adventure daily.
At some point last summer, probably on one of our early morning pre-chemo rides, I asked Whitney if she would have any interest in taking a bike trip with me in the spring. It was a hopeful thought, optimism that I'd be in remission and have regained enough fitness by then to be able to …
Mammoth Endurance Gravel had been on my radar all winter, so when Evan mentioned that he'd volunteered to sweep part of the course, I decided that would be my big spring ride. 140 miles and almost 15,000 feet of climbing -- not the longest ride I've ever done, but the most elevation gain in a …
You don’t think it’s cancer, do you? I asked my brand new primary care doctor after she’d examined the swollen lymph node I'd come in about. No, she answered, but we need to do all the tests just to make sure. I felt a little silly calling a doctor about the small lump that had …
That was the theme for most of February. See-sawing temps and storms that dropped more sleet and ice than powder kept convincing me that conditions would be terrible for skiing, fat biking or just about any other activity in the woods, but every time I was (delightedly) proven wrong. February 14: Single digits sunrise at …
Zwift, for those unaware, is a cycling app that allows users to interact and compete with others and ride through a variety of virtual landscapes with a bike on a trainer. It's basically like a video game, and it's taken the cycling world by storm. These days, as we're deep into January, my Strava feed …
I didn't feel like riding when I rolled out of bed. I'd stayed up a little too late the night before watching a movie. Too late these days is 10 pm --- ideally I am in bed at 8:30, listening to a podcast until I fall asleep, which usually happens quickly. Over the past few …
Back in mid-December, we got a snowstorm that dumped about a foot of snow and was amazingly not followed by an inch of freezing rain as seems to be the norm the last few years. This meant that we actually had some time to enjoy pristine, fluffy powder before the inevitable melting or ice crust …
I was approximately 4 miles into a planned 40-ish-mile ride when the headwind reared its ugly head. I found myself needing to pedal hard to keep moving forward --- on a downhill. 40 miles of this would get old fast, and somehow it always seems like no matter what direction you're going, the wind is …
Increasingly, I am finding meaning in the milestones marked by the turning of the earth more than those rooted in human culture. While Christmas and the 4th of July offer a day off from work to adventure, the solstices and equinoxes are what I actually feel the need to mark in some worthwhile way. I […]
Obviously this isn't technically a "commute," but I've been getting out before work a lot to ride -- often a similar distance or duration as I would if I were riding to the office -- so I'm going to count these rides as one towards my goal of 20 commutes for this year. Due to …
Continue reading "20 commutes in 2020 — #3: Work from home."
helena kotala 