reflections
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More Less 2026: Deliberate vs Dashed
Time for another installment in More Less 2026. Today’s subject includes a very important update as well: all 2025 Coffeeneuring Challenge prizes have been mailed (provided you ordered and paid for one). They’ve been traveling fast so be on the lookout in a mailbox near you! If you finished this year’s challenge and still want… Continue reading
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More Less 2026: Fellowship vs Isolation
Patch prize update: these are being finalized as we speak and will be en route to me soon, let’s say 7-10 days estimate. I’ll then be working with the Intern to package up the premiums and send them your way later this month. That’s the goal and we will send an update once the mailing… Continue reading
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Café Cruiser Is Not Invited: AI Antics in the Coffeeneuring Challenge
Recently the Admins of the Coffeeneurs Facebook group had to shut down an interloper. At first, this contributor – going by the name Café Cruiser – seemed innocuous enough, so much so that we didn’t even notice their activity. Café Cruiser – perhaps thinking it would be helpful – put together weekly summary posts based… Continue reading
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Recognition Through Motion: Leaving Federal Service
Readers, I didn’t have it on my 2025 bingo card, but recently I spent my last day in the office as a federal employee. It was an unexpected transition that came about in an unexpected way after more than two decades of civil service. Two decades! When I first started out as a fed, my… Continue reading
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All Head No Body
I’ve been walking around as a head without a body for quite a while now. I wish someone would have said something to me because surely it was noticeable. “Hey! You forgot to put a body with that head of yours!” Are people in this town really too shy to bring such things to a… Continue reading
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Coffeeneuring Challenge Gratitude Day
Life has been a jumble this year, both humbling and disruptive, spent with a reeling mind as my comfy routine evaporated. I’ve confronted unfun truths and come closer to understanding our finite nature. At times, it’s been a challenge to accept, recover, and move through. This mishmash of the unfun and uncertain made me think… Continue reading
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You Can’t Play Pickleball By Yourself
As many readers know, in early December 2023, Felkerino was in a hit and run while cycling. Since then he has been recovering and healing. Our 2024 plans dissolved after his crash. Instead, we focused on medical appointments and managing the crash’s aftermath. Felkerino wrote an excellent summary about his experience here. While Felkerino mended,… Continue reading
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Update: Felkerino Hurt in Hit and Run
Hi everyone. I want to send along some personal news. Long story short, due to unforeseen circumstances I will respond to people about their Coffeeneuring Challenge results the week of December 11. Longer story as follows. As many of you know, the Coffeeneuring Challenge is run by a lean, mean staff of two: the Intern… Continue reading
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DC Randonneurs Super Randonneur Series 2022: Full Heart Appreciation Edition
Hi friends. Before time gets away from me I wanted to put together a wrap-up post about Felkerino’s and my Super Randonneur Series on tandem this year. For those who don’t randonneur but follow along, a super randonneur is someone who successfully completes a set of four organized brevet distances: 200K; 300K; 400K; and 600K. … Continue reading
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How Riding Bikes Taught Me Financial Accounting
A few hours ago I turned in the last assignment of my first semester as an MBA student. This was never a phrase I thought would ever apply to me, but an opportunity too good to pass up came my way so here I am – an MBA student. Of all the classes on… Continue reading
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Cracking the Perfect Ride Code
This is an article I wrote for the March 2021 edition of American Randonneur. It evolved from a piece about our club’s fall 200K that I wrote here. Enjoy, and hope you all are well. My home club, the D.C. Randonneurs, has quite a few good courses in its brevet library, thanks to the expert… Continue reading
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Winter Skies and In Betweens
Sunrise greets us earlier now, while the last streaks of day creep over the clouds well past six p.m. Each morning the sun sprinkles more gold on the earth. Aesthetically the outdoors invites us, but be sure to take a hat and gloves. Temperatures confirm that winter’s departure will not be rushed. March begins with… Continue reading
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Precious Now: Valentine’s Day
Recently I was thinking back to March of last year. (Can you believe March is almost here again – my birthday month, don’t forget!) I remember listening to Tom Hanks do the monologue for Saturday Night Live. He said that the days of the week held no meaning anymore. Every day is today. The pandemic… Continue reading
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Cures for Listless Days
Sometimes when I think about how I’ve lived for the last nine months, it reminds me of summer vacations growing up in my little Midwest town. My family seldom traveled, and with basically just a library, a gas station, and a café, it was not exactly a cultural or commercial hub. We had no cable,… Continue reading
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Enough
This is a piece I wrote for the December 2020 edition of American Randonneur. People have asked about reading it, so I’ve posted it here as well. It’s been slightly updated from the original, mostly because I love to edit and update! Thanks all, and I hope everyone is well. Growing up, and especially during… Continue reading
