A Personal Biking Challenge

I find I do much better at staying focused and motivated to do what I need to if I have some type of a challenge in which I am participating.  Last year I challenged myself to ride every day in the month of August.  I was successful and met that challenge.  Having done so I rode a total of 220 miles, my highest mileage month last year.  I know it was good for me to be riding that much and I need to do more of it.

I also think back to when I was a young teen/preteen and I rode everyday.  Not only was it my primary mode of transport, but it was fun!  We would ride for the fun of it with no particular destination in mind. Sure there are way more priorities and time is not as free as it was then, but I still think I need that freedom and getting out to just ride. I need it for my physical as well as my mental well being.

To that end I have come up with a personal challenge for the next 6 months - ride my bike at least once a day, every day. I do realize this is a huge commitment and it will be a challenge to accomplish it, but that is my goal.

Now there may be some debate as to what it means to ride my bike every day. As far as I'm concerned throwing my leg over the top tube and pedaling any distance is riding my bike. To record the occurrences I will be relying on my Garmin and uploading the data to the various tracking sites like Map My Ride, Strava and Daily Mile.

I have even created a personal challenge on Map My Ride to track my progress towards this goal.  I'm hoping to be able to add some sort of widget to the right on my blog to help track this as well.  We'll see about that.

The Challenge starts tomorrow and runs until November 14.  I hope to be able to report on that date that I was successful and rode every day between now and then.

What challenge will you give yourself?

Get on your bikes and ride!!!!!!!