There are few things I find more enjoyable than spending a whole day on a bicycle and watching 200 miles of countryside pass by. In the world of athletics, I identify with double centuries more than any other event or distance.
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 »
&title=10 Years of Double Centuries "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)")
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 »
Today I decided to get out of bed a bit early (3:45 am) and ride my bicycle all day. Quite literally (200 miles…)
What possessed me to do such a thing, you might ask. It wasn’t just a case of being unable to count sheep to fall asleep, or having too much caffeine the night before. Actually, there were three reasons: 1) every year since 1996 I have ridden a double century and still needed to do one this year to continue that streak, 2) I was eager to check out the Colorado fall colors that had been exploding out of the trees as of late, and 3) it sounded like a much better idea than, say, working. Continue reading »
“I am in no shape to be going up Mt. Hamilton with you guys,” I mentioned to my fellow Tri-Club members who had planned on ascending it as part of a local Bay Area training ride. “Which is unfortunate since I will be doing the inaugural Bass Lake Powerhouse Double instead, which has even more climbing…”
Indeed, between the Great American Western Road Trip, a rock climbing ascent up Half Dome, and deciding on where to live, I had only ridden 168 miles in the last 2 months which hardly constituted expert training. I mean, that is less than what I’d be doing in one day during the BLP. Continue reading »
“My last day in the area will likely be July 23rd or 24th,” I replied to friends who had learned that my home, indeed, had been sold and that I was about to move out very soon to embark on a new chapter of my life. “That is, after all, the weekend of the Bay in a Day Double Century.”
Ah, the Bay in a Day. I had never even heard of it (this was its inaugural year), until a friend of a friend mentioned it to me one day in April. Of course, it practically being in my front porch, I had to do it — never mind that the front porch would soon be going to the home buyer in short order! Continue reading »