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2020 on Two Feet
Running is what I do when I want to sift thoughts through my head. A run helps me believe that life is manageable. I ran steadily in 2020 and ended up with 1,280 miles. I walked, too – 614 miles – because walking is a good tool for not only doing errands around town, but also… Continue reading
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N-1 Right Sizing Resulting from N+1
Years ago, I wrote about n+1, the silly philosophy that people should perpetually aspire for their bike stables to have one more bike. I called the piece The Truth and Nonsense of the N+1 Principle and shared my own n+1 journey, which ultimately resulted in a collection of 10 bicycles just for me scattered throughout my… Continue reading
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Message in a Bottle: Stillness
Back in April, I wrote some initial thoughts about the pandemic and cycling in a column for American Randonneur – the quarterly newsletter of Randonneurs USA. Like sending a message in a bottle, I didn’t know how I or others would relate to these early observations in three months. Three months seems a long time… Continue reading
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Dandelions and Big Hair Blossom Days
Back in the days when a house with a yard was part of my life, my dad – who prided himself on a dandelion-free lawn – would enlist my sisters and I to run around and remove all the bright yellow intruders. We would yank the dandelions out by their stems and collect them in… Continue reading
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Personal Sphere of Freedom: The Six-Foot Social Contract
Mayor Bowser called me today (yes, on my phone!) to advise that D.C. is under a stay-at-home order and to limit outings to essential trips. After talking with her – alright, it was really a recorded message sent to all District residents – I read it. The order includes language stating that one of its… Continue reading
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Tired is Not an Emergency
“Tired is not an emergency” reads the note on my D.C. Randonneurs cue sheet. “But please do let us know if you abandon.” Unlike club centuries or event rides, randonneuring rides offer minimal support. Nobody carries your stuff around, nobody feeds you along the ride (although you might score some pizza at the end), and… Continue reading
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Seeing Clearly through Anxious Times
Hello readers, how are you doing? I wanted to say hello and that I hope everyone is taking care of themselves. In D.C., the flowers are blooming, and the cherry blossoms are primed to peak in the next couple of days. The sun shines longer in the sky and glows warm when it peeks out… Continue reading
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Valentine to the Active Transportation Seekers
I see you run commuting, riding to the grocery store, and walking to places unknown purely under your own power. I observe your subtle acts of social change as I move through the city, and this year you inspired me to write you a valentine. Active transportation seekers, you are changing the landscape and I… Continue reading
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One Month Plus with No Added Sugar
Every year I write goals about not eating junk food and losing weight. Almost every year I declare failure in meeting these targets, and add them onto next year’s resolution list. I was in the midst of doing just last month when I scratched them out. Not this year. I’ve spent a lot of years… Continue reading
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Journey to Paris-Brest-Paris
We wrapped up our final prep ride for Paris-Brest-Paris (PBP) with a 600K permanent and I went out to get a new haircut the next week. Our last big training ride done, in the midst of some considerable swelter. It felt right to note the occasion with a new look. Now we are here on… Continue reading
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BikeDC’s Dave Salovesh
We had the ghost bike installation for Dave Salovesh this past weekend, and I stood there staring in disbelief the whole time with my leg propping up my bike as I wondered when Dave would ride by to see it and what he would think when he did. This can’t be happening. This didn’t happen.… Continue reading
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Bike Tour Birthday Contrasts
March 2018. It’s my birthday and Felkerino and I are bike touring through California desert. Sand spreads out on all sides, the road undulates ahead. Cars and trucks zip by periodically, reminding us that we are not alone. Even so it feels like we are the only exposed creatures out here. Nonstop sun pours down,… Continue reading
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Theme for 2019: Seeking Possibility
Happy New Year, dear readers! It’s been a while. In case it hasn’t been completely obvious, I have not felt much like writing lately. Instead I used unexpected free time that I was dealt in January as a time to build my fitness (through running) and let go of tension (with lots of yoga classes).… Continue reading
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Shrinking the Giants
Thoughts can be so heavy. Literally weightless, still they will press down, anchoring us where we stand if we let them. Daily actions also take their toll. Routine activities, interactions, and the small challenges of everyday life tempt the body to stop moving when free time comes around. If we succumb to inertia our world… Continue reading
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Peaceful Everyday Actions
You may not have noticed, but the time I’ve spent in this space has reduced over the last year. Several factors contributed to this, but the most dominant was the belief that my energy needed to be spent understanding the state of current affairs in the U.S. For much of 2017, I took a deep… Continue reading
Chasing MailBoxes 