It seemed like such a great idea.

Three hundred and sixty five days of something. 

The idea came to me while I was riding my mountain bike.  I was picking my way through an icy trail in Palmer Park.  “Wouldn’t it be cool to do something like this every day?” I thought to…

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Snow.

It’s March, for crying out loud.

As a point of explanation, I’ve lived in Colorado for almost 15 years. Add another 3 years in Albuquerque, NM, and I’m pushing 20 years in the mountain west. I’m well aware of the April (and May) snowstorms, and the August cold snaps.

I’ve gotten over my hatred of cold.  Growing up in Louisville, KY, in a time before Polar Fleece, I abhorred the cold.  In ’77 we had 2 feet of snow that shut down our southern town for 3 days – we…

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I saw it as I rounded the corner. I couldn’t miss it. Its brilliant yellow leaves were a stunning contrast against the green foliage surrounding it. “What the…?” It was mid-September. I was hot,

dirty and a little sweaty. Fall had

and caught me totally unawares.

Soon, I’ll be hot and sweaty with three layers of technical fabric

covering my extremities. Soon I’ll look

outside at the blowing snow and contemplate a…

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“You OK?”

I hadn’t noticed the rider coming up behind me.

“Yeah, just looking for my lung” I replied, chuckling to myself at my standard reply.

She was probably a Falcon 100 rider, on her second lap. Maybe she was a Cat 2, just catching up to me. Whoever she was, she rode past quickly, just like everyone else had.

I started in the single speed category at the Rocky Mountain State Games. We rode Falcon Trail…

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I had over 2000 miles in my legs by October of 2009. Maybe not a lot of miles by some standards, but for me it was plenty. I had spent the first 1000 miles getting ready to ride the Kokopelli Trail in April, 2009. I rode Falcon Trail a lot - it’s my lunch time ride. I rode Palmer Park. I rode bike paths to get to Palmer Park. I rode bike paths to get to other bike paths.

During that year I rode a lot with a buddy who rode a single speed 29er.…

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There. I made it. Three days to ride the Kokopelli Trail. On a singlespeed, mind you. It was hard, but not as hard as the first time. Or the second, really. The first, I was out of shape, and out of my element. On the second trip, I was definitely in shape physically. Mentally, I think the trail still had me. It didn't help my friend got knocked out on the first morning - we'd trained together for 5 months for this. I was a little…

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