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.

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.

The 2025 Royal Oaks CX Practice Series

Photo credit: Mitchell Vincent

Cyclocross practice returns to West Bend this evening and I’m happy that there are people who want to do it and at least one person who wants to lead it, because I’m no longer in charge. I presided over 75 practices:

I hope this year’s series is a great success, but it is time for me to move on to other objectives.

Addicted

At this time last year, I surpassed 30,000 lifetime miles on my 2013 BMC Granfondo GF02, which is still great today after even more time and more miles. However, it is an aging 2x10-speed aluminum bike with rim brakes. That’s not where the industry is today, much less where it will be tomorrow. When things break or wear out, finding replacement parts will only get more challenging and more expensive.

I’m close to 6,000 lifetime miles aboard my 2022 Framed Gravier, a capable bike for a ride on the Eisenbahn State Trail, but not something I would want to ride on the road any more than necessary. It’s heavy and the gearing is all wrong for me. On one hand, I like the simplicity of the single chainring. On the other, I’m usually riding at 40x11 and wishing I had more gears.

You already should have guessed where this is going.

All year long, I was thinking about a new bike that could replace both the BMC and the Framed, simplifying things for me in my most common riding scenarios. After much deliberation, last week I decided the 2025 Scott Addict is the solution.

Scott makes different versions of the Addict. For me, the right choice was the Shimano 105 12-speed mechanical version. I think it’s a better value with less hassle than the Shimano 105 Di2 version; the bikes are identical otherwise. I’m not a fetishist when it comes to bike technology. Electronic shifting is cool, but it comes with its own set of worries and a much higher price tag. Today’s 105 group performs as well as yesterday’s top-of-the-line DURA-ACE group with only a small weight penalty. I’m getting more climbing gears (11-34) than I have with the BMC (11-28), more top-end gearing (50-tooth big ring) than I have with the Framed, and hydraulic disc brakes, an improvement over both the BMC and the Framed. And like all modern road bikes, the Scott has clearance for wider tires. Its stock 32mm tires will be fine on the road and on a gentle gravel trail like the Eisenbahn, where I have been using similar 32mm tires on the Framed for the last three years. The Scott’s stock wheels are surprisingly good and contribute to a noticeably smoother ride. They are only slightly heavier than the wheels on the BMC and they are almost a full pound lighter than the wheels that came with the Framed! They’re even lighter than the custom wheels I ordered to replace the Framed’s stock set.

While Scott began as an American company, it is now headquartered in Switzerland, and its product offerings are known better to the European market. In the US, you can find versions of the Giant Defy and the Trek Domane that are almost identical to my new Addict – carbon frames, Shimano 105 12-speed mechanical drivetrains, unspectacular yet eminently serviceable house brand wheels, saddles, handlebars, etc. – but they don’t come close to the Addict on price. And price is always a consideration. As I was reviewing my options, total cost of ownership was a thought. So was timing. I think we are heading into a period of significantly higher prices driven by new tariffs. Anything coming from overseas – and that’s almost everything in the bike industry – is going to cost more. I didn’t want to wait any longer. You can still find deals on stuff that is already in the US. A lot of companies in a lot of different industries front-loaded their shipments this year to get ahead of the tariffs. But once that stuff is gone, the next wave of stuff will be more expensive.

I don’t plan to part with the BMC. If it is to become only a backup road bike, then it will be a great backup road bike. The Framed, though, is looking for a new purpose. I already have stripped it of its pedals, bottle cages, computer mount, and saddle. (The stock saddle on the Addict was too short for my riding style, and it’s 30 grams heavier.) As a single chainring bike with mechanical disc brakes and plenty of tire clearance, a pair of flat pedals could turn the Framed into an all-season, urban errand runner. Or this could simply be time to find a new owner for it.

On today’s 35-mile shakedown ride, the Addict performed flawlessly. The only thing that would have made it better was a heater. What’s up with our weather? Is this August or October? It would be typical of my luck for me to have purchased a great bike right before the early arrival of a chilly autumn. Give me at least a few more nice weeks, please!

Ups & Downs

Getting more sleep is irrefutably a good thing for my overall health. Today, though, I slept away my chance to get on the bike. By the time I got out of bed, another nasty line of thunderstorms was about to hit West Bend with more rain that we don’t need. I was determined not to let the remainder of the day go to waste, even if I did have to spend it indoors.

Here was an opportunity to use my new Garmin Instinct to track an activity I couldn’t track before: floor climbing. Last week I did a short test of this feature, climbing 20 flights at home. That’s 20 trips from the first floor to the second floor, and back again. Garmin gave me credit for only 18 flights (90%). Today, I went longer: 50 flights. Garmin’s accuracy was even worse, as I was credited with only 43 flights (86%). But I guess it’s close enough. There just isn’t that much elevation change between the two floors of my home. I’ll bet the accuracy is better outdoors. And given that I performed today’s test during a thunderstorm, I suppose there’s a chance that Garmin was thrown off by rapid air pressure changes. Garmin does advise against descending too soon after reaching a higher level, as the tracker may need several seconds to detect a pressure change. Air pressure changes during the storm may have blinded my device to some of the 7 climbs it omitted from my official total.

Today’s effort, while imperfectly measured, was sufficient to earn me a new Garmin Connect badge.

“Virtual Climb - The Narrows” is one of four badges available for floor climbing. It will be the only one I earn at home! If today’s performance is a good indication of the effort required for each of these, then the shortest of the three that remain would take me about three hours and 100 trips up and down my staircase.

No, thanks!