Hot, Hot, Hot

It was a remarkable Memorial Day Weekend in West Bend: 3 days of record-breaking temperatures in the 90s, abundant sunshine, and not-too-bad winds. In the week that ended on Sunday, I racked up 194 miles and almost 11.5 hours of saddle time. It was my highest volume of training so far this year.

On Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, I rode in the company of friends. Today I did 2 hours solo to get the new week started. I still have a shot at my all-time mileage record for May. I need 99 miles in the next 3 days. Looking at the weather forecast, I’m not sure I will make it. Tomorrow’s another winner but Wednesday and Thursday come with a pretty high risk of rain. I might just suck it up and ride in the rain if I’m close enough to my PR.

It could be another 3 months before my first race of 2018—this year is mostly about cyclocross, with just a couple of other events thrown in—so right now I’m using mileage and saddle time for motivation. But my base is solid and I’m ready for a little more structure in my workouts … and I probably should start hitting the mountain bike trails in June. I haven’t been on singletrack yet this year.

Highway Robbery

I took a big financial hit today. My 2003 Dodge Caravan—which, in fairness, has been a pretty solid vehicle since I acquired it from my in-laws in 2013—developed a major coolant system leak. And, of course, most of the damage was tucked far behind the engine, so most of the repair cost was the labor required to move good stuff out of the way to access the bad stuff. But there was no question about fixing the vehicle. It had to be done, and it had to be done immediately. Fortunately, I had enough cash reserves to pay for the work; I don’t need any new credit card debt. But my bank account won’t recover fully until August … assuming there are no more surprises.

I rely on the Caravan for my daily commute and to take me to bicycle races. (It doesn’t get great gas mileage, so it’s better at the latter than the former.) Draining my cash reserves to cover this big repair bill could affect my cycling plans. I had been considering a new cyclocross bike for the upcoming season, but that purchase is doubtful now. And some tempting summertime events might remain nothing more than temptations. I need to ensure that I can pay for my cyclocross season. If there’s money for anything else, then that will be a bonus.

Little Switzerland’s 2018 Schedule

If you’re into downhill mountain biking, then check this out:

Mother’s Day Meanderings

I got back on the bike today after 2 days of rest. Friday was going to be a rest day because of the cold, rainy weather. Saturday wasn’t supposed to be a rest day. But something didn’t feel quite right … hard to describe. I wasn’t sick the way most people would recognize being sick, but I had a dull ache that suggested sickness wasn’t far away. It started late Thursday evening and persisted for about 48 hours. I’ve had that feeling before, and the cure always has been to take as much bed rest as possible. I went to work Thursday and Friday nights, but I would have been very happy to stay home if not for the lost wages. I’m still a contract employee with no sick pay, so I’ll have to be near death before I give up a shift.

Hopefully, that little episode of feeling funky is now behind me. We had nice enough weather today and I insisted on riding even at the risk of a relapse. But I restricted myself to 90 minutes. I’ll go for a long ride tomorrow if I still feel OK. I was limited to 7 hours of saddle time this week. I expect to get back to 10+ in the week to come.

Today also was, finally, the start of the mountain bike racing season in Wisconsin. The Iola Bump & Jump kicked off the WORS season after a 1-week delay to allow the trails to dry. The WEMS season still hasn’t started, as the race at Alpine Valley was cancelled on Saturday.

Finishing Off The First 1,000 Miles Of 2018

Today's adventure, counterclockwise.

Much later into this year than I had hoped, I am finding some consistency in my training. April was a disaster: just 8 rides for a total of 271 miles. That left me 181 miles short of last year’s pace. And last year’s pace was nothing special. It’s not uncommon for me to complete my first 1,000 miles before May. But I amassed 144 miles during the week of April 23-29 and another 171 miles last week. In both distance and time—more than 10.5 hours in the saddle—last week was my highest volume of training so far this year.

With no races scheduled this month, my biggest goals are to drop a few pounds and to surpass my oldest monthly mileage record. I rode 750 miles in May 2009. I wouldn’t call 751 “low-hanging fruit,” but it’s achievable. Usually I am mountain biking by now, and maybe even racing. Not this year. What I want and what I need are in perfect sync: long road and rec trail rides. And this week is off to a good start: 33 miles today takes me to 1,000 miles, year-to-date. That’s 9 days later than last year, but not bad historically:

2018-05-07
2017-04-28
2016-04-24
2015-04-11
2014-05-08
2013-05-13
2012-04-14
2011-05-16
2010-04-29
2009-05-12
2008-05-22
2007-05-28
2006-06-14
2005-06-22
2004-09-04

I often describe the 1,000-mile mark as the point in the season at which I “switch on” and start riding with a little more style and a little less desperation. I felt good today. You’ve heard it before: I ride better as I ride more.

