Marching About

I saw this bike race meandering around my block last year and it looked like it would be cool to ride around the city without having to stop for red lights or even think about where I'm going. Oh yeah, and ride really fast. So I signed up this year with a racing bike from a friend of mine and road my heart out. It was exhilarating but I don't think I ate enough for breakfast. I was shooting for the first hour and a half but then the single bowl of musli I had eaten was depleted and I was not quite prepared to have a 3-course meal while puffing up a hill at 25 mph. The Clif Bar I managed to bite into was a bit difficult to chew and swallow. I also probably pushed myself too hard and didn't conserve any energy for the end. The last 15 miles were pretty grueling and I lost of a lot of speed. But I was happy with my time and even pleased with coming in 3417th place! I'll probably do better on my next one. I have a month of touring with 30 pounds attached to my bike to t...

This past weekend finally saw the first official day of summer. To which all the Germans joked that we better enjoy because it will be cold again 3 days from now. So of course this entails bike rides, especially to lakes. Although "summer" in Berlin and northern Germany means something different than in New Mexico where I grew up. Mainly, I expect it to be in the 90's every day for several months. Alas, these northern climates are lucky to break into the mid 80's. Although it does stay light out until 11. This was a good chance to test out my new bike that Mylène had brought over from the US for me - we now have a tradition of bringing bikes over when we are in the US. This bike is a fast flyer and I will be taking her on many more outings - especially races. Although this weekend ride was much more leisurely, there were four of us - a scenery enjoyment ride, but no harm in trying to sprint a few times. Mylene and Kristyn enjoying the wide open Spree-Oder bik...

Extended weekend here in Germany meant extra biking. I did an overnight with Mylène in the far west of Brandenburg and back. Mostly for training and also to solidify the fact that her new bike is awesome. On the way out we were joined by Graham and Krystin and had a good time for the first leg of the ride after a power breakfast made by Krystin at her house. But we ran into a pretty big head wind (22km/h) and the temperature started falling. After a short break around 60km there was a pretty big rainstorm added on top of all of this. We had originally wanted to make it out to Bernsdorf all together and Mylène and I had planned to camp out near Magdeburg but Krystin and Graham turned back to turn the headwind into a tailwind and Mylène and I pressed on towards Brandenburg. But the darkness of the weather, and simply the cold rain was ultimately too demoralizing and we stopped about 20km later to pitch the tent for the night. We stopped in Briest shortly before to warm up with some...