When Did 45 Miles Become A “Long” Ride?

I did my longest ride of the year today: 45.00 miles in 2:45:31. That surpassed the 36.16 miles I completed in 2:29:24 back on June 28. Go back to 2010 and my average ride was 33.94 miles. This year I am averaging only 25.71 miles per ride. I used to do centuries and metric centuries. I used to do 200-mile weeks for several weeks consecutively. My biggest week so far this year was 170.23 miles, June 23-29. What’s going on?

Believe it or not, the answer is sleep. I’m sleeping better and longer, which means I’m usually sleeping into afternoon hours that used to be available for cycling. It’s not a bad trade. I feel like my fitness right now is at least equal to my fitness from a year ago, though I have ridden 500 fewer miles.

But I need to make some adjustments, and I need to make them quickly. Summer is fleeing Wisconsin with a swiftness I don’t think I have seen before. By this time next week, I might have to turn on my furnace. Summer, by the way, doesn’t officially end until September 22. That means nothing here. I’m already in long sleeves most of the time and in thermals with increasing frequency. I will be able to outdress the weather for a little while, but there’s not much I can do about waning daylight hours. Today was our last day in 2025 with a 7:30 sunset. We’ll be down to 7:00 on September 16. Almost all of my rides this month have started after 5:30, and that won’t work much longer. I consider 1 hour to be the minimum duration for an outdoor ride; anything less than that is a waste of time. And 90 minutes is probably the sweet spot, so what can I do?

As the days get shorter and colder, my options become more limited. Grabbing my headlight for another trip up the Eisenbahn State Trail is the easiest and safest option – I’m very conscious of the dangers of riding into a setting sun – but riding after sunset won’t be the warmest option. The best thing I can do is to start earlier. I want to wrap up my outdoor season by the end of October, by which time sunset will be earlier than 6:00. That makes 4:00 the most attractive start time, effective immediately. By starting at 4:00, I will hit the warmest hours of the day most of the time, and all route options will remain available to me.

Sleep, though … is it going to take a hit? That depends on how disciplined I am. If I force myself to be in bed by 8:00 each morning, then a 3:00 wakeup time gives me a 7-hour sleep window. During the last four weeks, my average sleep duration was 6:23, so this new schedule might work. I have to try. Doing nothing would just be failing gradually.