I suspected that I’d experience post-flèche fallout, and over the last two weeks I’ve been proven right. The energy expended from 24 straight hours without sleep, 232 miles of pedaling over sawtooth terrain from Pittsburgh to D.C., and rough overnight conditions complete with snow squalls took their toll on my body. Continue reading “Tulipmania”
Over the past month, I engaged in a personal challenge to ride my bike each day, take at least one picture during my ride, and find a poem that somehow encapsulated the day.
Poetry has always held a special place for me, but over the years our relationship became distant. I saw it as extra, even pretentious, and my reading shifted to consist mostly of non-fiction prose.
As I’ve mentioned previously, I pledged to 30 Days of Biking this month because it reminds me to see the novelty in the familiar routes I travel in Washington, D.C. I’m not a photographer, but over the years I have enjoyed having a camera at the ready to capture moments by bike. The bicycle is a lovely muse, and the flowering city in April a spectacular backdrop. Continue reading “Final Week of 30 Days of Biking (and Poetry) in Washington, D.C.”
Bicycling is one of the best ways to fully immerse yourself in a city. As riders, we easily exchange hellos with others on our route. We feel the bumps of the road, see flowers bloom and fall, and watch the waves of people (and buses, did I mention buses?) come and go through the District.
Thanks to everybody who has been following along with this year’s 30 Days of Biking photo and poetry project. April rides have been so rewarding, allowing me to seek out both new and familiar writers while also exploring my city.
Last year, 30 Days of Biking helped renew my interest in urban cycling, and that carried through into this year. The city is such a dynamic place, changing under our noses if we pay any attention. Continue reading “Week Three of 30 Days of Biking (and Poetry) in Washington, D.C.”
How it is fickle, leaving one alone to wander
the halls of the skull with the fluorescents
softly flickering. It rests on the head
like a bird nest, woven of twigs and tinsel
and awkward as soon as one stops to look.
That pile of fallen leaves drifting from
the brain to the fingertip burned on the stove,
to the grooves in that man’s voice
as he coos to his dog, blowing into the leaves
of books with moonlit opossums
and Chevrolets easing down the roads
of one’s bones.
–Joanie Mackowski, Consciousness Continue reading “Week Two of 30 Days of Biking (and Poetry) in Washington, D.C.”
When I was just as far as I could walk
From here today,
There was an hour
All still
When leaning with my head against a flower I heard you talk.
—Robert Frost, The Telephone
Continue reading “Week One of 30 Days of Biking in Washington, D.C.”
“How many miles to the sun?” He smiled
In answer to my “Where are you going?”
Lilacs were caught in his handle bars,
His pedals were mud, his eyes were stars,
His hair was blowing.
—Marion Strobel, “Man and Bike”
Today kicks off 30 Days of Biking, where people far and wide commit to getting on their bikes and– you guessed it– riding them for the 30 days in April. Continue reading “April is for 30 Days of Biking. And Poetry”
This past month I participated in 30 Days of Biking, a challenge to ride one’s bike every day in April. In all, I rode 28 of 30 days.
I made the 30 Days of Biking pledge because I was in a bike commute slump I could not shake. Continue reading “Slowdown Commutes in D.C.”
Whenever we hop on our bikes, we not only expose ourselves to all sorts of elements, but we also come face to face with other bike riders.
Despite that, riders do not tend to talk to one another. We share space, but generally our only apparent common goal is coming and going each day from home to work and back home again.
Present is a space I don’t occupy well, especially in the city.
My bike takes me places while my mind calculates where I’m going and where I’ll head next. Work. Appointment. Grocery store. Repeat.
I ponder the past. How did it go? What could have gone differently? The ride is a pass-through as my thoughts bounce forward and back.
We’re eight days into April, a month that has become known to many in the Twitterverse as 30 Days of Biking, where riders pledge to ride every day of the month and document their efforts via social media.
I did not plan to sign up for 30 Days of Biking, but officially registered last week because I thought it would help cure what’s been ailing me of late– being sick of biking in the city.
Those of you who read this blog know that I like using my bike to go places. Usually when I ride, my commute becomes a mini-adventure.
For the past couple of years, I have heard about the social media cycling phenomenon known as 30 Days of Biking. The point of the activity is to ride your bike every day in April. Then tweet, blog, or share it somehow on the interweb. Pretty simple, no?
I decided to join in the fun and began the month of April with gusto, tweeting pics of my rides and tagging them with the #30daysofbiking hashtag. I even began a flickr set.
Work got busy, the brevet season kicked in, and my organized approach to #30daysofbiking went right out the window. I continued to participate, but not as tweetily.
