bicycling
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Day 7. Kooskia to Riggins, Idaho
To make up for our 90-mile gradual downhill to Kooskia, we spent much of the following day climbing. Continue reading
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Day 6. 135 Miles from Missoula, Montana to Kooskia, Idaho
After our layover day in Missoula, Felkerino and I rose early for a 135-mile day over to Kooskia, Idaho, via Lolo Pass. Continue reading
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Day 5. Adventure Cycling Headquarters
We are currently overnighting in Missoula, Montana, after a short mellow 50-mile day from Hamilton. Continue reading
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Day 4. Lost Trail Pass into Montana
After three days of riding and fretting about my bike tour fitness, I’ve now decided that it’s a much better plan to focus on pedaling rather than worrying. This approach makes the day better. Continue reading
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Day 3. Challis to North Fork, Idaho: Salmon River Serenade
Today’s episode in bike touring found Felkerino and I sidling along the Salmon River for most of the 82 miles we covered. Our route was via highway Idaho 93, but it was quiet except for the perpetual singing of the Salmon River. Now that’s the kind of highway noise I could get used to. Continue reading
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Day 2. Pickup Truck Dreams in Idaho: Lowman to Challis
We began today with a quiet exit from Lowman, a town nestled between the mountains. As we rode I wondered how life would be if, in order to go anywhere, I had to climb thousands of feet away from home. Continue reading
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Day 1. Riding Out the Bike Tour Kinks: Boise to Lowman, Idaho
It’s our first day touring Idaho and I already feel in the teeth of it all. After some urban trail riding out of Boise that took way longer than it should have due to our lack of familiarity with the area, we ascended away from town. Continue reading
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Training for Randonneuring Rides on a Tandem
Those of you who receive American Randonneur– a quarterly publication of Randonneurs USA– may find this article about randonneuring tandem basics familiar, as it is a piece that was recently published in the Summer edition. I’m reprinting it here. Thanks to Mike Wali for the pics in this piece. Continue reading
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Letter from Jerry: 3500 Kilometers into Bike Touring Alaska to D.C.
As I write this, our friend is out on the road somewhere, pedaling steadily eastward. Jerry talked with me before he departed for his big cross-country bike tour, and you can read those thoughts here. Now that Jerry’s been traveling for a few weeks, I thought it would be great to catch up with him… Continue reading
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Eat If It Looks Good? Not So Fast: Fueling on Brevets
This year, I began to be more deliberate about how I eat during brevets, especially the 400K and 600K distances. I’m not the best eater nor am I a nutrition expert, but I have ridden a fair number of long rides up to 1200K distances employing both good and regrettable fueling strategies over the years. Experience has been a fine teacher. Continue reading
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Finding Your Randonneur Superpower
When you begin to dabble in the randonneuring arts, you may have an inkling of what your cycling strengths are. You may develop additional skills for riding long-distance. However, it is only through doing brevets over time that your randonneur superpower will reveal itself to you. Continue reading
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Living On In Memories
This past weekend I had one of the best rides of my life on the D.C. Randonneurs 600K brevet, and that’s not the randonnesia talking. The course layout, weather, and randonneur fellowship combined to set up a practically perfect 375 miles. Continue reading
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Randonneuring Beneath the Stars
The sun flares orange and pink, drops behind the mountains, and leaves us. Felkerino and I pause to don night gear, assess our 600K progress, and estimate the hours of night riding ahead. Continue reading
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600K Brevet Packing List
I’ve been readying for the weekend’s big ride– the D.C. Randonneurs 600K. I stew in my nervousness and look frequently at regional weather forecasts. I burn off steam with short runs and rides, during which I consider and reconsider all I need for two days of pedaling. Continue reading
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Our Friend Jerry is Going Coast to Coast: Bike Touring Alaska to D.C.
