Geri, and I don’t remember whose idea it was to take a multi-day, supported bike ride together this summer – she says it was mine, but in my memory it was hers. Geri is my first cousin and the two of us rode together, along with Chris, the youngest of my three children, in the 2016 Bike Ride Across Georgia (BRAG). That year’s BRAG took us from the hilly terrain of Atlanta to hot and flat Savannah over the course of five days. At the time, I was still running half marathons and assumed that no other training would be required. I was wrong. The bike I rode didn’t fit me well, the seat was not appropriate for distance riding, and I hadn’t taken the time to build the all-important “butt callouses.” What’s more, since I stopped running in 2018, I wouldn’t even have that level of fitness to fall back on this time. The memory of painful moments on the Georgia ride compelled me to train properly this time around.
The ride Geri and I selected this summer was the Bike Wisconsin North Woods ride, not only for the cooler weather, but because the ride included layover days in which we would spend two nights in one place, allowing us to enjoy each area we had worked so hard to reach. There was also quite a bit of flexibility in total mileage over the week, mostly depending upon choices made for the optional rides on layover days, with the range of total mileage across the week between 182 and 353. Since Geri lives in Wyoming and I live in South Louisiana, Wisconsin is kind of a haul for both of us, but the trip fit our criteria.
For those unfamiliar with what a supported ride is, it is simply a multi-day ride with a planned route and support services, including luggage drops, breaks along the route with food, drink, and restroom facilities, lodging, and some meals. Lodging for the Bike Wisconsin trip offered a choice of a free place to pitch a tent, floor space in a school gym or church parish hall, or a hotel option at an additional cost. The food offering was breakfast, plus break stations along the way, which served as lunch for most of us. The mandatory daily mileage for non-layover days for the trip ranged from 52 to 68 miles with the optional rides on the layover days varying in length from 14 to 78. The route consisted of dedicated bike trails and lightly trafficked county roads along terrain described as ‘rolling hills.’ Route guidance was provided with an app called Ride with GPS that the ride director, Rob, had programmed with mileage and turns. He also provided paper cue sheets in case our electronics failed.
Training for the ride
I initially considered purchasing an e-bike for this trip, but ultimately decided against it for a variety of reasons. The primary reason was the difficulty in transporting the bike. I planned travel on Amtrak, which has a weight limit on bikes of 50 pounds, and most e-bikes are heavier than that. In addition, I needed to take the bike from Chicago, the terminating point for my train, in the back of a rental car, which is not the optimal way to transport an e-bike. The decision to ride my current bike left me to consider the big task of training up. I will point out that I am a pretty casual bike rider – I ride a hybrid, not a road bike, I don’t dress in lycra and fancy bike jerseys, and the idea of ‘clipping in” terrifies me. Unsure of the best way to train, I called Rob in early April to see if he could recommend a program to get me ready for the July 6 start date for the ride. “What you need to make sure you can do,” Rob began, “is to be able to ride at least 55 to 60 miles one day and then get up the next day and ride 35 to 40 more.” He continued, “Some people get to the ride the first day with fresh legs and really overdo it and the next day they are suffering and wondering, ‘what was I thinking when I signed up for this thing?’” At the time, I was riding a regular, leisurely-paced 8-mile loop with friends and going to yoga classes a few times a week. I knew that the longest mandatory riding day was 68 miles. Would I be able to ride it and still get up the next day and get back in the saddle? That became my goal and, over time, the thought occurred to me that, if I could ride just one single mile beyond the 68, I would be riding my age, which is 69. How cool would that be? Clearly, I had work to do.
My training eventually included a combination of longer and shorter rides, yoga, twice weekly cycling classes at the gym, and strength training sessions with a trainer. My trainer, Rachel, focused on core and glutes, explaining that glutes are a large, but underutilized muscle that can make a big difference on long rides and hills and core strength is necessary for long days in the saddle. As I ramped up my training schedule, I sometimes worked out as many as three times in a day and my weekly mileage regularly topped 100 miles. There were definitely times when I felt that my life had become a continuous training bootcamp. The centerpiece of my training rides was a 24.5-mile ride from my house to the Mississippi River levee, down to a casino and back, often supplemented with extensions to other parts of town. Although the levee is flat, the headwinds can be strong. There were days in the beginning that I struggled to finish the levee ride, and I wondered if it would be possible for me to get ready in time for the trip. As the days slipped into summer and South Louisiana heat and humidity, I rose at 5 a.m. on ride days, making sure to be on the bike by first light to beat the heat. As the rides grew longer, I became aware that my bike probably needed some adjustments to increase comfort in the saddle, so I invested in a professional fitting at a local bike shop. The fitting revealed that my bike seat was too far forward and that my handlebars needed to be raised with a piece called a riser, which the shop ordered, in addition to new, wider handlebars.
Bumps in the road, or in one case, a dip in the road
By early June, I was completing the casino run easily and adding mileage in other parts of the city. On one of those rides, after several days of rain, I approached a small dip in a six-foot long stretch of a bike path on my route that was holding water. I slowed to get through the stretch, however, the standing water, plus sunlight and heat, had allowed a biofilm to grow making the section as slick as ice. Without warning, my bike slid out from under me sending me crashing to the pavement and creating an impressive bruise and skinned knees. The second incident took place just after my new handlebars were installed. As I rode home on the levee, the handlebars, which hadn’t been tightened properly by the bike shop, became looser and looser until I was forced to either lose the handlebars altogether or walk the bike home. Escaping these near catastrophes, I managed to reach my early July departure date feeling ready for the ride.
