-
10 Things I Learned on Our Colorado Bike Tour
Remember me? It’s been a few days, but I’m mostly free of my post bike tour fog and thought I’d rip off a quick top 10 list of what I learned on our tour. Continue reading
-
CO Tour Day 11: Rollins Pass on Tandem
Felkerino called our day going over Rollins Pass an immersive experience. It’s definitely one of the most intense things I’ve done on a tandem. Continue reading
-
Rollins Pass: You Can’t Always Get What You Want
But if you try sometimes You just might find You get what you need. –The Rolling Stones More to come. Continue reading
-
CO Tour Day 10: Another Day, Another Mountain Pass in Colorado
The short story is this– 82 miles from Leadville to Winter Park. Our bike is still in one piece. Thanks to everyone who complimented our pure power and torque after the broken crankarm incident. This also provides solid evidence that Felkerino is indeed pedaling. Continue reading
-
CO Tour Rest Day: Backwards Pedal and Crankarm Day
When we last saw our two intrepid bike tourists, they were stranded in Leadville with a broken crankarm… It was Leadville layover day and bike shop stop on our Colorado odyssey. Nervously we awaited the 10 a.m. opening of Cycles of Life to see if Brian could repair our broken crankarm. We watched him… Continue reading
-
CO Tour Day 9: Las Cosas Se Arreglan: Cottonwood Pass and a Broken Crankarm
“Las cosas se arreglan. La gente no.” Things can be fixed. People can’t. Someone I used to work with told me that, after I had been in a fender bender. That phrase keeps running through my mind as I reflect on our day from Gunnison to Leadville, 105 miles via the big meandering Cottonwood Pass… Continue reading
-
CO Tour Day 8: Creede to Gunnison: 106 Big Bicycling Miles
It still surprises me that Felkerino and I can ride a 200k brevet in 10 hours, but when we bike tour a century will take us 11 or more. Is there no escape from bike tour pace? It was a big day of riding, with the big climbs packed into the first half of our… Continue reading
-
CO Tour Day 7: Wolf Creek Pass, I Think I Love You
As we began the steady ascent up Wolf Creek Pass, I wished that I had known about it years earlier. I wished that I had begun bike touring years earlier. If I had, then maybe I would have basked in the magnificence of this pass years ago. If only, if only. Continue reading
-
CO Tour Day 6: Hot Hot Rollers to Pagosa Springs
Today’s 65 miles reminded me of riding in the Virginia Highlands, only with evergreens and a higher elevation. And more horses. And a dry heat. And the white hot sunshine with rare shade. Okay so it wasn’t alike in all ways. Continue reading
-
CO Tour Day 5: Bike Tour Magic: 83 Miles from Ouray to Durango
Felkerino said that today is when the mountains embraced us. I said it was a day of bike tour magic. Part of the reason for that, of course, was the beautiful climbing on the Million Dollar Highway for the first 38 miles. We ascended from Ouray at 7,800 feet to over 10,000 feet and crossed… Continue reading
-
It’s The Worst Thing In The World…
To be a driver behind a cyclist. Today is a bike tour rest day for Felkerino and me, and it coincided perfectly with an op-ed blowup in the Washington Post, which I am disappointed to admit is also my local paper. Continue reading
-
CO Tour Day 4: Everything Weighs Something, Even Ambition: 100 Miles to Ouray
When bike touring, you become keenly aware of how much your stuff weighs. This weighs “x” amount. Do I really need to take it up every hill and mountain? If yes, the item goes on the bike. If no, set it aside. I am pleased with how Felkerino and I packed. The only potential surplus… Continue reading
-
CO Tour Day 3: What Goes Up from Carbondale Must Come Down to Paonia
Greetings from Paonia! We wish you were here. Then the mosquitoes wouldn’t just be gnawing on Felkerino and me. Another great day on the bike, tempered with looming saddle sores. Haven’t had one of those in a few years so maybe it was time. I blame Trail Ridge. This day, which was essentially a 30-mile… Continue reading
-
CO Tour Day 2: 90 Miles From Kremmling to Carbondale
Riding through the big mountains of the west can be so cathartic. Their presence envelops me and I become– no, I realize– that I am so small. Felkerino’s and my efforts to clamber over the mountains is almost laughable. We take so long to go up and over their every bump that I suspect we… Continue reading
-
CO Tour Day 1: Facing My Inner Fraidy Cat: 150 Miles From Boulder to Kremmling
