To accomplish this, I include here a little about what I do when I’m not teaching or engaging in other aspects of my profession.

One way that I recreate is to go road bicycling. Given how I grew up running long distances, playing hockey, and living in a climate with only four months of temperate weather each year, I’m a relative newcomer to the world of bicycling.  Yet over the past ten years or so I have become passionate about it—so much so that I can’t imagine what life would be like without it.  I typically ride about twenty miles a day and six times each week.  In 2011, for example,I biked a total of 5390 miles: 3368 of it outdoors and 2022 inside on a trainer hooked up to my rear wheel (it would have been even more if I had not taken a month off to do research). And yes, I’m a big fan of the Tour de France.  While doing research in France during the summer of 2009, I dragged my spouse and our weary child to the Champs Elysées of Paris in order to see the peloton finish the race.  Alberto “I ate some Spanish beef tainted with clenbuterol” Contador won the tour that year (and unlike that of 2010, he still holds the title) and the now-disgraced Lance "I have never failed a drug test" Armstrong finished third.

The 2009 Tour de France's Finale on the Champs Elysées in Paris

This photo shows the soon-to-be winner of the tour, Alberto Contador, in the maillot jaune (yellow jersey) on the left. His teamate that year, Lance Armstrong, is visible several wheels in front of Contador. The second place finisher, Andy Schleck, is on the right. The peloton is moving at about 35 miles an hour, meaning that this snap shot is a very lucky one.

In the late spring of 2007 I was able to combine my love for bicycling with another favorite pastime: overseas travel.  My spouse and I went on a six-day, self-guided bike tour in the Alto Adige and Veneto regions of Italy.  Starting in Bolzano amid the Italian Alps, we worked our way down to Trento (site of the important sixteenth-century Church council) and the next day rode over a mountain pass to Lago di Garda.  We then ferried our bicycles across the lake and down to Peschiera del Garda, where we got back on our bikes and over the next few days rode to Verona (setting for the fictive Romeo and Juliet), then to Vicenza, and on to Padua, before completing our tour at Mestre.  From there it was just a short bus ride over to Venice, where we spent a few days walking the narrow streets and negotiating the canals.

Ed at the Central Piazza of Trento, Italy

Trento has long been a crossroads for Germanic- and Romantic-speaking Europeans. This is what made it amenable for hosting an important Church council in the middle of the sixteenth century.

One reason why I’ve taken to bicycling is that there are so many amenable places for it in western Illinois.  The rural roads maintained by my county and its townships are largely paved and yet have relatively little traffic.  They’re predominantly flat in elevation but occasionally feature challenging hills and scenic valleys.  The city of Macomb has a good local biking club, though my work schedule and childcare obligations often prevent me from taking part in their group rides. I often do my biking in the morning, when it’s generally colder than the rest of the day but also less windy.  My favorite kind of ride is a "century"—100 miles or about 153 kilometers, which I try to finish in less than 6 hours, thereby going over 17 miles an hour on average.

When away from my bike, I like spend time with my family and with our faithful dog, Clio (named after the Greek muse of history, of course), who came to us from a rescue organization and is a Labrador and English Setter mix.  I also read numerous political blogs in addition to several national newspaper sites each day.