Train-n-Tri: National Bike Challenge

National Bike Challenge starts today!!!!

May 1 through September 30

My goal for the challenge in May is to ride my bike every single day in May....even if it is just for a couple of miles.

My May motto is:

Butt to the seat EVERY May Day!!!

What is the National Bike Challenge?

The Challenge is a health and wellness initiative that encourages people to bike for transportation and recreation. Last year 30,000 people joined the challenge to bike 12 million miles.

This year's goal is to sign up 50,000 people and log 20 million miles.

Last year I set my goal to ride 850 miles during the challenge.

I did meet my goal in 2012 and I wrote about it in this blog:

http://train-n-tri.blogspot.com/2012/08/national-bike-challenge.html

Yikes, I felt a little sick to my stomach after I reread last year's blog.

I must have felt pretty good about all that riding because I said this year's goal would be to DOUBLE the miles.

Well, I can do the math....that's 1,700 miles in 5 months. That's 340 miles a month.

Did I really challenge myself to all those miles?

Yes, I did.

Will you join the challenge?

Will you join me in riding craziness?

What's your goal?

Make your personal goal and sign up.

After you sign up, you log your miles.

You can even win prizes.

And we all know how much I LOVE to win prizes.

There are LOTS of technical rules about riding so many miles getting you to a certain level and miles are rolled over each month and blah, blah, blah.

The main idea is the MORE days you ride and the MORE miles you log the better chance you have of winning some of these fabulous prizes: Bottle openers from Resource Revival, lights from Planet Bike, water bottles from Trek, seat bags from Trek, cycling jerseys from Sierra Nevada, front/rear light pair from Trek, challenge jerseys from Mt. Borah, year membership to the Better World Club (roadside assistance for bicyclists), year supply of toilet tissue from Scott@Brand, year membership to the League of American Bicyclists, a Trek Bike, and a New Belgium Brewing Cruiser.

II think the cruiser will look something like this....sweet! A girl can NEVER have too many bicycles.

But I wonder how they decide what a YEAR'S worth of toilet paper is...because in my household that could be a lot of toilet paper, especially if they factor in the amount that we use a couple of times a year to TP friends, but that's another blog.

During May there are a couple of SPECIAL days to get out and ride your bike.

The first one is the -

Second Annual National Bike to School DayBike to School Day is a national event that gives communities across the country the
opportunity to join together in bicycling to school on the same day. On Wednesday, May 8^th,
grab your bikes and help promote a healthy lifestyle as well as the need for
safe routes to school. Le

Why does it run for five months?

The other one is May 17, which is Ride Your Bike to Work Day, which comes at the of Ride Your Bike to Work WEEK, May 13-17.

Confused?

Just get out and ride your bike for fun, for work, for peace of mind.

IOkay, so at first I was a worried that I would not be able to log those 1,700 miles during the challenge. Then I found out that his year's challenge is a month longer than last year.

That gave me a little hope.

I guess so many people had so much fun riding their bikes and COMPETING for prizes last year that they asked for the challenge to be extended by one month.

And since September is another warm month across the country, they didn't want to waste the great riding weather.

Then grab your bike and a friend and go for a ride.