Recapping The 2018 Cheesehead Roubaix

Yesterday in Newburg, the 9th Annual Cheesehead Roubaix could not have been more different than the 2017 edition. Last year’s weather was so awful that very few people showed up and almost nobody rode the whole route. And low attendance meant few contributions to our host, the all-volunteer Newburg Fire Department. We fixed all of that yesterday! With sunny skies, dry roads, and comparatively light winds, turnout was somewhere around 300 and NFD collected $2,129 in cash donations and concessions sales. Thanks to everyone who contributed!

I was thrilled to ride the route again after missing it last year. In 2017 I used my minivan to offer SAG service, knowing that a lot of riders would give up due to the harsh weather. Here’s how I have performed at Cheesehead Roubaix since 2013:

2018 — 3:40:39 / 17.1 mph
2016 — 3:44:40 / 16.8 mph
2015 — 3:38:05 / 17.3 mph
2014 — 4:08:34 / 15.3 mph
2013 — 3:26:18 / 18.3 mph

The route hasn’t changed since 2013, and that was my first year with a Garmin GPS device, so I can see with a fair amount of accuracy how my performance over the same 63 miles has varied from year to year. The differences in speed are all weather-related. I was fast in 2013 on a warm, dry, almost windless day; I was slow in 2014 on a cold, wet, windy day. This year I rode Lovers Lane cleanly while loose gravel forced many others to walk the last 100 meters—even guys with a lot more tire than my trusty 700x25 Continental Gatorskins. Overall, yesterday’s performance was statistically average. I still had a 17.8 mph average until about Mile 41 before fading. I haven’t ridden as many miles as I normally do by the end of April, and a lack of deep endurance was evident in the final miles on Sunday.

Cheesehead Roubaix 2018 was fun and successful, a return to form after a freakishly bad 2017 edition. As May begins, so do high-mileage weeks as I look to regain that deep endurance. But it won’t be long before I’m making plans for the 10th Annual Cheesehead Roubaix!

Finding A Little Late April Form

The Slinger loop clockwise, then the Trenton loop counterclockwise.

For a fleeting moment this afternoon we touched 60°, making this the warmest day so far in 2018. The last 60° day in West Bend was way back on December 4, a date whose average is only 35°! I celebrated today with a 37-mile ride in the company of friends. It wasn’t my longest ride—that distinction belongs to Friday’s 40 miles on my cyclocross bike. It wasn’t my hilliest ride—I did 1,440 feet of climbing on March 11 and only 1,385 today. But today’s ride was my fastest: 16.8 mph average on my road bike. That’s OK for this time of year, particularly considering the lack of saddle time lately. We weren’t out to kill this one.

So, today’s ride was a confidence builder for next Sunday’s Cheesehead Roubaix. And the weather looks good for the week ahead. With a few focused weekday rides, I should be feeling strong for my first metric century of the new season.

Better Days Ahead?

The snow that arrived on Sunday and Monday is still hanging around, and there’s more on the way. The weather forecast gets better rapidly after tonight, but Opening Day for local mountain bike trails has been pushed back by weeks. Long after the snow disappears from roads and yards, it will linger in the darkness of the woods. Here’s what the Department of Natural Resources said on Monday about the conditions in the Northern Kettle Moraine:

Things are even worse farther north. Yesterday the Wisconsin Endurance Mountain Bike Series (WEMS) announced that its season-opening race at Levis Mound will move from April 28 to May 26. I think the Wisconsin Off-Road Series opener—May 6 at Iola—is in jeopardy too, though WORS hasn’t said anything about it yet. Many factors go into why we hold races where we hold races when we hold races, and I know a lot of people who think this late blast of winter is an aberration. But it’s not that unusual, and again I question the wisdom of scheduling races in northern Wisconsin so early in the season. All things being equal, the chances of a postponement or cancellation are much higher there, year after year. And forget about the race courses for a moment—who has had open mountain bike trails on which to practice? I wouldn’t want my first mountain bike ride of the year to be a full-blast effort on unfamiliar trails, surrounded by other racers still rusty from a long off-season.

