew a batch. My wife would brew a batch. He would brew a batch. His wife would brew a batch.

As it turned out ... neither his nor my wife really planned on brewing a batch themselves, so really it would be Doc brewing two batches and Me brewing two batches.

And ... they ended up needing to babysit their new grand child later in the day, so they decided to just brew one batch.

Honestly, I had not been excited about having to transport (and set up and clean) both my brewing set ups. So, when they said they might be doing one batch, I told them "we" would only be doing the Beer Model's batch....

Buckwheat's Belgium Pale Ale