Nothing kicks off a bike tour like a 150-mile day that includes a front-loaded first half climb fest, including the ever-daunting Trail Ridge Road. Last year Felkerino and I climbed Trail Ridge while I howled like a kitten that climbed too high into a tree and needed rescue. I hated that feeling and vowed that… Continue reading
-
Bike Commute Hoarder
Lifehacker recently posted an article called the Cycling Commuter’s Daily Bag that essentially emptied out a bike commuter’s pannier. Curious, I looked through the items listed and the accompanying photos. The number of items this person carried to her job was shocking. The article did not go into the mileage of the woman’s daily commute, but during… Continue reading
-
Get Out The Map: Bike Tour Prep
Get out the map get out the map and lay your finger anywhere down We’ll leave the figuring to those we pass on our way out of town — Indigo Girls, Get Out The Map This Indigo Girls song reminds me of long gone days wedded to the school calendar as it simultaneously urges me to… Continue reading
-
Hilly Billy Roubaix: I Am Trying To Break Your Heart
This is not a joke so please stop smiling What was I thinking when I said it didn’t hurt –Wilco, “I Am Trying To Break Your Heart“ After an exhilarating experience at the 2013 edition of the Hilly Billy Roubaix, Ed Felkerino and I returned to Morgantown this past weekend for another opportunity to ride our Lead Sled tandem… Continue reading
-
Maintaining the Base: Weekend Back-to-Backs
As part of our preparation for an upcoming two weeks of summer bike touring in Colorado and to maintain the bicycling fitness we developed over the course of the brevets, Felkerino and I have spent the past two weekends doing back-to-back Saturday and Sunday rides. This is not so difficult to do in June, where days have… Continue reading
-
Four Years of Chasing Mailboxes
In the middle of a love affair with bicycling and Washington, D.C., I wrote my first post for Chasing Mailboxes. Four years later, this blog is still going. The love affair has hit some sticky wickets over time, but most days it continues, too. In the initial year, posts read more like postcards than letters.… Continue reading
-
Writing Your Way to the Ride You Want
Throughout my time randonneuring, I have gone through different phases. My primary goal during my first series of riding brevets was to finish within the time limits. This was also a time of intense learning about fueling and fitness, melding as a tandem team with Felkerino, as well as getting to know the randonneuring community. After starting this blog in… Continue reading
-
Happiness
Recently, a friend recommended Willa Cather’s My Ántonia so I have been reading it. I’ve always avoided this book because it sounded too much like required high school reading. Now I understand why that is so, although I don’t know that I would have appreciated all this book had to offer had I read it earlier… Continue reading
-
Run Commute Days
With the 2014 brevets completed, I turned to running. Continue reading
-
Unexpected Triumph on a Double Hairpin
You know those people who say “My favorite part of my day is my bike commute?” Yeah, I bet you do. They’re giving me a headache. Continue reading
-
Randonneur Crazy People
How many miles does one have to ride to meet the minimum crazy threshold? Has anyone figured it out? Continue reading
-
In Pursuit of Bliss
If you ever decide to dabble in the randonneuring arts, it’s likely going to be of benefit for you to work on your patience. In randonneuring, all parts of the ride unfold in their own time. No matter how furiously you pedal, the top of the climb will be reached when the road resolves to… Continue reading
-
The Dahon Hon Solo Does the BicycleSPACE Cupcake Ramble
Several years ago I went through a small-wheel bike phase. I was enamored of their appearance, the twitchy steering (compared to a full-size bike), and the ways they folded into more compact sizes for storage and transport. My Dahon Hon Solo is one of the bikes I own as a result of that phase. A limited… Continue reading
-
We Interrupt This Brevet for …
Sometimes when riding my bike, I feel like I’m inside a video game that’s throwing all manner of obstacles my way, and I have to react and deal with them in order to move on to the next level. Last weekend’s 600K had a fair number of these– enough that I began to take notice.… Continue reading
-
Don’t Look Back, Keep Your Eyes on the Road: 2014 Super Randonneur Series
After a year away from the 400K and 600K brevets, 2014 has been a year of re-learning the brevet ropes. Unfortunately for me, this process has also had me on the ropes at various times throughout the spring rides. I’m happy to say it’s all done and behind me. Felkerino and I got out there, did the work,… Continue reading
Chasing MailBoxes 