The act of beginning boldly opens the door to a darkened room. I’ve told you before–we weren’t prepared for the 1500-mile Mississippi River bike ride in 2011. Not enough training, insufficient planning. My longest-ever ride prior to Day 1 was 35 miles while training for an eight-week ride on which I needed to average 40 […]
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The Same Road
I get to do some remarkable things. Becky and I were able to spend the last four Tuesday evenings with some men and women currently living at the Fort Collins Rescue Mission. I shared some of our story and a bit of what I’ve learned about overcoming adversity. As always, the teacher learns from the […]
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When Will It Finally Be Enough?
If I could just do a little better. Not perfect, or great, or even really good…probably can’t get there. But would just bit better finally be good enough? You and I think those thoughts occasionally, don’t we? We wonder if maybe, just maybe, a little bit better might get the approval we so desperately seek. […]
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Do You Ever Feel Like Sisyphus?
A colleague and I had sort of a running joke about Sisyphus. If you don’t know his plight, he’s a character from Greek mythology who offended the gods. As punishment, Sisyphus was ordered to push a rock up a hill. Each time he reached the top, the rock rolled to the bottom. He was condemned […]
Continue readingMore TagIs Your Parking Brake Stuck?
“My training this spring feels like the parking brake on my bike is stuck.” I encountered my friend along the trail last week. We talked a bit and he asked how training was going for the summer tour. He started to lean over to check my brakes but I laughed and assured him the bike […]
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Crowd Or Community?
Every year someone asks Becky and me why we don’t do RAGBRAI. If you’re not familiar, RAGBRAI is the Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa. Something like 10,000 cyclists ride about 500 miles across Iowa every year (since 1973) in the world’s largest bike-touring event. By all accounts RAGBRAI is a lot of fun. […]
Continue readingMore Tag“But God…”
The circumstances he described were overwhelming. We occupied the corner booth at McDonald’s. Coffee for him, chocolate shake for me…Don’t judge, I just completed a 30 mile bike ride. Incredibly intricate tattoos covered his arms and neck. Weathered, scarred face showed the wear and tear of hard living. Drugs. Drinking. Gangs. Jail. Pain and loss […]
Continue readingMore TagDo You Love Fish?
I recently heard an interesting story about love. A man says he he’s eating fish because he loves fish. His friend replies, “So you love the fish so much…you removed him from the water, cooked him, and ate him? I’m not sure you love the fish. I think you love the way the fish tastes. […]
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Oh Those Beautiful Plans (And What To Do When They Collapse)
“Are the tours coming together like you planned?” It’s a question I hear about this time every year. I’ll turn to a story from a few years ago to explain how my answer’s changed over time. # # # Day One of our long-awaited Mississippi River trip went precisely according to our carefully crafted plan–until […]
Continue readingMore TagWe Need You (Yes, You!)
You belong. You’re part of what makes us–us. We couldn’t do this in quite the same way without you. We long for those words, don’t we? Belonging, love, being part of the circle–deep down, you and I want to be invited, to know we’re accepted and special and necessary. But we also have this tendency […]
Continue readingMore TagLooking In All The Wrong Places
I learned a lot from teaching. I learned, for example, that questions matter more than answers. I learned that good questions don’t always have one right answer and that answering great questions might lead to some discomfort. I learned that searching can be scary. There’s a story about a boy who seems to be looking […]
Continue readingMore TagWhat Are You Doing With The Next Eight Weeks?
A lot can happen in eight weeks. In eight weeks a team of cyclists will gather at the golden dome of the Wyoming state capitol. We’ll raise our helmets, climb on our bikes, and crank south out of Cheyenne on highway 85. A casual observer might think FRONT RANGE FREEDOM TOUR ’17 begins with the […]
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