Overreaching?

I ride more miles on the Eisenbahn State Trail than anyone I know. Almost every ride includes it in some way, even if I’m just taking a brief ride on the trail to reach the start of a road route. And almost every week, spring through fall, I do at least one ride to Campbellsport and back. From my house near the south end of the Eisenbahn, that’s 32 miles. But I rarely go to Eden, the northern terminus of the trail. It’s 14 extra miles, roundtrip. For whatever reason, that relatively short distance makes a big difference.

Today was so sunny and warm and time was so plentiful that I couldn’t resist taking my first trip to Eden since September 12, 2024. It was slow going, if I’m being honest. I couldn’t seem to stop my heart rate from drifting into Zone 3 on what was supposed to be a Zone 2 ride. I kept dialing back my effort, but I never found an easy groove that allowed me to stay in Zone 2. After the ride, Garmin expressed its disappointment in me:

Overreaching? With a couple of short detours to reload my water bottle, today’s ride was 47 miles. I finished it in 3:11:35 for a 14.7 mph average. What’s the big deal? I had a rest day on Wednesday. Today’s ride gives me just a little more than 10 hours in the saddle this week with one day to go. That’s normal stuff for me, so I’ll be back on the bike again tomorrow. It won’t be another 3-hour day, fair enough, but I bet I won’t be unusually fatigued. Overreaching … 

200 + 200 = Satisfied

Yeah, there it is: my first back-to-back 200-mile weeks since July 18-24 and July 25-31, 2022. At this time yesterday, I wasn’t sure it was going to happen. I got rained on yesterday and decided to cut my ride short at just 9 miles. Today’s forecast was very uncertain as little pockets of rain continued to drift through our region, but by early afternoon I was confident I could bang out enough miles to reach my goal. With 30 miles today, I finished the week with a total of 206 miles in 13:20:22. That’s almost a carbon copy of last week, when I did 210 miles in 13:26:30, my highest totals this season.

When the new week begins tomorrow, I will be 27 miles away from my 500-mile goal for September, 33 miles away from another Garmin Connect badge, and 452 miles away from my 3,161-mile goal for the 2025 season. I like my chances of completing the first two. The last one will take more work than I can put out during a single week – my biggest week ever was 283 miles, September 21-27, 2020 – but I should get there by mid-October.

Getting Around

You may have noticed a new Routes page here on the Bike Washington County site. It will become a repository for road routes that I like. Right now it contains two of mine and one from Jimmy Scharrer, each with a simple map and cuesheet, plus GPX files that you can download for your GPS-enabled cycling computers. I will add more routes over time but not on a regular schedule, so check periodically and feel free to direct me to routes that you have created and think would be good additions, as Jimmy did.

Publishing a collection of routes is something I considered for a long time. My most recent upload, the “Evening Standard” ride, got a mention here way back in April 2011. One of the reasons I’m finally taking on this project is my concern for the safety of the Thursday group rides that are organizing in the Washington County Bicyclists group on Facebook. I’ve seen too many routes that include state and county highways where the riders are sharing the road with high-speed motor vehicle traffic, and too many routes that include long stretches into a setting sun. With the incredible road density we enjoy, there’s simply no reason to create routes that exacerbate those dangers. Thursday group rides start at 6 p.m. early in the season and then shift to 5:30 p.m. as the days get shorter with the approach of autumn. They are designed to use all of the available daylight, so they inevitably contend with sunset. And yet so many of them finish into the sun when they might have finished from the north, south, or west. As my collection of routes grows, it will include options from all directions. By next spring, perhaps I will have published enough routes that the Facebook group can just choose from them instead of generating new routes each week. While I appreciate the efforts of the group’s route creators, it’s common for them to publish their routes so late in the week that there is insufficient time for riders to conduct a review and suggest safer alternatives. A repository from which routes can be chosen to match wind direction and available daylight seems like a better and more sustainable choice.

I won’t publish any route that I wouldn’t ride myself. I consider them safe enough, but no route is 100% safe. (A couple of the worst crashes I’ve ever had were on car-free recreation trails!) Know your own limits, respect the weather, always consider how the position of the sun affects visibility, and use good judgment if you want to try one of these routes for yourself.

My Best Week On The Bike In 2025

Today's familiar route

The first week of September was a disaster. In those seven days, I did only two rides for a total of 57 miles and a total ride time of 3:40. I simply could not motivate myself when the air temperature was barely above 60° and when the wind was making me feel even colder. And yeah, I know I had better “warm up” to the idea of riding in those conditions, because soon they will be the norm. But in the first half of September, they are absolutely not. We should still be hitting mid-70s regularly.

So, imagine my delight with the way this week turned out! This afternoon, West Bend briefly topped 80° for the first time since August 22. I rode every day this week and finished with my first 200-mile week of 2025. I completed 210 miles in 13:27. That’s getting the job done! Almost all of those miles came from the Eisenbahn State Trail, but I didn’t mind. If I had needed variety, then I might have found it easily. There was a group mountain bike ride at Glacial Blue Hills on Tuesday, cyclocross practice at Royal Oaks Park on Wednesday, and a group road ride that left from the Eisenbahn’s Rusco Drive trailhead on Thursday. If you had done all of those and my Eisenbahn group ride on Friday evening, then you would have had four distinctly different ways to enjoy cycling on four consecutive weeknights. Not bad, West Bend!

We’re going to continue to have warm and dry conditions for at least the next few days, so I will continue to push. I really am all about the miles right now; rest days be damned. (I don’t recommend this approach to those of you who are actually training for something. Real gains come only with adequate recovery.) Despite my big totals this week, I still need 658 miles to meet my goal for the year: 3,161. Last year, I had only one 200-mile week: September 9-15. This year, I have a chance for my first back-to-back 200-mile weeks since July 18-24 and July 25-31, 2022. I want to go into October needing as few miles as possible, and I want to leave October thinking only of cross-training workouts and indoor cycling until next spring.

Twilight Zone-2 Ride: 2025 Finale

Meet at the downtown West Bend train depot for a twilight ride on the Eisenbahn State Trail to Campbellsport and back, with a mid-ride snack stop at Kohn’s Filling Station. That’s 28.5 miles and we’ll average 15-16 mph. The ride will start promptly at 6 p.m. Sunset will be at 7:10 p.m., so this ride will finish in the dark. Headlights are required. If you’re a Facebook user, then please click here to visit the event page and indicate whether you plan to participate.

Pedal Moraine To Close At The End Of September

Here’s news I hoped I would never see. Mark Ramsey, owner of Pedal Moraine Cycle and Fitness in West Bend, announced on Facebook this morning that the store will close at the end of this month. This is a big loss for the local cycling community overall, and almost certainly a fatal blow for Team Pedal Moraine, which now must find a new title sponsor or else disband.