“One of the fitness standards that I set for myself a long time ago,” I said to Tori, “was that on any given day, I could bike 200 miles. I guess this would be a real test of that.”
Indeed, as a side effect of a high-mileage year for running, I’ve had the lowest-mileage year for biking ever since I started doing long-distance cycling events 17 years ago. I’ve actually run three times more than I’ve biked this year distance-wise. The number of times I have pedaled could be counted on my digits; my long ride in 2010 was a mere 40 miles.
But since the summer is winding down and the amount of daylight hours is decreasing, I figured I’d better squeeze in a 200-miler now to continue my annual double-century streak. Besides, I figured it would be a good way to whip me back into cycling shape. I call it the shock-and-awe approach. Continue reading »
As of August 2010, the number of consecutive years I’ve ridden at least one double century is 15. I hope to continue this streak for as long as I am physically capable to (barring injury or death, probably five more decades). This seems reasonable to me because one of the minimum fitness standards I have for myself is that I should be able to bike 200 miles on any given day — even without training and if that meant having to ride very slowly — and fulfillment of the goal means doing so just one time each year. Continue reading »
“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived,” said Henry David Thoreau.
These words resonated in my mind as I biked over to Walden for my annual double century. Never mind that this was not the Walden in Massachusetts where Mr. Thoreau lived the life of an ascetic between 1845 and 1847, but rather a town of 600 people 60 miles east of Steamboat Springs in Colorado. Continue reading »
“The distance from my house to the Nebraska border is exactly 100 miles,” a Fort Collinser named Mike told me at the Jorge Torres presentation the other day. “If you go out-and-back, it would be 200…”
Nebraska? It sounded intriguing for my final long ride of the year, designed to be about 200 miles so as to continue a double century streak going back to 1996. Continue reading »
So the 2007 double century schedule for California is out now. By my count, there are a whopping 18 200-mile organized bike rides in the Golden State (or maybe 17, as it’s unclear whether the Bay in a Day Double will be held again this year). And guess what? It appears that I have done them all! Well, almost. Continue reading »
By riding a self-supported double century — the Wellington-Carter Lake 200 — in Colorado the other week, my streak of having completed at least one 200-miler-in-one-day every year since 1996 continues. Generally, I don’t like being a slave to streaks but this is one I intend to continue for at least another 40 years into my 70s.
Some of my fondest life memories are of two-hundred-mile adventures on two wheels so I thought I’d reflect back and pick out some of my favorites. Continue reading »
 "Felix digging deep on the backside of snow-covered Mt. Hamilton in the 2001 Devil Mountain Double, a 200-miler that was both a high and low point of my double century years. It even prompted me to take a breather from ultramarathon cycling before catching the double century bug again 5 months later. (Photo: photocrazy.com)")