Blog
-
Day 40:🌵✈️😁⛰️🌦️🌈
Fowler, CO to Colorado Springs, CO — 87.4 mi, 3174 ft 💤 The night before a century is a tense one. Even if we have 95 mile days, nothing quite gets you as excited or as anticipatory as the big scary triple digit number. Thus, we agreed to enforce our strict wake-up routine that worked extremely well for our first century back in Missouri — wake up at 6 and leave by 7 to conquer…
-
Day 39: The Spokes Routine
Lamar, CO to Fowler, CO — 86.3 mi, 1566 ft Lately it feels like our team has found its balance. The wide spectrum of speed demon to leisurely biker we talked about in our first week has condensed as people make compromises on the days we should focus on reaching our destination fast vs days we can reststopmaxx. Team meetings have become less frequent, the communication between team members becoming implicit and intuitive. After more…
-
Day 38: So… steak for dinner?
Learning Festival in Lamar, CO — 0 mi, 0 ft If I had a nickel for every time I have woken up in a sleeping pad circle on the floor of a church, I would have two nickels! Honestly, it is less than I would have expected, considering how often we stay at churches and how much our team enjoys sleeping pad circles. For those who aren’t familiar, a sleeping pad circle is when we…
-
Day 37: welcome to colorful colorado
Lakin, KS to Lamar, CO — 80.1 mi, 1487 ft When I type out that we woke up at 8:30am in our hotel bedrooms and then went to eat our continental breakfast, I feel like we lose a lot of credibility when claiming that we are on a “difficult” bike trip. We are certainly very spoiled. We must’ve decided to not include the “get fed in bed” and “have your bags and minivan packed for…
-
Day 36: life is still a highway (50)
Dodge City, KS to Lakin, KS — 79.0 mi, 1265 ft A tailwind, compared to a headwind, can cut the amount of time you spend on the bike in half. I think all of us have gotten to the point where the limiting reagent in determining how far we can go in a day is not our physical capability, but rather how long we can tolerate being hunched over as our butts are pressed up…
-
Day 35: The Wickedest Little Bugs in America
Macksville, KS to Dodge City, KS — 62.6 mi, 957 ft Have you ever woken up to the feeling of your entire body itching from the very top of your head to your smallest toe? Well that’s how we all woke up this morning—everybody except Tatiana because mosquitoes don’t like her. Last night our team went to a local park to celebrate July 4th. We ate from a Mexican food truck and played a little…
-
Day 34: the semiquincentennial
Newton, KS to Macksville, KS — 92.6 mi, 1120 ft 250 years ago to the day, half of Britain’s colonies seceded from King George III’s grasp and the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, creating a permanent separation between the American and British people. We have reinforced this separation, through the creation of rather distinct cultures. There are some things that are uniquely American; the Brits would agree, and so would everyone else on…
-
Day 33: life is a highway (50)
Emporia, KS to Newton, KS — 75.4 mi, 1737 ft Snoozing an alarm is such an interesting concept. On all of the alarms we set, we have this option to delay whatever is so important that necessitates its own reminder, merely for another 9 minutes (the default on an iphone). Yet those 9 minutes can feel like an eternity — or nothing — before the alarm goes off again and you are faced with the…
-
Day 32: the flattest thing in kansas is our tires
Overbrook, KS to Emporia, KS — 62.6 mi, 1608 ft The answers to my lying blog last week (did you spot them all?) Note that everything insane I wrote about the 1904 Olympics and World Fair is actually true! I would also like to add an addendum that perhaps my reflection that I’ve started to enjoy biking was an unintentional lie as well because the next few days of biking have been pretty brutal, as…
-
Day 31: Don’t Overlook Overbrook
Kansas City, MO to Overbrook, KS — 75.5 mi, 3771 ft GUESS WHAT, BABY??? NEW STATE UNLOCCKKEDDD 🔥🔥🔥 Personally, I was most excited to feel like Dorothy entering Kansas, especially since I have never been to the state before and have a wonderful place in my heart for the Wizard of Oz. Our morning glory of waking up at the hotel was only slightly dampened by the 4 am wakeup time enforced by the extraordinarily…
MIT Spokes 2026 