National Bike Month: Day 31

3.2 Miles

And so ends National Bike Month. 306.51 miles is not too shabby! I had hoped to have several more miles banked towards my 1500 mile goal, but what can you do?

Today will be the last day I use the Strava app to map my ride. I think that my cell phone is not up-to-date enough to run it properly. I may look for a standalone GPS device. I think it would get a better lock on the GPS signal and save my cell battery to boot.

Well National Bike Month might be over, but I do have some ideas for nest month and beyond. Stay tuned for updates!

Miles Today: 3.2
Total Miles 2013: 467.6
Total Miles National Bike Month: 306.51
Total Miles for National Bike Challenge: 306.51
Days in a row: 61

National Bike Month: Day 30

4.4 Miles

Yay! I made it to my 300 mile goal! Now tomorrow I can just take a leisurely ride. Today's ride was really quite wet. I had thought that I would ride to Walgreen's to get a card for Rodney (it is our anniversary tomorrow), but it started to rain on my way. So I changed course and rode to Jensen's. The rain stopped by the time I got there, so when I came out I thought I would take the long way home. Well, that was a mistake. It was pouring rain by the time I got home! Oh well, I got my miles in so I am happy...if a little wet!

Miles Today: 4.4
Total Miles 2013: 464.4
Total Miles National Bike Month: 303.31
Total Miles for National Bike Challenge: 303.31
Days in a row: 60

National Bike Month: Day 29

6.1 Miles

Drat! Look how close I am to 300 miles! I wish I had realized how close I was to making it, I would have ridden another mile or so. But now that I look at that map I see that the GPS did not hold its route very well.

Miles Today: 6.1
Total Miles 2013: 460
Total Miles National Bike Month: 298.91
Total Miles for National Bike Challenge: 298.91
Days in a row: 59

National Bike Month: Day 28

3.9 Miles

A short ride today. I am hoping to get a longer ride in tomorrow night. I am so close to my 300 mile goal for the month!

Miles Today: 3.9
Total Miles 2013: 453.9
Total Miles National Bike Month: 292.81
Total Miles for National Bike Challenge: 292.81
Days in a row: 58

National Bike Month: Day 27

Happy Memorial Day! 

I hope everybody is having a great Memorial Day. I took a nice ride today up to the Veterans Memorial in Bunker Hills Regional Park. Along the way I rode across the floating wood bridge trail. I find it freaky to ride on, but I was the only one on it today so it was okay. I then stopped for a short yoga session along the trail. The maps at Bunker Hill do not mark the Veterans Memorial, so I had to search for it a bit. When I got closer to it there where signs pointing to it, so that was helpful. I did not mean to ride past the tank, but it turns out the trail I set out on just went in a loop around it! 

Miles Today: 9.5
Total Miles 2013: 450
Total Miles National Bike Month: 288.91
Total Miles for National Bike Challenge: 288.91
Days in a row: 57

National Bike Month: Day 26

I saw a small flock of turkeys on my ride today. 

Hmmm.... I am not pleased with Strava today. Again, it is probably not the app's fault, it is probably my phone. Still the GPS did not read correctly and says that I rode 11.2 miles, but if you look at the Strava map below you will see that it did some funky things to my route. I remapped the route in Google Maps and it was really around 9 miles. I am going to give Strava another chance on a sunny day, since my GPS works better without clouds, but if it does not work that way I am going to let it go. 

Strava was wrong again today it says 11.2 miles.

9 Miles when mapped in Google Maps. 

Miles Today: 9
Total Miles 2013: 440.5
Total Miles National Bike Month: 279.41
Total Miles for National Bike Challenge: 279.41
Days in a row: 56

National Bike Month: Day 25

9.5 Miles

The Strava app seems to be working today. I would have rode longer but my right hip was killing me with a horrible cramp. Maybe I will ride some more later today.

