Written by 
“Underestimate me, that’ll be fun.”
We’ve been in our mostly self-organized groups for more than a week at this point. It took some time for us to find our place, but we did. Our group was considered ‘the slowest’ group and drew the early time slot to leave in the mornings. We were okay with it because a/ we don’t care and b/ we have the opportunity to watch the sunrise in the morning on many days getting to experience the most beauty in the early morning portion of the ride.
What has become apparent as we’ve moved through the last week is that our little group made up of four core individuals – Myrna, Ken, Caroline and I – have been riding at virtually the same pace as some of the groups behind us. Keeping in mind that we are riding longer days at 100+ miles, we are finishing sometimes within 5 minutes of the next group ahead of us from a pacing perspective which becomes more of a rounding error on rides as long as 126 miles.
I’m proud to say that our group has become the ‘little group that can’. We’ve been holding our own and have been doing so consistently day after day after day. While, technically, we may be the ‘slower’ group, we are not the ‘slow’ group by any stretch. Our climbing is improving on a daily basis, and we are working together as a team like a well-oiled machine. We know how to ride together and how to get the best out of each other on every ride. And we aren’t pushing ourselves unnaturally or inorganically. The pace is coming quite easily and comfortably.
Each one of us has a goal to finish this ride without blowing up on any given day and seeing it through to completion. Some of us want to ride every pedal stroke, and some don’t care. But we want to ride as much as we can every single day – and hopefully, for each of us, that means all day every day.
What I believe has been happening is that we’ve been doing an amazing job of riding just below a threshold level every day which has us gaining strength as the rides progress, but without burning ourselves out to the point of feeling like we won’t be able to ride the next day. We’ve truly treated every day as though it’s a rest day and given the fact that we usually have a significant day’s worth of riding the next day much significance and a mental presence in our rides. Combined with slow warm-ups to ensure we are letting our bodies adjust to the day and properly warm-up every morning reduces our chances of being injured and ensures that we will wake up the next morning feeling fit and ready to ride.
We rolled across into Wisconsin today making this the eighth state we will visit and now having seven states across which we’ve ridden under our belts. It’s another welcome milestone for us.
We had a wonderful dinner in the restaurant at the beautiful Charmant Hotel where we are staying for the night. It was delicious food and even better company with eight of us dining together. I cannot recommend the hotel or the restaurant highly enough. I’d come back to La Crosse just to visit this hotel!
Overall, there has been some motivation for us as we are, at times, underestimated. But we’ve taken it in stride and used it as fuel to keep us rolling together day after day after day. Tomorrow will take us another 100+ miles, but with several climbs in the first half of the ride. It’s okay, we’ve done them before, and we’ll do them again. We have twenty days between now and the end of the trip. It’s hard to believe and I’m already realizing how much I will miss those on this ride, and especially the real-world bubble. But, in spite of being the ‘slow group’, we have made lifelong friendships and had the same experiences whether riding 18 mph or 16 mph. We all end up at the same hotel at the end of every day and celebrate the wins of the day in our own special way.
