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Flat, Fast, & Camaraderie-Filled: My First Time at the Sea Gull Century
Crowded and flat. Windy. Dangerous. The words often used to describe the Sea Gull Century out of Salisbury, Maryland, did not endear me to it. For more than 10 years I had avoided the Sea Gull, telling people that I wasn’t sure if it was the ride for me. This year two registrations fell into Felkerino’s… Continue reading
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Team Coffeeneuring with Jason in Lancaster, PA
October 4 is when it all starts– the 2014 edition of the Coffeeneuring Challenge. Yes, it’s less than a week away so I hope you’re getting ready. There’s no one way to coffeeneur. You can do it by yourself. You can do it with your friends. You can pedal to an actual coffee shop, or… 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
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All Dressed Up For PBP: The Towns Along the Way
This is the latest in a series of posts I’ve been planning about the incomparable international randonneuring event, Paris-Brest-Paris. Previously, I wrote about Drew Buck, who completed PBP 2011 on a 1900 Peugeot, a as well as the tandem bicycles (Post 1 and Post 2). Today I’m talking about the towns along the PBP route. Continue reading
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Family Coffeeneuring: Dan, Owen, and Elaine in Pittsburgh, PA
Coffeeneuring isn’t just for grown-ups, as 5-year-old finisher Sally proved last year. Coffeeneuring can be for kids, too. It can even be fun for the family. Plus, who can resist the great photo ops Family Coffeeneuring provides?! Many thanks to Dan, Owen, and Elaine for representing the Family Coffeeneuring contingent, as well as the fine… Continue reading
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Chasing Mailboxes: The Pursuit of Something More
Where does your energy go? What do you choose to pursue? Does each day pass in a blur of routine, or do you save a sliver of time to wonder about the existence of something deeper? You don’t know what the something deeper is, exactly, and you are not convinced it is a thing. You hold onto an optimistic belief that… Continue reading
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A Coffeeneuring Meander with Cindy C. in North Carolina
Cindy C. of North Carolina participated in the Coffeeneuring Challenge for the first time last year. The descriptive recounts of her rides, diverse beverage consumption, and her conclusion that bicycling might be the cure for the common cold make for excellent pre-coffeeneuring reading. Enjoy, and thank you, Cindy for the guest post! Continue reading
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Fourth Annual Chasing Mailboxes Coffeeneuring Challenge
Coffeeneuring season has arrived! Hard to believe that the Coffeeneuring Challenge is now in its fourth year, but I looked at my calendar and it really is true. From 12 participants that first year to over 125 last year, coffeeneuring continues to grow. I hope you will consider giving it a go this year. Coffeeneuring… Continue reading
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Big Rides Done, Time to Coffeeneur: A Look Back with Tara and Simon
With the big rides of summer behind us, it’s time to start thinking about fall activities. And nowadays, when I think of fall I also think of coffeeneuring. I’ll be posting the complete 2014 Coffeeneuring Challenge rules next week, but in the meantime I thought it would be fun to look back to last year with two… Continue reading
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Coffeeneuring Challenge 2014 Edition
It all starts October 4. Mark your calendars. More details coming your way next week. Continue reading
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The Overnight Ferris Wheel: Mile 418 on the Appalachian Adventure 1000K
Felkerino and I returned to the Appalachian Adventure (AA) 1000K course this past weekend to staff the second night of the actual event. Continue reading
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A Post-1000K Conversation With “Future Me”
Immediately after Felkerino’s and my 1000K ride, I was proud of our accomplishment, relieved that we completed what I felt was an extremely challenging course, and happy that we rode within ourselves from beginning to end. There were several tough parts, but we did not come close to timing out and, and our bodies held… Continue reading
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Enduring the Pain Point
Mile 250 of our 625-mile ride. Fatigue courses through my body. My skin has that beat-up feeling from multi-day endurance riding. The sun is shrouded in fog and the road keeps going up. Mile 372. Crawling through Douthat State Park. It’s peaceful and wooded, but night is falling. And the road keeps going up. And… Continue reading
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Appalachian Adventure 1000K Pre-ride Report
Felkerino wrote a day-by-day summary of our weekend 1000K pre-ride. It was intended for those who will be riding the event this upcoming weekend, but I thought others might enjoy reading it, too. Continue reading
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Melting Time Under the Moonlight
A self-confessed person of routine, I don’t stay out late and I don’t rise before the sun most days. I eat three meals a day, work Monday through Friday, and try to sleep seven to eight hours a night. I’m a huge fan of sleep. Randonneuring appeals to my affinity for routine. I select the events I… Continue reading
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Things to Do During Your Taper
Ah, the taper. Time to back away from the long efforts, rest the legs, eat good meals, and ready for the big day. What’s a person to do with all this new-found spare time? Continue reading
