Friday Writings for Randos - INSIGHT

{Friday Writings for Randos - A weekly post that features pieces from other writers that touch some facet of the Randonneuring experience, even if that was not the author's intent. It's stuff that's best read out loud - slowly.} This week it's:

INSIGHT

 by Mairi MacInnes

We plunged down from the summit

      over the slither of scree

till the path jackknifed

      over clints round a baldish moor

and across cloughs sets in its side

      and welded fields, a hundred of them,

with thorns embedded, and into iron 

      woods, faintly aromatic, on a precipice

harboured in boulders taller than Stonehenge,

Friday Writings for Randos - Rule 9

{Friday Writings for Randos - A weekly post that features pieces from other writers that touch some facet of the Randonneuring experience, even if that was not the author's intent. It's stuff that's best read out loud - slowly.} This week it's:

Rule #9

a cup of coffee and a ditch nap

The New York Times ran an article on how to use coffee to get the most out of a roadside nap. Coffee and a ditch nap? Hmm Sounds useful. Here's a link: coffee nap.

One day's journey into night: an account from the 2012 PA Fleche

The 2012 Pennsylvania Fleche took place the weekend of April 14.

Time is a challenge of the Fleche. A Fleche takes 24 hours to ride. You ride it straight through and, with the possible exception of a few stolen moments of closed eye bliss, you ride it without sleep.

T.S. Eliot called April the cruelest month. In Pennsylvania, April lives up to his description. April can bring cold, rain, thunder, lightning, hail or heat. Sometimes, all on the same day. April all too often breaks its promise of showers and flowers. If you are going to ride for 24 hours straight in April, you pack for contingencies. 

Friday Writings for Randos: The Old Man and the Sea

{Friday Writings for Randos - A weekly post that features pieces from other writers that touch some facet of the Randonneuring experience, even if that was not the author's intent. It's stuff that's best read out loud - slowly.} This week it's:.

An excerpt from 

The Old Man and the Sea 

by Ernest Hemingway

But four hours later the fish was still swimming steadily out to sea, towing the skiff, and the old man was still braced solidly with the line across his back. 

Friday Writings for Randos - in celebration of surviving

{Friday Writings for Randos - A weekly post that features pieces from other writers that touch some facet of the Randonneuring experience, even if that was not the author's intent. It's stuff that's best read out loud - slowly.} This week it's:.

in celebration of surviving

by Chuck Miller

Bicycle Corps: America's Black Army on Wheels - The Documentary

If you are interested in (a) Military History, (b) Bicycle history, (c) African American history (d) American history (e) Adventure/Expedition histories; or (f) All of the above: 

This link is to a PBS documentary you will enjoy:  

Bicycle Corps: America's Black Army on Wheels


Watch it now. You can thank me later.

Photos taken at Fort Missoula 2011 by Iron Rider

April Fool's Day 200K

The NY/NJ Randonneurs opened their 2012 season on April Fools' Day, a Sunday, with the revised Cranbury 200K. Three mornings later, on Wednesday, I woke up to realize "hey, I'm not tired anymore." Three mornings later.

The course was not particularly hard. I read Laurent's thorough, funny and descriptive pre-ride report before riding the course (click HERE to read it). However, my brain only seemed to register the words "flat route." So I decided to ride it on the fixed gear bike. Now, after riding the course on the fixie, my brain agrees with the comment that "there was a hell of a number of hills on this flat route."

But I can't blame the course alone for the long recovery time. The night before the 200k, I rode the brand new 102K Philadelphia to Phoenixville permanent on the fixed gear. And, instead of taking it easy - knowing that the 200k would follow - I rode the 102K at a "spirited" pace - (spirited is a Randonnese term which loosely translates to hauling ass.) Then, after sleeping four hours, I drove out to NJ to ride the 200K. Hmm, after laying the sequence out, it's probably pretty easy tell why just getting out of bed was a big deal for the following three days . . . but the whole thing seemed like a good idea at the time.