Back on the Bike & TrailNation Summit
It’s abolutely pouring here in Girona. It’s such a huge departure from the past few days that were absolutely beautiful. Yesterday I went for my first actual bike ride since Thee Abundance Camp in mid October.
A lot of folks with ADHD find success with a method called “body doubling”. Will and I have discussions about this often, because body doubling makes what can be considered a one-person job into a two-person job. It’s important to note that body doubling doesn’t even mean the second person is doing the same task, they just need to be in the space somehow. Actually, there are apps and services that provide this for folks virtually. I’ve tried it and it does work. Theoretically you could just ask your friends to sit on facetime with you while you do stuff, but people have lives. So this service is made up of other folks who also desire a body double, and then you just both do your thing. Is it weird? Maybe a little, but when you find a relatively healthy solution for executive disfunction, you go for it.
So yes, I went for a bike ride yesterday and it was nice. I haven’t put my langma back together yet, so I rode my Avail E+. Then I posted about it on instagram. I woke up to a comment that seemed to imply that I’d ridden a scooter, not a bike. I disagree, but whatevs. Honestly, the whole e-bike discourse is silly because beyond the folks with genuine concerns around safety, most of the arguments against e-bikes are elitest, egotistical, and also wrong.
If you’ve never ridden an e-bike, you are missing out! It’s so dang fun. It makes it way more accessible for a lot of folks, but even if accessibility isn’t an issue, it lightens the load a little for folks who want to go for a ride but don’t want to overexert. That being said, it’s still work. And especially here in Europe, the speed limitations mean that with the exception of going uphill, I generally go faster on my analog bike. In the USA, the speed cap on e-bikes is 28mph. In Europe, it’s 28 kph. That’s equivalent to about 15mph, which if you’ve got pro level speed… is slower than you’re usually riding.
I think the speed limits are absolutely necessary in commuter settings, but I do wish there were exceptions for pure road e-bikes. That being said, it makes sense to regulate them all evenly because you can’t control where people ride, and if they started restricting folks from riding road bikes within cities and residential communities, it would make it very challenging to go places.
My point is that I love e-bikes, and if you haven’t ridden one yet, you should. Because it’s fun. Extra bonus points for E-MTB because it makes the arduous task of climbing on a bike that is very poorly suited for climbing way more appealing to me.
TrailNation Summit
As you might recall, last week I flew to Cleveland for the TrailNationSummit (without my wallet). Luckily it all worked out and not having a wallet never really got in my way. The hotel accepted tap-to-pay to cover my incidentals, I paid for all my food with tap-to-pay as well. I did think to grab my husbands physical credit card as an emergency option so I used that to buy my subway ticket on the way from the airport. I did discover that there is an app, so I would’ve been fine regardless. Robots are still my number two fear, after dysentery, BUT technology was pretty clutch this trip.
The event was wonderful. I’ve been on the Rails-To-Trails Conservancy board for 4 years now, and I’m always so proud of the work they do. What do they do? The short answer, is that they support the work of turning abandoned rail lines into multi-use trails all over the country. The long answer can be found by watching this film.
I don’t think the average person spends time thinking about our transportation infrastructure and how much work goes into building and maintaining it. Everything from trains, to cars, and even bikes and walking is made more convenient with thoughtful infrastructure. From highways down to the curb cuts on a sidewalk, somebody somewhere advocated to make those things happen, and it’s a lot better for everyone when that somebody gives consideration to the actual folks that will use the infrastructure instead of simply focusing on building stuff to build it, or building stuff just to make money. Anywho, watch the film, it’s very well done, and super interesting.
My lil speech went well. you can watch that here. My speech is at 4:32.
I did get a little distracted by the slide show remote for a second, but we reeled it back in pretty quickly. I love Love LOVE speaking to folks about things I’m passionate about. Bikes, Joy, Representation, etc are my favs, so it’s great when I get an invite. When I was little I used to compete in public speaking competitions. When I tell you my mom had me signed for any and every available activity, I mean it. Public speaking was one of those activities, and it’s a skill that I still use today. It’s a strange thing to be an introvert who’s good at speaking in front of large rooms of people, but I promise you, that skill was earned. One of my formative memories was reciting Martin Luther King Jr’s “I have a dream” speech as part of a MLK day celebration at my church. It was on the local channel 12 news and everything. In true Ayesha fashion, I remember everyone being super proud of me, me being super proud of myself, but beyond all that, I remember being so annoyed that so many adults let me walk around pronouncing protestant incorrectly. After the service, someone came up to me and offered me that correction. My flabbers were ghasted, I’d recited that speech a trillion times before that day, and not one person had ever corrected me. We’re all good now tho. lol. That happened over 25 years ago, and I’m still embarrassed. Wild.
So yea, that was fun, and it was nice to bring some levity to a space that was really heavy due to all the setbacks caused by our current administration. It was already hard to find funding for stuff, but with all the cuts to federal funding and the government shutdown, it’s even harder than before.
That brings me to my next tangent. HELL YEA NYC, VIRGINIA, and NEW JERSEY!!!! What a way to bring hope to the people by electing some really rad fresh leaders to shake things up.
It’s been a blast following the Mamdani campaign in NYC. It’s wild to think of how blatantly racist folks were to the Muslim community post 9/11. To now have elected a Muslim immigrant as MAYOR? YOU GO GLEN COCO!!!! NYC, being Glen Coco in this scenario. All that to say, I’m excited to see what happens. Politicians are still gonna politic, but Mamdani gives me hope that maybe things will overall sway in a better direction. Seeing the fear of so many Billionaires makes me believe there’s a chance things can get better. The orange man is also spiraling, which means they are definitely not pleased with this outcome. But that doesn’t mean much since that man is almost always spiraling, that’s how we got in this mess to begin with.
In the bike racing world, I wasn’t paying attention. America has lost another big women’s team, at least temporarily. Cynisca is pausing for 2026, which means all those riders, except for one, are floating in the wind. This is not a sustainable model. It’s so hard for American riders to break into the European scene. Cynisca wasn’t perfect, but it was a bridge for up-and-coming riders. I hope they find their way back, or that something comes up to fill that gap.
I’m just happy to be in Girona. It’s so beautiful here, the puppy is learning and growing every day. She’s already outgrown two harnesses and learned “sit”, “down”, and appears to be 85% potty trained. There are still accidents here and there, but the apartment no longer smells like her personal urinal, and for that I am thankful! She’s also on a VERY strict nap schedule, because she’s a toddler and she needs her sleep so she’s not a tyrant.
Other than that, I’ve just been deep in planning mode for next year. Excited about some new merch. Things are coming together for my athletic endeavours, and I feel like I have a really good direction for Thee Abundance Project as well. I look forward to sharing more when I’ve nailed everything down a bit better.
I think that’s enough for now! Until next time!