Welcome to the Ride Wisco blog where I am looking to rediscover my love for cycling while pursuing a goal of completing my first century ride in a timeframe of 18 weeks!
A core memory of mine as a child is learning to ride on two wheels, for others who grew up before the era of balance bikes, I am sure you can recall the day when you finally kicked the training wheels and turned the cranks on a “big kid” bike. I remember a nice summer morning where my dad asked if I wanted to give it a shot and next thing I knew I was cruising laps around our circle driveway. Beyond excited about my accomplishment, I began to yell for mom to come out and see what I was doing. In that brief moment of thrill and excitement my focus went out the window and before I knew it I was on the ground wondering what happened. Fortunately I wasn’t deterred one bit and got going again to make sure mom witnessed the new skill.
When I was a bit older I would start to ride my bike to the neighborhood where some of my friends lived but never thought of cycling as a sport or hobby until my now brother-in-law entered my life. He was already big into the game and urged me to go out for some road rides with him, that quickly turned into Saturdays riding single track, and then traveling around to participate in the Wisconsin Off-Road Series (WORS). He’s the one who showed me there’s more to cycling than just getting from point A to point B. Even after some nasty spills over the handlebars, on both asphalt and single track, it was never a question of getting back up and turning the pedals again, it’s how I spent my summers. As the years went on and I got my license and first car my riding tapered off, simply because athletics, school, jobs, and relationships were filling my schedule. But while responsibilities grew, on the days I did get the bike out I was quickly reminded how freeing it was to be on the open road and feel like that kid doing laps around the driveway agin, that flame never died.
My college years I made a switch from hardtails and road bikes to a fixie (again introduced to me by my brother), and man are those fun to rip around a campus like Madison. Still not sure why this was the time I decided a helmet wasn’t necessary, plenty of close calls with cars, buses, and pedestrians not paying attention to the bike line but we somehow escaped without a crash. Post college I found great pleasure in riding my bike to and from work until the wear on my old road bike from high school got to be too much – should have taken better care of it in my younger days I guess.. But now it’s been a couple years since I’ve gone on any ride longer than 10 miles and I find myself missing it more with every summer that passes.
So that’s the brief synopsis of what brings me here today, I want to rediscover that childhood love of pedaling down the road, no destination or route in mind, just enjoying the fresh air and beautiful nature Wisconsin offers. While the goal is to complete a century ride the first week of October, that will not be the sole factor in determining this journey as a success or failure. There will no doubt be ups and downs along the way and I will do my best to stick to the program I have mapped out, but at the end of the year I hope to look back on this experience and be proud of the effort put in and most importantly a rejuvenated love for something that once brought me so much joy and tranquility.
If you’ve read this far I am sure you realize I’m pretty new to blogging and have never considered myself a writer. The purpose of the blog isn’t totally clear to me yet but I intend on using it to journal and reflect on my riding and the overall journey every week. It’s a work in progress to say the least! But whether you’re following along, just visiting, or somehow here by accident I hope sharing my journey inspires you to get back on the bike, pursue a new challenge, or reignite a passion life has got in the way of.