Miles Today: 9.5
Total Miles 2013: 431.5
Total Miles National Bike Month: 270.41
Total Miles for National Bike Challenge: 270.41
Days in a row: 55

National Bike Month: Day 24

10.5 Miles

Dang. I tried to use a new mapping app today, but I ended up losing the map. Very frustrating. I have remade the map as well as I can in Google Maps. It is annoying because Google does not recognize that I can ride through some places, so it is hard to remake routes. I will have to try again tomorrow to get the app to work.


Miles Today: 10.5
Total Miles 2013: 422
Total Miles National Bike Month: 260.91
Total Miles for National Bike Challenge: 260.91
Days in a row: 54

National Bike Month: Day 23

Lilacs everywhere!

I saw so many lilacs on my 20 mile ride today! It was a beautiful day to ride; not too hot and not to cold. Perfect. I managed to get lost once or twice, but I found more lilacs that way! I also found this great eagle carving:

Isn't he great!

He looks so real too!

20.16

Miles Today: 20.16
Total Miles 2013: 411.5
Total Miles National Bike Month: 250.41
Total Miles for National Bike Challenge: 250.41
Days in a row: 53

National Bike Month: Day 22

It was only in the 40s when I got up this morning. After our warm spell it feels especially cold. I took a short sweet ride again today. Tomorrow I feel a long lilac-filled ride coming on...

Only 2 Miles today and no GPS. 

Also, somewhere along the line my totals became wonky. Below are the corrected totals. (Happily the numbers went up!)


Miles Today: 2
Total Miles 2013: 391.34
Total Miles National Bike Month: 230.25
Total Miles for National Bike Challenge: 230.25
Days in a row: 52

National Bike Month: Day 21

Another day for a ride between raindrops. Actually, it was a ride through raindrops! In order to get credit for  riding each day on the National Biking Challenge you have to ride at least one mile. So I. set off today with the goal of getting at least a mile in. In the end it I succeeded in 1.33 miles. Nothing much fun to write about, but enough to get my daily points. I fear that tomorrow will be a short ride too, but maybe on Thursday I will be able to get a nice long ride in. 

1.33 Miles

Miles Today: 1.33

Total Miles 2013: 382.39

Total Miles National Bike Month: 225.2

Total Miles for National Bike Challenge: 225.2

Days in a row: 51

National Bike Month: Day 20

Nothing exciting about my ride today. It was hard to gauge the weather, but I was able to get in a short 2.97 miles between storms.

2.97 Miles

Miles Today: 2.97
Total Miles 2013: 381.06
Total Miles National Bike Month: 223.06
Total Miles for National Bike Challenge: 223.06
Days in a row: 50

National Bike Month: Day 19

10/59 Miles

 Miles Today: 10.59

Total Miles 2013: 378.09

Total Miles National Bike Month: 220.9

Total Miles for National Bike Challenge: 220.9

Days in a row: 49

National Bike Challenge Local Position: 17^th * (out of 499 riders.)

      ~ I am in 3^rd place for women riders in Minnesota!*~

National Bike Challenge National Position: 1071^th* (out of 20791 riders)

      ~I am in 136^th place for women Nationally.*~

*This number will change as people enter mileage. It is my position at the time I entered my miles for the day. 

National Bike Month: Day 18

It was a turtle-ishous sort of day! I was riding along the trail and I saw this little guy first:

He/she is a little Snapping Turtle. It was just bigger
than a quarter and a bit smaller than a fifty cent piece. 

I picked him up with my jacket, I have no idea
if they bite at this size, and moved him off the trail. 

Since he was right in the path for walking/biking I moved him off the trail and into the grass. I actually had to stand over him to keep him from getting hit by a second bicyclist. He was only about 4 feet from the creek when I set him down. Good deed done, I set off down the trail. A few blocks away I saw this:

A large mud turtle! I would say just smaller than a
manhole cover. 18 inches maybe?

I keep my distance from this turtle. I don't think it needed any help. Though, I also did not want to draw too much attention to it. I did not want it to get hurt. I think this the largest mud turtle that I have ever seen. (As a side note: the largest Snapper I have ever seen was about three feet across and I got out of its way!)

