300 miles in 30 Days

It's April 1st which means it's Day 1 of the next round of 30 Days of Biking!

Today's ride was on the Cannon Valley Trail.
Had to go around a tree that fell on the trail.
I signed up to do the challenge again, of course, because I've been doing in April ever since 2010. Wow! Now that I think of it it appears I'm either dedicated or a bit crazy - perhaps I'm a bit of both.

Don't know what 30 Days of Biking is? Well, it's a challenge where people pledge to ride their bikes every day during the month of April. As of this moment, 7,658 people from all over the world are officially on the roster stating they have pledged to do the challenge. People don't have to ride any certain number of miles. There are no prizes or people policing you to make sure you ride. You just commit to riding every day and do your best to complete the challenge.

After completing the challenge six years in a row I certainly know I can ride my bike every day for 30 days so I wondered if I should pledge to do 30 Days of Biking again this year. I decided I would do the challenge again but create a personal challenge within the challenge. I decided to create a milage goal for the month but really didn't know what number of miles would be reasonable for me. I came up with a goal of 300 miles in the month of April.

I suppose I liked the way that sounded - 300 Miles in 30 Days - and that's part of why I picked that number of miles because, now that I think of it, 300 miles in a month isn't really a reasonable goal for me. I think I have biked 300 miles in a month since I started bicycling in 2009 but I'm actually not sure. Last summer, my biggest milage month was 288 miles. I know some people bike 300 miles in a weekend a thousand or more miles a month but that's some people and this is me and my goal. 300 miles in 30 days is a stretch goal for me. But I can do it. Okay, I have doubts I can do this but I am going to say I can do it because that will help me accomplish my goal.

At the suggestion of my instructor/coach Amy from my Life.REVAMP class, I created a chart so I can color in a block every time I bike 10 miles. Guess what? I colored in a square and then some on my chart this afternoon! Yep, for the first day of 30 Days of Biking/300 Miles in 30 Days I biked 12 miles!

My 300 Miles in 30 Days chart
I find it motivating to fill in a chart like this. Not sure why - but I know it helps me to see how I'm doing. It also helps me greatly to write about my goal and share it with all of you because then I feel like I'm accountable to someone other than myself.

So I'm off to a good start! I can do this. Wait, let me reword that - I AM doing this!
I am biking 300 miles in the month of April. Yay!

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