Over the last couple of years, Felkerino and I have had the pleasure of getting to know Jerry, a local cyclist and fellow D.C. Randonneur who will be riding a solo coast-to-coast tour from Alaska to Washington, D.C. Continue reading
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Randonneuring: Making the Ordinary Extraordinary
Randonneuring events allow ordinary people like me to participate in extraordinary bike rides. Brevets changed my definition of a long day ride, from a century to more than double that– distances I previously could not even conceptualize pedaling. The randonneuring community helped me feel okay as a rider who does not move particularly fast, but has a body that has proven… Continue reading
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The Mind’s Journey
I began this year feeling quite uncertain, almost ambivalent, about the brevets. The past year has included some serious and unexpected health issues in my family. These scrambled up my head, and prompted a reassessment of that big question “What am I doing with my life?” Continue reading
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Training for a Century Ride
Gear Prudence reached out to me this week about a question he received about training for a century. The person writing in wondered if it was truly necessary to train for a century. The question surprised me somewhat because I am a big believer in preparing for things and avoiding problems when I can. I’m not… Continue reading
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Randonnesia Strikes on the Mother of All 300Ks
“We’re too blessed to be depressed,” a church sign at mile 70 read. Our riding group of three shared a chuckle. We had just climbed Wolf Gap, Mill Gap, and were en route to more gaps and roads with words like “church” and “mountain” in their names. The path ahead gave us pause. Continue reading
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What’s Your Favorite Brevet Distance?
Four years ago, I interviewed 12 randonneurs from different parts of the country about randonneuring. One of the questions I asked them was, “What is your favorite distance of the Super Randonneur series (200, 300, 400, 600K) and why?” With this year’s Super Randonneur series in full swing, I’ve been pondering this question again in my own… Continue reading
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Experience: a Randonneur’s Frenemy
This weekend, Felkerino and I rode our first official brevet of 2015, the D.C. Randonneurs 300K out of Frederick, Maryland. I was feeling pretty lackluster about the whole thing, but the forecast indicated spectacular conditions, leaving us no excuses to skip out on a ride in the countryside with rando buddies. Continue reading
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A Dose of Reality on a 200K
Felkerino and I met up with bicycling friends Eric, Jerry, Barry, and Joel to ride the classic D.C. Randonneurs “Old Rag 200K” route. Jerry had some weird rattle in his rear wheel that would not go away, Barry was riding a loaner bike since his main rando ride was in the shop for repairs, our Schmidt… Continue reading
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Randonneuring In Retrospect
I’m a randonneur romantic. Sure, longer brevets almost always include periods where I question my recreational pursuits due to discomfort, exhaustion, or some dissatisfaction with a route segment, but they don’t hang on. Eventually, those feelings fade and bike riding reclaims its place on my list of favorite things to do. Continue reading
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The Randonap
Since beginning my glamorous randonneuring career in 2005, I’ve not only ridden in places I never imagined, but I’ve dozed in an assortment of spots I never before would have considered comfortable or conducive to sleeping. Ride long enough, sleep little enough, and you too will find yourself mastering the strategy of the perfect randonap. Continue reading
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Building Up to Brevet Distances
Like a lot of randonneurs, Felkerino and I have developed a method that serves us well in our preparation and training for brevets. I see our approach as one that works for people who have other activities vying for their time and attention (be it job, family, or other pursuits) and for those who have… Continue reading
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Why Write About Bicycling
As I was padding around the Mall on a meditative lunch run, I pondered what keeps me writing about time spent on my bicycle. Continue reading
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PBP 2015: To Go or Not to Go Again?
The turning of the calendar to 2015 also means the arrival of a “PBP year.” Paris-Brest-Paris, the most heralded, historic, and international of all grand randonnees now peeps its head around the corner and beckons to us randonneurs, a mere eight months away. I thought that deciding on a return trip to PBP would take little internal debate.… Continue reading
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The Randonneur Q&A Interview Series
Just before PBP 2011, I interviewed a group of 12 randonneurs to get their perspectives on various aspects of long-distance cycling. I talked with both men and women who were members of clubs throughout the United States. I called it the Randonneur Q&A. The Randonneur Q&A covered big-picture randonneuring themes, including insights over the various brevet distances, and what it is… Continue reading
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Choose Your Own Eventure: C&O Bike Tour to a Marathon
Hello friends. I’ve just returned from a weekend concept ride I’ve been plotting for the past year. It involved a 134-mile mini bike tour from Washington, D.C., out the C&O to Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, and the Freedom’s Run marathon. I don’t know what I was expecting, but what I ended up with was a satisfying fall… Continue reading
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Talking, Planning, Doing
Anything is possible to achieve on the internet. Talk is the only requirement. I’m thinking about riding insert whole lots of miles here this year. I’m planning to do insert impressive event here. Articulated aspirations can make us heroes in our own minds. Planning also has its place. I’m planning to do insert impressive event here. These are the… Continue reading
Chasing MailBoxes 