After an obviously less-than-ideal ride in, I had a two day break in Stuttgart visiting Max, a super close friend from Berlin. He‘s from the area and promises me the locals call it Stuggi boogie benz town, but I‘m pretty sure (100% sure) he‘s full of it. In the time since my buddy moved away, he‘s been productive (in a Biblical sense), which means I

The ride Just one of those days. We have a metaphor for endurance in the US, that efforts cost matches. The more efforts you make, or the harder you work, the more matches you burn, and thus the less you have remaining. The stronger you are, the bigger your matchbook is. Having explained the metaphor, allow me to move on to an analogy. You know

Auf Wiedersehen, mountains and lakes After a few lovely, sunny days in Konstanz with the lady friend, it was time to move on. With the tour, that is. So, having ridden something like 750 zig-zagging km through alps and their lovely valleys, meadows, and lakes, it was now time to bid farewell to those landscapes and say hello something decidedly more agricultural. I also traded

Day 10: the ride to Konstanz What a difference a day makes. I woke up with the knowledge that a very good friend of mine was coincidentally in the neighborhood and that we‘d meet up quickly and that I would soon have a nice long weekend with my girlfriend (have received approval to call her that). And I woke up feeling physically pretty good. So

During this morning‘s self-inspection roll call, my attitude showed up with the middle finger blazing, my stomach turned up upside down, and my legs didn‘t bother to turn up at all. Awesome. Can‘t wait, eh. I rolled out, and it started raining. I definitely didn‘t need that, given my mood. The mental storm clouds rolled in, and I started thinking “I‘m def gonna flat today,

A bunch of bikepackers came into camp yesterday. All of them pairs, and most of them couples. Get it? Anyway, the American in me wants to chat them up, but they kinda stick to themselves, so interactions are a bit limited. I‘m just gonna go for it next time, to hell with German customs. The ride Today‘s ride was definitely the most fun thus far,

The morning after I woke up sleep-drunk and stumbling around following my first night in the tent, though I slept much better than I expected. Still, I was in a bit of a haze as I walked to the loo, thinking more about bodily functions than time or place, which is my head snapped back in surprise when I finally looked up from my feet

Whether you attribute it to the extra beer I had indulging yesterday‘s dinner buddy Helmut (doubtful), better sleep (possible), or the fact that I was greeted by an adorable puppy as I came down stairs for breakfast (100% the reason), I was in a good mood from the get-go. My legs were still fatigued, but not overly so, and theoretically I didn‘t have so much

Meh I woke up feeling...not great. A little empty, a little off. Don‘t know if it‘s because I didn‘t sleep well, or maybe because my bee sting yesterday had caused my finger to swell to 1.5x normal, or what. Regardless, I wasn‘t super enthused about the day ahead. I knew I‘d have days like this. Was curious how I‘d react. Turns out, pretty well. It‘s

It hurts! Well, shit. There was a fair bit of deep knee bending coming down the mountain on my hike yesterday, which unfortunately meant that I woke up with sore quads today. Uh oh. I also mentioned yesterday that I don‘t have enough gears or muscles to power through long stretches over 15%. Comically unintentional foreshadowing. Today I had one stretch 400m long that averaged