Road racers have been just as unlucky as mountain bikers so far. The first two weekends of the Wisconsin Cycling Association calendar were wiped out, but it looks like this weekend will be OK.

My racing season is still months away and for now I would be content with conditions that allow me to train outside consistently. I’m stuck on 575 miles, year-to-date, and I still haven’t ridden on more than 3 consecutive days. It’s no wonder that I’m 5 pounds heavier than I was on this date a year ago, and it’s going to take me a while to feel like myself again. I won’t meet my goal of 1,000 miles by the end of April, no matter how nice the weather gets.

No Foolin’

We’re almost halfway through April and today I did my first ride this month! Actually, it was my first ride since March 28. That’s disgraceful, but the weather has been truly awful. The average daytime high temperature between that last ride and today’s was 38°. We had rain. We had snow. We had high winds that on a few of those days dropped the “feels like” temperature into single digits. Basically, we had February weather for the last two weeks. I was demoralized. At least I kept up with my upper body strength training workouts in the home gym—those have been going well—but I couldn’t be bothered with the bike, not even indoors.

And if riding today became something of a moral imperative, then riding tomorrow will be even more urgent. The middle of this week is a tiny island of adequacy in a vast ocean of no F-ing way. We’re going to be drenched by rain on Friday and Saturday, then covered by snow on Sunday and Monday. Winter is a long way from done with us:

Enough already.

The Bicycle As Art

Way back in 2010, I mentioned the impending construction of a new building for the Museum of Wisconsin Art. Sitting right next to the Eisenbahn State Trail, MOWA would have some impact on bicycle traffic in West Bend, I assumed, but I didn’t imagine that it ever would host an exhibit to celebrate the bicycle as art.

Beginning next Saturday and continuing through August 5, MOWA will host “Joy Ride: Designing Trek,” and the exhibit isn’t the only bike-friendly event in the museum’s plans this year. MOWA explains things better than I can, and I hope that it won’t mind if I reprint the text from its website verbatim:

From its humble beginning in 1976, hand building steel bike frames in a Wisconsin barn, to becoming one of the dominant players in a multi-billion dollar global cycling market with its state-of-the-art headquarters based in Waterloo, Trek Bicycles offers more than just a vehicle of sport or transport, but an integral part of people’s lifestyles and a display of extraordinary artistry.

Joy Ride: Designing Trek highlights the company’s dedication to superior craftsmanship and innovation over the last 40 years. From an original steel 1976 road bike to many of the seventeen categories of bicycle produced today, Joy Ride traces the history and evolution of this global leader in bicycle design, acknowledging not just the diversity of people who ride, but the drive for performance and cutting-edge innovation. 

A selection of bikes from some of Trek’s most famous professional riders will be on view: Rachel Atherton’s 2017 season downhill bike, Alberto Contador’s 2007 Champs-Elysées Tour de France bike, and Jens Voigt’s ‘hour record bicycle’ in which he recorded the longest distance traveled in a single hour from a dead start in 2014, to name a few. Other notable bicycles include polar adventurer and Cedarburg native Eric Larsen’s South Pole fat bike, and a 1995 Y33 mountain bike from the collection of late actor and avid cyclist Robin Williams. Trek’s playful side takes full reign in a psychedelic Grateful Dead-inspired mountain bike made for biking legend Gary Fisher and a collection of personal “art bikes” by Trek’s in-house designers that will be paired with works in the permanent collection galleries. 

Exhibition Activities

Opening Party
Saturday, April 14 | 2:00–5:00

• Meet Trek designers and artists from all three opening exhibitions. Enjoy printmaking with bike tires, live music by the Latchkeys, light bites and a cash bar.

Trek Designer Panel
Thursday, April 19 | 6:30–7:30

• Trek designers give a behind-the-scenes look at their work and share what it’s like to work for an organization dedicated to making the world a more bike-friendly place.

Summer of Cycling
April 14–August 5

• To celebrate the Joy Ride: Designing Trek exhibition, a collaboration of community partners present a Summer of Cycling. View a full list of activities, rides, and programs at wisconsinart.org/bike.

Pretty cool! This is "big city" stuff right here in little ol' West Bend!