30 Days of Biking: Day 1

Yesterday I discovered the 30 Days of Biking challenge. The goal is to bike everyday in April, even if it is just around the block. The neat thing is that it originated here in Minneapolis, and now they have participants all over the world! So cool! I am not sure that I would have wanted to participate last April 1 when we still had snow everywhere, but this April 1 everything is green and there is not a drop of snow to be seen.

Sally in 2010 
(It is not quite that green here yet, but it is getting close!)

So this morning I dusted off my bike, Sally, and brought her to the gas station to fill her tires. I had a bit of trouble filling the tires though. I cannot seem to get the psi to be more than 50. I don’t think I am able to hold the compressor hose tight enough to the tire to fill it more. (I have the same issue on my car tires. I think it is because of my double jointed thumbs, or maybe I am just a weakling!) Anyway air cost $1 for three minutes and I got Sally’s tires as full as I could in that time.  Then I set out for a short bike ride.

View April 1, 2012 in a larger map

As you can see from the map of my ride, it was only about 3 miles. The maps says 2.8, but I do not have the start and end points at their exact locations and I actually rode through Woodview Park (Google does not recognize that there is a road there). So I am rounding up to 3 miles. I am sad to say that I was very winded by the ride. Hopefully one of the benefits of this month will be getting my lungs and heart a bit stronger. (It would also be nice to be able to bike up some of the hills I had trouble with today by then too.)

I do have one other issue I must get fixed: my front brakes are broken. Sally is a 3-speed so she has brakes on the pedals, but that front brake is pretty important too! This afternoon Rodney and I are going to go get a brake. I don’t think it will be too hard to install. I am also going to have Rodney fill my tires at some place with free air. I suppose I should look at getting a helmet too… Then I will really be all set to ride and ride!