12.01 Miles

Miles Today: 12.01

Total Miles 2013: 367.5

Total Miles National Bike Month: 210.31

Total Miles for National Bike Challenge: 210.31

Days in a row: 48

National Bike Month: Day 17

There is rain in the forecast for the next several days, but I was able to get out for my ride between rain showers. I saw a few interesting sights today:

Birdhouse along trial.

Close-up of flowers by birdhouse. 

A trail bridge in the Coon Rapids Dam Park.

Deer.

Deer close-up.

15.07 Miles

 Miles Today: 15.07

Total Miles 2013: 355.49

Total Miles National Bike Month: 198.3

Total Miles for National Bike Challenge: 198.3

Days in a row: 47

National Bike Month: Day 16

I woke up grumpy and out of sorts after a bad night's sleep. A ride in the afternoon made me feel much better. And I saw a road sign I had never seen before:

There was another one like it further down the road.
Strange. 

11.63 Miles

Miles Today: 11.63

Total Miles 2013: 340.42

Total Miles National Bike Month: 183.23

Total Miles for National Bike Challenge: 183.23

Days in a row: 46

National Bike Month: Day 15

A nice ride today and I got to see some deer!

11.49 Miles

Miles Today: 11.49

Total Miles 2013: 328.79

Total Miles National Bike Month: 171.6

Total Miles for National Bike Challenge: 171.6

Days in a row: 45

National Bike Month: Day 14

5.83 Miles

Due to a job interview I just took a short ride today. My goal was to just warm up my legs a bit and try to work off some tension. I had thought I might ride in the afternoon, but it is 95 degrees outside! Crazy! 

Miles Today: 5.83

Total Miles 2013: 317.3

Total Miles National Bike Month: 160.11

Total Miles for National Bike Challenge: 160.11

Days in a row: 44

National Bike Month: Day 13

I meant to take a shorter ride today, but I took a wrong turn in Bunker Hills Regional Park. I can't believe how lost I get in that park. Maybe by the end of summer it will be in my head?

I am excited to say that I broke 300 miles today. I am now at 311.47 miles since the first of April! Woot! It is also time to announce my new goal. I plan to ride a total of 1500 miles between April 1 and October 31. If I just make my 300 miles a month from May to September I will succeed, but I wanted to give myself a buffer. You know...just in case!

11.91

Miles Today: 11.91

Total Miles 2013: 311.47

Total Miles National Bike Month: 154.28

Total Miles for National Bike Challenge: 154.28

Days in a row: 43

National Bike Month: Day 12

This is why there is a road by my home called Egret Boulevard. 

The plan for today's bike ride was that I would ride Ursula to Jerry's Schwinn and leave her to be repaired. (There was also a planned stop to return a library book.) Then once I was fairly close to Jerry’s I would call Rodney and he would meet me and drive me home. 

This plan worked out fairly well and gave me the following map. I purposely took a circuitous route to add miles to my ride. It was another cool day with strong winds at times, but I powered through.

14.47 Miles

 

Crooked Lake Branch of the Anoka County Library.

 

What I thought was my final destination: Jerry's Schwinn. 

Here is where my plans changed. It turns out that Ursula only needed to have her chain lubed. I did not need to leave her at the shop! Woot! So, from the shop Rodney and I went to Dino's for lunch and from there I started my second bike ride.

Falafel Sandwich and Tabouli form Dino's.

After that I was back on the road. Below is my map for my ride home. I was so bummed when I realized I only needed another half mile to be at 300 miles this year! I will be saving that for tomorrow!

10.83 Miles

Miles Today: 25.3
Total Miles 2013: 299.56
Total Miles National Bike Month: 142.37
Total Miles for National Bike Challenge: 142.37
National Bike Challenge Local Position: 13^th  (out of 386 riders.)
      ~ I am in 2^rd place for women riders in Minnesota!*~
National Bike Challenge National Position: 828^th (out of 17490 riders)
      ~I am in 106^th place for women Nationally.*~
Days in a row: 42

*This number will change as people enter mileage. It is my position at the time I entered my miles for the day.