Round 4 Wrap up

Well, Round 4 of 30 Days of Biking came to a close last Friday - just in time for me to get sick with a terrible cold. Ugh. I'm not happy about the cold but am happy I finished 30 Days of Biking for the fourth time.

The weather for Round 4 was almost perfect. I didn't have to bike in the snow like I did last April or the pouring rain like last September. Instead, save for some light drizzle here and there and some killer winds, the weather was great. Completing the challenge, though still a challenge, was not too hard this time around.

Looking on my Dailymile history it looks like I logged more miles on my bikes during this month than I ever have before. So, in light of that accomplishment I'm going to share some highlights of Round 4 of 30 Days of Biking.

Here they are (in no particular order):

•I biked 317 miles during September
•Owen did the 30 Days of Biking challenge with me again. This was his third round
•Two other friends of mine also joined in on the challenge - Paul and Anne
•I got to ride a Salsa Mukluk and get some mountain bike training thanks to Ben from Milltown Cycles
•My family hosted a "bike-in" social at our place. 17 members of the Cannon Valley Velo Club biked out to our place for snacks, coffee and fine conversation
•I rode with the Northfield Pedalers, a group of bicyclists from the Northfield Senior Center, twice
•I rode the 60 mile route of Jesse James Bike Tour and finished with energy to spare
•On three Thursdays I joined the Twin Cities Bike Club group for Thursdays on the Cannon, a group ride on the Cannon Valley Trail
•I discovered that riding gravel roads is great fun - especially when my daughter, Rose, joins me
•On one of my gravel rides I tackled "the big hill"
•At the recommendation of Curtis from Milltown, Owen and I had a date night at the Minnecycle custom framebuilders show in Minneapolis. We discovered we know very little about custom bikes but had a great time anyway. Thanks to Dave from Anderson Custom Bicycles for answering all of our questions. And thanks to Ben from Milltown for the recommendation for dinner - True Thai (boy, Curtis and Ben are helping us with date planning - now that's a full service bike shop!)

I haven't been on my bike since the last day of 30 Days of Biking. Very sad state of affairs, especially since we've had perfect fall weather for bicycling, but once this cold is done I'll be back on the bike.

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