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Michael Mooney won’t be trying to break any world records this weekend at the Lexington Avenue Arts Festival (LAAF), but he will definitely be hosting some bicycle jousting and big wheel races. This is the 9th year for the LAAF, and it’s by far the most fun downtown festival that Asheville offers. It’s when the [...]

The thing I love about riding and running, is that it forces me to slow down. I’m such a fricking spaz that no matter what I’m doing, I’m doing it at 90 miles an hour. People recognize my walk before they can get close enough to see my face. I can only guess it’s because [...]

There’s this nasty muscle I know about that is really hard to deal with when it’s been tweaked. If you don’t take care of it, it can totally debilitate the way the hip rotates. Psoas is its name. I currently have three massage clients who are being tortured by this very muscle. They are in [...]

My girlfriend and I went on a mountain bike ride together and although it was great being in the woods together riding hard, we were mostly relieved to be away from our families for long enough to immerse ourselves in unabated fun. Why does a refreshing day like that have to end with a bike, [...]

The cops in Biltmore Forest are on the rampage again. I say this after a friend of mine was given a $180 traffic citation for not getting off of her bike at a stop sign. She was on her way to work—riding her bike rather than driving her truck. She saw the police officer, so [...]

There’s something about riding a new bike that makes a girl just downright giddy. Not that I got a new bike, but I did borrow a demo from the bike shop…a really squishy one at that. Of course it was last year’s S-Works FSR, so I can hardly wait to try next year’s. Riding a [...]

This weekend riders will suffer through the Off-Road Assault on Mt. Mitchell, which is a metric century complete with 11,000 feet of climbing—on some of the most challenging trails in the area. I rode Kitzuma last weekend, which is a mere fraction of what riders will see as they traverse 63 miles of gnar-gnar. The [...]

The Virginia Creeper Trail might be a mild spin downhill for 17 miles of picnic spots, but it’s downright dangerous. We stood waiting to get our bikes from the shuttle when the first overly serious cyclist elbowed through the small crowd barking, “Watch it! Watch it!” “Seriously?” I asked incredulously as witnesses laughed. It was [...]

It was just like the good old days: Epic Sunday. I realize that right now “epic” means something entirely different than it did five years ago, but I pondered it at length during my time in the woods. The three of us took our time, allowing the searing suffering to rip through us in long [...]

Dear Bike, After running in those Vibrams for a mile…well…my love for you has deepened. My feet have never been sorer.  I woke the next morning to the usual—baby crying for mama—and sprung to the bathroom like a paraplegic ostrich. It took several lurching steps for me to realize that my feet had not been [...]

June 18, 2010 Dear Bike, We pulled the baby to Grandma’s house today before starting work. She needed the car seat, so I strapped it to the roof of the trailer. It was heavy. I didn’t think I’d get much of a workout since she lives just a few miles away, but I was not [...]

Rather than ride the infamous Fletcher Flyer century, I made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches all morning at a rest stop to very grateful cyclists as they finished the first quarter of a long, hot ride. The morning was crisp with wisps of fog, but by 10 a.m. the sun was beating down on the [...]

So you’ve been invited on a group mountain bike ride. Is it ok to invite somebody else to join? Here are the rules: You are responsible for the person whom you invite. That means, when the shit goes down, and your buddy tangles himself up in rhododendron and his derailleur resembles a corkscrew, nobody else [...]

I was driving around with a friend the other day when I saw a moped pulling a trailer like the one I have for my baby, only I use it as it was intended – attached to my bicycle. “Oh. My. God.” I said. “I really hope there is not a child in there.” He [...]

I rode at Tsali this past weekend. The last time I was there was two years ago at the Tsali Challenge with teammates from Blue Ridge Outdoors. I was in good riding shape, but got a flat within 200 yards of the start. I got passed by at least 15 people and caught only about [...]