Off to Wisconsin
My husband, John, who was not participating in this adventure, drove me to the Amtrak Station in Hammond, Louisiana on July 4 in the pouring rain for me to catch the Amtrak City of New Orleans to Chicago, checking my bike as baggage. After a good night’s sleep in my roomette, I arrived at Union Station at 9:00 a.m. the next day and met up with my friend, Sharon, who lives in St. Joseph, Michigan. The two of us enjoyed a lovely day in Chicago, walking the along the lakeshore and Chicago’s River Walk. I had reserved an SUV for the next morning to get me from Chicago to Northern Wisconsin through Kyte, a newish company that delivers rental vehicles, thereby saving me the hassle of trying to get myself and my bike somewhere to pick up a car. The VW Tiguan I had rented wasn’t quite big enough to accommodate my bike in the back, so the “Kyte Surfer” who delivered the car helped me take off the front wheel and put the bike in the back of the car. With everything loaded in the car, I set out for the 5 1/2 hour trip to Manitowish Waters, Wisconsin.
At last, the ride
I reached our starting point for the ride, an elementary school in Manitowish Waters late in the day on July 6. Geri had arrived after a two-day drive from Saratoga, Wyoming about an hour earlier. She had chosen to tent camp on the schoolgrounds, while I had elected a spot on the gym floor. I had also rented a chair from Bike Wisconsin and paid extra for their towel service, since carrying all of those items and my bike on the train would have been a real challenge. My rental chair was sort of a camp-style “barcalounger” which was very comfy and included a footstool. On our first night, I was caught totally off guard when the lights in the gym shut off, without warning, at 9:30 p.m. Fortunately, I had thought to bring a flashlight! Not accustomed to such an early lights-out, I climbed into my barcalounger and read from my Kindle reader until I was sleepy. The next morning, lights were turned back on promptly at 6:00 a.m. A breakfast of coffee, fruit, cereal, bread, and peanut butter was available for us in the morning from 6:00 to 7:00 and, on transit (non-layover) days we were required to have our luggage in the trailer to move to our next destination by 7:30. The rigid schedule, which we followed through the week, was a bit of a shock at first but I soon fell into the new rhythms.
On our first riding day, we connected with Kathleen, a Wisconsonite who has ridden with Bike Wisconsin for twenty years now. She approached Geri and me at the last rest stop of the day and asked if we would mind if she rode with us, explaining that she would not mind if we rode ahead if she was holding us back, to which I responded, “that is highly doubtful!” She and Geri and I quickly became the Three Musketeers, riding and eating meals together and prowling thrift shops in the stopping towns. Geri rides a Tour Easy recumbent bike which she had converted to an e-bike just before the trip, making the hills a cinch for her, and Kathleen rides a Trek road bike. My Trek FX1 hybrid was probably the hardest to ride, with its fatter tires and slightly heavier frame, but thanks to my training, I was (mostly) able to keep up with my pals.
The 68-mile day
Our 68-mile day began in Park Falls, Wisconsin and ended in the lovely resort town of Minocqua. This is the day that would be the test of my training. As we reviewed the day’s route, Geri, Kathleen, and I could see that the first rest stop was a few miles off of the actual route. The three of us made the decision to skip that one to save ourselves extra miles in the saddle, and I made peace with the notion of possibly not riding my age. Somehow, though, we managed to goof up in figuring out how to skip the rest stop and then get back to the route and ended up going way off route with no clear way to get back on course. We conferred with each other and our mapping programs and ultimately decided that the best decision was to turn around and go back to where we had intentionally taken a different turn, costing us 12 miles. That is how what should have been a 68-mile day became an 80-mile day. We had outsmarted ourselves, resulting in my overshooting the goal of ‘riding my age’ by 11 miles. We finally arrived at the host church in Minocqua at around 4:00, giving us just enough time for a shower before the 5:00 start of a delicious and hearty pasta dinner that the host church graciously provided for us.
Saying farewell to friends
Minocqua was our last stop of the trip. On Friday, we rode the beautiful Heart of Vilas bike path back to our cars in Manitowish Waters. It was hard saying goodbye to Geri and Kathleen after such a fun week. Geri had a two-day drive back to Wyoming in front of her and Kathleen had 4 1/2 hours back to St. Paul where she and her husband now live. I drove the 3 1/2 hours down to Madison and treated myself to a night at the lovely Mansion Hill Inn near Capitol Square, taking an e-bike tour of the city the next morning before driving down to Chicago for my train home.
Was it worth it?
My total mileage for the week ended up at 264 miles over six days of riding. It was a trip that definitely required a lot of effort and planning, in addition to training. Throughout the process, I wondered what the actual ride with its long days on the bike would be like. Would my training prove sufficient for the demands of the course? Would the weather hold, or would we ride in the rain all week? Would the other people on the trip be such super serious and accomplished riders that I would feel out of place? In other words, would it be fun enough to be worth all of the time and training? The answer was a resounding “YES!” It was a blast and I finished the week with such a sense of accomplishment. I’m definitely fitter than I was before all of the training and I have continued my training regime, minus the longer bike rides, which will resume when cooler weather permits.
Finally, I will say this: of the twenty-two of us taking part in the ride, we saw a wide variety of bike styles, riding paces, and fitness levels, but everybody seemed to have a really great time. It is my belief that a bike trip is something that folks of all ages and fitness levels can enjoy – perhaps with an e-bike or maybe without.
You and Me, Odyssey 