What if we don’t finish? The thought rolled over me as Felkerino and I rolled over from our hotel to the packet pickup in Rambouillet. What if we don’t finish? Felkerino and I have ridden Paris-Brest-Paris (PBP) together two times previously (2011, 2019) and never did the idea of not completing ever enter my head. Waiting to start in the V wave at 4:50 a.m., looking toward W But the fraught years leading up to this ride messed with my head. I’m still unpacking them, like many of us, I suppose. In addition, the ushering in of a new decade of life where my body has informed me in so many li ..read more

As part of the MBA program I finished last month, I took a course called Operations Management. I didn’t know much about this discipline until a few weeks ago; operations management techniques attempt to optimize resources to efficiently produce goods and plan for the future.  During one of our classes I commented that many of these approaches feel magical to me. The professor assured me that statistical principles lead the way in this field, and not magic. We apply data gathered over time to identify efficiencies and put resources to optimal use, and we can also make predictions. Not pr ..read more

The Pittsburgh Randonneurs Allegheny Mountains Cruel and Unusual Punishment (AMCUP) 400K – description here – has a branding problem. Let’s agree that a ride with such a title probably does not entice a lot of participation. Cruel and unusual punishment? That’s what I’d call my recent Managerial Accounting class, and I am definitely not signing up for that again.  400K Start with Steven: photo by Dan Blumenfeld No, this ride would benefit from a rebrand. Even though I am still sleep-deprived enough that I don’t see myself riding this course again anytime soon, I could be convinced that a ..read more

I was going to write you a story of our Pittsburgh Randonneurs 300K, but it’s an amalgamation of spent feelings punctuated with mental snapshots brought about by a beautiful course on a perfect weather day that started with a full Flower Moon that set as rays of spring sunshine came up into a brilliant blue sky, accompanied by the lightest of breezes most of the day. So I’ll tell you about that instead. Over the years we’ve been randonneuring together, Felkerino and I have seen the character of several of our favorite brevet routes change, some to a point where we have had to retire them ..read more

We are always meeting ourselves. Every moment is fresh, a chance for us to stand in a new place. A different self than the one we thought we knew.  That is, we can meet ourselves if we are open to it. The mind is quick to dismiss this notion. It craves patterns. Routine. Comfort.  I haven’t been doing a good job of meeting myself lately, but as Felkerino and I wound our way around the DC Randonneurs Ye Olde Frederick 300K, I found myself doing so. The encounter was quite unexpected, in part because this course is one Felkerino and I have traveled over seven previous times and I real ..read more

There’s nothing like peak bloom of the DC cherry blossoms to motivate a person to leave the city for an all-day bike ride. It also helps when the ride start happens to be 7 miles from your house. Add that to an urge to put off homework as long as possible, and it’s a perfect recipe for brevet participation. So even with a forecast of less-than-ideal weather, Felkerino and I set out for the Both Sides 200K with the DC Randonneurs on March 25. As we rode to the start in the pre-dawn, I wondered why the route designers chose to name the brevet after a Joni Mitchell song. You know the one, it’s a ..read more

Hi friends. Before time gets away from me I wanted to put together a wrap-up post about Felkerino’s and my Super Randonneur Series on tandem this year. For those who don’t randonneur but follow along, a super randonneur is someone who successfully completes a set of four organized brevet distances: 200K; 300K; 400K; and 600K.  300K Rideby with Mark, Tim, and ? This title of super randonneur conveys no secret super powers and no cape (frankly, a fraught accessory when it comes to bike riding), but you can buy yourself a nice medal and brag to your friends in the off-chance that any of them ..read more

Someone cut a hole in the night sky, popped in the moon, and turned it up to the brightest setting. It’s a full moon like a flashlight and I am here for it.  After more than 200 miles in the saddle, it feels like we’ve pedaled into surreality – a faraway fairy tale despite being less than 50 miles from our overnight stop in Warrenton, Virginia. The moon pours its illumination all around, like an electric blanket that’s slightly on fire. Moonlight everywhere, sparkling up the night hours. The brightest moon I’ve seen in years it is perfectly full, brilliant. As the moon’s presence mea ..read more

The restless mind. The shiftless mind. An unsettled mind. Worries, classes, work. The world. I cannot shut it off, this mind.   The only way to pause the mental cartwheels, it seems, is to apply some pedal strokes to the matter. Go for a bike ride, and try to forcefully divert the energy from my mind into my legs.   Not just any ride, though. No, a good long ride. A 400-kilometer ride should do.  Left to my own devices I would stay home and let the mind continue its fitful churn. But an agreement with Felkerino, all his effort to ready the tandem, and a curiosity to ex ..read more

A few hours ago I turned in the last assignment of my first semester as an MBA student. This was never a phrase I thought would ever apply to me, but an opportunity too good to pass up came my way so here I am – an MBA student.   Of all the classes on my spring registration, the one that that most intimidated was Financial Accounting. My parents were English teachers. My own background and career has focused on writing policy analysis. How could I ever understand accounting? Throughout this semester, I recalled my early days as a long-distance cyclist. Initially, a century was only an as ..read more