#30daysofbiking by TTM

Below is a blog written by my husband Jim.  He took a 30 day challenge to ride his bike in April. Doesn't sound too hard does it? Especially if you love to ride bikes huh?  Read below and see how it went.







So there it is, in all it's glory.  My #30daysofbiking all summed up.
How did it start? I stumbled on a "Challenge" on FaceBook.  I was to commit to 30 consecutive days of riding a bike.  Who doesn't love a good bike ride?  Well let's see...me on cold, rainy, snowy, drizzly, grey, windy, freezing COLD days.  Which it seems that we received many more of these types of days than my favorite type of sunny and 75 degrees with a light breeze.   Gray days make it tough to throw a leg over a bike and head out.  So I told myself that "1 mile is better than none!".  This became my sort of my mantra for those nasty days.

My commitment to the #30daysofbiking was that I would ride a minimum of 1 mile every day.  Why only a mile? Life, it has a way of getting in the way of those little things that we want to do for ourselves. Besides that why set goals you can't reach?  It's ok to have easy attainable goals. Just because they seem overly simplistic doesn't mean it will be easy.   So I chose 1 mile distance and time didn't matter. Everything doesn't have to be race.  It seems at times that when I hit a group ride the pace picks up and race mode happens.  Sometimes I just like to ride my bike and check things out. So 1 mile, no time limit.  Reality is though that I would ride many of these days at 1 mile or so and it wouldn't take less than 15 minutes from putting on a helmet to clicking stop on the Strava or GPS.
I rode my bike everyday and though I might not have felt like it, and believe me I had dozens of excuses lined up, I did it anyway. It's done now so here is the Top 5 things I learned riding my bike everyday for a month.


#1 - Sometimes you have to just HTFU and do it. Yup, just walk out the door and grab your bike and pedal.
#2 - You can ride a bike and clear your head in ten minutes. It's sometimes that simple. Betcha keep riding when it happens.
#3 - I didn't lose any weight? Nope, probably gained a little as my goal was to ride my bike not lose weight. If I was shooting for losing weight I wouldn't have had those beer runs on the calendar as bike rides. But my goal was simpler, just ride my bike every day for at least a mile. You want to lose weight? Don't eat shitty food and do something besides watching other recreate.
#4 - The streets in my neighborhood look like crap, and need some serious maintenance. Time to call city hall.
#5 - Always think about how your are transporting those bombers of beer before you buy 3.  When all else fails walk over to the curb and drink one. She will be just as happy as you, if you only bring her one beer back.

What's next - Dirty Kanza 200 training of course.  200 miles of Gravel Roads in 1 day on a bike. My time to beat - 19:30 minutes. After reviewing my April mileage on Strava(24 hours of riding, 195 miles total. Longest ride was 20.7 of singletrack and gravel road) it appears I may be a bit behind in the DK training plan.  I guess I better get out the Chamois Butter cause the new leather Brooks saddle is gonna get to know my sit bones really well over the next 31 days!

I have a new mantra for DK200 this year - 200isbetterthannone!

GETCHASUM!!!

Even you can ride a bike, people learn everyday.

Written by Jim Davis