Training for Ride Across Wisconsin 2026
Attempting my first Century ride.
Since I got into biking six years ago, I’ve had my eye on attending Ride Across Wisconsin (RAW), an annual event featuring a point to point ride across the state of Wisconsin. I’ve ridden at a few local events but this one has felt out of reach, as it features the mythical Century ride - 100 miles.
My longest bike ride was a couple years back at 50 miles or so. My main bike is a Trek FX 3 hybrid. I love it but I’m long overdue to upgrade to a road bike.
I’ve been thinking lately of how to push myself physically and mentally. From the incredible Michael Easter, I learned the concept of misogi:
Combining these ideas, the path forward to challenge myself this year became clear. My 2026 misogi challenge is:
Purchase a road bike, train hard, and finish a century ride at RAW in July 2026.
Road Bike
It was early April when this plan came together and with the event in July, there wasn’t much time. Immediately I began researching and test riding bikes at my local bike shops. My top contenders became the Trek Domane AL 5 and the Felt VR 40. Ultimately, I chose the Felt, an aluminum endurance road bike, as it felt (ha) the most comfortable:
I’m not a huge fan of the clover green color. My local shops only had the clover in my size, so I looked online. A bike shop in Oklahoma had “aqua fresh,” this gorgeous bright blue, in my size (56cm large)! I ordered it despite having never put a bike together. I figured it’d be worth it to have the color I wanted, especially for something I’ll use for many years.
To my delight, the bike arrived in just a couple of days. I excitedly opened the box and gasped: they sent the wrong size. It was clearly labeled 54cm, not 56. Ultimately, bike fit matters most, so I sent it back and purchased the clover Felt VR 40 at Budget Bicycle Center here in Madison. It was a wonderful experience and I get one free bike tuneup.
The Century Ride
RAW 2026 takes place on at 6am Saturday, July 11th in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Eau Claire is an almost three hour drive from Madison, so I have to arrive Friday and stay overnight. I’ve invited friends to ride with me but so far, it looks like I’ll be doing this by myself. A three hour drive home Saturday night after all that biking will be fun.
Here’s the 100 mile route on RideWithGPS:
I’ll admit I don’t understand how to read the elevation in the above image, so I fed it to Claude:
Based on this, it said:
Nearly half the climbing is in the first 10 miles, so hill work is non-negotiable.
Practice starting rides with climbs.
Pacing discipline is your race strategy.
Here’s what Claude gave me for a training plan:
My current pace of 10 mph attempting a 100 mile ride means ten hours of riding, and that’s not counting hilly terrain and rest stops. After some brief panicking, I remembered that I’ll be faster on the road bike and this reiterates why I need to dedicate a lot of time for training!
I’ll have a dedicated post soon about how I’m planning using Claude - it’s been a fun experiment!
Onward
There are a bit over two months remaining until the event in July. It’s going to be extremely challenging to pull this off, but I couldn’t be more excited! Each week, I’ll document my training journey. Stay tuned!
