Right, so ... the BLOG, then..!

It turns out that riding for miles and miles in training, while a wonderful way to build stamina and endurance for a long, upcoming bike ride, isn’t really a particularly means of producing what is known (unironically) as ‘content’.

In preparation for the trip, I started the website, started making videos for fundraising and social media, and then I realized I needed to get back out on my bike and just RIIIIIIIIDE - an activity of which I’m happy to say I’ve indulged quite a bit in the past few weeks.

But that does mean I kinda left the blog just hangin’ there. And because Squarespace doesn’t notify me when someone signs up for the blog (maybe there’s a setting I can change? I’ll have to look into that), I just thought it was an idea that wasn’t really interesting to people and was destined to quietly disappear like Clear Pepsi and Betamax. Then, one day I was tweaking something on the site and, lo and behold, I discovered that I had subscribers! Who knew?

SO WELCOME! I’m glad to get back to the old-fashioned form of storytelling. The story. You know, the thing with words, and long sentences, and a narrative arc. Remember that ol’ thing?

As I said, training has been progressing. Because my schedule’s been a bit higgledy-piggledy, my training strategy is basically … to ride when I can. Often as much as I can. In fact, adding up my training stats for the season surprised me.

To date, in 2023 my total mileage is 2,594 miles, total elevation gain is 81,760 feet, and total moving time on my bike is over 200 hours.

Needless to say, I'm feel like I’m on track in terms of conditioning. The other parts of the training and preparation include just the psychological endurance of getting used to so many hours on the bike as well as gaining some skills in bike repair, improving some of my camping & backpacking (and bikepacking) knowledge, and ironing out all the kinks with my gear kit. Plus, there’s been the preparation of figuring out my exact route (Bicycle Coalition of Maine has been a big help there), finding lodging or camping options (without pinning myself down to an overly restrictive schedule), and simply figuring out the logistics of just getting me and Franco (my bike) both to the starting point in Acadia National Park and getting us back from the intended end point in Québec City, Québec.

As I said, I’ve been pre-occupied with putting together some video content for my social media accounts. If you follow on the Book of Face or the Gram of Insta, you’ll have already seen them. I’m also now posting them on the Tube of You and my website directly. So, enjoy them - if you enjoy that sort of thing - and mea culpa, if you’re annoyed by that sort of thing. Such are the times we live in, as they say.

I’m glad to have resurrected my little blog here, and now that I know I actually have readers I’ll start adding to it. Promise. Feel free to share with anyone you like. I can’t promise it’ll always be riveting, but in such instances perhaps it may, at the very least, serve as a suitable soporific option to the doom-scroll.

In the meanwhile, please remember that Shore To Seaway 2023 is a self-funded fundraising ride to benefit World Bicycle Relief and The National Multiple Sclerosis Society. 100% of all donations go directly to their respective organization. You can’t go wrong with either (and you can’t go wrong with both). Give a little, give a lot. The dollars help, but so does the support coming from so many places far & wide.