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Preparing for a 1000K Brevet
After a summer of bicycling, the Appalachain Adventure 1000K is fast approaching, and Felkerino and I will be riding it. Given that the Appalachian Adventure is a late summer affair, Felkerino and I maintained a pretty big base of mileage since finishing the Super Randonneur series with the D.C. Randonneurs. Despite not tracking my cycling miles, I still have a… Continue reading
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Bicycle as Escape
I never seem to tire of writing about bicycles. I love talking about them, dreaming about my next bike trip, figuring out the perfect bike commute setup, pondering the ins and outs of randonneuring… you get the idea. This love of riding bikes led me to start Chasing Mailboxes. I was searching for an outlet… Continue reading
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“Bikes” All The Go: From 1904 to 2014
Two weeks ago, I attended “Pedaling Through History: A Look at Cycling Collections Across the Library of Congress,” a one-day exhibit at the Library of Congress. I learned about it via Rambling Rider so hat tip to her and all those fancy things people say. “Pedaling Through History” was a compact display full of ye olde treasure.… Continue reading
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The Wonder of the “Road Closed.” Detours by Bike
Summer is a busy time for road construction. Road repairs may reduce traffic to one lane, and in some cases may cause a temporary road closure. With those road closures come detours. When I see a “Detour” sign during a ride, two thoughts pop into my head. Is it really a detour? That is, can a… Continue reading
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More Tandems at Paris-Brest-Paris 2011
After digging through the photos archives, I discovered more tandem shots worth sharing from the last edition of PBP. That is, they are not hopelessly blurry or otherwise terrible. Perhaps you will even recognize some of the randonneurs. Continue reading
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Tandem Bicycles at Paris-Brest-Paris 2011
Events like Paris-Brest-Paris are difficult to unbox all at once. Some aspects can be, such as the immediacy of the ride experience and the emotions and physical states experienced. Continue reading
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Kit’n Kish 540K: Good Honest Pennsylvania Countryside
To complete our final mileage build before tapering for the upcoming Appalachian Adventure 1000K, Felkerino and I set out with our friend Jerry to ride an abbreviated version of Crista B.’s Kit’n Kish 600K Permanent, which she describes as follows: Very challenging route north through the mountains of central Pennsylvania, with spectacular scenery. “High”lights include… Continue reading
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Colorado 2014: By the Days and Miles
Every day that goes by, our 2014 Colorado tour becomes more memory. I’m surprised to feel saddened by that, since one of our intentions while there was to feed our wanderlust and tire ourselves out so that we would be at peace with settling back into our life in Washington, D.C. Maybe that peace will… Continue reading
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I Really Don’t Know Clouds
I’ve looked at clouds from both sides now, from up and down, and still somehow it’s cloud illusions I recall. I really don’t know clouds at all. –Joni Mitchell I first listened to Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now” when I was a teenager, and found it terrible. I had never imagined that a person could think about… Continue reading
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Spreadsheet Ruminations: Are You There, Legs? It’s Me…
Three months ago I ditched the spreadsheet I used to document my bicycle lifestyle, opting instead for a non-quantitative approach. There’s more to life than counting up the miles, I told myself. I want to explore it. Over the last three months, I have documented many rides with journal entries and taken photos along the… Continue reading
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Washington, D.C. Bike Commute Scrapbook
What a week. Four sparkling summer days, top notch training, and a ride along with a friend on a couple of days, too. I celebrated the end of my Bike Friday Tikit field trips to Northwest D.C. with a photo safari on today’s ride home, in part to stretch out my time in the afternoon… Continue reading
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@SharrowsDC Ride Along in #BikeDC
As a child, I spent part of my summer days taking swimming lessons. My sister and I would walk with Jeff, the neighbor boy, to the bus that would take us to our swimming lessons in the town seven miles down the road. I did not like swimming lessons, but I enjoyed the walk to and from the bus.… Continue reading
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Switching It Up: Bike Friday Tikit Commutes
Last week someone asked me how many bikes I own. I generally deflect this question because anyone who is surrounded by bad influences (I’m looking at you, Felkerino) and has the money can purchase multiple bikes. So I have more than one bike, but do not consider it any sort of accomplishment. That said, the… Continue reading
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Bike Tourist Encounters
Since I started bike touring, I’ve trained myself to keep an eye open for others who might be on an adventure. Bike riders can blend into the landscape, but if you pay attention they will jump out at you. During the two weeks that Felkerino and I pedaled our bicycle around Colorado, we crossed paths… Continue reading
Chasing MailBoxes 