When the alarm woke me Saturday morning at o-dark-thirty, I felt like I got hit by a train. My head was pounding, my stomach was queasy, and my muscles hurt. Coffee helped, as did the small amount of food I choked down because I knew I'd need to fuel up for the 30 miles of …
Continue reading "Frozen Fat, Day 2: It’s about the comaraderie, not the competition."
January can be kind of gloomy. The holidays are over, there's not much going on, the days are short, and the temps are generally pretty frigid. Luckily, there's Frozen Fat, a winter fat-bike weekend full of camping, beer, bonfires, good people, and of course, plenty of riding bikes. This is the fourth year of the …
Yesterday marked the ceremonial end of an era, in a sense. Though in actuality it was an era that ended several months ago, when we moved from the tiny cabin where we had been living for about a year to the full-size house that we currently call home. But yesterday afternoon, we prepared the cabin …
I can't believe its a new year already. 2014 seemed to fly by, and here we are, once again looking back on one year and ahead to the next. It's a natural time to reflect---on the good, the bad, and what we've learned and experienced in the last 365 days. And it's a time to …
The past couple of days have been unusually warm, with temps rising into the 50s, and sunny skies to boot. And, lucky for me, I had a rare Saturday off due to the holidays. I took full advantage of this fortuitous combination of events and broke out the Willard for some back-road and gravel exploration. …
Yesterday, I celebrated the shortest day of the year by going on a hike with Dinah on a portion of the Standing Stone Trail. A few weeks ago I wrote about hiking the SST from the hawkwatch to Greenwood Furnace State Park. This time, I headed in the opposite direction, beginning at the end of …
For the past few weeks, I've been really stoked on this loop in Rothrock State Forest---up Tussey Mountain Trail and along the ridge, then back down to Thickhead Mountain Road and John Wert Path. It's about 11 miles, doable in 2-3 hours, and is full of stunning views and challenging rock gardens. And, only about …
"It never gets easier, you just go faster." -Greg LeMond I think of this a lot, and there is a good amount of truth in those words. It can be hard to measure progress, especially when you're not necessarily on the lookout for it all the time. I'm not obsessed with getting faster. I don't …
We woke up early on Thanksgiving morning, made coffee to take in the car, and drove to the trail to get a couple hours of riding in before the family festivities and gluttony that would commence later in the day. Though it was still rather wet and muddy, conditions were much better than the day …
That's what Evan said right before giving me a quick surprise kiss at the trailhead, immediately following a miserably soggy commute from his parents house to the snowy woods that we were so excited to ride. It was still snowing---wet, slushy flakes that turned the highways into a nasty stew of water, salt, and road …
Continue reading "If you can ride in this, you can ride in anything."
helena kotala 